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With the Indian team yet to settle on an opening partner for Virender Sehwag, Punjab’s Ravneet Ricky threw his hat into the ring with a belligerent 133 as his team seized control of their Group B match against Assam. Yuvraj Singh, fighting to get back his place in the Test team, made just 29, but there was a half-century for Pankaj Dharmani, another of the domestic stalwarts that Indian cricket forgot.Elsewhere, Mumbai choked off the runs as Madhya Pradesh dawdled to 164 for 7 by stumps. Naman Oja (33) and Amay Khurasiya added 50 for the second wicket, and Nikhil Patwardhan chipped in with an unbeaten 34 late in the day as runs came in a trickle. For Mumbai, Wilkin Mota (3 for 21) and Swapnil Hazare (2 for 43) took the bowling honours, while Ajit Agarjar went wicketless.Also in Group A, Gujarat recovered well from a mid-afternoon wobble to post 286 for 7 against Karnataka. Parthiv Patel made just 16, but there were half-centuries for Mukund Parmar (73) and Niraj Patel (54). For Karnataka, both Vinay Kumar and Dodda Ganesh picked up three wickets apiece, but they were frustrated late in the day by Siddharth Trivedi and Timil Patel, who batted through to stumps.On a day of mixed fortunes for those trying to find their way back into the Indian squad, there was a fine unbeaten 68 from Jai P Yadav as Railways made 305 for 9 against Bengal. Tejinder Pal Singh (86) and Amit Pagnis (57), who used to represent Mumbai, provided the early impetus, while Bengal were indebted to Ranadeb Bose (4 for 52) and Sabir Ali (3 for 48), their new-ball combination.In the other group A encounter, Delhi made sedate progress to 258 fo 2 by stumps, with Aakash Chopra managing a laboured 78 (245 balls). Shikhar Dhawan, his opening partner, slammed a stylish 49, but the innings of the day came from Mithun Manhas, who stroked an unconquered 91 against an insipid Andhra Pradesh attack.In Group B, Baroda had one of their consistent performers to thank for a close-of-play score of 290 for 6 against Maharashtra. Satyajit Parab made 120 and added 164 for the first wicket with Connor Williams (58) before Iqbal Siddiqui, who played his only Test for India three years ago against England at Mohali, made inroads into the batting line-up. Siddiqui ended the day with figures of 5 for 78, but Maharashtra’s late rally was thwarted by the experienced duo of Nayan Mongia (42) and Jacob Martin (40).And in the other game in the same group, Tamil Nadu’s batsmen produced a torpor-ridden performance against Uttar Pradesh. Sivaramakrishnan Vidyut managed a stolid 52, and there were contributions from Sridharan Sriram, S Badrinath and S Sharath as the home side crawled to 197 for 4 by stumps. For Uttar Pradesh, RP Singh was the best of the bowlers on view, finishing with 3 for 54.

India are likely to play a Test in Karachi during their tour of Pakistan early next year. Natwar Singh, India’s foreign minister, expressed no reservations regarding India playing a Test there during a recent visit to Pakistan.Shaharyar Khan, chairman Pakistan Cricket Board, told PTI he met Singh at a social gathering and discussed the issue informally. “It was not a formal [meeting], but a social gathering and I found a little time to discuss cricket. I was told by Singh that the Indian government has no reservations about India playing a Test in Karachi. I think it is a big development and although the official confirmation has to come from the Indian board, I am now quite certain that India will play in Karachi.”Shaharyar added, “Actually, Natwar said the decision has to be taken by the BCCI. The government approval to BCCI was delayed due to the sad demise of Sunil Dutt, the Indian sports minister.”When India toured Pakistan in 2004, Shaharyar and Rameez Raja, then chief executive of the board, played crucial roles in convincing India to play at least one ODI at Karachi. And despite Sri Lanka playing a Test match in the port city in November last year, the venue’s status remained under a cloud, especially after England refused to play a Test match there on their forthcoming winter tour, which gets underway from October 26.The Indian cricket team are expected to arrive in Lahore on January 2 and play a two-day warm-up match before the first Test starts in Karachi, tentatively scheduled for January 7.

The Special General Meeting of Zimbabwe Cricket scheduled to take place on December 1 has been postponed. It is the latest in a series of meetings delayed by the board, who have yet to hold a committee meeting following a controversial AGM almost three months ago.The SGM was called to discuss the highly-controversial move to affiliate five new provinces – Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West, Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South. Opponents of the board have made it clear that they see this as little more than an exercise to give the ruling group, led by chairman Peter Chingoka, enough votes to head off a revolt by the established provinces.The unease with the move has been exacerbated by the revelations that Themba Mliswa, the chairman of Mashonaland West and a man with very limited cricketing credentials, was identified as the person who threatened Tatenda Taibu and his wife. “We have said people like Mliswa are not good for the game of cricket,” Taibu said. “It appears to me that he is so close to Chingoka that there is nothing that will be done to him.”The board statement said that some documentation had not been received in time and so the meeting had been rearranged for December 23.

