Test cricket is losing popularity: MCC study

A study conducted by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the custodian of the game, has raised fresh doubts on the future of Test cricket.
The study revealed that only seven per cent of followers in cricket-crazy India nominate Tests as their preferred form of the game.
The poll commissioned by Lord's-based MCC covered fans in three countries where Test crowds have declined - India, South Africa and New Zealand.
On the basis of the results, MCC's World Cricket Committee have requested the administrators to give the longest form of the game the "loving care and attention" it deserves.
"It's not as if the game is falling apart, but it has been scooped by Twenty20 and I think we would be foolish if we didn't think it was universal," former England captain Tony Lewis, who chairs the committee, was quoted as saying by The Age.
MCC is trying to push its cause for Tests to be staged at night and the global Test championship.
The key findings were presented to the International Cricket Council (ICC) earlier this month in Dubai and both groups reaffirmed their commitment to preserving all three forms.
Source:- http://cricketnext.in.com

ICC and Indian officials to meet WADA over dope tests

Top officials from the ICC and the Indian board are to meet later this month with David Howman, director-general of WADA, the world anti-doping agency, to discuss a "workable solution" to the impasse over cricket's anti-doping policy. The meeting will come three months after the Indian board publicly rejected the contentious whereabouts clause in the ICC's policy and stalled its implementation.
Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, confirmed to Cricinfo that such a meeting was on the cards and described discussions on the issue as "work in progress". Lorgat did not reveal any details but Cricinfo has learnt that a possible resolution will involve two options, both of which were first proposed by Cricket Australia (CA) soon after BCCI rejected the ICC's whereabouts procedure in August.
The first option has WADA, the ICC and BCCI exploring whether India's concerns about out-of-competition testing -- over the privacy, freedom and security of its players in the testing pool -- can be addressed effectively within the existing policy. Basically, given the packed international schedules, India's cricketers are expected to be on the road for most of the year, and the objective would be to convince the BCCI that any out-of competition testing will, for all practical purposes, take place only at official training sessions.
Apparently, the feeling within the ICC and among some of its 10 full members is that the BCCI was initially unaware that the WADA guidelines could be interpreted in a practical manner. But a senior BCCI official said that though the Indian board would approach the proposed meeting in November with an open mind, it prefers the second option, which is based on the model adopted by FIFA, football's governing body.
This option involves further negotiations with WADA and requires the ICC to go back to the table, possibly constitute a working group, and return with a whereabouts procedure similar to FIFA's. The football model, which has not been challenged by WADA, has three testing pools and only those in the first pool -- high-risk players (read: doping suspects) , those penalized before for doping offences and those coming back from injury -- need to comply with the daily individual whereabouts procedure that has been objected to by the BCCI. FIFA has two other testing pools where, instead of individual players providing whereabouts information, "elite teams" will provide the required information and, that too, only on team activity days -- match venues, official training sessions, official functions and the like.
Source:- http://www.cricinfo.com

Ponting proud of understrength Aussies

Australian captain Ricky Ponting says winning the recent one-day series in India was a very proud moment in his career.

Despite missing several of its leading players through injury, Australia clinched the series 4-2.

Ponting says it rates as one of his side's biggest achievements.

"I put this up there with World Cup wins and Champions Trophy wins, considering the adversity we faced early in the tour," he said.

"I think even through the year we've used about 34 or 35 players in our one-day team and that's three teams as we know, so we've had a fair bit of turnaround.

"To reinforce our standing as the number one team in the world in one-day cricket is a great achievement by a relatively young bunch of players."

Ponting says his players need to recharge ahead of another busy summer.

"It's getting increasingly difficult, there's no doubt about that," he said.

"Especially when you consider some of the guys that are arriving home have been on the road for six months non-stop and played a lot of cricket.

"So it's something that we're going to have to continue to address and continue to look at."

Ponting arrived in Melbourne overnight and will today watch Tiger Woods contest day two of the Australian Masters at Huntingdale

Source:- http://www.abc.net.au.

Be prepared for a bleak summer

AUSTRALIAN cricket is facing its most deflating summer for decades. Following hard upon the feckless nomination of Chris Gayle as leader of the West Indies, the news that Younus Khan had stepped down as Pakistan captain is a hammer blow.

Pakistan and the West Indies are the summer's main attractions but both will arrive as fractured outfits. Whether the Younus decision or Gayle's reappointment is the bigger calamity is a matter of opinion. It's a close-run thing. All the evidence suggests that it's going to be a long summer and a hard sell.

Nowadays, the West Indies and Pakistan seem to spend an inordinate amount of time backstabbing and striking. And so cricket stumbles from crisis to crisis. The miracle is not that cricket frays at the edges but that it does not disintegrate. All the more reason to recognise the importance of strong and statesmanlike captains. Other sports can talk about coaches and managers. In cricket, the captain sets the tone. Put a turkey in charge and before long all and sundry will be squawking. Put a lion at the helm and soon the pride will be playing with pride. Younus was an impressive leader.

Honourable and intelligent, he tried to hold together a team unable to play matches at home and undermined to no small degree by defections to the Indian Cricket League and by rampant egos. Through it all, his reputation has remained intact. Despite the handicaps, the team continued to play its inimitable version of the game. Along the way, Shoaib Akhtar was dumped and Shahid Afridi turned into a frontline bowler.

