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Young talent from four Test countries – Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa – will be on display in the 12-day Emerging Players tournament beginning July 10 at Brisbane’s Commonwealth Bank Centre of Excellence (CBCE).The CBCE side, which has players from the Australian Institute of Sport’s cricket programme, apart from three overseas players – Pinal Shah, Gaurav Dhiman and Kshemal Waingankar – on scholarship from India, will play the teams from the other three countries. The teams will play six Twenty20 games and 14 fifty-over matches from July 10 to July 21.Dene Hills, the CBCE coach, said the focus of this tournament will, apart from team success, be on development of skills. “New Zealand and South Africa are sending players who have already debuted in their national squads so we will certainly find ourselves up against sides that are very talented and have some international experience,” he said.The South African side, coached by Allan Donald, is a strong one with seven Test players including Neil McKenzie and Charl Langeveldt.”Our team is very capable and has experience within domestic first-class cricket. However, international cricket is a step above domestic competitions and this tournament will expose our side to international players and give them a taste of cricket at the highest level,” Hills added.CBCE squad: David Warner (NSW), George Bailey (TAS) CO-Captain, Doug Bollinger (NSW), Beau Casson (WA), Adam Crosthwaite (VIC), Daniel Doran (QLD), Ben Edmondson (WA), Callum Ferguson (SA), Aaron Finch (VIC), Shaun Marsh (WA), Tim Paine (TAS), Peter Siddle (VIC), Adam Voges (WA) CO-Captain, Gaurav Dhiman (visiting OS Scholar), Pinal Shah (visiting OS Scholar), Kshemal Waingankar (visiting OS Scholar)Coaches – Jamie Siddons and Dene Hills

Former Zimbabwe cricket stakeholders have broken their recent silence by urging the ICC to take decisive measures if auditors find the current Zimbabwe Cricket administration responsible for the misappropriation of funds.In June the ICC appointed a top South African audit company, KPMG, to look into Zimbabwe Cricket’s accounts after Malcolm Speed, the ICC’s chief executive, said in a leaked document that he believed board funds had been squandered.The auditor’s findings were expected to be presented to the ICC’s board meeting in Dubai this week, but that was postponed and the ICC accepted an undertaking that the exercise will now be finalised “as soon as possible.”A former influential board member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said if the audit named culprits then they must be booted out of sports administration for good. “Once the audit results are known, [if anyone is named they] must never be allowed to administer cricket and sports again, they must be must be brought to book because they have enriched themselves while the game suffers.”Cricinfo sources have also said an audit arm of the Sports and Recreation Commission, led by experienced Zimbabwean sports administrator, Mark Manolios, was also doing its own investigations into ZC’s financial handlings in order to lead by example as the country’s supreme sports regulatory body.Another former Zimbabwe provincial administrator, who spoke to Cricinfo from South Africa, urged the ICC to use the audit results to take a firmer stand on the Zimbabwe issue. “This is a brilliant opportunity for the ICC to redeem itself on Zimbabwe,” he said. “Us, as the legitimate stakeholders of Zimbabwe cricket, feel the ICC has neglected our cricket in Zimbabwe and let it die. We await too see what sort of action they will take this time. It’s not late for them to save the situation.”

