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Click here for the full Greg Chappell interviewThe turnaround for India on the tour to South Africa began with the senior players forming a core group and initiating a process that involved carving up responsibilities – including mentoring juniors – among themselves and plotting what eventually turned out to be a historic win at the Wanderers, Greg Chappell, the India coach has revealed. That process began in the four-day tour match at Potchefstroom, a match Chappell called the “turning point”.Chappell was in relaxed mood the morning after the 123-run victory – which, he said, would “certainly stop or slow down” the public debate over the team management – as he opened up to journalists on topics as diverse as Sourav Ganguly’s return, Sreesanth’s emergence, and how the team had turned things around.On reaching Potch, where the management realised that everything from that point onwards had to come from the playing group. “It couldn’t come from the coaching group, we had done pretty much whatever we could do.” The players had a team meeting on their own, without the coaching staff, and talked about getting together and being stronger as a group. They started each day with a 20-minute session, with one player taking responsibility for it.”All of that has really made a difference”, Chappell said. ” I think Potch was the turning point, where Rahul was able to impress upon the senior players the need for all of them to take up responsibility.”One of those senior players was, of course, Ganguly, and Chappell said he was a mentally different batsman to the one dropped from the side 10 months ago. “He’s got a will and a desire to play for India that is very strong, it showed through in Potch and in this Test.”Asked where he stood on Ganguly, Chappell said: “He’s got a lot to offer. And we saw some of it in this Test match. Hopefully, from this point, we can go forward without this cloud hanging over the head that there are personalities involved. It’s not about Greg Chappell or Sourav Ganguly; it’s about Indian cricket. And it’s about what a successful team needs to do. And if he does the things we saw from him in this game, he can have a long stint.”Chappell revealed how, at one of the team meetings, Ganguly made a comment that he’d learnt a lot, that there’s more to life than just cricket. “Sourav’s comments were along the lines of courageous, gutsy play and I think it was Sachin that asked him what he meant bycourageous, gutsy play and he talked about how, in these 10 months or so,he’s been able to reassess a lot ofthings and cricket’s not the most important and only thing in life andthis has taken the pressure off him from a batting point of view.”That feeling, Chappell said, allowed Ganguly to bat with “some freedom thatperhaps he’s not had in his batting for a long time”.For all its drama, Ganguly’s batting was overshadowed by Sreesanth’s bowling, and even Chappell expressed some surprise at just how quickly he’d come good. “We recognised some things in Sree last year and we felt that he had whatit took to do that sort of thing. But realistically, you don’t expect itto happen in the sixth or seventh Test match. You might expect one spellhere or there, or one day here and there, but to do it forthree-and-a-half days…”The experts had said Sreesanth’s success was due largely to his seam position, and Chappell agreed. “I’ve never seen anyone do that as consistently. It wasremarkable how well the seam came out every time. The good bowlers do thatconsistently over periods and probably three or four times in an over.He was doing it six times an over, time after time after time.”He pointed to the flip side of that success, the “huge” emotionaland physical strain, and said Sreesanth had been suffering from diarrhoea yesterday. “I’m sure that it was as much from the emotional strain than anything he might haveeaten.”Chappell was asked whether Sehwag was doing the job required of a vice-captain in the early part of the tour (he was replaced when the Test squad was announced). “He was doing his job, but it’s not just two people. You need four or five. I can’t comment on the Sehwag thing as far as the selectors’ choice to change the vice-captain is concerned.”Asked whether he’d give an honest opinion on Sehwag as he’d done with Ganguly in Zimbabwe, Chappell replied: “I don’t intend to do my coaching through the media. Virender and I have got an ongoing dialogue all the time, as with all the players.”Chappell was asked whether the Test win had affected his plans for the World Cup. “There are slightly different requirements for Test cricket rather than one-day cricket but I think it at least gives us some options for things to think about andconsider. I think we have to look at what those options are and we have to facereality. At the end of the day, we’ve got to give ourselves a chance of performing well in the World Cup.”He said winning the World Cup was “a pie in the sky”; instead, a realisticgoal would be to get to the semifinals. “Then it’s a new series. Anyone canwin it from there.”

