Praveen Kumar, the Uttar Pradesh allrounder, has escaped unscathed after he fell from an open jeep during a reception organised after his return to Meerut from the Challenger Trophy.The procession had been organised by his fans to celebrate his selection in to the Indian squad for the first two one-dayers against Pakistan.He was rushed to the hospital and X-rays did not reveal any injury, police said. Kumar then went for a practice session to a nearby ground.Kumar took nine wickets for India Red in the Challenger Trophy, but his side lost to India Blue in the final.

Mohammad Kaif will lead a new-look Uttar Pradesh team in the Ranji Trophy and Suresh Raina will be the vice-captain.UP go into the season without left-arm seamer Shalabh Srivastava, Ali Murtaza and Avinash Yadav, who have all joined the Indian Cricket League (ICL). Srivastava has been a consistent performer for UP over the last few years. Moreover, the experienced trio of Rizwan Shamshad, Ashish Winston Zaidi and Gyanendra Pandey retired from first-class season last season. Pandey will coach the side this season, and Zaidi will be the team manager.Left-hand batsman Shivakant Shukla, left-arm spinner Praveen Gupta, and wicketkeeper Amir Khan, who were all tipped to join Railways this season, have chosen to stay behind and are all selected.Kaif and Raina, the two most important batsmen in the team, will look for support from youngsters Shukla, Ravikant Shukla, who captained India at the Under-19 World Cup, and Tanmay Srivastava, another India U-19 player.The bowling in the absence of RP Singh and Praveen Kumar, both representing India, and Srivastava, is without a spearhead. For Piyush Chawla, the first few matches will be crucial as he would look to draw his way back to the Indian team.Squad: Mohammad Kaif (capt), Shivakant Shukla, Ravikant Shukla, Tanmay Srivastava, Piyush Chawla, Amir Khan (wk), Rohit Prakash, Rahat Ilahi, Ratnesh Mishra, Praveen Gupta, Suraj Pratap Singh, Sudeep Tyagi, Tahir AbbasReserves: Parvindar Singh, Anshul Kapoor, Raj Singh and Abhishek Tiwari

Ashley Giles has warned Monty Panesar that Graeme Swann will be breathing down his neck for England’s spinner’s spot. Giles, who is now Warwickshire’s director of cricket after retiring earlier this year because of ongoing hip problems, believes Swann can push Panesar all the way.”Monty has done well,” Giles told the . “But if someone like Swanny bowls well, and gets some runs also, then there’s that niggling thing about ‘what else does Monty offer us?'”That’s not me saying that, that’s just how it is. Whereas last winter it was ‘why is Ashley playing? – Monty should be playing’. It might not be long before we get ‘Monty is playing, why isn’t Swanny playing? He offers us a bit more’. That’s just the natural scheme of things.””Monty is now the man in possession, but now he has the threat of Swann to deal with,” Giles said. “That’s the way it works, you fall off the end of the production line.”Swann is expected to make his debut in the Test series in Sri Lanka, having already impressed in his one-day recall this year. He offers good batting and fielding, which could further enhance his claims.Panesar, who has 20 Tests under his belt, himself only admitted last week that he didn’t see himself as England’s No. 1 spinner, although he gave firm reasons why: “The only reason I say that is because I am still young and need to learn. That number one tag is quite a strong statement.”Nevertheless, he would still be the favourite ahead of Swann should England opt for one spinner. They could, however, opt for two as they did during their 2-1 Test series triumph when they visited Sri Lanka in 2001.England play two three-day warm-up games in Colombo before the first Test starts in Kandy on December 1.

Scorecard

Justin Langer became Western Australia’s highest run-scorer as he and Chris Rogers reached unbeaten fifties to leave the Warriors strongly placed against Tasmania heading into the final day.Dan Marsh pummelled his way to 117 not out, and although George Bailey and Michael Di Venuto contributed half-centuries, Adam Voges still had the option of forcing the follow-on.Instead, he watched as Langer nudged past his friend Tom Moody’s 8853 career runs in a forthright opening stand with Rogers which left them 314 ahead and set for the push for outright points.The pair wasted no time laying into Tasmania’s attack as they brought up their hundred stand in the 25th over.Steve Magoffin added three wickets to pick up his third five-wicket haul in first-class matches as Tasmania were dismissed for 343.Marsh batted well with the tail to help put up some resistance and his century included ten fours and a six.

