Nasim Ashraf, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, has expressed satisfaction that several Pakistan cricketers have turned down lucrative offers to join the Indian Cricket League (ICL). Eight Pakistan cricketers signed six-month contracts offered by the PCB, which would prevent them from joining any professional league.”We had faith in our players that they will not join the Indian league,” Ashraf told reporters in Karachi. The PCB had already made it clear that any contracted player turning out for the ICL will not be considered for Pakistan. Seven current players were reported to have been approached by the league and Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif and Shahid Afridi have already turned down offers.Younis Khan, the middle-order batsman, too was among those who were approached and Ashraf confirmed that he had also rejected the offer. “Younis was made the offer in England where he is playing county cricket but he told the official who contacted him that he is happy playing for his employers Habib Bank and for Pakistan.”Ashraf highlighted other factors which may have influenced the decision of the players, mainly the fact that the league is yet to be recognised by the ICC and the Indian board. Secondly, the league has attracted former players like Brian Lara and Shane Warne but no high profile current players. With the contracts being issued, Ashraf said he was confident that none of his players would compromise on representing their country.”I was least bothered because I know my players and was sure that they would not join any league which is neither accepted by the Indian board nor by the ICC,” he said. “I am pleased to know the players’ sentiments and they proved they only want to play for Pakistan. The league is only signed by players who have either retired or are on the verge of retirement so we were not bothered.”Pakistan face a busy schedule in the months ahead with a home series against South Africa in October, followed by a tour of India, the dates of which would have invariably clashed with those of the ICL.

Venkatesh Prasad, India’s bowling coach, has said the selectors should have consulted him before deciding to pick Munaf Patel for the ongoing one-day series.Munaf, who missed the Test series because of a back strain, was included in the one-day squad as a replacement for Sreesanth. Prasad said he was “pretty happy” with his fitness but suggested that he wasn’t bowling with the same intensity as earlier.”He has not played much cricket but what’s important is that the selectors need to talk to me on how a bowler is bowling,” he said. “It’s important to have a good communication and be proactive in terms of fast bowling. When I’m handling the fast bowling it’s important [the selectors] have a talk with me on how one is doing and how one needs to be going about it. It’s a proposal I’m giving to the board.”Before joining the squad Munaf last played in May, against Bangladesh in Mirpur. He played two games during the Diamond Jubilee Tournament organised by the Karnataka Cricket Association before being selected for this series. He has picked up four wickets in two games against England but been profligate enough to concede 8.23 runs per over.”I’m pretty happy [with his fitness],” said Prasad. “But I need to know from the bowler and know how he’s bowling. I’ve been travelling and there needs to be somebody else to make sure that he is bowling with the same intensity that he was bowling earlier while playing for the country.”Prasad felt that fielders dropping “easy catches” had not helped India’s new-ball bowlers. However he felt that they needed to work hard on their pace-variations, especially while bowling in the death.”We’re talking about that. The yorker percentage has been pretty good but change of pace is something we’re working on. We don’t normally practice slower balls at the nets but it’s something we need to do. We also need to make sure they are managed well between those matches. They need to be given time for rest and recovery.”

There’s barely time for the dust from the celebrations of the ICC World Twenty20 to settle and the Australians are upon India for a seven-match ODI series. In India, the reaction was predictably exaggerated, both spontaneous and genuine and pre-planned and stage-managed. The players basked in the limelight and the administrators cashed in on the euphoric response of fans. The players though will have to wind up the celebrations soon, as India take on Australia in the first game in Bangalore on September 29.It’s interesting that India and Australia should play right after the ICC World Twenty20 for the two teams approached that tournament so differently. India were diffident and hesitant to begin with, with little or no experience in that form of the game, and completely unfancied. Australia were natural favourites, as they are in any cricket match, irrespective of the length or format. By the end of the tournament, though, India had beaten England, Australia, South Africa and Pakistan. Australia had limped out, first not too interested in the hit-and-giggle, shocked by Zimbabwe, and then outplayed by lesser teams.But Australia’s limping out, at least in the literal sense, will have an impact beyond the tournament. Ricky Ponting’s hamstring niggle has not stopped him from touring India, though it is unlikely he’ll play a part in the early games. Shane Watson and Michael Hussey have been ruled out, and Shaun Tait continues to stay out. What this will mean is a step-up for Brad Hodge, who has to keep Ponting’s batting place warm, even as Adam Gilchrist stands in as captain.While Ponting the batsman will undoubtedly be missed, there are players who can step in and fill that breach with runs. Ponting the captain, however, will not be so easy replace. Even in the Twenty20, the Australian team looked different with him at the helm and when he was not in charge, out there, on the field. Speaking before the series began, it was Ponting who fired the first salvo. “They [India] definitely deserved it [Twenty20 win]. Just look at the last three teams they beat. They thoroughly deserve to come back as champions but that’s finished now,” Ponting said. “We’ve got to look at the seven games we have here in India and we know what we have to do to win in the subcontinent. If anything now, a bit of the pressure will come back on the Indians.”And there’s little doubt that the already unrealistic expectations of this nation have been heightened. The open-bus parade and the grand felicitation ceremony certainly wouldn’t have helped, and India have always taken a bit of time to adjust between different forms of the game. If they come out swinging in the forthcoming ODIs, taking too much out of the Twenty20s, they’ll be in for a rude shock.

