A dominant Southern Rocks cruised to the Pro40 Championship title, beating Mid West Rhinos by eight wickets, with 31 ball remaining, in Harare

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Mar-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsSikandar Raza scored a steady 44 in Southern Rocks’ successful chase•Zimbabwe Cricket

A dominant Southern Rocks cruised to the Pro40 Championship title, beating Mid West Rhinos by eight wickets with 31 ball remaining, in Harare. Rhinos had only themselves to blame for the loss. After being put in to bat, their top order collapsed on a pitch that was slow, but wasn’t doing anything extraordinary. A determined 68 by Malcolm Waller got them to 151, but that total that never posed a challenge for the strong Rocks batting.Most of Rhinos’ batsmen were out to poor shots: Brendan Taylor chipped one to mid-on off the bowling of seamer Blessing Mahwire, Vusi Sibanda was caught at midwicket, and Riki Wessels attempted a reverse-sweep despite the fact his team were 54 for 3 and could only top edge it to the wicketkeeper. Legspinner Tafadzwa Kamungozi was the bowler who benefitted from Wessels’ lapse, and he went on to take two more wickets and finish with 3 for 35.The early wickets had left Rhinos 54 for 5, but Waller and Graeme Cremer led a recovery. The two managed to keep the runs ticking over at six an over without taking too many risks and looked to have rescued the situation with their 75-run stand.There was another collapse in store, though. Waller went first, clipping Michael Chinouya to midwicket. Cremer was out, again to an attempted reverse-sweep. The tail didn’t hang around long, and Rhinos committed the cardinal sin of not batting out their 40 overs, bowled out in the 37th.Rocks kept their nerve in the chase; the only real threat to their victory was the possibility of a storm. The rain never came though, and Rocks’ batsmen were clinical in taking their team home with plenty of time to spare. Sikandar Raza scored a steady 44 at the top of the order, and then Craig Ervine and Elton Chigumbura guided the team to the victory.It was the perfect way for Rocks to finish their season, and an important revival in their fortunes after they had a torrid Logan Cup in which they finished bottom of the table with no wins.

Kuwait consolidated their position at the top of the World Cricket League Division 7 points table, beating Nigeria convincingly by nine wickets with all of 25 overs to spare

ESPNcricinfo staff04-May-2011Kuwait consolidated their position at the top of the World Cricket League Division 7 points table, beating Nigeria convincingly by nine wickets with all of 25 overs to spare at the Lobatse Cricket Ground.Being asked to bat, Nigeria’s line-up crumbled against the medium pace of Saad Khalid. The slide was initiated by left-armer Mohammad Murad, who sent back opener Ramit Gill for a duck. From there on, Khalid, with the rest of the bowlers offering solid support, ran through Nigeria, finishing with figures of 5 for 24 in 6.4 overs. The only batsman to show any resistance was Sean Philips, who contributed almost half the total with 75, as Nigeria folded for 153. Kuwait were clinical in the chase, Irfan Bhatti and Saud Qamar putting together an unbroken 128-run stand after an early wicket, to take their side home comfortably.Khalid, who was named Man of the Match said his side will look to continue their winning run. “It is obviously great to make it three wins out of three in the tournament, but we can’t rest on today’s win,” he said. “We face Germany tomorrow [Thursday] and we know they’ll want a good match, especially since they lost to us in the final of Division 8 [Kuwait and Germany finished on top in Division 8, to qualify for the Division 7 tournament].”Hosts Botswana got past Germany by two wickets in a close game at the Botswana Cricket Association Oval 1 in Gaborone.Botswana began ideally in the field, after captain Akrum Chand chose to bowl, with Waseem Tajbhay running out Milan Fernando for a duck and Omar Ali castling Andre Leslie for 1, to leave Germany 2 for 2 in the third over. A patient 148-run stand between Asif Khan and Farooq Ahmed got the innings back on track though. The pair was dismissed in quick succession, but Rishi Pillai added another 47, to make sure Germany posted a competitive total. Ali was the pick of the bowlers, finishing with 3 for 43. Botswana, like Germany, were in trouble early on in their innings, being 8 for 2 and then 28 for 3, before a steadying 87-run stand between Denzil Sequeira and Karabo Modise. Modise, was run out on 65, but the lower-middle order played around Ali – who struck 45 off 40 balls – to help the hosts sneak home with 11 deliveries to spare.Man-of-the-Match Ali said the win was the result of positive cricket. “When I saw Karabo going out there and playing with a positive attitude, I decided that when I went out there [to bat] I would go with the same attitude and it paid off.”Norway registered their first win of the tournament, defeating Japan by 53 runs at the Botswana Cricket Association Oval 2, on the back of an excellent all-round performance by Shahbaz Butt.Japan inserted Norway in to bat, and were able to pick up wickets at regular intervals to begin with, leaving Norway 81 for 5 in the 22nd over. That’s when they came up against Butt, who put on 125 runs for the sixth wicket with Iftikhar Suhael. Patrick Giles-Jones, who finished with 4 for 48, took a return catch to get rid of Suhael for 53, but Butt carried on, steering Norway towards sizeable total before falling two short of his century. He continued to trouble Japan during the chase, running through their middle order with his maiden hat-trick. While a few of the Japan batsman got starts, only Ko Irie managed to build an innings of substance, remaining 56 not out as Japan folded for 191 in the 49th over.”I just knew I had to stay in there and make the runs for as long as possible and stay in the game for as long as possible which I did,” Man-of-the-Match Shahbaz said. “I was also really happy with the way I bowled. That’s not to say Japan didn’t challenge us today, they put up a good fight with both bat and ball but ultimately we came out on top.”

