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Scorecard

Pragyan Ojha, the left-arm spinner, took his maiden List A five-for as India A managed a 44-run win over Sri Lanka A in the fifth match of the triangular tournament in Nairobi. A holiday crowd, mainly comprising the Indian and Sri Lankan diaspora, turned out to support the teams.Sri Lanka, who were chasing 199 for victory, lost their way early in the chase. Dilruwan Perera was the first to go, edging Irfan Pathan to wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel. Malinda Warnapura, the Sri Lanka captain and Mahela Udawatte were trapped in front by Pankaj Singh and Praveen Kumar respectively.Gayan Wijekoon and Kaushal Silva stabilised Sri Lanka’s chase with a 53-run stand for the fourth wicket. Wijekoon got a reprieve in the 18th over, when a loud appeal for caught behind was turned down after which Irfan Pathan was seen remonstrating with umpire Subhash Modi, an incident that could bring match referee Jasmer Singh into the picture.Wijekoon, who was the more aggressive of the two, was particularly strong hitting down the ground. But the run-rate fell when Ojha began bowling in tandem with seamer Yo Mahesh. Ojha claimed his first wicket when Silva was hit on the foot, missing a flighted ball to be adjudged leg-before for 26 and then had Thilina Kandamby caught brilliantly by Patel off the very next ball.Kaushal Lokuarachchi mistimed a sweep shot in Ojha’s fourth over and was caught by substitute Rajesh Pawar at mid-on. Wijekoon, who looked comfortable at the crease, was run out by Irfan Pathan after scoring 46 off 57 balls.Nuwan Kulasekara and Chamara Kapugedera then added 29 in quick time for the eighth wicket as the match seemed to be heading for a close finish. Kapugedera struck Yusuf Pathan past mid-on for four, before hitting a six over long-on in the 40th over.Irfan Pathan broke the partnership when he had Kapugedera fending a short ball to Patel. Ojha then finished off the tail, Kulasekara and Akalanka Ganegama falling in similar fashion: caught by Pawar at deep midwicket attempting to clear the boundary.Earlier, India were dismissed for 198, the stand-out performer being left-arm medium-pacer Sujeewa de Silva, who finished with figures of 4 for 33.Warnapura asked India to bat after winning the toss, and his decision was justified when Kulasekara removed the dangerous Kumar in the seventh over, trapping him in front for 18 . Kumar began his innings aggressively, striking three consecutive fours off Ganegama in the third over. Patel joined Kumar in the pavilion, nicking an away swinger from de Silva to wicketkeeper Silva.Mohammad Kaif was joined by Cheteshwar Pujara, but they were not allowed to score freely by the accurate Sri Lanka pace attack. de Silva was unlucky when Silva dropped a difficult chance off Pujara. But Pujara was sent back in the next over when Ganegama got an inswinger to take the top of off stump.Subramaniam Badrinath was dismissed for 8 by Lokuarachchi, the legspinner, when an outside edge was snapped up by Warnapura at first slip. Lokuarachchi could have had his second wicket if Warnapura had caught an edge from Arjun Yadav.Kaif kept the runs coming, albeit at a trickle. However, he was caught by Udawatte at point when he played an uppish cut off Kulasekara after scoring 38 off 82 balls with three fours. Yusuf Pathan joined Yadav and the duo sparked a lower-order revival with a 75-run stand for the sixth wicket. Yusuf Pathan sent a Kulasekara delivery into the adjoining hockey stadium to begin the fireworks.Yusuf Pathan was dropped by Kandamby on the long-off boundary off the unlucky Lokuarachchi, but that did not stop his aggressive intent. The ball soon had to be replaced when he slogged Wijekoon into the car park.Yadav then joined the assault by clearing long-off and then long-on in a Lokuarachchi over. Yusuf Pathan cleared the deep midwicket boundary off Wijekoon, but was dismissed in the next over by de Silva for 40 after Kapugedera took a brilliant catch in the deep, jumping up to catch a ball destined for a six.India failed to build on the partnership between Yusuf Pathan and Yadav, with the last five wickets falling for the addition of 14 runs.The winner of match on Monday between Sri Lanka A and Kenya will face India A in Wednesday’s final.

