Mohammad Asif, the Pakistan fast bowler, and Mohammad Hafeez, the allrounder, will reinforce the squad in England before the fourth Test starting on August 17 at The Oval in London.”They [Asif and Hafeez] will be joining the team in next few days and will be considered for the fourth Test and the one-day series,” said Abbas Zaidi, the Pakistan board director. “Both of them will hopefully strengthen the side and give more options to the team management.”Asif, who has taken 25 wickets in five Tests, returned home before the first Test of the series (at Lord’s) with an elbow injury. He has since recovered and passed a fitness test on August 4.Hafeez, an opener and offbreak bowler, has been called up after a string of good performances recently for the A side against England, New Zealand and India. He last played for the senior team against India in April 2005 while the last of his last three Test appearances was against Bangladesh in 2003.Pakistan have not only had to struggle with injuries to their key bowlers, Shoaib Akhtar, Asif and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan but also with their opening pair. Pakistan have tried three different opening combinations in the three Tests in England so far with regular opener Imran Farhat being overlooked for the ongoing third Test at Headingley because of a finger injury.

Darrell Hair will fight any attempts to sideline him as a result of Sunday’s ball-tampering row. There has been speculation that the four Asian Test nations will try to push him out of the game, but Hair said: “If other people have issues they want to use to force me out it will be an interesting battle.”In a front page interview with Robert Craddock he made it clear he was not going anywhere. “I have always taken a lot of pride in my performance,” he said, “and while I am doing the best job I possibly can I am going to continue.”He also said that he had no regrets about his actions at The Oval that ended the Test a day early. “I stand by what I have done,” he said. “But if anything comes out at the inquiry that proves me incorrect I would accept that too. The process would have been followed. People who know me and the sort of person I am know I would not take action unless I really thought it was necessary.”And Hair denied there were any problems with his relationship with the teams from the subcontinent. “That is not something that is an issue for me,” he said. “There is no problem with me and the subcontinent. I have umpired quite a lot in the subcontinent over the last couple of years and when the ICC have asked me to do a job I try and do it to the best of my ability.”But the former Australian umpire Dick French told it won’t be that simple. “It’s a tricky one,” he said. “If the Asian bloc gangs up on him and says ‘We don’t want him appointed in our games’ there might be trouble. He can’t umpire Australia as a neutral, so he can’t then just umpire South Africa, the West Indies and England for the rest of his career.”Shane Warne has used his column in to defend Hair of claims of racism and bias. “He tries to do the best job that he can, like any other umpire,” Warne wrote. “He goes by the letter of the law and does what he thinks umpires ought to do. It is unfortunate that he has been involved in a couple of controversies in his time, but labelling him racist is unfair.”Ross Emerson, a Western Australian umpire who also called Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing and reported Pakistan for ball tampering, praised Hair for “having the balls to take action”. “There have been a number of occasions when there has been a suggestion or an allegation that a ball has been tampered with but in the end most of the umpires don’t want to do anything about it,” he said in . “If you accuse the subcontinental sides of anything it becomes an international incident. It becomes country versus country and you are called a racist.”Hair will take two days’ rest before the hearing begins on Friday in London where Inzamam-ul-Haq faces charges of bringing the game into disrepute and altering the condition of the ball. “The media criticism has been hot over here … that surprises me,” he said. “But life goes on … nobody died.”

A report in The Sunday Telegraph has claimed that comments made on Sky Sports by Rameez Raja during the fourth afternoon at The Oval may have sparked Pakistan’s protest which led to them forfeiting the Test.Rameez was outspoken on air about the actions taken by the on-field umpires and repeatedly cricticised their actions. “It was a big decision [by the umpires] and I totally disagree with what happened out there,” he said at the time. “I am disgusted with the way the laws have been interpreted. You cannot tell whether the ball was scratched, unless you catch somebody in the process. It’s a needless controversy.”As Rameez let rip, the article claims that the players inside the dressing-room quietly listened to the broadcast. “After watching the television and hearing what Rameez had to say, Inzamam was very angry and wanted to do something,” a source inside the dressing-room was quoted as saying.”Inzy asked Younis Khan [Pakistan’s vice-captain] what he thought about a protest and Younis said he would support whatever decision was made. Inzy then asked the team whether they agreed with staying off the field and everyone said they would support him.”Until August 2004, Rameez was CEO of the Pakistan Cricket Board.