Sometime on Friday evening, the final details regarding the annual central contracts for India’s cricketers will be decided. Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president, Niranjan Shah, the secretary, Kiran More, the chairman of selectors, and Greg Chappell, the coach, will meet in Mumbai and finalise the list of players who will receive contracts for the forthcoming year. However an announcement from the board on the list of contracted players will only happen on Saturday morning, after the selectors pick the squad for the Pakistan tour.The players are guaranteed a sizeable raise in payments. But this is only to be expected, as the players’ salaries are a percentage of the overall profits of the board, and this sum has gone up every year. At the moment the BCCI has allocated 26% of total profits towards payment of players’ salaries. Of this, 13% goes towards payments to the national team, while 13% goes to payments of domestic cricketers, cricketers who go on A-tours etc. It is expected that the premier slab A will fetch Rs 80 lakh to 1 crore (previously Rs 50 lakh), the second slab Rs 60-70 lakh (previously 35 lakh) and the last slab Rs 30-40 lakh (previously 20 lakh).Irfan Pathan is likely to be the only addition to the premier category, while it is not clear whether Sourav Ganguly will remain in the A grade. “It is too early to say anything at this stage. It has not even been decided how many people will get contracts or in which category. So we can’t really say where a specific individual stands,” a BCCI source told Cricinfo. “Everything will be discussed in detail at the meeting on Friday evening.”Ganguly was an automatic selection for the A grade last year, as captain of the team, but currently he figures neither in the Test team nor in the ODI team. If he continues to be out of the team, and does not figure in the long-term plans of the management, there’s every chance he will lose out on top billing. It is, however, expected that he will get a B-grade contract.On Friday another high-powered committee – the marketing committee – is set to meet, at a suburban hotel in Mumbai at 11am, to open the bids for the logo sponsorship on the non-leading arm of t-shirts of India’s cricketers. The main sponsorship, for the leading arm, has already gone to Sahara, who will fork out Rs 313 crore over four years.

Ricky Ponting expects Australia to adapt quickly to the extra bounce of Perth for the start of the South Africa Test series after the less-than-ideal preparation of a one-day series in New Zealand. After experiencing slow and seaming wickets during the Chappell-Hadlee Series, Australia face three heavy training days to acclimatise for Friday’s match while their opponents have had two weeks to settle in.Ponting said the change in conditions and outlooks was more of a “mental” adjustment. “It’s not a huge skill thing,” he said in . “We’re still playing cricket, we’re still getting bat on ball, and the bowlers are expected to bowl certain lines and lengths, it’s just a matter of adjusting to those.”It takes time, anyway, when you’re coming from another Test match to go to Perth,” Ponting said as the team left Christchurch. “So we’ll get there and train really hard and make sure we’re as prepared as we can be.”The timing of the one-day series was strange and Cricket Australia has already said it would review the player-workload demands after Adam Gilchrist was originally given the tour off by the selectors before being overruled by the board. Instead of a short summer holiday Gilchrist struggled through the three matches with scores of 3, 8 and 0.”We’ll review the process we had in place for New Zealand and look to make it better,” Michael Brown, the Cricket Australia operations manager, said in the . “Managing player workloads is very important to us.”Paul Marsh, the Australian Cricketers’ Association chief executive, told the paper the players supported the idea but in this instance the process was flawed. “It wasn’t so much that he played in New Zealand, that’s their job and they want to play for Australia, but more the order in which it took place,” Marsh said. “If the CA hierarchy didn’t want him to miss that tour, they shouldn’t have gone to him in the first place. The idea is obviously keeping them fresh and giving them the chance to have long and successful careers.”Ponting said he was not worried about Gilchrist’s form entering the Test series. “He’s not always going to be the most consistent player, just because of the way he looks at the game and the way he plays the game,” he said. “He’s performed over a long period of time and I’m sure when he gets home and gets to Perth that he’ll be right.”