India have had a win in their battle over the umpiring in Sydney, with Steve Bucknor sacked from officiating in next week’s Perth Test and replaced by Billy Bowden. The BCCI later confirmed that they will continue the tour as planned after appealing Harbhajan Singh’s three-Test suspension although Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, conceded the appeal might not be heard before Perth. If the matter is not resolved by then India can pick Harbhajan at the WACA.”What we’ve seen over the last week is a lot of criticism of umpiring decisions, a lot of ill feeling,” Speed said at the MCG. “It’s not unlike the situation the cricket world faced at The Oval in 2006. What we need to do is to alleviate some of the tension that is focused on this match and one way of doing that is to bring in a new umpiring team.”Speed clarified, though, that this will not be the end of the road for Bucknor as an international umpire. “I expect that Steve will continue as an ICC Elite Panel umpire. He is coming to the end of his career. What we are seeking to do is take some tension out of the situation. Steve accepts that in the interests of the game and this Test match it is better that another umpire substitute for him … where the presence of one umpire becomes an issue that causes further aggravation we need to be sufficiently flexible.”Bucknor, meanwhile, remained in his Sydney hotel, waiting for the ICC to arrange a flight home for him while refusing to take any calls.Ratnakar Shetty, the chief administrative officer of the BCCI, said the board was satisfied with the ICC’s decision. “We had expected this and as far as processes go this is a satisfactory decision,” Shetty said. “So much happened during the Test and hence we filed an appeal complaining against umpire Bucknor.”Neither of the on-field officials from Sydney will stand in Perth, with Mark Benson originally scheduled to be replaced by Asad Rauf, an appointment that remains. The ICC’s chief match referee Ranjan Madugalle will fly to Australia to act as a mediator between Anil Kumble and Ricky Ponting in an effort to restore the relationship between the sides. Mike Procter will remain as the match referee and will hear the offensive-language case against Brad Hogg, which is likely to be held in Perth.”His [Madugalle’s] only function in the Test will be to work with both of the captains, in effect as a mediator or a facilitator to make sure that the ill feeling that has evolved between the teams dissipates,” Speed said. “And that this Test and the following Test are played well and truly within the spirit of the game.”Harbhajan may be eligible to play in Perth after Speed indicated the appeal process might not be resolved quickly. “An appointment of a very senior judge will be made in the next 24 hours,” Speed said, “but I’m not able to announce that at this stage.”He said the appeal would include re-telling of the evidence that Procter heard at the SCG on Sunday night. “That involves some ten players and officials,” he said. “Some of them are in Canberra, some of them have gone home. They’ll be gathering in Perth ahead of the Test some time next week. I simply don’t know whether it will be able to happen before that Test.”Speed not only felt the remaining two Tests would occur, but was confident the tour game in Canberra, which is due to start on Thursday, would be completed. “Compensation if those Tests were not to be played is a matter of contract between Cricket Australia and the Indian board,” he said. “It would be a fairly complicated contractual dispute if that were to happen, but I don’t believe it will happen.”

Lalit Modi, the chairman and commissioner of the Indian Premier League (IPL), has said that there might be some Australian “casualties” when IPL franchise owners start recruiting players. Modi hinted the popularity of Australian cricketers had fallen “dramatically” in India after the controversial Sydney Test, which might deter team owners from signing them.”We sincerely hope there is no impact [on their involvement in the IPL]. It will be for the team owners to decide,” Modi told the . “But there definitely will be some casualties from the feedback we are getting.”Mike Hussey, Michael Clarke, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds have all signed expressions of interest for the lucrative ICC-sanctioned league, where the players are expected to rake in big bucks.Modi also said that India may revise its Test itinerary with Australia in its effort to accommodate more teams in its playing schedule. “Other nations who we play less with currently want to increase the number of matches we play with them,” he said. “We will need to balance this in the Future Tours Programme. We cannot increase the number of games India plays in total. So we will have to play less with some and more with others.”The demand to remove umpire Steve Bucknor from the Perth Test and the threat to abandon the tour if the racism charge against Harbhajan Singh was not overturned led to suggestions that the BCCI was flexing its financial muscle to get things done, but Modi said the BCCI respected the authority of the ICC.”No one country can run the game. We have to all collectively run the game. Unlike in the past, the future for cricket will be best served if all have a voice,” he said. “[The BCCI] definitely respects the ICC. It has a big role to play and will continue to be good for the game.

