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Sri Lankan cricket authorities face formal sanction for Galle’s dustbowl first Test pitch after it was officially rated “poor” by the ICC match referee Chris Broad

Daniel Brettig in Kandy03-Sep-2011Sri Lankan cricket authorities face formal sanction for Galle’s dustbowl first Test pitch after it was officially rated “poor” by the ICC match referee Chris Broad. SLC must provide a written response to his report within 14 days.A hefty fine and “a directive for corrective action” will be the result if the ICC does not deem their explanation sufficient. The pitch was the cause of much conjecture in the lead-up to the match, but by its conclusion both sides agreed it had been far too dry and offered exceedingly rare extremes of spin and variable bounce.”The ICC’s General Manager – Cricket, Dave Richardson, and the ICC’s chief match referee Ranjan Madugalle will now consider all the evidence,” the ICC said in a statement, “including studying video footage of the match and submissions from the host Member Board, before reaching their decision in due course.”Ricky Ponting equated the Galle pitch to the infamous Mumbai surface of 2004 while Michael Clarke said “day one felt like day five” after Australia wrapped up a 125-run victory in the first Test.The Australians’ pride in victory was made more so by the state of the surface, which can be described as a desert in the middle of an oasis. Galle is lashed by frequent rain and the outfield is verdant green, but the pitch prepared for the Test, ostensibly to aid Sri Lanka’s spin bowlers, was tinder dry. Even Tillkaratne Dilshan, Sri Lanka’s captain, expressed surprise at the pitch.When gusts of wind swept across the ground on day four, some officials wondered whether they might take the whole of the pitch with them.Having celebrated his 100th win in Test matches, becoming the first man to achieve the feat, Ponting said he had only seen one other pitch of similar quality in his career. That match, the fourth Test between India and Australia at Wankhede Stadium in 2004, was completed in little more than two days after the first was all but lost to rain.”Yeah [I can remember] one, we had one in Mumbai on which we had to chase 100 in the fourth innings and it was about halfway through the second day and we couldn’t get them,” Ponting said. “I think we all knew when we saw the wicket two days out from the start of this game we knew it was going to be like this.”It was very loose two days out and we couldn’t see how it was going to get any better. So it was a great toss to win and a good first innings total for us and that set the game up.”Clarke, who made an important 60 in the second innings to ensure the fourth innings target would be out of Sri Lanka’s reach, was similarly wide-eyed about the surface, and conceded the toss had gone a long way towards deciding the match.”If you speak to all the batters that’s definitely one of the toughest wickets I’ve had to bat on in a Test match and that was on day one,” Clarke said. “Day one felt like day five of a Test match, so to scratch out 270-odd were crucial runs, we thought that was a pretty good score.”It’s really hard, I hate to see a Test match result determined by the toss, I hate to see any game of cricket determined by the toss, but that was one of the toughest wickets I’ve played Test cricket on. No doubt it was prepared for spin bowling, but I think it might’ve backfired as well.”Dilshan had commented on match eve that the pitch would start to turn after tea on the first day, but it was doing plenty from the first morning, when Rangana Herath’s first ball jumped and turned to kiss the edge of Shane Watson’s bat. If anything the pitch’s venom dissipated a little on days three and four, allowing Mahela Jayawardene and Angelo Mathews add 142 to delay Australia’s win.”This is a challenging wicket,” Dilshan said. “We know when you come to Galle this is a slow wicket, this is a very challenging wicket for Test cricket, but we’ve managed to get the highest fourth innings runs today. It is challenging, not easy.”Normally the Galle track is very dry. We expect a turning and slow wicket in Galle but the thing is this started turning first day, so it was a little bit drier but we expect Galle to be similar to this as we’ve played previous.”Clarke praised the efforts of Michael Hussey, who was named Man of the Match for his 95 in the first innings, when the rest of the batsmen were struggling.”His 95 is worth at least 150 on that wicket, and put us in a great position to win the Test, so I’m thrilled,” Clarke said. “We executed our plans really well. As a batting group we would’ve liked someone to go on and make a hundred, especially in the first innings we found that all of us got a start.”If Huss had a couple of partners I’m sure he would’ve got a hundred, but that’s one thing as a batting unit we can work on. Our bowling unit did a really good job as a group, hitting good areas, we knew on that wicket we were going to get a little bit of inconsistent bounce so we had to be at the stumps as much as we could, and our fielding was fantastic, our energy in the field was the standard we want to see.”

