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Hero worship
They see them in television commercials, on advertising billboards and perennially on the news, but the Indian public just can’t get enough of their players. Hundreds thronged the gates of the Captain Roop Singh Stadium and flanked the approach roads, hoping to get a real-life glimpse of their heroes. Those who got into the ground early enough cheered themselves hoarse as each player came on to the field for practice. And when the Indian team took a warm-up lap around the ground, the fans ran down from the back of the stands and pressed against the wire fences hoping for a glimpse, or maybe even a casual wave of acknowledgement from their stars.Butt lets India off
The Indian bowling attack has received more than its fair share of punishment from Salman Butt. He scored a century the first time he played India, in Kolkata in 2004, and has used this series to secure an opening berth after being dropped against South Africa. He made 50, 37 and 129 in the first three games but the law of averages finally caught up with him in Gwalior. The second ball of the match, angled in to the left-hander by RP Singh, rapped Butt on the pads dead in front and umpire Saheba gave him a quick send-off.Akmal in disguise?
Kamran Akmal’s wicketkeeping has been under tremendous scrutiny, and with good reason, for some of the catches he’s dropped have been atrociously easy. Today, however, it was Mahendra Singh Dhoni who had the poor day with the gloves. In the fourth over, Irfan Pathan got one to swing back into Younis Khan and take the inside edge. It flew low to Dhoni’s left and he couldn’t get down in time to hold the catch. Younis was batting on 6 at the time and went on to score 42 more before Dhoni let him off again. This time it was a leg-side stumping, against Harbhajan Singh. The second reprieve, however, cost India only 20 runs.Boom boom bust
After Younis Khan finally got out, the crowd erupted into massive cheers. Part of it was for the wicket but majority of the excitement was because Shahid Afridi was striding to the middle and bringing with him the promise of boundaries. If you closed your eyes, the cheers were loud enough for Tendulkar to be walking out and not Afridi. He blocked his first two balls and took a single off the third. He tried to be cheeky with the fourth, attempting a scoop over short fine leg against Ganguly and was adjudged leg-before. The crowd didn’t get their sixes but they cared not. Another Pakistan wicket had fallen and the cheers accompanying Afridi’s exit were louder than those that greeted his entrance.Stranded
A paucity of strike during the 49th over jeopardised Mohammad Yousuf’s chances of getting to a hundred. It went down to the wire with Yousuf needing nine off two balls. RP Singh charged in and pitched one on a length, only to see Yousuf’s smooth blade descend in an arc and deposit the ball over the straight boundary. He needed three more off the final delivery but RP landed one in the blockhole and Yousuf could only push it towards mid-off for two and settle for 99 not out.If at first you don’t succeed …
Today was one of those days when some of Tendulkar’s shots just made your jaw drop. The crowd had cheered each of the splendid cover drives and flicks but hadn’t been treated to a straight drive in the first eight overs. Off the fifth ball of the ninth over, Tendulkar leant forward to Rao Iftikhar Anjum and rehearsed a straight drive. He had placed it well enough but the timing was just a bit awry, allowing mid-on to stop it. The next ball, however, was dispatched with perfect timing and mid-on could only watch as the ball sped past him.Making up for lost time
After reaching his 50 off 48 balls, Tendulkar went quiet, scoring 14 runs off his next 25 balls, before deciding to get on with it again. He came down the pitch, made room, and lofted Afridi inside out over extra cover for four. He made room for the second ball and square-drove it to the boundary before placing the next delivery wide of the man on the sweeper boundary. And just like that, he was back up to speed, with 77 off 77 balls.Gul denies Tendulkar … again
As Tendulkar eased into the 80s the crowd began to cheer every run that took him closer to that elusive century No. 42. The nerves began to show; he mistimed a few, played and missed and even hit one uppishly towards cover. An upper cut off Shoaib took him into the 90s before the fall of Sehwag and a drinks interval delayed his search for three runs to reach his 42nd ODI hundred. Gul landed the first ball after the break on a length and Tendulkar pushed hard at it. The ball jagged back off an inside edge and the crowd fell silent as both they and Tendulkar realised that a bail had been dislodged. Gul had gatecrashed the party once again, having dismissed Tendulkar for 99 in Mohali.

