Pakistan to step up efforts to find new cricket coach

KARACHI: A committee that includes former Pakistan captains Intikhab Alam and Zaheer Abbas, which was formed by the country’s cricket chiefs to find a new coach for the national team, will meet for the first time in Lahore on Thursday.The committee that also includes former Test wicketkeeper Col (retd) Naushad Ali will meet at the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) headquarters in a bid to hammer out details of its future course of action.Intikhab Alam, who heads the committee, told Arab News on Tuesday that in the initial meeting he and fellow committee members will decide as to how to tackle the issue of finding the best available coach for Pakistan.“We will sit down on Thursday and decide our future course of action,” said Intikhab, who was removed as Pakistan’s coach following the calamitous tour of Australia in 2009-10. “We have to find the best possible person for what is a very important job and will make all out efforts to achieve that target,” he added.Intikhab, who served as Pakistan’s manager till this summer’s tour of the Caribbean, made it clear that the committee, which will be ‘assisted’ by former Pakistan Test opener Ramiz Raja, is in no hurry and will take its time before making its recommendations to the PCB.“We have not been given any time frame to find a new coach,” said Intikhab.“We will be keeping our options open,” he remarked. “The idea is to search for a suitable both at home and abroad and that’s what we are going to do over the coming weeks,” he added.Intikhab said that the PCB would soon be posting advertisements both at home and abroad in its search for a new coach.“I will only be able to give more details about this issue after our meeting on Thursday,” he said.Late last month, the PCB decided to give the task to find a new coach to the former stalwarts, just days after Waqar Younis announced that he would step down as Pakistan coach after the ongoing tour of Zimbabwe. Just before leaving for Zimbabwe last week, Waqar dropped a bombshell when he announced his decision to quit as national coach because of ‘health reasons’A former Test fast bowler, Waqar took over as Pakistan’s head coach in March 2010. Some believe he did a good job while others blame him for the premature retirement of Shahid Afridi, the former Pakistan captain. Afridi decided to quit after falling out with Waqar and later with PCB bosses following the tour of West Indies early this summer.Though Intikhab made it clear that the committee is yet to discuss the issue, it is believed that some of the coaches on PCB’s short-list include former Sri Lanka coach Dave Whatmore, South Africa’s Mickey Arthur and the home-grown Aaqib Javed, who served as Waqar’s assistant before being detached from the team ahead of the tour of Zimbabwe.

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Progressive Steps in Pakistan Domestic Cricket

Pakistan is known nation for the cricket, very capable and extremely professional inborn cricketers are the possession of Pakistan. Getting acknowledged after 17 long years is a simple sign of the presentation of the Pakistan cricket team in past few years. Though the cricket-crazy people have handled to discover extremely brilliant players, the national squad has failed to generate positive outcome on a constant base.The difficulty and the issue regarding the failure of Pakistan’s cricket, according to several cricket legends, can be recognized to be due to shortage of appropriate cricketing infrastructure in the country. No proper reforms or the training sessions that could be held, and have been there in the past years, were lacking this time.The Quaid-e-Azam trophy, the most prominent domestic game in Pakistan, segregate 22 teams into two cluster, one consist of sectors and the second one consist of regional teams.That depicts the excellence and competitiveness of Pakistan cricket. Imran Khan Pakistan’s most victorious and credited captain, consider that the country must integrate into 6 teams rather than 22 team in its domestic formation to make definite that high quality cricket is observed foremost to enhanced performances on the international grounds. Pakistan should work on quality rather than quantity.Pakistan Cricket Board cannot act in void to the country’s fiscal crisis and dropping the number of teams in the domestic competitions will add to the level of redundancy as the majority of the cricketers do not have ability to become dynamic members of the personnel if they are not playing cricket. They need to be polished before launching on the international grounds.One more quandary that PCB is facing downfall in the domestic cricket in Pakistan is the short of subsidy, which leads to the unsatisfactory amenities and revenue for the players that are putting in efforts. After carefully examining the domestic structure, PCB has taken positive steps to promote the domestic cricket and to look upon there issues and solve them for the better performances of the cricketers.Pakistan has been manufacturing unbeatable players like the Akmal brothers and Mohammad Aamer that shows how much potential Pakistan has to surprise the cricketing world. The PCB has taken action to cure the mess and problems it finds itself in currently and has brought drastic change in the cricket world of Pakistan.Pakistan Cricket Board Website: http://www.pcb.com.pk