Duncan Fletcher may have coached the England team for eight years but there’s still a “hell of a lot” about them that he “doesn’t know at all”, offspinner Graeme Swann has said

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Apr-2011Duncan Fletcher may have coached the England team for eight years but there’s still a “hell of a lot” about them that he “doesn’t know at all”, offspinner Graeme Swann has said. Fletcher was named India’s new coach, replacing Gary Kirsten, and his first assignment is likely to be the tour of England later in the year.Swann, who was not in Fletcher’s good books when he first played for England in 2000, said any presumptions from the coach about knowing it all about England had the potential to backfire.”Fletcher knows a few of our players better than some other coaches would,” Swann told the . “But there’s a hell of a lot of our team he doesn’t know at all. I think that will work to our advantage, because he might be trying to double guess us a little bit and come a cropper.”Swann made his ODI debut on the tour of South Africa in 2000, when Fletcher was coach, but lost favour with the team due to his off-field behaviour. He played his first Test almost eight years later. “If I was a coach 10 years ago, I don’t think I would have picked me, and I wouldn’t have particularly liked me being on that tour,” Swann said. “If you’re my sort of character, you soon become quite irksome to the people around you if you’re not backing your talk up on the field.”I was just a young upstart tourist, and it was a good job I didn’t play because I wasn’t good enough. I’d probably have been found out and cast aside for good, and never been given my eventual second chance.”There are several players in the current England set-up who’ve either not played under Fletcher or done so only occasionally. Jonathan Trott and Steven Finn made their debuts after Fletcher left, while Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan and even Swann gained prominence much later.”It’s nice for him to come back to England, because he’s got a fine record with the England team,” Swann said. “Now he will get a chance to pit his wits against this new England side during the summer. Technically, though, I don’t think it helps him much to know a few of our players, because there’s so much footage available that you can work anybody out.”Even James Anderson, who Swann believes could be the key against India, played only 16 of his 57 Tests under Fletcher. “If the ball swings like it did last year and Jimmy bowls as well again, there’s no team in the world that can touch us,” Swann said. “I think we will give India a very good run for their money, if not beat them.”

