No mercy for ICL rebels, asserts PCB

KARACHI: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Nasim Ashraf has ruled out the possibility of giving a general amnesty to players who were banned for participating in the Indian Cricket League (ICL).

“Well it is something that can be discussed by our governing body members and they have the authority to take a decision on this. But I must emphasise that the players knew what they were doing and the consequences of playing in the ICL when they signed their contracts, he said when asked whether the players would be pardoned.

Ashraf said the decision to ban the players was not unilateral and was agreed upon in an ICC meeting.

“I don’t know why this impression is being given that only the PCB has taken this decision. The fact is this was a policy decision discussed by all member boards of the ICC and also agreed upon. So we have done nothing new or unilateral,” he explained.

Pakistani Test discards Imran Farhat, Shabbir Ahmed, Abdul Razzaq, Azhar Mahmood and former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq appeared in the ICL in its inaugural edition last month.

And on returning home they were told by their departments that the board has instructed them not to select them as they had appeared in an unauthorised foreign league.

Ashraf said the players were aware of the problems they could face when they signed up to play in a event which is not recognised by the ICC or any of its member boards.

“We have nothing personal against these players. They can go and play in the ICL and earn good money. But when they were available we tried to talk sense into them and they didn’t listen. The PCB as a governing body of the sport in Pakistan has to follow certain regulations,” he said.

Sania faces points pressure

With her India commitments – Fed Cup and Hopman Cup – on the rise, Sania Mirza has a battle on her hands as she attempts to guard her ranking (world No.31) in order to gain a seeding in the opening Grand Slam of the year.

The 21-year-old begins her campaign in the mixed-team competition in Perth on Saturday and will play Fed Cup in February. It’s unlikely that the Indian will get to play a run of WTA events of her choice until almost March.

The Hopman Cup, where the Hyderabadi will team up with Rohan Bopanna for their clashes against the United States (Meghann Shaughnessy and Mardy Fish) on December 29, versus Australia (Alicia Molik and Peter Luczak) on January 1 and versus the Czech Republic (Lucie Safarova and Tomas Berdych) on January 3, offers no points, only prize money.

After the Hopman Cup, Sania plays the Hobart International, starting January 7.

The Tier IV event, in which she has to defend 50 points – having made the semifinals last year – will be her only ranking tournament before the Australian Open, where the top 32 get seeded.

In the Melbourne event, Sania will play the doubles alongside Shaughnessy.

After the Australian Open, where she made 60 points last year after making the second round, she plays Fed Cup. India are among eight other teams in the Asia-Oceania Group I competition, starting January 28 in Bangkok. The following week, Sania will forgo the elite Tier II Gaz de France and instead play the Tier IV Pattaya event, where she made the semifinals last year, because it’s a mere 147-km drive from Bangkok.

Thereafter, it will be Doha (Tier I), Dubai (Tier II) and Bangalore (Tier II) before Sania hits the American swing of tournaments.

“Playing for your country is a privilege and playing for India in the Hopman Cup is an honour for Sania, When we made the commitment, we knew it would put pressure on her ranking in terms of points but it was important for Sania to represent her country,” her father Imran Mirza, who both coaches and manages his daughter’s schedule, said.

Australia still pack punch, says Ponting

Ricky Ponting remains unsure what attack he will have in the first cricket Test against India but believes Australia still pack their punch post Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath.

Australia won’t name their final XI until Wednesday morning because the captain and selectors wanted extra time to analyse an MCG wicket which has had its preparation hampered by rain the past week.

Ponting said the wicket still looked damp on Tuesday morning, but sunshine in the afternoon and forecast good weather on Wednesday will help it dry for the series opener.

Still, with conditions likely to favour fast bowling in the morning, Australia must decide between using an all-pace attack for the first time in almost 16 years, and picking spinner Brad Hogg and three quicks.

Young speedsters Mitchell Johnson and Shaun Tait will battle for the third spot if Hogg plays.

The decision is an intriguing one given Johnson’s impressive start to Test cricket the variety of his left-arm swing, while Tait’s pace and knack of ripping through opposition sides makes him dangerous.

