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Powered by Mohammad Sami’s five-wicket haul, Faisalabad routed National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) a paltry 97 and then gained a first innings lead of 95, on the opening day of their third-round Pentangular Cup encounter at Multan.The two third-round matches, the other one in Lahore, both started after a day’s postponement due to the Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi holiday on Tuesday. National Bank, whose only game so far in the competition fetched them the full nine points, won the toss and put Faisalabad in to bat.Sami’s figures of 5 for 31 was his second five-wicket haul in as many games. Yesterday, he was ably supported by his new-ball partner Wasim Khan (3 for 27) and Yasir Arafat as Faisalabad were bowled out in only 33.3 overs.National Bank were off to a good start with the openers adding 70, but Faisalabad wrested the initiative, restricting them to 192 for 7 at stumps. Still, a lead of 100 and over could prove crucial in this match.Faisalabad were in all sorts of trouble at 51 for 7, before Shahid Nazir, the former Pakistan pace bowler, top-scored for them with 29. Later, he took 3 for 65 when National Bank batted while Asad Ali got 3 for 57.Whichever team goes on to win this game will have a very good chance of claiming the Pentangular Cup, when the tournament comes to an end on April 26. With successive wins in their previous two matches, Faisalabad currently have 18 points to their credit. But National Bank still have two more matches left after this one.Karachi Harbour recovered to make 326 runs in the first innings on the opening day of their third-round Pentangular Cup match against Sialkot, at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Wednesday. By the close of play, Sialkot lost two wickets with 43 on board.Sialkot won the toss and put Karachi Harbour in to bat. The fast-bowling pair of Asim Butt and Kashif Daud combined to reduce Karachi to 176 for 7 till they were rescued by their eighth wicket pair of Mohammad Hasnain and Rajesh Ramesh, who put on 107. Butt struck four crucial blows early on as they slumped to a poor 97 for 5.Mohammad Hasnain, the pace bowler, produced his career-best score — making only his second half-century in 62 innings in first-class cricket — scoring 72 off 103 balls with 13 boundaries. Ramesh, another pace bowler, played the perfect second foil. He remained unbeaten with 73 to his name, that came off only 94 deliveries and included 12 boundaries.Earlier, Daud, the 20-year old medium-pacer playing in only his fourth first-class match, ended with figures of 5 for 80 in 20.4 overs as Karachi Harbour were eventually bowled out for an adequate-looking total of 326 runs.Hasnain then went on to dismiss Sialkot’s in-form opener Atiq-ur-Rehman while Faraz Ahmed Khan accounted for Majid Jahanagir.While Sialkot have lost both their previous matches in the Pentangular tournament, being placed at the bottom of the table, Karachi Harbour too were beaten in their opening fixture.

ScorecardFile photo: Stephan Myburgh blasted six fours and four sixes for his 67•IDI/Getty

Netherlands opener Stephan Myburgh’s first fifty of the tournament ensured his team cruised to a six-wicket victory against Canada in Edinburgh. Set a challenging 173 for the win, Myburgh and his opening partner Wesley Barresi began rapidly, blazing 65 inside five overs. Both players wasted no time in getting going, with Myburgh starting the innings with a six, and Barresi finishing the over with three consecutive fours, off Jeremy Gordon.Barresi was eventually dismissed for a 15-ball 33 after slamming seven fours, but Myburgh carried on to make 67 off 30 balls with six fours and four sixes, including 21 runs off an over from Rizwan Cheema. Nitish Kumar ended the carnage by trapping Myburgh lbw in the ninth over, but by then, most of the damage had been done as Netherlands needed just 64 runs from 70 deliveries. Cecil Pervez offered Canada a glimmer by picking up two wickets in consecutive overs, but Michael Swart’s unbeaten 34 took Netherlands home with 15 balls to spare.Earlier, Canada, having been inserted, rode on a half-century from Ruvindu Gunasekera (51) and late blitzes from Cheema and Hamza Tariq to post 172 for 8. Gunasekera and Hiral Patel began brightly with a 56-run opening stand, but Netherlands fought back with key top-order wickets in quick succession. Canada were precariously placed at 98 for 4 in the 14th over, but Cheema’s 12-ball 28, and Tariq’s 20-ball 40 powered the team past the 170-run mark. Swart was Netherlands’ best bowler, collecting 2 for 24 from four overs.