Kerry Packer, the man responsible for World Series Cricket (WSC) and the explosion of the one-day game, has died in Sydney aged 68. Packer, a media mogul billionaire, was behind the damaging split from the Australian Cricket Board in 1977 in a fight over television broadcasting rights.Packer realised that cricket was in need of an image overhaul, and crucially that while the game was generating huge amounts of cash, little of that was going to the players. It meant that recruiting around 50 of the top cricketers was relatively straightforward. While WSC only last two years, it changed the game forever, and many of the things we now take for granted – coloured clothing, day/night matches – were Packer innovations. The other knock-on was that for the first time, players were paid a decent amount. And when peace was achieved in 1979 his Channel 9 coverage led the way in broadcasting innovation.A minute’s silence was held before the start of the second day of the Australia-South Africa Test and Cricket Australia said he was one of the most “influential men in its history”.Packer, who had a kidney transplant in 2000, had a history of serious illnesses and suffered severe health problems over the past couple of years. But until then he lived life to the full, and was renowned as one of the world’s largest gamblers, on occasion winning and losing millions in a day. Forbes magazine valued his wealth at $5 billion earlier this year. His interests also included mining and property.A statement from Channel 9 said he died “peacefully at home with his family at his bedside” on Boxing Day.

Scorecard
How they were out

Dubious umpiring and some unintelligent bowling by the hosts left both Uttar Pradesh and Bengal hanging desperately on the edge with two more days to go in the Ranji Trophy final. At the end of the third day, when bad light stopped play an hour before regulation time with 27 overs still remaining, the match was on a knife’s edge with Bengal at 349 for 8. UP require two wickets while Bengal need 39 more runs to snatch the vital first-innings lead.It was a day that was mostly dominated by the cavalier batting of Laxmi Ratan Shukla and the attacking bowling of Piyush Chawla, the young legspinner. Shukla, who last played for India in an ODI in 1999 as a bowler, and who has now grown into an allrounder, was carrying the Bengal flag with an unbeaten 50, along with Ranadeb Bose who put a dead bat to almost everything for his 38-ball 3.Shukla walked in when Uttar Pradesh were smelling blood. The old war horse Ashish Winston Zaidi had just removed Deep Dasgupta, the Bengal captain and centurion in the previous game, when the batsman, attempted a wild cut off an innocuous straight one outside off, only succeeded in edging to Amir Khan, the wicketkeeper. Dasgupta’s 20 was well short of what his team needed from him especially after Rohan Gavaskar was sent back by umpire AV Jayaprakash in controversial circumstances at the stroke of lunch.Till his unfortunate dismissal, Gavaskar was the batsman of the first session. After the early fall of Arindam Das, the overnight batsman who was caught at the wicket off Chawla, Kaif brought on Shalabh Shrivastava, the well-built left-arm pace bowler, who peppered Gavaskar with constant short-pitched deliveries. But Gavaskar was unruffled and counterattacked with gusto, pulling and cutting. A couple of pulls either side of square leg and a spanking cut shot off Shrivastava were the highlights of his innings. When Kaif replaced the slow cutters of Zaidi with the pace of Praveen Kumar, Gavaskar pulled him over midwicket and caressed a late-cut past point to put the pressure back on the bowler.But Kumar hit back soon, albeit with the help of the umpire. Bowling from round the wicket and wide of the crease, Kumar got one to bend in to Gavaskar, who was slightly late into his defence, and his head fell over in the process. The ball was clearly moving down the leg side, but Jayaprakash thought otherwise.With most of the top and middle order back in the dressing-room, Manoj Tiwary and Shukla had plenty to do, but soon after lunch they were in their stride, confidently dealing with the constant fielding changes of an increasingly impatient and desperate Kaif and handling the bowlers with ease. After unsuccessfully trying to bounce out Gavaskar in the morning, Shrivastava continued his barrage of short ones against Shukla, but the batsman was defiant even after once being rapped hard on the fingers.With the tea break fast approaching and Uttar Pradesh getting increasingly desperate for a breakthrough, Jayaprakash committed his second blunder of the day. Getting some reverse swing with a ball which was barely 25 overs old, Kumar got one to bend into Tiwary and rapped him on the pads. The ball was sliding down leg, but once again Jayaprakash didn’t hesitate to raise the finger. It was a sad end to a 50-run partnership that had looked set to give Bengal the edge at the end of the day.

New bat Saurasish Lahiri played some fluent drives but was caught at short leg to become Chawla’s fourth victim, with Bengal still 58 runs away from taking the lead. Amid these edgy moments Shrivastava faltered with his line and length and struggled to bowl to his field. He still continued with the questionable tactic of trying to bounce out Shukla. With an off-side cordon which included two slips, two gullies, a cover and a mid-off, the line of attack should have been around off, but Shrivastava continually bowled from round the wicket and slid the ball down the leg side. Shukla brought up his fifty with a push towards long-off. UP had one opportunity to nail him, on 25, when Suresh Raina failed to latch on to a difficult chance at point off Kumar.Early in the morning Kaif had erred by taking the new ball when he should probably have persisted with Chawla, who had troubled the batsmen. With two more days to go, an outright victory for either team is still a possibility, but both sides will be desperate for the first-innings lead, which could be the deciding factor in this match.