Owais Shah has insisted England can replicate their series win in Sri Lanka last year and overcome New Zealand, in spite of a six-wicket hammering in the first of five one-dayers on Saturday.England were dismissed for a paltry 130 on a slow and low surface in Wellington, a total New Zealand took just 30 overs to knock off. But Shah maintains that like in Sri Lanka, last December, when England were comprehensively beaten in the first one-dayer, they can bounce back to win the series.”We haven’t quite adapted to the conditions out here – the outfield and the pitches,” he said. “But we’ve been working hard in the nets and getting used to the conditions [more] as every day goes on. [It’s] similar to what we did in Sri Lanka a few months ago when we adapted to the conditions after the first game when we got a hammering. We came back strong, adapted and went on to win the series.”And in spite of England’s two comfortable wins in the preceding Twenty20s, Shah wasn’t surprised by how strongly New Zealand fought back.”They’re third in the world and there is a reason why they are up there and we expected them to come out and fight,” he said. “They’ve had a bit of criticism after the Twenty20 matches so we knew they would be working hard and trying to get back, which is what they did, and it’s now up to us to do the same.”The second one-dayer gets underway on Tuesday in Hamilton.

The Wankhede Stadium has an expectant air about it. Enter through the Polly Umrigar gate and it resembles a construction site, while on the other side the Vinoo Mankad gate leads one to the swank BCCI office, a sign of a huge shift in progress. The ground itself is expecting a complete overhaul, which will put it out of action for some time. But before that happens, Wankhede has some cricketing business to take care of: the Duleep Trophy final, and North Zone and West Zone – the finalists – owe it a good contest over the next five days.It helps that both teams are battle-ready, after having fought their way into the final from a difficult corner in their respective final league matches.North were 28 for 3 on the first morning against East Zone, but their captain Mithun Manhas led a middle- and lower-order resistance to take them to 183 for 6. The last four added 177 more as they wore the East bowlers down. In the second innings, Manhas and Aakash Chopra completely dominate the bowlers in their 368-run unbeaten partnership and sealed North’s participation in the final at Wankhede.West Zone had more trouble entering their match against the England Lions. They needed an outright win to enter the final. A draw was not an option even if they ended on the favourable side. Things looked bleak when the England Lions ended the first day at 273 for 4, but West stuck to it to bowl the Lions out for 355 and then gained a 139-run first-innings lead to get to a position from where their bowlers could at least work towards an improbable Lions collapse. Yusuf Pathan and Siddharth Trivedi did just that to set up an easy win in the end.What’s more North and West are evenly-matched sides with similar line-ups. They both have at least two batsmen in the top order who have been prolific in the domestic season so far; they both have an allrounder each who has stepped up every time his team has needed him; and they both have uncertain bowling attacks.To add to Parthiv Patel and Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle order, West now have the services of Wasim Jaffer who scored 151 to set up the win against the Lions. North have Chopra and Manhas, who when teamed up with Yashpal Singh and Shikhar Dhawan on their good days, make a potentially dangerous batting line-up.Chopra and Jaffer provide an interesting individual contest within