Benson & Hedges World Championship of Cricket, 1984-85, Final, Melbourne
India won by eight wickets

This was the first high-profile ODI clash between the two teams. India entered the final as favourites, having bowled out every opposition team till then. Three-wicket hauls from Kapil Dev and Laxman Sivaramakrishnan helped India restrict Pakistan to a below-par 176 for 9. Kris Srikkanth and the Man-of-the-Series Ravi Shastri scored contrasting half-centuries to take India home with six overs to spare.World Cup, 1992, Sydney
India won by 43 runsThis was the first World Cup encounter between the two. In conditions that aided swing and seam movement, India overcame a very slow start to reach 216 for 7. Srikkanth played an uncharacteristic innings, batting out 40 balls for five runs, before Sachin Tendulkar hit a counter-attacking fifty and Kapil made a breezy 35 to give the bowlers a total to defend. Pakistan’s reply was built on an 88-run partnership between Javed Miandad and Aamer Sohail but Tendulkar broke the partnership, dismissing Sohail for 62. That turned the match – Pakistan crumbled as the asking run-rate spiralled up and Javagal Srinath sealed their fate with a yorker that cleaned up Miandad.World Cup quarter-final, 1996, Bangalore
India won by 39 runsThere was controversy even before the start, with Pakistan captain Wasim Akram pulling out at the last minute. Navjot Singh Sidhu laid the foundation for India with 93 before Ajay Jadeja set the stadium ablaze with a brutal 25-ball 45, including 40 from the final two overs by Waqar Younis, to catapult India to 287. Pakistan came up with a stunning riposte with Saeed Anwar and Sohail thumping 84 in the first 10 overs. Anwar fell at that score but Sohail continued to shred the opening bowlers till a verbal joust with Venkatesh Prasad did him, and Pakistan, in. After hitting a boundary to extra-cover fence, he openly lampooned Prasad, pointing to the region with the bat. But when Sohail tried to repeat the slash off the next ball he was bowled by a charged-up Prasad who gave Sohail a verbal send-off. India went on to complete a famous win. Incidentally, this was Miandad’s last international game.World Cup, fourth Super Sixes match, 1999, Manchester
India won by 47 runsIndia and Pakistan squared off during a time when the armies of both countries were engaged in a stand-off over Kashmir. Fears were raised to a great levels and security was incredibly intense. Against that backdrop, fans of both sides came together in tumult to cheer their heroes on. There was much flag-waving, whistle-blowing and drum-beating, creating a passionate atmosphere. Tendulkar dominated the start after India opted to bat, passing 8,000 one-day international runs, but the batting did not quite click thereafter. Mohammad Azharuddin was left to construct the innings, and he added 60 in nine overs with Robin Singh to get India to 227.In reply, Saeed Anwar began with with six hurried fours even as Javagal Srinath chipped away at his partners. But it was that man Prasad again, bowling accurately and with good movement, to finish with 5 for 27. Sample his victims: Salim Malik, Anwar, Moin Khan, for an explosive 34 in 37 balls, Inzamam-ul-Haq, unusually subdued for 30 overs, and Wasim Akram, the captain. It all added up to a third successive victory over Pakistan, with Azharuddin winning all of the three India – Pakistan matches he’d captained in World Cup history.