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My passion for cricket has faded: Inzamam

LAHORE: Former Pakistan captain Inzamamul Haq has lost interest for the game he once ruled in, admitting that he is not an ardent follower of the sport anymore.Inzamam, who retired in 2007, is an integral part of Pakistan’s cricket history, being the second-highest run-scorer in Tests for the country. But now one rarely finds the former batsman giving his views on cricketing matters and the performance of the national team.“I’m not the kind of person who loves to criticise the Pakistan Cricket Board or any other individual in the media,” Inzamam told The Express Tribune. “I’m retired now and busy managing my construction business so I don’t normally follow cricket anymore. My passion for the game has faded to some extent.Inzamam also admitted that he does not enjoy following the national team’s progress.“If Pakistan is playing Zimbabwe nowadays, what interest can I have in following the team’s fortunes?” questioned Inzamam. “I don’t know much about the Zimbabwe team, plus we have so many new faces whom I don’t know that I don’t see any point in commenting upon their performances.One finds several former Pakistan players who retired during the last decade still attached to the game in some form or the other. However, Inzamam feels no desire to be part of the sport in any capacity“I’m least interested in finding any role in cricket at any level. I have already served Pakistan cricket a lot. This does not mean I have entirely ruled out any future association with cricket but right now due to my personal circumstances I’m not looking for any cricket-related role.”

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Mention Kevin Pietersen to a South African and you will likely be met with a snarl and a snide remark. The latter could contain an acidic word like "traitor" to match the personality the batsman first displayed when he qualified for England. Mention Imran Tahir to a Pakistani and the reaction is quite different.

Mention Kevin Pietersen to a South African and you will likely be met with a snarl and a snide remark. The latter could contain an acidic word like "traitor" to match the personality the batsman first displayed when he qualified for England. Mention Imran Tahir to a Pakistani and the reaction is quite different."Oh yes!" Adnan Akmal, Pakistan wicket-keeper and the second of the three Akmal brothers said in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, when asked if he had fond memories of Tahir."We grew up together. Actually he and my brother Kamran were really good friends."Tahir grew up in Lahore, with the Akmals as his playmates. He played provincial cricket with seamer Aizaz Cheema, who made his debut with eight wickets for Pakistan during the recently completed test victory over Zimbabwe, and said Tahir's finest quality is how much he "enjoys his cricket".Even Pakistan coach Waqar Younis had a kind word for Tahir, calling him a "fighterPerhaps Pakistan are not all that affected by Tahir's departure because of the depth of their spin department. Saeed Ajmal, with his unreadable doosra, is rated second best in the world behind Graeme Swann. Offspinner Mohammad Hafeez is destructive with the new and old ball and talented left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman and legspinner Yasir Shah have started to nail down national spots.Pakistan's small loss has been South Africa's massive gain. It has taken the country so long to find a world-class tweaker that many of the same South Africans who sulked when Pietersen swopped one nationality for another were only too chuffed when Tahir did the same. It would not have mattered if he arrived from the moon, he would still have been welcomed like a messiah.So far, he has lived up to his reputation. His 14 wickets at the World Cup are supposedly just the entrée and he is expected to dish up ladles of trouble for batsmen in future seasons, particularly on the test platter. That he is an automatic pick for the five tests this summer means a change of mindset has to take place in South African cricket, from the team to the groundsmen, who will have to prepare pitches that can accommodate a spinner for the first time.It will be a juggle, between ensuring Tahir has something to work with and not handing the opposition an advantage. Both Australia and Sri Lanka bring with them interesting prospects. Young Nathan Lyon, who took six wickets in his debut test against Sri Lanka, is the latest spinner being touted to replace Shane Warne, while Sri Lanka's attack is bolstered by mystery man Ajantha Mendis.South African summers have rarely been underlined by spin, but this season could be different. As most of the current Pakistan team will testify, Tahir is a match-winner who should be looked after. They know it is no fault of Pakistan Cricket they were unable to hold onto him because, as Adnan said: "He married a South African woman so he must do well there now.South Africans will agree.

