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In odds released today by bet365, South Africa’s captain Graeme Smith is rated 9/4 to beat Don Bradman’s record series aggregate of 974 runs, set back in the 1930 Ashes series. Smith is rated 1/3 to fall short of the mark. In the spread-betting player-index markets Sporting Index are similarly pessimistic about Smith’s chances of overhauling The Don – they expect his series total to fall between 860 and 875 runs.Smith has six possible innings still available to him in this series, and already has 621 runs from his first three – a record for the first two Tests of any series. At the same stage of his all-conquering season in 1930, Bradman had managed only 393 of his record 974 runs – but he did hit 334 in the third Test! Good weather, the traditionally good pitches at Trent Bridge and The Oval, and an England attack in some disarray all count in Smith’s favour.bet365 now rate South Africa hot favourites to win the series at 2/5. England are now rank outsiders at 8/1, with a drawn series 5/2.bet365Sporting IndexIn-depth Graeme Smith statistics

The Islamabad Cricket Association (ICA) on Tuesday finaliseda list of 25 players to be submitted with the PakistanCricket Board for the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy.Following two days of trials at the Fatima Jinnah Park, thechairman of ICA, Syed Mansur Ahmed announced the followingplayers:Bilal Asad, Irfan Bhatti, Azhar Mahmood, Ali Naqvi, NadeemHussain, Saeed Anwar Jnr, Saeed Ajmal, Stephen John, RaoIftikhar, Asif Ali Saeed, Ashar Zaidi, Tauseef Satti, NaseerAhmed, Ali Raza, Rauf Akbar, Anwarul Haq, Atif AshrafQureshi, Abdul Qayum, Shahid Iqbal, Ishtiaq Rabbani, WaseemAkhtar, Hashim Khan, M. Zahid, Sajid Mahmood, Yasir Javed.The chairman also named Qaiser Hussain, Mustafa Bashir andFazeel Ahmed as the reserves.The boys have been directed to report to ICA secretary IrfanManzur on Wednesday alongwith their photographs and theiridentity cards and a proof of their residence. Meanwhile, inaccordance with the new policy of the PCB that allows theassociations to include any under-19 player in the playingXI for the Quaid Trophy, the ICA named the followingyoungsters:Raheel Majeed, Farrukh Hayat, Rashid AMin Butt, MuhammadAltaf, Shakir Mahmood, Talat Hussain, Saifur rehman,Muhammad Shahzad, Jawad Hassan, Ameer Khan, Raja Kashif.The Rawalpindi Cricket Association (RCA) meanwhileshortlisted 52 players. Their team for the Quaid Trophy willbe announced after a series of matches.The probables: Muhammad Naveed, Muhammad Waseem,Nasir Ahmed, Asif Mahmood, Shahid Javed, Arif Butt, PervezAziz, Mujahid Hameed, Tassawar Hussain, Babar Naeem, HashamIqbal, Nauman Aman, Shah Faisal, Waseem Ahmed, MaqsoodAslam, Muhammad Saleem, Mazhar Abbas, Raja Jahanzeb, ZahidKhan, Ehsan Khan, Makhdoom Shah, Ziaul Haq, M. Sultan,Sohail Nasir, M. Yaqoob.Fast bowlers: Shoaib Akhtar, Naeem Akhtar, YasirArafat, Azhar Bhatti, Muhammad Fayyaz, Shahid Mahmood,Zaheer Ahmed, Ziaul Haq, Zaheeruddin Babar, Sahd Altaf,Junaid Zia, Najaf Shah, Shakeel Nawaz, Tahawar, M. Afzal,Yasir Ashfaq.Spinners: Shakeel Ahmed, Jawad Hameed, Sheraz Khalid,Iftikhar Mahmood, Ayaz Akbar, Riasat Mahmood, Munir Ansari.Wicketkeepers: Nadeem Abbasi, Muhammad Zubair,Mehboob Rasheed, SM Suleman.

