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Noises out of India this past week have sent an immediate shiver down the fragile spine of the ICC. If anyone there was listening and, more to the point, if anyone recognised the implications, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) had even more reason to be trembling in its threadbare boots.In the space of a few days, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) told the ICC it was butting out of the bi-annual Champions Trophy following the conclusion of the tournament next October (which it hosts), as well as proclaiming that it intended to arrange more frequent series with Australia, England and Pakistan. It has announced that Australia would tour India every year from 2007 and 2009, that they are negotiating to play England every alternate year and that it has cancelled a previously agreed tour to New Zealand early in 2007.In addition, the BCCI revealed that it would produce its own television coverage of all cricket in India, rather than rely on international companies to do it on its behalf. The messages were loud and clear. India, with its gynormous, cricket-crazy population and its voracious television networks, has become the financial centre of the cricket universe and is now flexing its considerable muscle. It was, said BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi redundantly, “all about extracting the most value for the board”.This equates to more contact with strong opponents who attract the crowds and, more especially, lucrative contracts for its new television plan. After that, the Indians have, in effect, said let the devil take the hindmost-and the West Indies’ record of the past decade, reflected in its position, of eighth out of ten in the ICC rankings, reveals just how hindmost we are at present.ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed was quick to point out in a terse letter to BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah, that its proposed, bilateral decisions are “contrary to ICC policy”. The ICC’s executive board, he stressed, had, as recently as March 2004, resolved to adopt its Future Tours Programme and its commercial arm had decided last October that the ICC would stage one major event each year up to 2015.The Future Tours Programme was initiated specifically to ensure that all ten full ICC members, regardless of rankings, play each other, home and away, over a ten-year period. The Champions Trophy, started in 1998 in Bangladesh, was designed mainly to raise funds to support ICC programmes for affiliate members. After itemising the priority for scheduling matches, as agreed by the ICC’s executive board in Sydney last October, Speed wrote: “With the greatest respect to the BCCI, could I urge you to take these decisions into account when you are considering scheduling of matches.”Judging by last week’s reports from Mumbai, Speed’s pleas are likely to go unheeded. And England, Australia and Pakistan seem ready to play ball, marginalising the other Test teams, especially the weakest.Hear BCCI vice-president Modi on the Champions Trophy: “We’re not free in October in 2007, 2008 or 2009. We’ve made our position clear to the ICC many times. If others want to play, they can, but why should be play in October. We’ve not signed any agreement to play in future editions.”Inderjit Singh Bindra, another vice-president, on whether India would avoid playing teams such as Bangladesh, bottom of the ICC list: “They make more money by us going there. If they come to India, they will get only meal allowance. If we go there, they make huge television revenue and title sponsorship.” England’s response to the BCCI’s overtures has been instructive.”We’ve always wanted to develop closer ties with India,” David Morgan, head of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said after talks with Bindra. “This was on our wish list that we gave to the ICC. They have a middle class which is as big as the entire population of the United States. Bindra was pushing an open door.” The West Indies and the others outside India’s chosen elite are likely to be left to pick up the crumbs. The more Australia, England and Pakistan play against India, obviously the less they will play against the rest.Already, under the ICC’s programme, the gap between England tours to the Caribbean was increased from four to six years, as huge a dent on the coffers of the WICB as it is on the region’s tourism. The West Indies have just undertaken a tour of Australia where, for the first time, they did not play a Test in Sydney or Melbourne, the main venues, and, instead, were shunted off-shore to Hobart for one match.For the West Indies, such developments, like those in India, are the inevitable consequence of their dramatic slide in standards. When they were as strong as any team that has ever graced the game and boasted a host of exciting, champion players, the world couldn’t get enough of them.After the impression created by Frank Worrell’s team in 1963, England took the unprecedented step of altering their tours from every eight to every four years so that their public could see the West Indies more regularly. The effect of Clive Lloyd’s conquerors in Packer’s World Series Cricket was the same. Once WSC ended in 1979, the Australians saw to it that the West Indies returned five times in the 1980s. At the height of the West Indies’ power and popularity, they returned to India twice in four years between 1983 and 1987.How dramatically and depressingly times have changed. If we didn’t already appreciate the real distinction between success and failure, the Indians have reminded us. The next thing you know, they’ll be telling us that our West Indies team is only worth meal allowance.It’s as serious as that.

