It is being suggested that the Sydney Cricket Ground could lose its status as the primary venue for international cricket in New South Wales. ABC Sport has reported that Cricket New South Wales is calling for tenders for a long-term contract to host international and domestic matches. Their contract with the SCG ends in September 2005.The SCG has long been one of the great venues of international cricket. Cricket has been played there since the 1850s, and it hosted its first Test in 1881-82. A total of 91 Tests have been played there, the most recent being the classic between Australia and India earlier this year, in which Steve Waugh ended his career and Sachin Tendulkar (241 and 60 not out) and Anil Kumble (12 for 279) almost took India to a series-winning victory.The Olympic Stadium has a capacity of over 80,000, and New South Wales have already played two domestic one-day games there. But can the splendour of the new ground win out over the sense of history that the SCG evokes? Watch this space.

Ridley Jacobs has been left out of the West Indies squad for the ICC Champions Trophy in September. He was replaced by Courtney Browne, who won a place as a result of consistent performances in the regional competitions.Though a 14-member squad was announced, the captain was only named following a meeting of the West Indies Cricket Board. The Board met on August 11 to ratify the selectors’ recommendation, and gave another chance to Brian Lara to turn things round after a dismal spell in charge of the team. Ramnaresh Sarwan was reappointed as his deputy.Mervyn Dillon was also recalled, as the selectors felt that his presence would add experience to the bowling attack. Wavell Hinds was included after passing a fitness test conducted by a medical panel.Six players were left out from the 15-member squad that played in the recent NatWest tournament. Carlton Baugh, Tino Best, Ridley Jacobs, Ravi Rampaul, Darren Sammy and Devon Smith were those to miss out. While Best and Rampaul were forced out by injury, the rest were axed for their lack of performance.Squad
1 Chris Gayle, 2 Wavell Hinds, 3 Brian Lara, 4 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 5 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 6 Dwayne Smith, 7 Dwayne Bravo, 8 Ricardo Powell, 9 Courtney Browne (wk), 10 Sylvester Joseph, 11 Mervyn Dillon, 12 Corey Collymore, 13 Ian Bradshaw, 14 Jermaine Lawson.

On how hard it was to break out of his bad run
It was difficult. But I knew I had the ability to come back, and it was only a matter of one big innings. I was determined that if I cross 50, I’ll convert it into a century. I was playing well at Bangalore when I made 39 in the first innings, but I failed to convert that. Here, though, I converted my start into the hundred that my team needed.Did he, or India, have a specific gameplan for this game?
Our gameplan in this match was the same as in the last one. We knew the first spell from the bowlers was the most dangerous, and we planned to play carefully, take no risks, and see that through. And so we did.On the role of Sunil Gavaskar, India’s batting consultant, in the gameplan
Strategies and so on are decided at team meetings, but he [Sunil] has been a help to us, by sharing his experience of international cricket. If anyone has a problem, he helps out with that, and motivates us all.On the pitch
It’s a good track to bat on. Yes, the ball kept low at times, but that happened when the ball was really old, after 75 overs had been bowled. After the new ball was taken there was no uneven bounce. It was good to bat on today, and I expect the same tomorrow. Perhaps in the fourth and fifth days it will take even more spin than it already is, and get slower.On missing his double-century
[Somewhat bemused] I still had 45 runs to go for my double-century. Had I got out in my 190s you could have said that I missed making 200, but I was far away from it.On why he became more aggressive and played some reckless strokes after reaching his century
I thought the team would benefit if I went for my strokes and got some quick runs. But I guess my shot selection wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t picking the right balls to hit. But I realised at one point that it was more important for me to bat through another session rather than score quick runs. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do that.Was he affected by all the wickets that fell at the other end?
No. My plan was the same throughout, to punish the loose ball but to minimise risk otherwise. The number of wickets that had fallen at the other had had no impact on the way I was playing.How did he react to the criticism of him, and the calls for his being dropped, during this recent bad phase?
When you don’t perform, everybody puts pressure on you. When you do, those same people acclaim you. I wasn’t worried, and besides, I had got some confidence from my innings of 146 in the warm-up game before the first Test. I knew that if I spend time at the wicket, the runs would come. And that’s just what happened.On his making around two-thirds of the runs scored while he was at the crease
Look, some of our batsmen were unlucky. Rahul [Dravid] got an inside edge, [VVS] Laxman got a ball that kept really low: had these strokes of luck not gone against us, we would perhaps have been just three or four wickets down at close of play today. We could have set them a bigger target for tomorrow.On how many runs he thinks India can make on the third day
I think 100 more is possible, that’ll give us a lead of 150, and we’ll be well on top.On which of the Australian bowlers he was most impressed with today
[Jason] Gillespie bowled really well.… And Warne?
Well, he took wickets, but I don’t think he bowled quite that well.

