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Jhulan Goswami, the India women’s captain, believes the team’s recent experience of touring Australia will be of help when they return to contest the World Cup in March. India were thrashed 5-0 by Australia in a one-day series last year, a result that took their run of losses to nine. They have not played international cricket since.”We felt bad. After all, we are representing our country,” Goswami told the . “On the plus side, we now know about the wickets and conditions in Sydney, where we will play our World Cup matches.”On the dismal tour of Australia, India got the chance to play at two grounds that will host World Cup games – the Manuka Oval in Canberra and one at the North Sydney Oval.Things haven’t gone India’s way since winning the Asia Cup last year and the batting has been a major area of concern. The squad for the World Cup includes three new faces – Poonam Raut, Harmanpreet Kaur and Sravanthi Naidu. “Poonam is an opener who did well in the inter-state one-dayers, in December. Harmanpreet is a young allrounder who has done well in domestic cricket. Sravanthi bowls left-arm orthodox and came up with big performances against big teams in the national meet,” said Goswami.India, who were losing finalists in the 2005 World Cup in South Africa, had a camp at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore in January and will have another in Mumbai from February 19-28 before leaving for Australia on March 1.

How the worm has turned. On England’s last visit to this ground in 2004, Chris Gayle was bowled by Steve Harmison late on the second day after he had thrashed three typically aggressive boundaries. It was an impetuous innings which didn’t serve his team well and a day later West Indies were staring at a thumping eight-wicket defeat.Five years on and a far more mature Gayle leads a West Indies team that holds a 1-0 lead in the current series. A win here and they will regain the Wisden Trophy for the first time since letting it slip away in 2000. Since the time they relinquished the prize, with a defeat at The Oval, they have barely challenged England – until this tour.”We are in a position to turn it around, just like in the first Test in Jamaica and hopefully it can be the same here in Barbados,” Gayle said. “Hopefully we can put up a good fight after the last Test. We aren’t accustomed to being in these positions over the last few years and we need to try and build on this. Take it session by session and the first day of any game is very important.”The positives vibes in the West Indies camp would have been very different if one more wicket had fallen in Antigua. They were a distant second best for most of the game and Gayle admitted they need to move on.”The disaster at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium changed things and the switch to the ARG put us on the back foot,” he said. “It wasn’t to our advantage. But we are still 1-0 up and need to move into this game. We have to come out and hit the ground running. In the last game we were at bit flat, that’s true, so this time around we need to be positive. This game can determine the series.”West Indies have shown faith in the same squad from Antigua although there is pressure to make changes. Devon Smith has underperformed as opener and in the middle order, while the returns have been low with the ball for Daren Powell, who was their batting saviour in Antigua. Gayle, though, is eager to bring some stability to the team.”We don’t just want to chop and change,” he said. “These guys have experience, but it’s good to go into a selection meeting and have some tough questions. Lendl Simmons has been in terrific form and Lionel Baker has picked up wickets, but it’s about coming up with the right formula and not trying to change things too much.”Yesterday, coach John Dyson said he wanted the team to use the massive travelling England support as motivation and Gayle agreed it would be nice to see some more locals turn out. “We can look at it as though we are playing at Lord’s. We saw a similar thing in Antigua as well. It would be nice to have some local supporters in the arena as well but it seems like it is turning into a business. That is out of our hands, we just have to concentrate on things in the middle.”After a period in the 1980s and 90s where West Indies didn’t let go of the Wisden Trophy, the last decade has been all about England domination. For this West Indies side to turn that run around would be a significant feather in the cap of captain and coach. “It would be a turning point,” Gayle said, “but it’s a long corner to turn and we still have two more games to go.”Winning this series would be tremendous for us. Playing against England is always a big fight and the challenge is always there. There’s no doubt at all; we can pull it off.”

