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Players and board officials on both sides of the border have expressed happiness at the Indian government’s decision to let the tour to Pakistan go ahead, and though security remains an issue, the Indian board insisted it would not pressurise reluctant players to tour.”India would be touring Pakistan after 14 years,” said Jagmohan Dalmiya, BCCI’s chief, “and not only do I envisage an excellent tour from the cricketing stand point but it would also help in strengthening the bond of friendship between the people of the two nations.”Speaking to Mid Day, Shaharyar Khan, chairman of the PCB, said that the move was a step forward, and would give peace talks a fillip. “I have been emphasizing the fact that if India played in Pakistan it would have a very positive effect on relations. Despite reservations and fears of some people I am confident the series would give the peace process a big push.”Pakistan’s captain, Inzamam-ul-Haq, added that tensions associated with Pakistan-India matches would gradually dissipate if the teams played more often.On Monday, a three-man BCCI delegation will brief the board and the government about security issues on its return from Pakistan. But with security concerns still playing heavily on the players’ mind, Sourav Ganguly, the Indian captain, said he would not force anyone to tour.Dalmiya took a similar stance and emphasized that players reluctant to tour would not be under pressure.”Since the government has cleared the tour, the major concern of safety and security is now put to rest,” Dalmiya said. “They are not going for war, but to play cricket. If somebody is not comfortable, he will not be forced to go. Someone else will go. These are the trusted lieutenants of the country.”

Border 239 for 3 (Henderson 126*, Pope 50) beat GriqualandWest 236 (Koortzen 64, Gidley 52, Bosman 42, Henderson 3-45) by 7 wickets
ScorecardPointsTableBorder, with two games left to play, have made a bold bid for a Standard BankCup semi-final place with a win over Griqualand West in Kimberley. Griqualand West, losing, see their hopes of a place in the final four fall by the wayside.During the evening supper break some disgruntled members of the GriqualandWest community held an on-field peaceful protest against the recentannouncement that neighbours Free State had won the cricket franchise forthe area. A memorandum was handed over to the CEO of Griqualand West CricketBoard for forwarding to the United Cricket Board of South Africa.Winning the toss and batting first Griquas made the perfect start withPieter Koortzen and Martin Gidley putting on 89 for the first wicket. Gidley (52) was first to lose his wicket and was replaced by Benjamin Hector who added a patient 27. With the loss of Koortzen (64), on 148, Loots Bosman was allowedto score freely, and hit three sixes and two fours in his innings of 42from 22 balls.Losing five wickets for 32 runs in the final six overs did not do anyjustice to the Griqualand innings as they were bowled out for 236. Tyron Henderson the pick of the Border bowlers taking 3 for 45.Border starting slowly and lost two early wickets. They quickly fell behindthe required run rate. Henderson, sent in up the order, got the runs flowingwith his flurry bringing up his 50 in 47 balls and his first 100 in 85. StevenPope, a very willing partner and content to rotate the strike, lost hiswicket after reaching his 50 in 65 balls. The partnership was worth 138 runsand set Border up for the win.Craig Sugden, scoring a quick 28 off 17 balls helped Henderson, finishing ona career best 126, to reach the target in the 44th over.

Bob Woolmer confirmed that Shoaib Akhtar was left out of the squad purely on fitness grounds and urged him to regain his full fitness by playing first-class cricket. Shoaib had said he was confused about the reasons for his exclusion from the squad chosen for the West Indian tour and had demanded an explanation from the selectors regarding the same.”There is no personal agenda involved here,” Woolmer was quoted as saying in , a Pakistan based daily. “All that is required is that he confirms his match fitness by getting back to bowling 20 to 25 overs in an innings of a first-class game and satisfies the selectors and we will be happy to have him back in the side.”Woolmer insisted that there was no contradiction with regard to the reasons for leaving Shoaib out of the squad. “The selectors and board has made it very clear that they feel he is not match fit,” he said, “and that they want him to regain full match fitness and he would be considered for selection again.”He added that Shoaib was a matchwinning bowler but said, “The selectors first have to be satisfied with the fitness of a player.”Inzamam-ul-Haq, who kicked up a minor storm last week by saying that Shoaib was left out on disciplinary grounds, also spoke about Shoaib’s omission and made it clear that he had nothing personal against him. “I think he should simply concentrate on regaining his match fitness and satisfying the selectors that he is fit,” said Inzamam. “There is a lot of cricket coming up in the next few months including the home series against England and India.”

Saleem Altaf, the director of cricket operations of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), will take up the issue of Inzamam-ul-Haq’s exclusion from the Super Series squads at the ICC Chief Executive’s Committee meeting in Dubai starting on Sunday. The ICC Super Series will involve matches between Australia and a World XI, to be played in Australia in October.Abbas Zaidi, the PCB’s director of board operations, said that Altaf would not question the integrity of the ICC selectors, but would present Pakistan’s view that clearer methods and criteria were needed for selecting the World XI teams. “This is a follow-up to the letter we’ve already sent to the ICC outlining the outrage and resentment in Pakistan over the exclusion of Inzamam from the ICC World eleven Test and one-day teams that play Australia in the Super Series next month,” Zaidi was quoted as saying in , a Pakistan-based daily. “We are not asking the ICC to reconsider Inzamam’s selection for the World eleven squads but we are only saying it would be better if the ICC make its committees more broad-based.”Zaidi said that the PCB would ideally like to have a representative on the selection panel. “Obviously the PCB comes under pressure as to what it is doing to protect and promote its players and cricket at the ICC level when such a thing happens that Inzamam is not considered good enough for selection in either the Test or one-day squad,” he said. “[Altaf] would also stress on the need to have more country representation on the ICC selection committee on rotation basis with each country getting an equal chance on the committee.”Inzamam has scored 940 Test runs at just under 59 since the start of 2004. As a one-day player, he averages 46.14 with the bat in that period.

A brisk hundred from Blake Snijman helped Gauteng take charge of their match against Easterns on the second day at Benoni. Starting the day on 4 without loss, their top three fell to leave them stumbling on 37 for 3. But Diaan van Wyk (63) joined Snijman and together the pair put on 132 for the fifth wicket. Easterns struck back by dismissing both players, as Gauteng ended on 267 for 7 and hold a lead of 132.The match was abandoned at Paarl between Boland and KwaZulu-Natal due to cracks in the pitch. Martin Bekker and Tahir Essack both brought up their fifties for KwaZulu-Natal before falling in quick succession. Robert Frylinck struck a run-a-ball fifty and remained unbeaten when the umpires called the match off at lunch.

Elite Group
ScorecardAfter Shikhar Dhawan’s heroics on the opening day, it was Ajay Jadeja’s turn to star against Karnataka at the Jamia Millia Cricket Ground in New Delhi. Jadeja stroked an unbeaten 103 to put Delhi in charge after Dhawan had departed for 130 early on day two. He found an able ally in Rajat Bhatia, who made an even 50, and Vijay Dahiya, who missed out on a half-century by a run when Sudhindra Shinde ran him out. Karnataka struggled for breakthroughs, with Sunil Joshi bowling a marathon 62 overs for figures of 4 for 117. At stumps, Robin Uthappa and Barrington Rowland had knocked off 32 from the arrears.
ScorecardAfter Ajit Agarkar wrapped up the two remaining Gujarat wickets for the addition of only 22 runs, Wasim Jaffer’s fluent 86 led Mumbai into a position of strength at the Wankhede Stadium. Jaffer stroked 16 fours in his 137-ball innings, and added 99 for the opening wicket with Vinayak Mane, who batted 158 minutes for his 28. Vinit Indulkar chipped in with 34, and Amol Muzumdar showed plenty of aggressive intent en route to an unbeaten 56 as Gujarat increasingly became lost for ideas.
ScorecardRaja Ali made 53 and Siddharth Joshi 47 as Railways stretched their first innings to 373 on day two. Madhya Pradesh were indebted to Yogesh Golwalkar, who bowled superbly for figures of 8 for 127. And after Harvinder Singh had dismissed Sachin Dholpure and Amay Khurasiya cheaply, Madhya Pradesh rebuilt through Naman Ojha and Devendra Bundela to leave the match intriguingly poised at the halfway stage.
ScorecardSyeb Sahabuddin mopped up the Bengal lower order for next to nothing, but then had to watch as his own batsmen fumbled against some tight bowling. Only Venugopal Rao crossed 30 as Murtaza Lodhgar, whose offspin fetched him figures of 4 for 34, and Saurasish Lahiri gave Bengal the initiative in a match that appears certains to have a result.
ScorecardRizwan Shamshad and Gyanendra Pandey, two of the veterans of the domestic circuit, added 114 for the fourth wicket to put Uttar Pradesh in control of this encounter at the Gymkhana Ground in Hyderabad. Shamshad stroked a fine unbeaten 103, and Pandey struck 61, after Suresh Raina had struck a breezy 49 at the top of the order. For Hyderabad, who could add only 10 to their overnight total of 236 for 8, Anirudh Singh picked up 3 for 59.
ScorecardYuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia and Reetinder Singh Sodhi all failed, but Ravneet Ricky struck a battling 71 as Punjab struggled to match Tamil Nadu’s modest total of 244. Kuthethurshri Vasudevdas was left unconquered on 91 as Tamil Nadu added 53 before being bowled out, with Vikram Singh taking 5 for 70. When Punjab batted, Rajamani Jesuraj was the surprise package, taking 3 for 50 as the visitors lost all their top-order big guns before stumps.
ScorecardDhruv Mohan made an unbeaten 93, and Kaushik Aphale chipped in with 55 as Maharashtra built a handy lead in their game against Assam. Arnald Konwar picked up 3 for 92 as Assam fought to contain the home batsmen. Dheeraj Jadhav made 37 and Hrishikesh Kanitkar 42.

