Road seems to be cleared for Malik to regain place in team

LAHORE: There are strong chances that all-rounder Shoaib Malik is likely to regain his place in the Pakistan team as the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) integrity committee has summoned him on Aug 15 to defend himself in connection with the charges levelled against him which led to his ouster from the national squad.

Dawn learnt on Saturday that the name of the all-rounder was included in the standbys list after the PCB convened its integrity committee meeting.

Also, the integrity committee has summoned leg-spinner Danish Kaneria on Aug 15. He will have to submit the opinion of his British lawyer before the committee on the order of the Sindh High Court which will hold hearing of the case on Aug 18.

On the other hand, Malik will have to give a clear reply about the transaction of a large amount of money transferred into his account in a foreign bank.

However, it seems the road has almost been cleared for Malik to be part of the national team in the near future.

First, Malik’s name was included in the standbys list considered by many as a big favour then the integrity committee called its meeting on Aug 15, a day before the national training camp begins here to prepare the team for the tour of Zimbabwe, starting from Aug 26.

Sources said Malik is likely to regain his place in the national side because the team needs an experienced all-rounder, especially, against strong opponents like Sri Lanka and England, who will meet Pakistan after the series of Zimbabwe.

Broad inspires England again with hat-trick

NOTTINGHAM, England: Stuart Broad inspired an England fightback for the second day in a row on Saturday by taking the first test hat-trick at his home ground of Trent Bridge to drag England back into the second test against India.

Broad, who rescued the England first innings on Friday with 64 from 66 balls, took five wickets for no runs in 15 balls to finish with a test best of six for 46 from 24.1 overs.

At the close of the second day England were 24 for one in their second innings, an overall deficit of 43, after dismissing India for 288.

Broad’s heroics, after India were cruising at 267 for four, overshadowed an immaculate century by Indian makeshift opener Rahul Dravid, who made 117 in 370 minutes at the crease.

He was dismissed, caught at third man off Tim Bresnan, after the hat-trick attempting to force the pace.

The England all-rounder’s latest effort with the ball sparked memories of another dynamic England all-rounder Ian Botham, whose exploits helped win the Ashes in 1981. Fittingly on the 30th anniversary of that series Broad bettered Botham’s five wickets for one at Edgbaston.

For the hat-trick Broad took the wickets of India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (5), Harbhajan Singh (0) and Praveen Kumar (0).

Dhoni was caught at second slip for five, Harbhajan was lbw first ball though his reaction suggested an incorrect decision from umpire Marais Erasmus, which was confirmed by replays that showed an inside edge on to his pad.

Broad then scattered Kumar’s stumps next ball. Ryan Sidebottom was the last England bowler to claim three wickets in as many balls in a test, against New Zealand in 2008.

The one negative for England in an otherwise perfect evening session was the loss of opener Cook who was caught at point for five off Ishant Sharma.

Another low, after lunch, was the injury sustained by batsman Jonathan Trott, though scans revealed no bone damage to his left shoulder after a freak fielding accident, when diving to stop the ball.

BRIGHT START 

India had started the morning brightly as VVS Laxman (54) and Dravid put on 93 for the second wicket. Laxman was caught behind off Bresnan, while Sachin Tendulkar, bidding for a century of international hundreds, fell to the first over after lunch for 16 when he edged an attempted square cut off Broad.

England might have applied the pressure much earlier if Kevin Pietersen had held a catch in the gully off Broad from Yuvraj when on four. He went on to score 62.

“That was my third hat-trick and the first since Oakham School under-15s but I don’t remember the atmosphere being quite as good that day,” Broad told reporters.

“It was nice to do it on my home ground. When you have got all your family and friends at the match it makes it extra special.

“There is a lot of positive talk in our changing room. We knew we needed a huge effort to come back though we probably didn’t expect to bowl them out.

“We are still behind in the game and we need one of our batsmen to get a hundred to set us up.”

Dravid said England had bowled very well for most of the time.

“That was one of my better hundreds as batting was difficult,” he said. “It was disappointing to finish 288 all out after we were 267 for four. It’s still even stevens in the game and we need to bowl as well in the second innings as we did in the first.”

England lead the four-match series 1-0 after winning at Lord’s by 196 runs.

Pakistan announce squad for Zimbabwe tour

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday named Misbah-ul-Haq as captain for the test, one-day and Twenty20 teams against Zimbabwe.