The Indian cricket board has told the Madras High Court that it had no option but to cancel proceedings for awarding telecasting rights in the interest of cricket.Arguing on behalf of the BCCI on a petition filed by Zee Telefilms, which challenged the arbitrary cancellation of tender proceedings, KK Venugopal, a senior advocate, contended that the board was under pressure, with Cricket Australia threatening to call off the series (which began in October 2004) if the issue of telecasting rights was not resolved quickly. He added that the cancellation of the series would have resulted in the Indian board being blacklisted by the International Cricket Council.He added that matters had got even more uncertain with ESPN-Star Sports’ petition, against the award of rights to Zee, still pending. Also, the issue surrounding the sponsorship and distribution of revenue slots remained unresolved. Venugopal said that the decision was taken keeping in mind the overall interest of cricket.Also, he clarified that this was not a case of a concluded contract being broken, and added that Zee had regularly said that it was an inclusive contract. He claimed that Zee had moved the court with contrary views and asked how a petitioner could seek a mandamus in the case of a “not concluded” contract.

New South Wales 287 and 1 for 18 trail Victoria 326 (Hussey 120, White 78) by 21 runs
Scorecard

David Hussey on his way to a career-best120 © Getty Images

David Hussey’s second century of the season ensured Victoria gained first-innings points on the second day of their Pura Cup match against New South Wales at the MCG. Victoria made 326 in reply to NSW’s 287, with the Blues on 1 for 18 in their second innings at stumps – still trailing by 21 runs – with Phil Jacques the man out, caught behind off Allan Wise for 13.Hussey scored a career-best 120 to guide Victoria out of bother into a handy lead in a topsy-turvy match that is set to go right down to the wire. Much as NSW had done yesterday, Victoria crashed to 5 for 76 before lunch and, but such was Hussey’s effectiveness, they held a handy lead when he was eighth man out.Hussey and Cameron White, Victoria’s captain, put on 153 to give them the initiative in the middle session after a wicket and a brilliant catch from Brett Lee fired up the NSW in the first session. But when Lee had White caught in the slips for 78 on the stroke of tea, it again looked like Victoria had let slip an advantage after allowing the NSW tail to bat on too long yesterday.But Hussey found support from wicketkeeper Peter Roach (46) and the pair picked off the deficit with a minimum of fuss. Hussey also showed few nerves approaching his century, hitting a six and two fours to breeze into the nineties and then bringing up three figures with a slashed late cut.Lee finished with 3 for 83 off 25 overs and had an eventful day after smashing an unbeaten 74 yesterday. He saw off Victoria’s opener Matthew Elliott (15) early and then took a miraculous, one-handed catch at fine leg to dismiss Jason Arnberger (21) off Stuart Clark’s bowling with the ball headed for six.Dominic Thornely also chimed in with two wickets before lunch to have Victoria’s innings in tatters before Hussey and White’s aggressive counter-assault.

World Cup thinking was understandable as a distraction for batsmen during the National Bank Series but New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming thought the pressure to be in the side was a greater factor in batsmen’s minds.New Zealand have only six more games to get themselves into a confident frame of mind for the World Cup, and, in the process, into the sort of batting form that will make them a competitive unit in South Africa.Tomorrow’s match is even more important as it represents the last chance for players on the fringe to solidify their places.Fleming said the World Cup was very important to the players and he was hopeful that some of the diffidence being faced at the moment might be a repeat of the switch that was flicked before the 1992 World Cup. On that occasion, the New Zealanders quickly put behind them the poor form evident in their series with England and switched into some of the most impressive form witnessed in New Zealand.”I don’t think that looking ahead to the World Cup is detracting from this series. If anything, it has created a little more pressure for certain players and how they respond to that is a good test,” he said.Conditions would improve the longer the series went, and Fleming was confident the batsmen would get their opportunity in the remaining games.”As you go down the country, the wickets are pretty good, starting with Napier. Christchurch’s pitch looked very good for the Max International and hopefully as we work our way back up, they will all improve with the sunlight and the weather improving.”It’s too early to say panic because we haven’t got runs. There is a lot more cricket to be played in this series, especially for the batters and hopefully for us it starts tomorrow,” he said.One benefit for New Zealand from the dicey batting conditions had been a genuine sharpening of fielding and, especially, catching standards. That will always be of use going into the game’s major championship when every chance counts.”Every ball you think there is one coming, so you don’t go to sleep. There is always something happening which I think helps concentration,” he said.