The West Indies cricketers might have returned from their four-month sojourn in Asia a wounded bunch, but they are the better for it. Tony Howard, the team manager, felt that despite a few physical injuries, the team had adapted well to the trying conditions and will be up to the task when the World Cup comes to the region next year.West Indies reached the finals of two one-day tournaments – the DLF Cup tri-series in Malaysia and the Champions Trophy in India, losing to Australia in both. In Pakistan, they lost the Test series 2-0 and the five-match one-day series 3-1.”If I was to give a grade, I would have to say six-and-half out of ten,” Howard told Nationsports after the team returned from Pakistan via London. “We have to learn the lessons and we have to learn them quickly.”We have to be thinking always, and we have to be more consistent if we want to be among the major teams in the World Cup. We reached two finals and we were not altogether bad in Pakistan. There was a time, not long ago, when we were not winning anything.”Howard said even though they were missing regular players like Ramnaresh Sarwan to injury and Dwayne Bravo – who returned home after the Tests in Pakistan – they should have risen to a higher level of performance. Shivnarine Chanderpaul was also handicapped with a leg injury during the ODIs.”We missed their contributions to the overall team effort, and that is what we were looking for,” Howard said. “We have some capable substitutes, but there was not enough experience to take us through.”Left-arm seamer Ian Bradshaw was a key member of the side in the DLF Cup and Champions Trophy, but said that the final leg in Pakistan was particularly challenging. He is listed at No.4 in the latest ICC one-day international rankings.”It was quite difficult over there and unfortunately we didn’t get the results we were looking for,” said Bradshaw. “We simply didn’t play to the level we were expecting, but we are not too disheartened.”It was quite a long tour and we did make some positive strides in our one-day game, and hopefully coming into 2007 we will have to regroup in the build-up to the World Cup and improve in those weak areas we have identified.”

Shoaib Akhtar and Brett Lee, two of the most exciting fast bowlers on the world scene, do not earn any high marks in his book, says Joel Garner, the former West Indian bowling icon.Speaking to BBC Sport, Garner was circumspect when talking about Akhtar and Lee finding a place in a World XI picked by him. “I don’t think either Akhtar or Lee would deserve a place,” he said. “I want people who are going to get wickets for me. I want fellows who are going to be consistent, not the ones who are more concerned about speed.”Garner, a key component of the battery of West Indies fast bowlers who swept all before them in the 1980s, admitted that their success did not lie in pace alone. “In our time, we were always interested in efficiency and performance, and not speed.”Akhtar, the first bowler to break the 100mph barrier, took just three wickets in England’s first inning in the Test currently being played at Multan, while Lee rocked the West Indies in the first Test at Brisbane with 5 for 30 on the fourth day. But Garner, who took 259 Test wickets in 58 matches, described Glenn McGrath as the best pace bowler in world cricket today. “He’s the oldest of the lot, yet he’s been the most effective,” he argued. “The irony is that people have long been caught up in the argument about who’s the fastest bowler. And I find it absolutely unnecessary.”Garner has clearly put an emphasis on consistency over speed. “It’s high time we started judging a fast bowler on what he’s worth. The team’s performance should be more important than bowling the fastest delivery in the world.”

Kenya 231 for 8 (Modi 67) beat India A 211 (Powar 80*, Sriram 50, Aga 4-18) by 20 runs
ScorecardKenya continued their impressive run, beating India A by 20 runs to register their second win in the triangular tournament in Nairobi – they had earlier beaten Pakistan A by two runs.After being put in to bat, Kenya managed a competitive 231 for 8, largely thanks to Hitesh Modi’s 67, and useful contributions from the lower order. When the Indians slumped to 110 for 6, a huge defeat was on the cards, but Ramesh Powar almost pulled off an improbable win, smashing an unbeaten 80 off just 58 balls. There was little support for him from the rest of the tail, though, allowing Kenya to sail through to a well-deserved win.As in their previous match, Kenya got off to a poor start, losing both openers with only 21 on the board. Modi and Steve Tikolo (38) then put together 70 to resurrect the innings. However, the Indian spinners choked the runs in the middle overs, and Sridharan Sriram finished with 3 for 43 as Kenya only managed a modest total.India A would have fancied their chances at the halfway stage, but things went awry early in their run-chase, as Martin Suji and Thomas Odoyo nailed the first four wickets with only 52 on the board. Sriram stitched together a half-century, but the Indians were sinking towards a humiliating defeat when Powar came. He added 62 for the seventh wicket with Sairaj Bahutule, whose contribution was only 11.Bahutule was dismissed by Ragheb Aga, but Powar continued the big hitting, tonking Maurice Odumbe for a huge six which landed on top of the clubhouse. With wickets falling at the other end, though, Powar was ultimately left without a partner. Aga cleaned up the tail to finish with 4 for 18, leaving Sandeep Patil, the India A coach, to reflect on defeat by a side he had coached till the 2003 World Cup.With two wins in as many games, Kenya are the early front-runners in the tournament. However, given the format of the competition – each team plays the other two twice, with the top two then reaching the finals – both India A and Pakistan A still have a chance to upstage the Kenyans.

