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Australia’s departing players have no worries about the side dropping from the top of the world rankings after spending the past decade keeping them there. And Ricky Ponting believes the group of low-profile replacements is capable of stepping into the gaps created by three of the country’s longest-serving performers.As the Australians accepted the applause for a 5-0 victory from a heaving SCG, Ponting spoke to Michael Clarke about the responsibilities of the new generation, which faces its first Test challenges against Sri Lanka and India towards the end of the year. “Make sure the next time we play an Ashes series we give it our best shot for the same result,” Ponting told Clarke, who scored two centuries in the contest.”For the next few years hopefully it’s Clarke and I and Michael Hussey leading our country. I see it as a pretty exciting time.” Ponting also expected players such as Adam Voges, who was in the squad for Perth, and the bowlers Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus would help replace Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer.”It’s not so much the unknown because I’ve got a good feeling about the next crop,” he said. “When you get young players in the squad there’s excitement around. The nucleus of this group will still be together and I can see us being a very dominant team.”The last time Australia lost three significant figures they suffered five years of misery, but Warne is confident the trough will not be repeated. In 1983-84 Dennis Lillee, Rod Marsh and Greg Chappell retired on the same day at the SCG and the side struggled to recover.However, Warne believed Australia were currently so far ahead of the second-best side that the next batch of players would be able to hold the lofty position. “We’re very fortunate that first-class cricket in Australia is a good breeding ground for talent,” he said. “There are some wonderful cricketers out there.”It’ll be interesting to see which way the selectors go. Will they go for some 30-year-old players to replace us, or will they go for some youth? It’s a good time to get some younger players into the Test side while it’s been so successful and there is a decent gap between the next best side.”Warne said he would watch with interest “over a beer” to see how the team developed. “I don’t think Australia will come back to the field,” he said. “They’ll replace us three guys and I’m sure Australia will keep playing good cricket and winning.”Australia’s Ashes cleansweep has contributed to a 12-game winning streak that began at the MCG in 2005. Ponting said it would be a good tribute to the retiring players if they aimed to beat the mark of 16 set by Steve Waugh’s side in 2001, but Warne hoped it would stay untouched.”I bought a print for $35,000 that was for 16 in a row, so hopefully it rains in a couple of the next Tests,” he said. “Or maybe I’ll have to buy the next one when they win 17.”When we won 16 in a row I didn’t think it would happen again. To be on the verge of doing that again, and to have won 16 out of 17, that’s an amazing journey and a testament to the quality of players we’ve got.”Australia became a dominant team with the performances of Warne, McGrath and, later, Justin Langer, and Warne believed they first reached the new level in 1995 when they became unofficial world champions by beating West Indies. “We played some excellent cricket before that, but in ’95 we started to dominate rather than just win,” he said. “Once we beat West Indies over there we’ve dominated international cricket, except for a couple of hiccups – once in India and the 2005 Ashes – along the way. In general, we’ve dominated world cricket.”

The committee formed to handle the appeals of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, the two Pakistan bowlers who were banned this month after testing positive for steroids, will reveal their findings next week.Both players denied knowingly taking any drugs and filed an appeal against the ban. “We should give a final verdict on their appeals within a week,” said Fakhrudin Ibrahim, head of the committee.”In my opinion our decision should be final and binding on these players. But in the law you cannot say anything is final.”He added that the two players and their lawyers had been given a final questionnaire to fill in and return to the committee within two days. The PCB doping tribunal, headed by Shahid Hamid, banned Akhtar for two years and Asif for one year earlier this month.

