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A day after helping Lahore Badshahs become ICL champions, Mohammad Yousuf returned to Pakistan to launch a stinging attack on the PCB and Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik. At the same time, Yousuf vigorously defended both his decision to join the ICL and the status of his new employers.Yousuf arrived in Karachi Monday afternoon and immediately addressed a press conference at a friend’s residence to “clear up some misconceptions about my going to the ICL.””I have no issues with this current set-up,” Yousuf said, referring to the new PCB administration. “I do have issues with the previous set-up. You all saw what was happening with me. I am the senior-most player in the side but when I was dropped from the Twenty20 World Cup no one spoke to me at all. Without being tested in a Twenty20 game I was dropped from the squad. How is that possible?”Yousuf referred often to Malik, though when pressed repeatedly by reporters to specify particular grievances, he didn’t reveal details. “For four years we were good friends. I still think he is a good player but who knows why he has become like this. Shoaib Malik is the captain and I was the senior-most player. I felt I wasn’t getting the respect that I should be given. Look at Dhoni. He takes his senior players along – this guy never took me along. Only I know what I have been through the last one and a half years, the disturbance I have felt.”Yousuf had signed with the ICL in 2007 but turned his back on the contract after the PCB administration of the time, desperate to have him back, promised him a lucrative IPL contract. However, the ICL took the matter to court and Yousuf was left in legal limbo, not allowed to play for either league.Finally, earlier this month, Yousuf signed up with the league again, the same contract as he had signed up on last year. The PCB, as a result, banned him, as it has done other ICL players. But Yousuf said he had been wrong to turn his back then and wasn’t willing to leave the ICL if the PCB offered him a way back to national colours.”I made a mistake when I turned my back on the contract last year. I was misguided by the PCB. They told me ICL would stop me from playing for Pakistan which is not true. Why should I now leave the ICL? They are not banning me from playing for Pakistan. If Pakistan want me to play I will still play for them – everything I am is because of Pakistan. If they had called me to Abu Dhabi I would have gone,” Yousuf said.Yousuf robustly defended the ICL, throwing a veiled punch at the BCCI for pushing other boards to ban players. “What is the difference between the ICL and the IPL?” he asked. “They are both private leagues. The ICL isn’t banned by the ICC. It is banned by someone and you are getting hurt because of it. Only Pakistan is suffering from the ban. India is benefitting. We both got knocked out at the World Cup 2007 but look where they are and where we are now. All we are doing is playing cricket.”Yousuf, who will fly back to India on Tuesday to get ready for the ICL World Series, said he hadn’t gone to the ICL for the money, claiming that Pakistan duty would have been more lucrative. He all but ruled out negotiating a return through the PCB. “If I speak to the board now, they will try and convince me again to leave the ICL. I have been down this route before and look where that left me.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

The opening game of the ICL came to an abrupt halt as the lights failed and the Hyderabad Heroes were awarded an 18-run win by the VJD method. At 10.57 PM, six overs into the chase, the ground plunged into darkness – a power cut that affected much of the surrounding area – and the game was eventually called off at 11.40 PM.The evening had started brightly with a simple and short opening ceremony that ended with fireworks.Razzaq started the entertainment with two fierce square cuts off Mohammad Sami in the second over of the innings. The first whizzed over backward point, the second flew right over the point boundary. But Sami had his revenge in the same over when he induced Razzaq into a nick behind.Ambati Rayudu ensured the hosts put up a competitive score. The highlight of his stay was a nonchalant pick-up shot over midwicket boundary against Shahid Nazir. While Rayudu attacked, Jimmy Maher, the opening batsman, stitched up one end and rotated the strike neatly. Rayudu’s big hits were greeted by swaying cheerleaders and a delighted home crowd – 20,000 people had packed into the stadium.In all this razzmatazz there was a bit of nostalgia too in the form of Saqlain Mushtaq. That familiar exchange of the ball between the palms, the stuttering run-up, the high left-arm as he gets into a side-on position, and the familiar release – they were all still intact. Even the old accuracy remained till Rayudu spoiled it in Saqlain’s third over with two sixes: the first was hoisted over midwicket and the next one, a doosra, over long-off. Later in the chase another former Pakistan great was seen in action; Inzamam-ul-Haq square-drove and then played a characteristic punch off the back foot. However the technical glitch served as an anti-climax to the season-opener.

