NKP Salve, who had been the president of the BCCI when India won the World Cup in 1983, has died aged 91 in New Delhi

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Apr-2012NKP Salve, who had been the president of the BCCI when India won the World Cup in 1983, has died aged 91 in New Delhi. He is credited with helping India and Pakistan win rights to hosting the 1987 World Cup.The Indian board hailed Salve’s services to Indian cricket. “His contribution to Indian cricket, as President of the BCCI, can never be forgotten,” N Srinivasan, the current BCCI president, said. “It was during his tenure that we won the World Cup for the first time, in 1983. It was also due to his initiative that the World Cup was co-hosted by India and Pakistan, in 1987. Thus, he was responsible for the World Cup becoming the ‘global’ event that it is today.”Srinivasan extended his condolences to Salve’s family and said Indian cricket “has lost one of its pillars.” In recognition of Salve’s contribution to Indian cricket, the Challenger Trophy was named after him.Kapil Dev, the captain of India’s 1983 World Cup winning team, also expressed sadness over the death of Salve. Kapil said Salve was like a father figure to the World Cup winning team. “He enjoyed an excellent relationship with the players and also ensured that there was a sense of camaraderie within the team at all times,” he told the . “Back in those days, the BCCI didn’t have lots of money. But that didn’t stop Salve from inquiring with us if we needed anything to become better players.”After India won the title, Salve announced a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh for each member of the team. Singer Lata Mangeshkar, who shared a close bond with Salve, was requested to sing in a concert to raise money for the cash awards. “He made a special request to me to do a special programme for the victorious 1983 World Cup team and I could not say no to him. I could not resist his request and many members of the Indian team were on dais for the specially-composed song for the team,” Mangeshkar was quoted as saying in .”Thanks to Salve’s enterprise, Rs 17-18 lakh were raised from the concert for the cash awards” BCCI chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty told the same newspaper. “Salve’s passion for the game was unbelievable and he took great interest in the players’ welfare,” Mohinder Amarnath, former India allrounder, told the .Salve was also a senior political leader of the Congress party, and had been a former union minister. He is survived by his son Harish Salve who is a prominent lawyer, and daughter Arundhati.

Tino Best, the Barbados fast bowler, has been called up to the West Indies

ESPNcricinfo staff22-May-2012Tino Best, the Barbados fast bowler, has been recalled to the West Indies squad in England after Shannon Gabriel, who made his Test debut at Lord’s, was ruled out of the remainder of the tour with a stress reaction in his back. Best is due to arrive in England on Wednesday.Gabriel only bowled five overs in England’s chase, during which he removed Kevin Pietersen, and subsequent investigation showed he would not be available for the second Test at Trent Bridge which starts on May 25. The management have decided to send him back to the Caribbean to recover. Kemar Roach (ankle) also struggled towards the end of the first Test while Ravi Rampaul missed the match with a neck problem.”Shannon made the complaint late in the first Test against England and scans conducted following the match showed a stress reaction in the lower spine,” CJ Clark, the West Indies physiotherapist, said.”He was subsequently ruled out of the second Test and, after further consultation, we feel that to prevent this injury developing any further, it is in Shannon’s best interest for him to return to Trinidad & Tobago for rest and rehabilitation to ensure he is fully fit when selected for West Indies in the future.”Best, 30, played the last of his 14 Tests in 2009 against Bangladesh in Grenada when West Indies were hit with a mass player walkout. However, he was recently named in the one-day squad for the series against Australia although, he did not make the XI for any of the five matches.He has taken 28 Test wickets at 48.67 with a best of 4 for 46, although his record against England is better with 13 wickets at 32.37 from five matches. One of those games came in 2004 at Lord’s which is where the well-known sledge “Mind the windows, Tino” came from Andrew Flintoff when Best was trying to slog Ashley Giles in the stands towards the end of the match.Best has forced his way back into contention with consistent performances in the regional four-day competition in the Caribbean where he picked up 17 wickets at 20.64 during the 2011-12 season.

The 100th Tunbridge Wells festival week suffered more frustration when Kent’s CB40 Group C match against Northamptonshire was abandoned as a no result with only 33 overs of play possible because of rain.

