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The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will not award annual central contracts to its players until the inquiry report into the team’s dismal performance on their tour of Australia is released. A six-man evaluation committee was set up by the board after Pakistan were thrashed 3-0 in the Test series, 5-0 in the ODIs and beaten in the only Twenty20 match; the report is expected later this month.”We will announce the central contracts only after the submission of the inquiry report so that there is no conflict between the two,” Wasim Bari, PCB’s chief operating officer, told .Incidentally, Bari heads both the evaluation and the three-man central contract committees. The evaluation committee met twice last week and discussed reports from team manager Abdul Raqeeb and coach Intikhab Alam.Mohammad Yousuf, Younus Khan, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal and Salman Butt were among the players who were given an audience. Reports were also heard from assistant coach Aaqib Javed and team physio Faisal Hayat.Bari informed the committee would meet again after the team returns from Dubai, where Pakistan will play two Twenty20 matches against England on February 19 and 20. “Our next meeting will be held after the team returns next week and we are due to submit a final report before February 28,” he said.Last year, annual contracts were awarded to 27 players – nine in the top category A, four in category B and 14 in category C. However, fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar is likely to be overlooked this time around. He holds an A category contract and last featured in a Twenty20 international in May 2009 against Australia in Dubai.Shoaib had been demoted to a special retainership category for players whose form and fitness were in doubt. He refused to take it and instead responded angrily, sparking a sequence which eventually led him to be banned and fined by the board. He missed the bulk of Pakistan’s international commitments through injury or the ban.Fellow paceman Mohammad Asif, who was ignored last year due to a ban imposed for a failed drug test in the IPL, is expected to get a central contract.

Shoaib Malik will captain both Twenty20 internationals against England in Dubai later this month despite the return of regular captain Shahid Afridi because the board does not want to change leaders in the middle of tours.Malik led Pakistan in the Melbourne Twenty20 against Australia last week, after Afridi was banned for two matches for tampering with the ball during the last ODI against Australia in Perth. That ban means Afridi will also miss the first game against England, on February 19, though he returns for the second game the following evening.But because the tour is so short, the PCB has decided against changing the captaincy and keeping Malik in charge. There has been speculation since Afridi was caught on TV biting the ball repeatedly that his future as the format’s captain is in doubt. Malik, Pakistan’s captain in all three formats as recently as last year, is being talked about as a candidate again but Wasim Bari, the board’s chief operating officer, played down such notions.”It is not a good idea to have one captain in one match and another in the next,” he told Cricinfo. “There is no point in doing it match to match so we decided, as it is a short tour, to just keep Malik as captain for both games. Afridi is our captain in the format. Had there not been a ban, there would not have been a problem.”Incidentally, Malik is reunited as captain with Yawar Saeed, who accompanies the side as manager once again. Exactly one year ago today Saeed was part responsible for a series report in which he wrote that Malik was a “loner” and “aloof” and that he should be replaced by Younis Khan as captain.Of equal significance is the absence of Intikhab Alam, Pakistan’s coach, from the squad and his future with the side. Most often the public face of Pakistan in defeat, Intikhab has come in for increasingly heavy criticism after the Australian tour. He is due to appear before a board inquiry committee later this week and Ijaz Ahmed, coach of the Under-19 side and who will alredy be in Dubai as head of the A side, will join the senior squad as a batting and fielding coach. Perhaps tellingly, Bari refused to be drawn over Intikhab’s future.”There is no word yet on Intikhab’s future. There is an inquiry being held at the moment and subsequently it will be decided. Ijaz is not the coach but the batting and fielding coach for the side there,” Bari said. “Daniel Vettori and New Zealand also toured without a coach and it has happened before so it is not so unusual.”

Irfan Pathan, who is suffering from a back injury, has been omitted from India’s long-list of 30 probables for the ICC World Twenty20 to be held in West Indies from April 30.R Ashwin, who was picked for the Twenty20 matches against Sri Lanka, features in the preliminary squad, that also includes R Vinay Kumar, Naman Ojha and Wriddhiman Saha.Irfan led both the runs and wickets tally for Baroda in the Ranji Trophy, with 22 wickets at an average of 18.54 and 397 runs at 49.62 in five matches. But he missed Baroda’s matches in the Ranji Trophy one-dayers.Naman Ojha gets the selectors’ nod on the back of his performances in the IPL as Rajasthan Royals’ wicketkeeper. In 16 domestic Twenty20 matches, he averages 23.50, at a strike-rate of 125.09. More recently, he struck a strokeful 167 in a Ranji one-dayer against the Railways. Saha, who made his Test debut against South Africa in Nagpur as a batsman, is the fourth keeper in the preliminary squad that also includes MS Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik.Manish Pandey, who became the first Indian to score a century in the IPL, also figures in the list. Pandey followed his IPL heroics with a string of consistent scores in the Ranji, Duleep and Vijay Hazare Trophies to force his way into the national reckoning.The preliminary squad includes eight batsmen, four wicketkeepers, four allrounders, 10 fast bowlers and four spinners.Probables: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, M S Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, S Sreesanth, Sudeep Tyagi, Rohit Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma, Abhishek Nayar, Wriddhiman Saha, Naman Ojha, Piyush Chawla, Abhimanyu Mithun, Manish Pandey, R P Singh, Munaf Patel, M Vijay, Vinay Kumar, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin

The windy city
The first three days didn’t feature the windiest of Wellington’s conditions but come day four, the weather was wild. Extreme wind and blowy rain delayed the start of play by half an hour and getting the covers on was a hassle. Worse came for the groundstaff when the rain stopped. The big cover used for the square was carried to the boundary before blowing away, and only one tenacious man managed to hang on to it and prevent it flying over the fence and out of the ground, although he was dragged quite a few metres in the process. Meanwhile, a member of the groundstaff was standing on the smaller cover still on the pitch. The cover blew out from under his feet and he landed with a thud on the pitchAll Black support
The north-westerly wind gusts of up to 120kph also blew the roller over before play and later in the day the helmet sitting behind Brad Haddin rolled away to fine leg. It caused problems for the fans sitting on the grassy hill, where only a few hardy souls braved the conditions. One of the most prominent amongst them was Jason Eaton, the lock for the All Blacks. Eaton has the protection of some magnificent facial hair and was hiding under a tarpaulin, but showed his toughness by wearing shorts under the covers. The Met Service called the wind a gale but advised that only one layer of clothing was required, so tough are those New Zealanders. The Australian fielders, shivering in their shirts and vests, didn’t agree.Six and out of the ground
The Basin Reserve feels like a small-town ground and the match started to seem like a club game with all the comical events of the day. It all culminated in Nathan Hauritz leaving the premises and venturing out onto Rugby Street to look for the ball after Brendon McCullum hooked a six off Mitchell Johnson. Hauritz might have been risking life and limb on one of the busiest roads in Wellington and he came back empty-handed. The ground announcer casually told the spectators “well, we’ve lost the ball,” but soon afterwards a fan found it and play resumed. “It crashed into a van,” Hauritz said. “So I thought it would have been still around there but it was nowhere to be found. I don’t know where it went. The traffic wasn’t beeping at me or anything like that.”Mitch uses his head, again
Johnson’s head-clash with Scott Styris sparked up the one-day series and he used his noggin again today, though not deliberately. When the players were walking out after a short bad-light delay – another farcical element as it lasted about ten minutes just after lunch – the umpire Ian Gould bowled the ball to Johnson, who was starting up for Australia. Unfortunately, Johnson wasn’t watching and the ball hit him in the head. Two balls later, Johnson missed a caught-and-bowled chance off Daniel Vettori and nearly copped another blow to the skull.Visiting the ref
Daniel Vettori’s journey up the grandstands to the match referee’s room on the third day caused a tense Q&A between Mark Greatbatch and a New Zealand reporter. However, Javagal Srinath cleared up the issue the following day and said that Vettori’s visit was nothing out of the ordinary. “He wanted to clarify something,” Srinath said. “Look, I go down and talk to them all the time. It was just that he wanted to understand the way the caught-behind was working. That’s it. There was nothing really serious about it. It was not unusual. The problem was that he had to walk through the public to come all the way up here to talk to me. But it is not a new thing that has happened. It has happened several times.”

