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.

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.

ODI series against India – January-February 2006
Umar Gul had just come back after severe back injuries had threatened to finish his career, Mohammad Asif had announced himself for the first time on the international circuit and Shoaib Akhtar was coming off the back of his most impressive Test performances (against England). India had been beaten in the Tests, and if the three were available the ODI series looked to go the same way. Shoaib pulled up just before the first ODI, however, with what turned out to be serious ankle and knee injuries, though cynics maintained it was because his action had come under scrutiny again. India won the series 4-1.Tour to Sri Lanka – March-April 2006
Shoaib missed the entire tour with a knee injury but Pakistan didn’t miss him at all as Asif and Gul more than made up for his absence. Rana Naved-ul-Hasan was in impressive form as Pakistan won the ODI series. But he had to leave before the Test series began to attend to a family emergency. Ultimately, with Asif in incredible form, it didn’t matter, his 17 wickets helping Pakistan to a 1-0 series win.Tour to England – June-September 2006
The tour on which Pakistan’s pace attack completely fell apart. Shoaib was always unlikely to play before the ODIs but Pakistan’s Test preparations were further rocked when a groin injury Rana picked up while on county duty with Sussex was aggravated. It ruled him out of all four Tests. Things went from bad to worse as Asif injured his right elbow in a tour match against England A before the first Test. He came back only for the last, infamous, Test at the Oval. Rao Iftikhar Anjum, who had come to England as a replacement for Asif, also had to leave midway through the tour due to the death of his father. It left Pakistan relying on Gul, Mohammad Sami and Shahid Nazir, recalled after an eight-year exile. Though Gul began his improvement on the tour, Pakistan were comprehensively beaten in the Tests. And despite the return of Shoaib, Asif and Rana for the ODIs, they were held to a disappointing 2-2 draw.ICC Champions Trophy – October-November 2006
Pakistan was collectively licking its lips at the prospect of 30 overs in every match being bowled by Shoaib, Asif and Gul, even as late as the day before the opening match. But on the morning of October 16, news emerged that Shoaib and Asif had tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone, in internal tests held by the Pakistan board a few weeks earlier. Both were immediately sent back home, though initially it didn’t seem to affect the team as they pulled off a fantastic opening win against Sri Lanka. But the absence told later, not least when having reduced South Africa to 42 for 5 in a do-or-die game, they lacked the depth in resources to knock out the opposition and were duly bundled out at the group stage. Asif and Shoaib were banned by a PCB tribunal for one and two years respectively. Barely a month later, however, the bans were overturned on appeal by another tribunal.West Indies in Pakistan – November-December 2006
Shoaib and Asif were ruled out after their positive dope tests and bans, but a weak West Indian line-up had few answers to Gul and Shahid Nazir. Between them the pair took 27 wickets in three Tests. When Rana returned to form in the ODI series soon after, leading Pakistan to a comfortable win, the future was suddenly rosy once again.

Tour to South Africa – January-February 2007
With the bans on Shoaib and Asif overturned and Gul in form, Pakistan again looked forward to the three exploiting helpful conditions in South Africa. Here, though, was another sign that it just wasn’t meant to be: Shoaib was controversially not selected for the touring squad initially, as he was deemed not to be match fit. Yet ten days later, he was called to the squad as cover for Gul, who, it turned out, had travelled with an ankle injury in the first place, and which forced him to miss the entire tour. Shoaib, meanwhile, arrived to play a pivotal role on the first day of the second Test, taking four wickets. However, he pulled his hamstring in the process, ruling him out of the Test and the rest of the tour. Asif manfully bore the burden, helping Pakistan win one Test and almost leading them to a series win, even as speculation about his continuing elbow problem persisted.Meanwhile, Shabbir Ahmed, the forgotten fast bowler through the year, had his action cleared by the ICC and was eligible to play for the first time since November 2005. He was called up by captain Inzamam-ul-Haq only for the selectors to veto the decision, arguing that he wasn’t fit. Eventually, Inzamam had his way and Shabbir flew out for the ODI series. He played in the only Twenty20 international, looking rusty with a remodelled action and injured his groin. Within a week of arriving, he too was sent back. He will now be seen playing in the Indian Cricket League.World Cup – March-April 2007
After days of intense speculation and rumour, Asif and Shoaib were left out of Pakistan’s World Cup squad again at the very last minute. Ostensibly the duo were omitted because of elbow [Asif] and knee [Shoaib] injuries: but it was widely believed that the PCB was worried they could still test positive for banned substances at the tournament. Even in their absence, there was little excuse for a first-round failure, sealed by a loss to Ireland on a green top.ICC World Twenty20 – August-September 2007
Dope out of their systems, thorough pre-tournament training camps to ensure every player was fit; now was surely opportunity for Pakistan’s first-choice pace attack to come together? Think again. Just before the tournament began, Shoaib struck Asif with a bat in a dressing-room brawl and duly got himself sent back to Pakistan, facing a possible life ban.South Africa in Pakistan – September-October 2007
Asif and Gul played in both Tests even as Pakistan chose to rely heavily on spin. Shoaib sat out the Tests as part of a 13-match ban for his indiscretion in South Africa. He made it back in time for the last ODI of the series, the only snag now being that Asif had been bowled fully in to the ground. His long-standing elbow problem flared up during the second Test and forced him out for four of the five ODIs, including of course the only ODI Shoaib played.Tour to India – November-December 2007
Asif’s elbow injury ruled him out, initially, from the ODI series but eventually from much of the tour (although there remains an outside chance that he might be fit for the final Test). Gul then pulled out of the first Test with a back complaint and just as he seemed to be recovering in time for the second Test, news emerged that he was out of the series and being sent back home. And finally Shoaib, who was looking fitter by the spell, was admitted to hospital days before the second Test at Kolkata with a chest infection that put him in doubt for the Test.