10-Jun-2012ScorecardThe 100th Tunbridge Wells festival week suffered more frustration when Kent’s CB40 Group C match against Northamptonshire was abandoned as a no result with only 33 overs of play possible because of rain.Kent, who were chasing an adjusted D/L target of 203 from 32 overs, in reply to Northamptonshire’s total of 168 for 5 from 32 overs, managed only one over when the bad weather intervened for the second and final time.The one point keeps Kent in contention in the top half of the group, but for Northamptonshire, who were bottom with three defeats from their opening three games, it was not ideal.After the first four days of the festival week, featuring Kent’s division two Championship match with Hampshire, had also been ravaged by rain, it brought more gloom for the financially-troubled county.The festival is now dependent upon Tuesday evening’s Friends Life t20 opener between Kent and Sussex to lift spirits and provide Kent with the chance to redress lost gate receipts projected as it stands to cost them around £50,000 for the week.In the play that was possible, Northamptonshire recovered from 35 for 3. David Willey skied a catch to keeper Geraint Jones in the third over, Kyle Coetzer got a leading edge off Matt Coles, and James Middlebrook edged an attempted back-foot slash at Darren Stevens to slip.But Alex Wakely, captaining Northamptonshire in the absence of Andrew Hall, then added 74 in 17 overs for the fourth wicket with Niall O’Brien to lead his side’s recovery. Wakely hit three sixes in his 42 from 47 balls, before off-spinner James Tredwell trapped him lbw with one that seemed to skid on. O’Brien, who made a determined 46 from 71 balls, was caught at the wicket off Coles from the first ball after the first rain break. Northants struck 31 from the last three overs but it meant nothing.

Mark Ramprakash has announced his retirement after a 26-year career after being told that he was not part of Surrey’s selection plans for the rest of the season.

Alex Winter05-Jul-2012Mark Ramprakash has announced his retirement after being told that he was not part of Surrey’s selection plans for the rest of the season. He brought an end to his 25-year career but insisted he is still more than capable of playing county cricket.”I want to go out there now and play,” Ramprakash said. “I still feel I can play at this level without doubt, that’s what I’ve trained for. Even though I was left out of the side, I’ve been committed to playing at this level.”Ramprakash, 42, made only 107 runs in five County Championship matches this season, including only the third pair of his career, before being dropped.”I had a tough start to this season but I continued to try and remain fit and wanted to play. However, last week I was informed I was not in Surrey’s selection plans, therefore I decided it was time to step aside.”So much has happened to the club this season I really wanted to try and contribute,” Ramprakash said, reflecting on the tragic death of Tom Maynard and the subsequent indefinite compassionate leave granted to captain Rory Hamilton-Brown that has created a difficult environment at The Oval.But even amid such emotional turmoil, Surrey found no place for Ramprakash, whose retirement means they have also discarded the services of the most experienced player in county cricket.”It’s been a very difficult decision to make,” Ramprakash said. “I asked lots of professional players about when they knew the time was right. This year I wanted to come in and finish my career strongly and September would likely be the time that I’d look to pastures new. But not being in Surrey’s plans that sort of moved things forward and the last thing you want to do is go on too long. I feel the time is right now.”I would like to express how lucky I feel to have had a long and enjoyable career in a game that I love passionately. It’s been an honour and a privilege to represent Middlesex, Surrey and England.”Ramprakash maintains the belief that he can still perform at county level but ruled out, for the time being, a move to another county. “That’s not in my mind at the moment,” he said. “I thought long and hard over the weekend. In my mind I’m looking to push on. I had to ask myself whether I had the energy and desire to go to a new club. Next year I’ll be 43, is it just delaying the inevitable?”Outside a match in the Middlesex League on Saturday for Stanmore and appearances for the Professional Cricketers Association Masters XI his playing future is unsure.Ramprakash said he wanted to be remembered as a player who gave everything for his side and shrugged off suggestions of regret at his international career. “You do the best you can at that time and I know I couldn’t have trained any harder. I tried to listen to the right people and I did the best I could at that time. And if you know that you don’t look back with any regrets.”He named his 133 against Australia at The Oval in 2001 as his best innings and praised the changes during the later stages of his career that have meant the England team of the current era is better prepared for success.”The England structure has developed so much. From when Duncan Fletcher took over there’s been much more made of trying to create a team feel. When you speak to players backs in the 1990s we had our county helmets on, we used to play for the county, play a Test match and then go back to the county.”You can see the results. There is such togetherness and a team feel to England now, debutants feel well looked after and it’s a great credit to the management and backroom staff that they integrate players in a smooth way.”As for the future, Ramprakash says he enjoys watching and talking about cricket and is keen to keep up his media work; he impressed as an analyst during ITV’s coverage of this season’s IPL. But he is also a Level 4-qualified ECB coach. “I’ve been involved in the game a long time and seen lots of good players. Coaching does interest me. I enjoy working with young players and accelerating their learning.”But for now Ramprakash leaves the game with his greatest achievement having scored a hundred first-class centuries. “I don’t think I’ll be the last one,” he said.

