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Wicket-keeper/batsman Rashid Latif will miss the entire ongoing tour of Zimbabwe due to his neck and back injuries as Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) retracted its earlier decision and has now opted to use its own panel of doctors for treatment instead of making arrangements in South Africa.A PCB spokesman while quoting PCB chairman Lt Gen Tauqir Zia said Tuesday that decision to recall Rashid was to help him regain fitness under the supervision of PCB panel of doctors. Naturally, they (panel of doctors) would have all the opinions of the specialists along with the tests reports of the injuries that would help them constitute a rehabilitation programme for him.No replacement for Rashid would be sent to Zimbabwe, the spokesman added.PCB chairman also took a bold step to determine if Rashid was injured prior to his departure for Zimbabwe. PCB will seek a report from Pakistan physiotherapist and trainer Dennis Waight in this connection. If it is discovered that Rashid was already injured before leaving on the tour, he would be liable to pay a fine upto US 1000 under the players contract clause 8.7 which relates to those players who report unfit or is not upto the fitness standard required for international cricket. The team physio and doctor shall determine the amount of fine.It was learnt that Rashid was unfit before the tour and it was also in the knowledge of captain Waqar Younis and PCB too. This is evident from the fact that a second wicketkeeper, Kamran Akmal was included in the Zimbabwe tour, a decision taken after many years.Rashid who has been touring with the team for the last one year as sole wicketkeeper could do the job singularly in Zimbabwe too if he was fit. The decision of not sending any replacement for Rashid also proved that lone wicketkeeper was enough for the Zimbabwe’s and Kamran was only included because the first wicketkeeper (Rashid) was not fit.

Parthiv Patel, the former Indian wicketkeeper, will lead an Indian side to tour Australia for the Emerging Players Tournament, to be held from July 14 while Jaydev Shah, who led Saurashtra to the Ranji one-day title, will captain another second-string side to Israel.The bulk of both the teams comprise players who caught the eye during the Indian Premier League. Chennai’s S Badrinath will be Parthiv’s deputy in a side that contains Shikhar Dhawan, Abhishek Nayar and Manpreet Gony – all high on the IPL charts.Consistent domestic performances have also been rewarded. Mohnish Parmar, the offspinner from Gujarat, and Rakesh Dhruv, the left-arm spinner from Saurashtra, will travel to Israel. Amit Mishra had a good time in the IPL but he was already in the reckoning after a prolific season for Haryana in the Ranji Trophy.However, a few consistent domestic performers missed out – Aakash Chopra and Niraj Patel had a fine run with the bat while Sudeep Tyagi and Ashraf Makda missed out despite sterling efforts with the ball. Tyagi, though, might have been ignored because of an injury.Squad for Israel Jaydev Shah (capt), Swapnil Asnodkar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravi Teja, M Vijay, Wriddhiman Saha, Rajat Bhatia, Yogesh Takawale (wk), Rakesh Dhruv, Mohnish Parmar, Vishal Bhatia, Basant Mohanty, Pradeep Sangwan, Ashok Dinda, R Vinay KumarSquad for Australia Parthiv Patel (capt), S Badrinath (vice-capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Manoj Tiwary, Abhishek Nayar, Virat Kohli, Amit Mishra, Pankaj Singh, Manpreet Gony, Siddharth Trivedi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Iqbal Abdulla, Ravinder Jadeja, Pinal Shah.

All-rounder Andy Blignaut’s plans for the season are as yet unclear, but he caused a sensation in the opening National League match of the season, taking eight cheap wickets against Old Georgians and then making the top score of the match to give Alexandra Sports Club an easy victory.One observer put his success with the ball down to poor batting as much as good bowling.Blignaut played no top-level cricket last season, partly due to injury, partly to other interests and partly to disagreements with administrators and other players. However, he is reportedly considering a contract and it remains to be seen whether he has the determination and commitment to make a return to the international arena.