“Cricket in general is about how much pressure you can apply on the opposition; that’s what we try and do all the time, whether batting or bowling. That won’t change in this tournament and it won’t change because we’ve played a couple Twenty20 games,” Ponting said. “We’ll have lots of individual plans for their players and it’s about us being able to execute those over 100 overs. That means they are under pressure and we’re in control. That’s what any type of cricket is about for the Australian team.”The Australians have already congregated in Bangalore and have their sights firmly trained on the one-day series. India’s players will come in, in batches over Thursday evening and Friday morning. There will be little time for the new captain to get together with his team. The personnel have changed since the World Twenty20, with Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Zaheer Khan coming back into the mix, and people like Rohit Sharma slipping out. The BCCI is yet to appoint a cricket manager for the series, although that is expected to happen some time in the course of Thursday. In all, the Indians will have to catch their breath, hit the ground running and somehow turn up to take on the best team in the world. Even in the best of times, with the most meticulous preparation, Australia are hard to beat, especially over seven matches. India are anything but in that situation. No-one should be surprised if the results reflect this.

Sachin Tendulkar, who will play his 400th ODI when he walks out against Australia in Vadodara, has reacted to comments by Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of selectors, that nobody could take their place in the side for granted by saying performance should be the criterion for selection.”Performance, not age should be the criterion… I don’t wish to join in any debate, but what I’ve said is what I believe in,” Tendulkar told the Kolkata-based .Vengsarkar had sent out a warning to the senior players to raise their game when he said youngsters like Suresh Raina and Subramaniam Badrinath were waiting for a chance. Unhappy with Vengsarkar for talking to the media about players, the Indian board cautioned him not to speak openly about players and to restrict his remarks to concerned individuals.In the first four ODIs, Tendulkar made 138 runs at 34.50, including top-scoring for India in their eight-run win in Chandigarh. In the same number of matches, Rahul Dravid scored 44 at 14.66, while Sourav Ganguly only batted in the fourth ODI where he scored 41.

Queensland will gain more than 600 games’ worth of first-class experience for their Pura Cup match against Western Australia this week, with Martin Love, Andy Bichel and Michael Kasprowicz all set to return. The Bulls have chosen a 13-man squad for the game that begins in Perth on Friday.Love will be making his first appearance after having a knee reconstruction in January, while Kasprowicz and Bichel both returned from injuries during the weekend’s tour match against the Sri Lankans at Allan Border Field. Kasprowicz is Queensland’s leading Pura Cup wicket-taker of all time and Love is the leading run-scorer, giving a major boost to what had been an inexperienced Bulls line-up.James Hopes is also set to play after he suffered a hamstring injury during his successful ODI trip to India. The Bulls have named a 12-man squad for the FR Cup clash that follows the Pura Cup match on Wednesday.Pura Cup squad Jimmy Maher (capt), Ryan Broad, Martin Love, Clinton Perren, Chris Simpson, James Hopes, Aaron Nye, Andy Bichel, Ashley Noffke, Chris Hartley (wk), Michael Kasprowicz, Daniel Doran, Grant Sullivan.Ford Ranger Cup Jimmy Maher (capt), Ryan Broad, James Hopes, Clinton Perren, Craig Philipson, Chris Simpson, Aaron Nye, Nathan Reardon, Ashley Noffke, Chris Hartley (wk), Michael Kasprowicz, Grant Sullivan.

