Tag Futebol

Barely four days back, the Indian team was in another continent, playinganother series, in another format of the game. Their hectic schedule andlack of preparation, coupled with their lack of experience in the Twenty20format, means not many are giving them much chance of making it into thelast four. That could work to their advantage, though, and a win in theopener against Scotland on Thursday will ensure they make it to the SuperEights. It was a hurdle they couldn’t surmount in the Caribbean earlierthis year, but it’s highly unlikely that Scotland can do aBangladesh on India.Bat play: Mahendra Singh Dhoni didn’t reveal much about teamcomposition in the pre-match talk, which means guessing the XI is a bit ofa hazard. The batting line-up will surely consist of Virender Sehwag,who’ll have plenty to prove after his recent absence, Robin Uthappa,Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Dinesh Karthik might get a look-inahead of Gautam Gambhir, while Irfan Pathan and Joginder Sharma couldbolster the lower order.Scotland’s top order, bar Fraser Watts, the opener, misfired badly, butthey have another opportunity to make amends.Wrecking ball: India do have plenty of bowling options, but in theabsence of Zaheer Khan, the challenge is for one of them to rise andtake up the mantle of being the leader of the pack. Ajit Agarkar has beentoo inconsistent to inspire any confidence, while Sreesanth has beenblow-hot, blow-cold throughout his short career. That leaves themuch-improved RP Singh as the potential leader, while Irfan Pathan willwant to make a strong statement on his return as well. It remains to beseen how much of an influence the spinners will have.Scotland’s new-ball bowlers were very impressive against Pakistan, andaided by their top-class fielders in conditions that could help thebowlers, they could ask a few searching questions of the Indian batsmen.Keep your eyes on: Virender Sehwag. The exclusion from the teamwould have hit him hard, and he’ll want to take every opportunity to provehe is still one of the most destructive batsmen in world cricket.Shop talk: To bat first or to chase is the perennial question forthe captain winning the toss, but Dhoni had little doubt about what hewould do if the coin fell his way. “A lot depends on the conditions but wewould probably love to bat first. It’s always better to bat first, andsince batting is also our strength, we would like to give the opponents abig total. Also there is a lot more pressure when chasing big totals.”His other mantra is to keep it conventional and simple. “If you’ve seenlast evening’s game between South Africa and the West Indies, they playedproper cricketing shots. I think it’s important to play it as a normalcricket match. The stress would be on playing conventional cricket and notdoing anything extraordinary.”Pitching it right: The weather should be fine, but strong windscould help the bowlers move it around a bit, though control could be anissue here. The track has shown a tendency to hold up occasionally, makingstrokeplay a trifle difficult.Teams
India (from): Virender Sehwag, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir,Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt &wk), Joginder Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, PiyushChawla, Harbhajan Singh, RP Singh, Sreesanth.Scotland (from): Ryan Watson (capt), Fraser Watts, Dougie Brown,John Blain, Gavin Hamilton, Navdeep Poonia, Gregor Maiden, Neil McCallum,Qasim Sheikh, Colin Smith (wk), Craig Wright, Dewald Nel, Gordon Drummond,Ross Lyons, Majid Haq.

Yuvraj Singh has been officially ruled out of the one-day series in South Africa after medical reports confirmed a ligament tear behind his left knee. Yuvraj – initially named in the touring squad – consulted Dr Anant Joshi, the Indian cricket board’s consultant orthopaedic specialist in Mumbai yesterday, who confirmed the news. He will replaced by Dinesh Karthik, the wicketkeeper batsman.”There is a tear in the anterior cruciate ligament with some amount of bruising of the bone in the left knee and there is a swelling of the knees,” Joshi was quoted as saying in .Yuvraj sustained the injury while playing kho-kho, a traditional Indian game, at the team practice on the eve of India’s crucial knockout clash against Australia in Mohali. His availability for the three-Test series is also in considerable doubt, with the likelihood of him requiring surgery. The first Test begins in Johannesburg on December 15.Should Yuvraj require surgery, he could be ruled out for six to nine months, thereby jeopardising his participation in next year’s World Cup in the West Indies. Dr Joshi will re-examine Yuvraj in two weeks, where a final decision on the surgery is expected.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