Nimbus, the Indian production company, has secured the rights for India’s offshore series against South Africa in Ireland in June. The series was under threat yesterday when the BCCI’s deal with Zee Sports fell through, but Nimbus have stepped in to alleviate Ireland’s fear of the whole tournament being cancelled.Nimbus agreed to pay US$24.20 million for the series and, according to Lalit Modi, the BCCI vice-president, bagged the rights after Zee failed to pay the stipulated amount by the deadline of May 28.”Nimbus have agreed to pay US$6.05 million per match for the four matches in Ireland [against South Africa on June 26, 29 and July 1] and Scotland [against Pakistan on July 3],” said Modi. “We have terminated the contract through a letter sent to Zee today.”According to Ashish Kaul, Zee’s senior vice-president, his company had pulled out of the deal because they were not given the same discount offered to Nimbus for telecasting the matches held in India, after the broadcasters were forced to share the feed with public broadcaster Doordarshan. But Modi denied this claim.”Zee were offered the same discount as Nimbus but it was not agreeable to them,” said Modi. If Doordarshan, with whom all broadcasters have to share their feeds, does not encrypt its signals, Nimbus will be given a discount of Rs 257 crore from their overall deal of US$612 million with the BCCI to telecast all cricket played in India till March 2010.”We recognise the problems faced by broadcasters over the non-encryption of Direct to Home (DTH) signals by Doordarshan and have come to an amicable settlement with Nimbus,” added Modi. “We have held many meetings with both Nimbus and Zee over the issue.” After Zee’s pull-out the BCCI held talks with ESPN Star Sports, Ten Sports and Nimbus who were the only ones who accepted the board’s offer.Modi also disagreed with Zee’s views that the BCCI kept the broadcasters in the dark about offshore ventures and said, as per the agreement, the telecasters were told about future offshore ties six months in advance.Harish Thawani, Nimbus’s chief, expressed satisfaction with the four-match deal and said they would be interested in televising further offshore matches organised by the BCCI. “We have come to an amicable amount and we are happy that the BCCI have quantified our losses and compensated us,” said Thawani. “Cricket has to go on. One or two technical matters have also been dealt with.”Thawani added that the matches would not necessarily be shown on Nimbus’s Neo Sports channel but there was a possibility of it being syndicated to six other channels, including regional ones, as was done with the Bangladesh series.These developments come 24 hours after Nimbus pulled out of broadcasting the Afro-Asian Cup beginning in India on June 5. They cited the absence of several big stars in the Asian XI as the reason for pulling the plug. However, the series will take place as planned after the Asian Cricket Council struck a last-minute deal with ESPN-Star.

Day two

A century from skipper Hasan Raza accompanied by some fine seam bowling from Rajesh Ramesh and Imran Javed enabled Karachi Urban to take full control of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Gold League final against defending champions Sialkot at Multan Cricket Stadium. Raza’s hundred, the 28th of his first-class career, saw Karachi to 403, before Sialkot were reduced to 93 for five by day’s end.Honours began almost even on the second day, Karachi six wickets down with 249 on the board. But Raza, on a painstaking 56 not out overnight, switched gears early on. Though Karachi lost two early wickets, with less than 300 scored, Raza found a useful partner in Tanvir Ahmed. The two put on 97 for the ninth wicket, Ahmed’s share a not insubstantial 36.By the end, Raza had moved to an unbeaten 161, with as many as seven sixes and thirteen fours, a stark contrast to his go-slow yesterday. Sarfraz Ahmed took two of the four remaining wickets to finish with an admirable six-wicket haul.The momentum though had shifted by then and Sialkot, once hoping to face a total of under 300, were now left with a mini-mountain to overcome. They got off to the worst possible start, Ramesh dismissing Majid Jahangir and highly-rated Shahid Yousuf in successive balls when Sialkot were only on 14.Thereafter, it didn’t get much better; Tariq Mahmood, former Pakistan U-19 World Cup winner and offspinner with the Murali action, was promoted up the order and crawled to a 44-ball, 76-minute two. Javed eventually sent him back, as well as Atiq-ur-Rehman who provided solitary, futile resistance. When Ayub Dogar also fell, Sialkot were tottering at 71 for five. Ijaz Ahmed, captain and former Pakistan one-down legend, came out firing and was unbeaten on 19 as the day drew to a close.He will need to roll back the years if Sialkot are to have any chance of preventing Karachi from adding to their record Quaid haul of 17 wins.

