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Pravin Amre, the former Indian batsman, has been appointed assistant coach of the Mumbai Indians for the second season of the IPL. Amre fills in the breach left after the departure of Lalchand Rajput, who stepped down for “personal” reasons, walking out of his three-year contract. Amre’s signing is part of the ongoing hiring process at the Mumbai franchise, which recently appointed the former South African captain Shaun Pollock as a mentor.Amre, who coached the Mumbai Ranji team to two trophy victories in the last three years, said he took the offer from Mumbai Indians because it would offer him international exposure. “With my experience as the Mumbai coach I will be acting as the bridge between the domestic players and the coaching staff, mainly Pollock,” Amre said.Amre was part of a bunch of candidates who were asked to give their presentation two days ago but his handsome CV as a coach and also his experience on the South African circuit clinched the deal in his favour. Amre was part of the 1991-92 tour and even scored a century on debut in Durban. He later played for Boland in the South African domestic circuit in 1999 where he got the chance to move around the country.Mumbai Indians officials confirmed Amre’s appointment but did not divulge much on Rajput’s exit. “He [Rajput] has put in his papers citing personal reasons,” a Mumbai spokesperson said. Rajput, however, was unavailable for comment.

Queensland have followed up their awful result against Victoria in the last preliminary game of the season by naming a 15-man squad for Friday’s final at the Junction Oval. The Bulls were taken for 806 in the Bushrangers’ only innings and have called on the legspinner Daniel Doran, Scott Walter, a left-arm fast bowler, and opener Nick Kruger to provide them with extra options.Chris Swan delivered only eight overs in the match at the MCG due to a groin injury while Lee Carseldine, who has a back problem, will also be given until Thursday to prove his fitness. It is not the ideal build-up for Queensland, who limped into second to qualify for their 11th final in 14 years.While the Bulls have a lot of fresh faces in the extended squad, Martin Love, who is retiring after the match, said Andrew Symonds and Shane Watson would have a big say in the result. “It does come down to those guys,” Love told AAP. “We’ve got [Symonds] and Shane Watson with the bat – they are the guys who can turn a game in a session. We probably have more of those [match-winners] than they do.”The Bulls beat Victoria in the FR Cup decider last month and Love has faith in the team to hit back at the most important time. “We’ve got a good record in finals and Victorians don’t,” Love said. “We will certainly let them know about their record under pressure and hopefully that will make a difference for us.”Doran has played four matches this season, picking up three wickets at 69.66, while Walter, who is 19, did not gain a breakthrough in his debut. The Bulls are searching for other avenues after Ben Laughlin returned 2 for 223 from 55 overs at the MCG and Nathan Rimmington had 0 for 183 off 44.Chris Simpson, the captain, was the most successful in Victoria’s first innings with 4 for 194 on a strip made for batsmen. However, the Junction Oval pitch is also unlikely to help the bowlers much and Victoria must only draw the game to take the trophy.Queensland squad Ryan Broad, Nick Kruger, Martin Love, Shane Watson, Andrew Symonds, Lee Carseldine, James Hopes, Chris Hartley (wk), Chris Simpson (capt), Daniel Doran, Chris Swan, Ben Cutting, Nathan Rimmington, Scott Walter, Ben Laughlin.