A canny spell of left-arm spin bowling from Murali Kartik, when he finished with his best one-day figures, set it up before S Vidyut’s spirited 87 ensured that they cruised to a comfortable three-wicket win in the final of the Challenger Trophy in Mohali. The India Seniors bowlers applied the choke effectively, after choosing to field first, and restricted India B to a modest 177, a total which, despite the impressive efforts of Piyush Chawla, and S Sreesanth was never going to be enough with a rampaging batting line-up to contend with.India B were undone by Zaheer Khan early on, when he induced the top-order batsmen into indiscretion, and were flummoxed by Kartik’s accuracy while they tried to accelerate. Once they had lost their top order cheaply, Kartik got into the act with a controlled spell, extracted disconcerting turn, mopped up the tail with hardly any fuss and ended with the second-best spell in the history of the Challenger Trophy. The chase was kick-started by Vidyut, the opening batsman from Tamil Nadu who got his first chance in the tournament, with some gorgeous cover-drives and, unlike the rest; he handled the spinners with assurance en route to an entertaining 87 that included 15 fours.Vidyut, a tall aggressive left-hander, started off as a left-arm spinner and turned in some fine performances in the Under-19 level. But his batting improved just as his bowling fell away as he turned into one of the mainstays in the Tamil Nadu batting line-up, impressing with his flashy batting at the top of the order in one-dayers. He kick-started the chase by belting S Sreesanth, who was named as the Man of the Series for his pacy bursts, and used his feet delectably when the spinners came on. He lost partners at regular intervals but kept up the tempo and left when only five more were required.Most of the other batsmen struggled against the wiles of Chawla, a 16-year-old legspinner from Uttar Pradesh. Not too many bowlers deceive Sachin Tendulkar with a googly and to sneak one in through the gate, as Tendulkar tried to cut, was a stunning sight. Chawla, who came into bowl within the first ten overs, continued to toss the ball up, rip it past the bat and was comfortable both over and around the wicket. Sreesanth too continued his fine showing with the ball – coming back after a pasting in the first two overs to finish with 3 for 32 and always steaming in – that only delayed the inevitable.The scales, though, tilted earlier in the day when India B stuttered against Zaheer and Kartik. Their problems began right at the top with Robin Uthappa, who produced a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it hundred yesterday, slashing airily at a full-pitched one as Mohammad Kaif completed a straightforward chance. Kaif, though, had to hobble off in the 9th over owing to a hamstring pull and didn’t take part in the game therafter. Sridharan Sriram experienced a similar fate and his dismissal was almost a mirror image of the first wicket.And the road got bumpier when Dinesh Mongia, the captain, cut recklessly, just like he had done in their first game, and offered a simple chance to the backward-point fielder. The rest of the innings was based on slow-moving partnerships as India B tried to post a modest total. Shikhar Dhawan and Yousuf Pathan weathered a tough period but both fell just after they appeared to have found their groove. Parthiv Patel impressed one again, , with some punchy strokeplay, but was unlucky to be given out lbw when he got an inside edge to an incoming ball from Kartik.Ravikant Shukla was solid in his patient 26, made off 71 balls without a single boundary, but the rest fell around him while going for the big hits. With Kartik bowling with such accuracy, though, they didn’t stand a chance.

India B
Robin Uthappa c Kaif b Zaheer 9 (13 for 1)
Sridharan Sriram c Rao b Zaheer 8 (29 for 2)
Dinesh Mongia c Yadav b Harbhajan 7 (43 for 3)
Yousuf Pathan c Tendulkar b Harbhajan 20 (70 for 4)
Shikhar Dhawan c Dhoni b Zaheer 26 (91 for 5)
Parthiv Patel lbw b Kartik 39 (141 for 6)
Sunny Singh b Kartik 5 (150 for 7)
Piyush Chawla st Dhoni b Kartik 5 (157 for 8)
Amit Bhandari st Dhoni b Kartik 4 (164 for 9)
Sreesanth st Dhoni b Kartik 5 (177 all out)
India SeniorsSachin Tendulkar b Chawla 22 (46 for 1)
Yuvraj Singh c Shukla b Chawla 5 (67 for 2)
Venugopal Rao c Parthiv b Sreesanth 18 (113 for 3)
Mahendra Singh Dhoni st Patel b Chawla 6 (122 for 4)
Jai Prakash Yadav c Uthappa b Mongia 10 (143 for 5)
S Vidyut b Sreesanth 87 (173 for 6)
Satyajit Parab b Sreesanth 4 (177 for 7)