Bhargav Bhatt’s four-for dismantled Tamil Nadu•Sivaraman Kitta

Baba Aparajith’s half-century was the sole innings of prominence for Tamil Nadu as they were dismantled for 176 by Andhra’s bowlers in Chennai. Bhargav Bhatt and Y Prithvi Raj shared seven wickets between them to run through TN’s batting line-up, while Bandaru Ayyappa and Shoaib Md Khan picked the rest.TN’s India players, M Vijay and R Ashwin, were both dismissed for single-digit scores, making 4 and 9 respectively. Vijay was the first wicket to fall, in the seventh over, and in the next over, Prithvi Raj dismissed Abhinav Mukund to leave the score at 15 for 2. Kaushik Gandhi and B Indrajith attempted to steady the innings with a 26-run partnership for the third wicket, but Bhatt thwarted them by dismissing Indrajith. Aparajith, meanwhile, anchored one end to take TN to 140, after which the tenth-wicket pair of Rahil Shah and Krishnamoorthy Vignesh helped lift them to 176.Andhra ended the day at 8 for no loss, with Prasanth Kumar (1*) and Srikar Bharat (7*) at the crease.A 199-run fifth-wicket partnership between Devendra Bundela and Shubham Sharma propelled Madhya Pradesh from 69 for 4 to a solid 268 for 5 against Baroda in Indore. Bundela was dismissed on 99 by seamer Atit Sheth off the last ball of the day.Madhya Pradesh were in the midst of a wobble after losing openers Waseem Ahmed (4) and Rajat Patidar (4) within the first ten overs, and slipped further when Naman Ojha (24) and Harpreet Singh (32) were dismissed before lunch. A middle-order charge from Bundela and Shubham made Baroda’s bowlers toil without reward until the end of the day, when 40-year old Bundela was caught by wicketkeeper Pinal Shah, thus missing out on his 27th first-class hundred.The first day’s play between Odisha and Tripura was washed out without a ball being bowled in Cuttack

A minor fire broke out in the Sector 16 Stadium where India will take on Australia in the fourth one-dayer of the seven-match series on Monday.The Chandigarh Fire Department sources said that the fire, which broke out in the newly-constructed media centre, had been brought under control. No one was injured in the incident, sources said, adding that the fire was due to a short circuit.International cricket returns to this venue after 14 years. The last match played in this stadium was in January 1993, when India took on England in a one-dayer. The stadium has staged four ODIs and one Test in 1990 between India and Sri Lanka.The construction of the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali, in 1993-94, forced the Sector 16 stadium to take a back seat. The stadium has been renovated in the last few months to include a new media centre, upgraded dressing rooms and pavilion enclosure, an electronic scoreboard, and better seating arrangements.

Brian Lara has been appointed the captain of West Indies captaincy for a third time. The formal announcement was made at midday in Trinidad.”It’s a great honour,” Lara told reporters. “It’s the third time I’m taking the job and I feel I have the necessary support. [Shivnarine] Chanderpaul did a wonderful job under the circumstances. He’ll reap the benefits later in life. He called me and he said he’d support me and asked that I give it some consideration.”The fact that a lot of former players called me was humbling. This was followed up by phone calls from present team-mates who thought I should assume the mantle of leadership at this juncture. I called past and present players for an objective view on the matter. They unequivocally thought the same as the others who were trying to influence me.”Ken Gordon, the board chairman, was quick to stress that Lara was not a stopgap choice. “His appointment is not an interim one,” he said. “His appointment as captain stands and it is not for any fixed period of time.”It is logical to go back to Lara. Of all the players available, they each had varying strengths but there were also varying weaknesses. He brings a lot to the table at this time which will make a material difference. Whatever the risks, the best is to go with Lara, whose experience and knowledge is unquestioned.”Lara has already led West Indies 40 times, winning 10 and losing 23. He was first captain between 1996-97 and 1999-2000, resigning after a dismal series in New Zealand. He was appointed for a second time in 2002-03, eventually being replaced by Chanderpaul in March 2005 when he stood down because of an ongoing contractual dispute with the board.

