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Anil Kumble and Sreesanth, the fast bowler, have been left out of the Champions Trophy squad. RP Singh, on the back of his recent performance for India A in Australia, has been included in the 14-man squad. The ODI squad for both the Champions Trophy and for the Malaysia tri-series were announced in Mumbai today.Sreesanth’s exclusion has raised a few eyebrows as he was in the forefront of the action when India last toured West Indies, starring in the Tests as well as three of the five one-dayers. He has been expensive in one-dayers, something that could have gone against him when the selectors had to prune the 15-man squad for the Malaysia tri-series to 14 for the Champions Trophy.”Sreesanth definitely figures in our scheme of things but we need to give pacemen like Rudra Pratap Singh enough chances as he has been looking good recently,” Kiran More, the chairman of selectors, said. For the Malaysia tri-series, which precedes the Champions Trophy, the 15-man squad that toured Sri Lanka for the aborted series has been retained.RP Singh will consider himself lucky to make the cut ahead of Sreesanth, as he has not quite been in the thick of action of late. He played in just one ODI in the West Indies, bowling seven wicketless overs for 45 runs. Before that he played three matches against England, and failed to pick up a wicket in any. What’s more, his economy rate for the last four matches is an unflattering 6.5. It has been suggested that RP Singh got the nod because he bowls left-handed, and that this would add variety. In that case, however, it’s not clear why Zaheer Khan, who is performing well in county cricket, was not given a look in.Kumble’s exclusion is more straightforward. He is recovering from an injury, and although in the process of rehabilitation, the selectors thought it wise not to rush him back into the side, especially with India having a busy season ahead.”According to the report from physio John Gloster, Kumble was likely to be fit for the tournament but we were not sure and hence decided not to select him,” More said. Further, once India announced a final squad to the ICC there would be no opportunity to make changes should Kumble break down. “We have other series coming up and are looking at his long-term rehabilitation,” More added.Sourav Ganguly, the former captain, who had been included in the 30 probables for the Champions Trophy also couldn’t make it to the squad. The Malaysia tri-series starts on September 12 in Kuala Lumpur and include Australia and West Indies. The Champions Trophy will start with the qualifiers on October 7.India, who have been placed in group A along with world champions Australia, England and one of the qualifying teams, take on England in their first match at Jaipur on October 15.Group B comprises Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand and the other qualifier from the qualifying league in which the West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe will fight it out.Squad for Champions Trophy
Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Munaf Patel, RP Singh, Ramesh Powar, Harbhajan Singh, Dinesh Mongia.Squad for Malaysia tri-series
Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Munaf Patel, RP Singh, Ramesh Powar, Harbhajan Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Sreesanth.

Ricky PontingOn the pitch
Disappointing. It’s fair to say that the wicket was nowhere near even being close to Test-match standard: that’s pretty obvious given what we’ve seen over the last two days. 40 wickets falling in just over two days of a Test is pretty much unheard of. It’s disappointing that the series has ended this way. It’s been such a fantastic series, from the first ball bowled till the start of this match. It puts a bit of a sour taste in the mouth.On whether the ICC will have an enquiry over the pitch
I’m not sure if there’ll be an enquiry, but I know that lots of questions will be asked and lots of reports will be written. I guess the match referee will write a report about this wicket, and obviously that’ll be sent to the ICC. Let’s hope there is an enquiry, just because it’s so disappointing. As a player you want to be tested under different conditions and in different countries, but that’s just going a little bit too far. We have played in three venues other than this one in this Test series, and the conditions have been different in each one, which is the beauty of playing cricket in India. But in all the matches other than Nagpur the match was going into a fifth day, which is what you want. Unfortunately this one didn’t even finish two.On whether they relaxed a bit in this match
I think we’ve tried extremely hard in this game. We’ve come 14 runs short, but if you take a look at the faces of the guys during the presentation you could understand that this game meant a lot to us. Unfortunately we weren’t good enough today. India played very well, particularly the way they batted. Sachin [Tendulkar] and [VVS] Laxman played very well, and I think there was a five-over period which cost 58 runs – looking back it’s a pretty big number considering the margin of the game. Full credit to the way they played. Full credit to us as well – we fought till the last ball but we weren’t good enough today. We were pretty confident that we’d chase 107 today. We knew if we put a couple of partnerships together we’d have a very good chance. But I don’t think you can say anything against any batsman who had to bat out there today. Michael Clarke, a part-time spinner, took 6 for 9 on that surface. That would suggest that it’s not a great wicket.On his return from injury
It was a disappointing return for me. Having missed the first three Tests, I was looking forward to coming to Mumbai, playing a good long five-day Test, and hoping that I would personally score some runs and the team would perform in the same vein as they did throughout the series. That didn’t work out at all. It was a disappointing way for the tour to end for us.On losing Shane Warne
Losing Shane was a blow for us. It would have been very interesting to see him bowl on that wicket. Being such a big spinner of the ball, even on wickets that don’t turn much, it would have been interesting to see what he would have done here. However, that would have meant one of the fast bowlers would have missed out, and the fast bowlers did a pretty good job for us here.On VVS Laxman’s return to form
I think it was very important for his career. He hadn’t made a lot of runs in this series, and there were murmurs that he was going to be dropped. But they showed some faith in him and promoted him to No. 3, and I thought he played really well. He was a little scratchy early on, but every batsman was on that wicket. Once he got in he looked like the VVS of old, and I’m sure he’ll make some runs in the series against South Africa.Rahul DravidOn winning the Test
It was very satisfying. To go out and defend only 107 in the last innings against probably the best batting side in the world was a great effort.On the pitch
It’s probably one of the toughest wickets I’ve played a match on. It was interesting and it produced a great Test match. I’ll admit it’s not an ideal Test match, but it was a fantastic game of cricket, on what was definitely not an ideal Test wicket.On what he told the team before they came out to defend 107
I just spoke about believing in ourselves. I knew that if we got a couple of wickets early we could put them under pressure. I couldn’t be prouder of the guys – they showed some amazing fight and they just kept going. I couldn’t have asked for more, right from the morning. Not only when we bowled, but also the kind of gumption we showed when we batted in the morning. You don’t win many Test matches against any opposition, leave alone Australia, when you get bowled out on any wicket for around 100 in the first innings.On his tactic of using Murali Kartik early in the innings
I just bowled him according the situation – the way the wicket was, the batsmen at the crease. We knew Kartik would be a handful on this wicket – if he hit the deck the ball was always going to spin. Watching Michael Clarke bowl and get the kind of spin he did when he hit the deck gave me a fair idea of what Kartik could achieve, especially when the ball was hard. Zaheer Khan did a great job getting an early wicket so that we could get the right-handers in early, and Kartik did the job for us when the right-handers came in. A quality bowler like Anil Kumble didn’t get a bowl till the opposition had scored around 70, but I just played it according to what I saw at that point of time, and who I felt should be bowling to which batsman.On the decision to promote VVS Laxman to No. 3
After I finished batting in the first innings and when we were fielding I decided that I’d send Laxman at No. 3 simply because when the ball is hard it’s the best time to be batting. VVS is a positive player. He’s been going through a tough time but he showed why we must always back quality. The partnership between him and [Sachin] Tendulkar in difficult conditions was a great exhibition of quality batsmanship.On the gains and losses from the series
Zaheer Khan coming back was a great gain for us, Kartik bowled well. All the spinners have bowled really well, Virender Sehwag’s been good with the bat, and we’ve shown a bit of fight right towards the end of the series. The loss, obviously, is the series. The Australians came well prepared: we must give them credit. They played some tough cricket and were deserving winners.