the final. India are still without stable Test openers, and they will be looking for one before South Africa come for three Tests in late March. Jaffer, who was dropped for the last two Tests in Australia, has come back and scored big. Chopra, on the other hand, has done enough throughout the season to remain in the selectors’ minds. He scored three centuries to aggregate 783 in the Ranji Trophy, the most important innings being his century in the final to resist the Praveen Kumar onslaught. His double-century against East was his third this first-class season.But perhaps the Most Valuable Players might just be Rajat Bhatia and Pathan – their zonal and state teams will have realised that by now. Bhatia has good memories of Wankhede, as it was him and Chopra who scripted an amazing turnaround to help Delhi win the Ranji Trophy.Pathan scored his third whirlwind century of the season in the Duleep Trophy opener, and then took the crucial five-for against the Lions. If one were to pick an XI from the current domestic season, Bhatia, for his consistency, and Pathan, for his audacity, would fight for the allrounder’s slot. The next five days might be a good stage to settle the imaginary contest. Moreover, the two will want to end what has been perhaps their best first-class season on a high note.But the two sides haven’t fared well in their bowling. An obvious reason is they haven’t had the time to figure out the best combination; they have played only two matches together. Munaf Patel and VRV Singh’s availability and non-availability hasn’t helped either. In the one match he played for North, VRV Singh has shown the ability to bowl in devastating bursts. North will look at VRV to be the main strike bowler, with Vikramjeet Malik and Bhatia doing their steady medium-pace bits.The big decision for Manhas is whether to go with two spinners or an extra seamer. If he picks an extra seamer, he has to choose between Ashok Thakur and Samiullah Beigh, and drop either Amit Mishra or Chetanya Nanda. Manhas will have to discuss his match strategies with senior players since North don’t have a coach any more. They had Vijay Dahiya for the first match but he was called back by Delhi to be with the Ranji one-day team.Munaf’s absence, having played the first match and then leaving to join the Indian team in Australia, leaves West without any fire power in the bowling department. Trivedi and Sandeep Jobanputra haven’t really carried their Ranji form over to Duleep and they are left with the difficult task of leading the attack in the final. Rajesh Pawar, who hasn’t made any impression, and Ramesh Powar, who hasn’t even been picked in final XI, have given West further headaches. Parthiv might look towards his state team to strengthen the attack by picking Ashraf Makda and Mohnish Parmar, the latter having made his way into the squad after Powar was dropped.The bowling gives North a slight edge, but this one promises to be a contest between the batsmen. The Wankhede wicket hasn’t troubled the batsmen much this season, and the one for the final looks like another good wicket for them. Both captains said they expected some early movement with good bounce and little lateral movement. That should make stroke-playing easier and productive.Teams:
North Zone: Aakash Chopra, Shikhar Dhawan, Karan Goel, Mithun Manhas (capt), Yashpal Singh, Rajat Bhatia, Uday Kaul (wk), Amit Mishra, Chetanya Nanda, Vikramjeet Malik, VRV Singh, Ashok Thakur, Joginder Sharma, Samiullah Beigh, Sachin Rana.West Zone: Sahil Kukreja, Wasim Jaffer, Ajinkya Rahane, Parthiv Patel (capt/wk), Cheteshwar Pujara, Rakesh Solanki, Yusuf Pathan, Rakesh Dhurv, Sandeep Jobanputra, Siddharth Trivedi, Ashraf Makda, Mohnish Parmar, Samad Fallah, Pinal Shah.