As a part of their World Cup build-up plans, India will host West Indies and Sri Lanka for a series of one-day internationals in January and February. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the itinerary yesterday for a total of eight matches, four each against West Indies and Sri Lanka.India host West Indies in the first leg of the series, with the first ODI on January 21 at Nagpur. The next two games, at Cuttack and Chennai, will be day-night matches. Sri Lanka will play a warm-up game in Mumbai on February 6 before their first game at Pune two days later.West Indies’ will have happy memories of their last bilateral one-day series in India, in 2002-03, when the triumphed in a thrilling seven-match rubber. Sri Lanka, though, will not have too many fond memories of their trip last year when India thumped them 6-1. However, next year’s series promises a fair amount of needle with both teams, who’re slotted in the same World Cup pool, trying to gain the advantage before the big event.West Indies in IndiaJan 21 1st ODI Nagpur
Jan 24 2nd ODI Cuttack (d/n)
Jan 27 3rd ODI Chennai (d/n)
Jan 30 4th ODI Baroda
Sri Lanka in India Feb 6 Warm-up match Mumbai
Feb 8 1st ODI Pune
Feb 11 2nd ODI Rajkot
Feb 14 3rd ODI Goa
Feb 17 4th ODI Vizag

Stuart MacGill’s interrupted start to the season has continued after he injured his nose in a fielding accident while training on Saturday. The mishap forced him out of New South Wales’ Ford Ranger Cup match against Tasmania on Sunday and will also keep him from playing the FR Cup game against Western Australia at the SCG on Wednesday.MacGill has had a less-than-ideal three months after hurting his knee in Australia’s boot camp in the Queensland bush in August and incurring a two-week ban for a verbal stoush in a Sydney club game in October. The New South Wales selectors will wait for a report on his injury before deciding if he will play in the Pura Cup clash with the Warriors starting on Friday.Nathan Hauritz, who replaced MacGill in Sunday’s game and took 3 for 25, will again be the front-line spinner for the one-day match. The selectors have named a 13-man squad including Michael Clarke. However, if Clarke is required by the Australia team ahead of the first Ashes Test starting on Thursday, the 13th man Ed Cowan could replace him in the New South Wales team.New South Wales squad Phil Jaques, Simon Katich (capt), Michael Clarke, Dominic Thornely, Ed Cowan, Aaron O’Brien, Brad Haddin (wk), Daniel Christian, Moises Henriques, Aaron Bird, Nathan Hauritz, Nathan Bracken, Doug Bollinger.

Ramnaresh Sarwan, the West Indies vice-captain, hasbeen ruled out of the five-match ODI series againstPakistan due of a foot injury, sustained duringthe final day’s play of the Test series againstPakistan.Sarwan was batting on 35 when he was struck on theright foot by a vicious, swinging yorker from Umar Gulduring the 32nd over the West Indian second innings inthe morning session. He immediately fell to theground, in visible pain. After a few minutestreatment, he was carried off the field by trainers.He was taken to a local hospital for X-rays, whichconfirmed a small hairline fracture in his rightinstep. He will fly back to the West Indies before theODI series.Sarwan was recalled for this match after being droppedfor the second Test in Multan because of poor form. Inthe first innings, he had been bowled for a duck byGul, from another reverse-swinging yorker.Sarwan is a vital member of the West Indies ODI sideand widely regarded as one of the most accomplishedODI batsmen in world cricket. Though his form duringthe DLF Cup in Malaysia and the Champions Trophy inIndia was patchy, he averages over 44 from 115matches.

