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Des Raj, a former international umpire, suffered a fatal cardiac arrest on Sunday

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Aug-2013Des Raj, a former international umpire, has died following a cardiac arrest in Pune on Sunday.Raj, 69, officiated as third umpire twice, including in the Titan Cup final between India and South Africa in 1996. His lone appearance as an on-field umpire in the men’s game was in a match between Australia and Zimbabwe in 1998. Raj was a part of the panel of umpires in the Women’s World Cup in India in 1997, officiating in two matches, including the first semi-final between India and Australia. He also stood in a Test between India Women and England Women in 2005.Raj was active in the Ranji Trophy for 15 years, since making his debut in 1986. After retiring in 2001, he took on the role of BCCI match referee till the end of 2006-07 domestic season.

A round-up of the Ram Slam T20 Challenge matches played on March 6, 2013

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Mar-2013
Scorecard
Knights prevailed over Titans by eight runs in Centurion in a high-scoring game. The Knights were asked to bat and their openers gave them a fitting start, Rilee Rossouw and Loots Bosman adding 92 in 10.4 overs. Bosman almost batted through to the end of the innings, dismissed off the penultimate ball for 91, an innings that included five fours and five sixes. He was involved in another attacking partnership, with Pite van Biljon, who blasted 32 off 16 balls and helped push the score to 196.Titans lost captain Henry Davids in the first ball of the chase. The Knights seamers Johan van der Wath and Malusi Siboto made steady inroads, picking up two wickets each, and reducing the opposition to 61 for 5 in the eighth over. Roelof van der Merwe and Albie Morkel revived the innings, however. Van der Merwe made 66 in 45 and Albie smashed four sixes in his 48. The pair put on 96 runs in 51 balls, giving their team sniff at victory. But both fell off successive deliveries in the 17th over bowled by Dean Elgar, and even though the tail took the Titans to 188, the big push Albie and van der Merwe are capable of delivering at the death was absent.Knights now have three wins from five games.
Scorecard
Warriors beat Cape Cobras by seven wickets in Port Elizabeth. Their bowlers, seamers Wayne Parnell and Andrew Birch, especially, bowled economically, to restrict Cobras to 129 for 7. The pair picked up four wickets between them and conceded just 44 in eight overs. After being reduced to 13 for 3, Justin Ontong (41) and Dane Vilas (35) put together 75, before the lower middle order took the score to 129.Warriors began the chase steadily, with a 42-run opening stand, though quickly slipped to 52 for 3. But Sambit Patel (34) and Adrian McLaren (36*) stabilised the innings in a 630run partnership and set up the team’s victory. Victory was sealed with three balls to spare. Warriors are third on the points table now, behind Knights, who trail table-toppers Lions.

Nepal have leapfrogged USA to earn a place in the World Cup Qualifiers after a dramatic day at the World Cricket League Division 3

ESPNcricinfo staff04-May-2013Nepal have leapfrogged USA to earn a place in the World Cup Qualifiers after a dramatic day at the World Cricket League Division 3 tournament in Bermuda.It was a plausible, but unlikely, scenario at the start of the day with Nepal needing to thrash Italy then hope that Bermuda overcame USA. In the end, that is exactly what happened.Nepal raced to victory with a massive 211 deliveries to spare which gave their net run-rate the surge required to keep their hopes alive. Tight bowling had restricted Italy to 127 for 9 and then Nepal’s openers – Subash Khakurel and Pradeep Airee – added 87 in 12 overs to speed them on their way before captain Paras Khadka provided the finishing touches with 22 off eight deliveries.Still, however, Nepal needed a favour from Bermuda who, by now, had no chance of progressing. Ultimately, Bermuda cruised home with more than five overs to spare, but it will have been an agonising few hours for Nepal. The hosts impressively knocked off 221 led by Chris Douglas, who made 89 off 75 balls.Nepal will now join Uganda, who had already qualified top of the group, at next year’s World Cup Qualifiers to compete for a chance to play at the main event in Australia and New Zealand in early 2015.Speaking after the match, Khadka said it was hard work more than luck helped his side into the World Cup Qualifiers. “Pressure is always there, after having lost both our first two games. We had to step it up,” he said. “Hats off to the boys for having played so well and for their determination. We had to wait for the results of the other matches, and then it happened for us. They say that when you work hard, things and luck work for you. That’s what we believe in and it worked for us.”The action is not done yet in Division 3 though, with Nepal facing Uganda in the final on Sunday. Khadka said his side would put the negatives results of the past week out of their minds when they play that game: “We’ll think positive and forget what happened. It was good that we were playing as a team today. The momentum is back and we just need to continue the momentum. Like I’ve said before, if we play to our potential, the results will be pretty good.”