And then the gripes began as older hands sought a leader more to their taste. All too soon Younus faced all sorts of allegations. There were suggestions Pakistan threw away the Champions League match against Australia because defeat meant eliminating India. Younus dropped a sitter and stuttered at the crease. Cricketers are not machines. His form has been poor. Not for the first time Pakistan's batting lacked logic. It was an oddly subdued performance. But Younus' team fought to the last and was only denied by tailenders. No one else came remotely as close to beating the Australians.

Source:- http://www.theage.com

Celebrating Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar has been playing top class cricket for 20 years and he’s still playing blistering innings, still looking hungry, still demolishing attacks, still a prized wicket, still a proud competitor. He has not merely been around for two decades. From his first outing to one of his most recent efforts, a stunning 175 against Australia in the Hyderabad ODI, he has been a great batsman.

Longevity counts amongst his strengths. Twenty years! It’s a heck of a long time and it’s gone in the blink of an eye.

When Tendulkar first took guard in his country’s colours, Nelson Mandela was behind bars, Allan Border was captaining Australia, and India was a patronised country. In those days Tendulkar was a tousle-haired cherub prepared to stand his ground against all comers, including Wasim Akram and Merv Hughes, the most menacing of the Australians.

Now he is a tousle-haired elder still standing firm, still driving and cutting, still retaining some of the impudence of youth but nowadays bearing also the sagacity of age.

It has been an incredible journey, a trip that figures alone cannot define.

Not that the statistics lack weight. To the contrary they are astonishing, almost mind boggling. Tendulkar has scored an avalanche of runs, thousands upon thousands of them in every form of the game. He has reached three figures 87 times in the colours of his country and all the while has somehow retained his freshness, somehow avoided the mechanical, the repetitive and the predictable. Perhaps that has been part of it, the ability to retain the precious gift of youth. Alongside Shane Warne, the Indian master has been the most satisfying cricketer of his generation.

Source:- http://www.sportstaronnet.com

Younus under pressure

Pakistan, who have not won a one-day series since beating the West Indies here last year, achieved a thumping 138-run win in the first match on Tuesday before New Zealand hit back with a 64-run win in the second on Friday.

Moreover, Younis is having a lean patch with the bat, scoring nought and 19 in the two matches - but coach Intikhab Alam backed his captain to come good when it matters.

"It can happen to any player," said Alam of Younus's wretched form which saw him scoring only two half-centuries in the last 18 matches. "I am sure that he can come good anytime, maybe in this crucial, must-win game."

Source:-http://www.timeslive.co.za

Sachin Tendulkar's brilliant century in vain as Australia pip India

A remarkable innings of 175 in 140 balls by Sachin Tendulkar proved in vain as Australia took a 3-2 lead in the series with a thrilling three-run win over India in the fifth one-day international in Hyderabad.

Chasing 351 for victory, the home team were bowled out for 347 with two balls left after the brilliant Tendulkar went past 17,000 ODI runs.

He and Suresh Raina (59) put on 137 for the fifth wicket but the debutant Clint McKay struck the all-important blow for Australia when he had Tendulkar caught by Nathan Hauritz.

Earlier, a maiden century by Shaun Marsh (112) and 93 from fellow opener Shane Watson helped the visitors compile an imposing total of 350 for four.

http://www.guardian.co.uk

Cricket Australia eyes a less hectic schedule

Cricket Australia's chairman Jack Clarke has conceded that the game could be better served with a less crowded international calendar when the new Future Tours Programme (FTP) is devised. His comments came as a stiff and sore Peter Siddle arrived home in Melbourne for the first time after more than five months on tour.

Siddle has been one of the hardest-working members of Australia's squad this year, having not been at home since April, when he enjoyed a brief spell following the Test series in South Africa. Since then he has been in England for the World Twenty20, the Ashes, and the one-day series, then went straight to South Africa for the Champions Trophy and from there dashed to India to play for Victoria in the Champions League Twenty20 and stayed on for the ODI series.

"It has been a long tour, I guess," Siddle said in the Age after touching down in Melbourne. "The guys have been away for a long time now and we've probably played a bit too much cricket, but we will see how we go and I'm sure the boys will go well in the next three matches and come home with a [series] win.

Source: http://www.cricinfo.com

Mohammad Sami confident of national comeback

Mohammad Sami is confident of staging a comeback to the Pakistan team, following his ICL stint, through his performances for Karachi Blues in the ongoing Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.

"I feel there is still cricket left in me and that is why I am playing on the domestic circuit for Karachi Blues - to win back my place in the team," Sami told APP. "Though I bowled really well in Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, I managed just 13 wickets. I am really working hard to excel and get the attention of selectors."

The 28-year-old fast bowler joined the unofficial league after 33 Test and 83 ODIs for Pakistan. He has taken 81 Tests wickets at an expensive 51.37, including eight on his debut against New Zealand. He also has 118 ODI wickets at 26.49.

"I will shortly be presenting my NOC to PCB," Sami said. "But I am waiting for my third installment of payments from ICL. Representing Pakistan had always been a great honor for me. I am fully focused on producing my best in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy."

Sami praised his new-ball partner Tanvir Ahmed for his outstanding performance in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy so far. Tanvir leads the bowling charts with 39 wickets from four matches at 13.97, and has been key to Karachi's domination at the top of Group B. "Due to his [Tanvir's] excellent bowling we recorded three victories," Sami said.

Source: http://www.cricinfo.com/