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Less than three months after sacking him, Nasim Ashraf, chairman of the Pakistan board, has reappointed Mushtaq Ahmed, the former Pakistan legspinner, as assistant coach for the tour to South Africa, set to begin from January 2.Mushtaq had been removed from the post hours before the Pakistan team left for the Champions Trophy in October, one of Ashraf’s first moves upon taking over the chairmanship of the board. At the time, he was deemed as “irrelevant staff” by Ashraf, though speculation centred around a combination of his close friendship with Inzamam-ul-Haq and his implication in Justice Qayyum’s report on match-fixing.But at a press conference in Lahore, Ashraf said Mushtaq was capable of serving the team. “Mushtaq has impressed me a lot with his cricketing knowledge and I think he can be a better choice for the South African tour,” he said. Mushtaq is expected to remain with the team through the whole tour, while Waqar Younis, the bowling coach, will return home after the Tests.

There aren’t too many cricketers whose initials are longer than their surname. There aren’t too many bowlers around with an economy-rate of less than 4.16 in one-dayers. Nobody has dismissed Sachin Tendulkar nine times in ODIs. And, as Marvan Atapattu said on the eve of the sixth one-dayer at Rajkot, not many medium-pacers from the subcontinent have excelled for more than 10 years on the international stage.For Chaminda Vaas, returning to Rajkot has a special significance. It was on this ground, on February 15 1994, as a raw 20-year-old, that he bowled his first-ever ball in international cricket. “It all began here and I learnt a lot from bowling on these pitches,” said Vaas on the eve of the game. “The ball swings more in Sri Lanka compared to here. Bowling on these dry wickets in hot conditions is a big test. I realised how important it is to hit the right spots consistently.” And over the last decade, not many bowlers hit them as often as Vaas.For four glorious years from 2001 to 2004, Vaas was arguably the best medium-pacer in ODIs. In 103 games in that period, he snared 146 wickets and had a staggering economy-rate of 3.95. This series, though, where he has managed just four wickets in five games at an average of 54, has been a let down and he has no qualms about admitting that his performances have been below par. “I have bowled well only in patches on this tour. I need to improve in the next two games.”In fact, his fifteen previous games in India haven’t produced too many wickets – 13 at 40.3 – but he’s been invaluable with his economy-rate of 4.44. Not many will forget his masterclass at Mumbai during the Independence Cup in 1997 when he took a wicket off the first ball of the innings, a wicket off the last ball of the innings, managed three maidens, and stunningly conceded just 13 runs in his 10 overs. The pitch was so flat that Sanath Jayasuriya and friends reached the target of 226 in the 41st over.What’s really hurt Sri Lanka in this series, though, is Vaas’s profligacy – he’s leaked 6.35 runs per over – and the pressure on the batsmen has been instantly released. The Indians went after him in the opening game at Nagpur, where he was clobbered for 67 in 10 overs, and haven’t let up ever since. “It is tough getting wickets on these pitches but economy is very important. I’m confident I can rectify the errors in the last two games and come back stronger.”However, there were glimpses of the vintage Vaas in Ahmedabad where he tied Yuvraj Singh in all sorts of knots in the early stages before dismissing him with a wonderful set-up – shifted mid-on to a short midwicket, tempted him to push in the vacant straight region and got him to mis-time an incutter.Rajkot and Baroda follow and it remains to be seen whether Vaas can find his old touch. Despite his lean patch, though, he always brings with him several other dimensions. Atapattu spoke about the value he adds to the side and said, “He works really hard and is an ideal role model for all of us. He is a perfect team man and has played a vital role in the nurturing of younger fast bowlers.” But what is the one quality that sets Vaas apart from the rest? “Basics,” said Atapattu in an emphatic manner.The peerless Wasim Akram was once referred to as the `left hand of God’. And despite his tribulations in the current series, in the one-day game at least, the boy who wanted to be priest, isn’t too far behind.

Scorecard

The Rest of India couldn’t carry on the good work with the bat this morning, but their bowlers helped them seize the initiative on the second day of the Irani Trophy match at Mohali. Fifteen wickets fell in the day as Mumbai were shot out for just 198 in their first innings. The Rest’s openers added 51 in quick time, but two late wickets meant that they had reached 84 for 2 – an overall lead of exactly 200 – when stumps were drawn.Resuming at 293 for 6, The Rest were undone by the nippy medium-pace of Robin Morris, and collapsed to 314 all out inside 10 overs in the morning. Both Parthiv Patel and Murali Kartik, who had added a valuable 95 yesterday afternoon, fell early on, and the tail hardly offered any resistance. Morris finished with 6 for 69, the fourth time that he picked up a five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.But Mumbai’s batsmen also floundered, with only two of them passing 20. Zaheer Khan had a satisfying return from injury, while Shib Shankar Paul, who had a successful tour with India A in Zimbabwe and Kenya, also chipped in with three scalps. Paul struck with two early wickets, and there were no sizeable partnerships throughout.Only Ramesh Powar’s effort helped Mumbai inch towards 200. Powar, who played in two ODIs during India’s tour of Pakistan, smashed eight fours in his 86-ball 55, and cobbled together some useful runs with the lower order. Powar was the last man to fall, and the Rest of India began their second innings with a handy 116-run lead.Gautam Gambhir and Aakash Chopra consolidated, putting on 51, but it was Powar again who gave Mumbai a faint sniff at he end of the day. He trapped Gambhir lbw for 30 and caught and bowled Sriram in the penultimate over of the day. Chopra was still there at the close with 26, and with his team well ahead and in sight of the first trophy of the season.