Round-up of Zimbabwe’s pro-50 Championship matches played on December 8, 2012

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Dec-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAn all-round effective bowling performance by Matabeleland Tuskers took them to a close nine-run win against Mountaineers in a rain-shortened contest at Mutare Sports Club. Chasing 220, Mountaineers were seven down for 164 when Natsai M’shangwe helped them accelerate to bring down their required run-rate to less than four runs per over with three overs remaining. But by then, they were eight down, and two wickets off the 41st over sealed a win for their opponents. Seamer Keegan Meth’s two wickets and a run-out at crucial stages, and Chris Mpofu’s four wickets, proved costly.Matabeleland Tuskers’ innings, earlier, progressed through stops and starts, and was built on two significant partnerships of over 70 each. After being put in to bat, seamer Tendai Chetara reduced them to 22 for 3, and a 75-run fourth-wicket stand between opener Moeen Ali and Sean Williams, both of whom scored 48, helped them recover. But Shingi Masakadza and Donald Tiripano took two wickets each to leave them struggling at 139 for 7 in the 28th over. Charles Coventry and Glen Querl played patiently thereafter, adding 72, which helped them go past the 200-run mark.Mountaineers, according to D/L calculations, required 219 off their 50 overs, and fell short.
ScorecardThe game between Mashonaland Eagles and Southern Rocks was called off due to rain. After being put in to bat, Mashonaland Eagles batted for 21.5 overs before rain halted play, and rain would not allow play to resume again.

New Zealand fast bowler Ian Butler has admitted to having considered a move to England last year

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Feb-2013New Zealand fast bowler Ian Butler has admitted to having considered a move to England last year, a decision that would have involved abandoning his international career to play county cricket.Butler’s career has been dogged by injury, the most recent of which put him out of contention for the first Twenty20 against England in Auckland on February 9. He had picked up an ankle injury in the lead-up to the England series, during the warm-up games in Whangarei, meaning the wait for his first international game since December 2010 extended up until Tuesday’s T20.He has had a fine first-class 2012-13 season with Otago so far: he is second on the wickets charts at present, with 36 wickets from eight games at 23.52. But he did not have as good a season last year on and off the field, and that, Butler said, prompted him to consider the England move. “I would have signed over there for a county side and used my British passport [via his mother] like Hamish Marshall and guys like that have,” he told . “But I decided not to go. I didn’t pull out but I was almost about to sign.”I learned with Otago, you have to enjoy your cricket. As soon as you start taking that enjoyment out of it … like last year I had a few issues off the field and got dropped from my domestic T20 side and I didn’t even want to play cricket.”I started looking at using my British passport in England and things like that. When you’re playing in a team environment that you enjoy, and you enjoy playing for your mates and your country, you shouldn’t have to worry about what happens in the future.”Injury setbacks seemingly do not fluster Butler. Previously, after coming away from a one-dayer in 2004 with a bulging disc in his back, he was told by doctors that he would “never bowl again”. To that, he said: “You don’t believe everything the medical profession tells you.”Now, his focus is on Test cricket. The last of his eight Tests was way back in 2004 and he admits New Zealand’s fast-bowling stocks are quite full at the moment but he hopes success in one-day cricket can feed through to the longer format.”With the crop of bowlers we’ve got at the moment, I’d imagine there’s a few ahead of me. The aim now is to not give people opportunities to drop me. I don’t think I’ve ever bowled as well as I have this year. Four-day cricket is my favourite form of the game, it’s not something I’ve given up on, and I love playing it.”