Although David Warner does not think he has ever struck the ball as sweetly as he is doing at the moment, he still sees the potential to go harder after having realised the importance of building an innings, even in Twenty20s

Firdose Moonda in Johannesbug15-Oct-2011David Warner, the Australia batsmen, is at his most ruthless when talking about himself. Although he does not think he has ever struck the ball as sweetly as he is doing at the moment, he still sees the potential to go harder after having realised the importance of taking time to build an innings, even in the shortest format.Warner faced only one ball before being run-out in the first Twenty20 international on Thursday, but after back-to-back centuries in the Champions League T20, he looks in ominous form. “In India it was tough and I had to grind my way through to the middle overs and be there at the end,” Warner said. “I feel like I’m hitting the ball really well but if I wanted to be harsher on myself, I could probably hit them better as well.”As one of the most dangerous T20 players, Warner has been stereotyped as a batting brute but he said there is some art that goes into constructing an innings in the shortest form of the game. “You’ve still got to get yourself in, I’ve only just realised that the last couple of months,” Warner said. “When I’ve got myself in I could actually see, not how not easy it is, but how much you can get in the last five overs.” Those are words that signify that Warner intends to bat longer and that can only mean the opposition must brace themselves for more sustained assaults.Warner is not necessarily aiming at becoming the best T20 batsmen in the world, but he “just wants to be recognised as a person in the team who is going to win matches.” In his debut against South Africa, at the MCG in 2009, he was that person. His 89 came off just 43 balls and announced that batting in fast-forward mode was the way he would play his game. Although he has not scaled that score on the international scene, he does have three domestic T20 centuries and has developed his game to include shots like the switch-hit.”Normally just left-handed he is dangerous, but now with the switch-hit, it makes him a unique player and someone you must try to stay one step ahead of,” Johan Botha said. Pioneered by Kevin Pietersen, the stroke can thread uncertainty through the opposition but playing it requires careful timing, according to Warner. “It’s one of those things where if it’s the right time of the game and obviously if we’re not under pressure I can play it,” Warner said. “I’ve to be smart as well and make sure it’s not in a silly point of the game where it’s going to hurt the team.”Warner’s evolution as a T20 player has had some asking whether he has ambitions to play in other formats. He said that he would like to show his ability in the upcoming one-day series. “It’s been two years since I played a one-day game for Australia and I’ve learnt a lot in that time, so hopefully I can be a bit more patient.”For some, changing to a longer version of the game would mean a different strategy in the nets but Warner’s instincts remain the same. “I like trying to get bat on ball so that’s what I try and do,” he said. “I do a lot of throw downs in the nets and when I’m batting, it’s one of those things where if you get out, you’ve got to be strict on yourself, and say if you get out more than once you should actually walk out of there and say that’s a pretty disappointing net session.”Warner also has ambitions of making the leap up to Test cricket but understands that missing out first-class games at home could peg that aim back a little while. “The only way I’m going to get there is if I keep scoring runs,” he said, adding that the ability to be more dependable and less flashy may have to find its way into his game. “I haven’t been consistent enough, a lot of people have said that and I know that for a fact, and that’s one thing now that I’ve shown the last couple of innings, that I’m being more consistent,” he said. “I’m actually getting myself in and not throwing it away. I’ll keep aspiring to be more consistent and hopefully one day I will get that Test cap.”