Just when Tamil Nadu’s tailenders were getting a feel of the bat towards the end of their training session at the the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai’s business hub, M Vijay padded up to take guard for the second time in an hour.Vijay, seeking to return to match fitness after missing two of India’s three Tests in Sri Lanka due to a hamstring injury, defended balls from pacers for a while. Vijay’s defence, which has been the hallmark of his game during his resurgence as a Test opener over the last two years, was tight as ever.Tamil Nadu may be taking on Mumbai in one of the more high-profile clashes of the 2015-16 Ranji Trophy season, but more than the rivalry between the sides, the spotlight over the next four days will be on Vijay, with the Test series against South Africa starting in three weeks.Vijay may have emerged as the leaver in Tests over the last couple of years, but he started his prolonged training stint in an unusual manner. He first asked spinners and seamers to bowl onto his pads for a good 20 minutes. Then, the line changed to outside off stump. But Vijay hardly had any difficulties in judging it. He returned towards the end of the session to finish off with a string of defensive strokes.It was Vijay’s first serious net session since scoring 82 in Kumar Sangakkara’s farewell Test. His stint at the crease on Tuesday, hours after joining his team-mates in Mumbai, was all about expressing himself freely.”I am pretty excited to play this game because it has been a long gap,” Vijay said. “After the Sri Lanka tour, I did not get any game at all. I am really working hard on my fitness. I am looking forward for a positive result if I play all four days of this match and get some confidence going.”It will be music to the ears of his Tamil Nadu team-mates, as well as the national selectors if Vijay gets into his groove straightaway. It will not be that way for the hosts, though.After earning a bonus point against Punjab at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai will be striving for consistency. They will be banking on the new-ball duo of Dhawal Kulkarni and Shardul Thakur to pull the brakes on Vijay early on.Six years ago, Vijay scored a breezy 154 against the same opponents. If he can produce a knock of similar quality over the next four days, it would be the most opportune manner for him to prove his fitness.

JJ Smuts lashed nine sixes in his 107 off 58 balls in East London, where Warriors chased down a target of 217 with an over to spare against Dolphins. The result kept Warriors within two points of Titans, the table leaders.Warriors lost opener Clyde Fortuin for a duck in the first over of the imposing chase, but Smuts and Colin Ingram made shrugged away that setback. They added 107 in nine overs before Ingram was out for 55 off 26, lbw to Imran Tahir. Colin Ackerman fell cheaply, but Christiaan Jonker made an unbeaten 36 off 20 balls in a partnership of 88 with Smuts to complete the seven-wicket victory.Smuts’ performance meant that for a second successive game Kevin Pietersen made a half-century in defeat. Pietersen had scored 79 in Dolphins’ loss against Cobras on December 4, and against Warriors he clobbered 81 off 46 with six sixes. His partnership of 145 for the second wicket with opener Morne van Wyk, who made 77 off 52, led Warriors to 216 for 5. Of the 14 bowlers used at Buffalo Park, only Smuts conceded less than 8.50 per over, finishing with figures of 0 for 23 in four overs for Warriors.A powerful batting performance at Supersport Park helped Titans beat Lions by 46 runs and open up a two-point lead at the top of the league. Opener Jonathan Vandiar headlined the show, smacking 67 off 41 balls, but the thrust that spurred Titans to 230 for 5 came from their middle and lower order. Heinrich Klassen made 26 off 15, Heino Kuhn 29 off 11, Albie Morkel 32 off 17, Farhaan Behardien 19 off 9, and David Wiese 17 off 5. Though Titans did not have big individual scores, their relentless hitting ensured that all the Lions bowlers, except for Bjorn Fortuin, went for over eight an over.Rassie van der Dussen got the Lions chase off to a cracking start, his 45 off 18 balls charging them to 53 before he fell in the fifth over. The chase fell away after that – only Temba Bavuma passed 30 – with batsmen failing to convert starts and score at the same intensity that Titans did. Malusi Siboto took three top order wickets for Titans, but it was Wiese’s spell of 1 for 21 in four overs that was the bowling performance of the match.Wayne Parnell led a Cobras bowling performance that set up victory against Knights in a low-scoring contest in Cape Town, after the 200-plus run fests in the other two games. Parnell took 3 for 20 in four overs, Kieron Pollard 2 for 18 in three, and Rory Kleinveldt 1 for 21 in four. Patrick Kruger and Theunis de Bruyn, who made 52, took Knights to 94 for 1 in the 12th over, but they fell away after that, losing 7 for 52 to finish with 146 for 8.Richard Levi’s 58 off 32 balls led the Cobras chase. He put on 78 for the first wicket with Wayne Parnell, who scored 34. Pollard smashed 39 off 12 balls to complete an eight-wicket victory with 32 balls to spare.