Tactic of the day
It was the 83rd over and Anil Kumble brought Sourav Ganguly into the attack. Munaf Patel had bowled just one over in the morning and the immediate reaction was that he was going to change ends, with Ganguly just slipping one in before the new ball arrived. Three balls later, Kumble walked up to the umpires, had a short chat and out came the new ball. There was some suggestion that the ball going out of shape had caused the early change but the result was immediate. Misbah-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s most dangerous batsman in the match, thought it best to take Ganguly on and ballooned a catch towards midwicket. Mohammad Sami fell two balls later and the match was well and truly headed in India’s direction.Ball of the day
So devastating was Shoaib Akhtar’s exocet to Rahul Dravid that it halted a giant Mexican wave in the stands. Few bowlers have breached Dravid’s defence but this one was near-unplayable: pitching on a good length, angling in from off and veering towards leg. Dravid proffered what looked like a compact front-foot defensive but the ball was too quick, and too crafty. Sneaking through the gap, it rocketed into leg stump and split the match open. As the crowd watched in hushed silence, Shoaib took off in his airplane celebration. The speed gun said but couldn’t quantify the ferocity that led to 45,000 being silenced.Cover drive of the day
Mohammad Sami was providing Shoaib with fine support at the other end. But Ganguly was in the mood for a counter-attack. Not afraid to go for his shots, he moved forward and caressed a full one from Sami past cover. Ganguly cut the mounting tension with timing so sublime, that he thought it best to hold the pose for the cameras. It was a while before the cover fielders moved too.Trip of the day
It’s disappointing to see a close appeal being turned down but Danish Kaneria found himself flat on the pitch by the end of it. He’d bowled a quicker one, forced Tendulkar on the back foot, and hurried him. If not for an inside edge onto the pad, Kaneria would have had a wicket. What followed, though, was comic. He turned around, waved his hands in a wild appeal and ran back, only to see his legs get caught in each other. It all ended with a mighty thud as Kaneria fell flat on his back. As he rubbed his head in disbelief, Simon Taufel, the umpire, let out a smile. Talk about rubbing salt in the wounds.Stoical quote of the day
Sohail Tanvir has enjoyed a fine debut so far, getting the wickets of Dravid and Ganguly in the first innings, but he didn’t think too much of it when asked about it. “The day a bowler says he’s satisfied about his performance, he’ll stop improving.”

Ross Taylor, the talented New Zealand batsman, is aiming for greater consistency as he attempts to overcome a bumpy ride since his heroics against Australia last summer. Taylor became a closely marked player after his 84 off 82 deliveries in Hobart and 117 at Eden Park, but he has managed only two half-centuries since the World Cup began.One of those came in the opening match of the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy – he was 5 not out when the rain came in the second fixture in Sydney – and he is looking for another contribution in the final contest of the series in Hobart. “I want to be a more consistent in the next few games,” he told NZPA. “It’s been a big learning curve, there have been ups and downs. I’ve had a few more downs than I would have liked but you learn from that.”After making his dramatic introduction against Australia in Hobart, Taylor was whisked off to hospital. He was suffering extreme cramps and was put on a drip.”It was a high and low,” he said. “First bat against Australia, scoring 80, but at the same time it was quite scary not knowing what was wrong with my body.” A new diet and training methods have contributed to the pain not returning.Despite being dominated in the opening two games, New Zealand have a chance to retain the trophy and Taylor was not concerned about his fellow batsmen dealing with Australia’s attack. “A few low scores doesn’t make you bad players but a few batsmen are in some pretty good form and others aren’t,” he said. “We are all fired up for this last match.”Brad Haddin, the Australia wicketkeeper, is also excited as he takes over the gloves from Adam Gilchrist for the first time since the tour of New Zealand in February. Haddin has been a permanent part-time member of the side and has relaxed his attitude.”Five years ago I thought too much about it and it detracted from my performance, but these days I’m doing what works for me and everything will take care of itself,” Haddin said in the Australian. “I feel comfortable with my game at the moment, and I feel comfortable at this level.”