Bryce McGain must have walked under a ladder to avoid a black cat on Friday the 13th. What else could explain the terrible misfortune of being struck down by a stomach bug on the eve of the first Test in Johannesburg six months after he looked sure to make his Test debut in India until being sent home for surgery on his armpit?In the lead-up to the series in South Africa, McGain, 36, had been expected to play his first Test at the Wanderers. Instead he was left out of the 12-man squad due to a combination of the rainy weather, seam-friendly conditions and his illness, which first struck during the tour game in Potchefstroom, where he was unable to take the field in the second innings due to food-related gastroenteritis.”It’s been all the fast bowlers, particularly the swing bowlers, that have done very well at this particular venue,” the Australian captain Ricky Ponting said on Wednesday. “With the weather the way it’s been and with the wicket being a bit soft we just felt that the seamers would probably get more assistance than the spinners would, through the course of the game.”As it turns out, Bryce was quite ill up in Potchefstroom and he’s actually gone down again overnight today. He’s not at training today so there’s a lot of things that you take into consideration when you’re picking a team.”McGain and Nathan Hauritz, who was also left out, will come into contention in the second Test at Durban but for now the spin responsibilities are likely to fall largely on the shoulders of Marcus North, who is expected to make his debut as the No. 6 batsman. He collected a career-best 6 for 69 in Potchefstroom on the weekend and Ponting was confident North could handle the role with some assistance from Michael Clarke, whose back soreness will prevent him from bowling long spells.”I think he can do a job for us,” Ponting said of North. “I think he showed that in Potchefstroom. He probably got some wickets that he might not have otherwise got, in the second innings, with the game sort of petering out the way it was.”But I stood at first slip and was very impressed by the way that he bowled and used his changes of pace and control through that game. We know that he can give us some spin overs if required.”However, the bulk of the bowling is expected to be done by Australia’s four-man pace attack. The medium-pacer Andrew McDonald is in the squad along with the fast men Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle, Doug Bollinger and Ben Hilfenhaus, and one of the five must miss out.Ponting does not have Stuart Clark to call on during the tour as he recovers from elbow surgery. It was on the last trip to South Africa that the then-debutant Clark seamed the ball so dangerously that he was the Player of the Series in Australia’s 3-0 win. Ponting hopes Siddle, the second-most experienced member of a green fast-bowling group, can be the man to step into Clark’s role this time.”Peter Siddle is probably the bowler who is most like Stuey,” Ponting said. “He is not a real swinger of the ball but he gets the seam up and hits the seam all the time. That’s what Stuey did over here so well last time.”However, Ponting expects the pitches to be slightly different from the seaming surfaces that confronted the side in 2005-06. Back then, there was one man who could scare the South Africans from 30 metres away.”They were really worried about Warney last time which is why they had a fair bit of juice in them,” Ponting said. “No Warney this time so I think they might be a bit flatter wickets or a bit better batting wickets anyway.”Not only is there no Shane Warne, there is no replacement. McGain will be watching from the dressing-rooms hoping desperately that the conditions – and his stomach – are more cooperative in Durban.

Andrew Symonds is on track to make next month’s Test tour of South Africa following knee surgery on New Year’s Eve. Symonds missed the Sydney victory after hobbling through the loss at the MCG and there is hope from the team camp that he will be available for part of the five-match one-day series against New Zealand.”I would be disappointed if Andrew wasn’t available to go to South Africa,” Alex Kountouris, Australia’s physio, said in the Sunday Telegraph. “Things are progressing well.”Andrew has been taking it easy but I expect him to be doing some running this week and we will gradually build his recovery up over the coming weeks. At this stage it’s hard to say when Andrew will be back but I’d expect it to be somewhere between three to five weeks.”Australia would like Symonds involved following the loss of a series of players over the past month. Stuart Clark, Brett Lee and Shane Watson are out injured while Matthew Hayden retired from the game last week. Michael Clarke is also carrying a thumb problem and Phil Jaques is about to return from back surgery.”I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t that need for me to get out there,” Jaques said after delaying his club comeback by a week. “But in saying that, I’ve taken three months out of the game to get my back right.”I don’t want to go back in and get another operation down the track. I want to be 100% ready when I start playing again. If that means I miss a tour, I miss a tour. But I’m confident I’ll be right. I was a bit concerned [at first] because I hadn’t felt any discomfort whatsoever since I’d been back in work. But it’s nothing major and it’s responded really well.”

Bermuda have been boosted by the news that a pay dispute with temperamental allrounder Lionel Cann has been settled and he is now available to take part in the ICC World Cup Qualifiers in April.Cann, not for the first time, was in conflict with the Bermuda Cricket Board, telling the local press that he felt “totally let dwn” by the board’s attitude towards him and his team-mates. His gripe was that the board was not willing to fully compensate him for giving up two jobs to play for the side. The BCB was willing to cover his main job, but was unhappy with Cann’s claims that he also did other work in the construction industry.”Four years on and nothing has changed,” Cann, who was involved in a similar row before the 2007 World Cup, told the Bermuda Sun. “Some players have lost thousands of dollars to play for their country and they are still losing money. I have to seriously think about whether I can afford to sign it. [his contract].”It’s alright to say that you’re getting paid to do what you love, but it’s different for a man that has a family and bills to pay. It isn’t just that it is a financial struggle, it’s the principle. We had this dispute last time and nothing has changed, I feel totally let down.” In 2007 the BCB said it was unable to find any evidence of Cann’s second job.Cann also complained that the levels of remuneration on offer from the board depended on the money earned from the player’s day job. “It’s a bit unfair that someone who has one well paid job gets more than someone who has to work two jobs to get by, regardless of how they perform on the field.”Cann’s work as a school caretaker means he earns less than many of his team-mates.

