With increasing calls for Australia to hire a specialist fast bowling coach, Damien Fleming, working for the last two years developing young pacemen for Australia, has thrown his name in the hat of potential candidates.As Cricket Australia considers appointing specialist assistants to John Buchanan, Fleming, who recently left as head of the national Pace Australia program, said he would love the chance to work with the country’s senior bowlers if it arose.Fleming was quoted by AAP as saying, “if a position was going, I would be very keen. I have spent the past couple of years running the Pace Australia program and it was a good two years for me to develop my knowledge in the biomechanics side of things and work with sports scientists, as well as working with young bowlers.”He continued, “I would like to work with the elite squad, and it would be important to be able to deal with a young bowler coming through, who might have technical problems, through to the more experienced bowlers, for whom it might be goal-setting or something like that you work on.”Fleming also spoke of the lack of young fast bowling depth in Australia at the moment calling for Jason Gillespie’s potential contribution to Australia to be re-examined. “The thing is there has only been one Glenn McGrath in more than 100 years of Test cricket. Between (Dennis) Lillee and (Jeff) Thomson and McGrath, we had guys like Craig McDermott and Merv Hughes, who were very good bowlers. Maybe we are at the stage where we get a guy who can play for three to six years and give us good service.”The next cabs off the rank are all in their late 20s or early 30s, guys like Nathan Bracken (28), Stuart Clark (30) and Mick Lewis (31), but there is a dearth of bowlers aged between 23 and 27 who are ready to go in there and be a 10-year player.”I think Australia should go back to Gillespie and work with him to get him back into the Test team. He had always been earmarked as a spearhead to take over from McGrath, and at 30, he still has four or five good years in him.”Australia’s revamp of their coaching structure began with the appointment of Richard McInnes as a full-time performance analyst.

Mohammad Asif, whose seven wickets yesterday ensured that England’s batsmen would continue to struggle at the start of their Pakistan tour, has expressed surprise at not being called into Pakistan’s squad to take on the visitors in the first Test at Multan.After the day’s play, Asif was quoted in local papers saying, “Given my performances for the Pakistan A team and in the practice matches plus domestic cricket I was confident the selectors would consider me for a recall. But when my name was not included, I was surprised, not disheartened.”The selectors have their tactics and requirements when they pick the Pakistan squad so I don’t blame them but I just hope now I will get a chance to play again for the senior team.”Asif played one Test for Pakistan against Australia last year in Sydney and although he didn’t pick up a wicket, he reportedly impressed the management with his attitude and his doughty, committed batting in both innings. He has been kept in mind by the selectors, however, and Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, has said that Asif is among the most improved players he has worked with in Pakistan.Hasan Raza has at least been picked in the 16-man squad and is now pushing for a place in the starting XI. It is widely acknowledged that Raza, captain of Pakistan A in this match, is on the verge of a Test spot and after his resilient innings of 34 yesterday, coupled with Asim Kamal’s appalling run of form, he will have done his chances no harm.He told reporters that he was disappointed with the lack of application of his batsmen yesterday. “The pitch eased out a bit but the ball was seaming around but still, we should have applied ourselves and got more runs. After bowling them out for 126 it was a golden chance to win the match but now the game is wide open and we will have to bowl very well again in the second innings. I was disappointed not to get my half-century but I tried my best and they bowled well.”Raza last played for Pakistan against Zimbabwe in November 2002 and since his debut in 1996-97 – reportedly as a 14-year-old – he has played only five Tests. In his third Test, against Australia in the disastrous 2002-03 series played in Colombo and Sharjah, Raza scored two half-centuries as Pakistan’s inexperienced batting repeatedly collapsed.That performance won him praise from Steve Waugh, the former Australian captain, who was apparently surprised that Raza was not in the Pakistan squad that toured Down Under in December last year.Murmurings over an attitude problem and a weakness against short-pitched bowling have given his career a stop-start feel but with the management now impressed by his maturity, as a person and as a batsman, the chances of a recall are brighter than ever before.

