Lalit Modi denied the IPL franchise owners were unhappy over the delay in compensation for the extra expenditure incurred during the 2009 tournament

Cricinfo staff27-Nov-2009Lalit Modi, the Indian Premier League commissioner, has denied that the franchise owners were unhappy about not being compensated for the extra expenditure incurred during the 2009 tournament in South Africa.”It’s absolute hogwash and there’s no truth or merit in the reports that have appeared. Our franchise owners are not like that,” Modi said. “It’s an ongoing process. Part-payments were done. It has to go to the IPL Governing Council for approval.”The first edition of the IPL was held in India in 2008. The second was shifted to South Africa because the tournament was scheduled to be held at the same time as the general elections in India, and the government could not guarantee adequate security. The shift in venue involved extra costs for all the franchises, who were promised compensation by the IPL. The tournament will return to India for the third edition next year.

Plays of the day from the 1st day of the third Test between South Africa and England at Cape Town

Andrew McGlashan in Cape Town03-Jan-2010Opening woes
England have never had to wait long in this series to get into South Africa’s middle order. The opening partnership between Graeme Smith and Ashwell Prince has failed to prosper at any stage. Four of the opening stands have yielded 1, 2, 3 and today’s effort of 1 when Prince edged a terrific delivery from Jimmy Anderson to the keeper. Their best effort together was 27 and that came when South Africa were skittled out for 133. Unless Prince can muster a decent score in the second innings the calls for change will grow louder.Missing Colly
With Prince already gone in the first over, England’s morning could have become even better with Graham Onions’ first delivery of the match. Smith couldn’t resist driving at a very wide ball and edged it straight towards Graeme Swann’s midriff at second slip. However, all Swann could do was palm it to the ground and the reaction of the fielder at fine leg summed it up. Paul Collingwood was down on the boundary protecting his recently dislocated finger and would normally have been station at second slip. Odds are he would have swallowed the chance and South Africa would have been 1 for 2.Action replay
After the spurned opportunity, England had to wait a while for their second breakthrough but when it came they could have been back in Durban. In an almost identical dismissal to the first innings last week, Hashim Amla was trapped straight in front by a full delivery from Onions just as Stuart Broad managed at Kingsmead. For a second Amla considered a review, but quickly realised there was no way back.New Year, same Swann
The year hadn’t started too well for Swann with the dropped catch to reprieve Smith, but he was soon back doing what had made 2009 so impressive. With Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers settling after lunch and comfortably milking the spin England were in need of a breakthrough. It was handed to them on a plate when de Villiers chipped a limp shot to midwicket and next ball the innings had been turned on its head when the struggling JP Duminy was caught behind first ball.Boucher hits back
South Africa were threatening to get themselves tied in knots again against Swann and had to find some way to break his stranglehold. Mark Boucher has been one of their form players during the series and is always likes to play his shots. With close fielders swarming around, Boucher stepped back to cut Swann and then followed that by driving a full toss through the off side before making it three in row with another punchy drive past mid-off. Suddenly, Swann had something to think about.Test match wedding
Newlands is a wonderful location for cricket, and apparently it’s quite a good one for weddings as well. About an hour before play there was a ceremony on the boundary edge below the media centre. Vows and rings were exchanged and they received warm applause from the crowd that was steadily building up. Fortunately for the people in all their wedding attire the ceremony had just been completed when rain arrived to delay the start of play by half an hour.

Wriddhiman Saha’s selection today in the India squad for the first Test against South Africa, though surprising, has once again put him in the familiar No. 2 spot, this time behind captain MS Dhoni