Giving a clearer indication of the mood within the team before England’s one-day series against Zimbabwe, Darren Gough has said that if it were up to the players, none would tour Zimbabwe. Gough admitted that the potential damage of the ICC’s financial penalties gave the players little room to manoeuvre.His comments came after Graham Thorpe and Michael Vaughan expressed discontent at having to travel to Zimbabwe. “If the International Cricket Council said it was up to each individual player whether he wanted to go, and England wouldn’t suffer financially, each player would pull out,” Gough told “But England will lose between £10 million and £20 million if we don’t go. Youth cricket will suffer, the academy, everything the country’s worked for will suffer.”Earlier this year, the BBC reported that Ehsaan Mani had denied telling the English board that a boycott could lead to heavy penalties. But a spokesperson for the ECB said that though there was no explicit threat by the ICC, to not go to Zimbabwe could hurt their revenue.Gough said he was only going to Zimbabwe to represent his country at cricket, and would walk away if asked to shake hands with Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president. “I’m there for one reason – to represent my country in an international cricket match. We’ve all been advised not to socialise, not to play golf, just to keep out of the limelight when we’re not on the cricket pitch. It’s sad but that’s what we’ll be doing.”If I get into a situation where I’m supposed to be at a function and shaking hands with Mugabe, I won’t do it. I’ll walk away. I’m not afraid to do that.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

For the second day in a row, Pakistan were unrecognisable from the side which capitulated without a trace at Perth. If Yousuf Youhana led the charge on the first day at the MCG, then Shoaib Akhtar was the hero on the second. His three strikes were largely instrumental in having Australia on the run, as they ended the second day on 5 for 203, still 138 behind Pakistan’s first-innings total.On a gloomy day when 16 overs were lost to showers and bad light, Pakistan showed little positive intent with the bat, dawdling for 17 overs to add just 23 to their overnight total before being bowled out. With the ball, though, they were all aggression – Akhtar hustled and hurried every batsman, managing extreme pace and uncomfortable bounce even on an easy-paced pitch, while Mohammad Sami and Danish Kaneria offered him excellent support. Only Damien Martyn, unbeaten with a composed and typically elegant 67, handled him with some comfort.There was a brief passage of play when Australia looked like taking charge, when Justin Langer (50) and Martyn added 90 for the third wicket, but even then Akhtar remained a threat, hitting Langer a couple of times on the arm and entering into a verbal duel with him which needed the umpires’ intervention.Consistently bowling at nearly 150kph, Akhtar started the Australian slide in his fifth over, nailing Matthew Hayden for the third time in three innings in this series. Five balls after Kamran Akmal dropped a skyer to reprieve Hayden, he slapped a short, wide ball straight to Shoaib Malik at point (1 for 13). Ricky Ponting was greeted with more fiery stuff, and he soon succumbed to the c Shoaib b Akhtar route, pulling one down square leg’s throat (2 for 32).Martyn started off with a streaky four through the slips, but got into his stride soon after with a series of delectable strokes, gliding Sami through gully and then clipping him off his toes with minimum fuss. As the footwork got more assured, so his strokeplay – his favourite one today was the square cut, which he employed repeatedly as Pakistan’s bowlers pitched short. He offered one half-chance, when an attempted tap over the slips ballooned and fell just short of Imran Farhat at third slip, but that was a rare blemish in what was otherwise a masterful knock.With Langer as effective, in not as fluent, as at Perth, Australia motored along till Langer miscued a sweep off Kaneria and holed out. The breakthrough achieved, Yousuf Youhana immediately brought back his primary strike bowler, and it paid off. An out-of-sorts Darren Lehmann flicked at a short one and was brilliantly held, at the second attempt, by Yasir Hameed at short leg (4 for 135).Clarke delighted briefly, tonking Kaneria for a superb straight six, but he was far less assured against the seamers. Sami should have had him on 10, when Clarke shouldered arms to an indipper which would have taken off stump. Not only did Rudi Koertzen turn down that perfectly legitimate appeal, he went on to warn Sami for running on the pitch a couple of overs later.