David Graveney has admitted that the chances of Michael Vaughan returning to captain the one-day series are very doubtful, and that his tour is “very much in the balance”. Vaughan flew home to the UK on Sunday, and today will see a specialist to ascertain the severity of his knee injury.”Without doubt he’s had problems with this knee before,” Graveney told the radio programme BBC Today. “The last thing you want is to lose your captain but we’ll follow whatever medical advice is recommended.”Vaughan missed the first Test of England’s tour of Pakistan after injuring his knee during a warm-up game against a Pakistan A side at Lahore. Although he was passed fit for the remaining two Tests, he was in obvious discomfort while batting and in the field.”Michael is due to see a specialist later on today about how bad his knee is and I’ll touch base with him once he’s had that and we’ll go from there,” Graveney added. “Michael missed the first Test and was understandably pretty down about that but he then made a remarkable recovery from the early prediction so we’ll try to be as optimistic as possible.”I’d obviously love him to go back and I’m sure he wants to go back himself. So let’s see how it goes when he sees the specialist today.”

The ICC has welcomed the decisions of the interim committee in charge of Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) to withdraw from its Test commitments until 2007, and to commission an independent investigation into allegations of financial mismanagement.The ICC President, Ehsan Mani, said that ZC had made the right decision in withdrawing from Tests in 2006. “Zimbabwe Cricket has taken a sensible step in withdrawing from its Test cricket commitments for the coming year.”The Zimbabwe team has demonstrated in recent series that it is not in a position to be competitive in Test cricket and its decision to withdraw from its commitments over the next 12 months helps protect the integrity of the international game.”During this period we will support Zimbabwe Cricket by encouraging other members to host and undertake tours that expose Zimbabwe’s elite cricketers to the longer form of the game.”We will closely monitor the performance and progress of the team and towards the end of the year we will work with Zimbabwe Cricket to determine the most appropriate course of action.”Mani also supported the interim committee’s decisions to investigate allegations of financial mismanagement and involve a players’ representative in its technical and player welfare committee.”We welcome the interim committee’s decision to commission an independent investigation into allegations of financial mismanagement,” Mani added. “The inclusion of a representative nominated by the Zimbabwe Professional Cricketers’ Association in the decision-making processes of the board is also a positive step towards ensuring that the views of the players are taken into account.”The decisions taken in Harare, on Wednesday, follows a meeting between the ICC and the chairman of the interim committee, Peter Chingoka, in Karachi last week. During this meeting a range of concerns were raised by Mani and the ICC chief executive, Malcolm Speed.Mani emphasised that there was still a lot of additional work to be done by the interim committee. “These developments address many of the concerns raised by the ICC in its meeting with Peter Chingoka, and in a subsequent letter to the interim committee, but there remain other issues that must be addressed and we will continue to monitor the progress of the interim board on a wide range of topics.”Zimbabwe’s next Test commitment was to have been a tour of West Indies that was due to commence in April. Related scheduling discussions between Zimbabwe, West Indies, the ICC and other members are already underway.

It has been a fairytale run for both Bengal and Uttar Pradesh this season. Both were rank-outsiders in the beginning, especially Bengal who were on the brink of relegation the previous season. But both teams had the grit to fight back and push aside heavyweights such as Mumbai, Railways, Baroda to set up the summit clash.Both teams scored contrasting victories in the semifinals, Mohammad Kaif leading Uttar Pradesh to an emphatic five-wicket away victory over Mumbai while Deep Dasgupta had to settle for the first-innings lead against Baroda at Eden Gardens. The Ranji Trophy final, to be played at KD Singh Babu Stadium in Lucknow, is most likely to be a five-day affair and the side that has the most amount of patience owns the trump card.The teams
The only change for Bengal will be Rohan Gavaskar, who missed the semi-finals due to illness, replacing Kamal Mondal, who made just five on his debut against Baroda. Bengal, with three centurions in their last match, will clearly rely on their batting with Dasgupta, who has 538 runs at 44.83 including two vital hundreds this season, leading the way. In the bowling stakes, he may well be rubbing his palms in anticipation with the successful duo of Saurasish Lahiri, the talented young offspinner, and Shib Paul, the right-arm fast bowler, coming good. Lahiri, Bengal’s leading wicket-taker, is ranked fifth in this season’s bowling tally, and together with Paul may prove difficult for UP to deal with on the low Lucknow surface.As for the hosts, their confidence comes from three outright victories in the last three games and, that too, in away encounters on different surfaces. Kaif maintains that if his bowlers can take 20 wickets three times outside home, then they definitely hold the upper hand, home advantage and all. Praveen Kumar, with 34 wickets, is the highest wicket-taker between both sides, while Piyush Chawla, the much-talked-about legspinner who is also part of the India Under-19 team for the World Cup, has 30. Not to be overlooked in UP’s bowling attack is Ashish Winston Zaidi, who at 34, is still very capable of sending down his wily medium pacers and teasing the batsman.The pitch
The pitch at the KD Singh Babu Stadium is known to be sluggish in nature – predominantly there is minimal lift for the fast bowlers – and on current view the hard and shiny surface looks to have just a flicker of grass on the good-length areas, which still require some rolling. Essentially, whoever calls right at the toss will definitely not think twice about batting. In three matches at this venue, UP have posted 400-plus scores twice – in one they made Punjab follow-on – and one outright victory against Hyderabad. The key, thus, will be in getting a sizeable first-innings score.Guiding lights
Kaif, returning to the side when left out of the national squad, has been UP’s energizer-bunny. UP started on a disastrous note, losing their first two games at home and drawing the next two. But once Kaif joined the bandwagon and brought with him a much-needed vigour, a spirit of self-belief was instilled in the struggling team and since then they have won three matches.If Kaif brought his international experience to the fore when UP were suffering, Paras Mhambrey, the former Mumbai and India fast bowler, played the big brother role for Bengal admirably. Mhambrey, after helping Mumbai secure the Ranji title the previous season, took over the coach’s role at a time when Bengal were becoming stale. He opted for the untested and untried fervour of youth instead of experienced players who looked well past their sell-by date. His strategy worked, and Dasgupta and his side did not miss an opportunity to acknowledge Mhambrey’s role in their success.Final count
This will be Bengal’s 12th appearance in the Ranji final, which they won twice in the 1938-39 and 1989-90 seasons. UP have come close to winning on three occasions, the last time in 1997-98, but they have yet to lift the crown.Cold fervour
The premier cricket tournament in India stopped attracting the crowds in the last decade due to a lack of international stars making their presence felt. It would be hard, thus, to expect Lucknowites, who are well swathed in their woolens, to flock to the KD Singh Babu Stadium over the next five days.Uttar Pradesh:
Jyoti Prakash Yadav, Shiva Shukla, Praveen Kumar, Mohammad Kaif (capt), Suresh Raina, Gyanendra Pandey, Rizwan Shamshad, Piyush Chawla, Amir Khan (wk), Ashish Winston Zaidi, Shalabh Srivastava, R Prakash, R Mishra, Praveen Gupta.Bengal:
Deep Dasgupta (capt/wk), Arindam Das, Subhomoy Das, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Rohan Gavaskar, Manoj Tiwary, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Saurashish Lahiri, Shibsagar Singh, Ranadeb Bose, Shib Paul, Subhojit Paul, Ashok Dinda, MY Lodhgar.

ScorecardPlate Group Points TableA half-century from Nikhil Doru and his 76-run partnership with Ajay Jadeja lifted Rajasthan to a 156-run lead before Pankaj Singh rocked the Orissa top order to push them to 91 for 5 to propel Rajasthan to a commanding position by the end of the second day in Ranji Plate semi-final at Jaipur. Deepak Mangaraj removed both Doru and Jadeja enroute to his second five-wicket haul but by then the duo had powered their side to a position of strength.Lalit Modi, the President of Rajasthan Cricket Association, had pumped in lots of money to improve the infrastructure in Rajasthan cricket, also drafting in Ajay Jadeja to captain the side and it has paid dividends. Jadeja, who led the batting averages for Rajasthan this season with a run tally of 493 -that includes four fifties and a hundred- once again, came up with a vital contribution yesterday. Doru chose the right moment to chip in with his second fifty of this season and the duo stretched the first-innings lead.Pankaj Singh continued with his good first innings performance (4 for 26) with a three-wicket haul in the second to push Orissa on the back foot. Only S Sehgal put up a semblance of fight, facing 100 balls for his 34. Orissa, who led their group in the league stage with 18 points, are now looking down and almost out and barring a minor miracle Jadeja-led Rajasthan will head towards the final.