Delhi Daredevils finished at the bottom of the pile after a heavy downpour forced the game to be abandoned after Delhi struggled through to reach 56 for 3 from 10.1 overs

The Bulletin by Sriram Veera21-May-2011Match abandoned
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Rain stopped the dead rubber after 10.1 overs•Associated Press

And so it’s Delhi Daredevils who finish at the bottom of the pile. A heavy downpour forced the game to be abandoned after Delhi struggled to reach 56 for 3 after 10.1 overs against Pune Warriors.Delhi just lurched along aimlessly before the rain saved them from further embarrassment. David Warner offered brief respite to the Delhi fans with a pulled six off Alfonso Thomas and a six over long-on against IPL debutant James Faulkner. That was it, and Pune controlled the rest of the game. Pune, in their first IPL season, finished ninth in the league, ahead of Delhi on net run-rate.Faulkner had a good night bowling his left arm seamers. He delivered a lovely slower yorker – released from back of the hand – to knock out Warner and bowled a couple of jaffas that kicked up from a length at Matthew Wade. Another IPL debutant Shrikant Mundhe struck in his first over to end the misery of Naman Ojha, who had missed more than he connected. Mitchell Marsh produced a yorker to terminate Wade’s limp innings. Then the clouds opened up. Game over.

Rahul Dravid, India’s batting hero in their victory in the first Test against West Indies, has come out in support of the young talent breaking into the national team

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Jun-2011Rahul Dravid, India’s batting hero in their victory in the first Test against West Indies, has come out in support of the young talent breaking into the national team. India entered the series with a depleted side in the absence of first-choice players Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Zaheer Khan, and it took a typically determined second-innings century from Dravid to set up the 63-run win in Jamaica. The young batsmen who came into the XI – with the exception of Suresh Raina in the first innings – wasted the opportunity to impress, but Dravid was confident that they would come good if backed consistently.”These youngsters are even better than we were, in terms of talent,” Dravid said after the match. “We put too much pressure on youngsters; we need to relax and give them time, we need to be patient with them, and we can’t be questioning them after every one or two matches.”The Kingston Test marks 15 years since Dravid debuted along with Sourav Ganguly at Lord’s in 1996, a series in which both did exceptionally well. VVS Laxman also debuted the same year, completing the core of what was to eventually become a world-class middle order, along with Tendulkar.Dravid said the next generation of players had the potential to surpass even the class of 96.
“We all needed time – we have been around for 15 years since we were given a bit of time and you can’t expect performances straight away,” Dravid said. “To be fair to these guys, they have been performing brilliantly in ODIs and I believe Indian cricket is in good hands and these youngsters are going to perform much better than we did even.”Dravid, along with VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni, played in Kingston without much time to acclimatise to the Caribbean or playing practice games. Dravid said it was one of the issues the team grappled with in Jamaica and hoped for improvements before the second Test in Barbados from the 28th.”We know we need to do better than we did in this Test,” Dravid said. “If we are honest we know there are areas we need to improve on, and hopefully we will get that right in Barbados. It has not been easy: a lot of guys have come off a flight two-three days before the Test and there’s been no practice game. Hopefully this win is a good lead-up, and the guys will do better in the next game.”

Pragyan Ojha, the India left-arm spinner, is set to play for Surrey in the County Championship and in the CB40 one-day competition in England