Arindam Das c Amir Khan b Piyush Chawla 60 (143 for 3)
Tried to cut a simple leg break, caught at the wicketShivsagar Singh b Piyush Chawla 23 (186 for 4)
Caught in two minds against a fastish Chawla turner from round the wicket, bowled.Rohan Gavaskar lbw b Kumar 49 (204 for 5)
Trapped plumb to one that came in from Kumar.Deep Dasgupta c Amir Khan b Zaidi 20 (252 for 6)
Went for a wild cut off Zaidi, gifts a catch to keeper Amir KhanManoj Tiwary lbw Kumar 43 (302 for 7)
Caught in front of stumps trying to play a forward defensive against Kumar’s reverse swingSaurashish Lahiri c Shukla b Piyush Chawla
Tried to drive, takes an edge to the short leg

Jacques Kallis has joined the South Africa one-day squad for the remaining two matches after recovering from an elbow injury, but it is likely that he will be saved for the three Tests. Kallis, who was forced off the tour of Australia by the problem, has made smooth progress with his rehabilitation and was tipped to return in the final two limited-overs games at Durban on Friday and Johannesburg on Sunday.The convener of selectors, Haroon Lorgat, said: “Jacques has made a steady recovery and it would be great if he were able to play on Friday as he is a key component in the squad, but we will not push him unnecessarily. It is crucial that he is 100 percent ready for the upcoming Test series.”Australia recovered from the two losses to start the five-match series with a more composed performance from their bowlers after reaching 6 for 254 with half-centuries to Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn. Despite the setback Graeme Smith said his team was still confident.”Australia bowled well, especially in the first 20 overs,” he said. “We lacked a partnership up front. If we could have just got one partnership in our top five chasing 250, I think we would have cruised.”Brett Lee regained his spark with 4 for 48 in nine overs and added Smith’s wicket for the sixth time this summer. “You can never take him for granted,” Smith said. “Certainly we’ve had the better of him in the last few games and moving on to Durban it’s going to be another challenge.” The first Test starts at Cape Town on March 16.

Another learning experience? Give me a chance with that foolishness, you hear?In the aftermath of the West Indies tour of New Zealand, now is definitely not the time for the empty platitudes about absorbing the lessons of the latest disappointments, or that ever-popular ditty about leaving those setbacks in the past and looking forward to the next series.Even in the midst of a 4-1 whipping in the one-dayers and a 2-0 loss in the Tests, there have been encouraging signs. But those signs will not lead to real long-term progress unless everyone of influence in West Indies cricket is prepared to take the action necessary to build on whatever has been achieved during the seven weeks in the sport’s furthest frontier.Yes, there is a World Cup looming on the horizon. Yet even if it seems that any and everything being done in the region at the moment has some association with that monumental event less than a year away, the fact of the matter is that everything else in West Indies cricket does not come to a grinding halt until after that extravaganza is completed on April 28, 2007.Zimbabwe, whatever their internal troubles, are due here at the end of the month for five one-day internationals. They will want to show they are emerging from the mire that has resulted in their self-imposed suspension from Test cricket for a year.India, the increasingly aggressive power-brokers of the game, follow the southern Africans for another five ODIs followed by four Tests.With Trinidad and Tobago’s historic World Cup finals appearance coinciding with the Test series, it will be understandable if most attention here is focussed on the global footballing showpiece in Germany in June rather than on the cricketing contests in Antigua, St Lucia, St Kitts and Jamaica.Last year, there was no World Cup to divert attention, yet fans stayed away by the thousands for Pakistan’s Tests at Kensington Oval and Sabina Park. Caribbean impatience, frustration and anger had long been tempered by the conviction that somehow, sometime soon the beloved regional team would halt its steep decline since 1995 and begin the long journey back to respectability.Now that conviction has been replaced by widespread cynicism and, worse still, an increasing disinterest. To have to endure defeat after embarrassing defeat is bad enough. But for those losses to be cast against a backdrop of an administration crippled in debt, locked in a damagingly divisive sponsorship dispute with the players and-as ever-wracked by self-serving internal wrangling presented a repulsive image that forced many to turn away in disgust.And yet, after all of that, the West Indies could have come away from New Zealand with a shared Test series if they had held their nerve in Auckland, and what a tremendous lift to the spirit that would have given. That it didn’t happen, that the hugely advantageous positions in the one-dayers in Queenstown and Christchurch were not converted into victories, should confirm once and for all that this is not so much an issue of ability but mental toughness, of learning how to win again after a decade of relentless licks.Cultivating that habit once more on the field, and in the boardroom, requires strong leadership. How much more evidence is needed before it is realised that Shivnarine Chanderpaul has been harnessed with a burden he is incapable of carrying and, even worse, has taken an obvious toll on his ability to contribute with the bat?Who really believes that the hasty assessment of Bennett King, the head coach and his Australian staff was anything other than a smokescreen to divert attention from the captaincy issue?That the West Indies Cricket Board should commission such a useless, indeterminate exercise-on the eve of a tour of all times-suggests that Ken Gordon is as helpless as any other recent president in effecting real change in an organisation that continues to be populated at its decision-making level by members who see no further than the boundaries of their own constituencies.There is no quick fix, with King, Gus Logie or any other coach for that matter. But getting the ship back on course requires people at the helm who are agreed on the direction they should be heading.That direction must be towards rediscovering the commitment, discipline, dedication and pride that has defined West Indies cricket, until recently, as a standard to be admired, romanticised and emulated.Brian Lara’s berating of the New Zealand media for what he perceived to be their disrespect of West Indies cricket might have been justified. However, if the truth be told, the apparent disdain for the current team is due in large part to the fact that many of the local writers covering the tour were shocked and saddened by the performances of a team that was a pale reflection of a revered legacy.The organisers of the 2007 World Cup speak often of the legacy of state-of-the-art infrastructure and administrative efficiency as one of the most meaningful rewards of the event. But systems and structures are essentially hollow without pride and passion.As with any other endeavour that we hold dear to our hearts, it is the people who make the difference. People who can lead. People who can inspire.Real leaders. This is what we need to make a real difference in West Indies cricket.