Karachi Whites were skittled out for a paltry 169 in their first innings against Gujranwala on an eventful opening day of the four-day Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Grade-I Cricket Championship match at the KCCA Stadium here on Saturday.After electing to bat first when skipper Asif Mujtaba won the toss,the home team capitulated in 68.1 overs 20 minutes into the finalsession on a brown-coloured pitch that is expected to assist thespinners later in the game.By stumps, Gujranwala themselves were in some bother at 29 for two in18 overs. Opener Rizwan Malik was nicely caught behind by Atiq-uz-Zaman for six. In the final over of the day, Pervez Ghauri was takenat silly mid-point by Mohammad Masroor off leg-spinner Danish Kaneriafor nine.Shadab Kabir was only Karachi Whites batsman to make an impressionagainst the pace-cum-spin attack of Gujranwala. The left-hander heldthe innings together until he was fifth out. His 52 off 136 balls in171 minutes was laced with three fours.Seventeen-year-old off-spinner Nadeem Hussain began his first-classcareer by taking wickets with his 11th and 17th deliveries. Hefinished with two for 45 in 17 overs.Left-arm spinner Abdul Rehman and pace bowler Mubashir Nazir sharedsix wickets between them. Rehman took three for 39 in 19 overs whileMubashir had three for 32 in 15.1 overs.Skipper Majid Saeed chipped in with the scalps of Shadab and Masroorwith his off-spinners.

Sunderland are currently in their fourth successive season of League One football following their relegation from the Championship in 2018.

The Black Cats suffered back-to-back demotions between 2017 and 2018 after being in the top flight for a number of years, having made a number of poor transfer decisions whilst playing in the Premier League leading up to the 2016/17 campaign.

Nightmare

One of those was the signing of Jack Rodwell from Manchester City, who Gus Poyet snapped up for a fee of £10m in 2014.

He had only played 25 times for City after joining them from Everton two years prior, but his move to Wearside ended up being one big nightmare.

In four years at Sunderland, he played 76 times and failed to win any of his first 37 Premier League matches at the club – setting a league record as he started 39 top-flight games in total without picking up a win before a 4-0 thrashing of Crystal Palace in February 2017.

Former Black Cats boss Chris Coleman previously ripped into the player whilst the club were in the Championship, saying: “He trains with the U23’s every morning, in that nice, safe umbrella, he’s not in the spotlight or the firing line with the rest of us, which he chose.

“When I say don’t know where he is I mean physically and mentally, and there’s no interest [from me] because he’s not the answer for us.

“He’s got one more year on his contract and he doesn’t want to play for us, so fine, go and play for somebody else, but the stumbling block is the contract.”

Rodwell eventually left in the summer of 2018 on a free transfer as he signed for Championship side Blackburn Rovers upon Sunderland’s relegation to League One, finally ending his Stadium of Light nightmare.

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This means that the Wearsiders paid £10m for him to go practically an entire Premier League season without picking up a win for the Black Cats, before deciding that he did not want to play in the second tier whilst still being paid each week. They also failed to recoup any money for him as he was allowed to leave on a free transfer.

It was a dreadful piece of business and a nightmare that the club will surely be desperately trying to avoid repeating if they ever make their way back to the top flight…

AND in other news, Left for £0, value soared 14900%: SAFC fumbled gem with a “wand of a left foot”…

Imran Farhat will fight to save his cricket future © Cricinfo Ltd.