Clarke’s luck ran out soon after, though, when he miscued one which bounced off the rough, and Akhtar completed an easy catch at long-off. Adam Gilchrist clattered a few fours in a typically energetic 26, and ensured that Australia could still hope to get close to, and even overhaul, Pakistan’s total.If the last two sessions of the day produced enthralling cricket, then the first one was completely soporific, thanks to Pakistan’s inexplicable approach with the bat. The chief culprit today was Abdul Razzaq. One of the most devastating hitters in the game when in the mood, today he went into self-denial mode, as if atoning for his senseless hoick off Shane Warne in the first innings at Perth. Blocking half-volley after half-volley, he remained undefeated on 4 off an unbelievable 76 balls. It would have been a commendable effort if Pakistan had been battling save a game; here, with his side in an excellent position to wrest the initiative, it was beyond comprehension.Australia didn’t mind that approach one bit, though. They chipped away at the other end, as four wickets fell for precious little in a shortened morning session. It ensured that Pakistan, instead of scoring close to 400 runs, finished with only 341. By close of play, however, that seemed a good enough total to test the might of the Australians.

Already 2-0 down in the three-Test series, Pakistan’s preparations for the Sydney Test, which starts on Sunday (January 2), were further hampered with news that Inzamam-ul-Haq and Abdul Razzaq were still not certainties for the match. Inzamam is struggling with a back injury, while Razzaq hasn’t recovered from a mystery ailment.Haroon Rashid, the team manager, indicated that both were doubtful starters for the Test. “He [Inzamam] is responding to treatment but we can’t say he’s 100% yet,” Rashid said, according to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald. “He’s been having physiotherapy, he’s doing gym work and pool work. He’s feeling much better but he is still not at his best. He needs more work to strengthen his back, and then hopefully he can play in the Sydney Test.” Inzamam made 1 and 0 at Perth, and then missed the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne.Razzaq, meanwhile, had been admitted to a hospital during the second Test after complaining of dizziness. Rashid said that Razzaq hadn’t joined training yet. “He’s still pretty weak. He’s been resting a lot. We haven’t been putting him on any medication, he’s just been resting a lot, taking food and drink and getting his strength back. We’re all training tomorrow and he’ll be expected to practise.”Mohammad Sami and Shoaib Malik have already been ruled out with injuries suffered during the Melbourne Test. Shahid Afridi is likely to replace Malik, while Mohammad Khalil or Mohammad Asif will come in for Sami. Khalil, a left-arm seamer, played in the first Test at Perth, but failed to take a wicket in the 25 overs he bowled.

Charlie Austin travelled to the east coast of Sri Lanka to distribute food aid from the World Food Programme and see first-hand the devastation caused by the tsunami that struck on Boxing Day:Donate to the US Red Cross appeal

When we arrived in Trincomalee, an east-coast town that boasts one of the finest natural harbours in Asia, we were already drained. Our nerves had been frazzled by the driver, Muttiah Muralitharan, a well-known offspinner but little-known kamikaze behind the wheel. In between the near-misses and skidding corners, Murali kept going a continuous stream of commentary, chattering away excitedly, wanting to know more Tsunasmi stories and telling us about the day ahead. Murali’s life has been taken over by the disaster and, inspired by his almost evangelical desire to help those that are suffering, we’d happily agreed to join him on a three-day relief mission.Murali signed up as a World Food Programme ambassador earlier in the year. The agency would have hoped for a couple of photo shoots and the odd public appearance. But they got a crusader, not an ambassador. In the past five days Murali has spearheaded the distribution of approximately 210 tonnes of flour, rice, sugar and lentils to the north east and now the east. Next week, almost as soon as he’s reeled off his ten overs for the Asian XI in Melbourne, he will be back in front of a convoy, this time shepherding food down the south coast, an area that has been receiving aid but is severely hit, especially around Galle.

It all started, on Boxing Day, with a lucky escape. Murali was due to meet his manager Kushil Gunasekera in Seenigama, a small village close to the soon-to-be wiped out beach resort Hikkaduwa, for an annual children’s charity event at 11am. But, although normally a stickler for time-keeping, he rolled out of his Colombo home a few minutes late. Driving south with his brother, mother and fiancée, Madhi, an Indian lady from Chennai, he reached Kalutara and was surprised to see the lagoon’s waters so agitated. He pressed on. A few minutes later they noticed cars speeding north and a commotion along the coastline. They stopped and asked what was happening and were told to head inland immediately, away from the sea which was behaving strangely.Murali turned his car around but ignored the advice to avoid the coastline road. Miraculously, he stayed just ahead of the devastation that was working its way up the coastline. When he arrived home and flicked on the television he saw how fortunate they’d been: a violent, surging sea, called a tsunami, had flattened homes and hotels all along Sri Lanka’s famous shoreline. Tragically, 50 children being bussed to the charity function, all excited about their meeting with Murali, were all washed away into the sea and are presumed dead. The 30 children who had arrived earlier fled the waves in a panic-stricken sprint, finding safety, like so many in the island, in the local Buddhist temple.During the early days of the disaster it was unclear what to do. Aid was now trickling out of Colombo, most of it heading south to Galle. Murali was receiving treatment on his injured shoulder from his personal masseur Coddy, a close friend who rarely leaves his side, when he decided to take action. He turned to Coddy and asked: “Do you want to come to Jaffna?” Preparations were started immediately. Somehow, in a city where transport was now in desperately short supply, he managed to conjure up five trucks capable to carrying 120 tonnes of food. Although supported by his employers, Janashakthi Insurance, and friends, especially the owner of East-West Marketing, Mr Madhivanan, who helped with the trucks Murali dipped deeply into his own pocket. Less than 24 hours later, at 4am on Thursday morning, the convoy rolled out of Colombo for the 11-hour journey to Jaffna.Having returned to Colombo a day later, he started preparations for the next mission – the one we are on. Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, together with their partners Christina and Yehali, signed up straightaway, along with former Sri Lanka cricketers Ruchira Perera and Mario Villavarayen. Dr. David Young, Sri Lanka Cricket’s Melbourne-based surgeon, who had packed his bag with medical supplies and rushed to Sri Lanka to assess what medical help was required, also joined. Ramesh and Prakash Shaffter, two directors of Janashkthi, packed their bags too. On Monday morning we all rolled into Trincomalee, a town that had been largely protected by the rising sea but is surrounded by devastation to the south and north.

A fish curry the previous evening left Murali’s bowels loose and when he arrived and he was in no mood for petty bureaucracy. The police superintendent, waiting for the convoy’s arrival, tried to redirect some of the 90 tonnes of food into the government’s own stores. While local WFP officials looked on nervously, unsure whether to agree to the request, Murali took the lead and dismissed the policeman brusquely, insisting that they had the necessary permits and that the food, worth approximately $10,000 per lorry, was going to the people and nowhere near a government warehouse. The policeman, rather red-faced, backed down and Murali marched back to his jeep, ordering the others to follow.Back behind the wheel, Murali was even more agitated than when he’d arrived. Imodium had steadied his bowels but the policeman had stirred him up inside. Like many, he had heard rumours that some aid was being siphoned off into local markets, and he was fearful about corruption: “A major concern at the moment is possible corruption. Distrust between different ethnic and religious communities appears to be hampering the distribution of the aid, which is now in the government stores.” But there are also logistical problems, according to Murali: “Clearly, some of the Government Administrators also need to have more smaller vehicles to help the smooth and swift distribution of aid.”