Cricket entered a new paradigm on Thursday with the launch of an international Twenty20 competition that will feature teams, operated as franchises, and players from across the world. Called the Champions Twenty20 League, it will be run by four cricket boards – of India, England, Australia and South Africa -and will feature the top two teams from each of those countries.Though no players were named as participants, several big names were present at the ceremony – Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Glenn McGrath and Stephen Fleming.The inaugural tournament is scheduled to start in October 2008 and is planned over nine days, with $5 million in prize money, including $2 million for the winners.That the league has official sanction, as opposed to the Indian Cricket League, was borne out by the men on the dais – ICC president Ray Mali, Indian board president Sharad Pawar, the Cricket South Africa CEO, Gerald Majola, and Cricket Australia’s chief executive James Sutherland. The ECB was represented by deputy chief executive Hugh Morris.While the teams from England, Australia and South Africa will be the top two teams of their existing Twenty20 tournaments, India’s representatives will qualify through a new league called the BCCI Indian Premier League. This tournament, to be held in April 2008, will last for 44 days and involve 59 matches.Each team in this league will have a minimum of 16 players, including four international players and four from the area where the team is based. The matches will be played on a home-and-away basis, guaranteeing seven matches at each venue. The matches will be played on Saturdays, starting at 5 pm India time and 8 pm. All matches will be televised and the rights to telecast these matches will be sold through a separate tender. No matches will be played concurrently.The league will be run by a governing council comprising former Indian captains Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar, MAK Pataudi, BCCI office-bearers Rajiv Shukla and Chirayu Amin, Inderjit Singh Bindra, the Punjab Cricket Association president, and Arun Jaitley, the president of the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association. Lalit Modi, a BCCI vice-president, was named as its convenor.Cricket Australia Chief Executive Officer James Sutherland said the new league would boost interstate cricket. Apart from giving the two state KFC Twenty20 finalists the chance to compete for the overall prize, it would expose interstate cricket stars to international competition and give fans of local state-based teams the excitement of supporting their favourite players on a global stage.

As was widely predicted, Dilip Vengsarkar, the former Test cricketer, wasappointed chairman of the national selection committee. The other new faceon the panel is SL Venkatapathy Raju, the former left-arm spinner, whileSanjay Jagdale, Bhupinder Singh Sr and Ranjib Biswal continue on thepanel.In a separate development Kapil Dev, the former Indian allrounder, hasbeen appointed director of the National Cricket Academy. He replaced SunilGavaskar, whose term ended with the Annual General Meeting, which was heldat the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai. The AGM of the board, normally atwo-day affair, where the main item on the agenda is the election of theprincipal office bearers of the board, ended in less than a day this time.Sharad Pawar (president), Niranjan Shah (secretary), N Srinivasan(treasurer) and MP Pandove (joint secretary) were all re-electedunopposed, and under the revised constitution will serve a term of twoyears. Professor Ratnakar Shetty, who has served as the executivesecretary in-charge, has been appointed the Administrative Head of theBCCI – for five years, which will carry him through to the 2011 World Cupwhich will be held in India – and on a full-time, paid basis.”There will be no elections next year for these posts and the selectorscan get an extension of an extra year after the completion of their twoyear term,” said Srinivasan. Of the five vice-presidents of the board,four – Lalit Modi (North), Dayanand Narvekar (South), Chirayu Amin (West)and Shashank Manohar (Central) – were re-elected, while the incumbent fromthe east zone, KP Kajariya, who did not seek re-election, was replaced byRajeev Shukla.Srinivas Venkataraghavan was appointed the director of the UmpiresDevelopment Programme. “He will have five retired Test umpires, one fromeach zone, to assist him in raising the standard of umpiring, and tofacilitate the standardisation of umpiring in India,” said Srinivasan. Atthe moment India is unrepresented in the ICC’s elite panel, and the BCCIis keen to change this.In the course of the AGM the BCCI also heard petitions from thePondicherry Cricket Association and the Cricket Association of Pondicherryseeking associate membership to the BCCI. “The members decided tounanimously regret the application for associate membership of thePondicherry Cricket Association and the Cricket Association ofPondicherry,” said Srinivasan. The BCCI constituted a committee to lookinto similar applications from other states comprising Shashank Manohar,Sanjay Jagdale, Arun Jaitley, Shivlal Yadav and Ratnakar Shetty.It was also decided that the CK Nayudu Awards function will take place onNovember 4, the same day on which an executive board meeting of the ICCtakes place in India. It was also proposed that the BCCI headquarters, inthe Mumbai Cricket Association premises at the Wankhede Stadium, would beinaugurated on the same day.In another initiative the BCCI will host a South Asian Universitiestournament, to be conducted from February 4 to 8, with university teamsfrom India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh taking part.