World Cup 2003, Centurion
India won by six wickets
Anwar guided Pakistan to a daunting 273 with a dogged hundred but an awe-inspiring 98 from Tendulkar helped India romp home to a memorable win. Tendulkar dismantled the bowling attack with shots all around the ground and in particular, took apart Shoaib Akhtar and Waqar with some clinical hitting. He stitched together a 102-run partnership with Mohammad Kaif to help India win with more than four overs to spare.Champions Trophy 2004, Edgbaston
Pakistan won by three wickets
Pakistan broke the jinx of losing to India in what would be the last encounter between the two sides in a major tournament before the World Twenty20. English conditions in late September meant nine of the 15 matches were won by the team chasing. Inzamam-ul-Haq won the crucial toss at Edgbaston and put India in. Shoaib Akhtar and Naved-ul-Hasan shared eight wickets as India were bowled out for 200. Irfan Pathan gave India a shot at reaching the semi-final when he reduced Pakistan to 27 for 3 in 11 overs. But Inzamam and Mohammad Yousuf’s calm 75-run partnership steadied Pakistan’s nerves. Yousuf was unbeaten on 81 as Pakistan reached the target with four balls to spare.ICC World Twenty20, 2007, Durban
Match tied, India won on bowl-outViews remain divided as to the virtues of having a bowl-out in the 20-over format, but when India and Pakistan met for the first time in the inagural ICC World Twenty20 it was another classic. Ultimately India’s players held their nerve to win an extraordinary encounter, taking the game 3-0 in a bowl-out to beat Pakistan and seal their place in the Super Eights after their group match ended in a thrilling tie. India were reeling after Mohammad Asif took 4 for 18 but Robin Uthappa (50) helped set Pakistan 142 to win in Durban. Misbah-ul-Haq made a brilliant 53 from 37 balls even as Pakistan lost three wickets for three runs and Pakistan, who had already qualified, needed one to win off the last ball. However, Misbah could not manage it off Sreesanth’s last ball and was run out to set up the dramatic bowl-out to decide the winner. India’s first three all hit the stumps but Pakistan’s top three all missed. Few could have predicted this thriller, but once again it was India would had trumped Pakistan in a major world tournament.

For over twelve years now Curtly Ambrose has been putting the fear of God upbatsmen all over the world. But that will not happen for much longer as thissupreme fast bowler insists on bowing out of international cricket at the endof this series. It is of no surprise that this exceptional man does so havingtoday joined that exclusive, elite group of just four who have reached fourhundred Test wickets.Such illustrous cricketers as Sir Richard Hadlee, Wasim Akram and Kapil Devare in that group but leading it with 475 wickets is Courtney Walsh, the manwho has formed a most formidable bowling partnership with Ambrose. Betweenthem they have accumulated a staggering 875 Test wickets as they went aboutdemolishing the strongest batting line-ups over the years.Today they shared the five wickets that England lost for 105 by stumps andonce again, as is usually the case, the runs came more easily when these twostalwarts were replaced. For England, Graham Thorpe’s innings of 46 was theonly one of any note, but with 67 runs behind and five wickets remaining inthe first innings the match is evenly poised after the first day.The Headingley pitch lived up to its reputation of assisting pace bowlers butin the absence of low clouds – indeed, the first morning of the fourth Testwas greeted by a lovely blue sky which remained so for the rest of the day -Jimmy Adams decided to make first use of a wicket which had little grass. Hecertainly would not have wanted to bat last on the Headingley wicket whichdeteriorates rather than get any easier for batting.Although he lost Sherwin Campbell in only the third over, Adams wouldn’t havebeen unduly concerned until the score had reached 50 for 1 when things beganto happen for England.Craig White, who finished with his Test best figures of 5 for 57 and looksnow to be such an improved bowler, began an alarming West Indies collapse. Heswung the ball most effectively into the left handers and that movement wasthe basis of his first three dismissals.He brought one in sharply into Wavell Hinds who got a thin edge to it to becaught behind and struck again quickly in his next over when he trapped themaster batsman Brian Lara leg before. He drew him forward and moved the ballacross towards leg stump.After Darren Gough had removed Adrian Griffith, White again produced thein-swinger to Jimmy Adams who played on, via the inside edge. It reduced WestIndies to 5 for 60 before lunch and White had been instrumental in thatbatting debacle.It took an unbeaten half-century from young Ramnaresh Sarwan, who was ablysupported by Ridley Jacobs to halt the slide. Playing in only his fourthTest, Sarwan has shown tremendous potential since making his debut last May.This Test is already showing signs of a close finish.