Chris Rogers has confirmed he will play for Victoria in 2008-09, ending days of speculation after he left Western Australia and was chased by the Bushrangers, South Australia and Queensland. The announcement completes an eventful week for Rogers, who was axed from Cricket Australia’s 25-man squad of contracted players on Wednesday.Rogers left the Warriors because he felt “stale” after a decade in Perth. He was also frustrated by the lack of opportunities he was given in their one-day side, which contributed to him losing his national contract as he was considered a Test-only player.”The decision to leave the WACA and my home town of Perth was not one I made lightly,” Rogers said. “I have many fond memories of my time there and wish to thank all those who have helped me achieve what I have so far in my career.”Equally, I’m looking forward to a fresh start with Victoria. They’ve proved they’re a quality side in making each of the three interstate finals and I’m really keen to make a strong contribution to the top order, and more generally within the squad. I feel I have plenty to offer the Bushrangers and will also be doing my best to create further opportunities with the Australian team.”Rogers, 30, made his Test debut at the WACA in January, scoring 4 and 15. He finished the Pura Cup season with 744 runs at 43.76 in 2007-08, a year after compiling an imposing 1202 runs at 70.70. However, the national selectors chose only two specialist openers in their squad for the next year, Phil Jaques and Matthew Hayden, and they believe other contracted players like Simon Katich, Shaun Marsh and Brad Hodge could also step into the role.Rogers, who is in England preparing for a county season with Derbyshire, adds significant strength to Victoria’s top order. The Bushrangers lost the Pura Cup final to New South Wales and their opening combination was the least stable part of the side all summer.Cameron White, the Victoria captain, said Rogers would be a valuable addition. “The top of the order in four-day cricket is somewhere we’ve probably struggled to find some consistency,” White said. “Hopefully he would give us that. He’s a player that’s played Test cricket for Australia now, he’s a proven player.”David Hussey, one of the state’s middle-order stars, described Rogers as a “classy batsman”. “[He is a] quality player, quality bloke,” Hussey said, “and would fit into our culture perfectly.”

Here we go with another round of the almost threadbare personality debate, as if one great saviour from afar or at home will save us from the seemingly interminable decline of West Indies cricket.I know many who still harbour hopes of a revival sometime in the foreseeable future, or even a few of those who are resigned to things becoming increasingly bleak, are tired of being hammered over the head with all of this negative news surrounding something that has given us all so much pride and joy for such a long time. In protesting that they have had enough, their concern is essentially that there seems to be almost an eagerness to pick apart whatever vestiges of respectability that are left.There is certainly some merit to that argument, yet it still seems that too many people, especially a few in positions of influence, harbour the belief that it’s nothing that an academy, a superstar coach, plenty money and a fully professional league won’t sort out in a few short years. Will it really matter if the West Indies Cricket Board chooses to again go foreign in appointing the apparent favourite, Dav Whatmore, as head coach?On the other hand, can Ottis Gibson or any other Caribbean candidate do anything meaningful to even slow the decline (I think we’re all agreed now that the turnaround that many were confidently predicting year after year was just a mirage)?More and more, those who were prepared to be guarded in their observations, for fear of being seen as jealous former players only intent on hitting our current crop of heroes for six, are starting to swing for the hills in the manner of the just-concluded Twenty20 World Cup.A report in yesterday’s Nation newspaper in Barbados highlighted just the latest of those instances, with the greatest all-round cricketer of them all venting his frustration that our once proud legacy has come to this extremely sorry pass, due in no small measure to players who seem totally disconnected from their relevance as West Indies cricketers.

