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The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has again accepted a request by Inzamam-ul-Haq to appoint Mushtaq Ahmed, the veteran legspinner, as the bowling consultant of the senior team for the home series against India.A senior Board official confirmed that Mushtaq would continue in the role on the request of the team management. “We didn’t have time to call an ad-hoc committee meeting to discuss future appointments due to the Eid holidays and other problems. But because the team management made a request we decided to retain Mushtaq as consultant after speaking to the committee members.”Mushtaq, 35, was originally recalled to the Test squad for the series against England in November but didn’t play in any of the matches. He was dropped for the one-day series against England but retained as a bowling consultant by the Board. But he was released after the series.Mushtaq was seen working with the players at the nets and was confident he would be getting the nod once again. It is no secret that Inzamam and coach Bob Woolmer are both comfortable with him working with the other players and remaining attached with the team. “Mushtaq is a very experienced cricketer and knows all these players well,” Inzamam said. “He is a good communicator and they can discuss things with him without any problems. He is a big help which is why we wanted him as a bowling consultant.”Mushtaq, who has a contract with English county Sussex for this year, has taken 185 wickets in 52 Tests and 161 in 144 one-dayers. The official said this contract was a big hindrance in the Board appointing him as an assistant coach on a long-term basis. The official also said that a decision on the assistant coach would be taken after the Indian series now.In a statement to the press, the PCB revealed that it has also called upon three other former Pakistani bowlers to assist the current crop. “Shahryar Khan [PCB Chairman] has invited Pakistan legends Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis to help out the national team with their bowling whenever they are available to do so,” a PCB official said.

Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, was full of praise for the West Indies ona day when the tourists established a firm foothold in the second Test.Pakistan succumbed to a second career five-wicket haul from Jerome Taylorand Corey Collymore in the morning session, losing their last six wicketsfor only 94 runs, all out for a disappointing 357.Adding to their discomfiture, no West Indian wickets fell as Chris Gayle andDaren Ganga put on 151 runs by the end of the day, both men scoringfifties. Woolmer acknowledged the swing in fortunes to reporters after theday’s close. “West Indies had a very good day today. I thought Gayle andGanga batted extremely well and made it hard work for our bowlers. Theyplayed Danish Kaneria well because I thought he bowled a good spell.”The damage was done though by the West Indian bowling and Woolmerrecognized their efforts with the new ball, taken first thing in themorning. “The ball started swinging and that was crucial. They bowledextremely well with the new ball and produced some excellent deliveries.We would have obviously liked to score more runs.”The collapse was initiated early, Taylor removing Inzamam-ul-Haq with oneof the excellent deliveries Woolmer mentioned. Speared in to his pads, itcut away sharply and caught his edge; squared up, Inzamam looked to havebeen beaten by a fast leg-break. Taylor happily called it a prize wicket.”We all know how dangerous Inzi is and I was very happy with it.”At the other end, Collymore pulled out an unstinting, behemoth spell of 15overs. Taylor said, “He kept up the pressure from the other end and reallybowled well.” He might have added without any fortune, as two catches weredropped off his bowling and batsmen beaten regularly. It has been his fatethus far in the series.The tourists moved into a robust position by the end of the day, at 151for no loss, 206 runs behind. A first Test victory in Pakistan for 16years is more tangible than it has been at any time since, during whichthey have suffered four heavy Test defeats on the trot. Much work remainsto be done and the pitch is showing no signs of offering help tobowlers.”The wicket is not conducive to fast bowling and there is still a lot ofwork to be done. It actually gets better for batting. But we just have tobowl in the right areas and if we can do that again, then we aredefinitely in with a chance,” said Taylor.

Guyana 6 for 1 trail Windward Islands 189 (Sebastien 63, Nagamootoo 5-68) by 183 runs
ScorecardMahendra Nagamootoo grabbed a five-wicket haul to sink Windward Islands for a paltry 189 as Guyana seized the honours on the opening day of the Carib Series match in Grenada.Nagamootoo spun out the key wickets of Junior Murray, Rawl Lewis and Liam Sebastian at vital junctures to break the Windwards backbone. An 85-run sixth-wicket partnership between Murray (34) and Sebastian (63) threatened a Windswards fightback when Nagamootoo trapped the duo in space of two overs to put Guyana back on top.For Windwards Craig Emmanuel (32) put up a brief fight at the top before Murray and Sebastian lifted them out of ignominy from a wobbly 62 for 5 to 147. Sebastian was the aggressor, blasting six fours and a six but once the duo fell Narsingh Ramnarine mopped up the tail. Guyana lost Krishna Arjune, the opener, off the last ball to reach 6 for 1 at stumps.