PERTH – Australian cricket selectors might be tempted to impose tearawayBrett Lee on the fragile English batting lineup on a WACA pitch whichcould be the fastest in 20 years.While incumbent Andy Bichel is still favoured for the third paceman’sspot for the third Ashes Test starting Friday, Lee has an imposingrecord at the famed fast bowling paradise.Lee, one of the quickest bowlers on the planet, has taken 15 wickets at19.6 in his two Test appearances in the west and has been in career-bestform at first-class level.”We have potential for the fastest Test pitch since the early 80s,” headcurator Richard Winter wrote in Cricket WA magazine.That can only aid Lee press for a recall after Bichel played in theopening two Ashes Tests this summer.It was a devastating bowling display for NSW at the WACA three summersago which elevated Lee to his Test debut against India in the Boxing DayTest in Melbourne.Bowling with frightening pace and swing Lee broke WA tail-ender JoAngel’s arm as the Blues claimed a rare outright victory in WesternAustralia.The 32-year-old Bichel has taken five wickets at just over 36 againstEngland in the Test series having missed out bowling in the tourists’second innings capitulation at the Gabba.But while the statistics don’t make great reading he took key wicketsduring the Adelaide Test including opener Michael Vaughan at the end ofthe first day.Speedster Lee meanwhile has responded to his demotion with 21 wicketsfrom two Pura Cup matches.With weather expected to remain fine and warm this week, Winter expectedit to be a good deck on which to bat first.”It will still be a good pitch to bat on first, whoever survives thefirst two sessions will do well on it,” he said.Already trailing 2-0 in the five Test series, England returns to Perthtomorrow facing its eighth successive Ashes series defeat.And the road doesn’t get any easy for the tourists with Australia’sopening bowling combination of Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespieexpected to extract every bit of bounce from the WACA pitch.In its opening tour matches, two England bowlers found success on theWACA pitch but one has been ruled out of the series (Simon Jones), andthe other is under a serious injury cloud (Andy Caddick) with a backproblem.

Bashley (Rydal) plan to have the Southern Electric Contracting Cup firmly in their grasp before they face neighbours Bournemouth in an ECB Premier League, Division 1 revenge clash at the Bashley Cricket Ground tomorrow (SAT), 11am.The Foresters will be the proud holders of the SEPL knockout trophy for the second time in three seasons if they beat South Wilts in this evening’s (FRI) final at the Hampshire Rose Bowl.But they have a score to settle with Bournemouth, who skittled them for 101 before romping to a ten-wicket win at Chapel Gate earlier this season."That was probably our lowest point of the season," reflected Bash skipper Neil Taylor."Kristian Wilson returned his best Premier League figures and we just caved in.Bashley go into tonight’s final – provisionally scheduled for the main Rose Bowl arena – as firm favourites.South Wilts, minus Hampshire left-armer Jimmy Tomlinson and all-rounder Paul Draper, have had their bowling attack seriously blunted."But they can all bat a bit," Taylor warns."South Wilts will be looking to rise to the occasion and we’ll have to play to our full potential if we are going to win."Players like Jamie Glasson and Russell Rowe will thrive in a big match atmosphere – and we must match them."Bashley will be at full strength for tomorrow’s Premier League derby – the last of the all-day "time" matches.The Premier League reverts to 50-over matches next weekend, with BAT Sports currently 16 points clear of Havant at the top.Bournemouth, who checked BAT’s amazing 15-match winning sequence last week, delay naming their team for the Bashley trip.BAT Sports are back to full strength as they bid to step up their title challenge against Portsmouth at Southern Gardens.Kirk Stewart, a key absentee in last week’s drawn match at Bournemouth, returns to spearhead the BAT attack alongside 32-wicket Dan Goldstraw, who bagged 20 scalps last month alone.Teenage duo Graham Noble and Ricky Rawlins also play, despite a heavy workload for Hampshire’s successful Under-17 side."We are grateful to Raj Maru for allowing them both to play tomorrow," said BAT skipper David Banks, who has some catching up to do in the overall wicketkeeping award stakes."It’s an ideal platform for these two lads to show Raj just what they can do, especially as the Hampshire Development Coach will be captaining the Portsmouth team."Calmore Sports, minus newly-wed Mark Boston, can give BAT’s back-to-back title hopes a boost if they can beat Havant at Loperwood Park.Havant, 16 points behind, have a critical weekend, with Stanmore set to visit Havant Park for an ECB Club Championship quarter-final replay on Sunday, 1pm.The teams began their last-eight qualifier in North London last Sunday – but the match was abandoned because of the dangerous state of the Stanmore pitch.The ECB directed that the game should be replayed at Havant, who will receive Saffron Walden in the semi-finals on August 11 if they win.Apart from Neil Cunningham, Burridge will be at full strength for the visit to Andover, where skipper Roger Miller faces a late check on a twinged hamstring picked up scoring a century at Havant last week.Younger brother Mark is back in the side alongside Jerry Hayward and Ian Langdown, but Toby Radford is absent, as is university student Martin Docis, who is treading the boards in the musical Chicago."We didn’t realize Martin had hidden stage talents, but he’s pretty switched on musically," Miller explained.Watching the outcome with interest will be Liphook & Ripsley who aim to enhance their own survival prospects at South Wilts.