Stuart Barnes, the Bangladesh A coach, said that his side’s dismal performance at the Shafi Darashah tournament was down to the lack of first-class exposure

Mohammad Isam12-Aug-2012Stuart Barnes, the Bangladesh A coach, has said that his side’s dismal performance at the Shafi Darashah tournament was down to the lack of first-class exposure. Barnes, however, avoided commenting on the drama that surrounded the captain Shahriar Nafees being sent back home due to misconduct before the third group game in Bangalore.The second-string Bangladesh side started off the four-day competition on a positive note when they drew the opening game against Baroda Cricket Association XI but lost the other two group games – against KSCA Colts by five wickets and KSCA XI by 155 runs – to be eliminated from the group stage.Barnes had ten international cricketers at his disposal, which included seven who have played Tests for Bangladesh. But the players showed their lack of first-class match experience, failing to grind it out over a period of four days.”What I saw in India reflected the number of one-day matches compared to four-day matches that the players play here [in Bangladesh],” Barnes told ESPNcricinfo. “The batsmen need patience, discipline, and be mentally tough enough to be within their batting plan because their job is to bat all day. But in order to get to that point where they need to know how to bat all day, they need to practice it in matches domestically.””I was impressed with one or two aspects because it was clear to me that some were trying to do things differently. But the probability said that, because of the number of one-day matches that they play here, they weren’t just going to be able to switch to the different skill-set needed for four-day cricket. It was disappointing not to win any games but that was a fair reflection that they don’t know how to play the longer game yet.”One of the weaknesses that Bangladesh batsmen showed consistently during the tour, according to Barnes, was against offspin bowling. Bangladesh lost half of their wickets to offspinners. “We lost in different wickets, for different reasons. We lost 49% of our total wickets to off-spin, which surprised me initially but when you look at it closely, there aren’t many off-spinners in Bangladesh. The only difference in the wicket was the offspinner managing to get more bounce. We lost for skill reasons more than anything else,” he said.Doubts were raised about the atmosphere in the dressing room after the captain, Nafees, was sent back in the middle of the tour. Barnes, who was involved in the decision-making, did not comment on the issue. During the second game, Nafees had expressed his anger towards the Umpires after his dismissal, later to be warned by the match referee.”It’s important to have an environment that encourages players to learn, and not just about skills but about playing in different parts of the world. That incident was unfortunate but I won’t speak about it until I talk to my board directors here,” Barnes said.According to newspaper reports, some players also showed dissent towards the trainer during the A team’s camp in Khulna before they headed to India, but the team management didn’t inform the BCB nor take any disciplinary actions. “I had quite a big squad to work with in Khulna. My job as coach is to challenge players, observe how they react to being challenged. I’ve mentioned before that I’m very keen on fitness to improve but that doesn’t happen in a one-day series. I experienced different reactions of players to all my challenges. I am thick-skinned and it was just interesting to see how they react. I didn’t take anything personally. I’m looking for players who think on their feet quickly,” he said.The 42-year-old Englishman was impressed with Mominul Haque, Naeem Islam, Shahadat Hossain and Enamul Haque Jr for trying to take a different approach while batting. He told the batsmen that with their high strike-rates in first-class cricket, all they need to do is bat a little bit longer to increase their batting averages.”I honestly believe every player wants success. But the question is what the success looks like to them individually. Is it to improve their batting average over the next two years, by five runs. What I stressed to all the batters, their strike-rates suggest that if they bat another 20 balls per innings, their average would go up very easily. I believe players are motivated by different reasons,” he said.Bangladesh A’s next assignment is against the West Indies High Performance team in September. They will play a four-day game, three one-day matches and two Twenty20 games.