A day Australia feared at lunch would become impossible turned into something less intimidating by stumps. Not that the tourists had reason to be pleased. Just that there was relief in the camp following the earlier desperation.Australia’s mid-day fightback prevented them from being out of the game and a couple of hours later an Indian total of 311 for 5 felt like the situation was almost even. The home side is well ahead, but Australia will remain in the contest if they can dismiss the hosts quickly on the second morning. Given the pitch’s current condition even that could be a tough ask.India’s batsmen showed their might on a surface made for them and Australia’s attack, which was missing Stuart Clark and carried a debutant in Peter Siddle, struggled for impact at the beginning and the end. The first hour felt like the opening of a one-day game, with Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir slashing at any bowling misdirection and racing to 70 in the 15th over.Despite a brief and unexpected rally of 3 for 17 in the middle session, the day finished as it had begun – with India in control. “We actually finished off alright, five wickets for only 311 in the end,” Siddle said. “When considering in the first session they were 1 for 150 at one stage, we came out of it in not a bad position.”Siddle experienced the sort of return a fast bowler playing his 13th first-class match could have expected. He showed zippy speed and flashes of hope, the same ones which have impressed the selectors who want him to be a long-term option, but was not helped by the tendency to lose his line. At this level, against these batsmen, there isn’t any margin to lapse. He recognised the “massive step up” in intensity but started to relax in his second spell.In one over in the morning to Rahul Dravid, Siddle could not believe a reasonable ball had been flicked to square leg for four. He just stared at the batsman in disbelief. Later in the over a fuller ball went to the midwicket boundary. Life at this level is tough. Bowling at Sachin Tendulkar was harder, but more rewarding.Siddle kept sprinting in without success until he picked up Tendulkar in his first over with the second new ball. Two fours were followed by a play and a miss and an edge to Matthew Hayden at first slip. It was a satisfying note after he had been the bowler operating when Tendulkar became the game’s highest run-scorer.”It being me puts me in the record books,” Siddle said. “To get him out is a great thrill, a real privilege.”Showing an old-school fast bowler’s outlook, he started his Test career with a fierce, short delivery around 140kph that was perfect. Gambhir took his eyes off the ball as he ducked, providing Siddle with his first scalp.”I went with the bouncer and it wasn’t a bad first delivery,” he said. “I think I broke his helmet, so that’s always pleasing.” Brett Lee used to speak like that too.The Australians talk about bowling in partnerships, building the pressure in the hope that the guy at the other end can benefit from a maiden. Siddle bowled only two in 18 overs as he returned figures of 1 for 80.However, he was able to watch the fine work of Lee and, particularly, Mitchell Johnson throughout the second and third sessions. Lee recovered from a poor opening and Johnson showed his growing maturity with three wickets and superb control. Any debutant needs to learn quickly but, faced with such a powerful batting order in foreign conditions, Siddle has to be particularly attentive in order to help his new side.