Good weather is forecast throughout the match, but Ponting expected Wednesday’s early pace-friendly conditions to make the selectors’ decision a tough one.

“You’ve just got to try to get the conditions right with the players you’ve got available,” he said.

“If it looks like it’s going to be pretty damp in the morning then we’ve got a tough decision to make.”

It could also make for a tough call for Ponting should he win the toss, as he famously came in for heavily criticism in England in 2005, when he inserted Michael Vaughan’s side at Edgbaston.

England won that Test and later regained the Ashes.

Regardless of which attack Australia get as they seek a 15th successive victory, Ponting was confident it would be more dangerous and boast more variety than the outfits which struggled to bowl India out four years ago, when McGrath was injured and Warne was suspended.

Ponting said spearhead Brett Lee was in career-best form, after a man of the series performance against Sri Lanka last month, Stuart Clark’s record (54 wickets from 11 matches) was among the best in the world and Johnson had been impressive.

“I’m very confident in the attack that we’ve got, that it’s going to be good enough to take 20 wickets in every Test we play this summer, so I couldn’t ask for anything more,” Ponting said.

Ponting said even with McGrath and Warne and their combined 1271 wickets retired, Australia had the bowlers to land big blows on India’s star batsmen.

“(Lee) is a wicket-taking bowler and for different reasons to Shane was,” he said.

“That’s what Tait is as well.

“If Tait happens to play in this game he’s exactly like that, he’s a guy who can break a game open in a couple of overs.

“So the wicket-taking options we lost with McGrath and Warne, we’ve just gained other guys in different roles to do that for us.”

Ponting said it was important Australia learned from prior mistakes to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, and not bowl too short and over-attack India’s bats.

Only a handful of Australians took part in Tuesday’s training session before Christmas lunch, but all Indian players trained to make up for their limited preparation.

The Melbourne Cricket Club expects a first-day crowd of 75,000.

Australia: Ricky Ponting (capt), Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Phil Jaques, Michael Clarke, Mike Hussey, Andrew Symonds, Brad Hogg, Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Tait (12th man to be named).

India (from): Anil Kumble (capt), Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Karthik, Zaheer Khan, VVS Laxman, Irfan Pathan, Virender Sehwag, Ishant Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Pankaj Singh, RP Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar.

Give us a break, Tendulkar tells cricket bosses

MELBOURNE, Australia: India batsman Sachin Tendulkar called Saturday for cricket administrators to cut international fixtures and prevent players burning out.

Tendulkar, who is making his final tour to Australia with India, said the workload of international players was too demanding and administrators need to schedule longer breaks in the season.

“We can have more cricket, but it’s equally important to have a little more gap in between the tours,” Tendulkar said.

“So you kind of get some time to unwind yourself and spend some time with family, assess what happened the last test series and work on certain things and then come to Australia very well (prepared).

“But that is how the calendar has become and we can’t do much about it. We just have to get on with it.”

Tendulkar, 34, has played 142 tests and 407 one-day internationals in 16 countries during his 18-year international career, said the toll on players’ was overwhelming.

“We started our season in May and it’s been quite some time,” he said.

Tendulkar is confident India can beat Australia in their four test series starting on Boxing Day despite the hosts’ imposing home record.

Australia has not lost a home series since 1992-93, although India did draw its last test series in Australia four years ago.

“It would be the most important tour if we can pull it off,” he said.

“Beating Australia is obviously the ultimate thing because the way they have played for so many years makes it a special tour.

“Having come here four times, it would be a wonderful occasion.

“As far as I am concerned we are ready and we would like to go out there and put on a good show.”

India will go into the first test at Melbourne on Wednesday with a severely limited preparation after their three-day match against Victoria state was disrupted by rain. Only 48 overs were bowled over three days.

Keep spinners out of T20, say Australian players

Melbourne: The Australian Cricketers Association has found out from a survey of player attitudes towards Twenty20 cricket that if quality spinners have to be preserved then they should not be thrown into the shortest and the trendiest form of the game, the Australian media reports.

A report in The Age says while the super-abbreviated format has gained credibility even among traditionalists, there is a strong view among Australian players that it threatens to destroy budding spin bowlers.