The third ODI of Pakistan’s tour of India which was scheduled for November 12 in Kanpur will now be played on November 11. The reason, BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah said, was because the Indian board wanted the match to be held on a Sunday.As a result of that change, the first and second ODIs have also been brought forward by a day. The first match will now be played on November 5 and the second on November 8.The Pakistan Cricket Board was keen to fit in a Twenty20 match during the tour to raise funds for the Bob Woolmer cricket academy but PCB Chairman Nasim Ashraf said the Indian board had rejected the proposal.”They [BCCI] say that since the ICC has kept a cap of seven Twenty20 matches a year for all teams, they can’t fit in this match this season,” Ashraf told PTI. “But we feel this is a match for a noble cause and something can be managed. We are still trying to convince the Indian board to review the situation. We are very keen to do something for Woolmer’s academy and if it is not possible on this tour we will look at other alternatives as well.”Gill Woolmer, Bob’s wife, had sent a letter to the Pakistan and Indian boards requesting them to play a Twenty20 international to raise funds for the academy which Woolmer had established in his hometown of Cape Town.

Goolam Raja, the South African manager, has revealed that one of his players was approached by a bookmaker during South Africa’s one-day tour of India in November 2005.Responding to a query about speculation that Bob Woolmer may have been about to write a book that lifted the lid on the match-fixing scandal, Raja admitted that there had been an “innocent” incident involving a member of his squad. Although he declined to name the player involved, Raja added that the player was not a member of the current World Cup party.”The question was just ‘What is the team tomorrow?’,” explained Raja.”In the past we would easily say, ‘Joe Soap is not playing’, but nolonger. Now we don’t announce the team, whether it is picked or not.”The players are trained to phone as soon as they’ve been approached, not to get into any discussion with these people, only to take their phone details and pass it onto the authorities. Nothing happened other than that one phone call.”That is the protocol. If a player is approached, he has to let usknow immediately because we have a system for dealing with it.”South African cricket still feels the scars of the Hansie Cronjescandal in 2000, although Raja insisted that the players were olderand wiser for the experience. “There’s a lot more awareness now thanthere was five years ago. The players are aware that there are peopleout there who are interested in finding out things we know, and theplayers are more cautious. Sometimes we took things for granted in thepast, because we never thought that these things would happen.”In the light of the murder investigation now underway in Jamaica, Rajasaid he would welcome heightened security for his players, even if itmeant more constraints on their freedom on tour. “Absolutely, if thereis one lesson that we’ve learnt, it is that you can’t have enoughsecurity,” said Raja. “We’ve made applications to beef up thesecurity, and ICC have assured us that that will be the case.”I think a lot of our players have experience of the subcontinent, andwhat we told them there is the same as what we’ve told them here. It’sa case of being vigilant. If you get a call or a knock on the doorfrom someone you don’t know, I’ve told them repeatedly to please letme know.”At the hotel, the presence of police and plain-clothes hasincreased,” he added. “Of course the central police officers aretrained to look out for people in the foyers of hotels, who notnecessarily don’t belong there, but look suspicious. They’ve beenasked to let us know.”Raja added that the news of Woolmer’s murder had not been as much of ashock to the players as the original news of his death. “The playerswere saddened to hear the circumstances of Bob’s death, it was such amacabre death, but the worse was when we first heard of it,” he said.”That was a total surprise but subsequently, like everyone else,we’ve been waiting for things to unfold.”

England’s 5-0 drubbing may have been their first at the hands of the Australians for 86 years, but the last occasion came much more recently than that. In 1984 and 1985-86, England slumped to ten defeats out of ten against the mighty West Indians, and Michael Holding was an integral member of the legendary four-man pace attack that doled out those beatings.But, Holding told Cricinfo, the pride that his men felt in inflicting back-to-back “blackwashes” would be nothing compared to the jubiliation in the Australian dressing-room at present. “I don’t think there’s a serious comparison,” he said. “Australia must feel a lot better about this 5-0 than West Indies about theirs, because the Ashes means so much to Australia, and of course England.”Having lost in 2005 this was a big comeback for them. The embarrassment of losing has spurred them to these great heights. It’s difficult to fight back when you are being overwhelmed on a regular basis,” said Holding, who took 249 wickets in a 60-Test career that included 31 wins and just eight defeats. “After Adelaide I thought it would be 5-0.”This was a team with a double-centurion, a player with a big 150 and a bowler who took seven wickets, and they still lost. What more could they have done to win a Test match? How could they come back from that? When you have been downtrodden it is difficult to lift yourself, and I never expected England to lift themselves.”Holding refused to compare the current Australian team with the great West Indian sides of his day, saying that times have changed and so too has the game. But, he added, he did not believe that Ricky Ponting’s Australians were quite the same force as Steve Waugh’s side of four years ago.”When Waugh was captain, he had Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath at their very best, and Jason Gillespie at his very best,” said Holding. “I think it was a better bowling attack, and bowlers win matches.”