KARACHI, Aug 17: Temperamental and controversial fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar was named Saturday in Pakistan squads for the Kenyan three-nation and ICC Champions Trophy tournaments.Off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq, however, was not considered for the events in Nairobi and Colombo at his own request for family reasons.Shoaib, who was instrumental in Pakistan’s stunning 2-1 win over world champions Australia in June, chose to skip the ongoing Morocco Cup and instead committed himself to club cricket in England. However, given his unpredictable mannerism and the fact that he is the favourite player of Pakistan Cricket Board, it is hardly a surprise to find Shoaib Akhtar back in the side.Shoaib, ironically, replaces Saqlain in the only change to the squad now playing in Tangiers. But batsman Misbah-ul-Haq has been omitted for the Champions Trophy in Colombo because the tournament rules require teams to have squads of 14 players each.The Pakistan team flies straight from Tangiers to Nairobi where the tournament starts Aug 29 with Waqar Younis’ men taking on Kenya. All matches in the double league tournament will be played at Gymkhana Club Ground.Kenya not only stepped in to host the tournament on behalf of the PCB after Australia opted against playing in Pakistan for security reasons but also accepted the invitation after New Zealand pulled out of the event.After the final on Sept 7, all three participating teams depart for Colombo for the Champions Trophy.The 12-nation championship opens with Pakistan playing hosts Sri Lanka at the Premadasa Stadium on Sept 12.Pakistan then play Holland in their final Pool One tie at the SSC Ground nine days later (Sept 21).Only the four pool winners qualify for the semifinals on Sept 25 and 27 respectively. The final is slated for Sept 29.Squad for Nairobi: Waqar Younis (captain), Inzamam-ul-Haq (vice-captain), Saeed Anwar, Imran Nazir, Yousuf Youhana, Younis Khan, Abdul Razzaq, Shahid Afridi, Rashid Latif, Wasim Akram, Azhar Mahmood, Shoaib Akhtar, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Sami, Misbah-ul-Haq.Squad for Champions Trophy: Waqar Younis (captain), Inzamam-ul-Haq (vice-captain), Saeed Anwar, Imran Nazir, Yousuf Youhana, Younis Khan, Abdul Razzaq, Shahid Afridi, Rashid Latif, Wasim Akram, Azhar Mahmood, Shoaib Akhtar, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Sami.Tri-Nation schedule:Aug 29: Pakistan v Kenya.Aug 30: Pakistan v Australia.Sept 1: Pakistan v Kenya.Sept 2: Australia v Kenya.Sept 4: Pakistan v Australia.Sept 5: Australia v Kenya.Sept 7: Final.

