Anil Kumble believes Australia’s behaviour will play a big role in the continuation of the catching agreement he had with Ricky Ponting. Before the series the two captains said they would take the word of the fielder in relation to low takes, but after Sydney Kumble felt it would have to be reviewed.”At this point, a few days before the big Test at Perth, I can tell you that that behaviour will play a big role in my decision on the continuation of the agreement,” he wrote in his column. “We had decided that in the case of a disputed catch, we would take the word of the fielder concerned, if he was certain.”But that agreement was based on the premise that come what may, whatever the situation, the fielder concerned would be completely straight on what happened. Now, there will obviously be a big question mark moving forward on that.”The Test was filled with on- and off-field incidents over umpiring, race, sportsmanship, catching and walking. “I’d like to point out that someone [Michael Clarke] edged the ball to slips in the second innings of the Sydney Test, and stood there even when there was not an iota of doubt over the dismissal,” Kumble wrote. “He then claimed a catch that showed more than reasonable doubt and said he was 100% certain it was clean.”Kumble said he hadn’t spoken to Ponting about the agreement and would discuss the issue once he reached Perth. The third Test starts there on January 16.
Chris Gayle was named 2006 West Indies international cricketer of the year at the annual West Indies Players’ Association awards event on Monday.Gayle is currently the No.2 ranked allrounder in ODIs and won the overall award ahead of Brian Lara, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Jerome Taylor. During 2006 he scored 690 Test runs at 38 and took 12 wickets at 43 while plundering 1217 ODI runs at 42 and taking 20 wickets at 33.Taylor picked up the emerging player of the year award, Daren Ganga Test player of the year and Sarwan ODI player of the year. The women’s award went to Jamaican Stephanie Taylor
Kenya’s new coach, Roger Harper, held a first face-to-face meeting with his players on Monday as part of a squad assessment ahead of the tour of Bangladesh in March.Harper, who has signed a one-year contract with Kenya following the departure of Andy Moles last year, has insisted he would have to make an assessment of all the players before naming his final team to tour Bangladesh.Kenya’s selectors have named a provisional squad of 24 players to start training under the supervision of Harper, a former West Indies allrounder. Cricket Kenya’s chief executive, Tom Tikolo, said the selected players include the long-serving captain Steve Tikolo, who is currently playing club cricket in Bangladesh.Tikolo said Ravindu Shah, the resourceful opening batsman who has spent nearly two years on the sidelines with a nagging knee injury, may return to the team pending a doctor’s advice on his condition.Harper coached West Indies from 2000 through to the end of the 2003 World Cup, but it was a difficult period as the side adjusted to their diminishing status. Under his tenure they won nine and lost 19 of the 39 Tests they played.As an offspinner, he played 25 Tests and 105 ODIs for West Indies between 1983 and 1996 and was regarded as one of the greatest fielders of his generation.
Queensland won the right to host the Pura Cup final after Wade Seccombe’s 84 pushed them to an unbeatable position against Western Australia at the Gabba. Western Australia needed an impossible 354 in the final session’s 36 overs to win and finished at 4 for 199 in a draw that ended their season. Queensland will play New South Wales at the Gabba starting from Friday.Michael Hussey, who finished with three wickets, reached 54 and Chris Rogers, Murray Goodwin and Marcus North each got 45, but they were never close to reaching the massive victory target. Western Australia were frustrated by Queensland batting through the first session with Seccombe, who reached his highest score of the season, sharing valuable partnerships with Mitchell Johnson and Joe Dawes.The Bulls received further good news when James Hopes cleared himself for the final after shaking off a hamstring strain suffered during the match. “I’ve got close to full power back close to 40 minutes after it so they are just saying you’re tearing scar tissue which sometimes happens, so there’s no new injury,” Hopes said.Queensland have not beaten New South Wales in five finals since 1984-85, the last loss coming two seasons ago when the Blues won by 246 runs at the Gabba.
Doctors have declared that Sourav Ganguly will be available for the TVS Cup match against Australia on November 12. “We are very happy with his progress. He has recovered fast. From our side, we have no problem if he plays the November 12 match at Bangalore,” said Dr Sukumar Mukherjee, head of the six-member medical board which is treating Ganguly.Mukherjee stated that Ganguly now needed to be cleared by the Indian board. “Now the matter is in the court of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. As per the board’s norms, I believe he has to undergo a fitness test. On being cleared, he can again play for the country.”Mukherjee also clarified that Ganguly now had no problem in stretching, and was walking without a limp. “Today, we made him walk before us. He is perfectly fine.”However, the rehabilitation programme, including physiotherapy, would go on for a few more days. The course of antibiotics would also continue. Mukherjee said all the five ‘superficial stitches’ on the wound had been removed and one of the two deep stitches would be cut on Monday.Ganguly, who had to undergo mini-surgical procedures twice in five days for removing the abscess, missed the second Test against New Zealand at Mohali and all three ODIs that India have played so far in the TVS Cup.
