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Kings XI Punjab coach Tom Moody believes the second edition of the IPL will be more competitive than the first while the team’s captain, Yuvraj Singh, was hopeful his side could go better than the semi-finals this year.”There is no way anybody can pick one team above the other. All the sides were evenly matched,” Moody said in South Africa. “All the teams in the competition are very strong. I think it would be foolish of anyone to try and predict who the favourites or second favourites will be.”Moody picked the Delhi Daredevils, who they will play on April 19 in Cape Town, as one of Punjab’s biggest threats. The teams meet in Cape Town on April 19. “Delhi Daredevils is always a tough game for us. We’ve got them first up and they boast a good international list but also have some very good Indian stars.”Yuvraj was confident of his core base but expressed concern over the fast-bowling stakes. With new signing Jerome Taylor injured in a car accident recently and Sreesanth recovering from a back injury, Punjab have effectively lost five of their frontline players. The Australians Shaun Marsh, James Hopes and Brett Lee will be away on national duty but Punjab are hopeful they will be free for the second half of the IPL.”We have a good team this season. We have a good batting line-up with the likes of [Kumar] Sangakkara, [Mahela] Jayawardene and Shaun Marsh. Besides, we also have Ravi Bopara this year who can also bowl a bit,” said Yuvraj.”The only worry is the pace department. A couple of pacers are coming back from injuries while Sreesanth has been ruled out. But I am confident that the rest of the squad will rise to the occasion.”Yuvraj believed the local Indian community would come out in strong support. “The Indian fan base in South Africa is huge and we are expecting them to turn up and support their city teams,” said Yuvraj. “I am sure that the Punjabi community settled in South Africa will support us. Similarly, those originally from Mumbai would certainly come for Mumbai’s matches. Some Indian fans will also fly down to South Africa.”While the franchise is still awaiting some key players to arrive, Moody said Punjab had been well received in Port Elizabeth. “It’s of great excitement for us to have the opportunity to practice at terrific facilities here in Port Elizabeth. The ground at St George’s is certainly world class, the pitches have been world class and we’ve enjoyed the experience to date,” he said. “That’s particularly so for our Indian players who need to get used to conditions here in South Africa.”Irfan Pathan, whose role as an allrounder will be more significant in the absence of Lee and Hopes, was pleased with the progress shown by the first-timers to South Africa. “There was a big difference between the first and second net practice we had here,” he said. “The batsmen became more comfortable with the local fast bowlers. I’m pretty happy with their progress.”This is my third trip here. So whatever experience I have I’ve already started passing on to a few Indian guys and I’ve seen the difference already.”