Scorecard

Ben Edmondson and Steve Magoffin humiliated Tasmania at Hobart, where the home side were bowled out for 94. Edmondson claimed six wickets and Magoffin four, justifying the visitors’ decision to bowl first before Chris Rogers continued his outstanding year and the Warriors reached 3 for 155 at stumps.It was Magoffin who started the damage, claiming Michael Di Venuto for 14 and then, in unusual circumstances, Tim Paine for 3. Paine was adjudged hit wicket after swinging his bat in frustration at missing a Magoffin delivery and accidentally hitting his stumps.Magoffin finished with 4 for 50 but Edmondson’s 6 for 28 – his best first-class figures – tore the core out of the home team’s innings. Michael Bevan’s 25 was the top score as seven batsmen failed to reach double figures.Rogers then added to the Tigers’ ordeal, making his way to 93 not out at stumps as the Tasmania fast bowlers failed to have the same impact as Edmondson and Magoffin. Rogers, the leading Pura Cup run-scorer in 2006-07, guided the Warriors to a 61-run lead at the close of play. His sixth score of 50 or more in eight innings was enough to push him past 700 runs this season at an average of more than 100.

Robin Uthappa cracked his fourth century of the season, taking hisfirst-class tally to a massive 831runs this season, as Karnataka stormedto a strong position against Saurashtra in their Ranji Trophy match atRajkot. Rahul Dravid, the cynosure of all eyes, helped himself to atypically even-paced fifty and Karnataka ended the first day on 329 for 4.After winning the toss and choosing to bat, with a steady stream of peoplecoming into the ground to get a glimpse of Dravid Karnataka got off to a poor start. There was a bit of assistance for the fast bowlers early on and Sandip Maniar got one ball to swing away from the bat late enough to pick up Barrington Rowland’s edge. Fora second Dravid, who has walked out to bat at No. 3 for India with prettymuch nothing on the board all season, must have thought, here we go again.But C Raghu went in at the fall of the first wicket, leaving Dravid withmore time on the balcony.Raghu, who has a wide array of strokes, was careful in getting his eye in,and ensured that he saw the new ball off. The best attempts of Maniar andSandeep Jobanputra were not good enough to breach the defences, and ithardly helped that Saurashtra were not latching onto the chances they werecreating.Uthappa, who began confidently, striking the ball powerfully throughcover, continued at a fast clip, rarely slowing down. Even in the initialstages, with the ball doing a bit, Uthappa was assured in his strokeplayand the footwork was never hesitant as he collected boundaries almost atwill. In the last Ranji match he had torn the Tamil Nadu batting attack toshreds, and here he seemed intent on doing the same to Saurashtra.The lunch break broke Uthappa’s charge, and when the players walked offthe field, he had 86 to his name, while Raghu had motored along nicely to48. The loss of the early wicket was put well behind. When theplayers came back after lunch Uthappa wasted no time – literally – ingetting to his hundred. Two fours and a big six, off the first three ballsthat Kamlesh Makvana sent down, took Uthappa to his century. But he was soon out to SP Jobanputra and Saurashtra may have let out a collective sigh of relief.Out walked Dravid, and though this wasn’t exactly Durban, with Andre Nel,Dale Steyn and Makhaya Ntini steaming in, he settled into his usualrhythm. He left the ball well early on, defended stoutly when the ballthreatened the stumps, and only went after what was loose. Raghu (83), whohad put on 167 for the second wicket with Uthappa, added almost 50 withDravid for the third, before he swept and missed and was trapped in front.Subsequently, when Dravid attempted to sweep a loopy offbreak, missed and was bowled,there might have been disappointment for the few hundred people gatheredat the Madhavrao Scindia Stadium to watch India’s captain bat, but for oneman, it was an absolute dream come true. For Makvana, the 23-year-oldoffspinner, it was a huge day just bowling to Dravid, forget about pickingup his wicket. It’s not often that the son of a groundsman gets to bowl toone of the best batsmen in the world.Kamlesh, the elder son of Rasiklal Makvana, the man who has been thegroundsman at this stadium in Rajkot for more than two-and-a-half decades,has been coming to this ground, initially called the Municipal Stadium,since he was a toddler. In fact, he has even worked on the ground himself- as casual labour – assisting his father.Rasiklal has been responsible for the pitch, the outfield and the generalupkeep of the ground for as long as even the old timers remember. He wasinitially with the fire brigade in Rajkot – that was what he was trainedfor – but over the years he had gained experience in working with cricketgrounds. Cricket runs in the family and while Kamlesh hasactually gone on to play first-class cricket for Saurashtra, his youngerbrother Vipul, a wicketkeeper batsman, is doing the rounds in Under-19cricket.With Dravid gone the crowd began to trickle out, but Karnataka lost noneof their focus. Yere Goud (38 not out) and Thilak Naidu (30 not out) dugthemselves in, and a Saurashtra attack that had lost one of its keybowlers, Rakesh Shruv, who fractured his hand fielding, could do little toeither pick up wickets or stem the flow of runs. When the day ended withKarnataka on an imposing score, there was plenty of hard work left in the game forSaurashtra.