Henry Olonga and Stuart Carlisle, two former Zimbabwe cricketers, have spoken out in condemnation of ICC’s finding that there was no evidence of racism within the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU).”It’s a way out for the ICC in one way, they’ve washed their hands of it,” Olonga told yesterday. “The ICC were in a very difficult position if the ZCU were found guilty of racism, not only on the rebel players, but in selection in general.”Carlisle, one of the 15 rebels who walked out of international cricket this April, was more forthright. “There’s racism all over the world,” he told , “and the fact that you can categorically state that there is no racism in Zimbabwe Cricket is a joke.”Although Carlisle revealed that the number of rebels has been reduced to just “myself, Trevor Gripper and Heath Streak”, he remained adamant that “the ZCU might have won the battle but they’ve lost the war for cricket. Zimbabwe cricket is the loser.”The conclusion of the ICC investigation has almost quashed any lingering hope of the rebels resuming their careers. “I don’t really know where we go from here,” Carlisle said. “We probably could still go to arbitration but there’s almost no point in that.”But at least one option remains open: “I think we should have a chat with [Richard] Bevan in the next day or two and see if there is a way forward for us.” Bevan is currently assessing the security situation in Zimbabwe for England’s tour there next month, in his role as the chief executive of the Professional Cricketers’ Association.”The ICC has sat on the fence in the past few months,” added Carlisle. “They’ve swept the problem under the carpet. They think it’s going to go away, but it won’t.

Australia’s media, tired of yet another Shane Warne incident, are signalling that they’ve had enough – their message suggests that it’s time to lower the boom on Warne. And even some team-mates are alleged to be concerned.The latest scandal involving lewd text messages allegedly sent to a South African divorcee, and mother of three, has Australia’s media united in the view that they are tired of Warne’s larrikin antics.Leading the way has been Mike Hedge for AAP. He wrote that it must surely be time for Cricket Australia to acknowledge that the world’s best team could do without the world’s best legspinner.”Yet again it seems Warne has allowed his unique combination of arrogance, stupidity, naivety and immaturity to get the better of him,” Hedge wrote. “Even if he didn’t bombard a South African woman with suggestive messages – and he hasn’t yet said he didn’t – Warne’s record is so damaged that he needs to be cut loose.”Greg Baum, a widely respected cricket journalist from The Age in Melbourne – Warne’s home town – said the latest incident was “a tatty tale of decline”. He fired shots at Warne, and also at the television company which employs him as a commentator while he’s suspended for using drugs on the banned list.”Channel Nine reports on Warne’s indiscretions while continuing to employ him – as a colleague drily notes – as the highest-paid cricket reporter in Australia. Warne bitches about media intrusion on his private life, while making a fistful of money working in media. Not even when his wrong ‘un is working can Warne have it both ways,” he wrote.”Warne is not a bad bloke on the terms on which most people meet him, but that is not enough. Reputable sources say his Australian team-mates are tiring of escapades; after all, what tarnishes him also tarnishes them. Believe it or not, most care about the team’s reputation. And Stuart MacGill keeps taking wickets.”Sydney Morning Herald writer Richard Hinds said: “In an age when the human fallibility of sporting heroes is exposed with depressing regularity, another Warne scandal comes as little surprise. What seems staggering is that Warne would be so reckless – and, yes, stupid – as to repeat the phone-message offence that last time cost him the Test vice-captaincy.”One leading sports psychologist refers to the condition where high-profile athletes fail to learn from past mistakes as the ‘pedestal complex’. Surrounded by doting officials and smitten fans, they fail to see how normal rules of behaviour can apply to them.”In the Australian, author Roland Perry noted: “If this latest allegation is true, someone should tell Warne to pull his head in, drastically improve his behaviour towards women and then surgically remove his mobile phone. If he were left with letters to write, he wouldn’t bother. Trouble is, no one will counsel him. His employers, Cricket Australia, the state team and Nine, either haven’t the nerve, or the inclination. Cricket Australia is staying out of it. None of our business, we are told. But it is.”Nine thrives on the controversies. In 2000 they were euphoric over the messy drama involving the English nurse, who received dirty phone messages. Mike Monroe on A Current Affair interviewed her. Then Warne – under contract – was forced to come on the same show, humble and defend himself. Nine’s ratings were terrific. Just watch how they handle this latest allegation.”Andrew Ramsey wrote in the Australian: “It became apparent to many close to Australia’s World Cup success in South Africa last year that the level of camaraderie and spirit among the players was heightened when Warne departed the tournament in the wake of the scandal over his taking a banned diuretic.”None deny Warne’s undisputed genius with a cricket ball, but his propensity for erratic mood swings and his ability to create unwanted media storms have created a sharp edge to the intra-team harmony.”While the critics sharpened their pencils, the woman at the epicentre of the storm – Helen Cohen Alon – urged Warne to take a lie-detector test. “He’s a fantastic guy, there’s nothing wrong with him,” she said, before adding the proviso, “it’s just that you cannot get away with things that you try and do to a woman all the time.” It might take more than a lie-detector test for that to penetrate through to Warne’s inner consciousness.