It remains to be seen whether England’s coaching dragnet will extend as far as John Dyson, but the West Indies mentor is certainly making a compelling case for consideration. In barely a year, he has transformed a fractured, underperforming Windies unit into one that has now moved within a game away of a memorable series victory over England. Odgers Ray and Berndtson – the corporate head-hunting firm recruited by the ECB to find the next England coach – must surely be taking note.Dyson’s coaching record makes for particularly impressive reading when considering the difficulty of the assignments he has accepted. In his first international posting, Dyson guided Sri Lanka through board upheavals and the devastating Boxing Day tsunami to second place in the one-day rankings and fourth in Tests by the time of his departure.The trend has continued in the Caribbean. West Indies have amassed a record of three wins, six draws and five losses under Dyson ahead of the Trinidad Test; their victories coming against such formidable foes as South Africa, Sri Lanka and England. To put that into perspective, they required 40 Tests to post their previous three victories, and those came against Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and a Pakistan side missing five key players.The road to respectability has been a treacherous one for Dyson and West Indies. His appointment to the coaching post followed that of Bennett King, an Australian who never won over the dressing room. Dyson inherited a team lacking in confidence and divided into factions – themes that might very well resonate within English cricket at present.”I remember very early on in the piece sitting down for a talk with the one of the players,” Dyson recalled. “He told me, ‘Don’t expect any of the players to talk to you.’ It was a fairly daunting thing to hear.”I’d been told that the players had gone to the board and specifically requested they not appoint another Australian coach. And what did they do? Appoint an Australian coach. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go, but I think that, over time, we have improved things. There are needs and sensitivities within cultures, and you have to be mindful of that. I tried to do that in Sri Lanka, as well as here.”West Indies might not yet be contending for a place in the upper echelons of international cricket, but neither are they the easy-beats of recent history. Last year, they overcame injuries to key personnel, not least Chris Gayle, and the eleventh-hour arrivals of Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Dwayne Bravo from the IPL to push the Australians to the wire. A gulf in experience between the two sides cost them the Frank Worrell Trophy but, with admirable determination and persistence, West Indies have now positioned themselves to prise the Wisden Trophy from England’s grasp. A draw in Trinidad will be enough.Discipline has been anathema to West Indies for the better part of a decade, and while not yet ready for a military tattoo, the side has still made major advances. Redoubtable innings, athletic fielding and tenacious bowling have been regular features of recent West Indies performances, due in no small part to the input of Dyson’s assistant, David Williams. Team fitness has also improved markedly, for which Steve Folkes – an Australian rugby league coach appointed by Dyson late last year to the position of strength and conditioning trainer – can take much of the credit.Dyson was regarded as a gruff disciplinarian during his time with Sri Lanka, but has tailored his approach to meld with the unique style and pace of West Indian cricket. He displayed tremendous tact and pragmatism throughout the difficult, potentially divisive Stanford saga, and has managed to keep the Windies competitive while their board has lurched from controversy to crisis.”The main priority for me over the last 12 months has been to establish a positive environment for the players,” he said. “There were lots of negatives around the team previously, and I don’t fully know why that was the case.”We wanted to change the way the squad operates. We listened to what the players had to say, and there were some consistent complaints. We have tried to fix those. But there remain a lot of challenges – the regional competition is a major one, and another is that our players all live in different countries. After the last match, seven guys went to Jamaica, four others to Barbados, and the rest to other islands, Orlando and Miami. It has been a challenge keeping up reasonable levels of fitness when you don’t spend a huge amount of time together pre-series.”What could Dyson achieve with the plentiful resources of English cricket at his disposal? Odgers, Ray and Berndtson could do worse than investigate the possibility.

Former Indian captain Gundappa Viswanath has been chosen for the CK Nayudu lifetime achievement award, the highest honour the Indian board can bestow on a former player. It will be presented to him on February 18 in Mumbai.The CK Nayudu award comes with a trophy, a citation and a cash prize of Rs. 15 lakh (approx. US$ 38,000).Viswanath has been called the “greatest batsman” India has produced by Sunil Gavaskar, one of the most prolific scorers in the history of Test cricket. Viswanath shot into prominence with a double century on his first-class debut for Mysore (as the Karnataka team was referred to then) in 1967-68. Picked in the Indian side in the Kanpur Test of the 1969-70 series against Australia, Viswanath got a duck in the first innings, but made up with a magnificent 137 in the second.Viswanath played 91 Tests for India, scoring more than 6000 runs at an average of over 40. But he is most appreciated for the fact that he scored his big runs when India needed them most. His match-winning 97 against a powerful West Indies team that included the rampaging Andy Roberts in 1974-75, stands out. But his other knocks came in equally trying conditions – 124 in Madras against West Indies in 1978-79, 83 and 79 against New Zealand on a greentop at Christchurch in 1975-76.Viswanath also served as vice-president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association and had a stint as chairman of national selectors from 1992-96. He is currently working as a batting coach at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.