Murali was calming down steadily when we neared Kinniya, a small village 20km south of Trincomalee that was badly hit by the flooding. The journey included a short hop across a lagoon on a rickety two-car ferry. When AHM Fozie, a cabinet minister, turned up self-importantly and arrogantly gate-crashed the ferry queue, delaying the aid convoy by another 15 minutes, Murali fumed angrily, openly venting his frustration at a group of Italian disaster journalists still puzzled over who this local celebrity was. But Fozie’s appearance was poorly timed. When Murali and the cricketers walked into the refugee camp, now home to approximately 800 families and a total of 8240 people, his entourage was largely ignored. While people thronged around Murali, bombarding him with questions and autograph requests, the politicians sloped off sulkily.While the food was unloaded from the trucks, the cricketers talked to the survivors, asking about their miraculous escape from the terrifying giant waves, and also trying to find out their needs and concerns as they tried to look to rebuild their lives. “The aid does seem to be getting through now. All the camps were now receiving food and water, but people complained about not having the utensils to cook with or eat from,” said Jayawardene. “Others, in Kinniya, were also concerned that some people who have not been affected were coming into the camp and registering as displaced. But the picture is not clear.”After a harrowing and emotional week coming to terms with the loss of their homes, livelihoods and loved ones, the arrival of the cricketers, especially Murali, the only Tamil in the national team, brightened the mood of survivors, especially the children. Similar scenes followed in Kuchachchaveli and Nilaveli Govalapurum, two smaller better-managed camps to the north of Trincomalee largely controlled by the Tamil Tigers – who are earning praise for the disciplined and professional manner in which their camps are being managed. For a brief but valuable moment they forgot their suffering and smiled. The light-hearted atmosphere was remarkable considering the trauma of the previous week.

Most of the camps were situated in safe areas well away from the sea, but just before nightfall and the return to their hotel in Polonnaruwa, the 12th century capital of Sri Lanka, the cricketers visited Nilaveli Beach Resort, which had been until Boxing Day the leading hotel on the east coast. For the first time they saw just how devastating powerful the waves had been. The vast majority of the hotel had been reduced to rubble. The front office manager, still looking dazed, told of the panic as the sea surged towards the guests in the breakfast room without warning, eventually killing six of them as well as three members of staff.We returned home late, all visibly shocked, not just by Murali’s alarming driving on pot-holed roads past dangerous wandering elephants, but by the enormity of the devastation: “We’d seen the pictures on television but when you see it first-hand you realise just how serious a disaster this was,” said Murali. “The waves were devastating. The death toll is still rising too with thousands still not accounted for. The army officers I’ve spoken to believe that as many as 50,000 to 75,000 may have died in Sri Lanka.”Early the next morning, the convoy set off again, this time to Batticaloa, an area full of army camps and derelict houses after two decades of civil war between the Sri Lanka government and the Tamil Tigers. The coastline was famous for its pristine white-sanded beaches. But today the beaches, which have receded by up to 20 metres in some parts, eaten up by the angry sea, look like rubbish dumps, strewn with clothes and saris, smashed up furniture and broken fishing boats. Even the vegetation, normally green and bright, has died, killed by the saltwater, which has also destroyed millions of hectares of farmland around the island.

