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The packed international calendar has again been blamed for a team’s Test series loss with Bob Woolmer, Pakistan’s coach, criticising a “ridiculous” schedule. Injuries finally caught up with Pakistan as they lost the series-deciding third Test against South Africa by five wickets at Newlands.Pakistan’s problem on the third day was that the other bowlers couldn’t maintain the standard set by Mohammad Asif and Danish Kaneria, especially with Mohammad Sami having split the webbing of his bowling hand while fielding Saturday. Woolmer pointed out that three of his leading bowlers were back in Pakistan.”The current schedules are ridiculous,” he said. “You are already seeing players like Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini who are exhausted and today Asif was an example. Fatigue leads to injuries. It’s a proven equation. If you have too much fatigue, your back goes or you twinge a hamstring or get a stress fracture.”Cricket has to look at it. As a coach I have to manage these things. We’ve got Umar Gul, Shoaib Akhtar and Shabbir Ahmed sitting at home. Somewhere along the line the commercial aspects and the physical aspects of looking after players have to be revisited.”Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq was off the field for much of the final day with a back injury and Woolmer added: “We don’t know the severity of it yet but he couldn’t bend down so he came off the field. He’s had the same injury before.”He said it was too early to make a call on the likelihood of Inzamam being fit for a five-match one-day series which starts next Sunday following a Twenty20 international at Johannesburg on Friday.Woolmer said that while the series loss was disappointing sections of it had showed Pakistan’s overseas form was improving since losing all three Tests of a series in Australia two seasons ago on similar, bouncy pitches. However his counterpart Mickey Arthur will argue the surfaces were a little too much like home.However, Woolmer saved special praise for Asif, who bowled more than 125 overs in the series. “Asif has been incredible,” he said. “He’s a top quality bowler. He’s still young in Test cricket and has got a long way to mature but he’s very close to the top of his trade already. With fine tuning and greater fitness levels he’ll be a real force in the future of Pakistan cricket.”Inzamam rued Pakistan’s missed opportunity to make history in South Africa, having come so far. “We have lost a golden opportunity to win a series overseas against a top side,” he said in a televised interview. “It is one of the biggest disappointments of my career.”

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.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsBJ Watling claimed his 100th dismissal and was part of all four wickets New Zealand took•AFP

Where runs had flowed and wickets tumbled as a result of New Zealand’s assertive batting approach on the first day, the cricket was played at a slower pace on the second at University Oval, but was no less intense. The change in tempo was brought about by a battle of patience between New Zealand’s attack, which moved the ball in both directions from accurate lines and lengths, and two Sri Lankan top-order batsmen determined to cut out risk. At stumps, Brendom McCullum’s team had edged ahead on the day, consolidating their advantage in the match.Sri Lanka lost Kusal Mendis, playing his second Test, and the debutant Udara Jayasundera early to inexperience in alien conditions, but their relatively older hands Dimuth Karunaratne and Dinesh Chandimal – both playing their 24th Tests – had kept New Zealand wicketless in the second session. Their partnership spanned 48.5 overs but produced only 122 runs, because for large swathes of time they were given extremely few hittable balls. Sri Lanka had only 17 fours in the day – New Zealand had that many in their first 23 overs – and though Chandimal finished unbeaten on 83, the fall of Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews in the final session left the lower order with a lot to do.That Karunaratne got as far as 84 was because of a little luck and a lot of skill in the morning. In the first over of the innings, he left his bat raised while ducking a bouncer from Trent Boult, the ball pinging off the periscope over the wicketkeeper’s head. In the third, he edged consecutive outswingers but crucially played with soft hands so the catches did not carry to first slip.Mendis, however, did not use soft hands and a delivery from Boult slanted away from the right-hander and took the edge through to BJ Watling, who collected his 100th dismissal and the first of four catches in the innings.Tim Southee tested Karunaratne with two consecutive yorkers that hooped into the left-hander and homed in on his boot. Karunaratne inside-edged the first on to his pad, and blocked out the second confidently. Jayasundera also got a similar delivery as his first ball in Test cricket and survived.Jayasundera scored his first run by tucking Boult off his pads, but did not make another. He had watched Karunaratne slash a wide ball from Neil Wagner over the slips for four, but when he reached out to cut, he only managed a toe end to Watling.Boult’s first spell read 6-2-16-1 and Southee’s 5-1-6-0. That pressure was maintained by Doug Bracewell, who conceded only five runs in four overs before lunch.The scoring stayed slow after the break, the difference being the growing assuredness of Sri Lanka’s batsmen. Runs came via compact punches, dabs and crisp flicks off the pads – nothing extravagant. Karunaratne played the pull confidently, getting on top of the bounce and rolling his wrists to keep the ball down. With the ball not doing much for the seamers, McCullum brought on Mitchell Santner in the 30th over and the left-arm spinner was economical as well, conceding only 12 runs in his first ten overs. Sri Lanka made only 24 runs in the first hour after lunch.After 80 deliveries of restraint, Chandimal attacked, charging Santner and aiming a heave down the ground. The outside edge flew over slip. Two balls later he cut Santner for his first boundary. Karunaratne began to score more freely towards tea, thumping consecutive half-volleys from Wagner to the long-on and straight boundaries, and glancing a rare poor ball from Bracewell off his pads as well. The slight loosening of New Zealand’s purse strings was reward for diligent batting.Wagner was the weak link in the New Zealand attack, and in the first hour of the final session his economy was touching five an over while the innings run rate was around two. He bowled too full and was driven often by Karunaratne and Chandimal through the off side and down the ground. With his seamers ineffective despite the ball showing a tendency to reverse – Boult’s pace was down between 125-130kph – McCullum gave it to Santner.The wicket came against the run of play, when Karunaratne went back to cut a rather cut-able ball but edged it to Watling. Sri Lanka were still trailing by 280 but their captain took only two runs off that deficit: Angelo Mathews was caught down the leg side off Southee, the not-out decision on the field overturned by the faintest of Hot-Spots.Chandimal had got to his 50 off 143 deliveries with three boundaries, but he was less conservative in the final session, striking six more fours after raising his half-century. For company, he had the last specialist batsman Kithuruwan Vithanage, whose hard but airborne drive had been put down by Kane Williamson at short cover.Sri Lanka were 234 runs behind with six wickets in hand at the end of the day, and they will have to face the danger of a ball that is only an over old on the third morning.