When you walked into the gates at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, looking for the entrance of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) offices, you would have had little clue what to expect. In India, state associations felicitate their own so often, and with so little fanfare, that you expected the KSCA’s gesture to honour five of their legends would be much the same.But when you walked out to the ground, where all the action was, it was immediately clear that this was no small evening. A dais that would have done any awards function proud, on the outfield of one of India’s premier cricket grounds, with the de facto master of ceremonies for anything that meant anything in cricket – Ravi Shastri – presiding, it was clear that the KSCA was not holding back.It would be silly to skip directly to the beginning – where Chinmay, an upcoming young singer, sent the gathering to silence with a soulful prayer invocation – without examining the circumstances that prompted this evening. Brijesh Patel, the former Indian batsman, and secretary of the KSCA, has been the last, if not the most staunch, Jagmohan Dalmiyaloyalist. The current power group of the BCCI, headed by Sharad Pawar, only sidled in to welcome the KSCA into its fold once Brijesh burnt his bridges with his old ally.That done, and this is significant for there is now no opposition whatsoever to the current power group in all of the voting associations, the BCCI was keen to repay the faith with a show of strength. Hell, even Sharad Pawar went away from his prepared speech and cracked a few jokes.The whole evening, dominated by characters from Mumbai – the current power base of the board – was spent forging bonds. “I played for Mumbai, but I am, from Mangalore, right here in Karnataka,” Ravi Shastri, the former Indian captain, boomed, and as master of ceremonies, he had everyone’s attention. “When we came here to take part in many training camps through junior cricket, I remember staying in these very rooms. And we used to jump the gates and go to MG Road [the lively, commercial road not far fromthe stadium] to get a whiff of the sounds of the music coming out from a pub called the Blue Fox.”Professor Ratnakar Shetty, the administrative head of the BCCI, was also on the podium, and he did his bit to build bridges. “I was born and brought up in Mumbai, but I’m a ,” he said, eliciting applause. “I work in the Mumbai Cricket Association, and also in the BCCI, and if we were to have awards for the best-run association, KSCA would come first.”Even Sunil Gavaskar, a special invitee who spoke in the evening, could not resist playing to the gallery, and said, “Ravi [Shastri] and [Ratnakar] Shetty, have claimed allegiance to Karnataka, and now I must say I have a relationship too – my brother-in-law [Viswanath] is from here.”What was no doubt intended as a show of strength – from both the BCCI and the KSCA – was also an evening of exceptional cricket vintage and nostalgia. The Karnataka legends who were honoured – Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Gundappa Viswanath, Syed Kirmani and Roger Binny – richly deserved the attention they received.Chandu Borde, a man who led many of these cricketers, set the ball rolling, saying, “Chandra, for me you were the greatest.” Bishan Singh Bedi, so keen on participating in the occasion that he ended up using his mobile phone to snap a picture of those on stage once he was done, set the pace with a gentle anecdote. “I was once disciplined by the Indian board president. The charge was that I had sent Vishy to fetch a bottle of scotch from the captain’s room in the middle of the night,” he said. “All I could say, was, ‘what was Vishy doing in my room in the first place?’ And what was the captain doing at 2am? I assure you he wasn’t drinking milk.”Bedi soon moved on to more serious thoughts, congratulating the KSCA for their initiative in hosting the evening, and said, “such a thought will never occur to the people in DDCA [Delhi and Districts Cricket Association] or Punjab. Or anywhere in North India.”That sharp moment apart, it was an evening to celebrate some great cricketers. Gavaskar spoke about the joy of watching “batsmen being slowly taken to their death,” by Prasanna or Bedi, both looking for the classical dismissal of their respective styles of bowling. Chandrasekhar, of whom it is repeatedly asked, “has a more humble man ever played for India?” was true to form, not firing in unplayable deliveries, but thanking everyone from Yagna Narayanan [the first coach to spot him] to ML Jaisimha [hiscaptain at South Zone] to Tiger Pataudi. Interestingly, Chandra picked KenBarrington as the toughest batsman he had bowled to.Kirmani, usually flamboyant and not shy of being the centre of attention, would only say, “I dedicate all my skills behind the stumps to the legendary three spinners. I had to lift my standards to keep to them.” Kirmani also spoke of how he was taken as a 12-year-old boy to the Karnataka nets, at the RSI grounds in Bangalore, to keep to these spinners, and would return home bruised and battered. “My left side was black and blue, and my mother tells me I used to moan in my sleep in pain.”Binny, ever the quiet one, swayed gently out of the way of most questions that came his way. In the end, when all was said and done, the cricketers were happy, the public was entertained, and the KSCA was over the moon. They were finally back in business.

