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The Pakistan pace bowler, Shabbir Ahmed, has had his 12-month ban for an illegal bowling action upheld by an independent bowling review (BRG) group in Dubai. The decision of the BRG is final and binding, and means Shabbir becomes the first player to be banned from bowling in international cricket for 12 months under the revised bowling review regulations.Shabbir was reported following the first Test against England, at Multan, in November and then underwent laboratory tests to compare his action to previous footage. It was the fourth time in his career that Shabbir had been reported for a suspect action, and the second within 12 months.The BRG was chaired by Sir Oliver Popplewell and included Javagal Srinath, the former India seam bowler, and Roshan Mahanama, a current match referee. Dick French, a former international umpire, and Dr Marc Portus, who is a specialist in human movement, made up the group.In its judgment, handed to Shabbir and the PCB chief executive, Salim Altaf, the BRG said: “We have decided that the player had an illegal bowling action and that the suspension of the player is to be maintained. This is the unanimous view of the BRG.”While it is clear that a laboratory test can never fully replicate match conditions the regulations provide for match conditions to be simulated as best as possible. We take the view that the laboratory test was carried out as fairly and properly as it should be.”The BRG was asked to consider video evidence and the match officials’ report from the Multan Test in which Shabbir’s action was reported. Professor Bruce Elliott, who conducted the independent biomechanical assessment of Shabbir, then presented the findings of his report and responded to questions from Shabbir and the BRG.Following this, the PCB produced its own evidence, including recent video footage of Shabbir bowling at the PCB Academy and in a domestic match. The members of the BRG then met privately to consider the matter before delivering their unanimous decision.The amended regulations, introduced in March 2005, stipulate that a player who is found to have been bowling with an illegal action twice within two years will face an automatic 12-month suspension from international cricket.

Pakistan Under-19s allrounder Hasan Mohsin was named the Man of the Match against Afghanistan Under-19s in Sylhet for his swing-bowling display. Against Sri Lanka Under-19s on Wednesday, Mohsin exhibited his batting prowess too, something he didn’t get a chance to do when Pakistan chased low totals in the first two league games.The side batted first and lost two wickets within nine balls and, despite a comfortable start, suddenly found themselves 70 for 3 in the 20th over. Mohsin is not the most technically correct batsman in the side and neither is he the most elegant. But he is effective, assesses situations well and thinks on his feet. Had it not been for his run-a-ball 86, Pakistan would have probably have been bundled out for much less than 212.”My approach was to safeguard my wicket as well as keep the runs flowing because our batsmen at the top got out really early,” Mohsin said. “So when Umair Masood was playing with me, our discussion was to build a partnership and save our wicket as well.”Mohsin, who also opens the bowling, is primarily a batting allrounder. He has batted at No. 5 so far in the tournament and explains that he prefers the middle order because of a liking for spin.”I like batting at No. 4 or 5 because I believe I play spinners better,” he said. “At whichever position I bat, I always try to pull my team out of difficult situations and do well for them.”In the beginning, Mohsin took his time to get his eye in, despite a drop in the run rate. He made sure he stalled a collapse by seeing through spells of Sri Lanka’s left-arm spinners and was on 5 off 19 balls before collecting his first boundary. Once he opened up, he started rotating the strike more easily and soon brought up his fifty off 65 deliveries. He used his hands and supple wrists to target the leg-side boundary initially and it seemed like he didn’t prefer the off side much. Soon, however, he was using late cuts and punches, and was finding gaps cleverly with timing and placement.In the last 10 overs, he unleashed a beautiful inside-out cover drive and surprised everyone in the 47th over with a de Villiers-like scoop from well outside off that got him four runs fine on the leg side. Did he see the fine-leg fielder coming in?”Yes. The situation was such that I had to, because the field was such,” he said. “The fast bowler was bowling and to hit straight wasn’t easy. So I thought I’ll sit down and [play that shot].”It was difficult conditions for batting. I was just playing it all on merit.”Mohsin looked at ease against the ambidextrous bowler Kamindu Mendis and said he got over the initial surprise. He scored 12 runs off 12 balls against Mendis and the spinner was soon out of the attack.”Yes, it was surprising. But for me, left-arm spinners I believe I can play them easily – whether he’s bowling an arm ball or break.” Would it have troubled Mohsin had Mendis switched to right-arm offspin against him? “No, offspin would’ve made it easier. Pakistan’s wickets are such that we way play spinners well.”Mohsin started out as a batsman and legspinner when his father took him to an academy in Karachi in 2008. Several years later his coach Mohammad Masroor, also the Pakistan team coach right now, advised him to switch from legspin to swing bowling. He was singled out as one of the side’s main allrounders by the management before the World Cup.In his team’s successful defence of a below-par score, Mohsin provided the spinners a perfect platform by removing the Sri Lankan openers in his first spell. Some accurate outswingers helped remove Avishka Fernando in his first over and a nagging line to left-handed Kaveen Bandara induced an outside edge in the sixth over to leave Sri Lanka at 21 for 2.”I always try to bowl line and length, wickets come by themselves,” he said. “My aim is always to stay on one type of swing at the start and keep bowling line and length. So when I contain the batsmen, I get a wicket.”Slightly shy, Mohsin opens up once you start talking about his game and tactics. Will he open himself to the world of T20 leagues, such as the PSL? “It is natural that everyone would want to play big cricket. If some team gives me an offer, surely I will play.”

