The Pakistan selectors have announced a list of 25 players who will head to the National Cricket Academy on November 1 for a fortnight’s training.Salman Butt, Yasir Hameed and Mohammad Sami are among the players who have been announced to take part in the Future Players Program Camp. The players will be reporting to the National Cricket Academy on 31 October.Squad Salman Butt, Asim Kamal, Bazid Khan, Zulqarnain Haider, Yasir Hameed, Mohammad Sami, Shahid Yousuf, Tahir Khan, Mansoor Amjad, Mohammad Irshad, Akhtar Ayub, Samiullah Niazi, Nasir Jamshed, Hasan Raza, Muhammad Khalil, Misbah-ul-Haq, Rafatullah Mohmand, Fawad Alam, Janisar Khan, Khurram Manzoor, Sarfraz Ahmed, Imran Khalid, Najaf Shah, Usman Saeed, Anwar Ali

After trying more than a dozen times on Wednesday Australian captain Ricky Ponting finally got the opportuntiy to apologise to BCCI chief Sharad Pawar on the phone on Thursday over the incident during the presentation of the Champions Trophy last Sunday.Peter Young, Cricket Australia spokesperson told that Pawar has now accepted Ponting’s assurance that no disrespect was intended. “It was a very amicable telephone call and the two of them decided they would take a sporting approach and move on, ” he said.”Ricky offered an apology on behalf of himself and the team and it was accepted in good spirit.” Ponting’s apology comes close on the heels of Martyn’s who, on Thursday, had said that he was sorry for any misconduct.On Friday Indian media had quoted top BCCI officials saying that Pawar had indeed spoken to Ponting, and as far as the BCCI was concerned the matter was closed.Ponting and his team-mate Damien’s Martyn’s conduct, where they were seen trying to usher Pawar off the victory podium in their eagerness to celebrate, drew ire from the Indian officials and media. Pawar, himself had called the Australians’ attitude as “totally uncivilised”.Ponting, who arrived back home on Tuesday, said there was no offence intended and he was unaware there was a problem until he saw the television footage of the incident on Thursday morning. “It doesn’t look great on television, but I think the more times you look at it, you probably realise that there’s no intent to offend anybody,” he said.”We all probably got a little bit caught up in the excitement of the moment. That’s why I think it’s so important for me to be in personal contact (with Pawar) and if there is anything lingering on, to get it sorted out as quickly as we can.”James Sutherland, Cricket Australia’s chief executive, admitted the episode had the potential to damage the image of the Australian team.”I think it’s definitely a concern about how this has been perceived in India,” he said. “I think everyone in Australia sees and understands that it was certainly an unfortunate incident and can perhaps understand to some extent how it may have happened.”The disrespect that people have gathered from this is obviously more heartfelt in India and that’s something that we need to accept and obviously deal with.”Sutherland said Cricket Australia chairman Creagh O’Connor had spoken to BCCI senior vice-president I.S. Bindra on Thursday to pass on Australia’s concern.Since Australia and India had recently signed an agreement where both teams would play Test and/or one-day matches against each other annually for the next four years, Sutherland felt there will be plent of opportunities for his team to make amends.”There’ll be plenty of opportunity for them to make amends and to show the Indian public what they really think about India and its people.”