Brian Lara refused to look too far ahead – “It’s just one match” – but there was no denying his pleasure at the manner in which West Indies stormed to a 54-run victory in their opening game at the World Cup. In front of a raucous crowd that wasn’t quite capacity, they defended 241 with some disciplined bowling and brilliant fielding, and the margin would have been even more resounding but for a defiant innings from Shoaib Malik.”I still think the batting did it in spurts,” said Lara afterwards. “I thought 241 was a good total in the end. The guys did really well then, but we need to be scoring better throughout an innings.” He pointed the finger at himself and his senior colleague, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, for a sluggish start that saw West Indies scoring at less than three an over even after the halfway mark.The momentum shift started with Marlon Samuels, who stroked a superb 70-ball 63, and added 91 with Lara. “We left 20 or 30 runs out there then,” said Lara, talking about the slow start. ‘Myself and Shiv were pretty slow to get started. Samuels’ knock was crucial. It was a question of who was going to start it, and he did. He carried on too, and built onthat.”For Inzamam-ul-Haq and Pakistan, it was a depressing afternoon, after the bowlers had excelled for 40 overs. “It’s a matter of concern,” said Inzamam, when asked about the batting. “We have the experience in the middle order and the batsmen have to take responsibility.”He didn’t think his decision to field first had affected the outcome, with even Lara admitting that he would have chosen the same option. “Our bowlers did well,” said Inzamam, talking in Urdu. “I was happy with their effort to restrict them to a total that I thought we could chase.”There was no attempt to blame the pitch either. “It was a good one,” he said. “There was some help for the seamers, but I have to give their bowlers credit. They bowled a great line, and didn’t even need to use the spinners.”He was happy enough with his own spinner, though Danish Kaneria’s dismal fielding did bring a rare smile to his lips. ‘The fielding was sloppy,” he said in another masterpiece of understatement. “We’ll have to keep working hard on that over the next few days.”Lara was full of praise for the crowd – “You had to be out there to really feel the atmosphere” – and for Dwayne Smith, who justified the decision to play him ahead of Ian Bradshaw by taking three wickets and clouting 32 from just 15 balls. “He played really well today,” said Lara. “When he came in, we were looking at 225 or so. But then he started hitting it out of the park. And he got two of their best players out [Inzamam andYousuf]. But he knows he need to build on that.”So do West Indies, who started the last World Cup with a similarly impressive win only to lose their way subsequently. Soon after the toss on Tuesday morning, the organisers had given the crowd an opportunity to show their respect for the heroes of the 1975 and 1979 campaigns. But in reality, the best possible tribute to those giants of auld langsyne comes in the shape of performances such as the ones Samuels, Smith and Bravo summoned up against Pakistan.