Ottis Gibson, the West Indies coach, says it is hard bowling at Eden Gardens and his bowlers did well to take five wickets

S Aga14-Nov-2011″Loose balls are the best balls sometimes,” Ottis Gibson, the West Indies coach, said with a laugh after a day when his team’s bowling was severely tested on a benign pitch and four of the five wickets to fall were gifted by the batsmen. Led by a Rahul Dravid century, India dominated the day’s play before two wickets in four balls gave the visitors some hope of making significant inroads with the second new ball on Tuesday morning.”It’s always tough to play on this track at Eden Gardens,” Gibson said. “History says that you usually go at an economy-rate of three an over. We are going at 3.8 an over [actually 3.95] and hopefully we can drag it down tomorrow. Our guys toiled hard. We knew it was always going to be difficult to bowl to [Virender] Sehwag early on. I’d give credit to all the guys for being at it the whole day and getting five wickets.”West Indies knew the enormity of the task in front of them within minutes of play starting, with back-of-length deliveries barely rising as high as the batsman’s ribcage. There was a hint of resignation in Gibson’s voice when he spoke about the conditions. “It’s obviously disappointing but that has been the nature of subcontinent wickets over the years. This one hasn’t spun a great deal yet. We spoke about it. Credit to Kemar Roach for coming back, bowling three very good spells and getting a wicket late in the day. Hopefully he can build on that tomorrow.”Roach was included after Ravi Rampaul fell ill on the eve of the game. Offspinner Shane Shillingford, Gibson said, was overlooked given India’s level of comfort with the turning ball. “It was a tough decision. You look at the pitch and feel may be you can play two spinners. But you look at historical evidence too. Indians grew up playing spin. The extra pace of Kemar could help and it worked out quite well for us.”The biggest obstacle was Dravid, whose 119 was his sixth century in the last 12 months. “He is a class batsman and has been that way for the best part of twenty years. He has been in great form this year. I saw a statistic flash on television that he has the most [Test] runs by any batsman this year.”With his appetite, I am sure he will score runs in Australia as well. It was obviously good to take his wicket; that lifted everyone. It’s good that we don’t have to see Dravid walk out tomorrow and take guard again.”That wicket also justified Darren Sammy’s decision to delay the taking of the second new ball. But on a slow surface that has largely negated the potency of the pace attack, West Indian hopes of an upset victory will depend on the performance of Devendra Bishoo. At times on the opening day, that expectation appeared to weigh him down.”It’s something we have spoken about,” Gibson said. “Young Bishoo has been our main spinner for ten months now and done well for us. You also have to take into account that he has been bowling to India, who are strong players of spin. Even Shane Warne didn’t find it easy here. There have been times when Bishoo hasn’t been able to string together as many good balls as he’d like.”Gibson remained confident that West Indies could rattle India’s cage in this game, citing the batting collapse in the first innings in Delhi.This, though, is a different sort of slow pitch, and India spinners, especially the absent Harbhajan Singh, have exploited its vagaries in the past. How West Indies fare will depend entirely on whether they can negotiate R Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha better than they managed to in the opening Test.

A round-up of the matches from the first round of the second phase of the National Cricket League 2011-12

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Dec-2011Khulna kicked off the second phase of the National League with an eight-wicket win over Rajshahi in a low-scoring encounter that lasted just two days at the Narayanganj Osmani Stadium in Fatullah.They moved to the top of the table with 92.84 points after bowling out Rajshahi twice for 129 and 149 and leaving themselves a low total to chase in the second innings. The game belonged to the bowlers and in particular 21-year-old lanky medium-pacer Al-Amin Hossain who finished with match figures of 9 for 58. He found adequate swing and used his height to good effect on the first day when he broke Rajshahi’s back with the key wickets of Junaid Siddique and Farhad Hossain.In the second innings, he repeated the dose on Junaid and Farhad but also added Mizanur Rahman, Farhad Reza, Jubair Ahmed and Sanjamul Islam to his tally as the defending champions were pinned to the mat. Khulna themselves batted poorly in the first innings, taking only a 30-run lead but it was more than enough.

The game at the Sylhet Divisional Stadium started in the same vein as the one in Fatullah when Dhaka Metropolis were bowled out for just 129 in the first innings, though ultimately they drew with Sylhet.Sylhet’s seamer Abu Jayed was at his best once again, picking up six wickets for just 25 runs in the first innings. After Sylhet grafted for 107.3 overs to score 263 in their reply, the wicket flattened out.Dhaka Metro took full advantage as they batted out nearly two days to earn a draw. Mehrab Hossain Jnr scored an unbeaten century, his first of the season, while Asif Ahmed, Shamsur Rahman and Marshall Ayub went close to the three-figure mark. Sylhet were set 347 to win from 50 overs but they used it as batting practice with Imtiaz Hossain and Shaker Ahmed hitting half-centuries.

A round-up of three matches of the SuperSport Series 2011-12

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Dec-2011South Africa batsman Colin Ingram and offspinner Simon Harmer led the Warriors to a139-run victory over the Cape Cobras in a low-scoring encounter in Paarl. Ingram made a first-innings century and an unbeaten 92 in the second, while Harmer took a career best 11 for 149, including 8 for 72 in the second innings to wrap up the match and hand Warriors their second victory of the year.Having chosen to bat, the Warriors slipped to 51 for 3 before Ingram and Arno Jacobs steadied the ship with a 95-run partnership. After Jacobs fell for 28, Wayne Parnell battled for two hours and 22 minutes for 33 in the process of adding 102 with Ingram as they took the score to 248 for 5. Ingram pushed on to 140, easily the highest-score in the game, before the Warriors were bowled out for 320 in the first session of the second day. Beuran Hendricks and Robin Peterson took four wickets each for the Cobras.The Warriors made early inroad into the Cobra’s top order before 68 from Justin Ontong and 62 from JP Duminy revived the innings. However, their departures triggered a collapse and it took No. 9 Rory Kleinveldt, who made 42, to push past 200 to 239.Having taken an 81-run lead, Warriors slipped to 106 for 6 and it was left to Ingram to once again prop up the side. He battled for over three hours for his 92 as Warriors managed 211 to leave Cobras needing 293 for the win. Peterson took another four wicket to finish with eight for the match.The Cobras began the final day needing 273 for victory but lost opener Andrew Puttick in the second over of the day, when he edged one to the keeper of Andrew Birch. Harmer then took over, taking the next four wickets, including that of JP Duminy for 7, as the Cobras slid to 75 for 5 at lunch. Justin Kemp, who laboured to 22 from 88, and Dane Vilas, who made 57, provided some resistance but Harmer was in irressistable form. He had Kemp lbw and then removed Robin Peterson in the same over for a duck to take his side to the brink of their second victory.
He wrapped up the win by ending Vilas’ stay for 57 to finish with 11 for 149 in the match.Half-centuries from Jonathan Vandiar and Stephen Cook carried the Lions to nine-wicket win after the Titans could only manage 210 in their second-innings at Benoni. The Titans won the toss and chose to bat. Martin van Jaarsveld and Faf du Plessis made 80 each, while Henry David made 71, to set up their total of 354. Legspinner Eddie Leie was the pick of the bowlers for the Lions, taking 5 for 93.Openers Stephen Cook and Alviro Peterson led the Lions reply, adding 181 before Peterson was caught behind for 115. The rest of the top order, however, failed to stick around as they slipped to 266 for 5. When Cook fell for 109 to leave them 296 for 7, it looked like the Titans would claim the first-innings lead. But No. 8 Thami Tsolekile made 61 and No. 10 Chris Morris made 27 to push their side to 407 and take a 53-run lead.Heino Kuhn was solid at the top of the order in making 59, but Lions made regular inroads as Leie picked up a second five-for to finish with 10 for 146 for the match.Peterson fail in the first over for a duck, but Vandiar made 81 and Cook completed a fine match with an unbeaten 71 to seal the win.Knights maintained their unbeaten run and position at the top of the table, drawing their encounter with Dolphins at Bloemfontein. The Dolphins were set a target of 319 but managed to hang in there with 245 for 7.The Dolphins put the opposition in and they responded with 340. Morne van Wyk was the top scorer with 340, while the wickets were shared between the seam duo of Mthokozisi Shezi and Robert Frylinck. Quinton Friend, the right-arm seamer, took a five-wicket haul to give the Knights a 100-run lead. One of his wickets was the top scorer Daryn Smit, who missed his century by five runs. None of the others passed fifty.van Wyk was amongst the runs again as he struck 53 and added quick runs with Dillon du Preez to build on the Knights lead to 318 before the declaration. Dolphins’ Imraan Khan and Divan van Wyk began steadily, adding 109 for the first wicket. However, they were set back by three quick strikes, two of which were courtesy du Preez. Smit carried on his good touch from the first innings with a patient unbeaten 56 to ensure his team survived. The Dolphins were at the bottom of the table with three defeats and no outright win.