Walter Hadlee, the former New Zealand captain and administrator, has died in Christchurch at the age of 91. He had been seriously ill ever since suffering a stroke after hip replacement surgery six weeks ago.For almost three-quarters of a century he was at the forefront of New Zealand cricket as player, captain, selector and manager, and three of his five sons – Sir Richard, Dayle and Barry – went on to play international cricket for New Zealand.”Spare, slight, angular, nimble and trim,” wrote Denzil Batchelor, “he wore white flannels as a fish wears gills.” An attacking batsman, Hadlee made his Test debut in England in 1937, but like many he lost his best years to the war, and with New Zealand not a major Test-playing nation, his chances were limited anyway. He was appointed captain immediately after the war, and even then he only played two matches in four years.In 1945-46 he hammered 198 out of 347 against the touring Australians, and a year later he scored his only Test hundred – 116 in two-and-a-half hours against England after New Zealand had been put in to bat at Christchurch in cold and difficult conditions.The highlight of his eight Tests in charge was the 1949 tour of England when he led a strong and popular New Zealand side which drew all four Tests, driving home the point to the English authorities that awarding only three-day Tests to the New Zealanders underestimated their abilities. The stalemates, however, did not reflect his adventurous approach to the role.Although his Test average was a modest 30.16, he was never dismissed in single figures. In a 19-year first-class career he scored 7523 runs at 40.44, including 18 centuries. He continued to play club cricket for 15 years.After retiring following the 1950-51 series against England, he maintained strong links with cricket as a leading administrator, and was a decisive president of the New Zealand Cricket Council during the Packer crisis. He was also involved in women’s cricket, rugby and hockey. He was awarded an OBE in 1950 and was honoured again in 1978 when he became a CBE.

“We deeply appreciate the public support that we have received in recent weeks and ask that we now be given time to come together as a family,” Sir Richard Hadlee said in media release. “This is a difficult time for the family and we do request privacy. Dad will be laid to rest at a family funeral next week.”A public memorial service will be held at Christchurch Boys High School at 11am on October 14 for those who wish to acknowledge dad’s innings of a lifetime and his contribution to sport, business and the community.”Sir John Anderson, chairman of New Zealand Cricket (NZC) and Martin Snedden, the chief executive, paid their tributes to Hadlee. “Walter was very much the patriarch of NZC and made an enormous lifetime contribution to cricket in New Zealand. He was one of the great figures of New Zealand Cricket and will have a long legacy in the sport.”Walter left his mark on cricket in New Zealand equally as a player and administrator,” said Snedden. “He will be remembered for his skill and dedication as a cricketer, selector, New Zealand manager, NZC Chairman and NZC President. Walter took an active interest in cricket right up until his death and will be greatly missed by NZC’s Board, management, staff and the wider New Zealand cricket community.”

Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, believes that Darrell Hair’s Test career could be over after the controversy of the past week.Hair offered to quit top-level cricket in return for $500,000 after the ball-tampering furore which lead to Pakistan forfeiting their final Test against England. Throughout the week Speed has been quick to establish that the ICC were not ending Hair’s career or cutting him adrift from the game. However, he has admitted he doesn’t know whether Hair could shake off this latest controversy.”There have been other issues in his umpiring career where people have said ‘this is the end for Darrell Hair’ – after he called Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing in 1996, and he then wrote a book, and people said ‘this is the end for Darrell Hair’,” Speed told BBC Radio Five Live’s Sportsweek programme.”Darrell survived that and has become a better umpire, he is one of the world’s best umpires, so I hope we can find a way for him to continue but I’m not sure that that will happen.”Why? Because there’s a lot of speculation…that Darrell’s career is finished, that he’s compromised. That’s not my wish, I hope we can find a way for him to continue. I would like Darrell Hair to continue umpiring in cricket matches at the top level.”Speed said it was up to the ICC adjudicator to decide whether Hair’s actions affected the charges against Inzamam-ul-Haq of ball-tampering and bringing the game into disrepute, brought up following the team’s sit-in at The Oval.Inzamam refused to bring his team out after the tea interval after Hair and his colleague Billy Doctrove’s decision to penalise them five runs for ball-tampering.Speed said: “The ball-tampering issue and the subsequent charge are very simple cricketing issues about what happened on the field. Whether it impacts on Darrell Hair’s credit I don’t know, that’s a matter for Pakistan’s lawyers whether to raise that, and then for the adjudicator to decide whether he takes that into account.”Shahrayar Khan, the PCB chairman, has insisted that Hair should not umpire another match involving Pakistan, but Speed refused to go that far. “It was said he could never umpire Sri Lanka again after 1996 but he has. Time will tell if water needs to flow under the bridge. I don’t know what his future is but I hope we can find a way for him to continue.”Speed confirmed the ball-tampering charge had been made by both Hair and Doctrove, and that he was not aware the England players had made any complaint.