England’s hopes of victory in the second Test against New Zealand in Wellington have taken a serious blow after their hero of the first innings, James Anderson, twisted his left ankle while playing football on the outfield after the close of the third day’s play.Anderson was a surprising selection for this match ahead of Matthew Hoggard, but he excelled in the first innings taking 5 for 73 in 20 overs of pacy swing bowling. According to an England spokesman, he received immediate ice treatment after going over his ankle during England’s warm-down session.There are no plans to send him for a scan as yet, and he was able to put weight on his foot soon afterwards. But he was seen leaving the ground on crutches, and it remains to be seen whether he will be fit to bat when England resume tomorrow on 277 for 9, let alone bowl.If Anderson is unable to lead the attack, England’s chances of drawing level in the series will rest on their remaining frontline seamers, Ryan Sidebottom and Stuart Broad, as well as the spin of Monty Panesar. With an overnight advantage of 421, they would still remain huge favourites against a side that has only ever passed 400 twice in the fourth innings and lost both matches, but even before the news broke, New Zealand were confident of putting up a fight when their turn comes to bat.”We’re pretty jovial, there’s a lot of time left in the match,” said Kyle Mills, who felt that the pitch conditions had eased significantly on the warmest day of the match so far. “If we get a day like today tomorrow and our batsmen can get in and cement themselves, I think it’s game on because we bat a long way down.”We feel a tick over 400 is definitely gettable,” he added. “Hopefully we can get the final wicket fairly early tomorrow and hopefully there won’t be many too clouds around. If we can get that sun on the wicket it can turn onto a flat one. There’s so much time left in the match.”Paul Collingwood, who carried England into the ascendancy with his second half-century of the match, also agreed that the conditions for batting had improved overnight. “With the sun being out all day today, it has dried it out a touch,” he said. “So we’ll have to wait and see what it plays like tomorrow. There is still a little bit in there though.”England may have one eye on past contests if the track does turn out to be flat when their turn comes to bowl. On their last tour in 2001-02, Nathan Astle gave them an almighty scare with an incredible 222 from 178 balls, and carried New Zealand within 100 runs of chasing down a total in excess of 500.Astle has moved on, but with aggressive strokeplayers such as Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum in their middle order, Collingwood predicted that New Zealand would come out fighting once again. “I think they will play the same way they are always playing and that’s pretty positive,” he said. “That is a good thing for us because it gives us chances. They’re an aggressive side and if they get to four or five-down it’ll be interesting to see how the McCullums and Orams come out to play it. It’s a big total but the wicket has played really well and we have to bowl well to stop them from getting the target.”Another man who could be expected to rise to the occasion is the former captain, Stephen Fleming. He has never scored a century on his home ground at Wellington, and in his final appearance before his retirement, tomorrow would be the perfect day to break that duck. “He’s a class batsman and I’m sure he’ll want to cement his mark on this Test match,” said Mills. “He always talks about doing well against England, but I’m sure he’s looking forward to making a big contribution tomorrow.”New Zealand’s record in Test run-chases is not too great, but the same players have enjoyed some notable success in one-day cricket, including against Australia last year when they twice chased down totals in excess of 330. “Australia posted those big scores and I guess at half-time people were writing us off and never thought we’ll reach them.”But this is just another target for us. There’s a lot of belief in this team and if we play to our potential, play well and get the conditions to suit us, all I can say is game on, we’ll definitely be fighting right to the end that’s for sure.”

Shoaib Malik refuses to underestimate Bangladesh, despite marshalling a152-run thumping win in the opening game of the five-match ODI series againstthe visitors in Lahore. A century from Mohammad Yousuf and 85 from thecaptain himself set Pakistan up before Sohail Tanvir, Rao Iftikhar Anjum andShahid Afridi wrapped up a comfortable win over a strangely insipidBangladesh.Malik, however, insisted that it was dangerous to draw too manyconclusions from the game. “You can’t judge a team on one match alone.This is cricket where you can’t take any team lightly,” he said. “We setthem a big target and sometimes if you get a good start, you can push thechase close. But our bowlers did really well to take early wickets to putthe pressure on.”Pakistan also plans to give opportunities to players who have impressed inthe domestic ABN AMRO cup, though the first target, Malik insisted, was towrap up the series. “This is not a time-pass series for us. We are takingit seriously and we want to improve our fielding and fitness during it.”Our first priority is to win the series. After that we will look at someof the guys who have done well in the domestic tournaments and give them achance.”As has been the recent trend, Pakistan used a combination of Malik andAfridi for the fifth bowler duties and though both have done well againstadmittedly limited opposition, the ploy will need reworking in tougherenvironments.”We should have a sixth bowling option,” Malik admitted. “We tried thissame line-up in Jaipur against India last year, except we had Fawad Alamin place of Afridi. But we need options for example if one of the bowlersbecomes unfit during a match. This is still an experimental combinationthat we are playing.”The series moves on to Faisalabad for the second game, on April 11.