“Players have to start thinking about the game as a team game and go out there and try and play the best for their team and forget self performances,” said Sir Garfield Sobers, who was speaking after participating in the opening ceremony of the island’s National Heroes Gallery and Museum of Parliament on Wednesday. “Cricket in the West Indies is very important to the people in the West Indies, even if the players don’t think it’s important to them.”None of this is especially earth-shattering, as we’ve heard it said by many personalities before over the past decade. But when someone of Sobers’ stature takes a turn in the players’ tail, you know it can’t just be dismissed as the ranting of some run-of-the-mill naysayer.The only living member of Barbados’ current list of ten officially designated National Heroes, Sobers was assigned to work with the senior West Indies squad as an adviser in October 2004 at the same time that Bennett King had commenced his term as head coach. Many viewed the appointment as a public relations exercise to soften the public backlash at choosing a foreigner to take charge of the regional side.His comments of two days ago suggest that even if he were sincere and committed to the effort, the reaction of the players turned the whole thing into a waste of time.”A lot of the young (players) think players like myself, Sir Everton Weekes and Wes Hall have passed and have nothing to pass on, but that is where they are wrong,” he contended. “I think we have more to pass on. We’ve been through it, we know what it’s like, we know how to build a team and what a team needs to win.”Again, we’ve heard this all before from other sources, except that you can almost feel the deep sense of hurt in Sir Garfield’s words. I wonder if he was ever made aware that another left-hander of more recent vintage (no, not Brian Lara) once claimed to be better than Sobers after being admonished by a member of the technical staff for a particularly poor shot in the nets during the 2001 home series against South Africa?Incidents like that which used to raise eyebrows or cause others to splutter in disbelief, are now accepted as a matter of course from this lost generation of pretenders. Almost everyone can refer to his or her favourite moment, either on or off the field, that encapsulates the causes for the plummet from the summit. It may be a wild swipe when the match could still have been saved or a wild swipe at a teammate at a nightclub bar.Never let it be said that the champions of previous eras were all paragons of virtue, certainly not Sobers, who enjoyed the good life and nightlife as much as anyone else. Yet as his peerless record reveals (8,032 runs at 57.78, 235 wickets at 34.03 and 109 catches in 93 matches – to go into further detail will require two more columns), he never let external distractions get in the way of delivering on the field.Compare that with the abysmal statistics racked up by most of their strutting, image-conscious successors, and you realise that the more our golden icons expose the naked emperors who now represent us, the better the chances of reality taking root and bearing fruit in the next generation.

Mike Procter, the match referee, has delayed Harbhajan Singh’s code-of-conduct hearing, originally scheduled for Saturday, until after the conclusion of the ongoing Test in Sydney on Sunday. Harbhajan was charged with a level-three offence under the ICC Code of Conduct following his on-field altercation with Andrew Symonds on day three of the second Test.”At the request of the India team manager and under the circumstances I have exercised my discretionary powers to postpone the code-of-conduct hearing until the conclusion of this Test match,” Procter said. “I am satisfied that with a further 24 hours India will have time to sufficiently prepare for this hearing.”The possibility of lawyers getting involved cannot be ruled out. The charge was laid by match umpires Mark Benson and Steve Bucknor after the close of play after they received a complaint from the Australia captain Ricky Ponting.”They reported to me that there was a breach of conduct, reported to them by Ponting,” Procter said while talking to . “It’s a level three, which is pretty serious. The umpires didn’t hear anything, they didn’t know anything about it. I’m the adjudicator at the hearing, there will be witnesses called. The end result is what I want to achieve. To answer your question, yes lawyers could be involved.”The incident occurred while Harbhajan was batting and Matthew Hayden walked past Harbhajan after his confrontation with Symonds but did not reveal any details of the accusations or the conversation. “We believe we have a very strong case,” Hayden said at the close of the fourth day.”It’s a scenario none of us want to be in, we love the game and we hope we can move forward. Andrew’s a very strong character who had a great, tough upbringing in Charters Towers [in north Queensland] and we all love him and Australia love him.”Meanwhile, the ICC have asked British barrister Nigel Peters QC to advise Procter during the hearing. Talking to PTI, an ICC spokesperson said that Peters, who is also an elected committee member of the Marylebone Cricket Club, had assisted them in the past.If found guilty, Harbhajan could face a ban of between two and four Tests or four and eight one-day internationals. The hearing will take place after the conclusion of play on Sunday.