The selectors also picked three uncapped players – middle-order batsman Ramiz Raja, legspinner Yasir Shah and fast bowler Aizaz Cheema – in a 16-member squad.

Chief selector Mohsin Khan said senior players Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz and Abdur Rehman have been rested for the tour of Zimbabwe in September during which Pakistan plays one test match, three ODIs and two Twenty20 games.

“We have to bring in young players along with seniors so that they could be groomed,” Khan said.

Left-arm fast bowler Sohail Tanvir, wicketkeeper Adnan Akmal and opening batsman Imran Farhat, who all missed the series against West Indies, have been recalled.

Shoaib Malik was named among six standby players, but Khan said the former captain has to get clearance from the Pakistan Cricket Board’s integrity committee.

Malik had been sidelined since playing his last test against England in August 2010 and was reportedly asked to submit details of bank accounts and assets from the last three years to the integrity committee.

“We will welcome any player if he gets clearance from the PCB and performs well in the domestic first class competitions,” Khan said.

“If Malik gets clearance we will welcome him.”

Left-arm fast bowler Tanvir impressed with his fitness and form during Pakistan’s Twenty20 event last month and led Rawalpindi to victory in the final against much experienced Karachi.

Tanvir has not played a test match in four years and had been struggling to regain fitness from his knee surgery which also ruled him out of the World Cup.

Khan said all 16 players had gone through a fitness test before being named for the Zimbabwe tour.

Squad:

Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Mohammad Hafeez, Taufiq Umar, Imran Farhat, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Asad Shafiq, Umar Akmal, Rameez Raja Junior, Adnan Akmal, Saeed Ajmal, Yasir Shah, Sohail Tanveer, Sohail Khan, Junaid Khan, Aizaz Cheema.

Doubts about Kaneria’s integrity remain: PCB

KARACHI: Pakistan test spinner Danish Kaneria will not be considered for national selection until the Pakistan Cricket Board have no remaining doubts about his integrity, the PCB told tbe Sindh High Court hearing (SHC) on Tuesday.

The board’s legal counsel, Tafazzul Rizvi, made the statement at a hearing of the SHC that is hearing a petition filed by Kaneria against the PCB’s refusal to clear him to play international cricket.

Kaneria claims the PCB should not consider him ineligible.

The leg-spinner had his contract terminated by English county Essex last season after he had come under investigation in a spot-fixing case involving a Pro-40 match.

Essex police cleared Kaneria, 30, who submitted letters to the PCB from the International Cricket Council (ICC) and his  county team to prove he was not under investigation.

“Kaneria cannot be considered for selection unless he produces the documents and material related to his questioning by the police last year,” Rizvi told the court after Kaneria asked the court to direct the PCB to consider him for next month’s tour of Zimbabwe.

“I told the court we don’t want to mislead anyone but after the embarassment Pakistan cricket faced last year in the spot-fixing case involving three of our players we are taking no chances at all on this issue,” Rizvi later told Reuters.

Rizvi said he had told the court the PCB had formed its integrity commitee as per the new anti-corruption laws of the ICC and until the player submitted transcript and tapes of the statement he gave to Essex police the commitee would not clear him.

“He was investigated in a spot-fixing case and the committee wants to be absolutely sure he is in the clear once for all,” Rizvi added.

Kaneria, who has taken 261 wickets in 61 tests, last appeared for Pakistan against England in Nottingham in August 2010.

The court set a date of Aug. 18 for the next hearing.

England on top at lunch

LONDON: England captured two wickets in the space of eight balls shortly before lunch on the final day of the first test against India at Lord’s on Monday to move closer to victory in the 2,000th test.

At the interval India, the world number one side who need a world record 458 to win the first match in the four-test series, were 142 for four.

Sachin Tendulkar, who received a standing ovation in what is likely to be his final test at Lord’s, was seven not out at lunch.

Tendulkar, 38, needs one more century to reach an unprecedented 100th international hundreds. He was absent from the field for most of Sunday with a virus infection and batted one place lower than usual at number five.

James Anderson removed the adhesive Rahul Dravid (36) and the prolific Vangipurappu Laxman (56) after India had resumed their second innings on 80 for one. Graeme Swann captured the other wicket to fall, dismissing Gautam Gambhir lbw for 22.