Harbhajan might have to sit out: Dhoni

Among players contracted to Cricket Australia, 64 per cent said Twenty20 diminishes spin bowling skills. “Anecdotally players believe T20 encourages negative bowling and as such is counter-productive to the development of spinners,” the study found.

That argument was wholeheartedly endorsed last night by spin bowling mentor Terry Jenner, the day after chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said he was disappointed in the development of young South Australian pair Dan Cullen and Cullen Bailey, who are contracted to Cricket Australia but have been unable to nail their spots with the state side let alone press for national selection.

Jenner refused to discuss Hilditch’s remarks, but the man who coached Shane Warne throughout his exceptional career has consistently argued that young spinners take time to mature to the point where they can defend themselves in the first-class arena, and that limited-overs cricket is their enemy.

“There is no place for a developing spin bowler in Twenty20 cricket,” Jenner said. “In my view, you might as well bowl Michael Clarke and all those (part-time) guys in those forms of the game because the outcomes are pretty much the same.’’

“I watched (Indian off-spinner) Harbhajan Singh in the Twenty20 final and I reckon he bowled 90km/h plus from wide of the crease. He was effective, but picture a developing spinner trying to do that and he would be lessening his capacity to improve.”

Jenner believes Twenty20 in England, where it was first played at domestic level, has inhibited the development of spin bowlers in that country. “If we are looking for Test cricketers we are not going to find them in Twenty20 and, dare I say this, we’re not going to find them in 50-over cricket either,” he said.

Yeareneder 2007

“Someone who spins the ball should not be encouraged to take away his spin to try and bowl four overs and go for less than 50. They may as well roll out a bowling machine.”

In general, state and national players believe Twenty20 enhances skill development, with spin bowling the exception. Interestingly, state-contracted players were less inclined to think that Twenty20 was damaging for young tweakers.

Australia’s premier one-day spinner, Brad Hogg, has not played a Twenty20 international since last summer, while other teams have persevered with spinners.

New Zealand skipper and left-arm finger spinner Daniel Vettori, for instance, thinks there is a place for spin bowling in the shortest form of the game. In fact, he believes they will flourish. “If you look at the (Twenty20) World Cup, spinners were some of the most successful bowlers. And every time I have watched a game or played in a game spinners held quite a bit of control not only over wicket-taking but over run-rate,” Vettori said.

“I think they are going to be a more and more important part of it. We’re playing two, we even played two at the WACA (Ground). We realise how important it (spin) is and I think other teams are seeing it around the world as well.”

50-overs game gone: Warne

SHANE WARNE believes the days of 50-over cricket are numbered as the Twenty20 game alters the way the sport is played and watched over the world.

The former Australia bowling star, who retired from international cricket at the start of the year, wants one-day internationals shortened to 40 overs per side _ a form of cricket that has proven successful at domestic level in England.

Warne’s views come at a time when public interest in 50-over cricket seems to be waning.

This year’s World Cup in the Caribbean was poorly attended, while crowd numbers for the Chappell-Hadlee series _ held in Adelaide, Sydney and Hobart and won on Thursday by Australia _ were down.

“Twenty20 is how minor nations, the likes of Canada and Holland, can improve and promote the game,” Warne said.

“One thing I believe is that 50-overs is gone. I believe Twenty20 should be one form of the game, keep that to a minimum and keep it special because it is so entertaining.

“Just as long as administrators don’t get greedy. But I believe 50-overs competition should now be 40 overs, so we have a 40-over competition, Twenty20 and Test cricket.

“Experiencing Pro40 in England, it’s like two Twenty20 games. The way society is, everybody wants everything fast. Pro40, there is still skill involved.

“Is it cricket? Is it entertainment? It ticks all the boxes. It also saves you about an hour and a half of the game.

“You can start Pro40 at 4pm and be finished at 10pm. That’s good. You can have a day game as well, starting at 10am and finish at 4pm, and have two games a day.”

Although Warne fears for the future of 50-over cricket, he believes Test cricket is in good health and should not be tinkered with.

“Everything is very good, don’t change it, don’t touch it. Test cricket is for tradition,” said Warne, who claimed 708 Test wickets to be second on the all-time list behind Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralidaran.