The Indian media’s rocky relations with the Indian Premier League have taken a downward turn with the News Broadcasters Association (NBA), whose members control the major national news channels, deciding to put its coverage of the IPL on hold from Tuesday midnight until there is a resolution to problems related to coverage it had raised with league officials.”As far as we are concerned, two issues need to be sorted out before we can go ahead with IPL coverage,” Annie Joseph, the Association’s secretary general, told Cricinfo. “One relates to access to footage and the other to accreditation guidelines.”It’s understood that the channels are unhappy about the exhorbitant rates that are being charged for news clips and also the stipulation that footage can’t be used in archival form.A statement released by the NBA on Tuesday night said it sought clarifications from the IPL but, instead of receiving a response from either Lalit Modi, the IPL’s chairman and commissioner, or any of the other members of the IPL’s governing council, it instead received a reply from an official of the Sony Network, which along with World Sports Group had bought the TV rights for the IPL.The statement said the NBA’s questions didn’t fetch a satisfactory response as Sony was “not in a position to discuss matters other than access to footage, and that any offer Sony could make in that regard was limited within the framework of its contract with IPL.””As Sony was by its own admission neither authorized nor competent to deal with the subject comprehensively, and moreover may reasonably be assumed to have a direct conflict of interest in extending use rights to television news channels, it is unacceptable to us to deal with them in this matter,” the NBA said.The NBA, based in New Delhi, includes leading the news broadcasters such as TV Today, NDTV, Times Global Broadcasting Company, TV18, Global Broadcast News Limited and Zee News.
Cricket Australia has been forced to change the recent tradition of staging the concluding Tests of its major series in Melbourne and Sydney following negotiations with the India board. The 2007-08 season will take on a different feel after India, who are due to play Pakistan in November, insisted the first match of the four-Test contest would take place in Melbourne on Boxing Day. It will be followed by the New Year fixture in Sydney and games in Adelaide and Perth to decide the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.The large-scale reordering means the annual one-day tri-series, which usually starts in January, will begin in February and finish in March. Sri Lanka will open the Australian summer with two Tests in Brisbane and Hobart in November and return for the one-day tournament with the hosts and India. New Zealand will visit for three Chappell-Hadlee Series fixtures and a Twenty20 in December.”Our competitors’ global commitments create challenges for scheduling,” Michael Brown, Cricket Australia’s operations manager, said. Australia face a hectic program over the next 18 months, starting with the Twenty20 world championship in South Africa in September, a possible one-day tour of Zimbabwe and a limited-overs series in India. They are also expected to play 20 Tests in 2008.Australia will stage two Twenty20 matches next season, with games against New Zealand in Perth and India at the MCG. Canberra will host its first ODI since 1992 when India and Sri Lanka play there during the CB Series as part of Cricket Australia’s expansion program.Hobart will get two international games – a Test and an ODI – while the Northern Territory is covered by the five Australia-New Zealand women’s matches for the Rose Bowl in July. Tickets for all of Australia’s international matches are expected to go on sale in July.2007-08 Australian itinerary Australia v Sri Lanka 1st Test, Brisbane, November 8-12 2nd Test, Hobart, November 16-20 Chappell-Hadlee Series 1st ODI, Adelaide, December 14 2nd ODI, Sydney, December 16 3rd ODI, Hobart, December 20 Australia v India 1st Test, Melbourne, December 26-30 2nd Test, Sydney, January 2-6 3rd Test, Perth, January 16-20 4th Test, Adelaide, January 24-28 Twenty20 Australia v New Zealand, Perth, December 11 Australia v India, Melbourne, February 1 CB Series Australia, Sri Lanka, India February 3-March 7
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.”
Jimmy Allan, one of the best allrounders Scotland has ever produced, has died at the age of 73.A left-arm spinner and right-hand batsman, Allan made 60 appearances for his country between 1954 and 1972, taking 171 wickets. He made his first-class debut for Oxford University in 1953, batting at No. 11, but by the following summer he was opening for them. He won a Blue every year from 1953 to 1956 without ever finishing on the winning side. While at university he also played for Kent, and in 1954 and 1955 he passed 1000 runs, and in 1955 he came with five wickets of recording the double. He played a few more games for Kent in 1957, and in 1966 made a surprise return with Warwickshire, where he enjoyed two seasons.”He was one of the shrewdest left-arm bowlers I have ever seen, with a superb command of flight and length,” Keith Graham, a former team-mate of Allan’s with Ayr, told The Scotsman. “Jimmy was a fantastic cricketer and a super guy. Off the field he was an inspiration to a generation of young cricketers at Ayr.”
Mahela Jayawardene guided Sri Lanka into a dominant position on the rain-affected fourth day at Galle with a patient 86 not out, including a last-wicket stand of 46 with Muttiah Muralitharan. England were set 323 to win, and with Murali all ready to flex his rubbery wrist on a wearing pitch, the rain which brought an early finish was a welcome sight for England – but a frustrating one for Sri Lanka.After a heartening final session last night, the onus was on England to take quick wickets in the morning and limit the lead to manageable proportions. But that didn’t happen. Their first breakthrough eventually came after the morning drinks break, and even that was in controversial circumstances.Chaminda Vaas, who had batted with typical resolve for his 19, was caught at short-leg by Paul Collingwood to give Ashley Giles his seventh wicket of the match. There was some doubt, however, as to whether Vaas had actually touched the ball, as it ballooned off his pads into Collingwood’s hands. And though umpire Venkat had no hesitation, Vaas’s reaction spoke volumes as he stalked off the pitch. He flung his gloves and helmet to one side as he reached the boundary rope, much as Sanath Jayasuriya had done in similar circumstances at Kandy in 2000-01.For most of the morning, England laboured for little reward, as Vaas and Jayawardene fended off the best efforts of Andrew Flintoff and the spinners, Giles and Gareth Batty. With a lead of 195 in the bag already, there was no need for risks, and the batsmen limited themselves to singles and the odd extravagance, such as the lofted four that Vaas smacked back over Batty’s head.It was slow going, and even after a two-hour rain break, Sri Lanka continued to show little urgency and crawled along at two runs-an-over. Chandana soon paid the price for his negativity when he padded up to a straight one from Giles, and was given lbw by Venkat (163 for 7). Jayawardene then eventually reached his half-century off 192 balls – and just under four hours – but still they were in no hurry to extend the lead, which was trickling towards 300.Matthew Hoggard took the new ball and immediately grabbed his first wicket of the match – and the tour – when he trapped Kumar Dharmasena lbw stone dead in front of middle (179 for 8). Flintoff was then rewarded for his tireless efforts when Dinusha Fernando edged him to Marcus Trescothick, who again showed off his party trick of juggling the ball a few times before clasping it (180 for 9).
But whether it be with bat or ball, Murali always livens things up, and today was no exception. He strode out with his ever-present grin, and then smeared Flintoff over cover and slashed Hoggard past point, both for four. Jayawardene suddenly came to life as well. He thumped Johnson for two successive boundaries over midwicket to take the lead past 300, and smacked Giles back over his head for another four.Again the bowlers could not finish off the job quickly. For a No. 11, Murali was surprisingly comfortable, and his partnership with Jayawardene sapped England’s morale even further. After Murali eventually edged Batty to Collingwood at short leg for a handy 13, England were left pondering their almost impossible bid to save this game.If only rain can rescue England now, then it came to their aid after just one over in to their second innings. Trescothick and Michael Vaughan walked out in spitting rain, and then hurried off five minutes later as the downpour started. Play was inevitably called off at 5.30pm local time, and England will need more bad weather tomorrow if they are going to escape with a draw.
The Mashonaland team to play Matabeleland at Bulawayo Athletic Club this weekend is as follows:Ryan Butterworth, Lance Malloch-Brown, Kudzai Taibu, Barney Rogers, Craig Evans, Blessing Mahwire, Darlington Matambanadzo, +Donald Campbell, Patrick Gada, *Gus Mackay, Simon Seager. 12th man: Andre Neethling.The match between Midlands and Mashonaland A, at Kwekwe Sports Club, has been postponed until next weekend. The squad for the season is as follows (the international players being unavailable For the Midlands match as they will be touring India):Andy Flower, Grant Flower, Stuart Carlisle, Dion Ebrahim, Gavin Rennie, Paul Strang, Brighton Watambwa, Mark Vermeulen, Trevor Gripper, David Mutendera, Henry Olonga, Alester Maregwede, Andy Blignaut, Norbert Manyande.In addition Blignaut will be unavailable for the Midlands match; he has offered no reason for his absence.
The Bihar-Orissa under 14 match played at the Keenan Stadium in Jamshedpursaw Bihar win the toss and lose first day honours. After electing to batfirst, Bihar skipper Rajdeep Roy saw things go badly wrong for his side asthey were skittled out for a mere 145.After starting poorly, when Bihar lost their first three wickets with justnineteen runs on the board, they were furthered hampered by the loss ofwickets at regular intervals. Th wickets were shared all around with SumitSagar Hembram, Amitav Naik, Tukuna Sahu and Dhiraj Singh scalping twowickets apiece. At the end of 35 overs Bihar were staring down the barrelat 69/7. However, a gritty innings of 38 from number eight batsman S Nadeemsaved Bihar the blushes. Santosh Kumar and Madan Kumar, who followed Nadeemmade 18 each and Bihar managed to scrape through to 145 all out.In response, the Orissa side fared much better than its counterparts.Despite losing a couple of wickets, Orissa put 55 runs on the board whenstumps was called. With eight wickets in hand, Orissa have a good chance ofoverhauling Bihar’s first innings total.
Heading into Tottenham Hotspur’s clash with Liverpool in the Premier League, Thomas Frank would have been hoping for a response from his hot-and-cold troops.
Indeed, off the back of a demoralising 3-0 loss away at Nottingham Forest, the Dane remained under intense pressure to succeed in North London, and he hasn’t helped his precarious job position by following up that humiliation at the hands of the Tricky Trees with a disappointing 2-1 defeat against Liverpool.
Spurs’ mission to pick up a much-needed three points was not boosted by Xavi Simons’ reckless dismissal in the first half, as the number seven’s bumpy start to life in England continued against the resurgent Reds.
How Xavi Simons let Spurs down
Simons’ arrival in North London for £52m attracted a lot of fanfare in the summer, with the expectation that the former RB Leipzig man would instantly settle into life swimmingly in his new surroundings.
Having scored two goals against Brentford and Slavia Prague earlier in the month, the hope would have been that Simons could now kick on, having found the initial transition hard.
Unfortunately, though, he would only last 33 minutes against the Merseyside giants, with zero efforts attempted on Alisson’s goal, before being given his marching orders for this mistimed challenge on Virgil Van Dijk.
Coming out after the 2-1 defeat with a public apology, Simons will pray, when he does return, that he can finally find some consistent red-hot form for Spurs, or he will surely fear that he’s already been dismissed as an expensive flop.
He isn’t the only flop in the attacking areas that will be frustrating the Spurs masses at the moment, though, as this other high-profile summer acquisition constantly spurned chances up against the reigning Premier League champions.
Frank must drop this other Spurs flop
Frank will know if he doesn’t steer the sinking Spurs ship back on course soon that he could face the sack already, as the board will not want consistently poor results.
He does have plenty of time now on the training pitch, as his side’s next Premier League test isn’t until the 28th, but he will be hesitant to start Randal Kolo Muani up front against Crystal Palace in the immediate aftermath of the 2-1 defeat, after his wasteful showing against Liverpool.