Scorecard

New South Wales’ dominance of the Women’s National Cricket League continued as they breezed to a six-wicket win over Victoria to seal their fourth trophy in a row. Ellyse Perry picked up 4 for 23 to destroy the Spirit’s middle order as they struggled to 117 and the victory was secured when the hosts reached 4 for 120 in 34.2 overs.The Breakers’ success ensured their 11th victory in the 13 years of the competition and an undefeated season in the one-day tournament. It was the first final Perry, the 18-year-old Player of the Match, had completed after last summer’s decider was washed out.”It was a tremendous experience and I won’t forget it in a hurry,” Perry said. “It was great to put together the sort of performance we knew we were capable of.”The match at the SCG began in ideal fashion for New South Wales with them winning the toss and having the dangerous Rachael Haynes run out from the third ball. Mel Jones, another major weapon, was shut down when Sarah Andrews had her lbw for 7 and after that there was no easy way forward.Sarah Aley picked up two wickets in the 14th over to drop Victoria to 4 for 43 and then Perry arrived with three breakthroughs. After losing 5 for 9, Jodie Dean and Clea Smith held on during a partnership of 39 in 16.2 overs to lift from the ruins of 7 for 52. Smith finished with an unbeaten 39 to top score, but Elyse Villani’s 19 was the next best effort. Aley picked up 2 for 5 from six overs while Andrews had 1 for 11 off seven.Leah Poulton overcame the early loss of Alex Blackwell (3) and exited with 43 after being caught and bowled by Kristen Beams. Kate Blackwell, whose limited opportunities this season contributed to her missing the World Cup squad, hit the winning runs with a four to long-on and left with 42 and another trophy.Despite her impressive haul, Perry rated Andrews’ removal of Jones as her favourite wicket of the day. “We got off to a really fantastic start with Sarah Andrews and Sharon Millanta and I was lucky to come on when there was a lot of pressure on them,” Perry said. “It was a brilliant team performance and it was fantastic to finish on a high.”Perry leaves for New Zealand on Wednesday for five ODIs in the Rose Bowl Series before returning to finalise preparations for the World Cup in March. Australia are the defending champions after their victory in South Africa in 2005.

West Indies batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan has said he was confident of the team’s chances in the second ODI against New Zealand in Christchurch, even after coming under severe pressure towards the end of the chase.”We felt one big over could bring us back into the game and would do it for us,” he said. “That’s what we were counting on. That was part of our target and we got that big over to bring us back into the game.”West Indies took a 1-0 lead in the five-match series with a five-wicket win – the first was abandoned due to rain – with Sarwan adjudged the Man of the Match for his unbeaten 67 off 65 balls. He was supported by the captain, Chris Gayle, and Denesh Ramdin during West Indies’ reply in the match, which was reduced to 28 overs a side due to rain.”I was not getting frustrated. In the middle overs I was just trying to score as many singles as possible and rotate the strike,” he said. “I thought all along that the key would be to have wickets in hand and that gave us the chance to launch. As you saw there at the end, the wickets in hand paid off.”Sarwan hit the winning run off the penultimate ball of the innings, after Denesh Ramdin’s breezy 28 had taken the visitors to the brink. Ramdin kept a cool head under pressure and put on a crucial 48-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Sarwan that helped seal the win.Ramdin was singled out for praise by Sarwan, who had earlier rallied the team ahead of the game and had called on the young guns to fire. “This innings is really going to give him a lot of confidence,” said Sarwan. “He was under a bit of pressure but tonight he really played well. He took control, played freely and took the pressure off of me. He was the right man at the right time.”Earlier, the West Indies bowlers did well with new-ball operator Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor keeping New Zealand in check. Left-arm spinner Nikita Miller, who had his first bowl on tour, also impressed, picking up 2 for 26.”The bowlers did the job for us up front. They were aggressive when they needed to be and worked well as a bowling unit to put the New Zealand batsmen under pressure. This will give us momentum for the rest of the series,” Sarwan said.The third match will be played at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington on Wednesday.