He was dropped from the Guyana Test on India’s last tour of the West Indies in 1996-97. This time around he will walk out to toss with Carl Hooper on the very same ground.For Sourav Ganguly, the captain of the Indian team, that is a great feeling. And, “by the grace of God,” as he puts it, he has always come back stronger at the places where he was dropped earlier. Remember Toronto? He earned four consecutive Man of the Match awards in his second Sahara Cup after being dropped for a couple of matches in the first one.But this is a different ball game altogether, and he will have to best the average Caribbean bowling attack to ensure a good first-innings total for the team, coming in at number three.With one more Test victory, he will be the most successful Indian captain on foreign soil. At the moment he has three victories, the same as MAK Pataudi, Bishen Singh Bedi and Sunil Gavaskar. This is his and his team’s best opportunity to do so. Twenty-four hours before the first Test, he chatted exclusively with our correspondent:Do you remember being dropped from the Guyana Test in 1997?Of course, yes. I can never forget that. It keeps pinching me every time I look back at the previous tour. Believe me, it will be a great feeling when I’ll be going out with Carl Hooper to toss the coin for the first time. It is a coincidence, but a wonderful one, I must admit.Do you think your team is capable of winning a test series in the Caribbean?Definitely. Ours is a much stronger team than the team touring here in 1997, especially in the bowling department. We have two of the finest spinners of modern-day cricket, and Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan are operating in tandem with the new ball. It is quite a balanced attack and capable of taking 20 wickets to win us a Test match. In 1997, Sri [Srinath] was not there, neither was Harbhajan. So we are hopeful.But will Harbhajan play in the first Test?I hope so, if he is fully fit to play. I don’t want to aggravate the injury by picking him when he is not fully fit to take the strains of five days of cricket. It is up to our physio to take the final decision tomorrow morning.It seems that you are destined not to play the full team you desire abroad. Anil Kumble played under you first in the South African tour, Sachin Tendulkar and Srinath were missing from the Sri Lankan tour…What can I do about it? It really hurts. But at the same time, you must not forget that we are playing throughout the year, and anybody can pick injuries. We should be prepared for that. But there are some positions you just cannot fill up. Bhajji [Harbhajan] was an integral part of our planning. If he misses the Test, we will have to change our strategy.Then will you be playing with three seamers and Kumble?That is yet not finalised. At the moment we are not ruling out the possibility of playing Bhajji at Guyana. If he is not available, then of course we will have to think otherwise.Will India continue with Deep Dasgupta at the top of the order?Why not? He is averaging nearly 40 in Tests as an opener, and that is enough for the team management to allow him one more chance. He deserves it. I know he was not tidy behind the stumps in the recently concluded series. But keeping to Anil [Kumble] and Bhajji on Indian wickets is always tougher for a newcomer. I hope he will keep better here. And you cannot drop a performing opener who showed tremendous guts in South Africa.You had said that Rahul Dravid would get back his number three spot after the Delhi Test. Will that be true, or you will continue at that position?I think I will continue. We need Rahul to play the second new ball at the bottom of the innings. And personally I was getting frustrated waiting so long to bat in Tests, especially after opening the innings in one-dayers. My vice-captain has faith in me to allow me one or two more opportunities.You did not come here with the team. A section of the media was not at all happy at that. Your reactions?I simply fail to understand why there is such a furore about it. If your wife is ailing, isn’t it your duty to be beside her bed for as much time as you can? I just did that and came here right before the tour-opener. Not only that, I did play in that match too. Yes, I didn’t come with the team, but there were some unavoidable reasons, and I took the permission of the Board president. That is enough, I suppose.But what about playing so slowly in the limited over match following the first class match here?We were trying to spend as much time at the wicket as possible. There was only one preparatory match before the first Test. The batsmen wanted to have a feel of the wickets here. That is why they played so slowly. It was in the interest of the team.