Greg Chappell, the Indian coach, has dismissed out of hand reports in certain Indian television channels that he had threatened to resign if Sourav Ganguly decided to involve Jagmohan Dalmiya to sort out their mutual differences.”I have no time to respond to such reports, it’s absolute bull shit,” he said from his hotel room in Harare. “Neither have I threatened to resign nor do I intend to resign.”I have a job at hand and I want to do it to the best of my ability. What happens outside that is not in my control and I am not going to bother about what’s not in my control.” He refused to comment on the controversy subsequent to Ganguly’s public disclosure that he had been asked to step down before the Bulawayo Test. Chappell said he wanted to focus on what he had to do rather than get caught up in all the controversy.Meanwhile, Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar have both suggested that Ganguly and Chappell thrash the issue out before it snowballs into something even bigger. “If I was them, I would sit right now and tell each other to get their heat out and be over with it,” Shastri was quoted as saying by Press Trust of India. “It must be handled now before the ugly issue rears its head again in six months’ time.”Shastri also said that it was important to understand the context of the point that Chappell made. “It’s important to know in what context Chappell said so. He might have privately gone to him and said ‘you are feeling the pressure and it would not be a bad idea to step down’. Or, ‘you feel your own personal batting form is not the greatest, you feel the responsibility is too much so you should step down’. In what context he said it, nobody knows. You got to get the truth.”Gavaskar, who along with Shastri is part of the review committee appointed by the board to look into India’s recent poor form, suggested that a selector travel with the team on tour. “When Australia came to India last year, they had selectors Trevor Hohns and Allan Border, accompany the team. It would give him a fair idea of what’s happening in the dressing room. There could be some guys who are not good for the spirit of the dressing room. A selector sitting back in India wouldn’t be able to see it.”Shastri also saw nothing wrong in Chappell taking on a more proactive role than John Wright, his predecessor as India’s coach, in instilling greater discipline in the team. “Towards the end of his reign, I don’t think John [Wright] was pulling his weight. It is very important for Chappell to instill discipline, get the right kind of camaraderie between the seniors and the juniors. If a senior player gets out of hand, it is his job to reprimand him. He must tell him that it’s a team sport and by what he is doing, the team performance can get affected.”Meanwhile, Chappell and Ganguly headed, quite literally, in different directions before the second Test at Harare. While Chappell headed for the venue of the match with four other players, Ganguly went off to catch a glimpse of the Victoria Falls.The second Test starts on September 20.Click here to send us your feedback on the issue.

Steve Tikolo has delayed making a decision whether to stand down as Kenya’s captain in the light of their poor performances in the ICC Champions Trophy. In the aftermath of the loss to Pakistan at Birmingham, he told the media that he was ready to quit but he appears to have reconsidered his position following his return home.Tikolo was still insistent that he wanted to pass the reins on to a new captain and concentrate on his batting, but there are signs that he might wait until later in the year.Sharad Ghai, the board’s chairman, said that he was surprised by the original announcement. “We had talked about it," Ghai said, "and even if he felt the captaincy was affecting his batting, I thought he would come back home and at least lead the team through the Intercontinental Cup." Kenya meet Namibia in the Africa-group decider in Nairobi next month.Tikolo repeated his criticism of the ICC over their treatment of the team during the tournament. "Had it been Australia, England or South Africa batting under the conditions that we were in, the game could have been stopped," he explained. "There is no fairness in some of these things.”