Ricky Ponting still believes his team does not need to alter its behaviour, but has admitted he would do some things “a little differently” if he could return to the Test in Sydney. Ponting’s parents received abusive phone calls in the fallout from the match and his wife Rhianna was concerned about her husband’s job after a newspaper column demanded his sacking.Australia will analyse footage of the Test, in which they equalled the world record of 16 consecutive wins, to see which areas can be improved. “It’s perception and the way people see things when they’re off the field,” Ponting said in the Daily Telegraph. “I might be talking to opposition players on the field but it might be construed by people watching on television that you’re in a slanging or sledging match when that’s not the case.”Ponting has been backed by Cricket Australia and his team-mates, but there has been severe criticism from former cricketing and sporting greats about the team’s attitude. In Sydney there were issues over race, umpiring, sportsmanship, catching, walking and the celebrations when the match was sealed with Michael Clarke’s three wickets in an over.Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, has concerns over the players’ behaviour despite them being in “a great cricket team”. “I would hate to see them remembered for any reason other than that,” he said in the Age. “The team is being criticised, members of the team are being criticised, and they need to be aware of that – they need to respond to that.”Geoff Lawson, the Pakistan coach and former Australia bowler, said he was disappointed with the way the side played in Sydney. “There’s certainly been a lot of feeling from ex-players who think the baggy green has been disrespected,” Lawson told Sydney radio . “Some of these [current] players need to be spoken to.”Perception is everything and the outside world thinks that this Australian team is arrogant and not well behaved. Whether the team themselves think that is another issue, but I can guarantee you the rest of the cricket world certainly feel that about this cricket team.”Ponting does not believe the team is arrogant. “I don’t think anyone wants the way Australia plays cricket to change,” he said. “Everyone likes to see a tough, uncompromising brand of cricket … If we were big headed and arrogant we wouldn’t have been celebrating like that. Big headedness doesn’t go hand in hand with the sort of euphoria we showed at the end of the game.”Ponting, who was lbw after hitting the ball in the first innings, told the paper there were things “that in hindsight you might do a little differently”. “There’s no doubt I stood there for a second or two too long and I shouldn’t have done that,” he said. “It probably didn’t help that I was shown throwing my bat when I got back to the rooms.”Some of the guys mightn’t have shaken Anil Kumble’s hand after the game but we were so wrapped up with the end of the game that they were already off the field. We all walked along when it was over and shook their hands.”He has also set himself a big task to get inside the hearts of all Australians. “What I want is for the Australian cricket team to be the most loved and the most respected sporting side in this country,” he said. “That’s always been one of my aims and it will continue to be.”Stuart Clark, who believes the arrogance claims come from media sensationalism, said a lot of the reaction had been “over the top”. “It seems like it is getting to the point where games will be played in silence,” he said in the Sydney Morning Herald. “Most of the talk in the Sydney Test was all pretty light-hearted, anyway, and that has been one of the reasons we have all been taken by a bit of surprise with what’s gone on after.”

