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Sachin Tendulkar is seriously contemplating retiring from one-day cricket after India’s home engagements against Pakistan and Australia later this season, it is reliably learnt.Tendulkar, one-day cricket’s most prolific and dominant batsman, will, however, continue playing Tests and will travel to Australia in December.Sources close to Tendulkar said he was inclined to announce his retirement on this tour but was persuaded by friends to do so at home. India are scheduled to play seven ODIs against Australia and five against Pakistan before the end of the year.Tendulkar had, along with Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, opted out of the forthcoming World Twenty20 in South Africa.Earlier this week, he told the of the toll one-day cricket was taking on his body. “I enjoy every moment I have on a cricket field, but the recovery times between games these days are difficult, especially for one-day internationals, and that’s my major obstacle,” he said. “It does take its toll on the body. When you are 22 or 23, you recover a lot more quickly. But at 34, it’s not so easy.”His innings at The Oval on Wednesday provided evidence of that; the last few minutes saw him hobbling with cramps, barely able to run the singles and, after his dismissal, taking a long time to climb the stairs to the dressing room.Most of that innings, though, was spent in the kind of form he has displayed through this tour, one on which he showed he’d lost little of his formidability in one-day cricket. He began with two 90s against South Africa in Ireland, helping India win the series from being one down.Restored to the top of the order after an indifferent World Cup where he batted in the middle order, Tendulkar has allowed himself the freedom to play the strokes of his majestic youth – the majestic cover drive, the pull and the lofted drive down the ground – and runs have flowed, both consistently and quickly.In ten innings in the series so far, he has plundered 548 runs, with four 90s, at a strike rate of 84.3. The tour also reunited him with his opening partner Sourav Ganguly, and the pair, the most prolific in the history of one-day cricket, added four more century partnerships to take their tally to 25, 16 of them for the first wicket.Tendulkar is 34 but already has 18 years of international cricket behind him; his 140 Tests and 394 ODIs have fetched him more than 25,000 runs, the most in international cricket.He has before him the example of Shane Warne, who gave up one-day cricket in the last stage of his career to help him play more Tests.

The final ODI between Pakistan and South Africa has been shifted to Lahore from Karachi following security concerns raised by the tourists.”The fifth ODI will now be played at Gaddafi Stadium Lahore on 29th October,” read a statement from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). “The venue was changed on the request of the South African team management.”On the request of the PCB, the South African team management sent one of their security officers to Karachi yesterday who held meetings with various offices of the government of Sindh. Despite all assurances given to the security officer, he felt that playing in Karachi was not feasible for the moment.”South Africa avoided playing in Karachi on their previous tour in 2003, but played a warm-up game and a Test this time, staying in the city for over ten days. But the twin suicide bombs targeted at Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister, that killed 140 people and injured hundreds more last Thursday made the situation uncomfortable for South Africa.Logan Naidoo, the South African manager, said, “We deeply regret this decision especially for the people of Karachi for having deprived them of this opportunity but unfortunately the members of the South African contingent are not comfortable traveling to Karachi. After consulting with Cricket South Africa back home, we would like the venue to be shifted to some other city.”Naidoo added that this does not rule Karachi out as a venue for future tours. “We have already played two matches in Karachi during the current tour and hope to play there on our next tour as well.”The decision is a significant one for the status of Karachi as a venue with Australia due to tour the country in March next year for the first time in a decade. The city has only recently started hosting international matches again; following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, a number of tours to Pakistan were cancelled. When cricket eventually returned, visiting teams avoided Karachi in particular.But India’s decision to play an ODI at the venue on their ground-breaking 2004 tour gradually signaled a return to the international fold. Since then India and the West Indies have played Tests there, while England played an ODI in 2005.The PCB expressed its disappointment at the decision and reiterated that Karachi was safe to hold any international event.