In harmony with the look of a construction site that the Bellerive Oval has adopted of late, there has been the sense that something has been building all summer in Tasmanian cricket. It peaked at a crescendo today as the Tigers used irresistible confidence, a Shane Jurgensen hat-trick, and a near-record catching exhibition by Daniel Marsh in the slips, to crush New South Wales by ten wickets in their Pura Cup match here in Hobart.Jurgensen’s moment of glory came in mid-afternoon, affirming New South Wales’ slide toward a second innings total of 238 after it had trailed by only one run less than that mark on the first. Michael Clarke (20) was trapped in front of his stumps by an off cutter; debutant Vaughan Williams (0) suffered exactly the same fate; and Brad Haddin (0) then edged a late-tailing outswinger to first slip.It was only the second hat-trick in Tasmanian first-class history; it was the first of its type at Bellerive; and it culminated in the sight of the remainder of the Tigers’ players leaping, cavorting and wrapping themselves around their paceman as if they were trying to bust a dam wall.Even twelfth man Shannon Tubb, bearing drinks for his teammates, sprinted on to the field at pace that might have shaded Carl Lewis in his heyday.”I was in a daze,” said Jurgensen of his reaction to the achievement.”It was just amazing; there were blokes everywhere just jumping. I thought, for sure, that I’d get a spike in the foot or something.”In the process of his destruction, Jurgensen (6/65) – the journeyman who was crisscrossed from Queensland to Western Australia and now Tasmania in the search for a regular first-class position – had also all but ensured that his new team will play his native state in the 2001-02 Pura Cup Final.”I just can’t believe it, really. It’s been an amazing turnaround for us since Christmas. We’ve done extremely well and we’ve just got one week to go now.”The next week’s more important than anything. It’s an excellent, really exciting time for everyone involved in Tasmanian cricket.”The Tigers were made to wait for 90 minutes to resume their charge toward just the third finals match in the state’s first-class history as light drizzle delayed the day’s start. When they returned to the middle, they wasted little time in securing their passage into the decider.Veteran paceman David Saker (1/71) made the crucial opening breakthrough when he found an edge from the bat of Matthew Phelps (41) after only ten minutes. Diving hard to his right at slip, Marsh took an outstanding catch that became the first of four for the innings. He finished with six for the match – a mark bettered only once by a non-wicketkeeper in the entirety of his state’s first-class experience.When New South Wales captain Michael Slater (7) edged a Jurgensen ball of impeccable length to Marsh only two minutes before the scheduled lunch break, the Tigers’ joy reached a new zenith.All-rounder Grant Lambert (45*) completed a determined match when he produced a plucky innings during the game’s dying hours. Resistance in the face of the near-inevitable was also offered by Phil Jaques (23), Nathan Bracken (22) and Stuart Clark (18) for a Blues team that fought hard in spite of the fact that it had little for which to play.But the momentum was overwhelmingly with Tasmania – as it concluded a remarkable post-Christmas revival that has yielded four resounding wins in the space of five appearances. The fifth was denied by bucketing rain in Melbourne.Jurgensen ultimately re-arranged his career-best figures for the second time in the match, pairing a haul of six wickets with his five from the first innings. It was an effort made all the more meritorious in that his team had lost fellow fast bowler Damien Wright to injury and that he was forced to work into a headwind for all of the 16 overs that he bowled in an outstanding sustained spell.Not even a last-wicket stand of 43 runs between Lambert and Clark could head off Tasmania’s victory march for long. Nor rearrange its quotient sufficiently to give third-placed Western Australia any hope of knocking the island staters out of their appointment with Queensland in Brisbane next Friday.The Tigers ultimately required only one second innings delivery to complete their victory, sealing their place in the Final when captain Jamie Cox symbolically thrashed an outswinger from Clark through the covers.It’s doubtful that their rallying call – an anthemic adaptation of the Richmond Football Club’s official song – has ever been performed with more gusto in the Tasmanian dressing room.