Victoria have called on Clint McKay and Darren Pattinson as they face a familiar problem with several of their frontline fast bowlers missing through injury. The pair has been included in the Bushrangers’ 12-man squad for their FR Cup match against South Australia in the Gippsland city of Traralgon on Sunday.They were already missing Dirk Nannes with a foot injury and Gerard Denton with an ankle problem, but now Shane Harwood and John Hastings have been added to the casualty list. Harwood has a groin injury after playing in the Pura Cup win over the Redbacks this week, while Hastings had surgery earlier this week to have a pin inserted in a fractured finger.The veteran Mick Lewis also cut their pace options by one when he announced his retirement from state cricket on Wednesday. It leaves Peter Siddle to spearhead a less experienced attack, bringing back memories of last summer when all of Victoria’s contracted fast bowlers were injured at one point.The limited-overs clash will be the closest thing to a genuine home game for Siddle, who was born in Traralgon and was raised in the nearby town of Morwell. A win for the second-placed Redbacks would give them a strong chance of reaching the FR Cup final, while the bottom-of-the-table Bushrangers could jump as high as third with a victory.Victoria squad Aiden Blizzard, Michael Klinger, Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Cameron White (capt), Rob Quiney, Andrew McDonald, Adam Crosthwaite (wk), Peter Siddle, Clint McKay, Bryce McGain, Darren Pattinson.South Australia squad Matthew Elliott, Daniel Harris, Mark Cosgrove, Callum Ferguson, Nathan Adcock (capt), Daniel Christian, Graham Manou (wk), Mark Cleary, Ryan Harris, Jason Gillespie, Dan Cullen, Paul Rofe.

Tim May, the chief executive of FICA, the body which represents the international players’ associations, has attacked the way the Harbhajan Singh issue was handled by the two boards and called on the ICC to investigate their conduct.”Cricket has had three attempts to deal with alleged racial abuse of the same player and has failed on every occasion,” he told Cricinfo. “In the latest instance a player held an honest and reasonable belief that he had been racially abused. It does not matter if he may have been mistaken, the fact is, he held an honest and reasonable belief that he had been racially abused. For this, he has been portrayed as a villain.”The priorities of each board have been misdirected at best – one hell bent on protecting its image and the other hell bent on protecting its revenues. Allegations of intimidation, interference and some good old ‘backroom bullying’ have unfortunately been all too prevalent in this issue and other issues.”Racism is a sensitive and very serious issue within our respective communities. The boards have failed in their responsibility to uphold their respect for this issue. They have failed the players, they have failed both the ICC’s Code of Conduct and the ICC’s Anti Racism Code, and they have failed the communities where racism is a real, live issue.”After this latest episode and seeing how cricket handles this type of issue, why would any player possibly think about reporting any further instances of racism?” May asked. “You will be hounded by the press, you will be directly or indirectly will be intimidated by cricket officials and you will be hung out there to dry and be painted as the bad guy. Players should be approaching such matters with confidence that the system will support and protect you, not decimate and discredit you.”It’s the ICC’s duty to protect the integrity of their Code. I am confident that the ICC will launch a thorough investigation into the alleged actions of both boards and key officials – there are serious allegations of intimidation and interference of those involved in this hearing -and such allegations must be dealt with swiftly and decisively.”Cricket cannot have a repeat of this type of behavior. Boards and officials have a responsibility to the ICC, the game and the community. They must be held to these responsibilities and, just like the players, they must be held accountable for their actions.”

Cricinfo has learned that the Pakistan board is set to block any of its players who have signed contracts with the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League from playing domestic cricket overseas.As things stand, any player who wants to play abroad needs a No Objection Certificate [NOC] from their home board. But a PCB source told Cricinfo that Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, who recently signed for Yorkshire, would not be getting an NOC. “This is in line with our policy on the ICL,” the source said. “All players who do sign up with it will not represent Pakistan or domestic sides in Pakistan and anyway, Rana was not a contracted player of the board.”Perhaps the most high-profile case is that of Mushtaq Ahmed, who has been instrumental in Sussex’s success in the last five seasons and who is due to return to Hove next month. Although he was granted an NOC, he has since signed with the ICL. “We are considering withdrawing his NOC, because when we provided it to him last, it was a month and a half before he signed up with the ICL,” the spokesman said.Sussex have said they are “working with the ECB and the PCB in order to clarify the situation” regarding Mushtaq.Yorkshire’s chief executive Stewart Regan said that the county had given Naved-ul-Hasan an ultimatum – will he take part in the ICL or will he play for Yorkshire? “If Rana takes part in the ICL, he will automatically forfeit his Yorkshire contract. What we don’t know is how much Rana is being paid by the ICL, or whether he has signed a legally-binding contract.”