Muani’s performance in numbers
Stat
Muani
Minutes played
80
Goals scored
0
Assists
0
Shots
4
Big chances missed
1
Touches
17
Accurate passes
6/7 (86%)
Stats by Sofascore
In total, the France international would see four shots pass him by, with one header very close to beating Alisson, before Simons’ red card dominated the narrative.
Away from looking lively in spurts when through on goal, Muani would – unfortunately – become isolated during large spells of the game, with only six accurate passes tallied up by the 27-year-old in total.
Moreover, come the end of his 80 minutes on the pitch, the hot-and-cold number 39 would amass fewer touches of the ball than Guglielmo Vicario in between the sticks, with the Italian’s tally standing at 38 touches, next to Kolo Muani’s paltry 17.
To make matters even worse for the Spurs loanee, who is breaking the bank with his £150k-per-week salary, Richarlison would only be on the pitch for a matter of moments as his replacement when he buried home this opportunity, leading to Spurs content creator Jonny Blain hailing his cameo as “superb”.
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Could Frank now be tempted to start the ex-Everton attacker over the 27-year-old for the short trip over to Selhurst Park?
With Richarlison boasting another six Premier League goals for the season, it does feel like an easy swap to make, with Muani still yet to break his league duck for Frank’s men, ten games into his journey in the English top-flight.
His inaccurate display in front of goal against the Reds does make for a convincing argument to suggest he was as bad as Simons was, even with the Dutchman barely lasting only half an hour on the pitch, as Muani had far more time to leave his mark on the game, and he didn’t.
Frank will just hope, whatever lineup he decides to field against the Eagles, that another Premier League win comes his team’s way soon, with Muani likely to be cast aside from his starting XI plans if he continues to fire blanks.
A better signing than Simons: Spurs hold talks to sign big-money PL star
Tottenham’s attacking additions from the summer have left something to be desired.
Phillip Hughes and Simon Katich both entered the record-books as they guided New South Wales to an almost unbeatable position on the third day of the Pura Cup final in Sydney. Hughes underlined his potential as a future Test player with 116 before Katich and Michael Clarke combined to all but bat Victoria out of the match.The Bushrangers began the day hoping to dismiss the Blues and pursue a target of under 300; they finished facing a 400-plus chase on a pitch that will assist Stuart MacGill. New South Wales ended the day at 5 for 352 with Dominic Thornely on 19 and Beau Casson on 12. As has been the case all summer, one of the key architects of their success was Katich, who made 92 and became the all-time highest run scorer in a Pura Cup season.Katich passed Michael Bevan’s record of 1464 set at Tasmania in 2004-05 and he received a standing ovation from the SCG crowd when he achieved the milestone with a single turned behind square leg off Bryce McGain. Katich ended up with 1506 runs at 94.12, although he was denied a sixth century when he was run out attempting a quick single at the call of his partner Clarke.The other important contribution came from Hughes, the most inexperienced man in a New South Wales side overflowing with international expertise. At 19, Hughes became the youngest player to score a century in a Pura Cup final, beating the previous most junior centurion, Martin Love, who was nearly 21 when he achieved the feat in 1994-95.Although Victoria picked up a few late wickets with the new ball – they grabbed 3 for 22 in four overs – they looked destined to finish the season with only a Twenty20 title having reached the deciders in all three competitions. Their problem was a lack of wickets in the first session. McGain and the part-time offspinner Brad Hodge both looked dangerous and McGain was extracting big turn out of the footmarks but despite some nervy moments Hughes survived, first with Phil Jaques and then with Katich.Runs came quickly in the morning as Victoria strained for wickets and Hughes was lucky to escape when he edged Dirk Nannes just over the slips for a boundary when he was on 14. The stroke was sandwiched between two poor Nannes full tosses that Hughes also put away for fours, and that gave the batsman confidence. He drove Peter Siddle’s half-volleys effectively and brought up his half-century from only 39 deliveries with a cover-driven four off McGain.
