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It may not have looked so at any stage of the seven days of Test cricket between India and South Africa so far, but the visiting batsmen did everything they could to prepare for their trial by spin.Led by Hashim Amla, who assistant coach Adrian Birrell has called “the most precise preparer for a match that I have ever met,” they conducted “very specific training,” to try and simulate the Indian spinners. Their specialist slow-bowing consultant Claude Henderson “threw,” in the words of Birrell, left-arm spin to get them used to facing Ravindra Jadeja. Birrell himself rolled back the years to his legspinning days to bowl like Amit Mishra although he was “not even close.” They brought in youngsters at every venue of the series to try and mimic R Ashwin’s threat. They batted on scuffed up pitches and put themselves under match pressure. Yet after all that, they have not been able to answer the challenge. Why?”Unfortunately, we are not quite as good as Ashwin,” a resigned Birrell said. In these conditions who is?”He is tighter than anyone else. He doesn’t give us any bad balls and maybe that’s been the difference,” Birrell said. “We dished up a few easy runs and yet we’ve had to fight for every run. He doesn’t give you those bad balls. He keeps the pressure on all the time, and he’s at the top of his game. He’s really in form and he’s an outstanding bowler. He can bowl on any surface.” And if South Africa can get the better of him, even in a dead rubber, they will leave India somewhat satisfied they achieved something.”We are here to fight,” Birrell said. “I like Hashim’s words – win or lose you need to put up an honourable fight. That was the case in this last Test and we’ll put up an honourable fight again in this Test. The guys are determined to put in a good performance.”South Africa may have conceded the series, but they have enough reason to regard the Delhi Test with as much importance as they would any other match. Another defeat would make it the first time since 2006, the same year they last lost a series away from home, that they have come second best thrice in a series. To win would require an effort in adaptability that seems beyond this South African line-up on although Birrell begs to differ.Like others in his camp, including Amla and du Plessis, Birrell expects turn again but unlike them, he was optimistic of an even contest. “We are playing in India so we expect the pitches to turn. This one looks like it will go more than three days. We are happy with what we see,” he said, referring to a strip which seems harder and less cracked than the one in Nagpur.Birrell also tried to distance the South African team from the criticism that clouded the Nagpur match, which seemed designed not to go full term. “We are not complaining. We are playing in India and we are playing in India’s conditions.”Instead, Birrell focused on the changing nature of Test cricket which has become more cut-throat and intense. “Look at it beyond India and more worldwide. There are a lot of Tests not going the full five days. There are very few draws,” he said. “The game is a lot faster. Runs per over are a lot quicker. I don’t think there are too many easy games. Every Test I have been involved in over the last two-and-a-half years has been very competitive and very tense. I think that’s good. It’s probably the way that Test cricket should be. It’s got to be tense and be competitive and there is a lot on the line.”With so much at stake, South Africa remain hopeful they will be able to use their premier pacemen Dale Steyn. who has not bowled since the first innings of the Mohali Test when he suffered a groin strain. Steyn will undergo another fitness test on Wednesday to determine his availability.The same wide berth may not be given to a few others. Stiaan van Zyl and Dane Vilas may be sweating over their sports, especially after Birrell hinted South Africa may make use of some their reserves. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there were one or two other faces in the XI.”

Imran Khan, the former Pakistan captain, termed Pakistan’s latest defeat “deplorable”, and said that the entire system was in need of an urgent shake-up. Imran’s comments came in the wake of Pakistan’s humiliating 491-run defeat in the first Test at Perth.”We will continue to blame coaches and captains for each defeat and sack them,” Imran told AAP, “but the real remedy is to develop batsmen technically by overhauling our faulty system. Until and unless we correct our faulty system, and that I have been saying for the last 25 years, our batsmen will not be technically and temperamentally equipped to face a quality bowling side like Australia.”Imran said that there were only two ways approach the problem. “Either correct it by improving the system or send the batsmen to play in county cricket,” he said. “Batting has always been Pakistan’s bane on tours of Australia – our batsmen thrive against lack-of-quality bowling, but when they come up against the world-class bowling of Australia they are exposed.”He added that the captain was solely responsible for the team’s fortunes, but sympathised with Inzamam-ul-Haq’s predicament. “I think the coach can make a marginal difference and it’s the captain who makes the team fight, but how can he make a team fight whose base is weak?”Imran said that Australia did brilliantly to fight back from a perilous position on the first day. “The hallmark of a champion team is that they hung in during bad times and when they got an opportunity showed the killer instinct,” he said. “Pakistan should have been a pack of wolves once they caught Australia, but they weren’t.”