Uttar Pradesh 253 for 3 (Shukla 103*, Parvinder 93*, Balaji 2-53) trail Tamil Nadu 445 by 192 runs
Scorecard

Shivakant Shukla, with a century, and Parvinder Singh came up with the best performances of their careers and an unbeaten 190-run partnership to keep Uttar Pradesh’s noses ahead of Tamil Nadu. L Balaji took the big wickets of Suresh Raina and Mohammad Kaif early but Shukla and Parvinder frustrated them for the next six-odd hours. Tamil Nadu didn’t help their own case – Parvinder was dropped by Dinesh Karthik when on 20 and 64, and Shukla by M Vijay when on 95 – as UP were left needing 193 runs on the final day to take the first-innings lead and make their third final in four years.Tamil Nadu struck 13 overs into the day with the wicket of the dangerous Raina who had been subdued yesterday but was back to his fluent self. Twenty-five runs were scored in 19 overs on Monday; today the next 25 came in 5.2 overs. Raina got stuck into Balaji, driving him along the ground and over point. Then, as in the past, he threw away a good start, presenting a gap between bat and pad to Balaji, who was coming from round the wicket. Kaif was involved in two leg-bye boundaries before playing Balaji onto his stumps, and UP were still 382 behind with their two key batsmen dismissed.TN had their tails up and its showed in the field settings for Shukla and Parvinder – for the first time in the match, four slips and a gully. The confidence was not unjustified; Parvinder, who made his debut in 1999-2000, has been in and out of the team since with a best of 68. Shukla has been a regular member of the side since his debut in 2003-04 but has only two centuries and an average of 24.What followed was a gritty effort in good batting conditions by two batsmen who’d recorded their previous best scores alongside each other, when adding 137 for the second wicket against Maharashtra earlier this season. Shukla demonstrated good mental strength after having struggled through a tough period yesterday, scoring few runs but not throwing it away. Yesterday he had scored 10 runs in 56 balls and by lunch today he had added 34 in 108 deliveries. Parvinder made a solid start too, moving to 20 by lunch.Just after lunch, Balaji created another opportunity, but Karthik dropped Parvinder to his right. By that time the pace bowlers had tried their hardest, and Tamil Nadu had to resort to the spinners. Shukla started to score more fluently; in Balaji’s next over he flicked to midwicket to reach only his second 50-plus score of the season, and celebrated it with a perfect straight drive in the next over.The middle session has typically been the best for batting in this match, and so it proved on Tuesday. After Balaji’s spell, Tamil Nadu chose to bide their time and tried to limit the damage before they could go for the new ball. With the old ball, though, Parvinder started accelerating, not shying away from hitting the spinners over the infield. With a cover drive off R Ashwin, his seventh boundary, Parvinder reached his fourth half-century of the season. Shukla had reached only 66 by then. Parvinder offered a sharp chance off Suresh Kumar, but Karthik couldn’t hold on to it and the ball took his glove before lobbing over the slips.The new ball was taken as soon as it became available. But Shukla was solid. Driving superbly against the gentle pace of P Amarnath and C Ganapathy, he gained lost ground on his partner and overtook him. However, the nerves showed in the 90s. He edged Amarnath when on 95, but M Vijay failed to hold on. His century came through an edge, too, which flew between Karthik and a wide slip. Towards the end of the day, the scoring stopped again, but it had to do with Tamil Nadu bowling wide of the stumps consistently. Unlike yesterday’s struggle, the quiet period towards stumps spelled serenity for UP. The last ten overs yielded only four runs, but Parvinder showed no hurry to reach what would be a maiden hundred.UP’s batting has relied long on Kaif, Raina and Tanmay Srivastava, and other batsmen have wasted good starts too often. By performing the way they did, Shukla and Parvinder may have taken the first steps towards undoing that image.