Tamil Nadu opener Abhinav Mukund has been selected to captain the 16-member India A squad for their tour of New Zealand in September and October

Sidharth Monga10-Aug-2012Tamil Nadu opener Abhinav Mukund, who averaged 7.66 on India A’s tour of the West Indies, has been selected to captain the 16-member India A squad for their tour of New Zealand in September and October. Robin Bist, who got one innings on that West Indies tour, Parvinder Awana, who got one match, and Wriddhiman Saha, easily the second-best choice as wicketkeeper in the country, all suddenly find themselves out of reckoning.Cheteshwar Pujara, Ashok Dinda, Ajinkya Rahane, Manoj Tiwary and Rohit Sharma have been picked for either Tests or the World Twenty20, and are hence unavailable. Apart from Abhinav, spinners Akshay Darekar, Jalaj Saxena, Rahul Sharma, and quicks Shami Ahmed and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are the only survivors from what was an average West Indies tour.India’s Under-19 captain, Unmukt Chand, who has been impressive with his batting in some crunch situations in U-19 games, was duly rewarded with a place on the tour. Rajasthan’s Ashok Menaria, who scored 462 runs at 77 in last year’s Ranji Trophy, was rewarded with a place in the side, but he will miss team-mate Bist, who was the leading run-getter in the tournament. Naman Ojha, who averaged 61 in Ranji Trophy, replaced Saha as the wicketkeeper. Ambati Rayudu finally finds himself in a representative side after his return from the ICL. Vinay Kumar found himself demoted one level, and will be the leader of this attack. Praveen Kumar continued to be out of favour even for the A tour.Punjab’s Mandeep Singh, Bengal’s Anustup Majumdar and Mumbai’s Suryakumar Yadav took the remaining batting slots. Seamers Rituraj Singh of Rajasthan and Jaydev Unadkat of Saurashtra were left-field picks. Rituraj has played just five first-class games, but averages 18 for his 27 wickets. Unadkat had failed to impress on his Test debut, and got 26 wickets in Ranji Trophy at an average of 27.India A squad: Abhinav Mukund (capt.), Naman Ojha (wk), Mandeep Singh, Anustup Majumdar, Unmukt Chand, Ashok Menaria, Ambati Rayudu, Suryakumar Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Akshay Darekar, Vinay Kumar, Shami Ahmed, Jalaj Saxena, Rahul Sharma, Rituraj Singh and Jaydev Unadkat

It speaks volumes about the state of transition in which the England team finds itself that there is so much uncertainty about the make-up of the Test squad to tour India.