N Srinivasan, the BCCI president, was reportedly questioned by India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for over six hours on June 19 in connection with a case against politician YS Jagan Mohan Reddy

Tariq Engineer19-Jun-2012N Srinivasan, the BCCI president, was reportedly questioned by India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for over six hours on June 18 in connection with a case against an Andhra Pradesh politician, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. The case relates to Reddy allegedly amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.Srinivasan, the managing director of India Cements and the owner of IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings, was asked to appear before the CBI to explain government orders allowing additional water used by his company’s plants in southern India. The investigative agency claims that India Cements – one of India’s largest cement companies, based in Chennai – invested in Reddy’s businesses in return for getting the order passed. Srinivasan was apparently called in to explain the transactions.Reddy’s father YS Rajasekhara Reddy was chief minister of Andhra Pradesh till his death in a helicopter crash in 2009. A report in says the Reddy government had allegedly allocated water to India Cements’ factories in two districts of Andhra Pradesh in violation of existing rules and regulations. The first information report (FIR) filed by the CBI cites two government orders which it claims helped the company double its production. In return, the FIR claims, India Cements invested a total of Rs 600 million (US$10.9 million) in three companies owned by Reddy. This, according to the CBI, is part of a total of Rs 1.4 billion ($25.45 million) that India Cements has invested in businesses controlled by the Reddy family.

Australia captain Michael Clarke has said that Australia need to get better at playing spin, after the side lost all six wickets to spinners during the first ODI in Sharjah

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Aug-2012Michael Clarke, the Australia captain, has said that his team needs to get better at playing spin and although the conditions pose a challenge, he expects his top order batsmen to come good in the series, ahead of the second ODI in Abu Dhabi on Friday.”I guess playing spin bowling is an area that we’d want to continue to improve as a batting group,” Clarke said. “It’s something that we’re focused on, it’s an area we need to continue to get better at.”Australia lost all six wickets to spinners during their chase, as they limped to their target of 199 in the 49th over, in the first ODI on Tuesday.Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez shared five wickets between them and strangled the scoring, going for 30 and 29 runs respectively in their ten overs as Australia hobbled to the target in 48.2 overs. Australia were in trouble when they lost their fourth wicket on 67 in the 18th over. However, crucial half-centuries by Clarke and George Bailey helped them secure a win.”We were under pressure at different stages throughout that game, our batting could improve in areas from the other night, I’d love to see somebody in our top four go and make a hundred.”Clarke said that the hot conditions and the slowness of the pitch hinder free scoring and the batsmen need to show more patience.”I’ve got two starts, two fifties (75 and 66), and I haven’t been able to go on, heat is certainly a factor, [but] more than that it’s the conditions,” Clarke said. “It’s the slowness of the pitch, slowness of the outfield in Sharjah.”Due to the conditions, and also good opposition spinners, it’s hard to hit boundaries with five fielders out [in the middle overs]. So you’ve got to bat for a long period of time.”Clarke, however, was all praise for Australia’s bowlers, who put the reins on Pakistan’s innings by taking the last six wickets for 38 runs to keep the target under 200. “I thought our bowlers did a great job against Pakistan. It was really nice to get off to a winning start.”

The pundits find it hard to arrive at a consensus over the most likely candidate capable of filling the void created by Dravid’s departure

