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Harbhajan Singh, the Indian offspinner, has taken credit for triggering Matthew Hayden’s batting slump while maintaining that the cricketing world has missed Hayden’s attacking batting this season. Hayden, who was dropped for the first final of the VB Series, has averaged 14.28 in his last seven one-dayers and only 10.5 in the VB Series.”I am disappointed because I love watching him against other teams,” Harbhajan told . “We had very good plans against him, about where to place our fielders and how to bowl to him and we were successful, but I do miss watching him bat now.”Hayden, who was expected to dominate the series like he had in 2001 with a staggering average of 109.8, managed just 244 runs at an average of 30.5 in the four Tests. Harbhajan dismissed him three times in the series, including luring him into the sweep-trap in the first Test at Bangalore. “He is a stroke-player, and we tried to take away his boundary shots. I bowled to him a lot of the time. We all learned our lesson from his last tour here. But now I am disappointed because he is one of the best batsmen I have ever bowled to, and you love watching someone like that in good form – when it’s not against you.”Harbhajan also felt that other teams had taken India’s cue and learnt to tackle Hayden effectively. “Maybe those teams watched us and have their own plans against him now,” Harbhajan continued. “Now maybe everyone knows where to bowl to him. But at the end of the day, he is a great player and I hope he comes out of this stronger. I would like to watch him score over 350 again in a Test – just not against us.”

Moin Khan, the former Pakistan captain, has been named the captain of Karachi Harbour in the Silver League of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy, which starts later this month. Khan, 34, last played for Pakistan against Sri Lanka almost a year ago.Moin’s task, aside from endeavouring to recapture his place in the Pakistan team, will be to help Karachi Harbour win the Silver League – or the second division in the newly bifurcated Quaid-i-Azam Trophy – so that the city qualifies for promotion to the more lucrative Gold League for the 2006-07 season.Karachi Harbour were known until last season as Karachi Whites, and were led by Faisal Iqbal, ex-Test player and nephew of Javed Miandad. Moin took over during the season and the veteran retains the post this season.Karachi has traditionally fielded two teams in the competition; last season’s Karachi Blues are now to be called Karachi Urban and will be led by Hasan Raza. Last season, the team were led by another Pakistan wicketkeeper, Rashid Latif, but he has been surprisingly left out of the squad this season. The city has won Pakistan’s premier domestic competition a record 17 times, including a run of seven consecutive wins between 1958-59 and 1966-67.This year, seven teams have been placed in the Golden League, including holders Peshawar and last season’s second-placed side Faisalabad. The other outfits are Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Multan, Karachi Urban and Lahore Shalimar.The six teams in the Silver League are Lahore Ravi, Karachi Harbour, Hyderabad, Quetta, Islamabad and Abbottabad.Junaid Zia has been appointed captain of Lahore Shalimar while Imran Tahir, the former Pakistan U-19 legspinner, will lead Lahore Ravi. Quetta have named Faisal Irfan, a fast bowling all-rounder as captain and another fast-medium bowler, Sajid Shah, will captain Abbottabad. Hyderabad, meanwhile, will look to Faisal Athar, a prolific middle-order batsman, to lead them during the tournament.The Quaid-i-Azam Trophy begins on October 16, and the winners of the Gold League can expect to receive Rs1,100,000 (US$18,500).

After West Indies failed to qualify in the VB Series finals, Brian Lara, their captain, felt that Pakistan have the firepower to beat Australia in the best-of-three finals beginning on Friday at Melbourne.Pakistan overcame West Indies by 30 runs in the crucial league game at Perth to seal a spot in the finals with Yousuf Youhana, who made his first century of the series, and Inzamam-ul-Haq making vital contributions.Heading back home, Lara told , “The experience of Inzamam and Youhana and the attacking nature of Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq is veryformidable. I think they can chase very well. Hopefully if they get the opportunity and put Australia under some pressure they can win this final. I don’t think it’s going to be one-sided.”However, Lara warned, “Australia, of course, are favourites, and whenever they go onto the field they have eleven matchwinners and they can put the game beyond you at the halfway stage, but hopefully Pakistan can make a good series of it in the final.”Lara went on to praise Pakistan’s splendid performance against Australia in their penultimate match of the series, when they hunted down a daunting target of 266. “I thought they played really well on Sunday against Australia,” Lara said. “Australia seemed to have a bit of a problem getting their batting together, and lost many wickets.”West Indies were also on course to overcome a stiff target of 308 when they were 3 for 194 in the 33rd over. But the loss of three quick wickets for nine runs ended their hopes and they eventually folded for 277 and were forced out of the tournament.