An interesting final day’s play is on the cards in the Buchi Babu allIndia invitation tournament between ONGC and TNCA President’s XI atthe AC Tech college ground in Chennai on Tuesday. At stumps on thesecond day on Monday, ONGC were 95 for two in their first innings inreply to the home team’s score of 383. A total of 289 runs in a daywith eight wickets in hand is a tough, but not impossible task. On theother hand, it is also possible for TNCA President’s XI to take eightwickets without conceding that many. All in all, it can be said thatthe match is nicely poised for a keen battle for the all importantfirst innings lead.Having resumed at 296 for five, TNCA President’s XI could not havebeen happy at getting only 87 runs on Monday morning. The overnightsixth wicket pair of Badri Attavar and D Dhandapani took theirpartnership to 151 before the latter was out for 62. Attavar wascomparatively subdued but got to 155 before he was leg before to Saif.He batted 426 minutes, faced 306 balls and hit 18 boundaries. Therewas some resistance from the tail but the home team’s total fell belowexpectations. Rahul Sanghvi finished the most successful bowler withthree for 90.ONGC were off a good start with openers Manoj Mudgal and Gagan Khodaputting on 52 runs off 12 overs before the former was out for 25.Skipper G Vadhera (3) did not last long but Khoda continued to go forhis shots. Shortly before close, he reached his half century witheight fours and a six. By close he had faced 67 balls and a lot willobviously depend on him as ONGC continue their run chase on Tuesday.Keeping him company is another run getter with the proper credentials,Virendra Shewag who has started off well, getting 13 runs off tendeliveries with two hits to the fence.

Kenya’s Intercontinental Cup match against Namibia has been switched from Nairobi to Sharjah as a result of the ongoing violence in Kenya which has claimed more than 600 lives.Kenya were due to travel to there later this week to play UAE, but that match has now been postponed until after the rearranged four-day game with Namibia which will now start on January 29. Kenya will then play UAE starting on February 4.Kenya has been rocked by civil unrest since the highly disputed election victory by President Kibaki in elections on December 27. More than 250,000 people have fled there homes and some regions remain virtual no-go areas.At the weekend an ICC spokesman told Cricinfo that the situation was being monitored, but it seems that a decision was taken sooner rather than later to enable both sides to plan properly.Kenya, meanwhile, resumed training yesterday with only one unexplained absentee, Alfred Luseno. The selectors have apparently been given another option by the late return of Collins Obuya from playing club cricket in Australia. The local media reported that he had returned to press for a place in the side.

Cricketers talk of picking up habits. Batsmen make sure they remember their feet movements and bowlers talk of repeating their delivery motion. A minor alteration here, a slight variation there could be the difference between a poor day and a great one. Dale Steyn has picked up a fine habit over the last year: snapping up Man-of-the-Series awards with dangerous regularity.When someone gets one Man-of-the-Series prize, it’s time to take note; three in a row is pushing things to the extreme. When West Indies and New Zealand don’t figure you out, Bangladesh really don’t stand much of a chance. Pakistan were in some trouble too and a few more wickets there could have brought another such award. Surely thisisn’t just about speed; it’s about deadly effectiveness.”Once you find the recipe for success it’s best to stick to it,” Steyn said ahead of the first Test. “So I won’t be changing much. It’s worked so far, so hopefully I can take that form into this Test match and the whole tour.”The ‘recipe’ has been so successful that he’s stormed ahead of several South African bowlers, snapping up 100 wickets in just 20 Tests. He reached the mark two Tests quicker than legends like Hugh Tayfield and Allan Donald and left Neil Adcock, Andre Nel and the two Pollocks – Shaun and Peter – also behind.South Africa will be expected to use Steyn, Makhaya Ntini and Morne Morkel to hit the deck hard while Jacques Kallis and Paul Harris employ more restrictive methods. Styen, though, will be the chief weapon, expected to do the penetrative job.What Steyn may soon discover, though, is the quality of batsmen he’s up against. The line-ups he’s destroyed are no pushovers but this batting order could be a different proposition. “The Indians have a good side,” he said. “We will do our video analysis and find the flaws and weaknesses in their batting and bowl accordingly. I’m not going to look at how good their batsmen are or at a particular batsman, I’m going to bowl to their weaknesses. I’ll just take it one batsman at a time.”The muggy weather in Chennai will force him to stick to short bursts but Steyn insisted there would be no pressure to pick up wickets in every spell. “Depending on the day, you could possibly get in 8-10 overs in a spell,” he said. “But we’ll be looking to keep it short and sharp and keep the bowlers fresh.”That’s been the beautiful thing about the season so far. Graeme [Smith] has never put me under any pressure. I’ve been given the ball to do a job and I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to do it. We’ve got Morne [Morkel], Makhaya [Ntini] and others who can take five-fors and bowl teams out, and I get the freedom to run in and take wickets. I’ve been given the freedom in this series too, to run in and bowl sharp, short spells and hopefully I can carry my form into this series. But if not, there are others who can do the job.”Quick and straight, Steyn has shown the ability to hover around the 150kph mark but his priority, unlike a few other fast bowlers, isn’t related to the speed gun. “Polly and [Glenn] McGrath have shown that you don’t really need to have speed to become the world’s best bowler,” he said. “But it’s a good asset to have. Pace is something that doesn’t come around too often and India have found someone in [Ishant] Sharma and we have the potential in guys like Morne and myself. Again it’s where you bowl the ball that counts. It’s good to have pace but you have to take what McGrath and Polly did and hopefully add a bit of pace to it.”Has he spoken to anyone about what it takes to be successful in India? “I’ve toured with Polly in the past, there’s Graeme and we’ve got [Mark] Boucher behind the stumps who has kept to some of the best bowlers in different conditions. We all talk in the nets. The best people to speak to are probably the batsmen because they can tell you what the most difficult thing to face is. I’m privileged to have these experienced guys standing at slips or behind the wicket to me and they’re shouting something to me in Afrikaans every ball.”