After a wait that seemed interminable on the reserve day, the momentum inthe semi-final swung South Africa’s way off the very first ball. PieterMalan had one more delivery to complete the 19th over of Pakistan’s innings and he strayed down leg side. The wicketkeeper Bradley Barnes moved quickly to cover the lineof the ball and, once Umar Amin had overbalanced, he whipped the bailsoff in a trice to stump the batsman even as the umpire signalled wide. Somepeople called it a lucky break but South Africa’s coach Ray Jennings saidit was anything but.”We set out to try and control the first ten balls today,” Jennings said. “The wicketkeeper was picked because he was the best in the country and he can stand up to someone like Wayne Parnell [the left-arm medium-fast bowler]. You haven’t seen the best of him yet, he can stand up to the stumps from the first ball.”Barnes has been standing up to the stumps to South Africa’s medium-pacers once the shine wears off. On Saturday, the ploy of having fielders in the circle worked as several Pakistan batsmen holed out while trying to clear the in-field.”I always believed that if we got a score like 260, no side is going to bat second and beat us,” Jennings said. “The only way they could have beaten us was if the rain affected the game through some sort of calculation. Nine out of ten times teams don’t make that score. We really bowled badly last night to start off with but I was quite confident that it was a matter of time before Pakistan collapsed.”The situation overnight though was precarious. Had there been seven more balls, the game would have been decided by the Duckworth/Lewis method and there would have been no need to come back on the reserve day. When play was called off, Pakistan needed five runs off seven balls to win the game on the D/L method, albeit without losing a wicket. Jennings felt Pakistan had read the situation poorly, for there were frequent interruptions which slowed down the pace of the game and hindered the completion of 20 overs.”Pakistan really went off the ball last night,” Jennings said. “They interrupted the game 4-5 times with [by calling for] batting gloves and water. So if they hadn’t done that they might have played the final. I think they interrupted themselves and paid the penalty.”The South Africans, however, were extremely pleased with the game going into the reserve day for as JJ Smuts, the opening batsman said: “It’s much easier to score six an over off 20 overs. It’s difficult to do over 50. In a shorter game the chances become a lot tighter. We backed ourselves to win if we played a full 50 overs to win the game.”

Gloucestershire Gladiators v Somerset SabresThe floodlit West Country National League showdown at Bristol ended in frustration and disappointment for both teams and a 6,000 crowd.An exciting finish looked in prospect when Somerset posted a useful 223 all out off exactly 45 overs after winning the toss.But before Gloucestershire could start their reply the steady drizzle turned into heavier rain and the skies closed in. With the outfield saturated, umpires Barry Dudleston and Trevor Jesty abandoned the match at just after 9pm.The two points for each side were enough to take Somerset to the top of the First Division on run-rate, with Worcestershire and Gloucestershire also locked on 26 points.But both teams wanted victory to boost their title hopes and Worcestershire now have a game in hand in which to regain top spot.Somerset were marginal favourites when the rain came, although an even bigger score looked likely when Marcus Trescothick and Mark Lathwell put on 80 effortless runs in 16 overs for the first wicket.Lathwell was finally trapped lbw by Gloucestershire captain Mark Alleyne for 37, having shown glimpses of top form.Ian Blackwell’s promotion in the order backfired when he was caught behind off the next ball. But Trescothick displayed the new-found confidence of his England success with a flowing half-century.The powerful left-hander was proving difficult to contain when his wicket was sacrificed in one of three run-outs, which restricted the Somerset total.Calling for a second run to Jeremy Snape running in from the mid-wicket boundary, Trescothick was sent back by skipper Jamie Cox and beaten by a throw to the bowler’s end.When Cox himself was also run-out for 26, attempting a quick leg-bye off Tim Hancock, which was rightly rejected by Peter Bowler, Somerset were 134-4 and had surrendered the initiative.Wickets fell steadily as Alleyne defied a back problem to take 3-36 from his nine overs and it took a patient and sensible innings of 47 from Keith Parsons to ensure a testing target.After a slow start, Parsons blossomed and was aided by an unusually loose finalover from Mike Smith, who was clearly having difficulty in gripping the ball as the drizzle increased.Two no-ball beamers slipped from his grasp, one of which was dispatched for four by Parsons, who then lifted a lower full-toss over mid-wicket for the only six of the innings.He was out to the last ball, caught by Hancock on the square-leg boundary. But by then the over was worth 19 and Somerset had a total they felt confident of defending.Gloucestershire’s fielding was below its normal high standard and two chances went begging, both to the normally safe hands of Martyn Ball, including one off his own bowling.But the pitch was true and easy-paced, indicating that a close contest might have been in prospect had the weather not intervened.