ScorecardNorth Zone wilted in their chase of 242 against West Zone, crashing to 121 inside 36 overs in Visakhapatnam. Wasim Jaffer and Rohit Sharma struck half-centuries for West, before the seamers dictated terms. Only three of North’s specialist batsmen managed to get past double figures, with Rajat Bhatia top scoring with 35.North had immediate success after choosing to field first as seamer Manpreet Gony sent back Yusuf Pathan in the first over before claiming Ajinkya Rahane in the seventh. Jaffer and Rohit combined to add a brisk 138 for the third wicket at just over five runs an over. A double-strike brought North back into the match as Jaffer fell for 64 to the legspinner Amit Mishra, and Rohit followed suit for 78, stumped off Bhatia. Rohit was the more aggressive of the pair – his 78 coming off 97 balls with nine fours and two sixes – while Jaffer’s 64 came off 92 balls with seven fours.The middle and lower order failed to build on after making starts as Sehwag and Gony chipped away at the wickets. Gony finished with 4 for 35 off ten overs while Sehwag managed his four-wicket haul in less than three.Ajit Agarkar and Munaf Patel picked up early wickets to leave North at an embarrassing 2 for 3. Besides the partnership of 46 between Virat Kohli and Bhatia for the fifth wicket, there was no resistance to speak of as North lost wickets at regular intervals. Munaf dismissed Bhatia for 35 while Iqbal Abdulla and Abhishek Nayar took two wickets each to seal the deal.

Corey Collymore, a bowler currently out of the West Indies squad, was Fidel Edwards’ secret weapon as he returned to the Test scene with three important wickets on the opening day of the deciding match with Sri Lanka. Edwards made the initial blows after the home side picked an all-pace attack, but the visitors recovered from 117 for 5 through an unbeaten 100-run partnership between Tillakaratne Dilshan and Chamara Silva.”I got a bit more focussed,” Edwards said. “Corey has been telling me that I need to be a bit more patient on this wicket and let the ball do the talking.”Injuries and inconsistent form have limited Edwards to 31 Tests and he came back into the squad after missing the opening loss in Guyana. He said being out of the team gave him time to reflect on advice from Collymore, who has not played an international match since last year’s tour of England.”We don’t live too far apart and we’re always talking,” Edwards said. “If we don’t talk in person, we talk on the phone and he has been talking to me a lot. He helped me a lot throughout the years.”Edwards used the tips on the way to picking up 3 for 50 in 12.3 overs, including the valuable wicket of Kumar Sangakkara for 10. “I thought the first spell was okay, I got the ball in the right areas most of the time,” he said. “It was swinging for me, it was overcast conditions.”He collected both openers before Jerome Taylor chipped in with a couple of wickets, but the bowlers’ task was made harder when the ball became wet after a series of rain breaks. “The ball has been going through to the keeper pretty nice and it has been seaming a bit,” he said. “The pitch has a lot of grass on it, hopefully it can get hard. It is not as fast as I thought it would be, but as the sun comes on it hopefully it can get hard.”

Scorecard
Sri Lanka completed a facile nine-wicket win over Bangladesh, following up a tidy display in the field with a professional chase of a paltry 121 with with 145 balls remaining.Sri Lanka chose to field first, and had Bangladesh in early trouble. Janakanthy Mala removed Shukhtara for a nine-ball duck and added Shathira Jakir in her next over, and left-arm spinner Suwini de Alwis struck to make it 29 for 3. Ayesha Akhter stuck around long enough to top-score with 30 from 75 deliveries but nobody else crossed 20 and Bangladesh were all out for 120 in 49.3 overs. Janakanthy Mala finished with the most excellent figures of 10-6-9-3 and was backed up by Shashikala Siriwardene’s 3 for 28.Rumana Ahmed struck early to dismiss Chamari Polgampola for 14 in the 15th over of Sri Lanka’s chase but that would be Bangladesh’s only moment of success. Dedunu Silva remained unbeaten on 66 from 82 balls, with the help of 12 boundaries, and added 81 in 11.4 overs, at 6.94 runs an over, with Siriwardene (23 not out) to wrap up victory.
Scorecard
India trounced Pakistan by 207 runs in the final league match after rattling up the highest total of the tournament so far. Three Indian batsmen got half-centuries after which Neetu David and Snehal Pradhan took three wickets each to bowl out Pakistan for a miserable 76.India, who have got four of the five 200+ totals in the tournament, were given an impressive start by the openers, Karuna Jain and Jaya Sharma, who added 114 in 20.4 overs. Anagha Deshpande and Mithali Raj put on 53 more before Raj and Rumeli Dhar added an unbeaten 90 to take India to 283.An out-of-depth Pakistan lost their first four wickets for 44 runs. Snehal Pradhan, a medium-pace bowler making her debut, removed Bismah Maroof off the second ball she bowled. Pakistan had crawled to 62 when left-arm spinner David took two wickets in one over to reduce them to 66 got 8. The misery lasted six more overs before India ended it ruthlessly. India will now play Sri Lanka in the final.