IPL officials and franchise representatives have welcomed the ECB’s revised 21-day window – announced yesterday – for its players to participate in this year’s tournament but say several conditions must still be met before those cricketers turn out in the league. These include a two-year commitment from the players and a four-week window for non-Test players.Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, told Cricinfo that the ECB’s three-week window would satisfy the IPL’s requirements but only if there were no strings attached. “England players will be considered if we get answers to the above [conditions] by Monday, along with the No-Objection Certificates (NOCs) for next two years.”The IPL’s views, he said, have been conveyed to the ECB through N Srinivasan, the BCCI secretary, mandated by the Indian board to negotiate on their behalf. “Most of the players listed for the first auction last time, including those from Australia and South Africa, were signed on three-year contracts backed by firm commitments of availability by those boards,” Modi said. “We are only asking the ECB for a similar official commitment.”The IPL administration appears to have the backing of the franchises on this issue. While franchise officials admitted that heavyweight players like Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff would be the top draws at the auction – to be held in Goa on February 6 – they said any significant investment on the England stars would depend on their availability next year.”If we are going to bid for an English player at the auction, we would need a commitment for at least two years,” Tim Wright, chief executive of Deccan Chargers, said. “We are 100% with the IPL on this. Such a commitment is essential for a franchise because team-building and balance is a long-term exercise that requires a certain element of continuity.”Amrit Mathur, chief operating officer of Delhi Daredevils, said a two-year commitment was the sensible way forward. “I can understand the IPL asking for two-year commitment because now the contracts are of two years,” he said.A Rajasthan Royals official said that it didn’t make business sense for franchises to sign players who came with just a one-year participation guarantee. “No one would want them for just a year,” the official said. “We have to be assured of their availability for the period of the minimum contract period at least. It’s difficult to run the business otherwise, especially because the IPL has prohibited the signing of temporary replacements.”There have been reports of English counties preparing to seek compensation for their players who turn out in the IPL – and so miss part of the county season – but Modi said it would not be agreeable to the IPL.

Shane Watson could be out of international cricket for up to six months after being diagnosed with stress fractures in his back, while Andrew Symonds and Brett Lee also face significant injury lay-offs. Lee is heading for surgery on his left foot this week and could be out for eight weeks, while Symonds is having an operation on the knee that troubled him through the Boxing Day Test.The injuries have forced a trio of changes to Australia’s squad for the Sydney Test. Australia’s physio Alex Kountouris said Symonds had been nursing a sore knee since he “landed on it funny in Adelaide” and the intention was always for him to have surgery after the South Africa series.However, with Sydney now a dead rubber, Australia will take the opportunity to send Symonds under the knife sooner so that he might recover earlier. Kountouris said the exact nature of Symonds’ injury was unclear, as was the timeframe for his comeback.”It’s hard to know, depending on what they find,” Kountouris said. “We might have a good idea after tomorrow night when he has the surgery. There are things that could cause him to be out for four weeks, it could be eight weeks, depending on the extent of the damage.”Lee’s time out of the game is also likely to be eight weeks as he will now have clean-up surgery on his left ankle as well as on the stress reaction in the fourth metatarsal of his left foot. The problems for Lee and Symonds might have opened the door for Watson to play in the Sydney Test had he not also succumbed to an ongoing back injury.Watson had been playing with a sore back for the past three weeks, although Kountouris insisted he had been available for selection in Melbourne, where he acted as 12th man while Lee was off the field. Regaining full fitness for the Ashes is now Watson’s primary goal.”Unfortunately I got diagnosed yesterday with stress fractures in my back,” Watson said on the . “It’s been over the last month my workload, especially during the Sheffield Shield games I played for Queensland, really spiked.”My back has been sore for the last three weeks. I knew something wasn’t exactly right when bowling in the nets and my back was really sore. Unfortunately it’s part and parcel of what I’m trying to do, building up my workload and bowling overs that I wanted to but unfortunately I just went over the edge a little bit too much.”Watson’s best-case scenario would be to return to batting within the next month, although he is unlikely to be able to bowl for at least four months. Kountouris said there was no reason Watson should give up bowling and the injury-prone allrounder is keen to retain both aspects of his game.”I’m going to have probably four to six weeks rest just to let the fracture heal then start batting, play as a batsman for Queensland, depending on what other games are coming up,” Watson said. “Then just build up my bowling again and get things right and hopefully learn from this and hopefully not go to the edge next time and be able to keep bowling for a long period of time.”[The Ashes is] probably our best point in time from what I’ve been told already. That’s definitely my goal to be able to make sure I’m up and firing before the Ashes so that’s my goal as an allrounder.”

Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lanka captain, has denied that overconfidence stemming from playing weak opponents resulted in his disappointing form during the one-day series against Zimbabwe.Though Sri Lanka swept the series 5-0, Jayawardene scored 19 runs in four innings- his worst performance in a bilateral five-match ODI series- at 4.75, with a highest of 15 in the first ODI in Harare, and ducks in the last two games. He even experimented with opening the batting in the last match, but failed to score off 12 balls.”As a top-order batsman there is always pressure and expectation on me to perform but, like any cricketer, one goes through a lean spell, when you don’t find your rhythm and as a result can’t spend time in the middle,” he was quoted as saying on the ECB website. “But the most important thing is you realise where you went wrong and try to rectify that as quickly as possible. I have played enough cricket to realise that.”In the previous ODI series, a five-match encounter at home against India, Jayawardene finished as the highest run-scorer for Sri Lanka with 185 runs at 46.25. He was second to Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the overall standings for the series, which the hosts lost 2-3.”I have never had overconfidence in my life. In 11 years of international cricket I’ve never walked into a game with overconfidence,” he said. “I’ve known that I have to work very hard for my runs and that is what has worked for me.”For five games [in Zimbabwe] the highest total was 170, the conditions here were very tough and we knew we had to work very hard to get runs. So it wasn’t overconfidence, just that maybe the options that I took, preparation and shot selection, were the wrong ones and I will need to work on that.”Though the result gave the impression of a lop-sided contest, Zimbabwe did manage to run Sri Lanka close in the last three ODIs. Jayawardene said though his team had reached their goal of winning the one-day series, Zimbabwe deserved to be given more respect.”We achieved it but it was not the most convincing way of doing it. You need to consider the conditions we played in and also that Zimbabwe rose to the occasion, especially in the last two or three games. They [Zimbabwe] performed really well, especially with the ball. At the end of the day we were put under pressure, but winning 5-0 is always good.”What you have to realise is that Zimbabwe is a good team, they’ve got talent but they haven’t been consistent. We knew that as well and so we were prepared when we came here. We never said it would be a walk in the park.”Sri Lanka chose a young side for the tour and were without Sanath Jayasuriya and Chaminda Vaas, and Jayawardene was pleased with the way the squad had responded strongly after being put under pressure. “We expected a tough challenge and it was a very good experience for us, especially a young team with only three senior players who had over 100 caps. So it was a good experience that we will take to the next World Cup.”The next assignment for Sri Lanka is an away series later this month in Bangladesh, where they will play two Tests followed by a tri-nations ODI series also involving Zimbabwe.

Federal Areas wicketkeeper Jamal Anwar narrowly missed the record for most dismissals on first-class debut during the Pentangular Cup against Punjab in Islamabad. Eighteen-year-old Jamal took ten catches, including seven in the second innings, which was one short of Samarjit Nath’s record of 11 dismissals.Jamal equalled Nath, an Indian wicketkeeper, for most catches by a keeper on debut – 10 – but in addition to the catches, Nath also had a stumping while playing against Tripura in Guwahati in 2002. In what was his only first-class match, Nath had eight dismissals in the first innings – seven catches and a stumping – and three catches in the second.The record for most dismissals by a keeper in a first-class game is 13, held by former Zimbabwe wicketkeeper Wayne James, who pouched 11 catches and effected two stumpings for Matabeleland against Mashonaland County Districts in Bulawayo in 1995-96. James’ seven catches and two stumpings in Mashonaland’s first innings is the most dismissals in an innings. In the same game, he scored 99 and 99 not out.Jamal had played four games against India Under-19s in September 2006 and was standing in for regular keeper Naeem Anjum, who suffered a foot injury in the first-round match against Sind in Karachi. Jamal himself played despite a finger injury. He represented the Rawalpindi Rams in two games in the ABN-Amro Twenty20 Cup earlier this season.