Lisa Sthalekar and Alex Blackwell led New South Wales to a pair of victories to open their title defence on the first weekend of Women’s National Cricket League action. The pair put together a 98-run partnership that set up Saturday’s win against South Australia at Sydney’s Bankstown Oval. Chasing 166, Blackwell finished unbeaten on 75 and Sthalekar made 56 as they cruised to the target with 12.3 overs remaining. Sthalekar had already starred with the ball, finishing with the remarkable figures of 2 for 7 from ten overs after she won the toss and sent South Australia in. Karen Rolton (59) top scored for South Australia and became the second woman to reach 4000 WNCL runs, while Ellyse Perry, who turned 17 this month, continued to impress with 2 for 29.It was the same trio who fared best in Sunday’s match, also against South Australia. Blackwell top scored with 52 as New South Wales posted 148, but they found it tough going when Kris Britt (4 for 27) and Jenny Gunn (3 for 23) were bowling. Despite the best efforts of South Australia’s openers, who posted a 49-run stand, Perry and Sthalekar again troubled the middle order. Perry grabbed 3 for 21 and Sthalekar took 2 for 9 from her ten overs as South Australia crashed to 123 and a 25-run loss. Sthalekar was the Player of the Match in both games, finishing the weekend with an incredible 4 for 16 from 20 overs.

Rory Hamilton-Brown has been stripped of the England Under-19 captaincy after what is described as a disciplinary breach on the eve of the first Test against Pakistan at Scarborough.The ECB suspended him for the game which started on Saturday, and although he will be allowed back into the frame for the second and final Test at Derby, it will be as a player only.The ECB told Cricinfo: “Rory Hamilton-Brown has served a match ban and will be considered for selection for the match starting this Friday, 10 August. He will not be considered for the captaincy.”This is the second time Hamilton-Brown, Surrey’s batting allrounder, has been unable to lead the side – albeit for a different reason. He was supposed to captain them in Malaysia during the winter, but shoulder surgery prevented him from doing so.Now it’s possible he won’t fulfill his dream after he watched his replacement Ben Wright make a century as England racked up 530 in their first innings. The side has a five-match ODI series following the Tests, which could be his last chance to captain, if at all.The news comes in a week when speculation over his Surrey career was raised. But while he has been unhappy with dwindling appearances for the second team, he will see out his contract, which runs till the end of 2008.A Surrey spokesperson told Cricinfo: “He’s contracted to the club and as far as we are concerned he will be playing next year. He’s annoyed he’s not getting opportunities but his one-day stats aren’t very good. He’s a good youth prospect and we want to play him. He’s a part of our future plans.”Whatever happens, this will be Hamilton-Brown’s last summer for England Under-19s – he will be too old to represent them in the Under-19 World Cup in Malaysia in February.