Yorkshire’s dirty linen continues to be washed in public, and a report in today’s Yorkshire Post reveals that Anthony Panaro, their former commercial director, was told to lie to the police by Chris Hassell, Yorkshire’s former chief executive.Panaro, who was sacked by the county last year, told a Leeds tribunal that Hassell demanded that he change his story regarding an alleged cash payment to David Gower if he "wanted to keep his job". Panaro is suing Yorkshire for unfair dismissal.Gower was paid £1000 for speaking at a cricket dinner to celebrate Yorkshire’s Championship win in 2001, but, according to Panaro, was also given £2000 in cash from the raffle held on the night. The matter came to light when Hassell was questioned by the Yorkshire committee about a shortfall in the proceeds from the raffleBut David Ryder, the county’s chief accountant since 1975, maintained that Panaro was responsible for a string of loss-making deals as well as for the submission of bonus claims he was not entitled to. Ryder did, however, admit that Gower was paid more than the £1000 fee shown in the official accounts.What will cause concern within the membership are Panaro’s revelations of the lax financial controls at the county. He told the tribunal that “cheques and cash were often left on desks and in drawers” and “accounting practices were in complete chaos”. He added that he believed he had been made a scapegoat for Yorkshire’s dire financial problems.Panaro said that he had raised the issues with the chairman of finance but nothing had been done because "it was his department I was directly criticising”.The hearing continues, but the information coming to light will cause grave concern among Yorkshire’s long-suffering membership.

Hampshire seconds secured a superb victory to put the seal on what has been an outstanding season. They emphatically beat Warwickshire by an innings and 86 runs, taking maximum points and ending as Championship winners by a clear margin.Going into the final day 192 runs ahead, with the opposition 40-1, the young guns produced one of their seasons best sessions of bowling. In two hours of play, Hampshire took 8 wickets for just 58 runs, and the manner in which they achieved this feat epitomised the high standards they have set this season.Simon Francis and James Hamblin bowled unchanged for over an hour, and put Warwickshire deep into a mire that the away team were never going to recover from.Francis ended with figures of 5-44, and in doing so picked up his 18th wicket in the three games he has played since returning from a back injury. He had James Adams to thank in part, as the Winchester lad grabbed three great catches in the gully.Hamblin once again bowled excellently, and his probing line and length, together with consistent away swing saw him to figures of 2-27 from 15 overs, finishing the season with 46 championship wickets.James Schofield chipped in with two wickets, as he proved a touch too quick for both his victims. They hit short balls straight in the air, both well caught by Andy Sexton.Irfan Shah took one wicket, and Warwickshire were finally dismissed for 147 in the afternoon session.The Second XI will be awarded the Championship Trophy during the interval of the first teams National League game, on Sunday at The Rose Bowl.

Andrew Fekete was a 26-year-old accountant when he emerged from Victorian club cricket to make his debut for his state in 2012. It was a one-day match against South Australia at the MCG; Fekete took two wickets and had his foot broken by a powerful Theo Doropoulos drive. He didn’t know what his future would hold, and he never again played for Victoria.But Tasmania liked what they saw from Fekete, and offered him a deal for the following season. A first-class debut came at 28, then a big Sheffield Shield summer at 29, and at 30 he has shot out of left field to be picked in Australia’s squad for next month’s Test tour of Bangladesh. Even Fekete considered himself “a fair way down the pecking order” a couple of months ago.”The last 12 months have been a whirlwind,” Fekete told reporters in Hobart. “I guess it’s all been about opportunity. I tried to do the best I could for Tasmania and it’s snowballed from there.”In Victoria I was in and around the group a little but didn’t get the opportunity to be contracted and be a full-time cricketer which Tasmania gave me. I just wanted to see where I could get to and initially I was given a two-year contract and if at the end of that two years Tasmania said ‘thanks very much and see you later’, I still would have been pleased as I would have had a crack and got the best out of myself.”Australia’s selectors were impressed by Fekete’s 2014-15, in which he collected 37 wickets at 24.10 and was the leading wicket-taker among fast bowlers. He added two more matches to his first-class tally – up to 18 games – on this year’s Australia A tour of India, and national selector Rod Marsh said Fekete was quick, accurate, could reverse swing the ball and had earned his chance.”He slipped under the guard of a lot of people but we’ve had our eye on him for a while,” Marsh said. “He took 37 first-class wickets in the Sheffield Shield competition last year. He bowled very well in India. He’s able to bowl with good pace, he’s around 140kph. He can generate reverse swing when need be, when conditions suit, and he’s a pretty good bloke. He deserved his opportunity.”He’s just one of those old fashioned fast bowlers who runs in and bowls pretty straight. There’s nothing too fancy about him, except that he bowls stump to stump. He hasn’t played a lot of cricket either, you have to remember that. He might be 30 but cricket-wise he’s probably 25, body-wise, because he hasn’t been through the rigours of year after year of non-stop cricket. He’s fresh and ready to go.”Fekete won his place on the Bangladesh tour in the absence of Mitchell Johnson and Josh Hazlewood, who have been rested ahead of a busy home summer. He was also preferred ahead of James Pattinson, who has remodelled his action and was described by Marsh as being down on confidence in the recent ODI series in England.