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Galle Test against Lanka 'a match to remember for a number of reasons': Watson

Australia vice-captain Shane Watson has said that the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle will be a match that the Michael Clarke-led team will remember for a long time for a number of reasons."Trent Copeland who was on debut, got a wicket in his first over and bowled very well throughout the whole Test. Nathan Lyon managed to get a wicket with his first ball in Test cricket, getting out the very dangerous Kumar Sangakarra. He then went on to get a five-wicket haul on debut, to become the ninth Australian spinner accomplish this feat," Watson wrote in an article for Fox Sports."This Test was also Michael Clarke's first win as an Australian captain and he made an extremely valuable 60 in our second innings. Michael Hussey showed his class to receive the man of the match with his beautifully crafted 95 in our first innings. And Ryan Harris finished off our win with his second five-wicket haul in Tests," he added.He also highlighted how the win meant Ricky Ponting brought up his 100th Test Match win for Australia."What an amazing achievement for Ricky!" he said.The 30-year-old now hopes that the second Test will be another one for the team to remember."We know that the Sri Lankan team are going to regroup very quickly after our win in Galle. But if we play as well as we did during the first Test, we are going to give ourselves a great chance of wrapping up the series in Kandy he added.The second Test of the three-match series will begin in Kandy on Thursday.

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CSA congratulates five cricketers of the year

CRICKET SOUTH AFRICA (CSA) has extended warm congratulations to the five Cricketers of the Year honoured in the 2011 edition of the South African Cricket Annual which was released in Johannesburg on Tuesday.Four of the players - Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, Colin Ingram and Robin Peterson - were members of the Proteas' ODI squad that competed at the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup on the sub-continent.The fifth, Zander de Bruyn, has been a standout performer for the bizhub Highveld Lions for a number of seasons. He represented the Proteas in three Test matches against India and England in the 2004/05 season."The five players are extremely well deserving of this recognition," commented CSA CEO Gerald Majola. "And, without going into all their individual achievements, I believe the entire nation was thrilled by the manner in which Robin and Imran brought spin bowling to the forefront of our game. Both Faf and Colin are just starting out on their international careers and have shown outstanding promise so far."Colin's performance in scoring a century on his ODI debut was magnificent as was his follow up century against Pakistan three innings later The SA Cricket Annual is an indispensable record of the activities of South African cricket at all levels and, although I have not had the opportunity to read it as yet, I am sure it has once again maintained the standard of being one of the best publications of its type in the world."

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Zaheer Abbas willing to replace Waqar as Pakistan coach

Former Pakistan captain Zaheer Abbas has said that he is ready to replace Waqar Younis when he resigns as the coach of the national team after the ongoing tour of Zimbabwe.Abbas, a member of the three-man committee formed by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to find a suitable candidate for the coach role, said: "If the PCB needs me I'll be available for the job."Abbas also stressed on the need for a batting coach for the team."We're still struggling in the batting department. We need a batsman to become the coach so the players can learn from him," the Express Tribune quoted Abbas, as saying.He further said that he agreed to become a member of the committee after being asked by PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt.