There will be a tendency to dismiss as inconsequential India’s2-0 Test series victory over Zimbabwe. After all, it was a winachieved against the ninth-ranked Test nation – out of 10, it maybe added. Also, as I stated in an earlier column, it does notmatter that India is rated number seven or eight in the currentTest rankings. In home conditions, the Indian team makes forrather formidable opposition, borne out by the fact that only oneteam has won a Test series here in the last 15 years. Even topranked Australia came a cropper in their bid to cross the “finalfrontier” a year ago.That said, it must not be forgotten that India won both thematches in the series, something they were unable to achieveagainst the same team in their last series played here some 15months ago. Andy Flower thwarted India from registering a secondvictory on that occasion, and the left-hander’s failure this timewas certainly one reason why India made a sweep of the seriesfairly comfortably, the rather unconvincing achievement of theNew Delhi win notwithstanding. With all the huffing and puffingat the Feroz Shah Kotla, one must remember that the victorymargin in the first Test was an innings and 101 runs.

In the ultimate analysis, the series victory, besides underliningthe fact that India continues to be awe-inspiring opposition athome, also served to confirm the strengths and weaknesses of thehosts. Touching upon the former, one must first mention theHarbhajan Singh – Anil Kumble duo. The two look well on coursefor taking their place in the honoured list of the great Indianspinning pairs of the past ­ Subhash Gupte and Vinoo Mankad, BSChandrasekhar and Bishan Singh Bedi, and Erapalli Prasanna andBedi. The two complement each other perfectly, and notunexpectedly, they have showered praise on one another.In his 32nd year, Kumble, with over 300 wickets in the bag, is atthe peak of his powers, while his partner, 10 years younger,obviously has his better days ahead of him. Indian cricket’sstrongest point, for some years now, has been its middle-orderbatting, but the time is not far off, I venture to guess, whenthis accolade passes on to the spin duo, who shared 28 wickets inthe two Tests.Speaking of the middle-order batting, the series against Zimbabwesaw this mighty aspect lose nothing of the aura surrounding itfor some time now. Sachin Tendulkar made his customary hundred,while Rahul Dravid used the opportunity to get into his groovefollowing treatment to a shoulder injury. If there is a suddenquestion mark over VVS Laxman, who only a year ago had scaled newpeaks and was hailed as a Messiah, it is heartening to know thatVirender Sehwag and Sanjay Bangar are around to fill that vitalnumber six slot in the middle order.But what was most encouraging was Sourav Ganguly finally strikingform. The Indian captain has always been a classy player, but hisextended bad run saw some critics baying for his blood. I, forone, did not join the growing list of detractors. To me,Ganguly’s case will always be paralleled with that of GundappaViswanath who too, more than once during his 91-Test career, wentthrough a bad patch that led to the “experts” calling for hisremoval. The selectors, however, displayed more wisdom than thedetractors, and the Karnataka stylist repaid this confidencehandsomely. Similarly, I can only see Ganguly getting better andbetter from here on.Shiv Sunder Das, I have always believed, is on course toovertaking Navjot Singh Sidhu as the finest Indian openingbatsman in the post-Gavaskar period. The just-concluded seriesconfirmed this view. It can also be taken as confirmed that DeepDasgupta has played his last Test match. The doors are now wideopen for Ajay Ratra, who can grab this opportunity to cement hisplace in the side as a specialist wicket-keeper whose batting isa bonus. Bangar, who opens the batting for Railways, could be asuitable contender to become Das’ partner at the top of theorder.

There was little wrong with the new ball attack, with JavagalSrinath and Zaheer Khan capable of making the earlybreakthroughs. The latter was particularly impressive, his speed,swing, line and length all having the Zimbabwe batsmen hopping.As far as home conditions go, I emphasise, there seems to be noproblem with the Indian attack, and it is to be hoped that Bangarwill work on his bowling skills to become the kind of all-rounderthat Indian cricket has needed for so long.A word about the visitors. In a nutshell, they proved to begallant losers. They were badly outplayed at Nagpur, but within afew days, they were able to raise the level of their game severalnotches to run India pretty close at the Kotla. Overall, however,their batsmen found Kumble and Harbhajan too hot to handle, whilethe bowlers were no match for the run-hungry Indian batsmen.But a bright future surely awaits Ray Price. The 25-year-oldleft-arm spinner displayed tenacity of purpose, a tantalisinglength and line, besides biting turn on a pitch that was onlyslightly helpful. Even the reputation of being the best playersof spin did not aid the Indian batsmen in overcoming the guilesof Price, and however long he plays the game, the fact that hedismissed Tendulkar three times running ­ twice for scores lessthan 50 ­ could remain his proudest achievement.