Pakistan have begun a race against time to set up a world-class cricket stadium in Islamabad by 2008, when the country is due to host the ICC Champions Trophy for the first time.A PCB official told `The News’ that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) would soon be signed with the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for the allocation of land to build the proposed stadium.”We have a couple of major tournaments to host in the coming years and would like to add to the existing cricket facilities,” said Saleem Altaf, Director of Cricket Operations, PCB.Pakistan are due to stage the biennial Champions Trophy in 2008 and will be the co-hosts for the 2011 World Cup with India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.Altaf conceded it will be a race against time if Pakistan want to have the facility in Islamabad ready ahead of the Champions Trophy. “But it is a possibility,” he said, adding the PCB would make efforts to hasten the process.The PCB is presently waiting for a physical possession of a piece of land which it is to get from the CDA. “Once we get the physical possession then the actual work can begin,” he said.Altaf said the PCB would start issuing tenders for the construction of the stadium once it gets possession of the land in Islamabad. “We hope if everything goes according to the schedule, the stadium would be ready by the end of next year.”Pakistan might extract some aspects from the design of a cricket stadium being built in the Dubai Sports City while finalising its own blueprint for the proposed stadium in Islamabad. The stadium in Dubai, once completed, is expected to be counted among the best cricket facilities in the world.Islamabad does not have a cricket stadium of international standard. Test and ODIs are, however, regularly played in its twin city Rawalpindi. But the Rawalpindi stadium is not controlled by the PCB, as it has to hire the facility from the local authorities.The PCB, in fact, has the administrative control of just two Test venues — the Gaddafi Stadium (Lahore) and the National Stadium (Karachi).Cricinfo adds:The PCB, as part of their preparations, are planning to bring the administration of stadiums in Faisalabad, Multan and Rawalpindi – all venues for 2011 – under their control. In addition, as reported recently, the Niaz Stadium in Hyderabad – once an venue of Tests and ODIs – is also coming under the supervision of the PCB.At a recent press conference. Shaharyar Khan, chairman PCB, said, “Our preparations for the World Cup have to begin in earnest from now and one of the first things we must accomplish is gaining control of stadiums in Faisalabad, Multan and Rawalpindi. We need to bring these stadiums up to international standards and at the moment they aren’t. But I will impress upon the government that these stadiums need to be in our control for them to be upgraded to the requisite standard.”

South Africa will be looking to depose New Zealand at the top of the table with a victory in this Group E match. Having lost their only international encounter against this opposition almost two years ago, Graeme Smith will be hoping for a better performance with the bat, especially with his team being restricted to 154 against England. Herschelle Gibbs’ inclusion, fitness permitting, will only benefit the home side in their bid to make the semis.New Zealand might well decide to rest a few aching bodies after theirclose win against England, especially a struggling Jacob Oram who took a knock on his left hand while dropping a return catch. However, Daniel Vettori, the New Zealand captain, will want nothing less than a win to take the momentum through to yet another semi-final appearance for his team.Bat play: South Africa’s top order has, bar their last match, been in great form. JP Duminy, opening in place of Gibbs, failed to score in his second match after an impressive tournament debut against Bangladesh. Much will depend, as always, on Smith, AB de Villiers and Mark Boucher before the power-hitting of Shaun Pollock and Justin Kemp steps in.New Zealand’s top order, however, failed miserably in their final matchand it came down to Craig McMillan and Scott Styris to play the rescueact. However, Ross Taylor, who already has a half-century to his name in the tournament, and Brendon McCullum have both played mini-cameos in the opening round but will need decent support in what will be a tougher bowling attack.Wrecking ball: Shaun Pollock has been in form of late, picking up five wickets in the last two matches while being as miserly as ever. Makhaya Ntini has not been as successful and it will be down to the likes of the Morkel brothers and Vernon Philander to provide support.New Zealand have fast bowling problems of their own. Mark Gillespie, after a four-wicket haul in the opening match, has failed to pick any wickets. Shane Bond, although economical, was not penetrative in the last match while either Chris Martin or Jacob Oram look set to make way for Jeetan Patel, the offspinner, who will partner Vettori, the joint highest wicket-taker in the tournament.Keep your eye on: Albie Morkel and his long-range efforts with the bat. Already boasting a few of the tournament’s longest hits, Morkel has a 20-ball 43 against his name and will fancy the pace of Gillespie and Bond to add to his tally of sixes.Shop talk: According to Vettori: “It [captaincy in the Twenty20game] is not easy … because you don’t know what you will run into. You might have the best of plans but they may all have to be discarded at the spur of the moment.” While he sits and plans the next match, Smith will know that his team really do not want to leave qualification for the semi-final for the last match against India and would want to wrap up things under the Durban sun.Pitching it right: The Durban pitch has already witnessed two close encounters; Pakistan v India and England v New Zealand. It will be South Africa’s first match here and with conditions probably favouring pace and swing, the home team will want to make first use of it.TeamsSouth Africa (probable) Graeme Smith (capt), Herschelle Gibbs, AB de Villiers, Justin Kemp, Mark Boucher (wk), Vernon Philander, ShaunPollock, Johan van der Wath, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Makhaya NtiniNew Zealand (likely) Lou Vincent, Brendon McCullum (wk), PeterFulton, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris, Craig McMillan, Jacob Oram, DanielVettori (capt), Shane Bond, Mark Gillespie, Jeetan Patel