The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has suggested the inclusion of cricket in the South Asian Federation (SAF) Games as part of a move to end the cricketing deadlock between India and Pakistan. “ACC will officially request the South Asian Sports Federation (SASF) to include cricket in the SAF Games, which we think can be stepping stone for the revival of cricket between India and Pakistan,” ACC development manager Zakir Hussain Syed told AFP.India snapped bilateral cricket links with arch rivals Pakistan over political tension in 2000, but recent efforts to normalise relations between the two nations have raised hopes of ties being revived soon. “We are sure that cricket can increase the appeal of the games to a great extent, and besides Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh – the four Test playing nations – Nepal can also chip in,” said Syed.Pakistan announced last week that it would stage the biennial SAF Games in January 2004. The games, scheduled to be held in Islamabad in September 2001, were first cancelled following security fears in the wake of the 9/11 terrorists attacks on the United States and the ensuing war in neighbouring Afghanistan. Later, Pakistan was twice forced to cancel the Games, first in March 2002 and then in March this year, after India refused to participate.The SAF Games events include athletics, badminton, boxing, football, volleyball, weightlifting, taekwondo, karate, table tennis, wrestling, shooting and swimming. Hockey was included on expiremental basis in the Games held in India in 1995.”Cricket can have more representation in the Games and even a fledgling nation like Afghanistan can participate in it,” said Syed. The Games were initiated in 1984 under the auspices of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), and are contested by India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Nepal. Afghanistan was also included in the SAF Games fold last year. The last edition of the Games were held in Nepal in 1999.

Left-hand opener Chris Gayle powered his way towards a century, but rainintervened again on the second day of the West Indies last practice game atMatara on Friday.Dark clouds had skirted menacingly around this coastal ground all day beforefinally encircling during the tea interval and forcing the abandonment ofthe final session.West Indies, though disappointed to have missed two precious hours ofbatting practice, would have been delighted by what play there was.Sri Lanka A started the day on 216-5, but added only 53 more runs, asleg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine picked up three wickets, to finish with fourin the innings.Then, on a easy paced pitch, the West Indian openers, Gayle and Daren Ganga,provided fresh hope that they may be able to bridge the large void left bythe retirement of Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenidge, when they added 134runs for the first wicket.The pair, complimenting each other by their contrasting styles, hurtledalong at nearly five runs an over. Ganga was solid in defense, preferring towork singles and rotate the strike, whilst Gayle’s innings was ruthlesslyhigh-powered.Gayle, who has played 11 Tests to date at 36.35 and has lofty ambitions (hesaid recently that "breaking Lara’s Test record of 375 is my ultimate"), maylook slightly awkward because of his great height and hunched stance, butwith little flourish he hits the ball with thunderous power.He finished the day four runs short of his century having scored 96 off 92balls and hit 17 fours. Ganga, dismissed for a duck in the first warm-upgame, is on 27 off the same number of balls.The pair coped easily with a Sri Lankan bowling attack, which has beenpacked full of fast bowlers on a bland pitch that cried out for spinners.Sri Lanka A, though, were reluctant to give the West Indian batsmen exposureto spin before next weeks first Test and played just a solitary youngleg-spinner.So, although runs are runs and the manner in which they came were mightyimpressive, the satisfaction gained from this sturdy opening partnership bythe West Indies management should be tempered by the reality that the teamfaces very different challenges ahead.In the morning, the West Indian fast bowlers had operated in tandem with theleg-spin of Ramanarine and quickly moped up the Sri Lankan innings.Suresh Perera had batted with his captain, Hashan Tillakaratne, with unusualresponsibility and added 66 runs for the sixth wicket, but he couldn’tresist the slow bowling of Ramarine and was stumped for 27, as he danceddown the wicket in the wrist spinners first over of the day.Tillakaratne, 74 not out overnight, never regained the fluency of yesterdayand faced 75 balls his 12 runs today, before Reon King picked up his firstwicket of the match.Colin Stuart, who suffered from leg cramps in both legs after his 12 oversyesterday, did not bowl, but that was only because he had been off the fieldfor so long the previous day and he is not considered an injury concern.