Ahead of their County Championship tie against Gloucestershire at Cheltenham, Yorkshire have dropped Yuvraj Singh from their middle order, bringing in Gavin Hamilton instead.Yuvraj has struggled in the County Championship, making only 137 runs in 10 innings. His big knocks for Yorkshire came only in the Twenty20 Cup.Geoff Cope, director of cricket for the county, said: “Yuvraj has come over here and has not found it easy. Pressure has been coming from the second team, with Gavin Hamilton in good form and scoring runs, and we felt the time had come for a change.””Yuvraj is struggling,” Cope added. “He has accepted the decision and we all hope that he will find his touch and show everyone what he is capable of.”Yuvraj Singh in county cricket

Sunil Gavaskar plans to institute a trust fund for former Test and first-class cricketers who have fallen on hard times. His decision to do so comes soon after the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced a monthly pension of Rs 5000 for all former Test cricketers. That trust that Gavaskar plans to establish will be funded with money donated by the more affluent former players.According to reports, he had been considering the idea for a while, and decided to go ahead once he received a favourable response from several contemporaries. Many former cricketers who have carved out a niche for themselves in various fields after retirement have expressed their desire to contribute to the trust, which will help those who lost their way once they were divorced from the game they contributed to.

Alton will clinch the Southern Electric Premier League, Division 3 championship tomorrow – provided they avoid their 13th match of the season proving unlucky on Southsea seafront.Leaders all season, Alton have swept to 12 successive wins, but are unlikely to find Portsmouth II much of a threat.The city club has lost its last six matches and are probably favourites to go down, alongside Flamingo, who host Hungerford at The Holt.If Australian Chris Baumann shines, fellow strugglers Waterlooville could end their relegation worries with a win over Hook & Newnham Basics.Also in the mire, but ten points clear of Waterlooville, are South Wilts II, who visit Southsea.Ventnor will all but clinch the runners-up spot behind Alton if they win at Leckford, but Trojans plan to battle it out until the end and need to beat Havant II at Stoneham Lane in order to stay up.Nigel le Bas returns to the Stoneham side.Paultons, aiming for a top five finish, visit Bashley (Rydal) II, with all-rounder Tony Richman in peak form.