Middlesex’s Twenty20 Cup match against Hampshire at Southgate yesterday was marred by thieves stealing “several players'” wallets from Middlesex’s dressing room. A spokesman from Middlesex told Cricinfo that Hampshire’s team bus was also damaged by rocks thrown at it from outside the ground during the game.”As players, we make the effort to play in dangerous conditions and that’s the thanks you get,” Nic Pothas, the Hampshire wicketkeeper told the BBC. “We took a stand – we refused to sign autographs after the game. It’s very unfortunate. The windows of the bus have been smashed and the Middlesex guys have had all their valuables stolen, he said. “Last year we had an unsavoury incident when Dom Thornely got spat at at Sussex.”We are big boys. If people take the mickey out of you or comment about the way you look that’s happy days. But if people talk about what they want to do to your mother and it starts going to a more personal level then we have to take a stand. If you do that to us, then we won’t sign autographs for your kids.”Vinny Codrington, Middlesex’s chief executive, said that Pothas’s comments “were not targeted at Southgate specifically but were over Twenty20 crowds generally and we will be discussing this further with the ECB.”I am surprised to hear the suggestion that there was any verbal abuse or unruly behaviour at last night’s game. No such incidents were reported either to, or by, the stewards. Overall the atmosphere was friendly, family orientated and positive. It is a shame that two unrelated incidents by different individuals have been blown out of proportion and spoilt what was a very enjoyable evening, where much money was raised for Breakthrough Breast Cancer. Both these very unfortunate incidents caused by the individuals with no interest in Middlesex CCC or cricket in general must not be allowed to sully the reputation of our club or it’s terrific supporters.””I am, however, reviewing our stewarding for future matches at outgrounds. I will be reminding our stewards, all of whom are professionally trained, of their responsibilities prior to tomorrow night’s match at Uxbridge. We sincerely hope that all spectators will come, enjoy the day and the Twenty20 experience supporting both sides in a positive and enjoyable manner.”

ScorecardAvesh Khan dismissed four of Bangladesh’s top five batsmen•PTI

Medium-pacer Avesh Khan’s figures of 6-3-4-4 helped India Under-19s defend their small score of 158, by bowling out Bangladesh Under-19s for 76 to seal an 82-run win in the opening match of the Tri-Nation Tournament, in Kolkata. After India were restricted by Bangladesh’s spinners, the visitors lost half their side in under eight overs and never recovered from there.Opting to bat, India lost four of their top five batsmen to single-digit scores as only Washington Sundar resisted with 34 off 61 before he was trapped lbw by offspinner Mehedi Hasan, leaving the score on 62 for 5. Five overs later, India were reeling at 76 for 7 before Anmolpreet Singh (28) took them past 100 and Zeeshan Ansari (34) and Avesh (25*) chipped in with useful scores to lead them past 150. India were bowled out in 45.3 overs and Mehedi finished with 3 for 21, and Abdul Halim and Saleh Ahmed Shawon took two each.Bangladesh never got going in the chase. Avesh struck on the first ball of the innings and in each of his first four overs, leaving Bangladesh’s score on 23 for 4. His opening partner Kanishk Seth, a left-arm pacer, also picked up wickets in consecutive overs later on as Bangladesh’s top five batsmen registered scores of 0, 1, 7, 9 and 0. Only No. 6 Shafiul Hayet and No. 8 Saeed Sarkar scored in double-digits but they were soon bowled out in 22 overs. Seth and Ansari picked up two wickets apiece.Nine of the 11 players from India made their debuts, apart from captain Ricky Bhui and Sarfaraz Khan.