The Indian board has marked out 60 to 70 million rupees ($1.47-1.71 million) for women’s cricket this season, almost twice of what had been allotted last year.”The increase in the money available means women will get to play more days of cricket, approximately thrice the amount they played last year,” Shubhangi Kulkarni, the convenor of the BCCI’s women’s committee, told Cricinfo.While last season state cricket was restricted to limited-overs matches, this year women’s state teams will play one-day as well as two-day fixtures. Apart from that, Under-19 inter-state tournaments as well as zonal tournaments will be organised for women. Like with men’s cricket, prize money for women’s tournaments will also see an increase.The women’s committee further plans to hold Level I courses in cricket education for women keen on becoming coaches, scorers or umpires.Though an increase in prize money for international tournaments is planned, it isn’t exactly clear yet how much will be handed out.

Eight overs into the day’s play, this match effectively ended as a contest when the first innings lead was decided; as the match meandered to a draw on a lifeless pitch, Delhi, who took two points, spent the rest of the day getting batting practice. It put into sharp focus what Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president, said in Hyderabad today, that India needed more sporting domestic pitches.Pawar’s reference point was the Durban debacle, and how better pitches at home would help Indian batsmen when they played abroad, but he might also have addressed the other, possibly larger, concern: Domestic cricket needs better pitches for better contests, to simply improve as a spectacle.In any case, this match was dead when Rajat Bhatia picked off a single off D Tamil Kumaran to take the Delhi score past Tamil Nadu’s 347. With the first-innings lead secured, there was little to look forward to for either side, and Bhatia and Vijay Dahiya made the most of a cool, wintryday to post big hundreds.There was just the slightest chance that Tamil Nadu could put in aninspired spell on the final morning and hold Delhi back. Themorning session at the Kotla has always been tricky but Delhi had got theirplans dead right on the third day itself when Dahiya came out to bat andhit a succession of boundaries. “I had not planned to goafter the bowling. But I knew that it could be hard to bat in the morningso I played aggressively,” said Dahiya. “I wanted to ensure that we had aslittle to do as possible on the final morning.”Dahiya, who had reached 51 at the end of the third day, and is making acomeback to the Delhi team after sitting out the whole of the last season,continued to bat with a fluency and effectiveness no other batsmanhad shown in the game. “It just happens that sometimes one batsman scoreswhile others miss out. I didn’t do anything different,” said Dahiya, whose152 included 29 boundaries.Bhatia, who made a big hundred against Tamil Nadu last season aswell, looked well set to get to a double-century when he holed out to RSathish at long off against the now occasional left-arm spin of S Vidyut.He’d probably have got there had he decided to bed down instead oftake chances but, with 166 runs under his belt and close to 10 hours at the crease, he decided to have a go and failed to clear long off.Dahiya’s dismissal, hitting S Badrinath to midwicket, prompted Delhito declare at 491 for 7 and give their spinners anextended bowl. Ishant Sharma, the young medium-pacer, sent down just oneover in the second innings, while Ashish Nehra, who had toiled for 40overs in the first innings, did not even take the field. With Tamil Naduon 66 for 2 the match was called off at the start of the mandatory overs.”We have been training hard for the last 40 days, especially on thephysical fitness aspect, and this is the result,” said ChetanChauhan, the Delhi coach. He added that there was hope that the Delhi andDistrict Cricket Association would prepare better pitches for the gamesahead where “the balance between bat and ball is more even.”Woorkeri Raman, Tamil Nadu’s coach, told Cricinfo that he did havepositives to take from this match. “One has to realise that there’s a fairbit of inexperience in the bowling attack. Yomahesh bowled well and thisis only his third Ranji Trophy match, he’s just learning the ropes,”he said. “Considering that this was an away game and we played threedebutants, in a way it was good that we got the warning signs early on.This gives you a chance to take something out of the game and then try andrectify what you have to and get things in order for the rest of theseason.”Raman also listed the performance of M Vijay, the debutant openingbatsman, as a positive. “It’s a completely different thing for a youngsterto come into first-class cricket,” he said. “What was especially pleasingwas the fact that he showed the ability to graft, unlike the flamboyancewhich you normally associate with Tamil Nadu batsmen.”Raman is not known for mincing words, though, and you can be surehe would have had a few blunt things to say to his players in the privacyof the dressing-room. But made no excuses for his team’sperformance. “We didn’t take the chances that came our way. We did nottake off when we had a launching pad while batting. Badri and Vijay did agood job in stabilising the innings, but from there on we did notcapitalise,” he said. “On this wicket, which was a nightmare for bowlers,450-500 was definitely possible. We didn’t get that, and even then, whenwe bowled, having got the early breakthroughs and picking up a wicket withthe second new ball, we did not capitalise.”