In East London the Warriors held on admirably against the Dolphins, who lead the table, as Arno Jacobs batted through the day to end on 135 not out. With only 68 overs possible in the day the Warriors were 287 for 8, still 225 behindon the first innings, when bad light again brought an end to the day.Starting the day at 84 for 3 the Warriors progressed to 223 for 6 andwere well on their way to avoid the follow-on, but two quick wicketsreduced them 223 for 8. Mario Olivier and Jacobs steadied the sinkingship with an unbroken stand of 64 coming off the final 20 overs of theday. The Warriors still have a bit to do on the final day to salvage adraw.In Bloemfontein the Lions and the Eagles are heading for a draw unlesssome inspired captaincy comes to the fore. Nicky Boje, taking 4 for 106,could not stop the Lions from taking a slender first innings lead of 34thanks to Justin Ontong, leading from the front, scoring 102 as theLions totalled 375. At 40 for 3 the Eagles looked to be in trouble butDavey Jacobs, unbeaten on 56, and Morne van Wyk (28*) willcontinue tomorrow from 135 for 3.In Benoni the Cape Cobras have their backs up against the wall as theTitans took control of the match. At the close the Cobras had struggledto 95 for 5, still 61 runs behind after the Titans had finished on 327.A fifty from Goolam Bodi and thirties from Godfrey Toyana and Dale Steyngave the Titans a 156-run lead. The in-form Rory Kleinveldt was againthe Cobras’ leading wicket taker with 4 for 66. With Derrin Bassageundefeated on 50 the Cobras will be looking for a miracle to avoid aheavy defeat as they head into the final day.

India’s cricketers have joined the debate over player burnout, with Virender Sehwag, the vice-captain, telling reporters than the board (BCCI) had been asked to reduce the number of matches played by the team.”There is too much cricket,” Sehwag said. “Players need a break because they may burn out. They need time for fitness also, time to think about their game and to recharge their batteries. If we want to win the World Cup, we need every player to be fit.”Sehwag added that several players, including Rahul Dravid, the captain, had taken the matter up with the BCCI but had been told that there was nothing the board can do because the cricket calendar had already been fixed. But he said that the board had promised to give the players adequate breaks after the commitments fixed were fulfilled.He also explained that players needed three or four weeks rest to recover between series. “If a player gets a three to four-month break in a year, it is good for players and good for the BCCI also.”

Amit Varma and S Rajesh discuss the first day of the Antigua TestDownload MP3 (right click and select “save target as”)
Streaming Audio: Real :: WMAIndia vindicated their decision of playing six specialist batsmen by batting badly, falling to 235 for 9 on the first day of the Antigua Test. Amit Varma and S Rajesh, who wrote the bulletin for this game, discuss what went wrong for India and what went right for West Indies. Strategy, tactics, tennis: they’re all discussed here. Listen in!Download MP3 (right click and select “save target as”)
Streaming Audio: Real :: WMAFor Sambit Bal’s views on the Indian team’s selection, click here.

Pakistan will host West Indies for three Tests and five one-day internationals in November and December, though the itinerary for the tour has yet to be finalised. That has been delayed until the outcome of the ICC Champions Trophy, to be held in India between October 7 and November 5Pakistan, seeded in the main round, await the result of West Indies matches, which are in the qualifying rounds of the tournament. “The tour is confirmed. However the itinerary will be finalised later due to some logistical reasons,” Subhan Ahmed,a PCB official, told Reuters.The PCB added that it had been requested by West Indies to schedule the one-day internationals first, but that given the winter season it would be better to play the Tests first. “In the last two series against England and India we lost a lot of time due to bad light,” Ahmed said. “The floodlights also don’t improve the light. So it would be better to have the Tests first.”He said the PCB would use five venues — Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan and Faisalabad — to host all the matches.The West Indies last toured Pakistan in 1997-98 and a proposed tour in 2002 was shifted to Sharjah over security concerns following the September 11 attacks.