Scorecard1:11

Mumbai, Saurashtra dominate Day 1

A five-wicket haul from Jaydev Unadkat gave Saurashtra the early impetus in their quarter-final in Vizianagaram, as they bowled Vidarbha out for 151. Saurashtra made a strong start to their reply as well, ending the day 70 for 1 with Cheteshwar Pujara batting on 45 off 71 balls (9×4) and sharing an unbroken 60-run stand with Sagar Jogiyani after the early loss of Avi Barot to Umesh Yadav.Saurashtra sent Vidarbha in after winning the toss and Unadkat, the left-arm seamer, made an almost instantaneous impact, dismissing Jitesh Sharma with the second ball of the match. Hardik Rathod picked up the next two wickets as Vidarbha slumped to 30 for 3, and there was little respite thereafter, with a 33-run fourth-wicket stand between S Badrinath and Wasim Jaffer finishing as the highest of the innings. Jaffer top-scored with 41, facing 86 balls and hitting seven fours. The seamers picked up all ten Vidarbha wickets, with Rathod and Chirag Jani bagging two each and Unadkat finishing with figures of 5 for 70.
ScorecardPacers Siddarth Kaul and Barinder Sran cut through Assam’s batting line-up, but Syed Mohammad unbeaten 50 pushed his side past 200 in the second quarter-final in Valsad.Coming in at No.7, Syed Mohammad rallied with the lower order, bringing up his second fifty of the season. It had come after forties from opener Pallav Kumar Das and No.4 Amit Verma, but the rest of the middle order did not have answers to Kaul and Sran who had combined figures of 47-8-148-6.Dhiraj Goswami was dismissed just before stumps, as Assam made slow progress to 223. Captain Harbhajan Singh managed only one wicket, but gave away only 11 runs in as many overs. Left-arm pacer Deepak Bansal, playing his third first-class match, took the other wicket to fall.
ScorecardAkhil Herwadkar’s century and Suryakumar Yadav’s half-century led Mumbai to 303 for 6 at stumps on the first day of their quarter-final clash against Jharkhand in Mysore.Having opted to bat, Mumbai lost opener Jay Bista early, but Herwadkar, joined by Shreyas Iyer, who scored a brisk 45, put on a 70-run partnership to lift Mumbai. Iyer fell with the score at 91, but Herwadkar found good company from Suryakumar as Mumbai pushed past 200. Suryakumar struck nine fours and two sixes during his 70-ball 75. Herwadkar’s effort, on the other hand, was built on patience. He took 217 balls for his 107, during which he hit 12 fours.Jharkhand made late incisions, reducing Mumbai from 227 for 2 to 303 for 6. Pacer Jaskaran Singh and left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem picked up two wickets each for Jharkhand.