Zimbabwe Cricket’s player contracts debate took a surprise turn after the board withdrew the contract offers to three players – Stuart Carlisle, Neil Ferreira and Barney Rogers.On Thursday, ZC announced that only three players – Heath Streak, Tatenda Taibu and Andy Blignaut – would get long-term contracts, but four other senior players, Trevor Gripper, DougMarillier, Mark Vermuelen and Mluleki Nkala, did not even make the initial list of 27 players to get the level-one performance-based contracts.The board said that the decision to give short-term performance-related contracts had resulted from recent poor displays. “It’s a strange decision,” one of the players made the offer said. “It’s completely taken everyone by surprise. It’s a body blow. We are not sure of the reasons why ZC had to resort to such a move. It hasn’t helped morale at all ahead of the next game (on Sunday against India).”The players feel strongly about the issue. The guys have discussed it and felt that they should just go on and play tomorrow to keep cricket going, but they are completely devastated by the decision.”Carlisle has been struggling with form since returning to the side following the rebel strike. But Ferreira and Rogers are two of the most talented and promising young players in Zimbabwe. Insiders suggest that the two might have had clashes with certain ZC board members. Rogers was a surprise omission from the Test series with New Zealand, and the Videocon one-day tri-series, raising rumours of a clash with the selectors. Ferreira was rather harshly discarded after his debut Test against New Zealand, and that followed a long period of him being inexplicably overlooked.Gripper, Marillier and Vermuelen, the other players cast into the wilderness, have previously fallen out with ZC, and Gripper’s father was identified by ZC officials as being one of the main figures in last year’s player strike. Nkala, one of the more experienced young players in the team, is the chairman of the Zimbabwe Professional Cricketers’ Association.

Scorecard

Fine centuries from Dheeraj Jadhav and Mohammad Kaif intensified the Seniors’ gloom as India A set an imposing target of 387 on the penultimate day of the warm-up game at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh, who could conceivably open against Australia next week, negotiated a tricky ten-over passage before stumps to ensure that the Seniors would need to score at a shade under four an over to win on the final day.The day belonged, however, to Jadhav and Kaif. Jadhav, who averages a staggering 62.66 over a five-year first-class career, made an unbeaten 260 against Kenya less than a month ago, and he carried on in the same vein against the best bowlers in the country. Having driven Irfan Pathan with panache on his way to 27 overnight, he unveiled some superb punched drives through cover and some ferocious pulls when the bowlers pitched too short. He also used the sweep shot to great effect against the slow bowlers, helped by the fact that neither Harbhajan Singh nor Anil Kumble settled into any rhythm.Jadhav and Kaif added 155 for the third wicket after Dinesh Mongia had departed early in the day, chasing a wide one from Siddharth Trivedi to put a full stop on any slim chance he may have had of making the Test squad. Kaif’s was another composed knock, characterised by typically athletic scampering between the wickets and nudges all around the park. When he got to the 90s, an edge off Kumble fell just short of slip, but his century – reached when he tonked Sehwag straight back down the ground – was otherwise a polished effort that might just pitchfork him into the slot likely to be vacated by Sachin Tendulkar.With the exception of Zaheer, who threatened sporadically, the bowling was desperately disappointing, lethargic and insipid enough to lull any watching Aussie into a sense of complacency. Kumble finally got Jadhav leg before, after he had stroked a confident 113, and then Mahendra Singh Dhoni (12) slogged one from Pathan to Harbhajan at deep square leg. Trivedi ended a brief cameo from yesterday’s hero, Joginder Sharma, but the way Kaif and Venugopal Rao set about adding 44 for the sixth wicket, they could’ve batted through the day and killed off the match as a contest.

Instead, Mongia called his lads in, and then watched as Yuvraj and Sehwag set about trying to play themselves back into form. Yuvraj treated both Amit Bhandari and Shib Sankar Paul with disdain, crashing a couple of sumptuous off-drives and whipping one down to the midwicket fence. Up on the players’ balcony, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid – padded up just in case disaster struck – watched, with the captain carefully sandpapering a new willow.They were soon joined by Pranab Roy, one of two men to be retained as national selector. And while he and Ganguly had a chat, Sehwag uncorked two magnificent on-drives to suggest that a corner might have been turned. Sadly, that was followed moments later by an atrocious hoick at Murali Kartik that, fortunately for him, fell out of reach of Rao at forward short leg.When he came back to the pavilion ten minutes later, Sehwag had the sort of beaming smile you normally associate with someone who ran into a ten-ton prop-forward and lived to tell the tale. Next to him, John Wright was shaking hands with Syed Kirmani, who had come to wish the team he had helped pick for the last one year the very best of luck. On this sort of showing, they might need it too.