One small village built on a spit of sand, Kalkudah, was caught in a pincer by waves from three sides. The settlement, which also included an army camp, was flattened by 40-foot waves that swallowed up whole houses. The few that survived did so by clinging to the top of trees. The only building standing was the town’s church, astonishingly in good condition. The area, strewn with £25,000’s worth of live ammunition and mines, is now being bulldozed flat by the army. So far 800 bodies have been counted but the lingering stench of rotten corpses, a smell now familiar to many, suggests more are still to be found.Throughout the day, the cricketers handed out more relief, bringing more smiles. Even normally stone-faced soldiers at army checkpoints grinned happily and waved as the cricketers drove by. When Murali was asked to hand out platefuls of rice and curry in one orphanage, a previously orderly queue of children surged forward, desperate for their lunch to be served up by their hero. But the cricketers could not assuage all their pain and fears. A young boy called Jeeventh asked whether another wave was coming, terrified after reading an interview with a professor in a local newspaper that warned of another imminent earthquake and tsunami.The final trip of the day to a camp deep in the bush had to be abandoned when the trucks could not continue further. Tractors would ferry the food to the victims, who would now have food security for several weeks. The cricketers turned back but vowed to continue their involvement in the relief operation. Murali is already making arrangements for his third food convoy next week, while the other cricketers, from the senior squad down to the Under-19 team, have promised to help the cricket board, who are planning to run their own emergency camps in Dambulla, Badulla and Matara. Cricketers from overseas, including Brian Lara, who called this morning, have pledged their support. Their efforts may only scratch the surface, but they are providing much-needed inspiration in the crisis, lighting up the lives of depressed victims and providing hope for the future.

Ray Jennings, the South African coach, can sleep in peace. Gerald Majola, the CEO of the United Cricket Board of South Africa, has not ruled him out of contention as the permanent coach of the South African team. Jennings, who took charge of the team after Eric Simons stepped down in October 2004, was appointed on a short-term basis and will continue in the job till the end of the West Indies tour in May.Majola said that Jennings had done a good job with the team and would be considered for the post, if he made an application. He also denied approaching Duncan Fletcher, the England coach, for the position. “The post has been advertised, and we will look at the applications. But as far as I know, nobody has approached Fletcher either directly or indirectly,” said Majola, to the South African Press Agency. “If we are not satisfied with the applications we receive, we will head hunt the person we think would be the most suitable candidate. But first we have to see who applies.”He rejected suggestions that Jennings was in a difficult position since he was appointed as interim coach. “When he accepted the position, he knew exactly what he was going into. He’s done a good job so far, particularly if you look at where we came from, he’s taken this team a few steps up from where it began.”Jennings had earlier revealed that he would apply for the post if his players wanted him to. “It’s not about bringing new information to the side — it’s about getting the players to understand that it’s all about respect and working as a unit,” he had said. “I’ll talk to the players, and if they want to follow me, I’ll apply for the job.”Under Jennings’ guidance, South Africa lost 0-1 in India, and then suffered a home reverse against England (1-2) for the first time in 40 years, only their second series loss at home since they were readmitted to the international fold in 1992.

When and how did you find out that you had become director of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)?
This had been going on for a while. Once Rameez Raja had decided to resign from his post [as CEO last year in July], there were quite a few candidates, including me, in the running for the position. Eventually I believe the names were recommended by the chairman of the PCB to its patron, President Pervez Musharraf. I came to know about it on 28 January. I was on my way to get some domestic chores done and I got a call from the chairman, who said he wanted to see me. So I met him and he told me my name had been approved and welcome on board. Since I started I haven’t really had the time to think about the job. Then came the second part and I was never a candidate either, for the post of manager for this tour. This was also a very late decision. The chairman told me `you are on board and you have to go’ and that was that. It’s not an easy job. There are too many other things to worry about. The media especially are so hungry, especially in India, and everyone is looking for a story. Sometimes there is no story yet something still has to be done. So what you do is, you have to be careful, what you say is not always reported. Apart from all that, so far, so good.Do you have a brief for your role of director?
Look, I have a team with me of two general managers and we have sat down and done some work. There are two prinicipal areas we are looking at. Everyone keeps talking about domestic cricket and the second area is that the board has spent a lot of money on the national academy and that is not producing the kind of results that are needed. These are two critical areas that need to be looked at. I spent a lot of time with Intikhab Alam and we discussed the domestic structure here [in India] which he thinks is pretty good. There are some thoughts that came out of that – one is that we go back and say that change for the sake of change is not what we are looking at. What we are saying is, is it necessary to change the present setup? Mind you, the present setup of regional cricket and institutional cricket has been brought in after some thought. But if there are flaws in it, then we would like to look at it.What are your own thoughts about moving the emphasis away from institutional cricket to regional cricket?
Look, I have played and been involved with institutional cricket for most of my life and played with Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) for ten years or so. I think institutional cricket should stay and be strengthened. I personally believe that knocking away institutional cricket is not good. You see, one, institutions provide an income for cricketers. Two, they employ the big-name cricketers and thus their sides are generally pretty strong, especially when compared to regional teams. There are a lot of thought processes going on at the moment but if you ask me, I am for institutional cricket. I would like to talk to banks and airlines who employ these players and see if we can recreate the old days when Habib Bank and National Bank were very strong sides. That is something that has drifted away and we need to look at it. How? I don’t know at this stage.But the chairman and Rameez have always been keen to sideline institutions…
It’s just a question of how you think about it. Some people thought that a Karachi-Lahore or a Punjab-Sindh game would be great cricket and bring in great crowds. I don’t think that is going to happen. So somewhere in between is a solution. We don’t know where yet, but it is there somewhere. What we have definitely done is improve the quality of the pitches. You must understand I have been away for six years. I only got back to Pakistan last March. The general consensus when I got back was that wickets over the last two-three years have been seaming wickets with grass on them. The result was that you were not producing quality players – all the bowler had to do was to pitch the ball on a spot and he would pick up wickets. Immediately, what we have done is to give instructions to all centres where first-class cricket is played and said, “shave off the grass.” What we are looking at is hard cricket, where the bowler has to earn his wicket and not just pick them up thanks to the pitches. I think if you look at the results in the last few matches that I saw, runs were being scored and it means that bowlers have to learn to earn their wickets.