Another top-order failure, another loss and a first ODI series loss in over a year; Pakistan’s top-order starts in this series have made for some horrific reading. After a 50-run stand in the first ODI at Peshawar, Pakistan collapsed to 68 for four at Rawalpindi and 82 for four at Lahore. In Multan, they disintegrated quicker, stumbling to 29 for four and this time, there was no Shoaib Malik-inspired rescue, as they fell for 161.With all games thus far won by the team batting second, losing the toss in the morning and being put in wasn’t the best start. Inzamam admitted he would have fielded first had he won the toss but although India bowled accurately throughout, the majority of batsmen were out to rash shots; some like Kamran Akmal’s cut to short point were poor, others like Imran Farhat’s ugly pull to mid-on, awful. An understandably dejected Inzamam-ul-Haq said later, “Today we just didn’t put enough runs on board. It’s disappointing to lose such a big series against team like India at home. We made some mistakes early on and that’s why we lost too many early wickets.”Inzamam refused to blame the absence of key players such as Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Akhtar for the loss, instead highlighting his own side’s fallibility and India’s strength. “One or two of our players were not there, but I will say my team was capable of doing much better than what we did today. The boys have tried hard but we couldn’t succeed. We were weak in some areas but India outplayed us in all three departments of the game.”Despite the rash of injuries and the poor run of form some players were in, only one change was made to the playing XI today; Mohammad Sami came in for Afridi. Umar Gul, also suffering from side strain, missed out. Salman Butt, under pressure after two successive first-over ducks, was under some pressure and many thought he might be replaced. But Inzamam was phlegmatic about changing the line-up. “Salman Butt had given us good scores in the series and it was not possible for me to drop him after just two bad knocks. I don’t think if I had made some changes it would have made a difference. I don’t think we played the wrong combination here.”He also ruled out that his side was under extra pressure after two defeats at home, either from the public or the media. “There is always pressure on the home team in a series, but all the players are used to it and I don’t think that was the reason for losing the series. Sometimes the team does not play well. We played well when we toured India and this time they played well against us – the performance doesn’t remain the same all the time.”Karachi beckons now and only face-saving remains at stake for Pakistan. When Inzamam said before this series began that he might become more selective in the matches he played due to his back injury, he would not have envisaged the rotation policy coming into effect in a dead rubber game. Changes seem likely however. “We will give a chance to some of the bowlers who haven’t got chance in the four matches. It will be difficult to motivate the team but we will try our best to win the last match.”

The 30 probables for the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa will be picked by the selection committee at Mumbai on July 7, according to the Indian board (BCCI).The selectors, headed by Dilip Vengsarkar, will also pick the India A team that will tour Zimbabwe and Kenya later this month, said Ratnakar Shetty, the chief administrative officer of the BCCI.The list of 30 probables for the Twenty20 World Championship will then be pruned to a squad of 14, to be announced a month before the start of the tournament on September 11.India are scheduled to play their first match of the Championship against Scotland on September 13 at Kingsmead, Durban.

Sridharan Sriram has been picked in the Indian squad that will take on Pakistan at Kolkata in the one-off one-day international being held to celebrate the BCCI’s Platinum Jubilee. He is the only change from the Indian squad that represented India in the Champions Trophy in England, replacing Rohan Gavaskar.Sourav Ganguly has been named the captain of the side, but that is subject to his passing a fitness test, which will be held in Kolkata on November 10. According to reports, though, he has already informed the board that he is fit.Irfan Pathan, another player who missed the last two Tests against Australia for fitness reasons, will be playing a couple of local one-dayers in Baroda to assess his fitness.Meanwhile, the Indian selectors have have also announced the Board President’s XI squad that will take on South Africa in their first tour game, beginning on November 14. Both Gautam Gambhir and Dheeraj Jadhav, the two openers recently picked in the Indian Test squad, have been included, as has Sadagopan Ramesh, the Test discard. MS Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik’s main competitor for a place in the Test side, will be the wicketkeeper.Sairaj Bahutule will captain the side, and the squad also included India discards Hemang Badani, Dinesh Mongia, Ramesh Powar and Amit Bhandari. The talented batsman from Andhra Pradesh, Venugopal Rao, has also been picked.India squad Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly (capt), VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Mohammad Kaif, Ashish Nehra, Sridharan Sriram.Board President’s XI Gautam Gambhir, Dheeraj Jadhav, Sadagoppan Ramesh, Hemang Badani, Venugopal Rao, Dinesh Mongia, Sairaj Bahutule (capt),Ramesh Powar, Shib Shankar Paul, Amit Bhandari, MS Dhoni (wk), Suresh Raina, Avishkar Salvi, Joginder Sharma.