George Dobell12-Sep-2012It speaks volumes about the state of transition in which the England team finds itself that there is so much uncertainty about the make-up of the Test squad to tour India.After several years of continuity of selection and predictability, England find themselves at the start of a partial rebuilding operation. Tellingly, the England selectors put aside two days to pick the side and have delayed the announcement of the tour party until September 18.It is unlikely that Kevin Pietersen will be included. Unlikely, but not impossible. Alastair Cook, England’s new Test captain, is understandably ambitious and knows full well that his side’s hopes of success in India are vastly reduced by omitting Pietersen from his side. For that reason, several meetings have been held with Pietersen over recent days as both sides seek a resolution to a problem that, with a bit of common sense and humility, should never have been allowed to reach this stage.Had Pietersen apologised without caveat, he might have been selected. But as soon as he expressed his lingering resentment over the parody Twitter account, the spectre of more unrest within the dressing room was raised. England will not risk that. If Pietersen is to come back into the England fold, he must do so on the management’s terms, not his.Pietersen’s future is now uncertain. Currently without a central contract, he knows he can, as a free agent, commit to the whole 2013 season of the IPL. But he also knows that by doing so he risks increasing the divide between him and England. If he plays the whole season, he will not be available for all the Tests against New Zealand at the start of next summer. Or, just as importantly, been seen to be fighting to win back his place in county cricket. In the meantime, he should be available for the Champions League Twenty20 and the Big Bash League.He will also be without a county from the end of this month. While Surrey have expressed a desire to retain his services, they will be waiting to see whether he is given another central contract before committing. With Chris Tremlett, who was omitted from the central contract list, already now added to their wage bill, the addition of Pietersen would take Surrey perilously close to the salary cap.There is a possibility – no more than that – that Pietersen will never make it back into the England team. Should Jonny Bairstow or Eoin Morgan, whose award of a central contact virtually assures him a place, seize their chance, or even look as if they are worthy of longer-term investment, there will be no room for Pietersen’s return. The lines of communication remain open and the sense is of a thawing of relationships, but Pietersen has risked ending his international career with this episode. For a man who moved continents to pursue his dream, who worked hard at his game for more than 20 years, who made endless sacrifices and who should, right now, be at his peak, it seems an awful waste.England have a difficult enough job selecting a team to win in India even without the Pietersen issue. Not since 1984-85 have they won a Test series there and to do so with a side in transition and against a foe anxious to avenge the whitewash in England in the summer of 2011, will prove desperately demanding.For a start, none of England’s back-up spin options are ideal. Monty Panesar remains a poor batsman and worse fielder; Samit Patel is not quite strong enough with bat and nowhere near potent enough with ball to be considered an allrounder and James Tredwell, for all his admirable qualities with bat, ball and in the field, has the misfortune to be an offspinner much like Graeme Swann. Doubts about Swann’s elbow might convince the selectors to include Tredwell, but Panesar, for the potency of his bowling and the variation he offers, remains the likely candidate. Patel, with his ability to bat at No. 7, may also win inclusion as he did for Sri Lanka earlier this year.There are no ideal options for the opening batsman position, either. While Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell, among others, could move up the order, such a tactic would be moving a problem rather than solving one. Few of the new options are perfect – Joe Root and Varun Chopra are a little green; Michael Carberry has, perhaps unfairly, a dubious reputation against spin and Nick Compton has scored his mountain of runs this season at No. 3.Chopra might be considered to have an advantage thanks to his reliable slip catching and he scored heavily in Sri Lanka last winter but, on the basis that he has been opening for the Lions, Root is seen as the next in line. He is highly rated by Graham Thorpe, the lead batting coach for the ECB, and is said to have improved markedly against spin over the last 12 months. His offspin should not be relevant – he has claimed only eight first-class wickets in his career – but he has the talent and the time (he is only 21) to develop into the man who opens with Cook in the Ashes.That would mean no place for Compton, Carberry, Chopra or James Taylor. It may well mean no place for Ravi Bopara, too, despite the fact that his bowling would provide a valuable option. But the likelihood that Bell will miss one Test on paternity leave and the need for some back-up for a green opening batsman might persuade the selectors to include a 17th man. If so, the prolific Compton will be hard to overlook. Craig Kieswetter, despite one poor ODI performance recently, may also have moved in front of Steve Davies as reserve wicketkeeper and is an improving batsman against spin, even if his keeping standing up remains a work in progress.More replacements will be available as required from the England Lions squad. The Lions also tour India this winter, though the first two Tests of the main series will probably have been played before their arrival.All that still leaves England with one substantial problem. Their slip catching has been poor over the last six months – it may well have cost them the series against South Africa and, as a consequence their No.1 Test ranking – and it is far from obvious who might be pressed into service in the cordon on this tour.One solution might be to recall Rikki Clarke, who now offers pace and control with the ball, reliability with the bat and the best pair of hands in county cricket, in place of Tim Bresnan who, since his elbow operation, has struggled to recover his nip with the ball. Sadly Clarke, like Pietersen and Panesar, is not seen as quite the sort of fellow that would fit into the increasingly homogenized England dressing room. At some stage, though, if England keep losing, that narrow thinking may be challenged.Possible squad Alastair Cook (capt), Joe Root, Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell, Jonny Bairstow, Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Craig Kieswetter (wkt), Matt Prior (wkt), Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Monty Panesar, Steven Finn, Graham Onions

Sky TV may not send its team of commentators to cover England’s tour of India unless a dispute with the BCCI over access to the Test venues is resolved