The ICC’s Future Tours Program (FTP) remains paramount for the Indian Premier League, Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman and commissioner, has told Cricinfo. Modi also reiterated the IPL would strictly follow the two-year freeze on players post their retirement, to prevent a rush of active cricketers towards the financially lucrative Twenty20 league.”The IPL is here to stay and I am sure it is in everyone’s interest that it carves its own place. That does not mean we will play less bilateral cricket. We will all continue to fulfill our commitments to the Future Tours Programme …[which is] the most important for all countries and most definitely for the BCCI,” Modi said. He also made the point that, in most countries, the season ends by March.There is also a concern that the IPL’s economy is on a completely different scale to traditional cricket economies, an imbalance that could harm the game. Modi indicated that the IPL was aimed at protecting cricket’s primary position on the subcontinent. “As far as scale is concerned India already has the largest market or appetite for cricket. The IPL will further ensure there is little erosion of support for cricket. Other sports like football have been slowly trying to make inroads, through the English Premier League. We think the IPL will help put a stop to that.”He also downplayed fears, most recently expressed by Australia captain Ricky Ponting, that the IPL would lure experienced cricketers into an early retirement by saying the onus would be on the player’s home board. “Even two years after his retirement, the player still needs an NOC [No Objection Certificate] from his home board. Only then will we take him. Our objective is to have players who currently or in the future are playing for their country. So we will always work with other boards to ensure that we are all on the same page.”And with just five days to go for the players’ auction in Mumbai, Modi addressed fears expressed by some of the eight franchises by saying they would be kept in the loop at every stage of the IPL’s decision-making process. “We need to work with them [franchises]. It’s with their success that we will achieve ours. It’s not us against them or them against us. We are all on the same side. We will ensure we work with our partners and that’s what my job is.”

Jamie Siddons, the Bangladesh coach, has said the team’s stunted progress in Tests is because of the previous team management’s short-term goals.”I think we’ve had a short-term vision, trying to win games as we go,” Siddons told tigercricket.com. “I think my vision is more long-term with young players brought in purely on skill and talent, which have been identified.”Bangladesh had a miserable tour of New Zealand, losing all three one-dayers and then being beaten inside three days in the two Tests. “We’ve got a great group at the moment but I’m sure there are a couple of players who need to be looked at back home.”Siddons said the team had potential which would be visible in three to four months. “The potential of our opening bowlers Mashrafe [Mortaza] and Shahadat [Hossain] is enormous. The potential of our opening combination of Tamim [Iqbal] and Junaid [Siddique] is pretty enormous as well.”However, Siddons said Bangladesh’s development into a competitive side would take a while. “I have to say two years as my contract is for that period but it may even take longer to reach the level where we can compete properly with New Zealand in New Zealand, which is a tough ask for any international cricket team.”What was important, Siddons said, was that the current squad stay together along with the support staff he had picked out. “They [the team] need to travel with the coaching staff I have chosen which I think is supposedly the best coaching staff around in Bangladesh. I’d love this 15 to stay together as long as we can.”Meanwhile, Tamim, who broke his thumb while fielding during the second Test in Wellington, was asked to put a splinter on the injury. “The splinter would come off in two to three weeks and an x-ray will be done after that,” Darryn Lifson, the Bangladesh physio, said. “Based on the report we’ll have an idea about when he can start training.”