Judhajit Basu28-Jan-2010It’s a strange case of being behind the pack for Wriddhiman Saha. He rose to become first-choice wicketkeeper for Bengal only after Deep Dasgupta’s exit to the ICL and was mostly going to be behind Brendon McCullum and Tatenda Taibu when it came to doing duty for Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL. It didn’t help, either, when KKR got Morne van Wyk on board for the second season in South Africa.Dasgupta is now back in the official fray after his two-year stint in the ICL but Saha’s selection today in the India squad for the first Test against South Africa elevates him, if briefly, to the India squad – even though he’s once again No. 2, this time behind captain MS Dhoni. “It’s yet to sink in,” Saha said. “I knew that the team selection was today, but I clearly didn’t expect to be picked. I’m elated nonetheless; it’s certainly a pleasant surprise.”Saha knows his chances of actually playing in the match are slim but he’s looking to make the most of the experience. “It depends on the team management and what decision they take on the day,” Saha said. “I’ll be heading to Nagpur with a positive frame of mind. If I get the opportunity [to play], I will try and make full use. I am not concerned whether I actually do get a chance, but I will try to learn as much as possible from the seniors around me. It’s definitely a great honour and opportunity to share the dressing room with the likes of Dhoni, Sachin [Tendulkar], [VVS] Laxman and Zaheer [Khan].”Saha began his career in style, becoming the 15th Bengal player to score a hundred on Ranji debut against Hyderabad back in November 2007. But it was during the inaugural IPL that he came to prominence. Handed the opportunity following Dasgupta’s exit, Saha finished second, behind Mumbai Indians’ Yogesh Takawale, in the wicketkeeping honours list with 10 dismissals (eight catches and two stumpings). He also scored 159 runs in those 12 matches at 31.80, with a strike-rate of 133.61. His brave 59 in a losing cause against Kings XI Punjab in Mohali, seemingly, had announced his arrival.His performance in the second edition though, was slightly disappointing, managing just 72 runs in eight matches at 24.00, even though his strike-rate improved to 175.60. With van Wyk and McCullum to contend with, he had no dismissals to his credit then.Saha’s domestic form in the 2009-10 Ranji Trophy kept the selectors interested. Though Sourav Ganguly, Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Manoj Tiwary hogged Bengal’s batting charts with 50-plus averages, Saha’s 318 runs from five matches at 39.75 could not be ignored. His classy 120 against Delhi in Kolkata during the league stage coupled with his 15 dismissals was bound to work in his favour at some point. Making the cut for the Board President’s XI to take on the touring Sri Lankans in November last year was as close as he got.Even though there was a minor blip ahead of his call-up today – a duck for East Zone in the Duleep Trophy quarter-final against Central Zone – his first-class average of 44.80 and the corresponding figure for List A games at 43.90, may have prompted Kris Srikkanth and the others on the selection panel to promote him as back-up to Dhoni. He knows his long-term future with India is in his hands.”After Sourav Ganguly, several players from Bengal had got a look-in for the Indian team, but they could not cement their places,” Saha said. “But I intend to perform well to stay there as long as I can. This is just the beginning, and I have a long way to go. I am keen to work hard and improve in all aspects of the game. The upcoming Test may be just a one-off appearance but I would like to make my place in the team certain. There’s definitely scope for improvement in my wicketkeeping skills and I will seek Dhoni’s advice in that regard.”

Alan Butcher, the former England batsman and father of former England international Mark Butcher, has been appointed Zimbabwe coach

Martin Williamson20-Feb-2010Alan Butcher, the former England batsman and father of former international Mark Butcher, has been appointed the new national coach of Zimbabwe, replacing Walter Chawaguta, who had been in the post since August 2008.Butcher, 56, will be helped by Zimbabwe’s coaching assistant Stephen Mangongo, batting coach Grant Flower and bowling coach Heath Streak. His first assignment will be the tour of the Caribbean next month. “In the past we have relied on one coach, but this time we have four individuals and are confident they will deliver,” Ozias Bvute, Zimbabwe Cricket’s managing director, said in Harare.Streak has been with the side as bowling coach since August last year, while Flower, 39, will only take up his position at the end of the coming English domestic season after seeing out his contract with Essex.”At the end of this season it will probably signal the end of my playing career and I do not want to have any regrets,” said Flower. “I start my new role with Zimbabwe in October and have the main objective of helping them reach Test status once again. At the end of this season I aim to complete my Level 4 coaching course”.Although Chawaguta had been in situ for 18 months he never appeared to have the full backing of the board. At the beginning of 2009 Zimbabwe Cricket announced it was readvertising the post but a lack of credible alternatives led to him keeping his job. When the role was again put up for grabs at the end of the year the writing was on the wall. With a raised sense of normality surrounding Zimbabwe cricket, the board had a greater choice.It was widely reported at the tail end of last year that Streak was the preferred candidate, but the board has opted to bring in someone from overseas. That it went for Butcher will raise more than a few eyebrows. His last position was at Surrey where he left after a wretched season in 2008 when they failed to win one Championship match and were relegated from the top flight. He has little international experience having played a single Test and ODI for England as a left-hand opening batsman in 1980.

