Rivals welcome Hair restoration
Controversial umpire Darrell Hair's return to international cricket has been welcomed by both teams ahead of Friday's second npower Test.
Australian official Hair, 55, is standing in the Old Trafford encounter between England and New Zealand, his first Test match since the historic forfeit involving Pakistan 20 months ago.
"We've had Darrell heaps of times and never had a problem with him," insisted New Zealand coach John Bracewell. "We always felt he was a pretty good umpire, so we haven't got a problem with that."
The removal of the bails alongside fellow official Billy Doctrove at the Brit Oval in August 2006 was expected to be Hair's final act in international cricket.
But, having accused Pakistan of ball-tampering that day, Hair has returned to the top level after retracting his claim of racial discrimination against his employers, the International Cricket Council, and being restored on the governing body's elite panel of umpires.
England left-arm spinner Monty Panesar added: "He's a respected umpire and it's good to see someone like him coming back into international cricket, but it's not much of a talking point for us."
Nevertheless, the spotlight will be on Hair's 77th Test and particularly his decision-making.
But Panesar contended: "You play fair cricket and generally an umpire will give a fair decision.
"Darrell Hair coming into his first Test for a while I don't think will be any issue.
"I've never umpired a game myself so I don't know if he'll be under extra pressure, but he's got so much experience that for him he will just be looking forward to it."
(c) 2008 The Press Association
MCC to decide on composite bats
The MCC is to debate whether some modern cricket bats should be outlawed at a special meeting on Wednesday.
It will form part of a debate on the laws of cricket, of which the club are the guardians.
Law 6, which calls for "equal balance between bat and ball", will be reviewed regarding the composition and materials of modern bats and handles.
The use of carbon fibre and graphite has given bats extra strength, but also made them lighter.
And the MCC must decide whether this constitutes an unfair advantage for batsmen.
Modern bat handles are made with a hollow carbon-fibre shaft, fixed to the blade with a wooden plug, and housed in moulded foam, while traditional bat handles are a mix of cane and rubber, guarded by a linen thread, weighing up to six ounces more.
Modern bats make up the weight in the depth of their blades, increasing the potential force in the middle of the bat.
The special meeting will follow the MCC's annual general meeting, and aims to be more prescriptive of what may and may not be used legally to construct a bat.
The club researched the physics of contemporary cricket bat technology with bat-makers for several years before deciding to meet on a change to law 6.
Currently there is little prescription on bat-making beyond maximum width (4.25in), length (38in), and that the blade should be made entirely of wood.
In 2006, a bat made by Kookaburra and used by Australia captain Ricky Ponting, was deemed illegal because its blade was backed by a graphite strip which the MCC ruled was "likely to cause unacceptable damage to the ball" (Law 6.2).
The ruling was backed by the International Cricket Council and the bat was withdrawn by the manufacturers.
Any proposed change to the law concerning bats must be agreed upon by two-thirds of the 18,000 MCC members for it to take place.
If approval is given, the changes will not take effect until 1 October 2008 when all bats used in the professional game will have to meet the new standards, though any amateur player in possession of an illegal bat would be allowed to continue using it "for the rest of the bat's natural life".
BBC (c) MMVIII
IPL, ICL beneficial for Indian cricket: Kallis
New Delhi: The Indian cricket board in a bid to promote the Indian Premier League (IPL) are using strong-arm tactics against the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL), but South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis feels that all these leagues cropping up will ultimately benefit the game in the country.
Kallis, playing for Bangalore Royal Challengers in the multi-million-dollar IPL sanctioned by the International Cricket Council (ICC), said both the leagues provide a learning base for the domestic players who get a chance to share the dressing room with some of the international stars.
"Both IPL and ICL are beneficial for Indian cricket because it is the domestic players who will get to learn a lot from it. In both the tournaments, they get to share the dressing room with some of the legendry players and I feel that it is a good learning experience," said Kallis during a media interaction at the team's hotel here Thursday, a day after his team lost by 10 runs to Delhi Daredevils.
"Some guys are yet to play international cricket and at a young age they are playing with and against some of the top stars. If it would have been during my time, then I would have been immensely successful," he added.
The 32-year-old all-rounder from Cape Town also said that the shortest version of the game is the ideal format to make cricket a global sport.
"The Twenty20 is the future of the one-day cricket and one-dayers will suffer a bit. And I don't know how long one-dayers will survive.
"If you want to take the sport globally, then Twenty20 is the best format. It takes three hours to get over and that is less than the duration of a baseball match in the US," he said.