Queensland’s depleted fast-bowling stocks have been filled by three relatively untested players for the two matches against New South Wales at the Gabba this week. With Ashley Noffke (back), Michael Kasprowicz (back) and Nathan Rimmington (shoulder) out injured, the Queensland selectors named two new faces in the squad for the Pura Cup game starting on Friday.Grant Sullivan, a right-arm fast-medium bowler, and the allrounder Chris Swan are in line to make their first-class debuts as the Bulls also battle without their internationals Mitchell Johnson and Shane Watson. Sullivan plays for the Norths club and was upgraded from a rookie contract to a senior deal during the off-season.Swan, 28, has performed strongly for Gold Coast in the district competition and scored 109 in a first-grade match against Valley two weeks ago. “It was a pretty amazing call to get,” Swan said. “I reckon there could be a few more sleepless nights between now and Friday when the game starts.”It’s been a few seasons since I last played 2nd XI cricket for Queensland and with the age restrictions on that level of competition these days, I wasn’t really thinking about any form of cricket other than for the Dolphins.” The finger injury to Matthew Hayden, which he suffered in the Pura Cup loss to Tasmania last week, has forced a shake-up of the batting with Brendan Nash expected to open.Sullivan has also been picked in the Ford Ranger Cup one-day side to meet the Blues on Wednesday, along with Scott Brant, the recalled left-arm swing bowler. If Brant plays it will be his first outing in Queensland colours since 2004, the year he finished a two-season stint with Essex.Brant played 23 first-class matches and 36 domestic games before being pushed out of the starting side during the return of Andy Bichel from the national set-up. Michael Buchanan, the son of Australia’s national coach John Buchanan, has retained his spot in the squad after he was 12th man for the season-opening nine-wicket victory against Tasmania.Pura Cup squad Jimmy Maher (capt), Brendan Nash, Martin Love, Clinton Perren, Craig Philipson, Lachlan Stevens, James Hopes, Chris Swan, Chris Hartley (wk), Andy Bichel, Daniel Doran, Grant Sullivan.FR Cup squad Jimmy Maher (capt), Brendan Nash, Clinton Perren, James Hopes, Craig Philipson, Lachlan Stevens, Michael Buchanan, Chris Hartley (wk), Andy Bichel, Chris Simpson, Grant Sullivan, Scott Brant.

Bennett King will be the first foreign coach to guide West Indies when he replaces Gus Logie, who was sacked after they won the Champions Trophy in England last month.King, the 39-year-old head coach of the Australian cricket academy, has accepted the job and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) planned to announce the signing early next week.Last year an annoyed King turned down a similar offer when the WICB unveiled him as the man to replace Roger Harper before negotiations had been finalised. Logie was installed instead and King continued to stay in the Academy role, where he oversaw the programme’s move from Adelaide to Brisbane.A former physical education teacher and a first-grade club player, King replaced John Buchanan as Queensland’s coach when he took the Australia job. In his first season King guided the Bulls to the Pura Milk Cup and followed it with two more trophies in consecutive years before taking over from Rod Marsh at the Academy.King will join fellow Australian Darren Holden, a former talent identification coach at Queensland who is the WICB’s coaching manager, in the Caribbean.Greg Chappell, the former South Australia coach, and Peter Moores, who is in charge of Sussex, were also interviewed for the position.

Murali Kartik will join Lancashire this week and could feature in Saturday’s C&G Trophy final at Lord’s on Saturday.Kartik is due to arrive in Manchester later today and will play in the floodlit Asda Challenge Match at Old Trafford tomorrow.”I will get to play three championship games and five one-day matches,” Kartik told . “The last championship match will be against Shane Warne’s Hampshire.”Kartik had a stellar outing with Lancashire last year, becoming the first overseas player representing Lancashire to have bagged ten wickets on debut when he snapped up 10 for 168 against Essex, a game where he dismissed Andy Flower twice. He ended up with16 wickets, including six from two one-day matches and finished at the second position behind Muttiah Muralitharan, the Sri Lankan offspinner, in the averages table.Kartik played a huge role in Lancashire’s promotion from division two of the Frizzell County Championship and earned praise from Mike Watkinson, their coach. “He bowled magnificently. He’s a lovely lad. He arrived in the dressing-room without knowing anyone but now he is bosom buddies with all the players.”