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England win toss, put India into bat in 2nd ODI

SOUTHAMPTON: England won the toss and put India in to bat in the shortened second one-day international here at the Rose Bowl on Tuesday.The match was reduced to 23 overs a side after rain delayed the start by five hours from the planned 2pm local time.England brought in Ravi Bopara for the injured Eoin Morgan - who will miss the rest of the series with a shoulder injury - and Graeme Swann returned after missing the first match at Durham with a virus. With the match reduced to a near Twenty20 format Jonathan Trott was left out. India made one change with Manoj Tiwary replacing Rohit Sharma who broke his hand on Saturday when he was hit by the first ball he faced from Stuart Broad. Sharma was the eighth Indian player to leave the tour which has seen them beaten 4-0 in the Test series and Sachin Tendulkar stranded on 99 international centuries after aggravating an old toe injury. The series stands at 0-0 after the first match was declared a no result - again because of rain. TeamsEngland: Alastair Cook (captain), Craig Kieswetter (wkt), Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Ben Stokes, Samit Patel, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Jade DernbachIndia: MS Dhoni (captain, wk), Parthiv Patel, Ajinka Rahane, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, Manoj Tiwary, Suresh Raina, Pravin Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin, R Vinay Kumar, Munaf PatelUmpires: Billy Doctrove (WI) and Rob Bailey (ENG), 3rd umpire: Marais Erasmus (SA) Fourth umpire: Richard Illingworth (ENG) Match Referee: Jeff Crowe (NZ)The World Champion 2011 World Cup India Face To England Shanwatson Say This Match Has been Draw Butt This Is Not India This Is England And Team InForm
Tour Start India 2011

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ENGLAND  VS  INDIA 1st  TEST     England Won

ENGLAND  VS  INDIA 2nd TEST     England Won

ENGLAND  VS  INDIA 3rd  TEST    England Won

ENGLAND  VS  INDIA 4th  TEST    England Won

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 World champions in T20 2007 India and 2010 England

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ENGLAND  VS  INDIA  1st T20       England Won

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2 Time World cup Champions India butt england not be 1 World Cup

ENGLAND  VS  INDIA  1st   ODI,s    Draw                 

ENGLAND  VS  INDIA  2nd  ODI,s   England Won

ENGLAND  VS  INDIA  3rd  ODI,s   To be Play

ENGLAND  VS  INDIA  4th  ODI,s   To be Play

ENGLAND  VS  INDIA  5th  ODI,s   To be Play

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Watson, Herath, Harris, Hafeez, Misbah and Saeed achieve personal landmarks

Australia's Shane Watson and Ryan Harris, Rangana Herath of Sri Lanka and Pakistan's Mohammad Hafeez and Misbah-ul-Haq have achieved career-best rankings in the latest Reliance ICC Test Rankings which were released after the Bulawayo Test.Watson scored 22 and 0 in Australia's 125-run victory over Sri Lanka in the first Test in Galle and has dropped out of the top 20 in the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen. However, his match figures of 5-30 have earned him career-best rankings in the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers and all-rounders.While Watson has climbed 14 places to claim 22nd position in the bowlers chart, his 3-11 and 2-19 combined with his batting performances have given him a lift of three places in the all-rounders' list which has put him in second position behind South Africa's Jacques Kallis.Watson is not the only Australia bowler to head in the right direction after the Galle Test. Harris, who took 0-6 and 5-62, has jumped seven places to claim 31st position while off-spinner Nathan Lyon has entered in 68th spot after figures of 5-34 and 1-73 in his debut Test.However, Mitchell Johnson has slipped behind India's Zaheer Khan in seventh spot after managing to take two wickets in the Test.Sri Lanka bowlers, led by spinner Rangana Herath, have also improved their rankings despite ending up on the losing side.Herath, who had figures of 3-54 and 5-79, has moved into 17th position for the first time in his career after rising five places while Chanaka Welegedara is in 57th (up by one place), Suranga Lakmal in 59th (up by four places) and captain Tillekeratne Dilshan in 60th (up by three places).In the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen, England's Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell have jointly claimed second position after Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara slipped three places to fifth position after scoring only 10 and 17 in the recently completed Test.The other Sri Lanka batsmen dropping in the latest table are Thilan Samaraweera in 13th (down by four places) and Dilshan in 29th (down by two places).However, Mahela Jayawardena's second innings effort of 105 has helped him move up four places to 14th position while Australia batsmen making upward movements include Mike Hussey in 11th (up by two places), Michael Clarke in 25th (up by three places) and Phil Hughes in 49th (up by one place).Pakistan's victory by seven wickets in Zimbabwe, which gave it consecutive Test wins for the first time since 2005 following its series-levelling victory against the West Indies in Basseterre, has also brought some good news for its players.Mohammad Hafeez, who was adjudged player of the match for his 119 and 38 with the bat and 4-31 with the ball in the home side's second innings, has moved up 23 places to 65th position in the batting table while he has achieved career-best rankings of 55th and 26th in the bowlers and all-rounders' categories, respectively.Saeed Ajmal, who bagged 4-143 and 2-53, has moved up four places to a career-best 23rd position while fast bowler Aizaz Cheema has entered in 50th position after recording match figures of 8-103.For Zimbabwe, Chris Mpofu has moved up four places to 66th spot, left-arm spinner Ray Price has been rewarded for his four wickets in the match with a leap of 31 places which has put him in 70th spot, Kyle Jarvis is in 78th spot after his 2-96 and off-spinner Greg Lamb, who took 3-120 in the first innings, has entered in 30th position.The player rankings will now be updated after the second Test between Sri Lanka and Australia which starts on Thursday in Pallekele while the Test Championship table will be updated after the conclusion of the third and last Test between the two sides which starts in Colombo on 16 September.