Group A

Beginning the day at 42 for 3, it was a tough challenge for Pakistan International Airlines to chase 321 against National Bank of Pakistan in Karachi. The middle order put up a fight, but despite that they could manage only 208. NBP gained six points from the win – PIA’s narrow two-run first-innings lead denied them the full nine points – to gain a clear lead in Group A. Wahab Riaz, who took the three wickets on the third day, finished with four in the innings, while the promising Mohammad Aamer took three to go with his six in the first innings, in what his just his third first-class game. For PIA, captain Faisal Iqbal top scored with 52.At the Quaid-e-Azam Park, Sui Southern Gas Corporation bagged three points – thanks to their first-innings lead – from their draw against Karachi Whites. Offspinner Haaris Ayaz gave SSGC a sniff at victory by striking four quick blows – his 4 for 63 was a career-best – to leave the hosts at 199 for 8 in their second innings. However, the last two pairs were to frustrate SSGC. Seventeen-year-old Shahzaib Ahmed scored his maiden first-class half-century at No. 10 – an unbeaten 51 – and added 66 with Azam Hussain (33) and 27 with last-man Malik Aftab, who made 2 off 41 balls. A target of 260 was way out of reach for SSGC, who lost two wickets in their 18 overs before close.Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited and Lahore Shalimarmade a contest out of what could have been another dull draw in in Lahore. Resuming on 331 for 7, Lahore declared after blitzing 45 runs in 4.3 overs – Salman Rahat hit five fours in his 21-ball 30. But they might have been regretting the decision after ZTBL’s openers, Afaq Raheem and Inam-ul-Haq, smashed centuries. The two set the platform with a 257-run opening stand. Haq made 104, while Raheem scored a brisk 196-ball 151. Debutant Ghulam Mustafa’s four strikes helped in slowing down ZTBL’s quest for the first-innings lead, and despite a run-a-ball 25 from Zohaib Khan and Mohammad Khalil’s two sixes in seven balls, ZTBL were 12 short of Lahore’s total at 364 for 7. Those seven were the only wickets to fall in the day, which saw 409 runs scored in 78.4 overs.Both Khan Research Laboratories and Water and Power Development Authority have no points from two games after their weather-marred encounter in Rawalpindi. No play took place on the second and third days, and in the 29.1 overs possible on the final day, WAPDA, resuming on 217 for 5, were bundled out for 302. Bilal Khilji, resuming on 59, was lucky to get to his century before running out of partners. KRL scored 18 for the loss of one wickets in the five overs their batsmen faced in the four-day game.

Group B

Faisalabad needed only 31 overs on the final day to complete a resounding innings-and-69-run win over Hyderabad at the Iqbal Stadium. Resuming on 19 for 2, Hyderabad were dismissed for 106, with Ahmed Hayat (3-43), Zulqarnain (3-36) and Saadat Munir (4-20) sharing the spoils and reaffirming the team’s decision to score quickly and declare early, at 354 for 3, in the first innings – a lead of 175 proved sufficient.Sialkot‘s overnight pair of Haris Sohail and Mohammad Ayub scored the remaining 76 runs to complete a seven-wicket win over Karachi Blues at the National Stadium. The duo needed only 15.3 overs to seal the win, but surprisingly the two batsmen played rather contrastingly from their efforts on the third day. Mohammad Ayub had dominated the unbroken 53-run stand, scoring 42, but it was Haris Sohail who did the bulk of the scoring on the final day. Overnight on 13 from 78 balls, Sohail almost caught up with his partner, scoring 50 off 50 balls. The 63 was the his fourth first-class fifty in his sixth innings, while his captain Ayub stayed unbeaten on 69.Abbottabad went without batting in their game against Rawalpindi in Islamabad, with a second successive day without play on Monday. Rawalpindi had been dismissed for 325 in their first innings on the second day.The match between Quetta and Multan, which began a day late at the Multan Cricket Stadium, is set for a thrilling finish. The hosts will begin their fourth innings needing 155 to win – the totals in the first three were 210, 193 and 137. Overnight on 80 for 4, Rameez Alam, resuming on 24, stayed firm at one end during Multan’s first innings. Despite his unbeaten 82, Multan fell 17 short of Quetta’s first-innings score. Nazar Hussain, who took all four overnight wickets, added two more to finish with career-best figures. Rameez got support from Ansar Javed (32) and No. 9 Zulfiqar Babar (42), with whom he added 78 for the eighth wicket. Javed and Babar starred with the ball as well, taking seven wickets between them to bundle out Quetta for 137 – Babar’s 4 for 37 was his best innings haul. In an innings which had five ducks, Quetta’s captain Nasim Khan scored 71, his second half-century of the game.There was no play on the third day as well between Islamabad and Peshwar at the Marghzar Cricket Ground. Put in by Peshawar, the hosts were at 47 for 2.

Scorecard