Harbhajan Singh is set to make a trip to the same American hospital where Sachin Tendulkar just had an operation on his right index finger. Harbhajan is hopeful that he will receive permission from the Indian board to travel to Baltimore in the next few days.Harbhajan injured his finger during India’s tour of New Zealand earlier this year, and recently had to pull out of his contract with Lancashire, after a scan last week revealed the need for an operation.”I want to get it over as quickly as possible," Harbhajan explained. "Now that it’s identified it’s better I don’t lose any time on it. Once the formal clearance is gained, I will head off for the US." He added that it is likely that he will be dealt with by Dror Paley, the same surgeon who operated on Tendulkar’s finger in April.”I spoke to Sachin and he too advised me to go in for an operation as quickly as possible," continued Harbhajan. "Since it is a hand injury, it’s better it is attended to quickly.”Speaking to the Press Trust of India, Anant Joshi, a medical expert from the Indian board, said, “Harbhajan underwent an MRI scan and X-ray on his finger after specialist Dr Sudhir Warrior, who also treated Sachin’s finger before he decided to go in for an operation in the US, advised him to do so."

World women’s champions New Zealand’s tour of India in November is still on.While the CLEAR Black Caps tour of Pakistan was postponed with the team en route when terrorism attacks were made on the United States, and the New Zealand A team was recalled from the latter stages of their tour to India, the CLEAR White Ferns women’s tour was still on.New Zealand Cricket chief executive Martin Snedden said today that as the tour was not scheduled to start until the second half of November there was plenty of time for the situation in the Middle East to become clearer.”We will proceed as if it is all go,” Snedden said.”We have a good six weeks before we need to make a decision,” he said.New Zealand is scheduled to play a Test match and several One-Day Internationals in India.

Jamaica coach Junior Bennett has said he is satisfied with his team’s five-wicket in their opening match of the Carib Beer series against Leeward Islands, but expressed concern over his team’s batting after they slumped to 20 for 4 chasing 115 before staging a recovery.”I’m not too pleased with our batting in both innings,” Bennett told the . “But we are extremely pleased to get off to a positive start. We will definitely have to look at the batsmen and talk to them before our next game. I think both our openers got out the same way twice [hooking] in both innings, which is not good.”But Bennett praised his spinners, Odean Brown, who claimed the Man-of-the-Match award for his 10 wickets and Nikita Miller, who took seven wickets. “There are some aspects of our cricket that we are extremely proud of. I think we bowled extremely well. Brown and Miller bowled well, supported by [Andre] Russell and [David] Bernard.”We took some good catches and our ground fielding was also good,” he said. Jamaica will need to sort out their batting before their next match against a Combined Campuses and Colleges team starting at Kensington Park on Friday, January 11.Meanwhile, Leeward Islands’ coach, John Archibald, said his side had positives to take from the match despite their low scores of 155 and 183 in the two innings. “Even in losing you can take away the good things. We saw some fight, some resilience. But the most important thing is that the guys didn’t hang their heads.”Anthony Martin, the legspinner, bowled very economically. The batting of young Montcin Hodge, who showed a lot of character, was also good, and it was also nice to see Javier Liburd finding his footing.”Martin took four wickets, including figures of 3 for 31 in the first innings, Hodge scored a patient 64 gathered over five hours, and Liburd scored 43 in the first innings. Leewards will be looking to gain their first points of the season when they take on Windward Islands in Grenada on Friday.

James Hopes has become the fourth Australian to suffer a hamstring injury during the tours of South Africa and India and will miss the Twenty20 match in Mumbai on Saturday. Hopes, the allrounder, was hurt during the final game of the one-day series on Wednesday after appearing in each contest as a replacement for Shane Watson, who fell to the same problem during the World Twenty20.Michael Hussey also left that tour with a serious tear while Ricky Ponting was able to recover from his strain in time to play a part in India. Hussey hopes to be fully fit for the first Test next month while Watson will aim to make Queensland’s side for the tour match against Sri Lanka starting in Brisbane on November 2.Hopes’ injury provided him with a sad end to a satisfying tour. Batting at No. 7, he collected 136 runs at more than one a ball and picked up six wickets with his medium pace. Hopes, who had played only nine ODI games before the tour, gave up 4.6 runs an over while bowling and his list of victims included Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly.Matthew Hayden is Australia’s other injury concern after missing the past two matches with a hip complaint. He batted in the nets on Thursday and will be closely monitored in the lead-up to the final fixture of the tour.