Scorecard
Orissa and Railways are two teams unlikely to attract crowds at the bestof times, with the likes of Debashish Mohanty, Harvinder Singh and SanjayBangar – all low-key players even when they played for India – being thebiggest stars about. And when Orissa who lost the toss and were put in,were kept down to only 101 for 8 in 20 overs, what little interest therewas died. There was a brief flutter of excitement when Railways went from 85for 3 to 87 for 7 in their chase, but by then the match as a contest hadended. Soon enough they knocked off the required runs with three wicketsto spare.It wasn’t as though one brilliant spell from a bowler caused havoc. Orissajust did not seem to have a plan over how to approach their innings, andall batsmen came – and went – swinging merrily. The wickets were sharedaround, and fell in clutches, with the spinners doing most of the damage.G Shankar Rao, the left-arm spinner, picked up 3 for 20, while KulamaniParida, the offie, grabbed 2 for 12.It was an utterly disappointing batting performance, with no batsman evenmaking a quarter-century, which could well be the ‘decent’ individual score in this form of the game. Only one batsman even made 20, and that was Niranjan Behera, who top-scored with23. From the start of the sixth over till as late as the fourth ball ofthe 16th over – which amounts to 70 balls – not a single boundary wasstruck.Sanjay Bangar began Railways’ chase well enough, carting the second andthird balls of the innings for a six over the bowler’s head and a fourpast point respectively. Off the very next ball, though, he edged to thekeeper. From then on it was the TP Singh-show all the way. He hit fourfours and a six in his 32-ball 40 that all but settled the game inRailways’ favour. When he fell with the score on 85, Paresh Patel strucktwice in as many balls, and then Behera prised out another wicket with thescore still on 87, and there was a bit of a flutter, but Baburao Yadav smacked15 to seal the deal with almost four overs to spare.
Scorecard
It was a quiet day all round in the competition, with Karnataka playing inthe morning, having lost to Punjab just the previous evening. Karnatakanotched up their first win, by four wickets, after winning the toss andsending Gujarat in. Parthiv Patel and Azhar Bilakhia got Gujarat off to aflyer, getting to 55 in just 5.2 overs before they lost their firstwicket.Bilakhia went on to make 62, a rare half-century in this tournament, offonly 47 balls with 6 fours and a six. Patel had made 26, but there were noother scores of note in the Gujarat innings. They stitched together 151, adecent enough score, but it proved to be too few.All eyes were on Rahul Dravid, playing his first-ever Twenty20 match, buthe barely created an impression. He lasted just 8 balls, scoring asolitary single, barely attempting a big shot in his stay at the crease.Robin Uthappa, another player whose game is ideally suited to thistruncated version of the game, failed once more, using up 16 balls for 6,before hitting a catch to Biswajit Solanki off Hitesh Majmudar.Fortunately for Karnataka though Deepak Chougule had no such problems. Heplayed a string of innovative shots and succeeded in getting the ball overthe wicketkeeper’s head for boundaries more than once, scoring an unbeaten41 from 36 balls with five fours. B Akhil (35) and R Vinaykumar (24)chipped in with vital contributions in the lower middle-order, seeingKarnataka home with 3 balls to spare.