Do you feel domestic cricket has failed Pakistan cricket in that it isn’t providing a good nursery for international players? The gap between first-class cricket in Pakistan and international cricket is becoming bigger and so many youngsters have struggled when they have come on to the international scene…
At this stage, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what is wrong. Past cricketers who moved to the international stage and performed well for Pakistan also came from this structure or standard. What we need to do is to find out why we aren’t producing quality Test cricketers at the moment. Let me ask you, where did Zaheer Abbas and Javed Miandad come from after all? It isn’t going to be easy to see what has gone wrong but it has to be done. One way would be to talk to players and ex-players and get their feedback on where they think domestic cricket has gone wrong and take it from there. By June of this year, the entire first-class fixture list will be prepared and sent out to the associations and institutions. There are nine regions, and all have coaches and referees so you need to look at whether they are qualified. All this information has to be collected and then we have to slowly and steadily bring about a change in the system. It has to be done, there are no compromises on that.What do you make of the team, having been with them for a short amount of time?
You’ve got to see that we lost two or three key players in a very short amount of time soon after the 2003 World Cup. You lost your two quicks, Wasim and Waqar, as well as a quality opener in Saeed Anwar. Plus, on this tour we do not have Shoaib Akhtar or Shabbir Ahmed, who are both injured. We don’t have Umar Gul either, who is injured. On the next tier of fit bowlers we have Mohammad Sami but he is only one. Along with him are Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan and Mohammad Khalil, who are both inexperienced. The entire bowling is dependent on Sami and Kaneria – two bowlers on subcontinent pitches is never enough.What are your first impressions of Inzamam as a captain?
If the team does well, everything is hunky-dory. If there is a dip then the first person who gets the blame is the captain. The problem is, if, for instance, there is a decision that we need to change the captain, what choices are available to you? You don’t just change a captain if his side is losing. Alright, so you say let’s change Inzamam – who do you replace him with? At the moment, he is the senior figure and the best batsman in the side so you carry on with him. You give even the best captain a relatively weak side and it won’t be easy.But does he have to be the best player or even the senior-most to be captain?
Again, at the moment, there is no option. Yousuf Youhana is one, Younis Khan is the other, what else? Someone as young as Salman Butt? You can’t do that because it takes time and experience to groom a captain. For the moment, Inzi looks the best available choice.How do you handle someone like Shoaib Akhtar?
I have already spoken to him. One of the skills I learned from my corporate experience in PIA as a senior official is man-management. If you overbook a flight, you will have a few irate passengers. You learn to keep people calm and deal with them. He is mercurial, he has a lot of media hype around him, everywhere he goes people run around after him. I think we can handle him, he’s not a problem.How do you think Bob Woolmer has done as coach of the side so far?
I have only watched him for ten days. But the point is, two things have happened. One, the fitness routine and overall fitness with the trainer has definitely improved. The work ethic has also improved. From that perspective, yes, fitness is good, there seems to be more focus in the team. Younger players take a little longer to learn but so far so good. I can’t really talk about the technical side of the improvements he is trying to bring in because I haven’t seen him for that long.

