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.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Bangladesh squandered a brilliant start by Junaid Siddique, the19-year-old debutant who smashed 71 from just 49 balls, and Pakistan wereindebted to a blazing innings from Shahid Afridi and a late cameo fromImran Nazir as they went into the semi-finals with a perfect record in theSuper Eights. Set 141 for victory, Pakistan eased home with four wicketsand six balls to spare, after Bangladesh’s slow bowlers induced amid-innings wobble.Nazir’s unbeaten 27 at the end made all the difference after a sloppyPakistani display, and would have been especially satisfying after he hadhad to retire hurt three balls into the innings, struck flush on theunmentionables by a delivery from Mashrafe Mortaza. Having swungMahmudullah for a six over square leg earlier, Nazir struck two fours offMortaza to hasten the end.Afridi, restored to the top of the order, had blazed away from the outset,with a straight lash off Mortaza forcing the bowler to hit the deck whiletaking evasive action. There was a mighty heave for six over midwicket aswell, and even the hitherto economical Syed Rasel was not spared, withheaves through midwicket and a big six over long-on.Mohammad Hafeez played his part with a brisk 23, but it was his exit,caught at long-off, that triggered a slide. Afridi went soon after, edgingAbdur Razzak behind, after careening to 39 from just 15 balls. With SalmanButt once again becalmed, the innings lost momentum as the spinnerswheeled away accurately and so quickly that the batsmen barely had time toformulate a plan.It was left to the ever-reliable Shoaib Malik to snap everyone out ofslumber, with a gorgeous flick though midwicket and a sweep that went tothe fine-leg rope. But when he was caught at deep square leg offMahmudullah, Bangladesh scented an opportunity, and Mortaza reinforcedthat feeling by trapping Misbah-ul-Haq, hero of the victory againstAustralia, in front of the stumps. Butt, who looked half asleep, was runout dawdling late on, but Nazir ensured that there would be no repeat ofBangladesh’s famous World Cup victory of 1999.The Bangladesh innings was a one-man show, but Siddique should have gonewhen he had made just 2, only for a miscued pull off Mohammad Asif to befumbled over his head by Misbah. In general though, it was a listlessopening from Pakistan, with plenty of wides and no-balls and Asif bowlingat close to Arjuna Ranatunga’s pace.Tamim Iqbal was superbly run out by Hafeez running in from point, butSiddique was quickly into his stride, playing beautiful strokes down theground off both new-ball bowlers. There was one more lucky escape, as ahoick off Tanvir evaded Nazir’s hands at deep midwicket, and Siddiquecelebrated the reprieve with an imperious hit over the rope in the samedirection.

Even the entrance of Afridi, one of the most effective bowlers in thecompetition, didn’t faze him, with two fours struck down the ground, thesecond of them palmed on to the rope by Umar Gul at long-on. It took himjust 35 balls to reach 50, and with Aftab Ahmed picking off the singles atthe other end, Bangladesh appeared well set for an imposing total.It all changed with a headless-chicken charge from Aftab, and acomfortable stumping for Kamran Akmal off Hafeez. By the time Shakib AlHasan popped one back off the leading edge in Hafeez’s next over, theinnings was in disarray, with Mohammad Ashraful having already departed,trapped in front by Afridi.Siddique heaved Hafeez for two sixes over midwicket in a bid to redressthe balance, but Malik’s decision to bowl only his second over of thecompetition killed off any hopes of a big score. Siddique went for one bighit too many, and with Nadif Chowdhury nicking one behind, it was left tothe tail.Gul, entrusted with bowling the final overs once again, ran outMahmudullah, and then struck Mortaza flush on the visor with awell-directed short ball. Asif added insult to injury by bowling himbehind his legs, as Bangladesh yet again lost the thread after thebrightest of starts. For Pakistan, it was a sloppy day out. Sterner testsawait.

Glamorgan have signed Matthew Wood, the former Yorkshire batsman who was released by the club in July.Wood, 30, failed to play in a single Championship game for Yorkshire this season. But Matthew Maynard, Glamorgan’s new manager, is delighted to have secured his services for 2008.”Matthew is a proven performer at the top of the order,” he told the club’s website. “We are very pleased to have signed a player with both that calibre and experience and I’m sure he will have a positive influence on our squad.””It’s a new challenge for me,” Wood said. “I still feel there’s plenty more to come from me. “I want to improve as a player as well and at 30, I think I’ve got a fair bit to go.”

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.

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.