Habibul Bashar, the former Bangladesh captain, has said he was prompted to join the ICL because of the lack of respect and importance shown to him by the team management. He has also criticized the Bangladesh board’s decision to axe several senior players at the same time (after the 2007 World Cup) and said he hoped the Indian board would not do the same.”Towards the end of my international career, I became a lonely figure. I didn’t command the same respect from the guys,” he was quoted as saying in the Times of India. “I would sit alone in the dressing room. During critical situations, nobody would come to me for any suggestion, though I was the senior-most guy. A feeling crept in that you were no longer required.”Asked whether he discussed this with Mohammad Ashraful, his successor as captain, Bashar said he didn’t feel comfortable speaking about it with a junior cricketer. “More than Ashraful, it is coach Jamie Siddons whose behaviour amazed me,” Bashar said. “I have never said a single word against him in the media and this man is not leaving a single opportunity to take a dig at somebody who has played 99% of Bangladesh’s Test matches.”The composition of the Bangladesh team underwent a radical change after senior players including Bashar, Javed Omar and Mohammed Rafique lost their place in the one-day side soon after the 2007 World Cup. “The trouble started after the India series that followed the World Cup. Suddenly, the board and the team management went for a complete overhaul,” Bashar said. “Introducing five or six juniors simultaneously at the international level is foolish. I sincerely hope the BCCI uses the ‘phase-out policy’ in a better way than the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).”Bashar said he would have retired from international cricket in any case but was hurt about being banned for ten years by his cricket board. “I know they (the BCB) are dependent on Indian sponsors and the Indian board. I can’t blame them for their stand. It’s just that having played so many years for the country, the term ‘banned Habibul Bashar’ really hurts.”Bashar was named the captain of the ICL team Dhaka Warriors, who start their campaign on 11th October.

Bangladesh were completely undone by their batting in their 3-0 loss to Australia in the ODIs in Darwin, according to chief selector Rafiqul Alam.”I think bowling and fielding-wise, the tour was good, but the batting was terrible,” Alam told the . “The batting in the last match was especially frustrating as we lost an opportunity while chasing 198 runs. Our batsmen surrendered meekly against the Australian pace attack.”Alam, who travelled with the team to Darwin, spoke about some of the factors which may have hampered Bangladesh’s progress. “I don’t want to give any excuses but the wicket was not perfect for one-day cricket,” he said. “With the absence of Aftab Ahmed, Mushfiqur Rahim, Raqibul Hasan and Shahriar Nafees, we had a depleted batting line-up. Unfortunately, over the last few months, we have never had a full-strength team due to injuries or players attending exams.”When asked about the fate of Mohammad Ashraful’s captaincy and coach Jamie Siddons’ statements about his poor batting form, Alam said: “Its not in my jurisdiction because the board has the sole authority to decide on the issue.”I can say that Ashraful was not bad as a captain because the way he handled the bowlers and changed fielding positions was good,” he said. “But the main problem is that he has struggled with his batting.”Alam said he was looking forward to the upcoming home series against New Zealand. “We’ll get back a full-strength squad and most importantly, we will play in our own conditions,” he said. “We are pinning our hopes on an improvement in our batting [compared to what was] seen during the Kitply Cup and the Asia Cup in Pakistan. I am hopeful that the players will get back their confidence in the coming series.”Bangladesh started their tour on the poor note when they lost the first ODI by a massive 180-run margin after being bowled out for 74, their lowest score in one-day internationals. In the second match, they continued from where they left off, folding for 117 on the way to an eight-wicket loss. They had a chance to earn a consolation win in the third ODI, but besides Tamim Iqbal, who top scored with 63, none of their batsmen where up to the task.