ScorecardSussex are already on course for an immediate return to the top flight of theCounty Championship after completing their fourth successive Division Twowin. The home side overcame some stubborn Leicestershire resistance led by veteranPaul Nixon to complete a 10-wicket win shortly after tea on the third day atHove.Nixon made 93 while skipper Andrew McDonald and Wayne White both contributed 47as Leicestershire were bowled out for 338 in their second innings. That left Sussex with a victory target of just 61 and they knocked off the runs in 13.3 overs with Michael Thornely making 29 and Chris Nash, who hit the winning boundary off White, unbeaten on 27.Sussex have now won two games by 10 wickets and the other two by more than 200runs and the early evidence suggests they are too strong for this division. Once again the key to Sussex’s victory was the persistence of their bowling attack, with Monty Panesar playing a big part.He made the breakthrough in his seventh over of the day when McDonald proddedto short leg after helping Nixon put on 95 in 25 overs for the fourth wicket. Nash has developed a habit of taking important wickets this season and when acting skipper Murray Goodwin brought the part-time off-spinner on just before the second new ball was due it paid an immediate dividend, Josh Cobb drilling Nash’s second ball back to the bowler for a simple return catch.Panesar struck again in the next over when Tom New was lbw offering no shot toleave Leicestershire six down and still needing eight runs to make Sussex batagain. When the new ball failed to bring a breakthrough Goodwin brought back Panesarand with the second ball of his new spell he ended Nixon’s obdurate innings whenhe was in sight of the 21st hundred of his career.The veteran left-hander had employed the sweep and reverse-sweep effectivelyagainst Panesar but missed this time and was lbw after resisting for four and ahalf hours. He faced 222 balls and hit nine fours and a straight six off Panesar.Panesar bowled beautifully to finish with three for 77 from 29 overs but it wasSussex’s seamers who polished off Leicestershire’s tail after lunch. Claude Henderson lost his off stump to Rana Naved shouldering arms and Corey Collymore then dismissed White in the first over of his spell.AJ Harris was last to go, bowled by Collymore as he prodded forward, leavingSussex with the straightforward task of completing a victory which maintainstheir 100% record in all competitions so far this season.

South African allrounder Albie Morkel has said the coach Corrie van Zyl had stern words for each member of the team after their exit from the ICC World Twenty20 in the West Indies. South Africa were knocked out by Pakistan in the Super Eights and it continued a trend of below-par performances in world tournaments.”The guys stayed in their rooms for about a day trying to deal with the situation. Corrie van Zyl called us in individually and harsh words were spoken,” Morkel told Sport24.co.za. “What I like and appreciate about him is that he’s not afraid to have his say. He made you understand that you have to do things his way to be part of the plans going forward.”Since winning the Wills International Cup knockout tournament in Dhaka in 1998, South Africa have failed to reach the finals of all subsequent world limited-overs tournaments, including the 2003 World Cup which they hosted and bowed out in the first round. Morkel said the players were annoyed with themselves for crumbling yet again on the big stage.”Prior to the tournament, one got the impression that everyone felt the pressure as we had not won a major tournament in 12 years. The older players, in particular, were taking it badly as they knew time was running out to win a big tournament,” Morkel said. “We continuously make the same mistakes and Graeme Smith (the captain) emphasised that we could not afford it.”It was bad when we dropped out of the tournament. Everybody was irritated because we knew we let ourselves and the supporters down.”Former Australian captain Ian Chappell, now a commentator, said after the tournament that South Africa’s conservative brand of cricket had let them down. He said the selectors may have to review Smith’s role as captain.However, Morkel said Smith had the backing of all his team-mates. “He’s a good leader and does his homework thoroughly. But tough decisions have to be taken to bring in new blood,” Morkel said. “Someone like Mark Boucher should not summarily be written off, as competition may just get the best out of him again.”

Scorecard
Stephen Moore moved fluently to 61 before he was dismissed playing one shot too many to Imran Tahir•Getty Images

Lancashire’s batsmen bought valuable time for England seamer James Andersonwith a determined display on an attritional opening day of their County Championship match against Division One opponents Warwickshire at Edgbaston.Anderson was named in Lancashire’s side at the toss even though he was not yet back from the Caribbean following England’s World Twenty20 success. England’s management are keen for Anderson to play some cricket before next week’s first Test against Bangladesh at Lord’s as he did not play a game in the World Twenty20 so Lancashire made provision for him to join this game part of the way through.Anderson is expected to rejoin the county on Wednesday and replace debutantallrounder Luke Procter who was nominated as the man to make way for theEngland player. Anderson should have something to bowl at thanks to half centuries from Stephen Moore (61), Ashwell Prince (51) and Steven Croft (75 not out) which took Lancashire to 323 for 8.But Lancashire had to battle for supremacy against a competitive Warwickshire attack on the same pitch used for Sunday’s Clydesdale Bank 40 match against Kent. South Africa left-hander Prince played the most fluent innings with six fours in his 91-ball 50, but he fell tamely when he was bowled around his legs trying to sweep legspinner Imran Tahir.Prince shared a third wicket stand of 94 in 30 overs with Moore, with Moore collecting runs impressively on both sides of the wicket to reach his 50 from 95 balls. He became becalmed thereafter, however, and his next 11 runs came from 45 balls. Moore eventually lost patience and skied Tahir to mid-off trying to lift the bowler back over his head.Prince and Moore stabilised Lancashire after Luke Sutton was trapped lbw toIreland paceman Boyd Rankin’s first ball in the championship this season and Paul Horton nicked Darren Maddy’s loosener to Tim Ambrose behind the stumps.The departure of Prince and Moore in the space of five overs meant thatLancashire had to regroup again and they did that successfully through former captain Mark Chilton and Croft, adding 78 in 20 overs for the fifth wicket.Former Lancashire academy seamer Andy Miller broke the stand when he hadChilton caught behind from one that nipped away and then had Tom Smith taken by Jonathan Trott at first slip, a sixth successive single figure score for the left-hander.Procter fell to Rankin having struck three fours in his 13 but Croft completed his sixth half-century in seven championship innings from 75 balls and prolonged the resistance in another half-century stand with Lancashire captain Glen Chapple.