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.”

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.

Paul Collingwood is determined that England put their Ashes nightmare behind them as they prepare for another packed summer of internationals against India and, in a week-and-a-half, West Indies.”Our Test form in the last four or five years has been good,” Collingwood told BBC Five Live’s Sportsweek on Sunday. “Obviously the 5-0 defeat to the Aussies was a huge disappointment but in general the form has been good and we want to get back to those winning ways.”England haven’t won a Test since last summer when they beat Pakistan 3-0. Then, as now, Michael Vaughan was injured with Andrew Strauss replacing him at the helm.”It’s bad timing again,” Collingwood said. “I feel so sorry for Michael after so much hard work getting fit with his knee, then he gets a bit of bad luck.”It would have been ideal for Peter Moores to start with Vaughany but that sort of thing happens in sport. Straussy is the favourite [to deputise]; he’s done it before last year against Pakistan in place of Andrew Flintoff.”And for the first time in eight years, England has a new coach in Peter Moores. “I haven’t come across him too much.” Collingwood said, “but we met up at Loughborough last Monday. I thought he spoke very well, is well prepared, very confident and very ambitious which is important.”England face the West Indies for the first Test of the summer at Lord’s on May 17.

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.

Yorkshire are reported to have received clearance from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for fast bowler Rana Naved-ul-Hasan to play for the county this summer despite his participation in the unauthorised Indian Cricket League (ICL). A PCB official, however, denied this was the case, and said the matter was between the county and the England board (ECB).It had been thought that the PCB would refuse a No Objection Certificate (NOC) in view of his ICL links, and even when Mushtaq Ahmed was granted an NOC last week, it was believed that was not relevant to Naved-ul-Hasan as he had played international cricket more recently.Naved-ul-Hasan will now have to submit his application for registration to the ECB which is unlikely to be refused if he has an NOC as the board has always maintained that the certificate was the key document in the process.But a PCB official told Cricinfo that an NOC had not been given, though he suggested it might not be needed in this case. “Rana is not contracted to the PCB anymore and he is not allowed to play domestic cricket in Pakistan either. Therefore, this is a matter for Yorkshire and the ECB to resolve among themselves now. We have not given an NOC because he is not contracted to us, nor will he play domestically.”If Naved-ul-Hasan does play, this would seem to indicate a loosening in the policy all major countries have so far adopted against players participating in the ICL, by barring them from playing elsewhere internationally or domestically.

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.