We knew we had it coming. When readers responded to our Rest of the World XI selection, there were practical suggestions, appreciation, anger, accusations of bias, questions regarding the selectors’ sanity and, to top it all, someone queried whether the teams were picked by a bunch of car mechanics. It wasn’t all that bad though because a bulk of the players picked themselves, but as ever, there were a few contentious issues, and none more than the non-inclusion of Stephen Fleming, widely regarded as the best captain in international cricket. The responses are still coming in and it will be a while before we put up a Readers XI. But meanwhile, here are the a few big discussion points.Where’s New Zealand?
Aren’t New Zealand the second-best one-day team in the world? This was a repeated refrain in addition to “where’s Stephen Fleming?”. “New Zealand looks like it may move into second spot in the ODI rankings, but only a brief mention of Cairns. How can that be?” asked Greg Nuthall. Andrew Mason was angry at the disrespect shown to the Kiwis. “Why do people still not rate New Zealand as a cricketing nation? As long as they continue to not give us at least a token amount of respect, we will continue to keep biting them on the ass … when they don’t expect it.”Some suggested that the absence of any New Zealanders probably meant that they played more like a team than the others. But others demanded to know the nationality of the 22 selectors. Ramprasad Sugumaran believed that all the selectors were from England, and Kamal Dorabawila accused the committee of being English “or biased towards the English.”Michael Vaughan’s position as opener and captain came under immediate – and brutal – scrutiny. “Were the selectors opting for a specialist captain? Or were they half English?” asked Kit Boyes. “Nothing more than a one-hit wonder,” said Adrian Nung, explaining that Vaughan had only one good series against Australia. And Jake Berry couldn’t believe Vaughan was captain. “He is probably the most over-rated captain in world cricket, and has been in terrible form lately in both, Tests and one-dayers.”But who, then, should be captain? Who will connect the Rest of the World’s fist with Australia’s upper lip? A man with “rat cunning”, came the prompt reply from John Baldwin. “If you want someone to lead your team, who thinks like an Aussie, plays like an Aussie and is respected by Aussies because of it, then you need a quasi-Aussie. My team would be captained by that quintessential quasi-Aussie, Stephen Fleming.” Pratik Shah bolstered the argument with his spirited defence of Fleming’s batting. “If we look at just the last year and a half, it’s [Fleming’s average] an astonishing 54.73. Meanwhile,” he adds, “Vaughan’s recent performance is hardly anything to write home about. In the last 18 months, Vaughan has averaged a sub-par 35.61.”You get the picture. The general points raised were that Fleming was the best captain in the world, and he has scored more runs than anyone else this year, so why wasn’t he in the team? And why weren’t Chris Cairns, Jacob Oram and Hamish Marshall included in there too? Even our omission of Mark Richardson – left out after a raging fist-fight in the selection room – surprised Tejaswi Aswathanarayana, who believes he’s the best Test opener in the world.

A man in the middle
The middle order of Rahul Dravid, Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar was left unscathed, but Jacques Kallis’s inclusion and Inzamam-ul-Haq’s exclusion were criticised. According to Hariharan Sekhar, Kallis gorges on weak attacks and struggles against stronger ones. “He tends to struggle against Australia and can’t handle quality spin bowling.” But who should replace him? “Because of this, VVS Laxman is the obvious choice.” Natarajan Ramamurthy says the same thing and then backs it up with cold numbers. Since January 2000, Kallis’s bowling average in Australia is 66.50, while his batting average is 32.61. “This throws in some doubt the merit of his selection. Laxman, on the other hand, averages more than 63 against the Australians.” But Laxman isn’t the only contender for that spot. Sheik Salim flies the flag for Inzy. “Inzamam’s records place him automatically in both Test and one-day XIs.”Keeping wickets
With Adam Gilchrist the world’s best keeper-batsman by far – and currently employed with Australia – who would wear the gloves for this team? Certainly not Mark Boucher, replied many. If Tanveer Singh Parwar had his way, he’d bring Andy Flower out of the retirement home. Others suggested Kumar Sangakkara. Nigel Harbridge says that he should be selected “ahead of Boucher due to his better batting ability, and also the fact that Murali will be bowling the most overs and should have someone who has experience in reading his deliveries.” And, according to Hiran Leitan and Daran, Sangakkara should keep in the one-dayers as well, as Dravid would be useless at keeping to Murali in this form of the game.The bowling department
What was noticeable here was that people didn’t question the inclusion of three fast bowlers and a spinner. The sole spinner, Muralitharan, had support from Mike O’Dea, who suggested that he should be allowed to bowl the doosra, and “if he has to, make him wear the brace.” For the most controversial man in world cricket, the lack of criticism was telling. The fast bowlers, however, were a different matter.Shaun Pollock has lost it, Shoaib Akhtar is a showoff, and Steve Harmison’s inclusion was due to a dark English lobby at work, according to readers. “Pollock,” says Simon Bradwell, “is a spent force. He’s lost his pace and penetration.” Sameer Tare agrees, and adds that perhaps Irfan Pathan and Makhaya Ntini are more deserving of inclusion.