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Oct-2012Sky TV may not send its team of commentators to cover England’s tour of India, which begins in November, unless a dispute with the BCCI over access for their commentary team to the Test venues is resolved. Sky hold the UK rights for the series, but the in London reported the broadcaster had received an unexpected demand from the Indian board for additional fees totalling more than £500,000 ($800,000) for their commentary team to have facilities at the grounds.ESPNcricinfo understands the figure being quoted to Sky is the BCCI’s estimate of ‘realistic costs’ related to Sky’s wish to have independent and unilateral coverage of the India-England series. The cost includes, among other things, studio space and a commentary box for Sky’s own panel of commentators, a TV control room, audio and video feed, a scoring monitor, as well as space for satellite uplinking from the venues for 30 days of cricket. Sky’s interpretation is that securing of TV rights should automatically assume such provisions as part of the deal.Sky warned their bank of commentators, including former England captains Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain and Ian Botham, that they regard the BCCI’s demands as brinkmanship, and that they may not travel unless a solution can be found. If the dispute is not settled, Sky would be forced to accept commentary from the host broadcaster, or to set up a studio outside the grounds.Problems for UK broadcasters have been a common feature of England games in India. During a one-day series last year, television audiences in India and England were deprived of the first three overs of a match in Hyderabad because of a dispute between the host broadcaster of the time, Neo Sports, and Prasar Bharati, the government agency responsible for uplinking live telecasts out of India.There was also an issue about Sky TV’s own commentators awaiting what one Sky commentator told ESPNcricinfo were “government clearances”, before being able to broadcast live out of India. As a result, the Sky TV producers made use of the Neo Cricket commentary team, which included Matthew Hoggard and Dermot Reeve.There were also problems for Sky before England’s 2006 tour of India, when they agreed terms with Nimbus, who had just bought the rights to India’s home matches, only a few days before the series began.The Indian board has since terminated its deal with Nimbus because of alleged payment defaults, and announced a more lucrative deal with Star TV.

Kevin Pietersen may have complained that “it isn’t easy being me” in the England dressing room, but sometimes it looks preposterously easy to be him on the pitch.

George Dobell in Ahmedabad08-Nov-2012
ScorecardKevin Pietersen was in familiar, imperious form against a weak Haryana attack•Getty Images