A magnificent century by Darren Lehmann led South Australia to a convincing winover New South Wales in the ING Cup cricket match here today.Lehmann pressed his claims for a national one-day berth with 101 runs off just 95 balls to help hand his side a 114-run victory.The Redbacks batted first after being sent in by NSW captain Stuart MacGill and were bowled out for 258 in the last over of the innings.Test paceman Jason Gillespie then took 3-31 from 10 overs to help bowl the Blues out for just 144 with 5.1 overs to spare shortly before he responded to an emergency call-up to the Australian squad.Gillespie was drafted after West Australian quick Brad Williams was ruled out with a broken thumb and Glenn McGrath received a one-match ban for dissent.Lehmann came to the wicket with the Redbacks in trouble at 2-17 and wasn’t dismissed until the score reached 199. He received good support from Ben Johnson (51 from 74 balls), and David Fitzgerald, who played solidly at the top of the order to make 33 from 70.Allrounder Mike Smith chipped in with an unbeaten 30 from 18 balls, which included three sixes.MacGill had the best figures for NSW, taking 5-53 from 6.5 overs after conceding 14 runs from his first over.Stuart Clark and Nathan Bracken were impressive with the new ball taking 1-19 and 2-30 respectively.When it was the Blues’ turn to bat, they didn’t take long to run into trouble, slumping to 7-73 with only left-hander Graeme Rummans holding the innings together with an unbeaten 73.The NSW innings ended with Bracken edging paceman Mark Harrity through to wicketkeeper Graham Manou for nine.Harrity, Johnson and Smith claimed two wickets each for the Redbacks while Paul Wilson took one.Lehmann was delighted with the performance, saying it was the best so far this season for his side.”We haven’t batted, bowled and fielded better than that in the one day competition this season,” he said.”It was very pleasing and I just hope we can keep it going after the momentum we’ve built here”.MacGill was blunt in his assessment of the Blues’ effort.”It was embarrassing, really, we have no excuse for that performance,” he said.”The difference between the sides was the big partnership between Darren (Lehmann) and Ben Johnson that set up the South Australian innings.”As far as our batting goes it was simply not good enough.”There was nothing wrong with the wicket, in fact we’d like to play all our matches on a wicket as good as that one.”
Boland were on 217 for two at the close of play after the first day of thefour day Supersport Series match after bowling Free State out for 102 runsearlier in the day on Friday. They have a first innings lead of 115-runs.Boland won the toss and elected to bowl, which proved to be the correctdecision as Free State were reeling at 31 for three. Right-arm seamer CharlLangeveldt took five for 19 in 11 overs – his first five-wicket haul infirst class cricket.Medium pace seamer Brad Player backed him up with three for 11 in six oversas Free State slumped from 89 for four to 102 all out – six wickets fell forjust 13 runs.Boland’s Pieter Barnard and James Henderson proved that the pitch had fewdemons as they poured on the misery. Barnard ended the day unbeaten on 108,his ninth first class century and Henderson scored a more sedate 76.The two put on 171-runs for the second wicket – a Boland record – whichleft their side in a commanding position to claim the win. For their effortsBoland gained four bonus points while Free State earned none.Barnard started brightly, moving to his 50 off just 64 balls. His centurywas reached with a smashing straight drive off left-arm spinner KosieVenter. It took 165 balls and included 11 boundaries.Henderson was caught at slip by Louis Wilkinson off Venter just as hestarted to accelerate the pace having paced himself steadily. His fifty wasreached in 208 minutes off 147 balls with six fours.Free State were the victims of their own poor form as they played looseshots. Eight of the ten wickets were caught behind square on a pitch thatbad little life and even less lateral movement. Only Morne van Wyk offeredany resistance, scoring 39 before edging one to Louis Koen at slip offPlayer.
Newcastle United are reportedly ‘in the race’ to sign Ludovic Blas this summer.
The Lowdown: Strong season
The 24-year-old is having a strong season at Nantes, racking up 12 goals and a further two assists in 31 games across all competitions, mainly operating from midfield (Transfermarkt).
He has certainly made an impression on his team-mate and former Liverpool man Pedro Chirivella, who described him as a ‘pure talent’ and an ‘incredible’ and ‘spectacular’ player earlier this campaign.