Deb K Das with his report on the USACA’s EGM and what it achieved – or didn’t achieveOf the two season-ending events in US cricket from which a great deal had been expected, the Interstate Tournament at Brian Piccolo Park in Florida ended with a decided bang, and the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) called by the USA Cricket Association (USACA) the following week hardly rated a whimper.Much had been expected from the EGM on December 10 in Dallas. For one thing, it was supposed to formalize the end of the protracted conflict between the USACA and the Council of League Presidents that had brought US cricket to a standstill for nearly a year. A final agreement on holding a new USACA election was to have been achieved, and a complete redraft of the much-criticized constitution was to have been set in motion. The gag orders on all parties were to be lifted, and the websites of the USACA and CLP were to be free to operate and were to resume the communications that had been rudely interrupted by the legal disputes. In other words, this was to be new beginning for the USACA, and a chance to convince a sceptical ICC that the USACA was on a new and constructive course.US cricketers, too, had been making clear that there were questions it wanted answered, and issues they wanted USACA to address. What was the present status of the USA within the ICC; was it an Associate Member, an Affiliate Member or neither? If the USA was an Associate Member, why had the ICC failed to schedule the USA in any events for the next two years? What plans did the USACA have to be re-instated into ICC’s good graces? With no ICC money coming into the US, would the USACA now raise the dues of individuals or clubs in order to stay solvent? US cricketers wanted straight answers to these questions, and hoped these would be addressed at the EGM.There were also questions on other matters, which had been raised directly with USACA leadership. What action would the USACA take on two proposals: one concerning mainstreaming of US cricket and the other on changing dues payments from a per-club to a per-member basis, which had been formally prepared and presented to USACA leadership? Also, how and when would USACA initiate exploratory discussions with Major League Cricket (MLC) for cooperation in the interests of US cricket, and would it also actively disavow all efforts to sabotage, undermine or otherwise denigrate MLC’s policies and programs? Clearly US cricketers had been looking for specific answers to all these questions, and the EGM looked like a likely place to find them.The first warning signs that all was not well with the EGM came with the fact that there was no mention of such a meeting on the USACA’s own website, and only a brief reference on the CLP’s. Only Cricinfo carried a story on the EGM, and that too over a month after it was supposed to have been decided upon.As just about everyone in US cricket knew, a USACA EGM is not easy to hold; it requires that at least 15% of the membership from across the USA be represented in person at the meeting, which would mean that given the USACA’s registered membership, 30 to 40 representatives of member clubs would have to be present in Dallas to secure a quorum. In the only two previous EGMs held in the past five years, there had been concerted efforts to get clubs to send representatives, and three to four times the numbers needed had shown up at the meeting. This time, there seems to have been no such effort; USACA leadership simply sat back and waited to see who would show up in Dallas.The full extent of the shortfall was not known until Vinod Shankar, an observer who had produced the first independent review of the MLC Interstate tournament, produced a similar one for the EGM. Until then, neither the USACA nor the CLP had seen fit to issue any kind of report. According to Shankar’s tally, there were 17 persons (including him) at the EGM in Dallas. Three were USACA officers; six were Board members (one short of the number needed to have a board quorum); five were present and former officers, and current members, of the North Texas Cricket Association that was hosting the conference; one and possibly two were from the neighboring cricket league at Houston. There was not a single other USACA member club representative from anywhere else in the USA. Far from not being able to achieve a quorum, the EGM had scored a big fat zero. And though some USACA supporters were bitter in blaming member clubs for their absolute apathy, the blame really needs to be placed squarely on USACA leadership for totally failing to persuade their members of the importance of the Dallas meeting.Under the circumstances, those present in Dallas decided to make the best of it, and conducted an open-ended discussion. Gladstone Dainty talked about focusing USACA’s energies on youth (non immigrant) cricket development, put the past behind, and work towards the development of cricket in the United States. The meeting minutes of the previous AGM were unavailable, as the secretary was not in attendance. Caesar explained that the chanelling of Project USA funds to Gary Hopkins through a separate USACA account had led to some problems that the auditors were currently working with USACA to sort out. Dainty said that all tournament dates would be announced by Jan 15 for the 2006 calendar year, so that different leagues could prepare accordingly.Lu Rehman, a vice-president, said there were no funds to host all these youth tournaments that were being proposed. Laks Sampath, a North West Regional Director, challenged Rehman to come up with some accomplishments in the next two months towards cricket development. There was talk about forming a constitution committee. A deadline for completing the task of having a new website in place was set by Dainty as January 31, 2006. Dainty also declared that any player could play in any tournament (MLC, ProCricket etc) in the United States and that would not harm that player’s chances of playing in Regional Championships or to represent USACA in ICC events.An interesting point did emerge during the discussions. It seems that even though both the CLP and USACA execs had reached an amicable agreement and had sorted out their differences, no statements were issued to the press or the ICC because they were still waiting for people to sign off on the lawsuit before they could issue that statement. It was decided to get this signed off as soon as possible so that “the curtain could be closed on USACA’s darkest hour”Some USACA supporters take a Pollyanna-ish attitude towards these deliberations, and declare that this was proof that USACA was at last beginning to move in the right direction. I find it difficult to share that optimism. For one thing, none of the issues raised by US cricketers appears to have been addressed, let alone resolved. Even the Under-19 team preparations were not brought up. And the revelation that even the agreement between CLP and USACA on ending their disputes has not been acted upon because it is waiting on the disputants to sign off on it is somewhere between outrageous and unbelievable. If this is the way that the USACA is going to run its own business, it is no wonder that people are losing any hope that the USACA will ever be able to get its house in order — now, or at any other time.