Scorecard

Bermuda’s women carved an unwanted niche in the international record books with one of the most abject performances in the game’s history. In their opening match of the World Cup Qualifiers at Stellenbosch University, they were bowled out for 13 and then South Africa took only four balls to sweep to a ten-wicket win.Bermuda’s men haven’t made much of a positive impact in the game either – eleven months ago, they conceded 413 for 5 against India in the World Cup and lost by 257 runs, the biggest margin in one-day history. But their women have just lowered the bar by several notches.They crawled to 7 for 2 after ten overs, but that represented the high-water mark. By the time drinks were taken after 15.5 overs they were 13 for 7 and had lost their 42-year-old captain, Linda Mienzer, for a determined 1 off 48 deliveries. Such was the confusion that when play resumed the batsmen returned to the wrong ends.The last three wickets failed to add to the score as Sunette Loubser finished with 6 for 3, including 5 for 1 in 12 balls.Terry-Lynn Paynter opened Bermuda’s attack but struggled to find the cut strip, conceding nine wides and a no-ball. Olivia Anderson did manage to reach one, which she dispatched for four.The statistics of the match are mindboggling. Eight Bermudans failed to get off the mark, and the three that did only managed a single each. Ten of the runs that helped make up their meagre score were extras – 71%. South Africa’s score of 15 for 0 was also made up of ten extras – nine wides and a no-ball. Anderson scored 50% of the runs scored off the bat in the match, and 80% of her side’s runs.Unfortunately for South Africa, but mercifully for the record-books, Bermuda’s debacle does not count towards the official statistics because they are ranked outside the world’s top ten countries. “I am disappointed that today’s stats don’t count for nothing,” said Loubser, “but I would say it was a team effort to win the opening match of the tournament.Bermuda’s captain, Mienzer, tried desperately to put a positive gloss on the performance. “I am extremely proud and our team is very proud to be here,” she said. “Just a year and a half ago there was no women’s programme so we went to Canada and qualified to come here which is an achievement in itself. In terms of women’s cricket in Bermuda, it has come a long way but we still have a long way to go.”South Africa’s next match is against equally unheralded opponents, Papua New Guinea, on Tuesday. “We are taking one match at a time and we are happy that we are off to a good start,” said Loubser. “It should augur well for the whole tournament. We don’t know anything about our next opponents, but that doesn’t mean we should rest on our laurels. We should be ready for anything.”

Two-all with the decider to play: from a five-match series you can’t ask for much more. But that scoreline also suggests more excitement and greater parity perhaps than has been witnessed in Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan. No doubt it’s been an engaging series but one without a definitive, crackling, edge-of-the-seat, I-was-there contest. One chanceremains and if Shoaib Akhtar returns, the Gaddafi Stadium might just get it.First to South Africa, however, and if Makhaya Ntini is any indicator of the mood in the camp, then they are both jolly and confident. Pakistan’s training began with an eclectic background score, courtesy Ntini, of loud chants, songs and general chatter, none of which anyone really understood.Perhaps the prospect of taking home two trophies has spurred Ntini on. No doubt it has his captain, Graeme Smith. “The feeling in the team is very good right now. We’ve had a successful tour where we’ve played good cricket barring two matches. If someone had said to me before coming over that we would go back with two trophies, I would’ve said it’s a lot of hard work but we’ve done that and are confident for tomorrow.”The assertion is difficult to disprove. In the ODIs at least, they have done it without a contribution from Jacques Kallis. The one spinner they have played – Johan Botha – is the one they shouldn’t have: Botha’s first wickets of the series in Multan were lower-order, death-over heaves and who knows what Paul Harris might have done.”We’ve come a long way in learning how to play cricket on the subcontinent,” said Smith. “Our batting unit has performed well on slow, turning wickets. Our bowlers’ plans have been better than in the past. We’ve become a lot more battle-hardened as a team certainly in these conditions.”The wicket, Smith was not shy in pointing out, looks under-prepared. Spin and seam both will benefit. South Africa countered Pakistan’s spin by using Shaun Pollock as a pinch-hitter in Multan and it might be the way again tomorrow.”The wicket is a little under-prepared and it’s going to spin,” said Smith. “The seamers might also play a role. We’re well-prepared and we have certain plans. We’ll discuss the pinch-hitter role and see what selection they play as well.”The feel-good factor, this talk of pitches, could go to pot tomorrow of course. If Shoaib plays, teams and pitches matter little. You wouldn’t guess it but Shoaib hasn’t played an ODI since September 2006. A 13-match ban finally out of the way, he will start tomorrow.About time too, for as committed as Pakistan’s bowling has been through the series, it has lacked a zip, a proper threat, an element of unknown. With Umar Gul and Mohammad Asif both likely to be rested, Smith cheekily – but correctly – said that pressure would be on Shoaib, not South Africa. “He’s the one making a comeback. We’ve prepared for him because we knew he would be available. He’s short on cricket and whether they risk him in such an important game will be the key.”Shoaib Malik knows it is a risk worth taking, as he knows this is as good a chance as ever to win a first-ever ODI series against South Africa. “It’s a great opportunity to win a series against them for the first time. We will use Shoaib as our main bowler in the hope of bringing the best out of him,” said Malik.”If fit, he is an asset. But we will need a team effort to win the last match and if we win we will go on the tour of India with more confidence.”Naturally, half the mind is on India already. No opener or opening pair has announced itself and Pakistan will fiddle again. Neither Shahid Afridi or Yasir Hameed, providers of the best start thus far (42) are expected to open: a truly Pakistani solution to a truly Pakistani problem. Kamran Akmal comes back up the order and Imran Nazir is likely to play again, Malik admitting they were experimenting with options before India.The good news is that Younis Khan has a score behind him and Mohammad Yousuf is in good form. If they can stop running each other out, then allied to the form of Malik himself, Pakistan’s middle order is healthy. An innings from Misbah-ul-Haq would top it off nicely, though not as much as a fearsome Shoaib spell and a Pakistan victory.Pakistan (probable): 1 Kamran Akmal (wk), 2 Imran Nazir, 3 Younis Khan, 4 Mohammad Yousuf, 5 Shoaib Malik (capt), 6 Misbah-ul-Haq, 7 Shahid Afridi, 8 Abdur Rehman, 9 Sohail Tanvir, 10 Shoaib Akhtar, 11 Rao Iftikhar Anjum.South Africa (probable): 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Herschelle Gibbs, 3 JacquesKallis, 4 AB de Villiers, 5 JP Duminy, 6 Mark Boucher (wk), 7 Shaun Pollock, 8 AlbieMorkel, 9 Andre Nel, 10 Johan Botha, 11 Makhaya Ntini.