Kallis also rubbished claims that Twenty20 is designed for young cricketers and said:"Anybody who can play well can perform in Twenty20. We do a lot of fitness programmes and are as young as the other players."
Pakistan's 30-year-old batsman Misbah-ul-Haq also chipped in and said: "If Twenty20 was designed for the youngsters then I could have never played the Twenty20 World Championship."
(c) Copyright Sify Technologies Ltd, 1998-2008
CRICKET: CK urged to hold elections
Cricket Kenya has been asked to hold elections, which are almost a year overdue.
According to an agreement brokered by the International Cricket Council, which ushered Cricket Kenya in 2005, elections were supposed to have been held either 60 days after the 2007 cricket World Cup or by May 31, 2007.
Sharad Ghai, the former chairman of the defunct Kenya Cricket Association, said Cricket Kenya was in breach of the agreement by failing to hold elections.
"CK should not use the delay in the amendments of the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association's constitution as an excuse for delaying the elections because they would not affect the number of delegates allocated to the province," said Ghai.
The CK chairman, Samir Inamdar, however, insisted that problems in the Nairobi association had led to the delay in holding the elections.
"We agreed to defer the elections last year on the request of NPCA to allow it get its house in order," said Inamdar.
"The CK full council meeting decided not to hold elections until NPCA has had a chance to sort out its own affairs."
Inamdar said election notices had already been sent out, but NPCA had not passed their accounts for three years.
"The NPCA have asked us for time but we are not going to wait them for ever," he said.
Inamdar said his predecessor had asked the NPCA to amend their constitution to be in line with that of CK during the negotiated settlement led by Percy Sonn, who was the then International Cricket Council vice-president.
Number of clubs
The NPCA chairman, Salim Dhanji, is also on record saying the constitution was to be changed. Dhanji has since moved to Australia.
On the issue of the disaffiliation of the Central provincial body, Inamdar said its chairman did not attend a single meeting for two years.
He said Central were supposed to show the number of clubs affiliated to the association because, according to the CK constitution, a provincial body must have more than three clubs.
(c) Nation Media Group all rights reserved 2007
Pietersen defends IPL interest
LONDON (AFP) - Kevin Pietersen has insisted England players' interest in appearing in the Indian Premier League is not a sign of disloyalty but something "anyone in their right mind" would consider seriously.
It has been reported that Pietersen, the most gifted batsman currently in the England side, was offered a seven-figure sum to take part in the inaugural IPL, a domestic Twenty20 tournament in India, which starts on Friday.
But all centrally-contracted England players have been barred from this year's edition because the IPL clashes with both the start of the English domestic and home international seasons.
England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman Giles Clarke has also expressed reservations about centrally contracted players featuring in next year's IPL and running the risk of injury ahead of the 2009 Ashes.
Pietersen, who has previously labelled talk of a ban on the involvement of England players in the IPL as "ridiculous", said Thursday: "I don't see anything wrong with saying we want to go and play and earn that kind of money.
"People who nail us for it are not going to pay for my child's school fees in 15 years' time.
"You have to look after yourself because you are not going to be playing cricket when you are 50 or 60.
"To be offered the kind of money I have been offered, it is ridiculous for someone to abuse you about it. It is like winning the lottery and anybody in their right mind would go for it," added Pietersen.
South Africa-born Pietersen, 27, who averages nearly 50 in his 36 Tests, made it clear he had no intention of sacrificing his England career for the lure of the Rajasthan Royals or the Kolkata Knight Riders.
But he said there were sound cricketing reasons for England players, whose commercial worth has been established by their performances in international cricket, to participate in the IPL.
"The best players in the world will be honing their skills for the next six weeks," Pietersen added.
"It will increase the scores in one-dayers and it will make players make a few more shots in Test too."
English officials have responded to players' IPL concerns by talking to Texan billionaire Allen Stanford, the man behind the West Indies' domestic Twenty20 competition which has proved popular in the Caribbean.
England tour the West Indies next year and there is a possibility of a 10 million pounds (20 million dollars) winner-takes-all Twenty20 match against a local All-Stars side.
"I hope I get selected," Pietersen said. "It is very exciting because money like that hasn't been talked about in cricket before.
"For a one-off fixture, to know you could come home with the best part of a million in your pocket, it's amazing."
An increasingly congested international programme means fewer and fewer top-class overseas players are now able to spend a full season with an English county as was the widespread case in the 1970s and 1980s.
Pietersen said the IPL would make county cricket even less attractive for cricket's top stars.