Malinga Bandara, the 25-year-old legspinner, has been included in a 20-player Sri Lankan pool for the tour of India later this year. The probables list also includes Sajeewa Weerakoon, the left-arm spinner who has been in impressive form with the A team recently, and Upul Tharanga, the left-handed opening batsman.Bandara made his Test debut as long back as May 1998, but hasn’t got another opportunity on the international stage after turning in an insipid performance in that match. Bandara’s first-class stats, though, are impressive – 233 wickets at 25.05 – and what swung the decision his way was probably his performance for Gloucestershire in the 2005 county season: he played only eight games but finished joint-highest wicket-taker, along with Steve Kirby, his 45 scalps coming at just 24 apiece.Sri Lanka will play seven one-dayers and three Tests in India over a two-month period from October 25.The 20-man list
Marvan Atapattu, Sanath Jayasuriya, Upul Tharanga, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Thilan Samaraweera, Russel Arnold, Avishka Gunawardena, Muttiah Muralitharan, Rangana Herath, Dilhara Fernando, Malinga Bandara, Upul Chandana, Chaminda Vaas, Lasith Malinga, Sajeewa Weerakoon, Farveez Maharoof, Nuwan Zoysa, Dilhara Lokuhettige.

Hampshire almost pulled off an incredible win, in their delayed NUNCL Division Two match at Southampton on Monday.Set 264 to win by Glamorgan, Hampshire wicket lost their ninth wicket at 205, but the next 53 runs (a Hampshire 10th wicket record) came from just 20 balls.The Hampshire bowlers were still recovering from their NatWest semi-final defeat as Glamorgan amassed 263 for 5 in their 45 overs, which included the highest first-wicket stand between the teams. Newell and Elliott were particular aggressive, with dark clouds over the ground threatening rain, which never came. Steve James became the third player to reach 50, and Hampshire’s task was awesome.Kenway and Smith gave the home side a good start, but the vital wicket of the captain fell to a spectacular slip catch by his opposite number.A partnership of 81 by Kendall and Mascarenhas brought them above the Duckworth/Lewis par score, but Mascarenhas was out to a well-flighted ball from Croft, and Kendall lost his partners at regular intervals.Tremlett joined Kendall with the home crowd drifting to the gates, but those who stayed were treated to a blow-by-blow attack, as Hampshire just fell short.Tim Tremlett, Hampshire’s Director of Cricket remarked about his son, “He has scored more sixes in that innings (3) than I had scored in my career.”This victory keeps Glamorgan in contention for a promotion place, as they move above Middlesex into fourth place.