Alistair Cook scored the first hundred of England’s UAE tour making 133 before England declared on the first day of their second warm-up match against a Pakistan Board X1.

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Jan-2012

ScorecardAlastair Cook continued his form of last year into 2012 with 133 before England declared on day one•Getty Images

Alastair Cook carried his form of last year into 2012 with the first century of England’s UAE tour. Cook’s 133 was a vital knock as five wickets for Yasir Shah restricted England on the opening day of their final warm-up match in Dubai.Shah’s legspin removed England’s middle order as Ian Bell and Eoin Morgan recorded further low scores. England were reduced to 121 for 5 before Matt Prior made 46 from 57 balls. Graeme Swann’s 24 also helped England to a competitive total.But England were indebted to Cook’s 36th first-class hundred. In 2011 he scored 927 Test runs at 84.27 and, after 76 in the first-innings against an ICC Combined XI, he continued in that vein, marshalling England after Mohammad Talha had reduced them to 14 for 2. Captain Andrew Strauss was caught behind for 3 before Jonathan Trott fell leg before for a third-ball duck. Ian Bell was also dismissed for a duck – part of Shah’s haul of 5 for 76.The legspin of Shah removed England’s middle order. Kevin Pietersen, who took 10 balls to get off the mark, had got England moving with five fours in his 38 but he was bowled in the first over after lunch having shared a stand of 83 with Cook. Bell was then trapped leg before second ball and Shah also removed Morgan, whose 11 was his third failure of the tour after 1 and 3 against the ICC XI.With England in trouble, Prior got a partnership going with Cook and the pair added 90. Cook, who was dropped twice in the second half of his innings, went past 50 from 92 balls while Prior was his breezy self, striking seven fours before Tahla returned to have him caught behind.Swann, who underwent a scan on his quadriceps after the first warm-up match, played a useful part in making 24 as he and Cook put on 46. But when Swann fell caught behind off Shah, England’s innings came swiftly to an end. Shah completed his five-for by having Graham Onions caught before Cook edged behind off Tahla and England declared.There was time for eight overs of the PCB XI innings and Onions, playing the first time for England since January 2010 against South Africa, took the new ball. He conceded 13 in his three overs. Chris Tremlett, having recovered from his eye infection, sent down two overs and there was also time for a brief appearance from Swann and Monty Panesar.

Anjum Chopra has been appointed captain of the India women’s team after being out of international cricket for nearly two years

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Feb-2012Anjum Chopra has been appointed captain of the India women’s team after being out of international cricket for nearly two years. She will lead the team on their tour of the West Indies in February and March, taking over from Jhulan Goswami, who has been captain since 2008. Chopra, a left-hand top-order batsman, last captained India in February 2003, and has been in and out of the side since 2007.”I’m humbled by the faith shown in me,” Chopra said. “But it comes with a lot of responsibility. Leading the side anywhere is a challenge.”Chopra’s recall comes after India finished bottom of the table in both the ODIs and Twenty20 internationals in the NatWest Women’s Quadrangular series in England last summer. They will play five Twenty20 games, with the first on February 18, and three ODIs in the West Indies and Chopra said the focus would be on preparing for the Women’s World Twenty20, in September 2012 in Sri Lanka, and the Women’s ODI World Cup, which will be played in India in 2013.”The first target is the West Indies tour. Then we all know there are World Cups both home and away coming up. We’re moving towards that. This tour provides us with the perfect chance to go out there and work on our shortcomings ahead of the T20.”The make-up of the team has changed since Chopra was last captain – the current India coach, Anju Jain, was once her opening partner – but she said it would not feel strange returning to the role. “The only difference would be that the woman sitting next to me [Jain] was once my fellow opener but now she dons a different role. Back then Jhulan and Mithali [Raj] just about got into the team, but now things have changed.”Chopra has supplemented her cricket career with television appearances – she was a pundit on the IPL’s official pre and post-match shows in 2011. She said, however, that she never stopped focussing on playing. “I’ve never been away from cricket. I’ve never forgotten the fact that I’m doing commentary because I’m a cricketer. I never went away from playing the sport. Since I’ve been doing television for almost 10 years, people think I’ve retired. ‘You’re still playing?’ they ask. I don’t know why that happens. And I can’t be worried about what people think.”When West Indies toured India in January 2011, both the ODI and Twenty20 series went down to the last game, with India winning the ODIs 3-2 and the Twenty20s 2-1. Chopra said she anticipated another hard battle. “It’s definitely going to be a good series. Last time, when they were here, the games were pretty close. West Indies have improved a lot in the last year or so. There will be good competition.”