"The guys are going to get so much money from the IPL," he said.
"Why would a fast bowler want to come and play in England, tour up and down the country for six months, play in everything that he has to, and have the pressure that he is under, to earn 70 grand (thousand pounds), when he could play in India for six weeks and earn 500 grand?
"It just doesn't make sense to me."
(c) 2008 AFP
Scotiabank to sponsor Canadian Cricket
Howzat? Canadian cricket finally has a major sponsor.
Cricket Canada, formerly known as the Canadian Cricket Association, announced a three-year deal Thursday that makes Scotiabank the "premier national sponsor and official bank" of cricket in Canada. The bank will also be the official sponsor of the men's and women's national teams and the Canadian senior and under-19 championships.
"It's big day for us," said Ben Sennik, president of Cricket Canada, calling Scotiabank the sport's first major corporate sponsor in Canada. "It's very important, because it gives us now the muscle to go ahead in a more organized manner."
For a sport that has been living "from hand to mouth," according to Sennik, the agreement offers a chance to establish a developmental framework. Cricket Canada hopes for more good news in the weeks ahead with Sport Canada announcing that cricket will get government support.
Sennik says the Scotiabank support will help develop young cricket talent in schools and at the under-15 and under-19 level.
"The popularity of cricket in the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Guyana and the West Indies has carried over into several of Canada's multicultural communities," Rania Llewellyn, Scotiabank vice-president of multicultural banking, said in a statement. "We look forward to working with Cricket Canada to enhance the sport's appeal across the country at both the professional and community levels."
The International Cricket Council, the sport's world governing body, accounted for much of Cricket Canada's $700,000 budget last year, according to Sennik. The rest came from fundraising and other functions.
The ICC usually pays for travel and hotel for the Canadian team when it plays at tournaments, with Cricket Canada having to looking after the rest.
"With this (sponsorship) coming in, that will also give us a little more help (for the national team)," Sennik said.
One goal would be to put the national team players on some form of contract.
"The national team players are always in a dilemma because neither are they professional nor are they amateurs," Sennik said.
This year, Scotiabank celebrates 10 years as the official bank of West Indies cricket.
Scotiabank isn't the only financial institution to give Canadian cricket a helping hand. RBC recently announced its Wicket Cricket program designed to help schools and communities introduce the sport to physical education programs covering grades two through six.
The 2008 cricket schedule calls for the national championships in May in Toronto. On the international front in Toronto, Canada will host Ireland, Scotland and Bermuda during the summer with the West Indies slated to visit at the end of August for a three-team tournament with Canada and Bermuda.
Canada, one of 33 associate members of the ICC, has a lengthy cricket history. The sport's first ever international match matched Canada and the U.S. back in 1844.
(c) Copyright Toronto Star 1996-2008
Zaheer close to full fitness
AHMEDABAD, April 1: One of the big reasons why India won their first series in England after 21 years was Zaheer Khan. The Indian left arm seamer's 18 wickets in the three match series fetched him the man of the series award and just when it seemed that he would do the same to Australia, he went Down Under with an ankle injury and had to return to India midway through the tour.
He candidly admitted that he wasn't ready for international cricket last month and would not like to rush his comeback. The 29 year old, who will play for the Bangalore Royal Challengers in the Indian Premier League, is itching to get back into the fray. While Twenty20 is a batsman friendly game, it is also the ideal form to test one's fitness as a bowler. One is only required to bowl four overs and a bowler returning to full time cricket can still get a feel of match conditions.
"I will still take 10 to 12 days to reach peak fitness," Zaheer told TOI on Tuesday. "I am bowling for 40 minutes in the nets every alternate day."
When told that he might have got injured at the right time as Test cricket in India was being played on featherbeds which are bowlers' graveyards, the Mumbai seamer laughed and said, "There is never a good time to get injured."
While Zaheer is still not bowling at full pace during his stint every alternate day in the nets, he said, "I am bowling at about 90 per cent of my full pace. Once I am completely confident of my run up and rhythm, then I can operate at full pace. It won't be too long and I should be right for the first match of the IPL on April 18,"he said.
That first match features Rahul Dravid's Bangalore Royal Challengers against Sourav Ganguly's Kolkata Knight Riders in Bangalore. Ganguly, the captain of the Kolkata team, has had a tough time against Zaheer in domestic cricket and might not welcome that news. But Ganguly was the man who brought the left-armer into the limelight when he was captain. He will know how important a fit-again Zaheer is to the future of Indian cricket.
Copyright (c) 2008 Times Internet Limited.
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