A group of cricketers banned from playing domestic cricket by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for having participated in the Indian Cricket League (ICL) will wait on a board committee’s decision before fighting the ban in court.Imran Farhat, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq, Taufiq Umar, Shabbir Ahmed and Azhar Mahmood were all banned by the board after they appeared for different teams late last year in the ICL. Of the group, however, Inzamam has retired while Azhar Mahmood is a regular performer in the English county season.Farhat and Umar are affected immediately, as they would in normal circumstances be appearing for Habib Bank (HBL) in the Quaid-e-Azam trophy final from Monday. “We filed a petition through our lawyer Imran Qureshi in the Lahore High Court to get a stay order against the decision because we wanted to play for HBL.”But after the judge deferred the decision till Monday, we reconsidered our option of going to court and decided to wait for the governing board’s decision,” Farhat told .”We can now afford to wait for the governing board’s decision regarding the matter as we also have enough time before the Pentangular Cup which is scheduled to start next month. Therefore we have advised our lawyer to act accordingly,” Farhat added.The Pakistan board had earlier referred its decision of banning the players to the governing board, which is expected to take up the matter in its next meeting on January 25 in Karachi.

SuperSport Series

An impressive all-round display from the Lions produced a 10-wicket win against the Dolphins at Potchefstroom. The Lions build a first innings lead of 113 thanks to half-centuries from Vaughn van Jaarsveld (74), Werner Coetsee (60) and Justin Ontong (59). Fredel de Wet then bagged 5 for 66 as the Dolphins were dismissed for 272 in their second innings, despite a fighting 84 from Ahmed Amla and 70 from Lance Klusener. Needing 160, the Lions made it without losing a wicket as Coetsee and Blake Snijman eased home.The Titans marched to an eight-wicket win against the Warriors at Port Elizabeth with Dale Steyn, fresh from his role helping South Africa wrap up the series against Pakistan, to the fore with eight wickets. His three first-innings victims were central in hauling the Warriors in from 239 for 3. Murray Goodwin struck 159 off 256 balls, but the last seven wickets went for 69 with Paul Harris taking four. The Titans fell well short in their reply, but Steyn then hit back as the Warriors were skittled for 92. He ripped out the top order and finished with 5 for 50, his first Supersport five-wicket haul of the season. The Titans stumbled to 14 for 2 chasing 188, but Martin van Jaarsveld guided them across the line with a powerful, unbeaten 98.An outstanding rearguard innings from JP Duminy denied the Eagles what appeared to be a certain victory against the Cobras at Stellenbosch. Duminy’s 169 spanned 455 balls as the Cobras had followed-on 309 behind after slumping for 115 in their first innings. When they fell to 279 for 7 in their second innings all seemed lost, but Duminy found priceless support from Rory Kleinveldt who hit 62 off 144 balls. The pair added 113 for the eighth wicket and when the tail was finally wrapped up, Eagles were left needing 105 from 12 overs. The draw was agreed after four overs with the Eagles 29 for 2. The earlier part of the match had been dominated by a stand of 244 between Jacques Rudolph (164) and Boeta Dippenaar (118) as one showed what South Africa will be missing and the other what he could still offer. Ryan McLaren then shone with the ball, claiming a career-best 8 for 38 before adding another three second time round.

SAA Provincial Challenge

Boland completed a five-wicket win against Eastern Province in dramatic style at Pollock Field in Port Elizabeth. The match was virtually level in first innings after EP reached 284 for 6 declared and Boland replied with 277 for 8. Then wickets began to tumble as EP fell for 70, the wickets were shared around the Boland attack. Needing 78 to win, Boland stumbled to 49 for 5 but Brendon Adams held firm with an unbeaten 34.There wasn’t much joy for the bowlers at Kimberley as batsmen from Griqualand West and Northerns feasted on a flat pitch. There were four centuries and two 90s as all three innings passed 400. Adrian McLaren (163) and Wendell Bossenger (131) started the run-fest which was then carried on by Petrus van Biljion (188) and P Malan (130), who hit their maiden first-class centuries, as Northerns took a lead of 68. Despite a couple of early wickets a result was never on the cards with Alan Kruger (98) and Reeza Hendricks (92), a 17-year-old, just falling short of joining the century club.