Australia are to be denied the chance to have a look at Steven Finn ahead of the Ashes this winter. He will have a break from cricket after playing a leading role with the ball in England’s 2-0 series win over Bangladesh and is set to undertake a strengthening programme similar to that performed by Stuart Broad. As such, he will not take part in domestic cricket or any of the ODIs ahead of England’s Test series against Pakistan.”Steven Finn has had an impressive start to the summer and will now undertake a strengthening programme similar to that recently undertaken by Stuart Broad,” said Geoff Miller, England’s national selector. “This will also rule Steven out of the NatWest Series against Australia and Bangladesh before his preparation for the npower Test series against Pakistan.”However, England coach Andy Flower insisted the move had nothing to do with hiding Finn ahead of the winter’s Ashes tour and preventing Australia make early notes about the tall quick bowler. “It does not have anything to do with Australia, or the Australian [ODI] series,” he said.”I would be very strong in the description that this is definitely not rest,” he added. “He will not be resting; he will be doing a very intensive strengthening programme. He is a young man that needs to develop more physically, and there is a window of opportunity to do that. The reason he is being pulled out of Twenty20 is he needs this in the same way Stuart Broad did.”It is the responsible thing to do for him personally and in the best interests, medium and long term, of the English cricket side.”Andrew Strauss and Graeme Swann are also going to be rested ahead of England’s upcoming one-day internationals against Scotland, Australia and Bangladesh and will be unavailable for any Friends Provident domestic Twenty20 games before their international engagements.Miller explained that while Twenty20 cricket gives the players the chance to switch from a Test to a limited-overs mindset, it is important to be mindful of regulating player workloads.”The coming rounds of the Friend’s Provident t20 matches are an ideal opportunity for several England players to switch their focus from Test cricket to limited-overs cricket as we look ahead to the forthcoming one-day International against Scotland and the NatWest Series against Australia and Bangladesh,” he said.”We must be mindful of the management of the players’ workload and their desire to play in what is a hugely exciting Twenty20 competition. Graeme Swann is in need of a well earned break and as a result won’t play any cricket during this period. We believe the best preparation for Andrew Strauss’s build up to the NatWest series does not involve the Friend’s Provident t20 fixtures and as such he won’t be available for these matches during this period.”James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, and Kevin Pietersen will have a week’s rest but will be available to play domestic Twenty20s from June 13. Alastair Cook will receive treatment for an ongoing back injury later this week before returning for Essex on the same date.”I feel for the counties when we make these decisions on players and pull them out of county games,” Flower said. “The directors of cricket and coaches and captains are under their own pressure with results.”When you pull their best players out of competitive matches it is quite a hit for them. I realise it requires a lot of understanding from them, and we very much appreciate it.”Ian Bell, Eoin Morgan, Ajmal Shahzad, Ryan Sidebottom, Matt Prior and Jonathan Trott will be available for all county fixtures until June 15. England play Scotland in Edinburgh on June 19 before five ODIs against Australia, starting on June 22, and three against Bangladesh.