Nasim Ashraf, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, has said that the decision of the appeals committee to overturn the drugs ban on Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif is an honest and open one and should be respected.Ashraf told Cricinfo, “We respect the decision because the committee was set up and acted in an open, transparent matter. It has considered evidence from all parties, it has given players ample opportunity to present their case and come to a decision based on that.”The judgment has questioned the workings of the previous committee, finding flaws in the manner in which it operated. In particular, concern was raised over the fact that while it was constituted to work within the guidelines of the PCB’s anti-doping policy, the punishment it decreed – and the benchmarks it derived them from – were based on the ICC’s anti-doping regulations.”It is worthwhile to note that the ADC (Anti-doping commission) which was a creature of the PCB Anti-Doping regulations, while repeatedly referring to the various PCB regulations under which the players were charged, proceeded against and even punished, without any ostensible rationale sought to rely on distinct benchmarks of ‘No fault or negiligence’ and ‘no significant fault or negligence’ from the ICC’ anti-doping code in its decision,” the report states.It states later that ‘exceptional circumstances’, on which the players defended themselves, were defined by the PCB ‘on a significantly different plane’ than the ICC. “The standard of ‘exceptional circumstances’ under the ICC code and the PCB regulations is entirely different in terms of language, scope and meaning…The confusion between the applicability of standards of ‘exceptional circumstances’ fatally plagued the final decision of the ADC.”Ashraf said the crux of the decision to overturn the ban was based on this technicality. “Shahid Hamid (chairman of the original committee) accepted the fact the PCB rules should have applied to the matter and that it was an internal matter. But the judgments his tribunal gave were according to WADA and ICC rules. It was this technicality that formed the crux of the new decision.”But the report also points out that while under ICC regulations it is the players’ responsibility for what substances are taken, irrespective of intent, fault or negligence, the PCB’s anti-doping regulations impose no such “onerous burdens on the players,” instead placing responsibility on the PCB to ensure its players are educated. This responsibility, says the report, has not been fulfilled comprehensively.Also, in light of the lawyers for Shoaib Akhtar arguing that providing players booklets and lists were not enough, Ashraf acknowledged that the PCB would have to become more strenuous in the future.”I think there are lessons from this to be learnt for everyone. For all players this is a very good lesson because the responsibility ultimately lies with them for what goes into their body. But the PCB will have to be much more stringent and strenuous in educating players of the dangers of such issues. Under our own policy appeals are allowed for players and they have used that to establish that exceptional circumstances did exist.”Ashraf added that there were lessons from this case for the international cricket community and not just Pakistan. “Cricket has only had Shane Warne as a case example before this. Nobody really had any experience in this matter and there are lessons to be learnt from this.”That is why we called in Mark Gay, who is a world renowned lawyer especially in sports doping matters, to offer advice on the matter. Some of his observations were quite important as the report reveals.”

The WACA curator Cameron Sutherland has hosed down talk of the ground becoming more suited to spinners than fast bowlers, despite the success of slow bowlers in domestic games this season. Sutherland said the pitch to be used for the Test starting on Thursday was likely to be quicker and have more bounce than those used in state matches.The Western Australia spinners Aaron Heal and Brad Hogg have made the most of the turning WACA strips, with Heal taking 15 wickets in his two Pura Cup matches at the ground this season. Both Australia and England could make team selections based on the likelihood of a spinning deck with Andrew Symonds and Monty Panesar both hoping for a Test promotion.But Sutherland told the Test pitch used different grass to the adjoining WACA strips and it was the grass itself that had helped spin bowlers this year. “Spinners have got turn mainly off the grass left on the surface,” Sutherland told the paper. “We’ve gone with a new grass [on those pitches] over the last couple of years.”So it hasn’t been off the actual playing area. This [Test strip] is a different grass than what we’ve got on the rest of the wicket block, so I’m not sure how much it will turn.” Last year’s WACA Test ended in a draw after Brad Hodge made a double-century but Sutherland hoped a result was likely this year.”We hope [it’s different] just in the pace and bounce factor,” he said. “We didn’t have a lot of grass to work with last year. We’ve got a bit more on there now, but you obviously don’t want too much grass or you get a lot of sideways movement.”

Barbados 7 for 0 trail Trinidad & Tobago 273 (Pollard 126, Smith 4-54, Collins 4-55) by 266 runs
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It was a day divided into two distinct phases. The first was about Barbados. The second was about Kieron Pollard.For the first two-and-a-half hours, the hosts made all the running, restricting the double-crown defending Carib Beer champions to 81 for 6 thanks to the accuracy and movement of Pedro Collins and Dwayne Smith. For the next two-and-a-half hours, Pollard took command of proceedings with a spectacular century on his first-class debut that was filled with a proliferation of superb sixes.With the minimal of effort, Pollard smashed bowlers back overhead to provide rich entertainment in amassing 126 off 150 balls that included 11 fours and seven sixes. The first three sailed over long-off against Collins, Corey Collymore and Kevin Stoute. The fourth went over long-on off Collins. The fifth was a straight hit off Collins just before tea. The sixth, the biggest of the lot, off Smith carried the 19-year-old to a memorable hundred, and the seventh, also off Smith, was a pull over cow-corner.It was magnificent stuff, a joy to watch – authentic strokes of the highest order – and ended with a sensational one-handed catch by Kirk Edwards on the long-on boundary. Pollard and Rayad Emrit pulled Trinidad and Tobago around in a seventh-wicket partnership of 143 that should have been broken when Floyd Reifer missed a chance at first slip when Emrit was on 5.Collins’ line was impeccable, almost exclusively on or about off stump and Smith was also on the spot. Both gained sideways movement and combined to share eight wickets, many coming from catches off the edge in the arc between the ‘keeper and gully.As many as seven catches went behind the wicket, and Smith produced the best ball of the day, a lifter that Jason Mohammed gloved to the keeper. Collins, who finished with 4 for 55, took the first two wickets and bowled to suggest that he should have been in Pakistan with the West Indies team. Smith, who ended with 4 for 54, dramatically swung the match in a brief period just before lunch when he removed Mohammed, Dwayne Bravo and Denesh Ramdin.