A second XI fixture between Warwickshire and Leicestershire was abandoned on compassionate grounds after just 16 overs, when a spectator collapsed and died of a suspected heart attack at Dorridge’s Broadcare ground near Solihull.Warwickshire’s acting captain, Dougie Brown, a qualified first-aider, was called into the crowd to help Colin Harding, 59, from Leicester, but not even the prompt arrival of the paramedics could save him, and he was pronounced dead on arrival at Solihull Hospital."It’s something that you hope that you never have to do and it’s not something I want to repeat," said Brown, who learned his first-aid while qualifying as a teacher in the early-1990s. "I tried my best to get his heart going again while the physio gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation."There were a couple of occasions when we thought we had got him breathing again, but we couldn’t keep it going. It does put everything else into perspective but I would hope that, if it was my dad in a similar position, someone would have tried their best to save him."The incident occurred near to where the Warwickshire players were sat, and the umpires John Holder and Keith Little were given permission by the ECB to abandon the game soon afterwards. "It was the only sensible course of action," said Warwickshire’s wicketkeeper, Keith Piper. "I was far too upset to even think about playing cricket. I don’t think any of us could focus after that."

The Indian management have decided to play it safe and have rested Munaf Patel, the fast bowler, for tomorrow’s one-day international at Cape Town. Munaf did not take part in a practice session yesterday owing to a sore left ankle, and his absence brings Anil Kumble and Sreesanth into the equation.Rahul Dravid confirmed that Munaf was not fit enough to take the field, and hoped that Virender Sehwag, who missed out at Durban with a finger injury, would be fit for tomorrow’s match. “We are hopeful that Sehwag would be alright,” he said. “But you can never say how a player pulls up on the morning of the match particularly after a practice session.”

South Africa have named a 14-member squad for Under-19 World Cup hosted by Bangladesh.”We are confident that this is an opportunity for us to showcase the talents of our players,” Gerald Majola, head of the South African cricket board, said. “I trust the cricketers will use this tournament as the springboard from junior to senior cricket. This could be the beginning of a career in which the sky is the limit for the committed.”South Africa have been placed alongside England, Nepal and Uganda in Group B. The finals of the tournament will be held on March 6.South Africa under-19 squad 1 Divan van Wyk (capt), 2 Vernon Philander, 3 Keagan Africa, 4 Craig Alexander, 5 Andrew Birch, 6 Jaco Booysen, 7 Clint Bowyer, 8 Francis Nkuna, 9 Vincenzo Pennazza, 10 Waylain September, 11 Mpumelelo Silwana, 12 Godfrey Stevens, 13 Roelof van der Merwe, 14 Vaughn van Jaarsveld
Shaheed Khan (manager), Russell Domingo (coach), Lawrence Mahatlane (assistant coach), Brandon Jackson (physiotherapist), Anton Ferreira (technical advisor)

In an attempt to globalise the game, the International Cricket Council has announced that it plans to expand the game to 100 countries by the end of 2005. Ehsan Mani, the ICC president, was speaking at the two-day seminar organised by the Asian Cricket Council at Lahore where the issue of expansion was high on the agenda.The ICC has currently enrolled 89 countries, which includes ten full members, 27 associate members and 52 affiliate members. Mani added, “As well as increasing the number of playing countries, the ICC is targeting an improvement in the playing standards of its associate and affiliate members.”Commenting on Bangladesh struggling to put up a fight at the Test level, Mani said, “The ICC has been working very closely with the Bangladesh Cricket Board and the ACC to assist in the high performance development of the game in Bangladesh.”Mani also spoke about how the ICC had helped Kenya with their efforts to improve. “Kenya wants to play more one-day internationals and we have allocated an extra half-a-million dollars to them to further improve the quality of their game.”

The International Cricket Council’s flying squad, the Anti-Corruption Unit, has investigated the floodlight failure on the third day of the first Test between Bangladesh and England at Dhaka last month.The blackout occurred at the end of the third day’s play at a time when Bangladesh had just begun their first innings and were facing a hostile opening spell from Stephen Harmison. The investigation was prompted by questions as to why the power failure only affected the floodlights and not any other electrical supply on the ground. It was that which made the official Bangladesh Cricket Board explanation that there had been “a grid failure somewhere down the line” fodder for the conspiracy theorists.But reports in the newspapers indicate that the ACU enquiries produced little of substance, with the Daily Telegraph quoting an “insider” as saying that “the more questions the ACU asked, the more different answers they got”. The explanation could be far simpler – power supplies in Dhaka are notoriously unreliable and power cuts a far from rare occurrence.While it is extremely unlikely that the ACU will unearth anything concrete, it will be looking closely at the ODI series, where the second and third matches are day-nighters. The local power companies have been contacted and assurances obtained that there will be no repeat of the scenes at Dhaka.