Scorecard

Bangladesh secured their third straight win against Kenya, and in so doing won the four-match series, but it was their least convincing performance to date, and for a time Kenya even threatened to pull off a remarkable comeback after being down and out halfway through their innings.In the end, Kenya’s middle and lower order were left with too much to do, but well-paced contributions from Collins Obuya (45) and Tanmay Mishra ensured that the home supporters had to endure more than a few anxious moments. Only when Mishra became the fourth of Mohammad Rafique’s five victims with 25 needed from 11 balls could they finally relax.A win is a win, but Dav Whatmore will be disappointed at what was a below-par performance after two games in which Bangladesh underlined the gulf in class between them and the Kenyans. At times today they appeared complacent, and they almost paid for that.Their innings stuttered in the early stages against some tight bowling, and it took some enterprise from Aftab Ahmed to ease the shackles. But his dismissal, chancing his arm once too often, triggered a wobble, engineered by the impressive Peter Ongondo, which reduced Bangladesh to 65 for 4. Shahriar Nafees steadied the ship, adding 70 for the fifth wicket with Mohammad Rafique, who chipped in with a 33-ball 31.

Steve Tikolo, back in the side after a viral infection forced him out of the previous match, dismissed Nafees for 57 just after the halfway mark, but that only increased the run-rate as Alok Kapali, possibly the last-ever Supersub, and Khaled Mashud (39 from 51) put on a breezy 89 to enable Bangladesh to post 231. Whereas in the first two matches Kenya’s bowling deteriorated in the latter stages, with Tikolo maintaining the pressure with his offspin, Bangladesh were bowled out with more than four overs to spare.Given the pattern of the first two meetings, that did not seem vital at the time, and Kenya’s start was equally unconvincing as they slipped to 79 for 4 midway through their innings. After losing the out-of-sorts Kennedy Otieno and David Obuya early, they made steady headway thanks to Tikolo and Hitesh Modi, but were never able to get on top of the bowlers.Syed Rasel, the pick of the Bangladesh attack in the first two games, was bowled through his 10 overs, but it was Abdur Razzak who took the key wicket of Tikolo, a superb catch off his own bowling. Tikolo stood his ground, probably more through disappointment as there was little doubt about that the low chance had been cleanly taken.Hitesh Modi followed soon after, trapped leg before by Mohammad Rafique, and as the asking rate crept past a run a ball, that appeared to be that. However, Obuya, whose bowling remains unconvincing despite time spent with Terry Jenner last year, showed he remains a useful batsman, and he found a doughty ally in the precocious Mishra. Together they not only ensured the margin of defeat was small, but also – briefly – threatened something more dramatic.