After all the pre-match debate about the expectation of a fast, bouncy pitch, the script didn’t go exactly to plan even if there was a tinge of green. Early in the piece, the surface was slowish and the ‘keeper collected a few balls low down. As the day progressed the strip was quicker, but it never played like the North Stars pitches of previous seasons.There is a simple explanation why the pitch didn’t play as fast as expected. The club was initially asked to host two matches in the KFC Cup limited-overs competition and was in the process of preparing a track suited to the shorter form of the game. By the time North Stars was confirmed as host for this match last Sunday, the pitch preparations were well advanced and there was little time to make the necessary adjustments.There was an encouraging turnout among fans, bearing in mind that it was a Thursday. Close to 2000 spectators made the trek up north and among those at the ground were Prime Minister Owen Arthur and St Lucy MP Dennis Kellman.It was a heartening attendance for the first day of the season, but there was one complaint from some fans watching the action. Their grouse was that there were not enough tents for protection from the elements. There was some merit in what they were saying and maybe a few more tents could have been mounted in the south-eastern section of the ground.Leeward Islands 291 for 4 (Joseph 97*) v Jamaica
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Leeward Islands captain Sylvester Joseph was on the brink of another regional century as his side revelled in Jamaica’s bowling on the opening day of their first round Carib Beer Series match at St Mary’s Park. Joeseph struck a composed, unbeaten 97 to lead the Leewards to 291 for 4, after losing the toss and being asked to bat first. Joseph batted a shade over five hours and faced 204 balls, stroking 17 fours in his knock.Capitalising on a missed chance when two, Joseph formed two crucial partnerships along the way, helping the Leewards to recover after they had slipped to 34 for 2. West Indies batsman Runako Morton missed out on three figures when he fell for an enterprising 78, while 23-year old Tonito Willett hit an unbeaten 43. Steve Liburd and Austin Richards Jr got starts but failed to carry on, both hitting 33.Fast bowler Jermaine Lawson, who finished with 3 for 55, did the early damage in the Leewards innings. He bowled opener Shane Jeffers off the inside edge without scoring and then had Richards caught and bowled off a slower ball.Joseph then added 99 for the third wicket with Morton, who hammered 13 fours in an innings lasting 142 minutes and 94 balls. Missed by Chris Gayle at second slip off the luckless Jerome Taylor with the score on 37 for 2, Joseph flourished to keep Jamaica’s bowlers at bay. When Morton fell to a catch at the wicket off leg-spinner Andre Dwyer, Joseph added a further 91 with Willett, whose 43, including six fours, came off 92 balls in 137 minutes batting.Windward Islands 163 for 5 v Guyana
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Rookie teenaged batsman Andre Fletcher and veteran Junior Murray shone as hosts Windward Islands reached 163 for 5 against Guyana on a truncated opening day of their Carib Beer Series encounter at the Tanteen Recreation Ground.Fletcher hit the top score of 40, while Murray scored an unbeaten 38, to lead their side after Guyana won the toss and invited the Windwards to bat first in bright sunshine on a track with some moisture and a damp outfield. Heavy overnight rain had left the ground in a soggy condition, resulting in a 270-minute delay before play eventually commenced at 1:30 p.m. Murray, the former West Indies wicketkeeper, faced 99 balls and batted 120 minutes, striking a solitary four. Fletcher faced 100 balls in his 110-minute knock.