Rahul Dravid on the mighty Australians
They are the number one side and therein lies the opportunity for us. Wehave a chance to show we can compete, there’s no point getting overawed.They are a tough side and if you are going to match them over a courseof four-Test series, then you have got to have belief and confidence andfight through tough times. There would be tough days on the tour.Hopefully, we could keep our chin up and keep fighting right through thetour. I don’t see it as a last frontier. Indeed, we have a lot offrontiers to cross. We have a lot of challenges to meet and we see thistour as one of those challenges. It’s no different than any other tour.()Shane Warne has a go at Ganguly even before the Tests have started
Short-pitched bowling is his major weakness … I’m not surprised he isalready struggling on the tour. He will have to overcome a lot of chinmusic to have a successful series. The first Test will be on a bouncyGabba strip and Tugga (Steve Waugh) will have slips and gullieseverywhere, because all of Ganguly’s shots go through point or behindthe wicket. Ganguly needs to show his team that no matter how hard it isagainst the short ball, you must hang in there and have a plan – eitherduck, hook or sway out of the way.” ()John Wright backs Virender Sehwag to deliver the goods
We back Sehwag and respect his enormous ability. He is very strong andbright. The way he plays his game on fast and true pitches, he couldgive us a rousing start. We still rate him well but he obviously needsto find better form. Opening is a critical part of our success overseas.We hope we can improve in that area. If we can get through the firstperiod, the middle order would have a chance. It is hugely important tous.()Justin Langer wants to demoralise India
I’d really like to see the first over of the World Cup final. ZaheerKhan came out all pumped up and aggressive but within an over themomentum of the game had turned. Good body language and positive cricketis the key to winning any cricket match. Hopefully we’ll get apsychological advantage when India walks in here and sees that grass onthe wicket. It’s something they’re not used to. ()Ian Chappell thinks India have erred in not selecting Murali Kartik
Bowling Australia out cheaply could have been a more achievable ambitionif the selectors had included left-arm orthodox spinner Murali Kartik.Not only is he a talented flight bowler, he also has a big heart andloves to compete. As a competitor he has the makings of another AnilKumble but he suffers because either Sourav Ganguly doesn’t rate leftarm orthodox spinners or he doesn’t understand their worth.()Richard Hadlee tells the Indians not to expect miracles from BruceReid, their new bowling coach
Reid cannot do miracles with the Indian team which does not have a verygood bowling strength. He can only work with whatever talent isavailable at his disposal. The only way the visitors can beat theAussies during their Test series is by slowing down the Australian runrate and then improving upon it. The Australians try to score 350 to 400runs per day so that by the third day of the Test match they will beready for the killer punch. So the important thing for the Indians is toslow them down and make them earn every run. India’s batting line-up ispretty good. So when batting, they should try to score runs quickly toget the psychological advantage over the Aussies. The Indians shouldthink positively from the word go as the Aussies will make things toughfor the visitors and if the Indians fail to take up the challenge thenthey will be beaten. ()Rod Marsh talks up Ricky Ponting
He can go as far as he wants to go because he has got the talent.Sometimes very specially talented cricketers never reach their fullpotential, but what they do is often good enough to make themoutstanding players. At his best, if he did reach his full potential,there is no reason why he couldn’t be like Bradman or Tendulkar andthose sorts of people. ()Allan Border tells India to be positive, really positive
Spinners traditionally don’t play a huge role in Brisbane but as ShaneWarne has shown in the past, you could do your stuff on the fourth andfifth day. For that to happen, the Indians will need to take theAustralians on to the final day, something a lot of visiting sideshaven’t done recently. They could do it if they play near to theirpotential as Australians are not used to being stretched. If thathappens, spin bowlers could be decisive.I think the Indians should look to take their four best bowlers in thegame. If two of their best four are spinners, then so be it. They couldalso show themselves positive and aggressive by having five bowlerssince Australians tend to rattle up a huge score and then put theopposition under pressure.()

Plans to erect a permanent replay screen at the Adelaide Oval have gone back to the drawing-board after the city’s council rejected a proposal to build a Aus$2m structure next to the state heritage-listed scoreboard.”We have had meetings with architects to see if we can do something about the design,” Michael Deare, chief executive of the South Australia Cricket Association (SACA) told the Adelaide Advertiser. “They have gone away to have a think to see whether they can improve the design. We have always felt the screen was a benefit to the Oval and provides the patrons with an extra facility.”The council’s decision leaves the SACA in an embarrassing position as it has already bought the 11-metre high screen. "Heritage advisers and the relevant minister have accepted the proposal and we thought it would be a simple rubber stamp by the council,” Deare explained. The SACA either submits an alternative proposal or undertakes a legal challenge against the council’s decision.Michael Harbison, Adelaide’s mayor, explained that the council recognised the need for a screen on the ground but had serious concerns about the bulky design. Referring to previous planning assent given to erect floodlights at the ground, he added: “I think decisions by this council have eroded the beauty of the Oval”The council’s decision leaves two planned Rugby World Cup matches in October in doubt.