Andrew Strauss has been cleared of injury after being struck flush on the helmet by a bouncer from Brett Lee during England’s second innings in the fifth Test at Sydney.Strauss was taken to a hospital nearby soon after for precautionary scans but team officials released a brief statement saying there was no serious damage. James Anderson later told reporters that Strauss was fine. “He’s all right. He’s wandering around the dressing room with a bit of a lump on his head but apart from that he’s ok,” Anderson said.Strauss was struck in the third over of England’s innings and as the ball crashed into the protective plastic covering covering his temple, he immediately fell to the ground. The blow prompted initial concern among Australian players, several of whom rushed to his aid while medical help was called. Strauss hadn’t opened his account at the time, though he recovered sufficiently to make 29 before being dismissed by Stuart Clark.Shane Warne, at first slip when Strauss was hit, admitted the players had been worried as he was struck. “He got hit really hard so we all went up and made sure he was OK. There was some concern and once we knew he was OK we went back and he played pretty well after that.”

New ideas experimented in the Super Series have not proved to be an unqualified success. The World XI have not come close to putting up a challenge in the six-day Test – which was over in three-and-a-half – or the three one-day internationals in Melbourne.Prior to the event, the ICC said the future of the venture would be based on the success of this pilot episode in the same way players are judged on results. So the ICC is in a difficult position and the commissioning of another series is unlikely.Going by some of the post-match comments they are going to find it difficult to bank on the support of those who took part over the last two weeks. John Wright, the World XI coach, didn’t write off the idea but suggested that there were alternatives.”From a personal point of view sometimes finals are attractive, where the winner takes all, one and two [in the Test match table] over the four years. There are various concepts that are other there. It is an attractive package but it has got to produce the quality of cricket to match.”Graeme Smith urged the ICC to go away and research this type of event before staging another: “I think it is too early to make a decision and we need to take some time and go and look at it. There are other concepts around and maybe a little bit more research and it can be a good idea.”He added that for the World XI the timing had not been ideal: “I think scheduling is important; a lot of our guys arrived here with no cricket. Australia have come out of a tough series, they are cricket fit and for some of our guys it was their first game in three or four months. The concept is going in the right direction but maybe just tinker with it a bit.”But just as Ricky Ponting made all the right moves on the pitch, as far as the ICC is concerned he is saying the right things off it too. “It’s been a very enjoyable Test match to play in. I think the concept is great, the idea of this series is fantastic and hopefully I will get to play a few of them through the years.” It is amazing how pleasing something is when you finish on the winning side.So while the matches have got a lukewarm response, the other issue under the spotlight was the increased use of the third umpire. Smith said that removing the human element from umpiring does not necessarily contribute to better decisions, while Ponting said that it was important not to make any hurried decisions about the third umpire, but was happy with what he had seen. “I think we are going to have to use it more until we get a really good idea on it. The thing I would be most interested in is what the umpires think of it and how they feel it worked.”

The battle for telecast rights of cricket matches in India has heated up with the Zee network having apparently tabled a bid worth US$262million, about $30million more than ESPN-Star Sports, who were thought to be the favourites to clinch the deal. According to a report in The Times of India, Jagmohan Dalmiya, the Indian board president, indicated that money wasn’t the sole criterion in the issue, but Subhash Chandra, the Zee network chairman, expressed his confidence that Zee would win the rights.”We want the best deal for Indian cricket in every way – money is not the only criterion,” Dalmiya was quoted as saying in the report. “Telecast rights are our property. We may call a single channel or all five [bidders] for discussion before taking a decision.” Sony Entertainment Television, Ten Sports, and Prasar Bharati, the national broadcaster, are the others who have bid for the rights.ESPN-Star Sports has claimed that Zee hasn’t produced any international cricket, one of the vital requirements for a bidder. Rick Dovey, the managing director of ESPN-Star Sports, said: “They have merely acquired the rights as a license and have telecast them [the matches].”However, Chandra countered these claims. “We wouldn’t have submitted a bid if we hadn’t met the conditions,” Chandra told the newspaper. “We have one of the largest in-house production and telecasting units and channel networks in the country and have been telecasting live cricket in the US, UK, Europe and Africa for more than a decade. We had spoken to a number of office bearers and officials in the BCCI before entering the fray. They have assured us that we qualify.”Pricewaterhouse Coopers, the audit firm which is handling the tenders, has already submitted its report to the board, which is expected to announce its final decision on Tuesday.