David Collier, the ECB chief executive, has said it will be very hard for England’s top players to take part in future Indian Premier League (IPL) tournaments because of the international schedule. He added that the ECB was preparing to adapt their domestic Twenty20 Cup to attract more leading players and offer an alternative to the IPL.”It is a question of finding periods of the year for this [the IPL] to take place,” he told BBC Radio Five Live’s Sportsweek show. “We are one of the few countries who play in June, that is why our competitions are so successful because we can attract the best players in the world. That is why we believe that an English Premier League will be very successful including a broad range of cricketers.”An expanded Twenty20 Cup is on the agenda of the ECB meeting this week and changes could take place as early as this season’s tournament in June. An increase in overseas players is one option on the table with more drastic changes being discussed for the 2009 event.Recently, Kevin Pietersen has said that frustration is growing that England players are unable to take advantage of the money on offer. Dimitri Mascarenhas is the only representative from England, have coming to a deal with Hampshire who will release him for two weeks.There has been talk of the IPL being brought forward so it doesn’t clash with the start of the English domestic season, but there isn’t much room in a congested calendar. “The obvious time for the IPL to play is April and May, but that clashes with the start of our international season,” said Collier.”We play New Zealand on May 15 in England, for our players to take part their schedule has to come forward a few weeks to fit into that calendar. We should also not forget that we go to the West Indies in the spring of next year. The IPL has said that the tours programmes will take precedence, and clearly that will clash with us being in the West Indies.”Collier also said that it will take time to find out how commercially successful the IPL will be and that it will have to operate at a loss for some time. “Certainly if you look over a five-to-10-year period, we can believe the claims that Indian cricket is worth a billion dollars,” he said. “But there are 10 franchises, and every one has a turnover of about eight million dollars, it is being said in India that those franchises will be making a loss for a number of years.”That is not unusual, in the US when franchises start, they make losses for a number of years. But if you are investing in such numbers, you expect a return in the not-too-distant future, and that will happen in India. But it will not be for a while.”

Steve Harmison has admitted that he was worried he wasn’t Test ready even though he took six wickets for the Lions in South Africa. He said it was only his three wickets in the second innings against the Cobras that made him feel happier and somewhere towards being ready to return to England’s attack for the first time since the summer.’It was like chalk and cheese,” he told of the two innings. “Two different bowlers. ‘Six for kicks’ looks great but it wasn’t very good and I felt I had a huge amount to do before I could consider playing Test cricket in the near future.”My action was all over the oche and that dented my confidence a bit. There was no rhythm or momentum. Not much felt right at all, in fact. Inside I knew that if my bowling didn’t improve and fast I’d be struggling and there just might not be enough time to get things right.”Harmison is playing in South Africa in a bid to get match fit ahead of England’s Test series in Sri Lanka.”Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “I love playing for England and I’m desperate to do so as soon as possible. I’m the one who instigated coming out here in the first place because I wanted to give myself the best chance of being fit and ready.’But there is no way I would jeopardise England’s cause or my reputation by pleading with them to pick me if I’m not anywhere near ready to play Test cricket. My thinking was that if the bowling didn’t get better I would tell them I wasn’t ready.”However, he was soon boosted by taking 3 for 46 from 16 overs in the second innings – albeit after a wonky start. “When the first over of the second innings took 10 balls, I thought: “Here we go again”. But after that things just clicked.”He gave credit to England’s bowling coach, Ottis Gibson. “Thanks to the work I had done with Ottis, my wrist position was much better and the ball was coming out straight. After the way I had felt before it was a helluva relief.”

Brian Lara has said that he is ready to continue playing for the national side provided the West Indian board re-selects the squad for the first Test against South Africa and chooses the best team with an assurance from parties. Lara, and six others, had earlier been excluded from the squad for the Guyana Test owing to the sponsorship row between Digicel, the team sponsors, and Cable & Wireless, the players’ sponsors.According to a Press Trust of India report, in a letter to Roger Braithwaite, the Chief Executive Officer of West Indies Cricket Board, Lara said: “In the circumstances, where neither my loyalty to the players nor my loyalty to West Indies cricket can be denied, I confirm that I am ready, willing and able to continue participating in West Indies cricket, provided that, even at this late stage, the best team will be selected with an assurance from all of the parties that the outstanding issues would be brought to the table and discussed.”The exclusion of the talismanic Lara from the squad sent shock waves around the West Indies and even several South African players hoped for the issue to be settled at the earlier and the best team to be selected. Lara continued: “I would also like to see an amicable resolution to the outstanding issues in an atmosphere of mutual compromise and respect, which would all redound to uplifting the morale and pride of the West Indian people who are passionate about the sport.”The West Indies Players’ Association also backed Lara’s stand and the president, Dinanath Ramnarine, said, “WIPA strongly deprecates the manner in which the Board issued an invitation to Brian Lara to make himself available for selection to the squad for the first Test match.”