Abhishek Purohit02-Aug-2011Pragyan Ojha, the India left-arm spinner, is set to play for Surrey in the County Championship and in the CB40 one-day competition in England. Ojha, who hasn’t played much in England, wanted to improve his skills in conditions unfavourable to spin bowling and has been granted permission by the BCCI to play in the first-class and one-day formats.Ojha is hoping to leave for England in a week’s time after completing his visa formalities and could make his debut for Surrey in a CB40 one-dayer against Northamptonshire on August 15.Ojha has been a regular presence in India squads since making his ODI and Test debuts in 2008 and 2009. He was also part of the squad for the recent tour of West Indies but with Harbhajan Singh being the sole spinner in overseas games, opportunities have been limited. The Nagpur Test against New Zealand in November 2010 was Ojha’s last match for India.”With not much cricket around for me at the moment, I thought it would be best if I could utilise the time by playing some county cricket in England,” Ojha told ESPNcricinfo. His previous experience of playing in England is limited to three appearances for India in the World Twenty20 in 2009 and a month with the Slathwaite Cricket Club in the Huddersfield League in Yorkshire in 2007.Spinners are not having a good time in the ongoing Test series between England and India with Harbhajan, particularly, and Graeme Swann struggling for impact on surfaces and in conditions that have suited the fast bowlers. “It will be a huge challenge for me to play on pitches in England that are not spinner-friendly,” Ojha said. “I am really looking forward to gaining experience in those conditions.”Ojha, 24, has shown an ability to get sharp turn and bounce from even slightly-responsive surfaces but has still to progress beyond being a steady performer on truer pitches. Bowling long spells on England tracks that don’t deteriorate as much as subcontinent ones do, could help him develop more variations and build his patience.Ojha joins the list of India left-arm spinners – Bishan Bedi, Dilip Doshi, and Murali Kartik – who have played county cricket. He said the hadn’t spoken to them about their experiences but has been taking tips from former India and Hyderabad left-arm spinner Venkatapathy Raju. “I have been in regular touch with Raju and have also been practising with the Hyderabad side [Ojha’s team in India domestic cricket].”Much to his annoyance, Ojha has acquired the reputation of being a restrictive rather than a wicket-taking bowler. A bowling average of 40.40 and a strike-rate of 84.2 – albeit in only 11 Tests – attest to the fact that he has been often called on to perform the holding role with his captain MS Dhoni relying on his impressive control at an age when spinners are supposed to be raw.”I am much more confident now than I was when I made my Test debut. Now I understand when to attack and when to make the batsmen struggle for runs. You have to continue hitting the right areas; it’s not just about bowling stump to stump but about playing with the batsman’s mind. A lot of people misunderstand me by saying, ‘he bowls only tight lines’.”It is important how you set your fields, for example, if you have two catching covers, or how you place your mid-off and mid-on. It all depends on you.”With three seasons of international cricket behind him, Ojha said Test cricket had changed vastly from the days when left-arm spinners like Bedi used to “purchase” wickets using generous flight and daring batsmen to go after them. “Batsmen and bowlers used to test each other’s patience earlier. Now a lot of batsmen look to win Test matches. I feel if you don’t give them easy runs, they will go after you and that is when you have a chance to get them.”

Richard Pyrah claimed Yorkshire’s best-ever t20 figures at Scarborough as his side beat Durham by three wickets to keep alive their slender hopes of going through to the Friends Life quarter-finals

10-Jul-2011
ScorecardRichard Pyrah claimed Yorkshire’s best-ever t20 figures at Scarborough as his side beat Durham by three wickets to keep alive their slender hopes of going through to the Friends Life quarter-finals. Man of the match Pyrah topped off a great day’s work by thrashing a six to win the match with three balls remaining.In front of a 6,500 crowd, the medium-pacer took five for 16 off his four overs to help restrict Durham to 144 for eight after they had been put in to bat on a slow pitch which made it difficult for batsmen to time their shots.It was the first time that any bowler had taken five wickets for either side in a Yorkshire t20 match and the first time that it had been achieved against Durham who are still fighting to make it into the quarter-finals themselves.Inspired by Pyrah’s fine effort, Yorkshire responded by charging to 150 for seven to record their fifth win of the season. Coming on as first change, Pyrah soon got rid of both openers after Phil Mustard and Gordon Muchall had got Durham off to a bright start with 28 inside four overs, Mustard giving an easy catch to David Wainwright at mid-wicket and Muchall falling to the same fielder.In between these dismissals, Ian Blackwell hit high to Andrew Gale at extra cover off Ben Sanderson, who was making his seasonal debut, and Durham slumped to 39 for four when Paul Collingwood drove Pyrah hard to Adil Rashid at mid-off.Pyrah later returned to fire out Dale Benkenstein and Gareth Breese with consecutive deliveries and he would almost certainly have claimed a hat-trick if Liam Plunkett had not got a nick on to his pad. By far the best of Durham’s batting came from David Miller who flew into Leeds-Bradford airport earlier in the day on rejoining his county after playing for South Africa A in Zimbabwe.He struck the ball sweetly to make 54 off 41 deliveries with four fours and two sixes and he figured in the biggest stand of the innings with Benkenstein (33), the fifth wicket pair adding 75 in nine overs. Miller hammered a six and two fours off three consecutive balls from Wainwright but after driving a big straight six off Rashid he cut the leg-spinner to Gary Ballance at backward point.Yorkshire also began at a furious pace as Gale and Joe Sayers charged to 42 in five overs, Sayers smacking two sixes and a four in his 20 off 12 deliveries before giving Breese the first of his four catches.Gale had hurried on to 34 from 19 balls with five fours and a six by the time he was dismissed by Plunkett. Ballance batted sensibly while wickets fell around him and he finally departed to Chris Rushworth in the penultimate over for 48 with six boundaries, leaving Pyrah to win the match by blasting Mitch Claydon through the legside for four and then six.