119 v India, 1st Test, Mumbai, 2001
This is the innings that put Hayden on the road to greatness. After battling in 13 Tests over seven years, he arrived in India well prepared and quickly started to dominate the attack. Australia were 5 for 99 when Hayden and Gilchrist combined for a 197-run stand that set up the 10-wicket win. Hayden’s sweeping on the tour was his trademark and his power was incredible – almost 80% of his runs came in boundaries in this display. He would finish the three-match tour with his first double-century and 549 runs for the series.197 & 103 v England, 1st Test, Brisbane, 2002-03
It wasn’t long before Nasser Hussain wished he’d decided to bat. By stumps on the first day Australia were 2 for 364, with Hayden unbeaten on 186. The breakthrough came early on the second morning, but Hayden wasn’t finished, deflating the visitors further with a swift century in the next innings, the first of two occasions in which he brought up twin hundreds. Fortunately for England, who lost by 384 runs, it was the end of Hayden’s streak of seven centuries in ten games. 380 v Zimbabwe, 1st Test, Perth, 2003-04
Against anyone else this would be Hayden’s defining display, but because it was Zimbabwe the status of the world record was downgraded. Over almost two days he showed his might against the game’s minnows to the extent where the bowlers feared for their safety. There were 38 fours, 11 sixes, a strike-rate of 86.95 and no reprieve for the visitors until he had passed Brian Lara’s 375. Lara appropriately reclaimed the mark in 2004 with 400 against England. 119 v Pakistan, 2nd Test, Sharjah, 2002
Hit in the head early by Shoaib Akhtar, Hayden recovered and taunted the bowler by asking “is that all you’ve got?” Mostly he showed his physical strength in temperatures that pushed the half-century mark and forced some of the bowlers to deliver one-over spells. When he was ninth-out he had batted for 431 minutes; nobody else passed 50 in the game and he outscored Pakistan, who fell for 59 and 53. Akhtar was near his peak that year, but Hayden was better.130 v Sri Lanka, 1st Test, Galle, 2004
Ricky Ponting’s start to the captaincy was not going so well with Australia facing a 161-run deficit after the first innings. By the time Hayden was out they had a lead of 84 and Damien Martyn and Darren Lehmann ensured Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill had enough runs to bowl at. Once again Hayden had shown his versatility, seeing off the threats of Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan, and raised another century at a time when he was the most productive batsman in the game.

Scorecard

Western Australia unearthed yet another top-order prospect as Wes Robinson ground out a century in his second game to offset a strong bowling effort from Dan Cullen and his South Australia colleagues. Robinson batted throughout the day and finished unbeaten on 109 with Steve Magoffin on 2 as the Warriors closed at 7 for 233.Robinson got his opportunity because Shaun Marsh was called into the Test squad and he proved a more gritty opener than the man he replaced, nudging his way to triple-figures from 246 balls. The problem for the Warriors was that it was almost a one-man show. Robinson had moderate support from three colleagues but none managed to post half-centuries.His opening partner Liam Davis made 39 in a 68-run stand that ended when Davis was caught off Cullen. The offspinner made it two in one over when he trapped Luke Pomersbach lbw without scoring and Western Australia stumbled to 3 for 83 when Marcus North also fell cheaply.Adam Voges (28) gave Robinson some assistance before becoming the third of Cullen’s victims. Fortunately for the visitors Ronchi, who had been battling for form, struck 49 in a 74-run partnership that ended when he was caught behind off Mark Cleary.It was a strong first day for the struggling South Australia, who were without their major striker Shaun Tait as he had been rested. Cullen said he was happy with his 30 overs, which brought 3 for 62. “Out there it felt like I had pretty good control of the ball,” Cullen told . “It wasn’t turning much but it was drifting a little bit.”

The ECB has invited Pakistan to tour England in 2010, a year ahead of their scheduled visit as part of the Future Tours Programme.”We are keen to play a series in England so we will be holding negotiations soon with the ECB to sort out financial arrangements,” the head of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Saleem Altaf, said.Pakistan are likely to play three Tests, five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 international, and Altaf confirmed to Cricinfo that the invitation came directly from the ECB. Should the tour go ahead, it will give Pakistan the chance to compensate the ECB for the losses suffered during the controversial Oval Test on the team’s last tour to England in 2006. The England board requested £800,000 (US$1.3 million) from the PCB for lost revenue after the match was awarded to England following Pakistan’s refusal to play after tea on the fourth day.”Pakistan and England had made an agreement to play a Twenty20 match whenever we tour England,” Altaf said, “and the proceeds could overcome the losses incurred at [The] Oval.”West Indies have been lined up by England to tour in 2009, replacing Sri Lanka, instead of their scheduled visit in 2010. Pakistan, therefore, could take West Indies’ place a year later.Pakistan recently proposed a two-Test offshore series with West Indies, which was due to be held in Abu Dhabi, but it was cancelled earlier this week. The decision leaves Pakistan with no Test cricket this year; their next scheduled match is against India in January.