The IPL has been hit with another potential controversy with Indian news broadcasters deciding not to cover the third season in protest against what it called “arbitrary” guidelines and contentious clauses regarding tournament footage

Cricinfo staff16-Feb-2010The IPL has been hit with another potential controversy with Indian news broadcasters deciding not to cover the third season in protest against what it called “arbitrary” guidelines and contentious clauses regarding tournament footage. The decision followed a meeting between the News Broadcasters’ Association and officials of the IPL and Set Max, the tournament rights holder.The NBA, which has 34 member channels, said the IPL and Set Max officials “arbitrarily” refused to abide by the 2008 norms, which had been agreed on by all.”In view of this position, unilaterally taken by IPL/Set Max, members of the NBA are unable to offer to their viewers any coverage in relation to IPL or its proposed matches,” the association said. “Inconvenience caused to our viewers by this unreasonable commercial approach of IPL/Set MAX is regretted.”The media coverage guidelines for 2010 have reduced the duration of match footage that news channels can carry — 30 seconds per bulletin and seven minutes a day. Repeats will be allowed three times a day, as against four previously, and while match footage could earlier be telecast with a five-minute delay from the end of the live telecast, it has been expanded to a half-hour delay.The first IPL season was boycotted by the international news agencies over certain contentious clauses in the media accreditation guidelines, including a bar on supplying photographs to cricket-specific websites such as Cricinfo.The second season witnessed a repeat after News Media Coalition, the umbrella body that includes global news and photograph agencies Reuters, AP, AFP and Getty Images, objected over the same clause. However, the boycott was lifted after the IPL removed the clause from the terms of coverage.The 2010 tournament has already run into controversies with Shiv Sena threatening not to allow the Australian players in Mumbai as long as attack continues on the Indians living in Australia.

Graham Onions will be travelling with Durham when the county champions play MCC in a floodlit four-day game in Abu Dhabi

Cricinfo staff16-Mar-2010Graham Onions, who was forced to pull out of England’s Test series against Bangladesh with a back injury, will be travelling with Durham when the county champions play MCC in a floodlit four-day game in Abu Dhabi in the opening fixture of the English season at the end of the monthOnions is not expected to play in the match, however, and is making the trip as the first step in his recuperation. It is expected he will be fully fit by the time Durham take on Essex on April 15.”His injury doesn’t seem too bad, so we hope he will have a quick recuperation,” Durham coach Geoff Cook told . “England have asked us to take him to Abu Dhabi to help with his rehabilitation. We will be aiming to have him ready for the first county match against Essex.”Mark Davies, the fast-medium seamer who was called up from the England Performance Squad to the Test squad in South Africa as cover for James Anderson and Ryan Sidebottom, will also be going to Abu Dhabi to aid his rehabilitation after he had an operation to remove some floating bone from his ankle earlier this month.In a break from the traditional season opener at Lord’s, MCC decided to transfer the fixture to Abu Dhabi in order to ensure it would not be blighted by poor weather, and to trial the use of the pink ball under floodlights – with a view to paving the way for use of the innovation in Test cricket.”Some counties are forsaking pre-season tours, and we would probably have been in that boat were it not for the MCC meeting most of our costs,” added Cook. “Some people seem to think we have loads of money because we are champions, but for all the counties at the moment making ends meet is quite tricky.”

Giles White, the Hampshire cricket manager, believes Michael Lumb has the ability to make a success of his England Twenty20 call-up

Andrew McGlashan01-Apr-2010Michael Lumb probably couldn’t have picked a better moment to make an impression. Playing for England Lions against the full side in Dubai he hit the final two balls of the match for four to secure victory with an unbeaten 58. Andy Flower clearly liked what he saw; six weeks later and Lumb has been selected for the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean.Until Lumb was included for the Lions tour he hadn’t been involved with the England set-up during the winter having not been handed an Academy place. However, the selectors remembered his outstanding 2009 Twenty20 Cup record where he scored 442 runs at 44.20 including an unbeaten 124. Shane Warne, who Lumb credits with much of his development, didn’t forget either and helped him secured an IPL deal with Rajasthan Royals.At the age of 30, he can fall into the category of late developer but Giles White, the Hampshire cricket manager, believes it’s that time in the domestic game that has allowed him to develop his skills.”His confidence has soared in the last few years, partly through experience and also becoming more senior within the team and getting more responsibility,” White told Cricinfo. “He understands his role at the top of the order and has a gift that others don’t, in that he hits the ball so hard and cleanly.”It’s a talent that comes naturally to him, he’s a natural striker of a cricket ball. Twenty20 suits his style of play; he can hit the bad ball but also find the gaps. He has worked very hard in one-day cricket over the last couple of the years and this call-up is reward for that effort. I think the selectors have got it right with this decision.”Lumb isn’t actually the first to have benefited from that warm-up game in Abu Dhabi. Craig Kieswetter, Lumb’s opening partner, hit 81 and was immediately promoted to the full squad for Bangladesh where he responded with two hundreds – 143 in the practice match and 107 in the final one-dayer at Chittagong.Now there is a chance the pair will join forces again for England’s opening World Twenty20 match against West Indies, at Providence, on May 3 – although Ravi Bopara could also open – and, either way, it will be the team’s 16th opening combination in 26 Twenty20 internationals. White, who has allowed Lumb to develop his game at the top of the order, knows it is vital that players are given a chance to settle into a role.”It’s very important guys are given a run, continuity is the key in any form of the game,” he said. “It’s hard at times with form and injury, but if a person is allowed to settle into a role they are generally more successful. The most successful sides in history have shown that and it gives the player confidence to know he’ll be there for a while.”It has been a pleasing winter for White, who has seen two of his chargers progress into the England set-up with Michael Carberry having earned his Test debut in Bangladesh. “My role as a coach is a dual one to produce England cricketers and to win trophies with Hampshire,” he said. “As a club we are very proud when we have players at the highest level. It’s credit to the support staff we have, but it’s also down to the efforts that the players themselves put in.”