Ken Gordon leaves his two-year presidency of West Indies cricket with the Board on stable financial ground; with a developmental academy ready to go; a financially successful World Cup behind it; and an improved contract with chief sponsors Digicel now worth US$2.6 million per year.But Gordon also leaves having presided over an organisation lacking public credibility. This was his frank admission yesterday at the Hilton Trinidad where he faced the media for a final time as West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president.”Obviously, anything that’s good or bad is a reflection of my leadership. As far as the credibility problem is concerned, I don’t think that has made the kind of progress I would have liked,” he said. “Short answer is the West Indies Cricket Board in my view continues to have a credibility problem. But I hope that in the process of change which is ahead of us, that there will be a structural change to the Board to have it reflect a different quality of membership.”According to Gordon – making reference to instances of leaks to the press – the root of the Board’s credibility difficulties had to do with a lack of confidentiality, which he said had led to a “media circus”.”A big part of the problem is until you can run an organisation where the quality of people who are there will respect confidentiality, and you can solve problems internally, I suppose you will always have a credibility problem… This has haunted the West Indies.”One of the commitments we made was transparency. We’re trying to tell you what all the issues are. But that doesn’t mean you have to know when everybody fights amongst themselves to resolve issues. And I’m afraid, in the process, many things have also been manufactured.”Gordon also conceded that the relationship between his administration and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) had also been a failure.”We have not succeeded in bridging that gap on a sustainable basis and I had hoped after the first few months, first year, that we would have done so,” he said.”I’m not here to point fingers,” Gordon continued. “I’m only here to say that it is absolutely critical for West Indies cricket that that issue be addressed and finally solved… It really boils down to how you deal with personalities.”Gordon noted, too, that “a new man”, Julian Hunte, “has a chance to come in and [WIPA president] Mr [Dinanath] Ramnarine may prefer to deal with him. So that will take it forward”.Referring also to the stormy exchanges between Ramnarine and new WICB CEO Bruce Aanensen, reflected in recent media releases, Gordon said: “Mr Aanensen has had a vigourous start. And perhaps there are similarities between Mr Ramnarine and Mr Aanensen.”But, with Aanensen seated at the head table listening, he expressed confidence that “once they have gotten over the initial flaring, things will settle down. Because one thing I’m certain of is, they both have West Indies cricket at heart”.Gordon, the former media magnate and government minister in the NAR administration, leaves this latest office, keen, he says, to “learn to be” the grandfather he has not quite been.And having previously been asked to reconsider his offered resignation during the World Cup in April, Gordon suggested his job in West Indies cricket is now done. “When you are involved in making serious change, there is fallout that must inevitably occur. Popularity is not one.”Obviously, people get upset with me. I understand that. I’m not here for a career. I like to think with what we have set out to do largely is putting a foundation there. But I also recognise that, in the process, there has been so much fallout, even among a pocket of my own members, that perhaps it’s better to get somebody else to take it to a different level. I have been there with it up to a certain point, now let somebody else take it forward.”And asked to reflect on his leadership style during his somewhat controversial tenure, Gordon said, had he to face the bowling all over again, there would be an adjustment in strategy.”Obviously I would have attempted to perhaps temper some of my approaches a little more. But you see, when you have what looks like a house of cards around you, it’s very difficult to be always as considered as you should be.”He said “in the light of what I have experienced”, he would use “more personal consultation perhaps rather than just consultation at the board level; making the time to do that. Maybe some people may have understood a little more clearly”.