Dravid, who batted for 5-1/2 hours in his unbeaten 103 in India’s first innings, was caught behind by Matt Prior on Monday pushing at a delivery which moved away from the right-hander.

He had been dropped on 35 by Ian Bell off Chris Tremlett after a thick inside edge on to his pad ballooned to short-leg. Bell leaped high and got his fingers to the ball but could not hold on to a difficult chance.

Laxman edged a boundary off Anderson at catchable height between second slip and gully but was otherwise untroubled.

After resuming on 32, he reached 48 when Prior and the England slip cordon went up for what they thought was a catch behind. Captain Andrew Strauss called for a review when umpire Billy Bowden did not react but the replay showed there was a clear gap between bat and ball.

Laxman reached his 53rd test half-century with a leg glance to the boundary, his eighth four, but then played a loose shot to Anderson and was caught by Bell at mid-wicket.

Gambhir, who left the field on Sunday in some pain after he was struck on the elbow at short-leg by a sweep shot from Prior, twice leaned back to cut Swann to the boundary. He was beaten through the air pushing forward to the off-spinner and, although lbws can not be reviewed in this series, there was no dispute about the decision.

Tendulkar, who was applauded all the way as he walked to the crease, was beaten by Anderson’s first ball which snaked in between bat and pad. He turned the fifth delivery deftly to leg to get off the mark with a boundary.

Spectators started queuing from three a.m for the cash-only tickets on sale at the gates and the ground was filled to its 28,500 capacity.

ICC vows to protect test cricket ahead of milestone

LONDON: As England and India get ready to contest what will be the 2,000th Test match ever played, the International Cricket Council has promised to protect the “pinnacle form of the game”.

Next week’s first of a four-match series at Lord’s, the ‘home of cricket’, will also be the 100th Test between England and India and is set to provide India star Sachin Tendulkar with his latest opportunity to become the first batsman to score a hundred international hundreds.

The series also gives England, currently third behind India and South Africa, the chance to leapfrog MS Dhoni’s tourists at the top of the ICC’s world Test rankings should they take the series by a margin of 2-0, 3-1 or better.

However, a 1-0 or 2-1 success for Andrew Strauss’s side would leave India fractionally in front in the rankings.

There have long been fears for the future of Tests, which date back to when Australia played England at Melbourne in 1877, with current concerns based on the rise of Twenty20 — the youngest of cricket’s three international formats.

And while next week’s match at Lord’s is set to be a sell-out, crowds for Test matches elsewhere in the world have often proved patchy compared to those for 50 overs per side one-day internationals and the even briefer Twenty20.

However, ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said the advent of a World Test Championship, scheduled to culminate in an inaugural tournament between the leading nations in England in 2013, would help revive the five-day game.

“As we all prepare to celebrate the staging of the 2,000th Test match, one cannot imagine it to be any better than between two of the top teams in a series that carries with it the battle for top spot in the rankings,” Lorgat said in an ICC statement issued Thursday.

“That is great context, and we will enhance that with the ICC World Test Championship in future.”

And the South African administrator insisted: “Test cricket is the pinnacle form of the game, and we will continue to protect and promote it above all.

“It is our link to the game’s origins; it is what defines greatness and it is recognised by the players as being the benchmark by which they wish to be graded and remembered.

“History has proven that no other form of the game can create memorable and meaningful moments like Test cricket can.”

Amir could face an extension to his ban: source

ISLAMABAD: Banned Pakistan fast-bowler Mohammad Amir faces the possibility of an extension on his suspension after breaching his suspension, sources in the International Cricket Council (ICC) revealed.

Amir breached his ban by playing for Addington 1743, a village team in England, a clear violation of the terms and conditions of his ban, which makes it compulsory for him not to take part in any cricket event sanctioned by the ICC or its affiliate member boards.

“The inquiry being conducted also involves England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Surrey officials along with the players who were involved in the match. The ICC won’t be lenient this time with Amir who was also warned earlier. There’s a strong possibility of extending the ban on him,” the source said.

Commenting on the investigation in this regard, James Fitzgerald, media and communication manager, ICC said, “It’s still ongoing.”

The 19-year-old was previously warned by the ICC after he played a club match in Pakistan.

Amir insisted then, as he has in this case, that he was unaware that the match was sanctioned by a member board.

The bowler is currently banned for five years from all forms of cricket.