Scorecard
New Zealand topped the league phase of Emerging Players Tournament after beating India in a rain-curtailed contest at the Allan Border Field. The match was initially reduced to 31 overs, and finally to 20, and India fell short of New Zealand’s 116 by four runs.Both teams failed to build momentum during their innings with wickets falling frequently. India sent New Zealand in and struck immediately – Manpreet Gony dismissed Jesse Ryder for a duck. Martin Guptill added 34 with Peter Ingram for the second wicket, the highest partnership of New Zealand’s innings. Guptill was bowled by Dhawal Kulkarni for 24 and New Zealand lost seven wickets for 71 runs.Kulkarni had the best figures among India’s bowlers, taking 3 for 14. Ravindra Jadeja picked up 2 for 32 with his left-arm spin.India’s revised target under the Duckworth/Lewis method was a moderate one – 115 off 20 overs – but their chase started disastrously. Brent Arnel ripped through the top order, taking 3 for 7, and barring Shikhar Dhawan, none of the top six got into double figures. The chase was salvaged by Jadeja, who capped an all-round performance by scoring 42, and Pinal Shah who made 22. However, Jadeja was run out by Bradley Scott and the tail folded with the score on 110.New Zealand face the Australian Institute of Sports, who finished second in the league, in the final of the tournament on July 26. India will take on South Africa Emerging Players in the third-place play-off.
Scorecard
David Warner struck an unbeaten 119 to help secure Australia’s second spot in the league with a 32-run victory against South Africa in a rain-shortened match at the Albury Oval. He shared an opening partnership of 125 with Theo Doropoulos, who scored 65, and steered Australia towards a match-winning total of 208 in 25 overs.Rain delayed the start and reduced the match to a 36-overs-a-side contest. Australia raced to 115 after 15 overs before there was another interruption in play. On resumption the match was curtailed to 25 overs a side and once the Australian innings finished on 208, South Africa’s target was scaled up to 224 off 25 overs.South Africa’s chase never took off with wickets falling at a steady pace. Eight batsmen got into double figures but no one made a substantial score. Wicketkeeper Daryn Smit’s 33 at No. 8 was the highest score.

Scorecard

Last year it took until the final ball of the season to split Sussex and Lancashire, while in recent times their meetings in the Championship have taken on the mantle of grudge matches. Players from both teams have been commenting on how they have felt as intense as a Test, and the first encounter for 2008 is shaping up as another ding-dong battle after Sussex bounced back from Sajid Mahmood’s 5 for 76 to reduce the visitors to 67 for 4.Both teams would have hoped to be higher than fourth and seventh respectively – with just one win apiece – before the Twenty20 break. Sussex haven’t found the going very easy as they aim for a hat-trick of Championship titles, but the division is so close (just 19 points between first and ninth) that anything is possible with a good second half to the season. That applies to Lancashire, too, but the strong position they had after Mahmood’s haul was eroded by the close.Having fallen for 253 in good batting conditions, Sussex made inroads of their own as Lewry claimed two wickets in two balls. First he bowled Paul Horton, who didn’t offer a shot to an inswinger, then trapped Mal Loye lbw straight away with another that ducked back. Faf du Plessis got a thin edge off Robin Martin-Jenkins and for the second time Lancashire lost two on the same score as Lou Vincent was superbly held at third slip. Vincent hadn’t held back in his strokeplay, launching a straight six down the ground plus another lofted cover drive, but Lancashire needed more permanency.Mahmood’s fourth five-wicket haul of his career continued the impressive form he showed in the Twenty20. The England selectors will be avid viewers for this match, but more for the progress of Andrew Flintoff, so Mahmood picked a good time to send a reminder of his credentials. He struck during the morning session, then returned to mop up the tail.After a shambolic run-out to dismiss Chris Nash, captain Chris Adams dragged Mahmood into his stumps before Murray Goodwin clipped lazily to square leg. Michael Yardy, shifted up to open, was threatening a substantial innings but got an outside edge to slip off Gary Keedy, where Stuart Law held a sharp catch to his left. Law was in the action again, this time diving to his right to Matt Prior after he’d looked dangerous.The middle order was missing Luke Wright, out with a back spasm following the one-day series, but Martin-Jenkins led a post-lunch fightback, striking a positive half-century. Carl Hopkinson helped him at 88 before becoming Keedy’s second wicket, snapped up at short extra-cover by Flintoff. Martin-Jenkins was proving more troublesome to dislodge and, shortly before tea, Law turned to Faf du Plessis’ leg spin. It did the trick, although Martin-Jenkins will have nightmares about his shot as he missed an attempted pull against a long hop.With the looming challenge of South Africa, inevitably there will be plenty of focus on Flintoff, especially given England’s poor results in the one-day series against New Zealand. He has been handled extremely careful during the recovery process from his side strain, beginning with a gentle second XI outing before a return to bowling in the Twenty20 and now this Championship fixture. But one four-day match is precious little time to prove fitness (and form) ahead of a crucial Test series.The buzzword whenever Flintoff has bowled this season – on both sides of his injury – has been pace, with batsmen throughout the country being made to hop about. But the surface at Hove didn’t offer him the life of Old Trafford. He bowled two seven-over spells, his first costing just nine runs, and kept the batsmen on their toes. The selectors will decide on Thursday whether he’s done enough. Before that he has some serious batting to do, and it’s an understatement to say that side of his game hasn’t gone too well this season.