Blaming the mediocre standard of batsmen in school cricket today partly to the preparation of substandard pitches, Aravinda de Silva, the former Sri Lanka batsman, is of the opinion that playing school matches on matting surfaces than on turf pitches would improve the quality of batting significantly.Being appointed consultant coach to the Sri Lanka under-19 World Cup team enabled de Silva, who retired from international cricket five years ago, to make a close study of the declining standards of school cricket in Sri Lanka and this is what he observed.”As I see it, playing on matting wickets will create much better players because that extra bounce will encourage batsmen to play shots square of the wicket and produce more gutsy players,” de Silva said. “One thing we should look at is that some of the fast bowlers of today can’t get the ball to rise waist high.””We played most of our cricket at school on matting wickets. It is easier to switch over from matting to turf. There are two sides to playing on matting. On turf you get use to playing on different sort of surfaces. But at a younger age I don’t think that is necessary. You must allow them to go and play their normal cricket, to play with aggression. The advantages are greater to develop batsmen than bowlers on matting.”Throughout his illustrious career he remained the most feared batsman in the middle-order, capable of single-handedly changing the course of a match. He was renowned for being a fearless hooker and cutter of the ball even against the fastest of bowlers in the world. He had the freedom and confidence to play shots all around the wicket because of the quality of cricket he played at DS Senanayake MV where his natural talents were allowed to flow.”Playing tough competitive cricket on good wickets is what our youngsters lack. They lack a lot of confidence because of poor wickets. Arjuna [Ranatunga] made a triple hundred at the age of under 15 and players used to get double hundreds regularly during our time. Today as a team schools are averaging totals of 190-200 except for some schools that play on good wickets.””That is perhaps mainly because the batsmen lack in confidence to play their shots. The only way to give them the confidence is to prepare good batting surfaces. But most schools cannot afford to maintain turf wickets and therefore play on substandard surfaces.”Even for the bowlers why we don’t develop good spinners is because the wickets are all crumbling. Also there is no competition to create situations because they play safe games. Some of the coaches go round setting fields and not allowing the players to think on their own. More than winning competitions coaches must get players to think and make decisions on their own. This would allow the boys to study the game from a young age.”De Silva’s remedy to overcome this shortcoming is to field a schools team in the inter-provincial tournament. “They will gain a lot of experience from the exposure that will be given to them. Playing with guys like Mahela [Jayawardene] and Kumar [Sangakkara] will give them competitive cricket and a chance to learn the game.”Having watched how the under-19 World Cup teams of Pakistan and England played in the recently concluded tri-series in Colombo, De Silva said: “The Pakistan and England sides are very much matured. They have more thinking cricketers than our guys. The Pakistan bowling attack is a lot better that Sri Lanka and England because most of the bowlers have got exposure at first-class level. Every bowler was able to move the ball, which is a very good sign at that age. Our batsmen found it difficult to face up to the Pakistani bowlers when the ball started to move around because they play on flat and slow wickets at school.”Sri Lanka lost all three fixtures (including the final) to Pakistan in the tri-nation series. de Silva suggested that as the Junior World Cup is played every two years, Sri Lanka should pick a pool one year ahead from the under 17 squad and prepare for the event.