Nagraj Gollapudi12-Mar-2012Rahul Dravid left cricket assuring everyone that India had an abundance of batting talent which could easily fill in the No. 3 slot he has left vacant. The pundits however find it hard to arrive at a consensus over the most likely candidate capable of filling the void created by Dravid’s departure. Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, S Badrinath, Ajinkya Rahane and even VVS Laxman were all the names that came up as men well-equipped in both mind and with bat in hand to tackle the various hurdles faced by a one-down batsman.”The first and obvious choices would be some of the guys who were already there in the reserves in Australia,” a BCCI official told ESPNcricinfo. He said even the likes of Manoj Tiwary and Punjab youngster Mandeep Singh were on the selectors’ roster along with the above names. “People who are performing at the domestic level would be in the fray. Finally it depends on who clicks at the right time,” the source said.The chief parameter the selectors would look out for, the board insider said, was the player’s ability to perform on the overseas tours especially in Australia, England and South Africa. “One of the most important things is batsman needs to be a good player of fast and short bowling on overseas wickets. At home it is easy. Except for Sachin [Tendulkar] and Rahul, nobody averages above 50 overseas,” he said.Pujara, after his determined 72 on debut against Australia in the Bangalore Test that India won, would seem to be a readymade replacement for Dravid. Again though, not everyone was in agreement. “He has not scored runs in the Ranji Trophy matches after he came back from injury. Also, he has had two surgeries, so with regards to fitness, he could be a concern,” the board official said. Pujara played four Ranji Trophy matches for Saurashtra this season and scored just 200 runs with two fifties. Subsequently, he led West Zone in the Duleep Trophy quarterfinals, but scored just 57 runs in the two innings with 55 in the first.VB Chandrasekhar, the former national selector, said it would not be a bad idea to reinstate Laxman to the No.3 spot. “If they are going to still continue with Laxman, he should be the No.3 for the short term,” he said. But the board official disagreed, saying a more healthy approach would be to think long-term. With India playing their next three Test series (against New Zealand, England and Australia) at home, the selectors had a good opportunity to blood a young talent.What also does not help Laxman’s cause is that he has weaker away record compared to batting at the No. 3 spot at home. Overall, Laxman has made 1611 runs across 23 Tests in that position at an average of 44.75 with four centuries. But in 28 away innings, he averages only 34.40 with a tally of 929 runs compared to 682 runs at 75.77 in nine innings in India, including his highest Test score of 281 in 2001 against Australia at Kolkata. And outside Asia, in 24 innings he has just 797 runs at 33.20 with two hundreds.If he has to look beyond Laxman, Chandrasekhar said he cannot see too many choices beyond Kohli or Rohit. Chandrasekhar qualified his answer by citing the parameters necessary to be a one-down batsman. “Dravid was successful for two reasons primarily. Considering India had a host of top-order batsmen who were aggressive and if there was an early loss of a wicket, it (situation) required him to come and stonewall. Also, if India had a good start, the team needed someone to sustain the momentum and Dravid did the job successfully again.”Aakash Chopra, the former Indian Test opener, said the selectors had the right opportunity now to actually hit upon a long-term No.3 batsman. Though he is a fan of Pujara, Chopra said his other choice would be Badrinath, who played two Tests in the homes series against South Africa in 2010 but never played again. “He has been the prolific batsman on the domestic circuit,” Chopra said. “Allow him to be there for a while and see how it goes.”Chopra said even if age was not exactly on his side, Badrinath had the right fitness, attitude and experience to compete with the youth. “He might be on the wrong side of 30s so to speak, but he is as fit as, or even fitter, than anybody else. And he knows how to score big runs.”Badrinath’s case inside the board, however, does not have much support. “Not only is he 30-plus, but he has been tested already. He is a good player at domestic level but unfortunately does not seem to fit at the highest level.” The official said the selectors would not be bothered even if the player was inexperienced as long as they felt he had the X-factor. He even cited the example of the Rahul Sharma, the Punjab legspinner, who was criticised as a gamble.”Some have that and some don’t. When the selectors picked Rahul Sharma, they were criticised because he had only played a handful of first-class matches and hardly got any wickets. But he has bowled well in whatever matches he has played. It was a gamble but the selectors had faith in him,” the official said.Asked if Kohli was not being groomed for the No.4 slot once Sachin Tendulkar retires, the board source said the selectors would have to keep their options open. “Depends. Three to six are slots where a lot of places would open up as the selectors would have to look beyond the seniors.”Edited by Kanishkaa Balachandran

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has formed a four-member committee to inquire into the alleged spot-fixing approach made to Mashrafe Mortaza