Jamaica coasted to a seven-wicket win against Guyana at Kensington Park, chasing down the target of 63 in just under two hours. Fast bowler Andrew Richardson picked up the last two Guyana wickets as the visitors were dismissed for 232. Darwin Christian, the overnight batsman, was bowled by Richardson for 37 and Veerasammy Permaul drove Richardson straight to Danza Hyatt at mid-on.Jamaica got off to a shaky start, as Esuan Crandon bowled Brenton Parchment off the inside edge and had Hyatt caught at slip to leave them at 9 for 2. Wavell Hinds hung around to polish off the remaining runs and seal the victory.Amit Jaggernauth’s five-wicket haul helped Trinidad & Tobago register a comfortable 215-run victory against Leeward Islands at Couva. Chasing 403, Leewards were dismissed for 187, with offspinner Jaggernauth finishing with 5 for 48.Leewards, resuming at their overnight score of 118 for 4 showed little resistance as they lost their last six wickets for just 69 runs. Jaggernauth sliced through the middle and lower order and was supported by left-arm spinner Dave Mohammed, who took two wickets. This was T&T’s maiden victory in the tournament year’s Carib Beer Series, and they now have 20 points from three games.Windward Islands crashed to 91 all out to give Barbados a 141-run victory on the final day at Portsmouth. Set to chase 233 in a minimum of 60 overs, the home side crumbled, losing their last six wickets for just 10 runs. Earlier, Barbados declared their second innings on 183 for 9 shortly after lunch, giving either side a shot at registering an outright victory.Barbados offspinner Ryan Austin was the most impressive bowler, taking 4 for 26 in 12 overs to engineer the collapse. Liam Sebastian, who retired hurt in the first innings, resisted with 32 in the second while the rest faltered. The strong Barbados seam attack of Corey Collymore, Tino Best and Pedro Collins shared the first three wickets, before the spinners took over. Windwards paid the price for some rash strokes.Barbados, in their second innings showed a lot of urgency to push the scoring but lost wickets at regular intervals in the process. After an opening stand of 81, they were suddenly caught off guard, losing five wickets for 33 runs, with Kenroy Peters, the left-arm seamer, claimed four top-order wickets. Kevin Edwards and Patrick Browne consolidated, adding 40 for the sixth wicket, before Ryan Hinds declared the innings.With this victory, Barbados now have 30 points, ahead of Jamaica while Windwards are languishing at the bottom of the table with seven points.

Scorecard

Matthew Elliott ensured South Australia cruised to a bonus-point victory that lifted them from the bottom of the FR Cup table at the Gabba. After dismissing Queensland for a below-par 177, the Redbacks were rarely troubled on the way to a seven-wicket win.Elliott, who added 89 off 115 balls, steadied the innings whenever a batsman was lost and he deserved to be unbeaten alongside Darren Lehmann (30) when the result was sealed in the 38th over. Ashley Noffke was Queensland’s most successful bowler with 2 for 37 on a disappointing night for the Bulls, who can still host the final.Jimmy Maher showed his strength at the top of the order with a half-century, but he was part of an awful collapse of 5 for 22 as they slipped from 1 for 84. Jason Gillespie picked up a couple of early wickets and Ryan Harris also made in-roads before Lehmann collected two soft dismissals. Aaron Nye chipped back to Lehmann on 8 and Michael Buchanan was stumped when he missed a legside full-toss.Chris Simpson’s 25 and Andy Bichel’s 21 off 15 balls, which included sixes off Dan Cullen and Gillespie, gave the Bulls a late push, but Shaun Tait ended the innings quickly. Tait, who could not find his range in his first spell, roared over the final stages to take four wickets.