In one of the biggest telecast deals in Indian cricket, the consortium of India’s Sony Television network and the Singapore-based World Sports Group (WSG) has secured the rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the officially-sanctioned Twenty20 league, for ten years at a cost of more than US$1 billion. As part of the deal, the consortium will pay the BCCI US$908 million for the telecast rights and US$108 million for the promotion of the tournament.Announcing the deal, BCCI vice-president and IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi said, “We are absolutely delighted … we have what we believe to be the best deal for the Indian Premier League and Indian cricket fans.”While the programming and ad sales strategy has yet to be worked out by Sony and WSG, Kunal Dasgupta, CEO of Sony Entertainment Television India, told , “WSG will explore the international market while Sony will cater to the subcontinent.” Sony’s previous big foray into cricket broadcasting was when it signed a five-year deal in excess of US$200 million with the ICC in 2002.Modi said that initially 80% of the revenues from the sale of media rights will go to the IPL franchises, gradually tapering down to 60% over the subsequent years. He also revealed that the bids for the franchises, the base price of which is US$50 million, will be opened on January 24 while player auctions would follow around February 7.The IPL has a pool of at least 78 cricketers with international experience from which the franchises can sign on players. Shane Warne will be the most expensive player, costing US$400,000 for a franchise to employ him. The next highest fee is for Glenn McGrath and Stephen Fleming, of US$350,000.IPL matches are likely to be held in the late-afternoon or evening in a bid to attract larger television audiences. Floodlighting in Delhi and Hyderabad, which are the only cities among the twelve earmarked for hosting matches in the inaugural season to not have floodlights installed, would be completed by March 30, he said.Modi was unconcerned that several players might not be available for the the first year of the IPL due to international commitments. “Not all of them may be available … but we have a number of other top players available to us,” he said. New Zealand’s tour of England and Australia’s tour of West Indies are both scheduled to commence in the second half of May.The IPL is a BCCI-backed Twenty20 league involving eight franchises and its inaugural season will consist of 59 games and is scheduled to start in April 2008. Each franchise will play the others on a home-and-away basis, with the top four sides going through to the semi-finals. The two IPL finalists will also advance to the new Champions Twenty20 tournament, which features the best teams of the domestic Twenty20 tournaments, tentatively scheduled for October 2008.

ScorecardMumbai Champs turned in yet another disappointing performance to allow Chennai Superstars to register a facile win at Panchkula in Chandigarh. T Kumaran grabbed a four-wicket haul to restrict Champs to 123, a total that was never going to threaten the Superstars, who romped home by nine wickets with 44 balls to spare.G Vignesh chose the occasion to equal Chris Cairns’ tournament record for the fastest fifty with a 17-ball effort and picked up the Man-of-the-Match award.Kumaran struck in the fifth over to dismiss the opener Saman Jayantha, after which wickets continued to fall at regular intervals. That Dhiraj Jhadav’s 28 was the highest score of the innings reflects the Champs’ woes.The chase was over in a hurry after Vignesh exploded at the start with a 30-ball 61 that featured eight hits to the boundary and three over it. Michael Kasprowicz had a forgettable day, leaking 20 runs in his solitary over. Ian Harvey remained unbeaten on a 30-ball 31, while R Sathish hastened the end with a 17-ball 29.