What is the latest with Shoaib Malik regarding his bowling action?
To be frank, the submission we have given on him has not been accepted. There are two options now available. One is to risk bowling him and face the subsequent penalty, which could be harsh. The other option is that right now, most of these guys are going to see Bruce Elliot in Australia for remedial work. The ICC has a couple of other experts on the panel. Our thinking is that we might like to go through another one but that can only happen after the India series. Basically, he has a disability with his elbow which was the result of a road accident. We need to have a second opinion on it but, personally, I think we shouldn’t bowl him but that he [should] play purely as a batsman. Technically and mentally he is very good. Let me put it this way: he looks like good captaincy material as well. There is a Pakistan A side going to Zimbabwe and Namibia after the India tour and we would like to get him to captain the side and maybe start grooming him.Pakistan played only seven Tests but 29 ODIs last year. Are there plans to redress that balance in the next year or two?
England are coming to play four Tests later this year in November-December and three ODIs. I have seen the itinerary and that has been agreed. Then India come back in January-February for three Tests, I think, and five ODIs and then we are off to England to play a further four Tests. So there are eleven Tests lined up over the next year, so there is heavy Test cricket ahead of us. We are also touring West Indies in May-June this year for a couple of Tests. So there are quite a few matches in the next 15 months or so.How important is this tour for Pakistan?
Before we came in, everyone said we had a relatively weaker side. But the boys will learn from this tour, there will be some positives. If you’re playing against superior players and you have a little bit of a mind, you will improve. If we can acquit ourselves creditably and go down fighting, if we go down, some of the younger players might mature and come out to serve Pakistan in the future.

Chris Schofield, the former England and Lancashire legspinner, began his claim for unfair dismissal against his former club today, at an industrial tribunal in Manchester. Schofield was released by Lancashire at the end of the 2004 season after seven years at Old Trafford, and believes his chances of finding a new county were harmed by not being informed of the club’s decision until the end of the season.Schofield, 29, who was among the first batch of ECB central contracts in 2000 and played two Tests against Zimbabwe that summer, was not told until September 23 that he was not going to be retained by Lancashire.Under the terms of new contracts draw up between the ECB and the Professional Cricketers Association (PCA) all counties are required to appraise their players at various stages throughout a season, discussing their progress and areas they may need to improve. This was brought in as a result of the Neil Burns and Carl Crowe case, when they took Leicestershire to court for unfair dismissal in 2002.Schofield’s tribunal heard that he was appraised during the first part of the 2004 season, but was not talked to again regarding Lancashire’s plans for him until the decision had been reached. reported that Mike Watkinson, the Lancashire cricket manager, said the decision not to retain Schofield had been “touch and go” and was not made until the first week of September, before being ratified by the club’s committee on September 6.Watkinson said that as Schofield was a player who relied on confidence he did not to tell him that he could be released at a stage when a series of good performances might have changed the decision, and because it was not in his or the team’s interest – who were battling to avoid relegation from Division One in the county championship.The claim from Schofield is that the late decision reduced his opportunities of finding another county, but Watkinson presented evidence that suggested other counties would not have signed him even if they known his availability. David Byas, Yorkshire’s director of cricket, who played with Schofield for one season at Lancashire, appeared as a witness and was one of those who claimed that earlier notification of Schofield’s situation would not have made a difference.During the 2004 season, Schofield only managed to take three championship wickets, although he had more success with the bat, making three half-centuries, including a career-best 99. But Jim Cumbes, the Lancashire chief executive, said Schofield would have been aware that his performances had not been good enough to warrant a new deal at the club long before the season ended.Schofield will give his evidence tomorrow morning when the hearing resumes.