Samir Inamdar, the Cricket Kenya chairman, has told Cricinfo that the national elite league will proceed despite the ongoing problems affecting the Nairobi province.The original intention was for the league to launch in December when availability is likely to be at its highest because of holidays. But logistically that might not be possible as Kenya host Under-15s and women’s tournaments that month. It now seems likely that the league will be staged in early January.The finances are already in place after the African Cricket Association pledged US$35,000 to the competition. CK is seeking corporate sponsors for each region to help offset travel costs, and also an overall tournament sponsor.CK is planning a stakeholders meeting in early December to discuss how the league will work among other matters affecting the game in the country.The proposals are for a four-side zonal league in which teams will play in three formats – three-day, one-day and Twenty20. The zonal sides are likely to be geographically based, with two probably coming from Nairobi, one from the Coast and one from the other regions.Players in the centrally-contracted national squad will be divided between the four sides to ensure there is balance between the teams and to ensure that the standard of all matches is as high as possible. In practice, that will probably mean that each team has seven local players supplemented with four members of the national side.

Anil Kumble will lead a 15-member Karnataka squad to take part in the Ranji Trophy Super League.Rahul Dravid’s presence in the squad, along with those of veterans Sunil Joshi and Yere Goud – who joined Karnataka last season after 11 years with Railways, is expected the bolster the squad. All eyes will be on Dravid, who has an opportunity to regain his form after being dropped for the first two ODIs against Pakistan.The selectors decided to stick with experience – C Raghu, B Akhil, Barrington Rowland and Thilak Naidu retaining their places in the squad. The player to watch out for will be KP Appana, the left-arm spinner. He had a successful tour to Sri Lanka with the India Under-19s and has taken 21 wickets at 24.66 in six first-class matches.Vijay Bharadwaj, the former India player, will coach the team after Rajesh Kamat, the original appointee, had joined the Indian Cricket League. The squad were part of 35 probables who had a 13-day conditioning camp at the Infosys campus in Mysore from October 13.Karnataka open their Ranji Trophy campaign by taking on defending champions Mumbai in a four-day match at the Wankhede Stadium starting on November 3.Karnataka squad
Anil Kumble (capt), Rahul Dravid, Yere Goud, C Raghu, Sunil Joshi, Barrington Rowland, NC Aiyappa, B Akhil, KP Appanna, Srinivas Dhananjaya, Thilak Naidu (wk), Devraj Patil, KB Pawan, Sudhindra Shinde, Vinay Kumar
Coach: Vijay Bharadwaj

In mid-April last year, in the final of the Ranji Trophy one-day tournament at Mumbai, one batsman, touted by many as an India prospect, made a couple of selectors’ jaw drop. He walked in at 12 for 1, with Uttar Pradesh chasing 249, spanked nine fours and a six in his 33-ball 48 before rushing off to catch a flight to complete his class 12 exams. One year on and he delivered a performance, on the international stage, that had both captains gushing. When Andrew Flintoff uses the word “fantastic” three times, you know you have witnessed something special.Suresh Raina’s was a calculated effort; one where sense blended beautifully with cheek. He made sure he cashed in on the lollypops; but occasionally summoned the courage to walk right across the stumps and execute lap sweeps to the vacant fine-leg region. “It was a tough time to bat when he came in at 90 odd for 5 but he got his head down,” said Flintoff at the post-match press conference. “We tried to squeeze him and try and get him to hit through the off side but he stayed patient. He works hard for his runs and it was a fantastic knock.”The secret probably lies in the cricketing nurseries of Uttar Pradesh. Raina, like Mohammad Kaif before him, was groomed in the state’s hostels and matches him not only on the field, but also with his calm temperament. “For a 19-year-old to have such a temperament is something special,” said Dravid, who has used adjectives like “stupendous” and “extraordinary” in his past references to Raina. “He’s an exciting talent and we’re happy that he’s developed into such a good player in his first year of international cricket.”Raina surged India to their 14th successful run-chase on the trot, a record that comes as a pleasant shift from the days when they invariably choked while faced with a target. “It’s got a lot to do with the good learning environment we have,” Dravid explained.” These young guys have come in and shown that they enjoy pressure situations. It’s also got to do with us trying to be flexible in the past. We have given the guys different challenges in different positions and it comes of use when put under pressure.”England might have gone down but Flintoff will be encouraged by the “mightily improved” batting performance after the Delhi debacle. “Andrew Strauss batted well at the start and I thought Kevin Pietersen played magnificently,” Flintoff continued. “We can take a lot of heart from this performance, taking India down to the wire. Their bowlers tied us down and it wasn’t an easy pitch to bat on. Ramesh Powar took the pace off the ball and we found it hard.”Powar’s effort might have been overshadowed by Raina’s spunk but it was an impressive return for a man playing in just his fifth one-day game. It must be tough to be perennially on the fringes but Powar, extracting considerable turn and varying his pace, showed virtues which had made him the highest wicket-taker in this year’s Ranji Trophy. “I thought he bowled beautifully,” said Dravid, “and with a bit more luck he could have had more wickets.”It was a triumph of sorts for Powar, ending with his best figures in one-dayers. One of cricket’s strengths lies in accommodating men of all shapes and sizes, and the roly-poly Powar, sporting red goggles and increasingly looking like a modern-day Duleep Mendis, managed absolutely fine in athletic company. If one had to pick the moment of the day, it had to be when he tried to run-out Ian Blackwell, when the pillars in the stadium creaked and when every single cricketer silently applauded.