Tired of the incessant questions about his retirement, Sachin Tendulkar has insisted that the decision of when to quit cricket is his alone

Nagraj Gollapudi25-Mar-2012Tired of the incessant questions about his retirement, Sachin Tendulkar has insisted that the decision of when to quit cricket is his alone. He said it would be “selfish” to make an exit when he was “on top” of his game. Tendulkar also lashed out at some of the former India cricketers who had suggested he should follow Rahul Dravid in retiring, saying they had no business making decisions for him.”When I feel I don’t have that, on that day, I will think of retirement,” Tendulkar said at a media conference in Mumbai, convened by his brand managers World Sports Group to celebrate his achievement of scoring 100 international hundreds. “I feel those who say you should retire at the top are selfish,” he said, “because when you are at the top, you should serve the country instead of retiring.”When I retire is something I will decide because when I started it was not decided by someone else. Those who are advising me about retirement did not bring me into the team. I get my strength from my coaches and family.”Earlier, in a special hour-long meeting with editors from the Indian media, which preceded the press conference, Tendulkar had said he had already lived out all his dreams. “I don’t have any other dream now. There were two big dreams: one was playing for India and the second was to lift the World Cup. That was my biggest dream.”At the same time, Tendulkar insisted his repeated statements that he had not at all thought about retirement were genuine and he was not trying to conceal anything from the media. “Maybe you guys have not understood properly. I have always said that when I decide to retire I will let you know. Where is the question of not answering?”Tendulkar said he was not looking too far into the future and hence could not predict whether or not he would be available for the 2015 World Cup, which would be his seventh appearance in the tournament. “When this question was asked in 2007 [about the 2011 World Cup], it was tough for me to answer. It’s the same situation: I don’t know what to say about 2015. If people keep praying for me that means a lot. I will keep trying, the rest is in god’s hands. I just want to enjoy the game. I don’t want to set targets.”After a 33-innings long wait for the 100th century, Tendulkar got it in anticlimactic circumstances, with India losing to Bangladesh, after Tendulkar’s 114 off 147 balls had built a total of 289, and consequently missing out on the Asia Cup final. Tendulkar said the events being held to commemorate his achievement were not just to celebrate that single century but all the work he has done in his career.”I don’t think we are celebrating just that game. Where I have reached today, it has taken me 23 years to be at that place. Results are very important for me. Yes, it was a disappointment for us to not make the final, and let me tell you there was no major celebration after I scored a hundred as we had lost the match.”Edited by Dustin Silgardo

N Srinivasan has said the BCCI’s new deal with Star TV proves the “underlying strength of Indian cricket”