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Anisa Mohammed becomes highest-ranked West Indies women's team's bowler

West Indies :  off-spinner Anisa Mohammed has become the highest-ranked bowler of her country in the Reliance ICC Women's ODI Rankings for bowlers after a successful series against Pakistan women's team which her side by 3-1.Mohammed finished as the most successful bowler in the series with 14 wickets which gave her a jump of four places and put her one spot ahead of Stafanie Taylor in fifth position.Mohammed's team-mate Shanel Daley and Pakistan's pair of Sadia Yousuf and Nida Dar are the other bowlers to make a real impact in the latest rankings. Daley has jumped 13 places to 28th position after claiming seven wickets in the series, Sadia has moved into 54th spot after rising 12 places following her six wickets while Nida Dar has been rewarded for her nine wickets with a jump of 14 places which has placed her in 57th position.In the Reliance ICC Women's ODI Rankings for batters, West Indies captain Merissa Aguilleira has rocketed 24 places to 22nd spot after finishing as the leading run-getter with 106 runs. However, Deandra Dottin has slipped two places to 16th spot but Daley has gained four places following her series contribution of 82 runs.For Pakistan, Javeria Khan has climbed two places to 28th spot while Bismah Maroof is in 44th position after rising six places.The batting table is led by India's Mithali Raj while ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year nominee Stafanie Taylor of the West Indies is second. Taylor had a disappointing series by her high standards when she could manage only 55 runs in four matches.For information relating to the latest Reliance ICC Test Player Rankings, please click here

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Shakib, Tamim relieved of their posts

DHAKA : The Bangladesh Cricket Board sacked national team captain Shakib Al Hasan and vice-captain Tamim Iqbal on Monday following the squad's unsuccessful tour of Zimbabwe."Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal have been relieved of captaincy and vice-captaincy as their leadership was not satisfactory," Jalal Yunus, BCB media director, told AFP."They failed to lead the side during the tour. There are reports of indiscipline against Shakib. In certain areas, Tamim breached discipline. He argued with the head coach.Bangladesh were defeated in their only Test match against Zimbabwe and then lost the five-match one-day series 3-2 Yunus said a new captain would be named before the West Indies tour of Bangladesh in October.Shakib, 24, and Tamim, 22, are the best Bangladesh cricket players to have emerged on the international scene, winning Wisden cricket magazine's international player of the year in 2009 and 2010 respectively.Left-arm spinner cum batsman Shakib was named regular captain of Bangladesh in November last year after he led the cricketing minnows to a 4-0 one-day whitewash of New Zealand as a stand-in captain.In the same role, he also led the side to a 2-0 Test clean sweep against the West Indies in 2009.Shakib, one of the world's leading all-rounders, and Tamim have also played in English county cricket games.Bangladesh hosts the West Indies in two Tests and three one-day International matches in its next assignment in October.

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