Derbyshire have confirmed the signing of Rikki Clarke from Surrey and named him as captain for the 2008 season.Clarke fell out of favour at The Oval mid-way through last season and his move away from London had been on the cards for some time. He has played two Tests and 20 ODIs for England, but is well out of the running for the current squad under Peter Moores.Although Derbyshire are a second division club the captaincy offer will have been a major factor in Clarke opting for the move north. He fills the role vacated by Simon Katich who decided not to return for another season.”My ambition is to play for England again and I think Derbyshire is the best place for me to achieve that ambition,” Clarke told the Press Association. “The club is looking to go forward and that really excited me. The chance to be captain played a part in my decision because I have always wanted to be a leader but I was more interested in where Derbyshire want to go.”I am looking at this as a long-term move. I was at Surrey since I was a young lad and it’s always difficult to leave but I felt I needed a fresh start. I could have gone to other counties that are regarded as bigger but I see this as one of the best career moves I have made.John Morris, Derbyshire’s head of cricket, said: “I am delighted to have signed a player of Rikki’s quality – he will be a massive addition to our squad. The great thing about Rikki is that despite his already fantastic record, he still wants to improve and he quite rightly has ambitions to play for England again in the future.”Clarke is the latest signing made by Derbyshire since the end of the season. His former Surrey team-mate Nayan Doshi has joined the club along with John Sadler from Leicestershire. They are also still chasing Mahela Jayawardene to be their overseas player.

Canterbury v Auckland
An out-of-form Lou Vincent will hold the key for Auckland in their chase for 271. Vincent was 26 not out at stumps and it will require all his skills for the home team to post the highest total of the match to steal an outright victory over Canterbury, who have already secured first innings points. Canterbury were dismissed for 200 with captain Chris Harris leading from the front with 52. Andre Adams was chief destroyer with 5 for 58. Richard Jones (1) and Tim McIntosh (2) were dismissed early as Auckland’s chase started disastrously.Central Districts v Otago
Central Districts will be faced with the task of batting for time to salvage a draw against Otago who plundered 624 against them, at Napier. Starting their second innings 230 behind, Central got off to a good start despite the loss of Peter Ingram. Central were 102 for 1 at stumps, with Geoff Barnett (51) still at the crease. Earlier in the day, Gareth Hopkins posted a century and was unbeaten on 126 when Otago were all out.Wellington v Northern Districts
Rain continues to play havoc with this match as Wellington seek an innings victory over Northern Districts at Hamilton. Resuming at 83 for 5, Northern showed some grit to get through to 253, with Peter McGlashan notching 50. It was not enough to avoid the follow-on though and Wellington, with pace bowlers Iain O’Brien and Mark Gillespie in good form, will be hoping for a full day to have a crack at Northern’s weak batting line-up tomorrow.

New Zealanders 273 for 9 (50 overs, McMillan 105, J Marshall 64, Henderson 5-38) beat South Africa A 199 for 4 (43 overs, Rudolph 73*) by 19 runs (D/L)
ScorecardNew Zealand kicked off their tour of South Africa with a winning start over South Africa A at Benoni. Spectacular electrical storms, which brought an early end to the match, meant that they eased to an 19-run Duckworth-Lewis victory.Craig McMillan won the Man-of-the-Match award for his 105, made from 106 balls after the New Zealanders had slipped to 42 for 4. Stephen Fleming, who had won the toss, made 11, Nathan Astle, who fell the ball after Fleming, 7, Hamish Marshall 10 and Lou Vincent 7 as the top order failed to make any impression.But supported by James Marshall (64), McMillan added a crucial 161 in 29 overs for the fifth wicket, before falling leg-before to Tyron Henderson, who finished with 5 for 38. Andre Adams chipped in at the end with a quickfire 32, including two sixes and three fours.South Africa A made a poor start, reaching 31 for 2 in the 15th over before a third-wicket stand of 76 between Jacques Rudolph (73) and Zander de Bruyn (40) put them back in the chase. Although Albie Morkel (48*) then helped Rudolph add an unbeaten 81 for the sixth wicket, they were always just off the pace. As the storms approached, the pair slammed 49 off four overs, but they ran out of time.”We knew we needed just one partnership somewhere and me and James [Marshall] were fortunately able to put on a substantial partnership,” McMillan told . “Because there are only two warm-up games I was pleased to get straight into form and I’ve been looking forward to this tour for a long time.”We’ve got plenty of allrounders and batters lower down the order and we’ve all got various jobs. So whenever we’re in trouble, hopefully someone puts their hand up – and luckily it was me today.”New Zealand will play a Twenty20 international and five ODIs against South Africa during their tour. Their next game is again against South Africa A at Potchefstroom on Sunday.