Hashim Amla and Dale Steyn have been added to South Africa’s squad for the third and final Test against Australia at the Wanderers which starts on Friday. Both have played just three Tests but they are in strong domestic form and may help South Africa recover some pride after losing the series at Durban on Tuesday.The chairman of selectors Haroon Lorgat said: “Both have had exposure to Test cricket and have been in good form this season. They will bring fresh options in both the middle order and bowling departments for the third Test. We will sit down and discuss possible scenarios in the next two days.”Amla’s Test debut was in November 2004, against India in Kolkata, and he played the first two Tests against England last season, scoring 62 runs. He made a strong case for his inclusion as the leading runscorer in this year’s Supersport Series, with 873 runs from 10 matches at an average of 62.35.Steyn played in three of the Tests against England, taking eight wickets with his pace bowling. He is rewarded for his good form for the Nashua Titans in the Supersport Series, taking 41 wickets at 17.68 in eight matches in the round-robin phase.The remainder of the squad is unchanged for the dead rubber.

* * * *Lorgat also announced the Rest of South Africa XI to play New Zealand in a four-day match at Willowmoore Park in Benoni which starts on Friday 7th April. The team will be led by Neil McKenzie, who captains the Highveld Lions. Players from the Nashua Dolphins and the Nashua Titans were not considered for selection due to their involvement in the Supersport Series Final.Stephen Cook replaces Boeta Dippenaar, who has been ruled out with a bout of flu. Johan van der Wath – who recently underwent an operation on his knee – is replaced by Rory Kleinveldt and Vaughn van Jaarsveld comes in as 12th manRest of South Africa XIStephen Cook, Alviro Peterson, Davey Jacobs, Neil McKenzie (capt), JP Duminy, Justin Ontong, Thami Tsolekile (wkt), Rory Kleinveldt, Robin Peterson, Garnett Kruger, Monde Zondeki. Vaughn van Jaarsveld

Darren Lehmann has been struck down with deep-vein thrombosis as he recovers from an operation on his Achilles tendon. John Porter, South Australia’s physiotherapist, said the problem had been discovered during a routine check-up.However, the Redbacks believe the condition will not harm Lehmann’s chances of playing the first match of 2007-08. “It has been identified early and Darren will undergo blood-thinning treatment for the next three months,” Porter told .”We are very confident that this will not delay his recovery from the Achilles operation, and that he will be fit to play with the Redbacks when the season starts in October.” Lehmann will be in the unfamiliar position of playing under a new South Australia captain next season.By his own high standards, Lehmann struggled for form in 2006-07, scoring one century and totaling 607 runs at 40.46. However, he was still one of the best performers in a disappointing batting line-up.

Wasim Akram is set to hold another coaching camp for Pakistan’s fast bowlers at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Lahore later this month.Akram overlooked a similar camp last year in Lahore, where he fast-tracked a number of promising young fast bowlers into national selection. Sohail Tanvir was the most prominent find from last year, though Akram also rated highly Mohammad Aamer, the left-armer who has been impressive for Pakistan U-19s recently.The camp is expected to get underway from May 26 and a PCB official told that Akram will train several young pacers who are either a part of the Pakistan team or are knocking at the doors of international cricket.Mudassar Nazar, a former Pakistan opener and head of the NCA, is currently finalising the details of the camp that is expected to last around six days. All leading pacers of the country, except for the ones currently competing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) will take part in the camp, just a few days before the Pakistan team leaves for Bangladesh for a tri-nation ODI series also involving India in June.Akram’s media commitments since he retired in 2003 have taken priority over his coaching work, though as a travelling, freelance bowling guru, he has had considerable success, especially with young Indian fast bowlers such as Irfan Pathan. Last year’s two-week camp was the first time Akram had officially worked in a coaching capacity and though he enjoyed the experience, he wasn’t sure whether it would be a full-time commitment.