New Zealand received some rare good injury news when Daniel Vettori was cleared to play in the final one-day match against Australia at Napier tomorrow. Vettori missed the Wellington match with back soreness but wants to return to bowl some overs before the first Test at Christchurch on Thursday.The desperate injury situation means Tana Canning will replace Nathan Asle, who has a shoulder problem, as New Zealand try to avoid a 5-0 series cleansweep. Canning, the allrounder, was a late call-up on the Australia tour last year and is expected to bat at No. 8. Born in Adelaide, Canning was a graduate of the Australia academy with Brett Lee and Michael Clarke, and will return for his first one-day match in 14 months.An Australia win would take them to a record 140 points on the ICC one-day table and force New Zealand to drop from second to third.New Zealand 1 Stephen Fleming (capt), 2 Craig Cumming, 3 Hamish Marshall, 4 James Marshall, 5 Craig McMillan, 6 Chris Cairns, 7 Brendon McCullum, 8 Tama Canning, 9 Daniel Vettori, 10 Jeff Wilson, 11 Kyle Mills, 12 Lance Hamilton.

Scorecard

Victoria’s search for an outright victory to keep them in touch of defending their title was damaged by Queensland’s top four as they lined up for half-centuries at the MCG. Led by the captain Jimmy Maher with 79, Queensland pushed to 3 for 270 on an ideal batting surface to frustrate the Bushrangers, who must also deny their second-placed opponents any points.The openers Maher and Clinton Perren ensured a smooth beginning with a 116-run partnership that was ended when Perren slashed at Mick Lewis and was caught at slip for 68. Maher, who won the toss, was lbw to Ian Harvey shortly before tea and was disappointed not to convert his start after a bright display.Martin Love, who has been in horrible touch, also gave up the chance for a century when he was caught behind late in the day, and his 59 was by far his best innings of the season as he doubled his aggregate. Hand injuries have cut short his summer, but he was patient early and spent valuable time at the crease. His partnership with Shane Watson, who was unbeaten on 50, caused further trouble for Victoria. A Queensland win could seal a place in the decider with one round of matches remaining.

After weeks of speculation, it has been confirmed that Ed Smith has left Kent and joined Middlesex on a two-year contract.Smith has been a marginalised figure at Kent in recent months after it was rumoured that a group of senior players had refused to accept some of his decisions as stand-in captain. Although he was offered a new contract at the end of the summer, his move was not a surprise.Smith spent nine seasons at Canterbury, scoring 8690 first-class runs at an average of 40.79. He made three appearances for England in 2003.”Ed will be a major addition to our squad,” said Vinny Codrington, Middlesex’s chief executive. “He has joined a talented and happy side, and believes that by starting a new chapter of his career with us, that he can help us win things and push to regain his place in the England set up.”

Six of Mashonaland’s leading clubs are on the verge of ceding from the Mashonaland Cricket Association and forming their own splinter league as the long-running dispute between clubs and board rumbles on.The increasingly erratic Mashonaland board expelled the six clubs – Harare Sports Club, Old Hararians, Old Georgians, Alexandra, Takashinga and Universals – after they scrapped their opening league matches in protest at the way the MCA was being run. They were accused of bringing the game into disrepute. The MCA immediately revised the first division fixtures: of all the sides who played in the 2004-05 competition, only Uprising where included, with the rest made up from clubs in the second tier.The situation turned nasty last weekend when Cyprian Mandenge, the MCA chairman, and Bruce Makovah, the province’s head selector, backed by local policemen, walked onto the ground during the match between Harare Sports Club and Old Hararians at Harare Sports Club and refused to allow the game to proceed. It is alleged that players were racially abused and threatened with never playing for the province again.The MCA now face a real problem. While it has expelled the clubs, the six contain almost all the province’s regional and national players. An official of one of the clubs told the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper: “We have got most of the national team players, and nothing will stop us from playing cricket. We do not need quantity cricket, we need quality cricket. If it means the six top clubs in the country playing among themselves, then it’s actually a good thing for our cricket.”Ozias Bvute, Zimbabwe Cricket’s managing director, told reporters that the board would only get involved when a formal notification of events was presented to it. “What we have been hearing are just rumours and we do not work on the basis of rumours,” he said. “Mashonaland is an independent body and there has to be some level of autonomy. But it is certainly a cause for concern for us when our affiliates are squabbling.”The problem affects ZC more than those comments suggest. Mandenge, as chairman of the MCA, is on the board of ZC, and Makovah was named as a national selector, although the appointment is on hold because of procedural anomalies. If the pair, as a number of witnesses claim, did threaten and abuse players, it raises serious image issues for Zimbabwe Cricket at a time it has done much to publicly clean up its act.