Daniel Vettori’s eyes might well have lit up when he saw the effect spin had in the first match at New Zealand’s group venue. Kenya’s three slow bowlers applied the brakes superbly during Canada’s innings at St Lucia on Wednesday and Vettori hopes the pitch will be just as helpful to him against England on Friday.”What we saw in the match between Kenya and Canada was that everything came to a standstill when the spinners came on,” Vettori told . “If you’ve got spin bowlers and you see that it is turning and slowing up you think it’s going to make an impact throughout the tournament, particularly in St Lucia.”Vettori said he was looking forward to his first spell in the battle of the Group C big guns. “I am pretty excited,” he said. “John Bracewell [the New Zealand coach] won’t leave me alone so I guess he is expecting me to do something out there.”The spin load will not be entirely on Vettori, however, with Jeetan Patel’s offspin also likely to play a key role in the Caribbean. “We seem to go in tandem quite well,” Vettori said. “Throughout this tournament we will play together for the majority of the time so we will hope it is to the New Zealand team’s advantage.”Vettori said it would also be interesting to see how Monty Panesar handled the conditions. “Monty’s one of the spinners around the world who’s willing to learn, willing to talk to you about anything,” he said.”If you’ve seen his development over the short time he’s played the game, he’s obviously taken a lot of advice from what people have said. I think he’s a great bowler with a huge future.”

Ricky Ponting is confident Australia have the right blend of youth and experience to snatch a third successive World Cup. Despite losing the No. 1 ranking to South Africa last month, Ponting is unconcerned as his team prepares for its opening Group A match with Scotland in St Kitts on Wednesday.”For some players it could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play in a World Cup,” he said. “I’ve played in three World Cups, and this will be my fourth, and I know what it is like to play in and win a World Cup. At the same time, there are some younger guys in our squad and this is an opportunity for them to stamp themselves on the international game.”Ponting believes he has the right squad mix required to win a fourth World Cup to add to the triumphs in 1987, 1999 and 2003. “The last World Cup for me was one of the most satisfying periods of my career – going through a World Cup undefeated was fantastic,” he said. “One of the things that you do have with World Cups, the way that they are set up now, is that you have quite a bit of time in between games to prepare exceptionally well for the opposition teams.”Australia have lost their past five one-day internationals but Ponting is confident they have improved on the deficient areas. “The thing that worried me the most was that there were 10 or 15 overs through the course of those games, where they slipped away from us,” he said. “In this tournament, you cannot afford to not be playing your best cricket. There are some areas that we can tighten up, and the guys are confident.”Australia completed strong warm-up wins against Zimbabwe and England in St Vincent and they also expect to be strengthened by the return of Matthew Hayden for the game against Scotland. While claiming not to pay much attention to the No. 1 ranking, Ponting said it would be great to finish the tournament on top.”We want to win every game that we play, and that’s the way we train, and we prepare,” he said. “If we are able to win a few more games in this World Cup, and South Africa does not, we will probably leapfrog them again.”

Clive Lloyd threw his weight behind West Indies, saying they are capable of playing better than they have done in the Super Eights.”This West Indies team can play much better than they have done. They played well in India and advanced to the final, something no one had expected them to do so,” said Lloyd, referring to West Indies’ runners-up finish in the Champions Trophy last year.After three successive defeats in the Super Eights, the hosts face an early exit from the World Cup and need to win all three remaining matches against South Africa, Bangladesh and England to have any hope of reaching the semi-finals. After an all-win record in the group stages, Brian Lara’s men suffered a 103-run defeat against the defending champions Australia, a seven-wicket thrashing by New Zealand and a crushing 113-run loss to Sri Lanka.Those defeats have left millions of Caribbean fans disappointed, former players looking for scapegoats and organisers fearing for the financial implications if seeing even emptier stadiums for the remaining matches.Lloyd, the most successful West Indies captain of all time who led them to victory in the 1975 and 1979 World Cup finals and a runners-up spot in 1983, said he would do his utmost to lift morale. “I hope to motivate the players by making them realise the pride of representing the West Indies at cricket,” said Lloyd, who was also a former coach, manager and is now an adviser.Lloyd said the West Indies team lacked experienced players. “We have a lot of young and inexperienced players, who have not been exposed to much international cricket and they need backing,” said Lloyd.Brian Lara has been singled out as the main culprit for the team’s demise, with former fast bowler Michael Holding demanding his removal as captain.Even a ten-day break, for which some players headed home to rest, has not been met with enthusiasm by some former players. “We are hearing they need time to go home and relax and that’s unbelievable in the middle of the tournament when they should be representing their people. Aren’t other teams tired?” questioned former captain Richie Richardson. Another former fast bowling great Joel Garner asked: “Going home, for what? “You can’t walk off in the middle of the battle. We have to be together and correct the errors,” said Garner.