Australia and South Africa’s boards have both leapt to the defence of their players after the ICC singled out the teams in a warning they issued about inflammatory remarks. On Sunday the ICC called for players to cut down on their verbal sparring or risk disciplinary action, with its head Malcolm Speed specifically referring to the upcoming series between Australia and South Africa.”Unfortunately, since the Ashes there has been a spate of code of conduct offences committed by players which have resulted in a series of penalties being applied, including suspension,” Speed said. “There have also been a series of comments by players and former players ahead of the Australia v South Africa series that I believe make it necessary to remind the players of the importance of playing within the spirit of the game ahead of this series.”It is presumed that what prompted the ICC to target the upcoming series is Graeme Smith’s comments about targeting Australia’s middle order. “Australia’s top three batsmen are their strength, so being able to knock them over is important. That exposes their middle order, which has experienced pressure in domestic cricket but maybe not in Tests [as much]. If we get things right, we will be putting Adam Gilchrist under pressure at No.7 too.” Shane Warne later sledged that South Africa “might need [a psychologist] by the time we’ve finished with them.”But whatever it was that prompted the ICC to single out the series, the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) have fired a broadside, saying that the comments are unwarranted and demeaning to the players.”This South African team plays hard and fair and is full of experienced cricketers who have for years conducted themselves in line with the spirit of cricket” said Tony Irish, the SACA’s chief executive, in a statement. “Australian players have done likewise.”I am amazed that the ICC sees fit to warn players, and even past players, in the media. If there are genuine concerns that players may offend the spirit of the game then this should be taken up with them directly and not in the form of a public lecture. Everyone is looking forward to the heat of the rivalry which accompanies a series between South Africa and Australia. The verbal exchanges are a part of this and they simply add to the build up.”Cricket Australia told The Age newspaper that in fact it had nothing but praise for its players’ conduct since the introduction of the spirit of cricket code which they committed to two years ago.”The banter that goes with the game, that’s fine, that will always be part of the game,” said the board’s spokesman, Peter Young. “Clearly, there is no love lost between Australia and South Africa but there is no love lost between most sides and that’s fine as long as they get the balance right.”During the Ashes, a lot of words were exchanged but the series was played in a competitive and sportsmanlike spirit. The exhortation to our players it to play the game hard but fair, and by and large, we think they’re getting that right. There will always be the odd bad day and the odd mishap because of the nature of the game … and because they are red-blooded human beings.”James Sutherland, the board’s chief executive, said that there was no harm in banter between the players. “Cricket needs personalities in the game, there is no doubt about that. Characters add an air of excitement and individuality, which attracts and engages the public’s interest.”Irish went on to say that the ICC should be concentrating its efforts on Zimbabwe instead. “It is also difficult to understand why the ICC has chosen to publicly focus on the conduct of players at a time when there appear to be serious problems with the conduct of certain administrators from Boards affiliated to the ICC. In Zimbabwe cricket is in tatters. Surely we should instead be hearing the ICC’s voice in relation to the standards and behaviour of those administering the game in that country?”His comments echo those made by Tim May earlier this week. May, the chief executive of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations, backed Malcolm Speed’s call for everyone to support the ideals of the Spirit of Cricket – but also criticised the ICC’s inaction over the crisis in Zimbabwe. He said: “Players, particularly those in Zimbabwe, or those forced to play there, will find it difficult to fully accept Speed’s call when the ICC has not seen the need to intervene, or been unable to investigate, serious allegations about the games administration.”The ICC’s latest comments have also prompted criticism from former Australia team-mates Jeff Thomson and Terry Alderman. “You have got to have a bit of gamesmanship, that is what it is all about,” Thomson argued earlier this week. “It’s highlighting things that aren’t worth highlighting. They are the biggest bullshitters in the world. What a waste of space.”Alderman added: “They are putting the cart before the horse, they are almost saying there is going to be problems because of what has been written and said by players. Well, that is ridiculous. Let the game be for goodness’ sake.”