Mohammad Yousuf, the Pakistan batsman, has formally signed up for the ICL, ending months of uncertainty surrounding his move. The announcement brought a swift response from the Pakistan Cricket Board, which banned him from “any type of cricket” in Pakistan and terminated his central contract.”I have decided to sign for ICL,” Yousuf – who will play for Lahore Badshahs – said in New Delhi. “There was a misunderstanding with the ICL. I was misguided and confused and not able to take a decision earlier.”He also expressed a wish to continue representing the Pakistan national team. “See, I want to continue playing for Pakistan and the ICL authorities also have no problem with that,” he said. He was included in a 15-man squad to take on West Indies in three ODIs later this month, and the PCB will name a replacement, most likely to be Karachi batsman Khalid Latif.However, the PCB’s decision will have put paid to that. “Yousuf will remain banned from playing any type of cricket in Pakistan as he has joined the unrecognised Indian Cricket League,” Zakir Khan, PCB’s director of operations, told Cricinfo. “His central contract has also been cancelled.”Yousuf had initially signed up with the league in September 2007, in protest at being axed from Pakistan’s squad for the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa.He was later lured out of playing in the ICL by the Pakistan board, with the promise of a lucrative contract in the IPL. But the ICL took the matter to an arbitration court in Mumbai, arguing that as Yousuf had signed up with them, he was ineligible to play for any other league.A stay order was passed against Yousuf’s participation in the IPL, though an appeal was later filed by the PCB on Yousuf’s behalf in the Bombay High Court.ICL officials said their legal wrangle with Yousuf has been sorted out and they will file a joint statement in court. “We have resolved matters mutually,” Himanshu Mody, ICL’s business head, said.That isn’t necessarily the end of Yousuf’s legal headaches. The Pakistan board, said Zakir, is looking into recouping “the legal costs we incurred in fighting Yousuf’s case earlier.” IPL officials, meanwhile, said they will look at legal options against Yousuf’s latest move because they had already paid a significant sum of money as advance to Yousuf. But Mody said that Yousuf’s association with the IPL would not be an issue because “there is no contract and no payment made”.

Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman, has ruled out the possibility of official sanction to the Indian Cricket League (ICL) as it fails to meet the norms of ‘authorised unofficial cricket’. Modi added that it wouldn’t be possible to sanction the ICL because there is no window in the international calendar to accommodate the tournament.Modi, who is also a BCCI vice-president, is part of a five-member ICC panel to review the laws governing official and unofficial cricket. He also emphasised that the BCCI isn’t just sidelining the ICL and that similar tournaments that come up will be treated the same way.”Recognition comes with a lot of caveats and with lot of conditions and lot of rules,” Modi told the business news channel CNBC-TV 18. “I do not think this particular tournament (ICL) would be able to adhere to those conditions. If you look at a window, where is the window at the end of the day? We are having a tough time ourselves at the BCCI.”It is not only the ICL. The ethos and the new tournaments that are coming up by corporates are for profit making. So it is not one issue. There are many issues that are involved in terms of deciding whether what official cricket or unofficial cricket should be and this is a mandate the ICC is looking into.”Modi felt there was no place for parallel leagues in sport today. “In every country, in every sport there is a pyramid system for running and controlling a particular sport,” he said. “We need to ensure that that pyramid is intact and that from the ICC’s perspective whatever partnerships that the ICC and its members have with their commercial partners or with their players, is there to stay.”Looking back at the first season of the IPL, Modi claimed that three teams, including the Kolkata Knight Riders, have broken even but added that it would take at least four years for all eight teams to break even. The top two sides – Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Superkings – will take part in the inaugural Champions Twenty20 League from December 3-10 and Modi said those teams will naturally benefit more.”I think in year one, three teams will make money realistically,” he said. “But I originally predicted that they would all break even by year four. Rajasthan Royals (the IPL winners) have now qualified for the Champions League and they get a large purse and participation fees.”Clarifying the rules for trading players for the second season – set to get underway in April 2009 – Modi said teams that have spent less than the US$ 5million cap for the first year will not be able to carry over the remainder for the next auction as it would give them an advantage over the others.The IPL auction will take place in Mumbai on February 6 for franchises to purchase new players and an extra US $2 million will be given to each for that purpose. The maximum number of foreign players per team has been increased from eight to ten. Teams will now have the option of transferring players and Modi confirmed that that the transfer price and revenue sharing after the transfer will have to be mutually decided between the player and the team owner.”Teams and club owners, when they bought the team in year one they bought blindly,” Modi said. “Since the owner has signed a three-year contract with a particular player, he will decide whether to put that player in the trading window and then he needs to get the consent of the player before putting him on the trading window. Then they have to decide mutually what the price is going to be. The base price must remain same as the auction price because the player can’t get anything less.”

Dimitri Mascarenhas has been named captain of England’s Hong Kong Sixes team for the two-day tournament in November. He was overlooked for both the one-day and Twenty20 sides to play in India and the Stanford Super Series despite his domestic success.Graham Napier, who hit 152 against Sussex in the Twenty20, is also included in a strong seven-man team. Ed Joyce will probably act as the wicketkeeper, while all the other players can perform with bat and ball.The tournament will be held at the Kowloon Cricket Club on November 8 and 9. The event will again include an All-Stars team, who were beaten in last year’s final by Sri Lanka.Squad Dimitri Mascarenhas (capt), Tim Bresnan, Ed Joyce, Darren Maddy, Graham Napier, Jonathan Trott, Graham Wagg

VVS Laxman, the Deccan Chargers captain, has said that it was a “collective failure” that resulted in the franchise finishing last during the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League in 2007-08 and said he was “really shocked” that team-mate Shahid Afridi criticised his performance in public.”Afridi has no team ethics. Speaking negatively about the team in public, let alone the captain, is just not on,” Laxman told . “Being an experienced cricketer, he should not be questioning the way the team functions. I am really shocked to say the least. He should know that it was a collective failure because he was part of the team. It is unfortunate that he chose to blame the captain for it.”Laxman was reacting to Afridi’s statement that Adam Gilchrist would have been a better choice to lead the side than Laxman. “At times Laxman lost the plot on the field,” Afridi told . “Twenty20 cricket is not his forte. Adam is more comfortable in this type of cricket.”Gilchrist was one of the two most successful players for us along with Rohit Sharma. He played some really good innings and his input was very good at times on the field. If they do appoint Adam as captain I think he would be a better choice than Laxman.”Both Laxman and Afridi performed poorly during the IPL. Afridi was one of the most high-profile failures, scoring only 81 runs in ten innings. Laxman sustained an injury after six games, in which he scored 155 runs, and Gilchrist took over as captain. The Deccan Chargers won only two out of 14 games in the league.”Probably it is time someone told Afridi that a captain can only be as good as the team and to blame only me is totally out of place,” Laxman said. “The truth is that the team did not perform to its potential. Every player should take the blame for it and try and comeback strongly in the next edition instead of blaming each other.”There was not much I could do after I fractured my hand and heeded the team’s request to travel with it. So just being with the team does not mean I was influencing the decisions on the field. Gilchrist was totally in charge of the game once he took over from me and being a true professional, he does not take orders from others and was instrumental in making the decisions in the middle.”