These are hard times for Jacob Oram, suffering from a heel injury © Getty Images

Jacob Oram’s chances of making New Zealand’s one-day squad for the forthcoming series against West Indies are getting slimmer.Oram, 27, has been forced to pull out of the final stage of New Zealand’s State Shield owing to a heel injury, a sign that does not bode well for the allrounder. “The selectors meet Wednesday and they’ll decide then what part, if any, he’s likely to have in the one-day series against the Windies,” Lindsay Crocker, the New Zealand general manager, told stuff.co.nz. “It’s now become a point of concern, given it has taken a little longer than we would’ve hoped. The question is whether we try to accelerate his recovery to play a part in the one-day series or let him continue his rehab to play a full part in the Test series.”Oram, the Central Districts captain, suffered a stone bruise injury that has already seen him spend 25 days on the sidelines. He returned to the Central side purely as a batsman, but felt pain in his heel while batting against Otago recently. “It’s taken a lot longer than we all thought and then he’s had the setback,” Crocker said. “It was hurting after the Otago game so we are trying no cricket activity to see if it will settle.”With Oram fighting to gain a spot for the one-day series against West Indies, and Chris Cairns having announced his retirement, New Zealand have problems on their hands. The first one-day match against the West Indies is at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington on February 18.Meanwhile, New Zealand Cricket is considering adding a three-day match to the start of the West Indies tour, probably against a New Zealand XI in Hamilton starting on Saturday. “The Windies are a long time on the ground before the first game (Twenty20 in Auckland on February 15) so I suspect they will want something other than practice,” Crocker said. A squad of 14 players – including players from Auckland, Wellington and Northern Districts – has been announced to begin training at a camp in Hamilton today.

Points Table

Can Virender Sehwag’s boys from the North Zone clinch the trophy on the final day?© AFP

Mobile phones have been put to full use in this year’s domestic competitions around the country. The last two rounds of the league phase of the Ranji Trophy turned out to be climactic and several teams were left depending on other results to qualify for the knock-out stage. The most dramatic scenes took place in Bangalore and Vishakapatnam on the last day of the matches when the Railways players huddled around a mobile phone for nearly three hours and received ball-by-ball updates from the Gujarat v Andhra game at Vishakapatnam. Gujarat couldn’t force a win and Railways sneaked through to the last-four stage.The venues and teams may be different tomorrow, but the final day of the Deodhar Trophy one-day tournament promises to be as riveting. North Zone take on South at Valsad while West clash with Central at Rajkot. A victory for North would seal the issue and give them their 10th Deodhar Trophy title, the most by any team since its inception in 1973. With the high-voltage line-up – in their previous game they fielded nine players with international experience – including Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh, North would be favourites to upstage an inconsistent South Zone team that has blown hot and cold in their last three games.South managed to pull off two narrow triumphs in the first and third games but plummeted to a crushing loss against West Zone at Mumbai in between. VVS Laxman, their captain, hasn’t produced a matchwinning knock yet and unlike North Zone, their bowling has lacked the firepower to blast sides out. After capsizing in the second game for just 107, South found the right balance in the third, when they overcame East, and gave themselves a chance of claiming the title. For that, though, they would need West Zone to slip up at Rajkot.After bulldozing their way to emphatic victories in the first two games, both at Mumbai, West Zone botched a great chance to seal the title in the last game against North. Chasing 289, they were on track with 101 for 1 before a middle-order collapse hurtled them to a big defeat, which included conceding a bonus point. Their opponents, Central Zone, may not be in the best of spirits, after being knocked out of the tournament in the last game despite posting 348, but their batting brigade, including Mohammad Kaif and the talented 18-year-old Suresh Raina, might just opt for a blazing exit.North start favourites, West will look to pounce at the slightest opportunity while South will attempt to sneak in through the back door. It set up an intriguing final day.