Omari Banks, the Leeward Islands allrounder, has said the experience gained by playing county cricket for Somerset will be of assistance when he represents his team in the Caribbean T20, which begins on July 22 in Barbados. Banks was also part of the Champions League Twenty20 last year, the tournament the competing teams in the Caribbean T20 will be aiming to qualify for.”Playing county cricket in England gave me a very good idea how to approach the game, what is expected, what is most important and how to apply that experience,” Banks, who has been named vice-captain of Leewards, said. “Last year at the Champions League the atmosphere was amazing and it was a thrill to play against some of the biggest names in world cricket. There is a lot to be gained from doing well in the Caribbean T20.”The Leewards will be led by allrounder Wilden Cornwall and their team also includes batsman Runako Morton and seamers Gavin Tonge and Lionel Baker, both of whom have represented West Indies.”We have a good team and we will be backing ourselves to do well. We will be playing for each other. Most of the guys have been playing together for a while now so we know and understand each other. Maybe you won’t get as much bravado from us as you would from other teams, but inside our hearts we are confident we can go in and give a really good show,” Banks said.”We have a mixture of good young players and some players who have been around for a while and who have made good contributions to Leeward Islands cricket over the years. We just ended the Leeward Islands T20 tournament and now we are in camp, so we are hoping to get everything right for the Caribbean T20. We have some good batsmen in form and the bowlers are also looking quite sharp.”We put our stuff down to our performances on the field. Twenty20 cricket is the kind of game that can change very, very quickly and we are fully aware of that. We won’t be worried about a lot of the big talk coming from some of the other teams. We are going to go out and play our style of cricket and look to create momentum and capitalize on our opportunities.”Leewards are grouped with Canada, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago. They take on Jamaica in their first match on July 22 at the Kensington Oval.Leeward Islands squad: Wilden Cornwall (captain), Omari Banks, Runako Morton, Jacques Taylor, Justin Athanaze, Kerry Mentore, Tonito Willett, Kelbert Walters, Shane Jeffers, Anthony Martin, Garvin Tonge, Lionel Baker, Kadeem Phillip, Javier Liburd; Percy Daniel (manager), John Archibald (coach).

After the high of Headingley, Pakistan’s new-found confidence took something of a battering on the first day at Trent Bridge, as a combination of missed chances, squandered reviews and a double-hundred partnership between Eoin Morgan and Paul Collingwood conspired to take the game away from them. Nevertheless, on a flat deck that looks very good for batting, Pakistan remain confident of being able to reply in kind.”It has been a very tough day for us today, but days come like this,” said their rookie batsman, Umar Amin. “We tried our best but unfortunately we didn’t get wickets at crucial times. But we’ll try to come back again tomorrow. It will be a new day and we’ll try to stick to the basics. There’s not much in the pitch, but we’ll try to restrict them to as little as possible.”At 118 for 4 in the first hour after lunch, Pakistan had an opening into England’s middle order, with Collingwood and Morgan forced to graft for their runs against a dangerous moving ball. But crucial opportunities went begging courtesy of the keeper, Kamran Akmal, who was positioned too deep to collect a low nick when Morgan had made just 5, and later made a hash of a stumping with Collingwood still short of his half-century.”We were in a good position, but unfortunately we gave it away,” said Umar. “Eoin Morgan played a fantastic innings, but it was lucky that as soon as he came, Aamer got a snick but it didn’t carry. Inshallah we’ll come back tomorrow and try to get him out, because all of us tried very hard and we created half-chances, but we weren’t able to capitalise on them.”Pakistan’s morale dipped even further when they used up both of their reviews in the space of five minutes, as Kevin Pietersen survived a referral for lbw and caught-behind in quick succession. Akmal, in his capacity as wicketkeeper and senior player, was the key man in persuading his team to go to the third umpire on both occasions, but Umar believed the calls were justified.”I think the review system is good when it goes in your favour,” he said. “I thought at the time they were out, but unfortunately, they weren’t, so I just consider it a hard day at the office. The senior players gave their opinions about those incidents, and it was the keeper who was the main man, but he’s a very tough man and he’ll come back tomorrow and try to compensate with his batting. I’m sure he’ll do good tomorrow.”Morgan also had a brush with the review system in the course of his innings, when on 78 he was adjudged lbw as Danish Kaneria came round the wicket. “It was the first time I’ve used it, so it’s been a bit different,” he said. “I walked down the wicket and Colly said I think you should review it, so that knocked it on the head.”The important thing is communication between the two batsmen, and being honest about it,” he added. “If it feels natural then refer it, because the angle he was coming from, it was going to struggle to hit the stumps.”Pakistan have a big challenge ahead of them if they are to get back into this match, but under Salman Butt and through their exploits against Australia, they currently have the spirit to overcome adversity. At the close, the players went into a huddle on the boundary’s edge, to reflect on a performance that hadn’t gone to plan, and to start the process of regaining some measure of control.”In cricket you learn every new day,” said Umar. “We are a young unit, and we’re becoming more and more united. We back each other and our captain, and we’re becoming a very good unit. I think this is the perfect pitch for batsmen, so we’ll try to make full use tomorrow. The key on this pitch is to stay on the front foot and manage the ball there. It won’t be very difficult tomorrow.”