The Spaniard even likened him to former Reds team-mates Mo Salah, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Philippe Coutinho (So Foot).
The Latest: Newcastle in the race for Blas
As per journalist Jacque Talbot, Newcastle are now ‘in the race’ to sign Blas, along with West Ham United.
Watford did hold an interest in the January transfer window, but the distinct possibility of them being relegated at the end of the season has put him off a move to Vicarage Road.
Talbot noted that Blas would only cost €20m (£16.8m), as the midfielder only has a year left on his contract in France.
The Verdict: Bargain
Blas is only 24 years of age, so he has probably not reached his peak yet. Therefore, paying less than £17m would be somewhat of a bargain in today’s market for such a prolific player, regardless of his contract situation.
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Interestingly, he shares the same agent as both Kieran Trippier and Chris Wood, two players who were signed by the Magpies in January, so there definitely seems a deal to be done for the Tynesiders.
In other news, NUFC could be set for a ‘massive boost’
Technology is not the answer to improving umpiring standards because the science behind several innovations is not 100% accurate, according to a senior sports executive with Australia’s . Poor decisions from the on-field officials in the Sydney Test between Australia and India have led to suggestions that the third umpire should have access to extra assistance on top of straight replays. uses its snickometer to demonstrate the sound of edges behind, Hawk-Eye and the strike-zone to judge lbw decisions and the infra-red Hot Spot camera to display whether the ball has hit the bat. However, Steve Crawley, an executive sports producer with the network, said some of the innovations could not be entirely relied upon.”I’d hate us to be involved in the judicial system of cricket,” Crawley told the . “We’ve only got one thing 100% backed up by science and that’s Hot Spot; the others aren’t 100%.”Snicko is very well informed but it’s not 100%, and Hawk-Eye’s not 100%. And also there’s the time-frame. Yesterday, with one of the decisions, Snicko, like all computer systems, went down and it had to be rebooted and it was four minutes before we got it up. Mostly, it’s only a couple of deliveries but those sorts of things can happen.”Crawley said assisting umpires with side-on angles for run-outs was one thing but the lengthy process of using extra devices would provide too many interruptions to the game. “It’s a long, dour game as it is but, from our point of view, we don’t want that power,” Crawley said. “But, if the ICC decides to go down that path, we’ll co-operate.”Crawley’s comments came as Sunil Gavaskar, the chairman of the ICC’s Cricket Committee, said there was little chance the neutral-umpire rule would be removed any time soon. Steve Waugh wrote in his newspaper column that there was no reason the world’s top official, Simon Taufel, should not stand in matches involving his own country, Australia.”The reason the ICC and the world cricket community accepted third-country umpires was to eliminate the element of bias, or any suspicion that might have been pointed at umpires,” Gavaskar told the . “That will be there for a while.”I know there is some talk about having only the best umpires come in, but rather than have any controversy regarding decisions I think that [the current system] is probably a lot better. If a third-country umpire makes a [questionable] decision, it won’t be as acrimonious as if a home umpire made that decision.”
Pakistan have included both Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif in their provisional 30-man squad for the World Cup, despite uncertainty remaining over their doping cases.Shoaib and Asif were cleared last month by a Pakistan Cricket Board committee of taking the banned steroid nandrolone knowingly, having previously been banned from cricket for two years and one year respectively.However, the World Anti-Doping Agency has since challenged the lifting of the ban, while the PCB insists that both are eligible to play. Asif is at present in South Africa with the rest of the Pakistan squad, while Akhtar is due to fly out on Thursday after being named as a replacement.Wasim Bari, the chief Pakistani selector, said: “As far as we are concerned both Asif and Akhtar are free to play. We will cross the bridge when it comes.”Bari added that he was confident Pakistan would fair well in the tournament: “We have a decent side and if we improve our fielding we can match any side in the world”.Shabbir Ahmed, the quick bowler who recently served a one-year ban for an illegal bowling action, is also included in the provisional squad for the tournament, which Pakistan won in 1992. The final names will be announced on February 13, and the side will be captained by Inzamam-ul-Haq.Pakistan squad: Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Younis Khan, Imran Farhat, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Umar Gul, Shahid Nazir, Danish Kaneria, Yasir Hameed, Shabbir Ahmed, Mohammad Sami, Abdul Rehman, Salman Butt, Faisal Iqbal, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Rao Iftikhar, Imran Nazir, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Khalil, Bazid Khan, Mansoor Amjad, Zulqarnain Haider, Yasir Arafat, Mohammad Asif, Shoaib Akhtar, Misbah-ul-Haq, Hasan Raza.