More than anything, it was the combined wisdom of Pakistan’s experienced cricketers that tilted the scales in their favour at the Sharjah Cricket Association stadium. Zimbabwe, slumped to yet another defeat in the Khaleej Times Trophy, losing by 29 runs. Two stalwarts – Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis worked their magic when it was needed the most and outclassed Zimbabwe. But spare a thought for Zimbabwe, an inexperienced side with a new captain, and they did not disgrace themselves. The loss means that Zimbabwe have no chance of qualifying for the final.When Waqar Younis won the toss and elected to bat first on a featherbed Sharjah wicket, he would have hoped to put more than 261 on the board. Especially after Shahid Afridi played an amazing innings first up, smashing the ball to all parts of the park. Hitting the ball cleanly over the infield, Afridi picked his spots well, either going over the onside with fierce power or carving the ball over extra-cover with impeccable timing. In a 36-ball essay that yielded 58 runs, Afridi struck six sixes and just one boundary. Easily the fastest half-century of the tournament, the innings brought the crowd alive.Following Afridi’s early blitz and some sensible, steady batting in the middle order from Yousuf Youhana (41) and a good half-century from Younis Khan, Pakistan managed to post 261/9 off 50 overs. Younis Khan’s innings was well paced and had the right mixture of aggressive and defensive strokes. With just two boundaries in his 58, Younis Khan had to do a lot of running and the effort began to tell. It was a tired shot that caused his downfall, coming after almost 100 minutes spent in the hot, humid conditions out in the middle.After starting well and threatening to bat Zimbabwe out of the game, Pakistan lost six wickets in the last 10 overs, adding just 56 runs to the total in the process.As it turned out, Pakistan had enough runs on the board. Waqar Younis, pumped up and running in with great rhythm knocked the stuffing out of the Zimbabwe top order. In the 8th over of the day, Waqar sent back both Trevor Gripper and Stuart Carlisle. Although Gripper would like to forget that particular moment, Waqar Younis will remember it for a long time to come as the wicket took him to 350 wickets in his 115th ODI. That’s a strike rate that would make anyone proud. After an initial burst of 6-1-16-2 that left Zimbabwe reeling at 13/2 Waqar took himself and Akram out of the attack.The second string of Pakistani bowlers, Abdur Razzaq and Azhar Mahmood are nowhere near as imposing as the men they took over from. The Zimbabweans too thought so, and the Flower brothers took full toll of this. Putting their heads together, Grant, with his booming drives and Andy with his delicate touches put together a partnership that gave Zimbabwe just a glimmer of hope. Stroking the ball freely into the gaps, the pair put on 146 for the third wicket before Wasim Akramstamped his authority on the game.Brought back to bowl the 31st over, Akram sent down a maiden over, changing the tempo of the game. In his very next over, the 33rd, Akram deceived Andy Flower (48 runs, 60 balls, 3×4) getting the left-hander to chip back a return catch. A good diving catch in his followthrough saw Akram complete catch. Not content with removing Andy Flower, Akram sent Dion Ebrahim packing just two balls later. Welcoming Ebrahim to the crease with a quick yorker, Akram slipped in an away swinger next ball and induced the edge. Reacting extremely quickly, Rashid Latif snapped up the ball diving full length to his right.Akram’s burst had done the trick for Pakistan.The matter was laid to rest well and truly when Azhar Mahmood stuck his hand out to field a drive from the blade of Douglas Marillier. Grant Flower backing up at the non-striker’s end could only watch in dismay as the ball brushed Mahmood’s hand and ricocheted onto the stumps. Falling just nine short of a well deserved ton, Grant Flower had spent 159 minutes out of the middle and struck 11 boundaries.Using the old fashioned long-handle to good effect Marillier tonked the bowling around for 37 (43 balls, 1×4, 2×6) but could only delay the inevitable. As entertaining a knock as any played on the day, Marillier’s innings showed that the lad had more than a bit of fighting spirit in him.Returning to complete his spell at the death, Akram accounted for Brian Murphy, having the Zimbabwean captain caught behind. This took his figures to 9-3-19-3, a sterling effort. Fittingly, the end of the Zimbabwean innings came at 232 when a strong throw from Akram found Henry Olonga short of his ground.The Akram-Waqar pair between them ended with the analysis 18.2-4-60-6. That made all the difference.