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Feb-2012The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has formed a four-member committee to inquire into the alleged spot-fixing approach made to Mashrafe Mortaza days before the Bangladesh Premier League began.Mortaza, captain of the Dhaka Gladiators, had told his franchise earlier this week that he had been asked to inform which matches he would play in and pass on other news in exchange for a cut of the spot-fixing earnings.The committee to look into the controversy will be headed by BCB senior vice-president Mahbub Anam. The other members are chairman of the BPL governing council Gazi Ashraf Hossain, BPL governing council secretary and chairman of the BCB disciplinary committee Sirajuddin Mohammed Alamgir and acting CEO of BCB Nizam Uddin Chowdhury.”We have a zero tolerance policy towards match-fixing and that is why it was important for us to have a detailed inquiry into the matter,” Hossain said. “We are also working closely on this issue with the ACSU officials present in Dhaka for the BPL and the ICC.”Mortaza and his franchise’s manager met ACSU representative Howard Beer and the BPL chairman on Friday to provide them more information about the approach.

Shakib Al Hasan has said although the conditions in Bulawayo were more to Bangladesh’s liking, it was a good performance that led to their first victory of the tour

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Aug-2011A change of venue brought a change of luck for Bangladesh as they picked up their first win of the tour, at the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo. It was their fifth win in seven completed matches at the ground, but their captain Shakib Al Hasan played down the role of the conditions, saying it was a good performance that brought the change in fortune.”I think this suits us more than the Harare ground,” Shakib said. “The wicket had some spin, enough for our bowlers to do something. I don’t think we always win here because it suits us; we played good cricket today. The spinners were steady and Rubel [Hossain] bowled brilliantly. Today all the three parts clicked, though we can still improve our game and be more consistent.”Bangladesh came into the ODI series as favourites, having dominated Zimbabwe in recent years – they had won the last six bilateral ODI series between the two countries before this one. Shakib admitted that now that they had lost the series there was less pressure, which helped, but pointed to the team’s lack of cricket in recent months as one of the main reasons for the 3-1 scoreline in favour of Zimbabwe.Before this tour Bangladesh had not played since April, and apart from Shakib, who played in the IPL and then for Worcestershire, and Tamim Iqbal, who played for Nottinghamshire in the Friends life T20, the rest of the Bangladesh players have not had much cricket since then.”There was individual pressure on players; plus we haven’t played competitive cricket for three months, except for me and Tamim,” Shakib said. “It was difficult to adjust for the others. I and Tamim had the mindset, but the rest felt some pressure. If we could have adjusted a bit earlier, it would have helped.”Though the win will not affect the series result, Shakib said there were positives to take from it, and was particularly happy with the new players in the Bangladesh team. Nasir Hossain and Shuvagoto Hom have both made impressive starts to their careers, and Shuvagoto helped steer Bangladesh to victory today in the company of Shakib. “I am very satisfied with them. The way Shuvagoto batted, I really liked it. It didn’t seem as if he was someone new to international cricket.”I still think we should have finished today’s game better. We needed 70-odd and we had lost four wickets. If I had got out suddenly, there would have been a lot of pressure on the new batsmen. Senior players should take the responsibility of finishing the game. But I liked the way our top-order batsmen showed a positive mindset, something that we wanted from the beginning. We still have one more game to go and if we can finish that on a high note, there’ll be some positives we can take back home.”Alan Butcher, Zimbabwe’s coach, said his side had not become complacent and were determined to stop Bangladesh from winning the last game, on August 21 in Bulawayo.”We spoke a lot about not getting complacent because we have already won the series,” Butcher said. “We wanted to win the series 5-0. But on the day we’ve played poorly and Bangladesh deserve to win. We had a good wicket to bat on and ended up 60-80 runs short of a competitive target. There were soft dismissals, a silly run-out and a collapse at the end. Apart from [Brendan] Taylor, who was excellent, the rest of the batting was ordinary.”Zimbabwe were without their star bowler of this tour, Brian Vitori, in Bulawayo because of an injury, but Butcher said he could be back for the last game.”Vitori was having problems with his calf muscle during the last game in Harare so we decided it was better to rest him before it got worse. Hopefully he’ll be ready for Sunday. But we won’t play him if he’s not 100% fit.”Butcher said he was aware Bangladesh were improving as the series went on but said the defeat was more due to their own mistakes. “We saw in the last game in Harare that Bangladesh were improving, but we expected more of ourselves than what we produced today. We need to turn that around on Sunday.”