A gaffe in paperwork has thrown Yorkshire’s Twenty20 Cup campaign into chaos, forcing the postponement of their crucial quarter-final clash against Durham at Chester-le-Street, when Yorkshire’s 17-year-old offspinner, Azeem Rafiq, was deemed by the ECB to be ineligible to play.Rafiq, a former England Under-15 captain and the youngest to have played in the Twenty20 Cup, represented Yorkshire against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge on June 27, helping to lift the club into the quarter-finals. However, two hours before their match today against Durham at Chester-le-Street, the ECB called it off when it transpired that Rafiq, who came to Pakistan about seven years ago, was not registered to play first-class cricket. Furthermore, his presence in the country was also under question as he doesn’t hold a British passport.Should Yorkshire’s game against Nottinghamshire be made null and void, the ECB’s Cricket Discplinary Committee could replay it.”ECB made it clear to both counties that in view of the alleged ineligibility of Azeem Rafiq that it was possible that the panel could order the replay of any match or matches which could affect any quarter-final,” a press release from the ECB said. “The ECB are convening a meeting of the panel as a matter of urgency so that any relevant matches will be played before Twenty20 finals day at Southampton on July 26, 2008.”According to a disconsolate Martyn Moxon, the Yorkshire coach, Rafiq’s mistake was to miss a minor point on one of his forms. “Obviously it’s a very complicated set of rules,” he told Sky Sports. “As I understand it he was on our list as [a player] but as an academy player rather than a full-time player. He needed to have signed a piece of paper that he agrees to sign a rules and regulations of the ECB. Unfortunately he [didn’t sign it] and that’s where the problem arose. Since then it appears his status in the country [is also] under question.”The problem then was that the player is not qualified as an English cricketer, so if Yorkshire had applied for registration, they would have had to de-register Rana Naved [the Pakistani allrounder] to be able to play Azeem Rafiq in the game against Nottinghamshire.”Clearly there is a precedent from a Worcestershire-Gloucestershire game where a match was replayed, but the panel has wide-ranging powers and that can lead into all sorts of areas – whether that be fines, disqualification, replaying the match, it is up to the panel to determine.”A point of confusion, if not concern, is the delay in the ECB’s handling of the matter. Moxon implied that the board knew of the situation 24 hours after their match against Nottinghamshire but David Collier, the ECB’s chief executive, insisted that the affair only came to their attention early this morning.”The fact was, we didn’t know – we pointed it out to Yorkshire in terms of his ineligibility. That was only found out very first thing this morning,” he said. “It was found out from our own internal department who were checking on players’ registrations, and it did not appear there was registration with this player [Rafiq].”The consequences are complicated, not only for Yorkshire but for Nottinghamshire and Glamorgan who could suddenly be handed a lifeline into the quarter-finals should Yorkshire be thrown out of the competition. It was a possibility to which Moxon appeared to be resigned. “As I understand it there’s going to be some kind of hearing,” he said, “so we’re hanging on by our fingernails at the moment.”Durham had sold 6000 tickets for today which will now need to be refunded. “Through no fault of our own, and without feeling too sorry for ourselves, we seem to be suffering all round,” said Geoff Cook, the Durham coach. “We have to wait until the process is sorted out between Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire and, I think, Glamorgan, and then we will expect to play the winners here at the Riverside. It’s very complicated, very sad for the game and very sad for the competition. I feel very sorry for the lad involved.”