New Zealand’s domestic first-class competition – the Plunket Shield – will take place without match referees in the upcoming season because of budget cuts. The removal of the three match referees is one among a number of programmes to be cut by New Zealand Cricket, who are expected to face a multi-million dollar loss this year.The match referees were tasked with assessing umpire performance, playing standards of the grounds and on-field incidents, all of which will now be handled by the officiating umpires with assistance from regional associations to ensure quality playing conditions.”It wasn’t a cheap programme given we had to pay them, travel them round and pay for accommodation,” NZC head of cricket Lindsay Crocker told . “It was really disappointing but it was a programme we are simply unable to afford.”If we had more income then we would be able to do all the programmes we wanted, it’s just the nature of running a business and trying to compete on world terms with a budget smaller than our competitors. Now we’ll be asking the people who host the matches, the major associations, to step up and take responsibility for quality again.”Crocker said the money generated from co-hosting the 2015 World Cup would be used as a safeguard for the future and other areas of investment. “The World Cup was a one-off, it isn’t a matter of making a nest egg and then expending it. We’ve got to be prudent about that, it gives us an opportunity to sit out any future rainy days and there is also some investment we need to do around facilities.”The Cricket World Cup money and the legacy we attach from there is really around capital projects rather than operational ones.”As was the process before the concept of match referees came into force, umpires will receive feedback through reports from captains and from NZC umpire Tony Hill, who will travel to select matches.

Giles Clarke’s hopes of becoming the next chairman of the ICC appear to be receding, with neither Australia nor South Africa expected to support his candidacy should he choose to stand for election later this year.In order to fulfil his long-held ambition and assume the most high-profile post in world cricket, Clarke would require a majority of the 13 board votes – comprising ten full-member nations and three associate representatives – at the ICC election in June.However, with campaigning expected to get underway in earnest at this week’s board meeting in Dubai, it is understood that Cricket South Africa is particularly opposed to Clarke’s candidacy, at a time when many of the reforms that he was so instrumental in driving through during the so-called “Big Three” takeover of 2014 are set to be repealed.

Lorgat in frame for return?

The apparent sidelining of Giles Clarke could yet pave the way for a shock return to the helm for the former ICC chief executive, Haroon Lorgat, who left the role in acrimony in 2012 and was subsequently appointed as chief executive of CSA.
Lorgat’s parting shot from his original ICC post was the commissioning of the Woolf Report, an independent governance review by Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, which called for greater transparency and accountability from the men charged with the running of the sport.
The report attracted the ire of India, Australia and England in particular, who not only ignored its findings but swiftly implemented a range of counter-measures whereby those three boards would take the lion’s share of ICC revenue, with India being allocated 22 percent.
ESPNcricinfo understands that Lorgat held lengthy meetings at Shashank Manohar’s house in Nagpur during South Africa’s Test tour of India in November – a marked step up in status from his previous dealings with the BCCI, in 2013-14, when India’s tour of South Africa was truncated at the last minute, at an estimated cost of US$20 million, in an apparent show of displeasure at Lorgat’s appointment to the CSA role.

“Giles Clarke is the type of personality to say it so much that people believe he is the chairman, and that’s it. That’s not the case,” a CSA insider told journalists at a briefing in South Africa. “We have written to the ICC and it is on the agenda for changing the constitution. There is every likelihood that the ICC will reverse the structure and the things that it did two years ago.”CSA’s opposition has been matched by that of Cricket Australia, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, with the new board chairman, David Peever, understood to have distanced himself from the role played in the takeover by his predecessor, Wally Edwards, who retired from the post last year.With N Srinivasan, the former president of the BCCI and inaugural chairman of the ICC, being forced to stand down from both roles after being found by India’s Supreme Court to have had a conflict of interest in his ownership of the IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings, Clarke is the last remaining architect of the ICC power-grab and, as such, is increasingly seen as being the wrong man to lead the board in a climate of counter-reformation.The weakness of the other seven Test nations since the takeover is understood to be a cause of widespread concern among ICC board members, with West Indies still smarting from a humiliating tour of Australia and the PCB particularly aggrieved at the decentralisation of the Future Tours Programme, which has been replaced since 2014 by a series of bilateral agreements. The idea of a Test championship, shelved last year in favour of a rebooted Champions Trophy, could also be put to a vote.A widespread “review of ICC constitutional amendments” is also expected to be on the table in Dubai this week, with one anticipated change, according to the Telegraph, being the requirement for all future ICC chairmen to be independent of their member boards.Assuming that that change is rubber-stamped – and Shashank Manohar, the current chairman, has driven it through in response to the Srinivasan scandal – Clarke would then be obliged to resign his post as ECB president in order to stand as ICC chairman. Clarke’s new ECB role was specially created at the end of his eight-year tenure as ECB chairman in 2015, ostensibly to provide continuity at ICC level while the board’s new management duo, Colin Graves and Tom Harrison, bedded into their roles of chairman and chief executive respectively.However, the reluctance of Cricket Australia to endorse Clarke is not believed to reflect any weakened standing for the ECB’s new bosses among their peers at the ICC. Peever, the former managing director of Rio Tinto, met with Harrison and Graves in Singapore before Christmas, with James Sutherland, CA’s long-standing chief executive, also present. It was there, during an apparently cordial meeting, that the decision not to endorse Clarke’s candidature was expressed.When asked about the implications of the proposed reforms for Clarke’s future with the ECB, a board spokesman told ESPNcricinfo that it would not be appropriate to speculate on the outcome of a meeting that has not yet been held.