Australia’s coach, Tim Nielsen, believes his players need to buck up their ideas and refocus after a lengthy winter break. The side has now headed to India for a series of seven ODIs, followed by a one-off Twenty20 match at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai that has suddenly taken on added importance following India’s triumph in Johannesburg on Monday.Nielsen, who took over from John Buchanan at the end of Australia’s victorious World Cup campaign in the Caribbean, conceded that his side had not treated the Twenty20 tournament with enough respect. Following a humiliating loss to Zimbabwe in the opening game, Australia eventually succumbed to India in the semi-finals.”Twenty20 is a showpiece event now,” Nielsen told the Sydney Morning Herald. “Before, there wasn’t really much consequence to losing a one-off Twenty20 game as there was compared to a Test or one-day series. But that all changes when there is a tournament structure in place.”[Complacency] may have been a factor until we got beaten by Zimbabwe, and that straightened us up real quick. We had a bit of bad luck. We were coming off a break, and it would have been better if we had been a little more cricket-fit. We’re more aware of that now, and we’ll be better prepared next time.”The teams reconvene in Australia over Christmas and the New Year for four Tests followed by the Commonwealth Bank Series, which also features Sri Lanka, and Nielsen believes that the forthcoming tour is the perfect opportunity to put one over the Indians before their visit.”This is a great chance for us to get the wood on them a bit,” Nielsen said. “It’s important that we make an impact here. We’ve been pretty disjointed up to now, with our preparation and some injuries, so the challenge is there for us. When we get out there for a one-dayer and are facing three-and-a-half hours in the field, it’s going to feel like a Test match. Everyone will have to adjust their thinking.”

Ireland have gone to the top of the ICC Associate ODI rankings after the previous leaders Scotland were beaten by Kenya at Mombasa.The rankings, which indicate how the five teams below the top 11 are faring, look set to change further over the coming weeks with the ICC World Cricket League and World Cup on the horizon and with all these sides set to play a large number of ODIs.Kenya’s victory by a margin of 192 runs dropped the Scots’ win rate down to 71%, four percentage points below Ireland. Scotland will get the chance to repair some of the damage on Thursday, though, when they take on Canada at Mombasa as part of an ongoing ODI Tri-Series. Victory in the fixture will take Scotland level with Ireland at the top, while if Canada win they will move off the bottom of the table, above Bermuda into fourth place.ICC High Performance Manager Richard Done said: “The ranking system is in place now to provide an opportunity for the top Associate teams to rate themselves in relation to their immediate competitors.”It also provides a context to the ODIs which they now play and gives them a constant benchmark and incentive to improve. But more than that, it gives them a definite pathway towards qualification for the LG ICC ODI Championship,” he continued.The rankings were set up in 2005 following the ICC Trophy, when the top five were awarded one-day status ahead of the 2007 World Cup. The countries are Bermuda, Canada, Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands. Kenya are not part of the competition, but results from matches against them count towards the Associate rankings table.

Lou Vincent will open the innings for New Zealand in their first ODI against Australia at Auckland on December 3.Vincent, one of the few to escape from his side’s tour of South Africa with his reputation intact, will partner Nathan Astle in the absence of Stephen Fleming, their captain and regular opener, who is recovering from facial surgery, as they seek to find a dominant opening pair who can exploit the first few overs, especially the Powerplays.”We’ll open with Lou and Nathan because we’re looking for an offensive start to the first 20 overs,” John Bracewell, the New Zealand coach, told the . “We’re still working on our game-plan in that period. We’re anxious to develop something that we can carry into the [2007] World Cup, and a three-pronged attack at the top of the order continues to interest us.”Aside from Fleming’s absence, Shane Bond – who has a commendable record against Australia in one-day internationals – has been suffering from a stomach upset, but Bracewell is confident that he will be fit enough to resume his battle with the Australians:”He’s feeling a lot better and probably wanted to practise today but we left him at home as a precaution. He probably could have practised this afternoon and I’m confident he should be right for the match.”Bond, like many of his team-mates, struggled for form in South Africa, picking up just six wickets at the costly average of 35.16.”He’s still developing his game,” said Bracewell. “He had an outstanding tour of Zimbabwe and bowled well against India. But he met an international-class batting line-up in South Africa and it will be interesting to see how he’s developed from there.”