Chennai, and not Ahmedabad, should have been allotted a Test match against England, Cricinfo has learned. The last few weeks have been filled with vociferous complaints from the England and Wales Cricket Board, and the English media, over the itinerary for England’s forthcoming tour of India. While, on the surface, the Board of Control for Cricket in India is strictly adhering to its rotation policy, deeper investigation reveals that something questionable has indeed occurred.The Tour Programmes and Fixtures Committee of the BCCI, which chalks out itineraries for all home matches, met in Mumbai on September 6 to sort out the schedule for the forthcoming season. At the time, however, the committee only decided on the venues for the one-day internationals that were coming up against Sri Lanka and South Africa. Why this was done, no-one is able to answer satisfactorily. And this has made a big difference to how the rotation policy has been applied.According to the rules followed by the board, the Test and ODI rotations run parallel. This means that a situation could arise where it could be a venue’s turn to host both a Test and an ODI in a series. When this happens, it has been the practice that the venue must stage the Test, and wait its turn for the next series for the ODI.Therefore, if the Programmes and Fixtures Committee had worked out for the venues for the forthcoming ODIs and Tests, then Ahmedabad would have been forced to stage a Sri Lanka Test match (Sri Lanka are now playing at Chennai, Delhi and Kanpur). This would have meant that when England’s turn came around, Chennai would have been an automatic allotment for a Test match.There has also been some discrepancy in the allotment of practice matches to the North-Eastern centres of Jamshedpur and Agartala. The fixtures committee met in Delhi to allot the venues for the England Tests and ODIs but did not rule on the warm-up matches. In the past, on most occasions when the Test and ODI fixtures are announced the committee also announces the venues for the side games. In this case, however, it appears that that the chairman of the Tour Programmes and Fixtures Committee, in consultation with the BCCI president, has later allotted the venues to Jamshedpur, Agartala, and Dharamsala for a practice match before the ODIs, which only came to light when representatives of the ECB visited Kolkata for discussions on the itinerary.Staging a three-day game against a touring team is the first step in a venue’s movement towards becoming an international venue. If they stage this warm-up match against England, Agartala will be in a strong position to stake a claim to holding an ODI in a couple of years’ time, a board source told Cricinfo. Dharamsala has already staged a tour match, against Pakistan, and this will only strengthen their case. The most recent instance of this happening is Vijayawada, who hosted a warm-up match when the Zimbabweans toured in early 2002. Just nine months later they were handed their first, and so far only, ODI when West Indies toured.It has also been reported, in that there was some uncertainty over Kanpur hosting the Sri Lanka Test match in December this year owing to a money dispute with the Kanpur District Association, who own the ground. However, as a permanent Test venue, Kanpur has already refused to host Tests in the past, on grounds that the stadium was not ready for play. When New Zealand toured India in 2003 Kanpur was to host a Test, but refused to do so.The BCCI pressurised Kanpur to stage the game, but the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association refused to relent, fearing that if they did stage the game in substandard conditions (poor pitch, outfield, facilities) then they were in danger of being blacklisted as a venue by the ICC. But a long time has passed since 2003 and the BCCI refused to relent this time round, rightly contending that the UPCA had enough time to get its act together. Soon after it was decided, Cricinfo has learned, that if Kanpur was to attempt to forego a Test again when its turn came, stern action would be taken that could have resulted in it being stripped of Test status, which would be accompanied by a loss of a place in the working committee. Therefore it was a fait accompli that Kanpur hosted a Test against Sri Lanka.