Mahela Jayawardene has said the motivation to win the final Test against England starting Tuesday in Galle is to move up to the No. 2 spot in the ICC Test team rankings. Sri Lanka are leading the three-Test series 1-0.”We haven’t been there [No. 2] for quite some time and I can’t remember when we were there last,” Jayawardene said. “It’s a very good incentive for us to go out there and play our best cricket and win this Test.”Sri Lanka are currently at fifth place in the rankings, with four points less than Nos. 3 and 4, South Africa and India, who have 109 each. Jaywardene said his side had been performing consistently and had beaten the top teams of the world, home and away. “We haven’t stopped from there, but we improved on it. We got a younger group of players who are coming through. We need to guide them and make sure we push forward.”Out of 21 Tests they have played in the last two years, starting from the series in India in December 2005, Sri Lanka have won 10 and lost seven. Six of the ten wins have come at home. During this period they have won three series, two in Sri Lanka and one in Bangladesh.Jayawardene’s own record in Galle is impressive. He scored his maiden Test hundred here and has three centuries and six half-centuries from 11 matches at the venue. In the last Test he played here in 2004, before the tsunami devastated Sri Lanka, he made 237 in a draw against South Africa.”It’s an emotional comeback. We’ve seen the changes that have taken place three years after the tsunami. There are a lot of memories on this ground and a lot of people who probably have seen us play here three years ago are not with us. We have moved forward very well after the tsunami and made a lot of leaps and bounds in their lives as well. It’s a celebration moment to come back here and play a Test match. It’s been a historical venue for us over a period. I am very happy to be here and play another Test, hopefully we’ll have new fans.”Jayawardene said he would wait until tomorrow to finalise the XI. “We fairly have an idea what the wicket could do. Usually the square tends to have some bounce we have a fairly good idea of what we want to do. Around 9AM to 9.15AM the ball was doing a bit, but once it got dried up it was playing really well, the odd one would do a bit because of the dampness.”He confirmed that Tillakaratne Dilshan, who replaced Jehan Mubarak in the squad, will bat at No. 6 and was not too worried about the toss result. If you can really knuckle down in tough situations and get the advantage going for you, you should be able to turn things around, like we did in Kandy.”

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.”

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.

Adam Gilchrist is good enough to return to peak wicketkeeping form but he is running out of time to do so, according to his predecessor Ian Healy. Gilchrist finished the first day in Adelaide one dismissal short of Mark Boucher’s world record of 413, but he found himself under fire after dropping a sitter to give VVS Laxman a reprieve.It continued a disappointing series for Gilchrist, who was especially sloppy in Sydney. There he spilled a simple chance down leg side to give Rahul Dravid a life, grassed an opportunity low to his right that would have denied Laxman his century, and could not hold on when running backwards to try and snare a lob by Harbhajan Singh. In Melbourne he had been sharper and passed Healy’s Australian record of 395 dismissals.Healy said the heavy workload on Gilchrist, 36, who opens in ODIs and is the team’s vice-captain, entitled him to some leeway but he could not use age as an excuse. “He’s set the benchmark, we all know what his standards are,” Healy told the at lunch on the second day. “We shouldn’t be adjusting our standards to cope with a player that might be ageing.”He’s got to get back to his standards and he knows that. He’s good enough to maintain and get back to those standards, no question – he can do it tomorrow maybe, he’s done all right today – but he’s got to do it quickly.”Healy knows what can happen if a veteran does not retire of his own accord – he was 35 when the selectors told him in 1999 they were replacing him with Gilchrist in the Test team. He said with quality glovemen like Brad Haddin in the state ranks the pressure would continue to mount on Gilchrist unless he answered with a boost in form.”The frustrating thing for him is that it’s a long way back, because you’re only judged on your mistakes,” Healy said. “He could have a perfect game and catch everything that comes his way, and everyone says ‘you’re expected to do that’. He’s got to somehow take some specky catches so that people notice him in a positive sense – so it’s a hard thing to do – and not put another one down.”Gilchrist’s former captain Steve Waugh said it was fortunate the drop of Laxman on Thursday only cost Australia 18 runs. “For a world-class keeper Gilly’s concentration and consequently his sharpness of footwork hasn’t been up to his usual exceptional standard and this one could have really hurt Australia,” Waugh wrote in the .Gilchrist’s batting output has also slowed after 96 consecutive Tests, although he remains a potential danger man at No. 7. Before the Adelaide Test Gilchrist said he was not considering retirement and suggested he might still be in the side at the end of the next Australian summer.

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.”