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  Aug 26, 2001 Cricket | Feedback




Asian Test Championship

Twenty-year old left-handed opener Taufiq Umer hit 113 on the second day of the three-day side game for the Pakistan Cricket Board XI against the touring Bangladesh at Karachi yesterday. The home team made 268-7 declared in reply to Bangladesh's first innings total of 161. At close Bangladesh were 30-1, still needing another 77 runs to avoid an innings defeat.

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Wasim AkramWasim Akram has been recalled for the first Asian Test Championship (ATC) game against Bangladesh in Multan, which begins on Wednesday. Two uncapped players - batsmen Taufiq Umer and Naveed Latif are also included in the side. However missing from the side are offie Saqlain Mushtaq and hard-hitting batsman Shahid Afridi as they are still playing county cricket in England for Surrey and Liecestershire respectively. Saqlain will be replaced by leg-spinner Danish Kaneria.

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Meanwhile the Pakistan chairman of selectors Wasim Bari yesterday clarified that Saqlain Mushtaq's non-availability has nothing to do with his engagements with the English county Surrey, but due to some personal work in England.

India in Sri Lanka

A superb unbeaten 98 by skipper Sourav Ganguly enabled India to win the second Test at Kandy quite comfortably by seven wickets just before tea on the fourth day. Set a target of 264 to win on a wearing pitch, the visitors made light of their target to square the three match series one all. The final Test begins at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo on Wednesday. Incidentally, this was the second highest score made by India in the fourth innings to win a Test match. The highest is the record 406-4 it made against West Indies at Port of Spain in April 1976.

Australia in England

Shane WarneEngland reached 409-8 at close on the third day of the final Ashes Test at the Oval. However the home team still need 33 runs to avoid the follow-on. Mark Ramprakash is still unbeaten on 124 at close. He and Darren Gough have so far added 59 unbeaten runs for the eighth wicket. Earlier Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne became the sixth bowler in Test history to claim 400 wickets, when had Alec Stewart caught behind. He then claimed his 401st wicket off his very next ball when he had Caddick - lbw. But debutant James Ormond survived the hat-trick ball. Warne has claimed six English wickets.

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Pakistani ICC match referee Talat Ali has fined Alec Stewart 20% of his match fee for showing dissent to umpire Peter Willey following his dismissal in the final Test at the Oval. The England keeper-batsman stood his ground believing he was not out after being caught behind off the bowling of Shane Warne.

Miscellaneous

Former opening batsman Geoff Marsh will replace fellow Australian Carl Rackemann as coach of the Zimbabwe national team. Marsh has agreed to coach the team until the end of September 2003, with an option to extend the contract for another year. Marsh will work alongside Rackemann during the one-day series against England in October, before taking over the job. Marsh had coached world champions Australia from 1996 to 1999. He guided the team to victory in the World Cup in England in his final year before resigning the post.

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It seems England pace bowler Darren Gough wants to skip the first part of the tour to India for the three-match Test series to be played before Christmas. He feels such a break would prolong his international career. With the England team to be announced next week, the ECB is trying to persuade Gough to change his mind.

BCCI News

The BCCI's working committee, which met at Mumbai, on Saturday has decided to accept the invitation of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to take part in a triangular series in January, 2002, which also features arch rivals Pakistan. Interestingly, this decision comes a few days after the government's refusal to allow the Indian team from playing against Pakistan in Lahore in the forthcoming Asian Test championship.

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Meanwhile, the working committee has also approved the itineraries for the England and Zimababwe tours to India. England will play three three-day games (at Mumbai or Pune, Hyderabad and Jaipur or Jodhpur), three Tests (Mohali, Ahmedabad and Bangalore) and five one-day internationals (Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Kanpur). The two Tests against Zimbabwe will be played in Delhi and Nagpur and the one-day internationals in Faridabad, Mohali, Guwahati, Cochin and Hyderabad.

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The BCCI's working committee yesterday approved a contract system for the top 20 Indian players. However this approval has to be ratified by the general body on September 29 at the AGM.
The players will be graded into three groups - A, B and C - and will be awarded a yearly contract initially. These players will get a guaranteed lump sum, which will include the logo fees too, even if they are out of the team through injury, while those who are able to play a match will get this amount plus the match fees.
For example, a senior player like Tendulkar who has played 84 Tests and over 250 one-day internationals is likely to earn Rs. 1.75 crores should he play 10 Tests and 40 one-day internationals in a year under this new payment system, while a category C player will receive at least Rs. 35 lakhs. Leg spinner Anil Kumble, out of the team due to his injured shoulder for almost a year now, was invited to present the players' point of view at the meeting.

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The working committee has also approved of an increase in the match fees of players at the domestic level. The players will now get Rs 10,000 (Ranji Trophy league) Rs 12,000 (Ranji pre-quarter-finals and quarter-finals) and Rs 15,000 (Ranji semi-final and final).
The players will receive Rs 12,000 for a Duleep trophy match, Rs 10,000 for Deodhar Trophy, Rs 15,000 for taking part in the Irani Cup and Rs 5,000 for one-day tournaments like the sponsors trophy (formerly Wills trophy) and Challenger Trophy.

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The chairman of the BCCI's Technical Committee Sunil Gavaskar spent one hour during the working committee meeting explaining to the members the advantages of the multi-tier system in the Ranji Trophy. Should the proposal be approved at the AGM, ten teams (two teams from each zone) will play for the Ranji Trophy and seventeen teams, split into two groups will play for a `Ranji Plate'.
This will be from the 2002- 2203 season. However according to a very senior member of the BCCI, this proposal is unlikely to be ratified at the AGM, since majority of the members are against the proposal.

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The Working Committee has also decided to serve show cause notice to the Goa Cricket Association (GCA) for its alleged malpractice during the India - Australia one-day international on April 6.
The BCCI will serve the notice after it receives a report from a senior official who will be visiting the centre next week.

Brief Scores:

Sri Lanka v India (2nd Test)
at Kandy (4th day)
Toss: India
Sri Lanka: 274 (M Atapattu 39, M Jayawardene 104, C Vaas 42 not out; Zaheer Khan 3-62)
221 (M Atapattu 45, M Muralitharan 67; Zaheer Khan 4-76, V Prasad 5-72)
India: 232 (S Ramesh 47, Harbhajan Singh 44, S Dighe 28; C Vaas 4-65)
264-3 (R Dravid 75, S Ganguly 98 not out)
Result: India won by seven wickets (Series tied at one all)
Man of the match: SC Ganguly (Ind)

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England v Australia (5th Test)
at Oval, London (3rd day)
Toss: Australia
Australia: 641-4 decl (M Hayden 68, J Langer 102 retd hurt, R Ponting 62, M Waugh 120, S Waugh 157 not out, D Martyn 62 not out)
England: 409-8 (M Trescothick 55 not out, N Hussain 52, U Afzaal 54, M Ramprakash 124 not out; S Warne 6-155)

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   Compiled by: Mohandas Menon        Design: Imran Shaikh
Compiled by: Mohandas Menon