One suspects that Peter Steindl would make a decent poker player. There is his unflappable refusal to rise to the bait of controversial questions, his cool-as-Antartica recitation of facts and figures and an almost admirable disinclination to indulge in cheap sound bites where he can accentuate three or four buzz words. As Scotland’s recently-appointed cricket coach – the fourth man in as many years to embrace the role – it is perhaps hardly surprising that the 37 year-old Queenslander has no interest in picking over the bones of his predecessors, Tony Judd, Andy Moles and Peter Drinnen, the last brace of whom departed the job, amidst acrimonious allegations of so-called “player power”. But there again, Steindl must recognise that Scotland cannot afford any fresh scandals or off-field imbroglios, considering the manner in which the good vibrations which surrounded the squad two years ago have been replaced by a widespread feeling that the side have lost a little of their sheen.This week, as they venture to Namibia for a crucial Intercontinental Cup tie in Windhoek, Steindl and his charges will have an early opportunity to exorcise the memories of a rather misfiring 2007 campaign. For the last 12 weeks, the likes of Craig Wright, Ryan Watson, Fraser Watts, Dewald Nel and Neil McCallum have been forced to side-step the squalls and showers, whilst preparing for the new season at the National Cricket Academy in Edinburgh. And everybody in the squad recognises that Steindl won’t be a soft touch if they continue to punch below the standards they established three years ago when they swept to a convincing victory at the ICC Trophy competition in Dublin.For starters, he won’t tolerate excuses about poor displays being linked to the players’ amateur status: a refrain which has grown wearily familiar in the past few summers. “It would obviously be beneficial for our guys and for the governing body if there were some kind of contracts on the table, but we have to live in the here and now, and deal with the situation the best that we can,” said Steindl, whose relationship with Scotland stretches back to 1991, since when he has, at various times, played and coached with Cupar, Edinburgh Academicals, Grange and Corstorphine. “Plenty of people have commented that we need it [professionalism], and yet the situation hasn’t changed, so I can’t afford to worry about it. My task is to work with what I have got and, basically, I am excited about the challenge. We are all committed to developing a style of play which is positive, one which we are all comfortable with, and which enables us to play consistently good cricket against any opposition, whether it’s the full ODIs against New Zealand and England later this year or our meetings with Ireland, Kenya and the Netherlands, where we attempt to make an impression against the other Associates.”But, across the board, there are definitely signs of progress. Our A team will be participating against the English county second XIs, our under-19s will be part of the SNCL Premier League and our under-17s have a full programme of county matches, so we are advancing towards a scenario where an increasing number of our players will be experiencing a higher level of competition. Clearly, the main focus remains on the first XI and the Saltires, because it is very important to us that we build towards next year’s ICC Trophy [from which only four countries will qualify for the next World Cup in 2011). And that’s why we have set targets and performance measures for all the guys in the squad. What I want to see are collective performances, where as many of the lads as possible are contributing in their core areas, whether batting or bowling, and I think it is important that they are all ticking the boxes. There is a good buzz around the camp at the moment and I can tell you this: all of the guys we have in our plans love playing for Scotland, be it for the Saltires, the national side or any of the age-group teams.”One might have imagined this wouldn’t need stating, but as they steel themselves for Intercontinental Cup action, it’s worth pointing out that many of Scotland’s leading luminaries will simply not be able to commit themselves to the demands of an ever-expanding fixture list, which, in 2008, includes a fortnight in Toronto for back-to-back meetings with Bermuda and Canada, the European Championships in Dublin in July and the Twenty20 qualification event in Belfast, in addition to the mouth-watering prospect of tackling Flintoff, Pietersen, Collingwood & co at the Grange on August 17.But, for now, the onus lies on overcoming the Namibians, who remain unbeaten in the four-day tournament, and have amassed 48 points from their three outings, 22 more than the Scots, whose aspirations were blighted by bad weather, which ruined their meeting with lowly UAE in Ayr. Nor will the Africans be anything other than formidable adversaries, given the fashion in which their belligerent top-order batsman, Gerrie Snyman, produced a magnificent knock of 230, an innings peppered with more than 20 fours and 11 sixs, in orchestrating the defeat Kenya earlier this year.”The Namibians are third in the table and we are sixth, so this is a big challenge,” said Steindl. “That win over Kenya was a fantastic result for them and they are on an upward curve, but our guys are desperate to get outdoor cricket again, so they can hardly wait to climb on the plane. I appreciate that some of the boys might have difficulty getting time off from their employers or whatever, and I am very sympathetic to the amount of dedication they have for the game. But we’ll look at it, case by case. In an ideal world, we would have all our best players available all the time, but I’m aware that things will crop up which means that isn’t possible. It just means we have to be flexible.”Nobody ever entered Scottish cricket in pursuit of a lavish lifestyle: on the contrary, the phlegmatic have-bat-will-travel-for-nothing philosophy was and is a necessity for those in the front line. Ultimately, Steindl seems to have grasped that moaning about his lot is pointless – but his is still a thorny assignment in the weeks and months ahead.