It was with characteristic understatement that Ashley Giles summed up his Warwickshire side’s performance with the phrase: “a bad day at the office”. In truth, this may well prove to be the defining moment of his side’s season

George Dobell at Edgbaston20-Aug-2011
Scorecard
It was with characteristic understatement that Ashley Giles summed up his Warwickshire side’s performance with the phrase: “a bad day at the office”. In truth, this may well prove to be the defining moment of his side’s season.A second innings batting performance that saw five of the top six dismissed for ducks only exasperated a wasteful display that saw Warwickshire squander several opportunities to clinch a game that had been theirs for the taking. Whether it was failing to establish a crushing first-innings lead, allowing Hampshire off the hook of being, in effect, three for three in their second innings, or collapsing in their second innings, Warwickshire may well come to rue this display for years to come.Might this be the day that ended Warwickshire’s Championship challenge? They certainly haven’t played like prospective champions over the last couple of days, though it is worth noting that Nottinghamshire were dismissed for just 59 by Yorkshire towards the end of last season. They still won the title. As it is, Warwickshire are now 25 points behind Lancashire, but with a game in hand. That eight-point pitch penalty is also looking more important as the season progresses.There is, however, a fragility about Warwickshire’s top-order batting that was alarming. It’s only the second time Warwickshire have been dismissed for under a 100 in the Championship this century, but it is worth noting that the previous occasion was also this season.On the first instance – against Lancashire at Edgbaston – the batsmen were almost blameless on a pitch that was turning square. This time they were tentative to the point of being pathetic.Perhaps that’s harsh. Perhaps it does little to reflect Hampshire’s excellent fight-back in this game. Perhaps it fails to credit the James Vince’s eye-catching century and James Tomlinson and Chris Wood’s fine new ball bowling. Certainly Hampshire played some skilful, courageous cricket over the second half of this game.The truth is, however, that Warwickshire made life far too easy for them. Whether it was their loose second-innings bowling, their timid second-innings capitulation or their careless first-innings batting, Warwickshire must reflect that they gave this game away.The turning point of this match did not come on the third day. It came on day two. It came when the likes of Jim Troughton and Tim Ambrose surrendered their wickets with the loosest of drives that were utterly inappropriate to the circumstances. It came when Rikki Clarke guided a ball to slip and Chris Woakes ran himself out. It came, largely, due to complacency. Warwickshire had the opportunity to finish off Hampshire; instead they offered them a series of lifelines.This is also a result that just about sustains Hampshire’s hopes of pulling off their ‘great escape.’ Though they remain bottom of the Division One table – adrift by 21 points – they have now won two in a row and have a game in hand on Yorkshire. Results elsewhere – at Scarborough and Blackpool – also did them a few favours, though their stand-in captain, Jimmy Adams admits that next week’s game against Worcestershire remains a “must win” encounter.In Vince they certainly have a talented young batsman. While the 20-year-old’s record is infuriatingly mediocre – this was his first score over 20 in eight Championship innings – he clearly has tremendous talent. His driving off the front foot is wonderful – as good as anyone in the county game – while he’s also very good off his legs. The comparisons with Michael Vaughan are obvious and fair.Vince added 72 for the fifth-wicket with the night-watchman Tomlinson, before the killer blow was administered in an 119-run stand for the sixth-wicket with Sean Ervine. While Vince, in particular, feasted on some poor bowling – Woakes opened with two leg-stump half-volleys and showed more than a few signs of weariness – both batsmen increasingly took the fight to a tired attack. Wood, bludgeoning 32 (with six fours and a six) rubbed salt into the wound with a late cameo that broke the spirit of the hosts. Warwickshire’s final target of 308 was always likely to be too much for them.Spare a thought for Chris Woakes, however. Has anyone ever taken ten-wickets in a match and top scored in both innings only to finish on the losing side before? With Clarke limping out of the attack with a hamstring strain, Woakes’ burden was increased. He claimed the third 10-wicket match haul (10 for 123) of his career here as well as scoring 87 runs. Warwickshire simply ask for too much of him. On this occasion, it showed.His top-order batting colleagues have no such excuses. Some of them have struggled all season and here surrendered their wickets with remarkable ease. Ian Westwood cut a long-hop to point, William Porterfield was drawn into prodding at the very next ball and edged to the keeper, while Jim Troughton suffered his fourth duck of the Championship season when his weak prod resulted in an edge to the keeper. Troughton’s run of form, with just three half-centuries since August 2009, is simply not sustainable for a specialist batsman.Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s deeply unimpressive debut (he loitered around in the field with his hands in his pockets like a truculent teenager and was a noticeable absentee from Warwickshire’s on-field huddle) ended when he reached for a wide one and, inevitably, edged to slip, before Rikki Clarke pulled a short ball directly to the fielder at deep square leg. For a team on 45 for 6, it was a very odd shot.There were some moments of excellence from Hampshire, too. Ambrose received a peach of a delivery from Tomlinson that took his edge, while Michael Bates, who has endured a miserable game with the bat, showed why he’s so highly rated as a keeper by pulling off a superb leg-side stumping. Standing up to Tomlinson’s medium-pace, Bates pounced when Varun Chopra dragged his back foot out of his ground. Woakes and the tail at least averted record-breaking awfulness, but could no noting to prevent Hampshire completing victory by 209 runs.There are, as ever, mitigating factors for Warwickshire. Most pertinently, Hampshire’s opening bowlers utilised the new ball very well and the pitch had worn enough to offer some assistance. But there was nothing untoward in either the bowling or the conditions. The batsmen simply failed.Nor will life become easier. Warwickshire are without William Porterfield, Boyd Rankin, Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell and Chris Woakes on international duty for next week’s match against Yorkshire. Rikki Clarke is also an injury doubt.Looking further ahead, however, it seems more likely by the moment that Gary Keedy will be a Warwickshire player next season. Giles described Keedy as “top of his wish list” for next year, while it seems that Lancashire may decide the time has come to fully back their very impressive younger spinners.In the shorter-term, their top order simply have to stop making excuses and start making runs. It’s the only currency by which batsmen, ultimately, can be judged.