Sandeep Patil, the former India coach, and Dinesh Mongia, the former India batsman, have cited ill-treatment by the Indian board and the selectors respectively as reasons for their decision to join the Indian Cricket League (ICL).Patil said he was given “false assurances” of being made the India A coach but, eventually, nothing materialised. “I still have a copy of the e-mail that I was asked to send by Sharad Pawar [the president of the BCCI] expressing my willingness to be India A team’s coach. Nothing moved after that,” Patil told the Times of India. In fact, once Pawar called Ratnakar Shetty [the chief administrative officer of BCCI] and secretary Niranjan Shah in my presence, telling them to make my appointment, yet nothing materialised.”Mongia blamed the selectors for not giving him a proper run and said he was dropped despite some good performances. “Before the World Cup, I was given a break against Australia in Malaysia where I scored 63 not out. But after that I was dropped,” Mongia told the Indian Express. “I think I was dropped because I was scoring runs or I played well, that is the signal I got”.”Later too, I got a chance against Australia [in the Champions Trophy], where I failed. I did tour South Africa, played in Durban, where I disappointed, but everybody else also failed. Later I played in the Twenty20 game and was instrumental in winning the match against South Africa , and again the same old story: I was dropped.”Mongia did play in the 5th ODI against South Africa, two days after that Twenty20 game, and scored an 89-ball 41. He later made a comeback in the tour of Bangladesh and made 17 runs in each of the two ODI games that he played.”If you see a team like Australia, Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh and Michael Hussey, they all are treated as equals,” Mongia said. “It’s the performance that matters there, not the name. One thing has be to understood, when you are the boss, you have to give due importance to everybody. You can’t just concentrate on the big names and ignore the lesser players.”

Pakistan’s national champions Sialkot have left for India to play Uttar Pradesh, India’s Ranji Trophy winners, in a four-day match from September 27 to 30 at Dharamsala.Sialkot were the winners of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and were scheduled to play Uttar Pradesh on September 12 but that game was postponed because of time constraints. “The match is final and the Sialkot team has left today for Dharamsala where the match is being held,” Subhan Ahmed, a PCB official, told Reuters. “We wanted this match to be held on time so that we can work on other bilateral proposals.”The Sialkot team includes Test players such as Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Asif and Imran Nazir while Uttar Pradesh have Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina and RP Singh from the Indian squad. The boards of the two countries hope that this game will pave the way for more bilateral domestic matches.Uttar Pradesh – Mohammad Kaif (capt), Suresh Raina, Rudra Pratap Singh, Piyush Chawla, Jyoti Yadav, Avinash Yadav, Shivakant Shukla, Praveen Kumar, Mohammad Amir Khan (wk), Gyanendra Pandey, Rizwan Shamshad, Ashish Winston Zaidi, Shalabh Srivastava, Rohit Prakash, Ravikant Shukla
Coach Rajinder Singh Hans, Manager – Gopal SharmaSialkot – Shoaib Malik (capt), Imran Nazir, Majid Jehangir, Mohammad Asif, Atiq-ur-Rehman, Khalid Mahmood, Abdur Rehman, Mansoor Amjad, Shahid Yousuf, Sarfraz Ahmed, Tahir Mughal, Shehzad Malik, Inam-ul-haq
Coach – Abdul Quadeer Chaud, Manager – Azmat Rana