The rate slowed after Jaques departed lbw for 23 to a vicious McGain legbreak that zipped out of the rough and stayed so low it struck the batsman’s ankle. Their 75-run opening stand had already frustrated Victoria, and the 145-run partnership between Hughes and Katich that followed was even more irritating for the visitors.Hughes eased his rate but not his concentration, reaching triple-figures for the first time in only seven first-class games. His hundred came from 153 deliveries and he fought off McGain, who finished with 1 for 72 and was disappointed not to make more of the SCG pitch. It was Victoria’s secondary legspinner, Cameron White, who finally removed Hughes for 116. An attempted slog-sweep was top-edged to point, where McGain took the chance but must have been annoyed after Hughes struck him for six with a similar stroke two overs earlier.Katich was typically obdurate and only hit five fours, instead working the ball to all parts of the ground. He said before the match he had not even thought about breaking Bevan’s record and was solely focused on securing the title for his state; there might turn out to be a strong correlation in the two aims. His century did not eventuate as Andrew McDonald at cover threw down the stumps at the striker’s end to find Katich well short.Clarke, seemingly reacting to his costly call, vented his frustration in the next over with three boundaries off Siddle, including a perfectly clean aerial drive over the bowler’s head. Siddle’s revenge came quickly, however, when Clarke was caught behind for 64 backing away and attempting a cut. Brad Haddin followed when he too tried to slog Siddle and played on, but the lead was already approaching 400.Victoria believed they had a chance to win if they could dismiss New South Wales before the close of the third day, which they failed to achieve. Over the past few years they have been better than most teams at chasing huge targets, however with two days to play on a wearing SCG pitch against a Test-quality attack, it will take a miraculous effort for the Bushrangers to stop the Blues securing the last Pura Cup before the competition changes its name.
Andy Pick, the Canada coach, said he was in awe of the commitment shown by his mainly amateur side after they bowed out of the World Cup with a 114-run defeat to New Zealand.Although they lost all three of their matches, Canada scored over 200 in all and improved their record World Cup total, saving their best for last with 249 against New Zealand, beating their previous highest of 228 for 7 against England on Sunday.For a team featuring a salesman, an investment banker, a telephone technician and a forklift truck-driver and just one current first-class player in opening batsman Geoff Barnett, these were notable achievements. Barnett plays for Central Districts in the New Zealand domestic circuit.Pick, the former Nottinghamshire pace bowler, who has been on a one-year sabbatical from his post as coach of the England Under-19 team, praised the huge sacrifices the Canada players had made just to be at the World Cup.”I’m absolutely amazed,” Pick said. “I’m in awe of the commitment of the Canadian players. This winter we’ve been to Pretoria for two-and-a-half-weeks, to Kenya for a month and we’ve been here for a month.”For players to take that sort of time off work, some without pay, some guys lose jobs or some guys give up their family holidays for the next two years or whatever it might be, for very little recompense if any.””They deserve days like today,” Pick added after Thursday’s match against New Zealand. “They deserve all the credit for that because some of these guys go to work at 5am in the morning, finish at 5pm, drive for an hour-and-half, do three hours practice, go home, have something to eat, go to bed and do the same next day. And that’s when it’s minus 30. For the guys based in Canada it is a phenomenal effort.”Looking ahead, Pick said Canada could hold its own with the best of the associate or junior nations – the team play Ireland in the final of the four-day ICC Intercontinental Cup tournament in May.”I see Canadian cricket competing with the other associates who have professional frameworks in place and structures that develop youth talent. At the moment, Canada hasn’t got that simply because of a lack of money. If and when we get some money into Canadian cricket, there’s potential for growth that there isn’t in other countries.”He added that the talk of ‘minnow’ nations devaluing the World Cup was wide of the mark. “If the ICC are looking to expand the top group of teams, as they’ve done in the past with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, it’s essential we play in these competitions. That’s what they want to do and all credit to them.”