The Indian selectors have picked an injured player to represent Rest of India in the Irani Cup, and left out another on fitness grounds after having originally selected him.

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Sep-2011The Indian selectors have picked an injured player to represent Rest of India in the Irani Cup, and left out another on fitness grounds after having originally selected him. The state association of the player who’s been left out claims he is fit. The concerned players are Delhi and Mumbai Indians left-arm seamer Pawan Suyal and Jharkhand and Deccan Chargers batsman Ishank Jaggi.On September 23 the Champions League Twenty20 technical committee allowed Mumbai Indians to field five foreign payers because of an unprecedented count of injuries in the squad. One of the injured players was Suyal. A day after the Champions league made the announcement through a release that went to media houses around the world, the BCCI selected Suyal, and also mis-spelt his name as B Suval, for the Irani Cup. Suyal confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that he underwent a knee surgery two-and-a-half months ago and was aiming at a return in December.However, a hurried corrigendum from BCCI only corrected the spelling. It also mentioned that the selectors had just discovered that Jaggi was injured and would be replaced by Karnataka’s C Gautam. Later in the day the Jharkhand Cricket Association (JCA) told that Jaggi was fit and was part of Jharkhand’s Ranji Trophy preparatory camp.”As far as Pawan Suyal is concerned, we didn’t know about his injury,” the new BCCI secretary and convenor of selectors Sanjay Jagdale told the . “We have the main players on our database but we are not aware of injuries to every single first-class cricketer in the country.” R Vinay Kumar, the Karnataka seamer, has replaced Suyal in the squad.Jaggi found support from his state association. The JCA claimed that Jaggi, who had suffered a knee injury during the fourth edition of the IPL while playing for Deccan Chargers, was back to full fitness and training with the state team. “As far as the JCA is concerned, I can tell you that he is fit and presently is even taking part in our Ranji camp,” JCA secretary Rajesh Verma told the . “We consulted BCCI’s authorised doctor Anant Joshi a month ago and he had told us that Ishank did not require any surgery.”They should have conducted his fitness test if they wanted to pick him for Irani Cup. Jaggi was never called to Bangalore [to the National Cricket Academy] for a test. There is no point in dropping a player when you have not conducted any test.”When asked about Jaggi, Jagdale said: “In Ishank Jaggi’s case we went by the National Cricket Academy (NCA) physio’s report, which had suggested a surgery but now we will see what can be done.”According to JCA, Jaggi had approached the NCA after his injury, and was advised by the BCCI physio Nitin Patel to undergo surgery in England. Verma further told the paper that Patel failed to acquire an appointment with orthopedic surgeon Andrew Wallace in London whereupon Jaggi was asked by Deccan Chargers and the JCA to meet Joshi.This fiasco comes days after the BCCI announced a new Under-19 captain for the upcoming quadrangular only to later discover that his date of birth in the BCCI records didn’t match the one on his passport.