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Apr-2012N Srinivasan, the BCCI president, has said that terminating the board’s broadcast rights contract with Nimbus Communications last year was the right decision in hindsight and that the new deal with Star TV proves the “underlying strength of Indian cricket.””At a time when some felt the popularity of cricket was going down in the country because of some overseas setbacks, the deal [with Star TV] proved the opposite,” Srinivasan told the . “It is a big feather in BCCI’s cap. Now we have two strong broadcasters, one for Indian cricket and the other for IPL. The BCCI is in an assured position.”Star, owned by Rupert Murdoch, won the rights to broadcast Indian cricket for 2012-2018 last week. The deal, which also includes internet and mobile rights, was valued at Rs 3851 crores (approximately $750 million) and covers 96 matches. Multi-Screen Media (Sony) currently owns the rights to the IPL, for which it paid $1.6 billion for nine years starting in 2009.Television ratings for the IPL slumped last year as the tournament began just six days after India’s victorious World Cup campaign ended but Srinivasan expects the league to bounce back and have a successful season. He also denied the tournament led to player fatigue, saying the cricketers are professionals and that most of them do not play all three formats of the game in any case.When asked whether the significance of Test cricket had been undermined because players make more money from the IPL than they do playing Tests, Srinivasan said that wasn’t a valid argument. “The value of a player in the IPL is linked to his performances for the national team. I firmly believe a cricketer’s first priority is to play for his country. And unless a player goes through the domestic grind, he will not be able to sustain his performances in the IPL.”On the plus side, Srinivasan said, the IPL has led to the discovery of new talent and helped the development of Indian cricket by giving young players the opportunity to rub shoulders with established international players on a big stage.One of the constant criticisms of the domestic game in India has been the state of the pitches, which invariably favour batsmen and typically result in an overwhelming number of high-scoring draws in the four-day format. However, Srinivasan said the BCCI is committed to preparing competitive pitches for domestic cricket as that is “at the very heart of India’s evolution as a cricketing nation. We will be holding a workshop for curators on this topic. This is one of the important agendas this year.”India struggled on their two most recent away tours to England and Australia, losing eight consecutive away Tests and their No.1 Test ranking. In addition, the team’s poor form led to reports of a rift between some of the senior players on the tour of Australia but Srinivasan said there was no truth to them, calling the stories “unfounded” and “not fair to the side”.”Almost the same bunch of batsmen had done exceeding well on the previous tours of England and Australia. It’s just that now we are going through a transition phase. We will face the transition. We have a younger generation of players who will step up. We are setting up more specialist academies at the ground level, will focus more on ‘A’ tours.”There is no reason why we cannot be the No. 1 Test team again. As I said, the team is bound to falter a little during the transition phase.”Edited by Tariq Engineer

Sam Robson, Middlesex’s Australian-born batsman, has made the earliest first-class hundred ever witnessed in the UK – and he did it before March was out.

David Hopps01-Apr-2012It would have sounded like an April Fool to the cricketers of yesteryear, but it is a fact: Sam Robson, Middlesex’s Australian-born batsman, has made the earliest first-class hundred ever witnessed in the UK – and he did it before March was out.Robson struck a century on the opening day of the match between Middlesex and Durham MCCU at Merchant Taylor’s School in Northwood as counties revelled in balmy early-Spring weather.It was all but certain that a record would be set as five first-class matches began on the last day of March. There were seven hundreds in all as the counties warmed up against University opposition, but Robson’s was the first, secured shortly after three o’clock. A 22-year-old batsman from Sydney, he made 117 in 190 balls before he was run out. Middlesex declared, amid the creeping realisation that history had been made, at 368-9.It might also be that March has provided what will turn out to be the fastest first-class hundred of the season. Graham Napier struck a 48-ball hundred with eight sixes against Cambridge UCCE at Fenner’s and immediately put himself in contention for the Walter Lawrence Trophy. Only one hundred was faster last season – Kevin O’Brien’s’ 44-ball affair for Gloucestershire against Middlesex.Essex made three hundreds in all in their 506-6 against Cambridge UCCE, but they were all late in the day with Robson’s achievement already confirmed.Glamorgan’s new captain, Mark Wallace, had to settle for becoming the earliest player ever to make a first-class hundred for a Welsh county – and in Wales they will tell you that is all that matters.The South African, Zachary Elkin, achieved his own small slice of history. He made the earliest hundred against a first-class county, batting through the day for 127 not out against Somerset in Taunton.England’s crowded first-class fixture list, currently under review, has forced the county season to resort to increasingly early starts. The opening round of championship matches begin on April 5, a fortnight earlier than what historically has been the traditional start in mid-April.Either the ECB has been extraordinary fortunate or the UK’s weather patterns are changing. The weather in early Spring has been dry and sunny for several successive years, forever destroying the theory that the most effective rain dance in the UK involves putting three sticks in the ground 22 yards apart and 22 people dressing in white.When the clocks went an hour forward last weekend for the start of British Summer Time, the UK was basking in temperatures up to 20C, outshining European holiday destinations such as Barcelona, Nice and Majorca.Merchant Taylor’s School will regard itself as a suitable venue for Robson’s spot of sporting history. The boys’ school was established in 1561 and its first headmaster, Richard Mulcaster, introduced the concept of referees in football.