Steve Elworthy, the ECB’s head of communication and marketing, has outlined the lengths that English cricket has gone to in order to ensure that its competitions are not tainted by scandal and corruption

Liam Brickhill at Hove01-Jun-2010As England’s domestic Twenty20 tournament bursts into life with the first round of matches already underway, Steve Elworthy, the ECB’s head of communication and marketing, has outlined the lengths to which English cricket has gone in order to ensure that its competitions are not tainted by scandal and corruption, as the spectre of ‘spot-fixing’ hangs over the county game.”We’ve specifically asked the ACSU [The ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit] to enhance their monitoring of the tournament, so we’re working with them closely,” Elworthy told reporters shortly before the first game of the Friends Provident t20 tournament, between Sussex, the reigning champions, and Somerset, last year’s runners-up, at Hove .”The Professional Cricketers Association are also working with the ACSU in terms of the education of the players,” he added. “I’ve seen all the text, all the content that’s been sent to them in terms of their education and how they can report, where they report anonymously and the number of different areas and ways they can do it.”The ICC has gone to great lengths to clean up international cricket after the extent of potential corruption became clear in the wake of the Hansie Cronje scandal in 2000, but as the outgoing chief of the ACSU, Lord Condon, reiterated at Lord’s last week, there is still no room for complacency despite all the effort that has been put in.The ease of access to matches for bookmakers, through satellite TV and the internet, means cricket is still vulnerable, and especially so in domestic tournaments that do not attract the same amount of attention as international fixtures, and tend to have more meaningless matches that increase the potential for temptation.”Obviously, we need to eradicate it [match-fixing] out of the sport so we’re working pro-actively with the ACSU, so that if any approaches are made it’s something that’s reported and dealt with correctly,” Elworthy stressed. “It’s something that’s very closely monitored, specifically from my point of view, but also from a PCA education of the players’ point of view, they work with them very closely.”The Friends Provident t20 is extensively covered by Sky Sports, and any county game that is shown on television in the UK is also available in India and Pakistan through a reciprocal agreement.
That opens the way for the illegal market of betting, which is still believed to be rife on the subcontinent despite extensive attempts to clean up the game, but Elworthy believes that better policing of the problem of illegal betting, rather than tampering with television rights, is the way forward.”As far as not televising the matches in India and places like that, I don’t think you can do that. It’s a vital market in terms of television revenue, so I would hate to see that. It’s just the policing of it [that’s important].”The players are given people to phone about any approaches, so that mechanism is in place and they can do that anonymously. It’s the way to do it and it’s the only way that we can try and stamp this out.”But the problem remains a serious one. Shakib Al Hasan, Bangladesh’s captain, recently revealed that he was approached by a man whom he believed wanted him to manipulate the outcome of an ODI against Ireland in 2008, and Cricinfo understands that two of his team-mates were approached ahead of the same fixture. Meanwhile bookmakers also attempted to make contact with two Australian players during the World Twenty20 in England last June.That the rot may well have spread to domestic cricket is evidenced by the fact that two Essex players are currently under investigation for spot fixing, while questions still surround certain games in the now defunct ICL. While Condon stated that he had no reason to believe that IPL3 was tainted in any way, given the heavy involvement of the ACSU, the necessary infrastructure had not been in place for the first two editions of the tournament.As Twenty20 cricket continues to expand through competitions such the ECB’s latest version, it is vital that measures are in place to preserve their integrity and Elworthy believes the groundwork is being done to ensure that this is the case.”What we’ve tried to do is put the building blocks in place of a tournament that has integrity,” he said. “We’ve got a couple of years to build this tournament up into something, and from our point of view we’ve got those building blocks in place.”