Kris Srikkanth, the former India opener, will head India’s first-ever paid national selection committee which will be officially appointed during the two-day annual general body meeting starting in Mumbai tomorrow. In another significant development, a new post – vice-chairman of the IPL – has been created to accommodate Niranjan Shah, the outgoing secretary of the board.The rest is a formality after senior officials of the ruling group, headed by Sharad Pawar, wrapped up two days of informal meetings during which they decided on the reshuffle.As expected, the selection committee will also comprise Yashpal Sharma (North), Narendra Hirwani (Central), Surendra Bhave (West) and Raja Venkat (East). The selectors will be paid Rs 25 lakh (US$53,625) per year after the BCCI’s working committee announced new eligibility norms which automatically rules out the present group headed by Dilip Vengsarkar.Pawar, the BCCI president, makes way for Shashank Manohar, the lawyer from Nagpur, as agreed upon previously and it has become clear that the ruling group’s nominees across the board will be elected unanimously. N Srinivasan, the previous treasurer who also heads IPL finalists Chennai Superkings, will take over as secretary from Shah, who has been the public face of the BCCI, in India and abroad, and has represented the board at various ICC meetings. MP Pandove, the joint secretary from Chandigarh, is the new treasurer.”We received only one nomination (each) for the post of Secretary, Joint Secretary, Treasurer and five Vice-Presidents. Their names would be announced only tomorrow at the AGM as per the constitutional procedure,” Pawar told reporters in Mumbai.An interesting sidelight of the day’s discussions were the hectic meetings that were held over the appointment of the new national selectors. Apparently, there were attempts to get at least one of the new eligibility norms, which bars selectors from holding posts with state associations, amended to let Vengsarkar stay on.”But a majority of the officials who discussed this issue were against such an amendment, as it was a paid job,” the sources said. “Besides, Vengsarkar had made it clear that he was not willing to give up his post as vice-president of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA). There was no way out.”

According to the new rules, the selectors should also have played for India, or more than 25 first-class matches. The officials, however, have tweaked another rule to accommodate Hirwani, the former India legspinner, who retired from first-class cricket two years ago. The BCCI had earlier specified 10-year gap from the time a cricketer retires for him to be eligible as a national selector but this cut-off now applies to international cricket in the case of those who have played for India. Hirwani last appeared for India in 1996, in a Test against South Africa in Kolkata.In the event, Srikkanth takes over at a crucial time – his new panel will select the team for the Australia home series starting on October 9 – when the Indian team enters a transitional phase with senior players like Anil Kumble, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman in the final stretch of their careers.”This is his first stint as a selector and there is a lot of hope and some apprehension,” said the sources. “But he has proved himself previously as coach of the India A team, and has been in touch with the game at the highest level as a media figure.”Srikkanth will not be able to continue with his media assignments now, though officials have decided that his celebrity brand endorsements “will not be a problem”.The board has also finalised the heads of some of its crucial committees, and Lalit Modi, who heads the IPL and Champions League, will head the marketing arm. Rajiv Shukla, who will be replaced as vice-president, will head the finance committee that oversees the board’s revenues. Manohar is expected to retain control over the important fixtures committee that decides on match venues and schedules.What this essentially means, the sources said, is that “the negotiations and meetings are over, and what will happen now at the AGM is just a formality”. Apart from these appointments, the AGM will also endorse a series of internal reports, including its annual report for the previous season.