The foreign secretary David Miliband has given the strongest hint yet that the British government does not want Zimbabwe’s planned tour of England next year to go ahead, but he left the door open for Zimbabwe to be allowed to participate in the ICC World Twenty20 later in 2009.Speaking to , Miliband said government ministers would be holding talks with the ECB about the proposed tour in mid-2009 which, at the moment, includes two Tests and three one-day internationals, although Zimbabwe have still to regain their Test status.”The situation in Zimbabwe is obviously deeply concerning. I think that bilateral cricket tours at the moment don’t send the right message about our concern,” he said. “This is something that needs to be discussed with the ECB and others.”The key word used by Milliband is bilateral. It means that while the government would ban Zimbabwe from playing a series against England, it would allow them to take part in a multi-team competition such as the ICC World Twenty20.That solution would appease the government’s well-publicised conscience on Zimbabwe and also public opinion – a poll in The Guardian at the weekend showed 93% opposed playing cricket against Zimbabwe – but would avoid the tournament being moved abroad by the ICC with resulting massive financial losses to the ECB.Miliband’s comments follow a newspaper report last week which said Gordon Brown, the prime minister, was prepared to pull the plug on the tour, although his official spokesman said it is too early to make a decision. Any ban would be the latest snub by Britain to Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe.Brown stayed away from a key summit of European and African leaders last month in protest at what he said was Mugabe’s human rights abuses and responsibility for the country’s economic freefall.

The PCB is confident that the home series against Zimbabwe will go ahead as planned despite the recent political turbulence that has hit the country. There are likely to be, however, changes to the itinerary.”The series should take place on the same dates but there is a possibility of some changes being made to the venue list,” Ahsan Malik, the board’s spokesperson, told reporters after a board meeting.A board official is expected to contact the Zimbabwe board to discuss the itinerary and venues. Hyderabad has all but been taken off the list of venues to host the five-match ODI series, after the hotel the teams were scheduled to stay in was burnt down by rioters following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto last week. The Indus, the only hotel in the city considered suitable for the purpose, was set on fire last week as violence erupted through the country after Bhutto’s death.”We will not be able to host any match [of the Zimbabwe series] in Hyderabad because there is no hotel in the city where the two teams and the officials could be accommodated after the burning of the Indus,” Shafqat Naghmi, PCB’s chief operating officer, earlier told .Naghmi said that the PCB will take a decision on a new venue for the first ODI within the next few days, adding that the match could be shifted to Karachi – which is hosting the second ODI – or Lahore, which was not on the venue list for this series.The burning of the hotel means that Hyderabad, once a Test venue, will once again be deprived of the opportunity to host an international match. The city’s Niaz Stadium last played host to an international game almost ten years ago when Pakistan clashed with India in the 1997 series. Zimbabwe are scheduled to arrive in Karachi later this month where they will play two warm-up matches prior to the ODI series.

The Pakistan-Australia series scheduled to start in March could be relocated to Australia if player safety cannot be guaranteed in Pakistan, according to a report in the . The paper quoted an unnamed Pakistan board member who said the PCB would consider swapping hosting duties with Australia.That would mean that if the switch went ahead the next scheduled Australia home series between the two sides, listed for November 2009, would be held in Pakistan. “It is only the last resort, only a worst-case scenario, but if something happens and Australia can’t come, then the board will discuss playing the series in Australia,” the board member told the paper.”If worst comes to worst, then perhaps [playing in Australia] is a better idea, as long as we swap. That would be an acceptable scenario. I would like the Pakistani spectators to watch Australia in their own stadiums, now or next year. But the first priority is that Australia comes here.”A neutral venue is out. It doesn’t help anybody to play at a neutral venue, if it is played in a third country those spectators wouldn’t be interested, and we would rather entertain Australian crowds than fans from other countries.”Pakistan are still keen for Australia to visit despite the political unrest in the country, and Cricket Australia are planning to send a security delegation to assess the conditions next month. Switching the games to Australia would pose logistical problems with most of the major venues packed with rugby and Australian rules football matches from late March onwards.Phil Jaques, who has twice toured Pakistan with Australia A in recent years, said the players had full confidence in whatever Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association decided. “There’s obviously a few issues there at the moment,” he told , “which Cricket Australia will have a look at closer to the time. Cricket Australia and the ACA will have processes in place and we will go by what they say.”I’ve been there before and people have always been good but they’re in a different time in their whole make-up at the moment with elections on. I was a little bit uneasy before I went I suppose but everything went to plan, everything went smoothly.”It’s a little bit confined to the hotel, that’s how we approached it last year. Generally speaking, the security is pretty tight and they give presidential-style security. The processes will be in place this time around, so we will see what the climate is like over there.”