Kevin Pietersen may have complained that “it isn’t easy being me” in the England dressing room, but sometimes it looks preposterously easy to be him on the pitch. Pietersen took another step in his “rehabilitation” by plundering a century of dominance and disdain on the first day of England’s warm-up match against Haryana.In truth, there were never many doubts about Pietersen’s on-field contributions to the England cause. He was dropped, after all, having just scored one of the best centuries of his Test career. The problems were more off the pitch. But this innings, as facile as it was, at least showed that Pietersen is in the form and, perhaps more importantly, the frame of mind, to flourish in the Test series ahead. Only time will tell if the cracks in the dressing room are to reappear.Yet, like preparing to wrestle a tiger by feeding a kitten, the first day of this warm-up match may prove of little value to England ahead of the Test series against India. On a green pitch and against an unusually modest attack, England’s top-order – Pietersen in particular – plundered runs with ease. Suffice it to say, the most uncomfortable moment any England batsman experienced was when Ian Bell’s chair broke as he was waiting to bat.But these runs will have brought hollow pleasure to England. While the team management thought they had ensured adequate preparation in agreeing three warm-up games ahead of the first Test, India had other ideas. By providing England with surfaces quite different to those anticipated in the Test series and with opposition some way below international standard, they are, arguably, denying their opposition any meaningful practice. It is a tactic that bears the hallmark of Duncan Fletcher.While some may bridle at such an approach, it will remain legitimate until the precise details of these warm-up games – the nature of pitches and the quality of opposition – is contractually agreed in advance. At present, while the hospitality and facilities extended to England have been faultless, there is a faint echo of Cambridge United under John Beck, master of gamesmanship, in the Indian approach. It is not meant as a criticism.The Sardar Patel B Ground in Motera is not a classically beautiful venue. Faintly reminiscent of Garon Park in Southend, but with red kites instead of seagulls, it is a venue most unlikely to be painted by Jocelyn Galsworthy. For much of the day, it seemed the circling kites looked as if they wanted to feast on the bowling, too.Still, the day was not completely wasted. Pietersen proved his form and frame of mind, Alastair Cook fell three short of what would have been the softest century of his first-class career and Nick Compton compiled a sound half-century that has cemented his position in the team for the first Test. Bell and Jonathan Trott also enjoyed decent time at the crease. All will, at least, go into the Test series having enjoyed match practise in the heat. It is, after all, surely better to score runs against modest opposition than fail to score them.There was, perhaps, just one warning sign for England. Amit Mishra, the one quality spinner England have faced on the tour to date, only introduced himself into the attack in the 51st over of the innings and struck almost immediately. He beat Nick Compton, prodding forward, with his seventh delivery and, in his sixth over trapped the previously untroubled Trott leg before as he missed a sweep. All rather familiar.Mishra apart, there was little here to worry England. One of the opening bowlers, Sanjay Budhwar, is a left arm seamer who has not played a first-class game for two years, while the other, Amit Karamvir, was playing just his fourth first-class match. Neither are likely to follow in the footsteps of Haryana’s most famous son, Kapil Dev, and go on to represent India. England will not face many bowlers like Chanderpal Saini, a seamer with the physical presence of Janette Krankie, in international cricket, either.Cook, in particular, stood out. Usually content to pick up his runs from nudges and nurdles, here he struck 18 fours, most of them from glorious drives between extra cover and mid-off. It perhaps says more about the bowling than Cook’s form that there were times in this innings when he bore passing resemblance to David Gower. Only a waft off a wide delivery denied him the 40th first-class century of his career.Compton was less eye-catching but admirably sound. Quick to skip down the pitch to the spinners, he defended positively but showed a willingness to attack when appropriate and brought up his half-century from 88 balls with a pleasing lofted drive for six off Jayant Yadav’s off spin. He survived one edge, on 33, but generally looked to have the technique and temperament to prosper in Test cricket. But much sterner tests await.Bell was, perhaps, the one established batsman in the line-up under just a little bit of pressure. While his first scoring shot, an attempted loft over mid-on, was not completely convincing, he soon found form. Twice he danced down the wicket and drove Mishra for straight sixes and, though he struggled to find his most fluent timing, he became the third man of the day to bring up his half-century with a six over mid-off.And then there was Pietersen. Asking him to bat against this attack was like asking Noam Chomsky to recite his two-times table. While he was, in theory, dropped on 42 to a sharp caught and bowled chance, Yadav may consider himself fortunate to still have his hand. Pietersen drove, swept, ramped and cut with ease and power that suggests his form and motivation are strong. He looked bored some time before reaching his century, from 86 balls with 14 fours and three sixes, with his second 50 occupying just 32 balls. He was badly missed on 85 by Sachin Rana on the mid-wicket boundary and retired, rehabilitated and ready for the struggle ahead.

Pakistan’s tour of the West Indies in July 2013 is likely to be split into two parts in order to accommodate the PCB’s plan of hosting India in August

Umar Farooq19-Dec-2012Pakistan’s tour of the West Indies in July 2013 is likely to be split into two parts in order to accommodate the PCB’s plan of hosting India in August for a series that is yet to be confirmed. Pakistan were due to play two Tests, five ODIs and two Twenty20s in the Caribbean in June and July but now they will only play either Tests or limited-overs matches to create a window for India.According to the FTP, West Indies are scheduled to host Pakistan from the last week in June to the last week in July but they also have a tri-series against India and Sri Lanka during that time. To avoid the clash with Pakistan, the WICB had asked the PCB if their Caribbean tour could be rescheduled to August. That, however, would interfere with the PCB’s hopes of hosting India, so Pakistan’s West Indies tour had to be split.ESPNcricinfo understands that after the upcoming limited-over series in India starting on December 25, the PCB is hoping to invite India to play another series in Pakistan.”The limited-over series isn’t [just] what we wanted,” a PCB official said. “We wanted long-term bonding with India on reciprocal basis, and to extend our relationship we will invite India to play a series next year in August. We will find a way to at least keep the window open.”Cricket ties between Pakistan and India were put on ice following the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai and the upcoming series will be the first in four years.Pakistan had also sought a postponement of its scheduled tour of Zimbabwe later this month so that they can tour India. Pakistan were scheduled to tour Zimbabwe before their South Africa visit in 2013, but Zimbabwe Cricket agreed to put it off.