But Peter Vincent, in a systematic demolition of Shoaib, questions the logic of selecting him. “Shoaib Akhtar in both teams? Are you crazy?” he warms up. “What about Vaas? Or Bond, Dillon, Ntini, even Streak? Showboat Akhtar is inconsistent and a poor team man and as likely to bowl a dozen no-balls and skive off with an Indian movie maiden as he is to make an impact against the Aussies.” Instead, Shane Bond was recommended for a place in the team. If he’s fit, wrote a reader, he’s the second-best fast bowler in the world.The one-day selection
And that was only the Test team. But there were fewer problems with the one-day side. Only Yuvraj Singh’s inclusion caused a major rift, with calls for Abdul Razzaq to be picked instead. The other omission that readers found odd was that of Gayle, whose century in the crunch one-dayer against England took his team through to the NatWest Series final. Jonathan Ellis was vocal in his support: “I’m surprised that, in the one-day team, nobody mentioned Chris Gayle. He’s a better batsman than Yuvraj Singh, and a far better bowler, and what’s more, he’s an opener.”Then there was an appeal for Andrew Flintoff, whose recent performances have won him many followers. Adrian Nung dissed Vaughan and said, “Flintoff is the only Englishman who can definitely make a World XI.”A matter of bias
The presence of numerous Indians and Englishmen in the Test and one-day sides didn’t sit well with many readers. Of the 22 selections made, 11 came from the two countries. Fahad Fazli sensed “an Indian connection”, while Abid Butt demanded to know the nationality of the 22 selectors. Sonam Tenduf-La asked if it was “right to assume that a lot of the selectors were Indian?”Clueless selectors
And finally, after going through reams of complaints/suggestions/anger, we came across a question posed by Romil Kothari. “What do you do,” he asks, “if your most-voted player, Murali, chooses not to go to Australia?”What you do, Romil, is retire from the selection panel and stick to writing.

The Sri Lankan selectors will pick a 15-man Under-19 squad for the tour of England next month. The initial list of 100 players has been pruned down to 30, from which 15 will finally be chosen.Lalith Kaluperuma, the chairman of selectors, said that the squad picked for the England tour will also be eligible to play in the under-19 World Cup which will be hosted by Sri Lanka next year. The under-19 side will play three Tests at Shenley, Scarborough and Headingley and three one-day matches at Worcester and Old Trafford. The one-day series starts on July 26, while the first Test begins on August 3.

The South African Cricket Board are understood to have sought an assurance from the BCCI that no police action will be initiated against Herschelle Gibbs and Nicky Boje for their alleged involvement in pending matchfixing cases when they tour India later this year, reports The Khaleej Times. The Delhi police, at the forefront of matchfixing investigations which began in 2000, have maintained all along that they would like to interrogate Gibbs and Boje if they got the chance.The two cricketers in question were frequently cited by investigating officers along with Hansie Cronje, back in 2000. That investigation by the Delhi police eventually led to Cronje’s startling admission of guilt in front of the King Commission in South Africa.The United Cricket Board of South Africa has been in touch with their Indian counterparts regarding this matter. Maobi Litheko, a spokesman for the South African board said that BCCI officials had undertaken to raise the matter with the Indian government. At the moment, no response has been received.South Africa are in India only for a short duration, a total of 18 days, and play seven one-dayers but no Tests. In contrast Australia are scheduled to tour India for a Tests-only series. They play a four-Test series before the South Africans arrive and it is as yet unclear where the Tests will be staged. Delhi and Kanpur are two venues that should get Tests according to the BCCI’s rotation policy, but there is a chance that neither ground will be ready in time, says the report.