Former Pakistan Test captain Salman Butt has taken the witness box for the first time on Monday on the ninth day of the alleged spot-fixing trial in London

Richard Sydenham at Southwark Crown Court17-Oct-2011Salman Butt revealed to a court that he has earned approximately £1.2 million since playing for Pakistan for the first time in 2003, as he took the witness stand for the first time on the ninth day of the alleged spot-fixing trial in London.Butt started giving evidence at about 11.30am and will continue after lunch. His lawyer Ali Bajwa QC first addressed the jury and pointed out to them that they may have heard many stories involving his client but he reminded them that they are only giving a verdict on the Lord’s Test in 2010 and deciding whether he was party to the bowling of three alleged pre-determined no-balls.Butt and his former team-mate Mohammad Asif are facing charges of conspiracy to cheat, and conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments, following that Lord’s Test in August last year when they allegedly conspired with Majeed, teenage fast bowler Amir and other people unknown to bowl pre-planned no-balls. Butt and Asif deny the charges.Bajwa has so far taken the jury through his career and chronicled how he began playing cricket and how he has developed over the years into an established international cricketer. He also gave much background on Butt’s upbringing and also about Butt’s finances, including his banking information and income.After outlining all the various ways in which Butt earns his income, Bajwa asked the former opening batsman “how much do you think you have earned from cricket from the period 2007 to 2010?”, to which Butt responded: “Somewhere between £700,000 and £850,000” and adding when asked about his entire career earnings, “over the seven years in the Pakistan it has to go beyond £1.2 million.”The court heard a forensic breakdown of the player’s earnings. For the 2007-08 season, for example, he earned £169,345 from the Pakistan Cricket Board. That money comprised £14,000 as a basic retainer, a loyalty bonus of £22,000 for not playing in the Indian Cricket League, a share of match fees and prize monies and £11,000 from a PCB sponsorship deal with Mobilink and £9,000 from a PCB deal with Pepsi.Bajwa then also asked Butt if this was the end of his earnings for that year to which Butt answered “no” and went on to explain that he also earns about £400 a month from his domestic team in Pakistan, plus the $150,000 deal he had with the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League, plus other endorsements.In 2008-09 he earned £203,852 from the PCB and £125,281 from the PCB in 2009-10 because Pakistan played little cricket in the year prior and it was also the time when Pakistan was counting the costs financially from the Lahore terrorist attack.The courts also heard how Butt took on the role of his family’s breadwinner from the age of 16 when his father, who worked for Lufthansa Airlines and later became a businessman, separated from his mother. He supported his mother and two sisters, and later his wife and child also. Butt told of how he funded the education of his two sisters from his earnings in cricket and will pay for their weddings as both are engaged.In a further way to illustrate Butt’s wealth to the court, the jury was told that he was looking to buy a special edition Breitling watch that he thought would cost “around £7,000 to £8,000”.Butt spoke confidently and did not ever require the services of the Urdu interpreter standing by his side throughout the questioning. The court had learned earlier that he had attended an English speaking school in Lahore.The case continues.