DLF Ltd, India’s largest real estate firm, has decided not to renew its title sponsorship of the IPL, ending its five-year association with the tournament. The company had the first right of refusal on a new contract, but was considered unlikely to sign up a second time given the slump in the real estate market and the decline in the IPL’s television ratings over the last two years.”Sponsoring IPL over the last five years was a strategic decision wherein we wanted to establish our brand presence across India as the leading real estate player,” Rajeev Talwar, DLF Group Executive Director told . “Our IPO came in 2007, a year before the IPL started. We were very aggressive pan-India then. We had good presence in all big cities.” The company is now concentrating on those cities where its core strengths lie.According to Talwar, DLF spent Rs 250 crore (US$ 44.96 million) on the IPL over the five years of its contract. While it has pulled out of the Twenty20 league, it still has plans to promote other sports, though Talwar ruled out owning a franchise or a team. He also said the amount of money the company would spend “will be less than Rs 50 crore ($9 million) a year that we spent in IPL.”The company’s decision not to renew their deal with the BCCI is also another indication of the value of the IPL taking a hit over the last couple of years as TV ratings have flattened. Ratings for IPL 5 were just about in line with 2011. The overall tournament rating was 3.45, compared to 3.51 a year ago, according to Tam Sports, a division of TAM Research, the leading television ratings agency in India. In contrast, the 2010 tournament had an average TVR of 5.51.In April, Talwar told the that renewing the contract “depends on how do they [the BCCI] perceive the value.” The BCCI had indicated any new sponsorship agreement would be for a higher value than the original agreement. DLF was obviously not willing to meet the board’s asking price. In a climate where the general economic situation is worsening – revenues for Multi-Screen Media, the tournament’s broadcaster, dropped this year as companies cut back on advertising – means the board could have a tough time finding a replacement sponsor at the price that they desire.DLF is the third title sponsor to pull out of a BCCI backed tournament in the last two years. Airtel pulled out as title sponsors of the Champions League T20 in 2011 while their replacement, Nokia, pulled out earlier this year. DLF is already involved in golf and tennis. It provides prize money of about Rs 1 crore ($179,000) to the winner of the annual DLF Masters and is one of the sponsors of this year’s Davis Cup, on which they will be spending Rs 2 crore, according to Talwar.

Graeme Smith scored an impressively disciplined 183 to help earn WesternProvince an ominous lead of 194 runs on the third day of the SupersportSeries final against Border at Newlands on Friday.With two days left and Border having spent much of the previous two in thefield, the trophy would seem destined for Cape Town for the second time inthree seasons.Off-spinner Geoff Love put in a titanic effort in taking four for 107 off 49overs, but it will take more than that to win this one for Border asProvince reached the close on 446 for seven in reply to the visitors’ firstinnings of 252.Smith and HD Ackerman resumed on 229 for two, and from the outset it wasclear their intention was occupation of the crease rather than chasing runs.And who could blame them, what with Province needing just a draw to claimthe championship.But Border were not about to allow the home side to dictate matters and theyanswered Province’s reticence with over after over of watertight bowling.Vasbert Drakes, Tyron Henderson, Piet Botha and Love all made Province workfor their runs, and just 34 of them were scored in the 29 overs sent down inthe morning session.Border’s efforts paid dividends three overs before lunch when Ackerman, on17, advanced up the pitch to a ball from Love and squeezed it onto his padfor Craig Sugden to take a good catch at silly point.But the big fish, Smith, got away again. Having gloved a simple catch to theslip cordon off a Drakes no-ball on 19 on Thursday, Smith, on 138, chopped adelivery from slow left-armer Pieter Strydom into the pitch and onto the topof his off-stump. The bail blipped up and gently settled back into itsgroove.Ashwell Prince joined Smith at the crease and they batted through the secondsession, which yielded 81 runs and featured increasingly desperatestrokeplay as Border tightened the noose through Love and Strydom.Ten minutes after tea the pressure boiled over and Smith attempted to cut awide delivery from Love, only to get a bottom edge that was well held bywicketkeeper Ian Mitchell to end a fourth-wicket stand of 100.Smith was at the crease for 10 hours in which he faced 477 balls and hit 18fours and a six.Two balls later Love struck again when Neil Johnson lunged forward with anill-judged sweep and was hit on the back leg plumb in front.Thami Tsolekile showed a recklessness against the spinners which delayedStrydom taking the new ball until the 83rd over, and in the next over Drakestrapped Prince in front for 53 to make it 378 for six.Three wickets in the space of ten overs after toiling so long for scantreward must have raised Border’s hopes. But with the runs flowing off theunorthodox Tsolekile’s bat and Dawson steady at the other end, the toeholdthat Border had regained on the match was deftly prised off.Tsolekile flayed 53 off 70 balls with six fours and a six before slashing acatch to extra cover eight overs from the close. That came with Dawson 11not out and Claude Henderson on 18.