Zimbabwe’s first black Test cricketer, Henry Olonga, is to join a campaign aimed at stopping New Zealand’s cricket tour of his homeland, according to Rod Donald, co-leader of the Greens Party. Olonga fled Zimbabwe in 2003 after wearing a black armband during a World Cup match to mourn what he called the death of democracy in his country.Donald said he would take Olonga on a speaking tour to “turn up the heat” on thegovernment. “We want Henry to give the government, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) and the people, the message loud and clear that the Black Caps should not be touring Zimbabwe,” he said. “The Government should be doing everything in its power to get the Black Caps offthe hook, and needs to match its tough talk with decisive action.”The government’s position is that it does not want the team to tour, but will not stop it because that would need legislation authorising the removal of passports. Foreign Minister Phil Goff last week announced a diplomatic offensive against all sporting contacts with Zimbabwe, and is urging the International Cricket Council to waive financial penalties that would be imposed if the tour does not go ahead.Goff has said the government will refuse to issue visas to the Zimbabwe team for areturn tour to New Zealand scheduled in December. NZC’s chief executive Martin Snedden said his association has no alternative but to go on tour or face crippling fines believed to be at least US$2million.Donald drafted a bill that would allow the government to stop the tour, but it hasbeen vetoed on the grounds that it would cut across New Zealand’s human rightslaws. He said: “We hope Henry’s visit will lead to public pressure increasing on the Government to stop the tour.”The Greens are bringing Olonga to New Zealand, and he will speak at public meetingsin Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland in the coming week. President Mugabe’s order to destroy thousands of homes and businesses triggered the Green’s protest.

Ray Jennings and the South African team he coaches may arrive in India with the motto “Love and care”, but they will leave few stones unturned as they bid to become the first side in modern times to win back-to-back Test series on Indian soil. “It’s funny what you can do when there’s love and care around,” said Jennings, quoted in . According to him, the players’ love for the game and care for their performances would dictate their fortunes in India.Graeme Smith, the captain, was also full of confidence after his squad spent five days at the High Performance Centre over the past week. “We know there are sceptics out there who don’t think this team are capable of performing well,” he said. “We know we have a young side and most of the squad have never been to India, but we’re looking forward to the challenge. There are guys here who want to become heroes.”Smith is one of 10 players in the squad who have never played in India, and he can expect a barrage of questions about the absence of Herschelle Gibbs and Nicky Boje, both of whom were unavailable to tour after the Delhi Police failed to guarantee that they wouldn’t be subjected to questioning in connection with the match-fixing scandal that overshadowed South Africa’s last trip to India.”I don’t want to be protected from anything we have to face in India,” said Smith. “We want to go over there and experience the culture and embrace as much of the place as we can.”The inexperience in Indian conditions didn’t worry Jennings either. “The lack of experience in this side does not scare me. If the public and the media are writing us off that’s okay too, because it’s up to us to prove everyone wrong.South Africa’s News24 website had more fighting talk from Jennings. “Nothing and no-one will get in the way of my players and an opportunity to be successful in India,” he was quoted as saying. “If doors are closed, I will kick them open. Nothing must stop the process to bring about energy into South Africa’s cricket.”Jennings promised that he would have no time for those who shied away from what is perhaps the harshest experience in Test cricket. “We are ready for the challenge,” he said. “The hotter it becomes, the more pleased we will be.”We want to bring the message across to as many people as possible that we are going to fight fire with fire on the tour to India and we will not stand back one centimetre.”Smith echoed that fighting talk ahead of the team’s departure when he said, “I play to win – if it is beach cricket, a club match or anything else. To win is all. We are going to India with a well thought-out gameplan. Obviously I do not want to say too much about it, but our strategy has been carefully worked out and I think we have a plan to beat India.”He admitted that there would be leaves taken out of the Australian book, after the world champions succeeded in neutralising the considerable threat posed by India’s batting order. “They have a strong batting lineup and that is their strength,” said Smith. “They do not like to be curtailed in front of their own supporters and they like to score runs quickly. One of our plans is to stop them making runs and make it as difficult as possible for them to keep the scoreboard ticking over. We can force them to make mistakes by frustrating them.”And if he needs further tips on that, a phone call to his old pals, McGrath and Gillespie, might do the trick.