Dale Steyn, the fast bowler who was named South Africa’s Cricketer of the Year, has attributed his excellent season in Tests to improved ball-control. In the four months of Test cricket South Africa have played this year, Steyn picked up 44 wickets at 15.29 from seven matches.”My control has definitely improved and it’s like anything: once you enjoy a bit of success, you feel confident you can do it again and again and you get on a roll,” Steyn said after winning in all four categories that he was nominated for in South Africa’s annual cricket awards. He said his career was greatly influenced by Shaun Pollock. “I really put a guy like ‘Polly’ up on a podium because for him it wasn’t the awards or the acclaim that he was after. He only cared about results and whether the team was winning,”South Africa have two big tours this year – to England this month and Australia in December – and Steyn was upbeat about his side’s chances of winning. “I would really like to have a go at them and I’ll be hoping to perform at my best against them and help the team to beat them.”Steyn compared his bowling style to that of James Anderson, the England right-arm fast bowler, who picked up 19 wickets in the three-Test series against New Zealand, including a career-best 7 for 43 in the first innings at Trent Bridge. “The way conditions have suited him [Anderson] and the way he’s been blasting through batsmen are very encouraging,” said Steyn, who will be making his first tour to England. He was also looking forward to bowling with the Duke ball. “Obviously the pitches are important over there, but the Duke ball has a prouder seam and once you get the lacquer off, you can really get it swinging.”South Africa begin their tour of England at the end of June, with the first of four Tests starting on July 10 at Lord’s.

Will Pucovski is all-but ruled out of the start of the Ashes series after not recovering from his latest concussion in time for Victoria’s next Sheffield Shield match and his state coach Chris Rogers has cautioned against rushing him back into the national set-up.Pucovski was hit in the nets last month and suffered his 10th concussion dating back to a football injury when he was a teenager. After he missed the trip to Sydney last week it was hoped he would pull up for the return fixture at the MCG on Friday but symptoms are persisting and he has yet to bat again in the nets.”It’s no doubt a setback. I’d say now it’s unlikely he will play in the first Test,” Rogers said. “All the people in these conversations understand we have an immense talent on our hands. We want him playing in three, five, 10 years so these are the decisions we are going make in his best interests and hopefully we can set him up to have a long career.”He is now highly unlikely to be included in the large group of Australian players that will head to Queensland later this month to quarantine ahead of a intrasquad match that is set to decide final Ashes selection.Pucovski made his Test debut against India at the SCG in January and that is the last competitive game he played due to a shoulder injury sustained in the match which required reconstructive surgery.Related

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Although there remains hope he could feature in the yet-to-be-confirmed third Shield game between Victoria and New South Wales, the condensed nature of the Ashes schedule and his lack of cricket means it is increasingly likely he may not feature at all.”No doubt there’s a lot of frustration for him, he wants to be playing,” Rogers said. “It’s an interesting one as well, he hasn’t played for seven [nine] months so to walk straight back into the caldron and perform against very good opposition that’s going to be really difficult. The decision is to look after him and allow him a bit more time to prepare in the right way rather than rush him into matches that will have a lot of intensity and scrutiny.”In this situation there’s a strong desire to get him into that Australian side because he’s such a talent player but…there’s got to be some thought about what’s in his best interest and how that plans out. He’s still so young, there’s so much time left in the game for him so no need to rush him back into a Test series when he hasn’t even played professional cricket and isn’t 100%.”Pucovski’s absence would leave his Victoria team-mate Marcus Harris as the likely opening partner for David Warner at the Gabba – the same pairing that featured against India in January. Harris started his season with a second-innings century against New South Wales to follow his strong returns with Leicestershire.Usman Khawaja, who has made two Shield hundreds this season, will also be in the frame but could be considered for a middle-order position with the No. 5 spot yet to be locked in. Travis Head has made a strong case with a productive start for South Australia and had previously been recalled for the postponed South Africa tour earlier this year having been dropped midway through the India series.