Shoaib Akhtar has been named among Pakistan’s probables for the Asia Cup, while Shahid Afridi has been sidelined, it was reported today. The News quoted unnamed board sources saying that Shoaib’s inclusion in the side will depend on his fitness.The move comes after Shoaib had publicly admitted that he had “lost the urge” to play in the Asia Cup, and it would be a while before he represented Pakistan again. He expressed disappointment over the manner in which the board had treated him after the ribcage injury he sustained in the series against India. Shoaib’s comments sent the board into a tizzy, and they asked him to clarify his position.Interestingly, it was reported that the PCB had earlier told the selectors not to select Shoaib for the tournament on medical grounds. “We acted on the basis of a letter sent to us by Durham, who informed us that he needed periods of rest between matches to recover completely from his injury,” said Rameez Raja, the chief executive of the PCB. “We have told Shoaib clearly that if he claims he is fit he has to come down and undergo a stringent fitness test; only then will he be considered,” he added.Alarmed by the signals, Shoaib asserted that he was fit and ready to play, and that his rib injury had healed after he had taken a two-week rest. “I don’t know why they don’t trust me,” he said. “I am playing for my county Durham and performing well. If I am not fit would they play me?Shoaib had hurt his ribcage while bowling during the third Test against India earlier this year, but confounded the management by batting unhindered later in the game. His performance added fuel to rumours of attitude problems, as well as differences between him and Inzamam-ul-Haq about strategy. A medical inquiry was called for by the PCB – which had questioned the seriousness of the injury when Shoaib played for Durham shortly after – but the medical team confirmed Shoaib’s damaged ribcage. To complicate matters further, Shoaib aggravated the injury during a county game and was advised to rest until the injury had healed completely. Since then, counter to the PCB’s advice to rest, he has bowled for Durham.The selectors have sent the probables list to the PCB, which will release it shortly.

The last of the round-robin matches in the NatWest Series, between SouthAfrica and Zimbabwe, could well have been one of those dreadful dead-rubberevents when one team has qualified for the final and the other is out of thetournament. It’s often a case of going through the motions to honour thefixture list – but this one is not like that any more.There are two reasons for the sudden change. One was the heavy defeat ofSouth Africa by England at Edgbaston. If a margin of four wickets does notappear to be too wide a margin, the reality was that South Africa were fortunate to get as close as that, helped by two late wickets when the match was as good as over. The other factor that will result in this match being anything but a non-event is that Hampshire’s Rose Bowl is staging international cricket for the first time. Throw in the fact that Zimbabwe always enjoy an opportunity to have a crack at their neighbours, and there is every reason to believe that nobody concerned will be going through the motions.South Africa’s captain Graeme Smith said before the Edgbaston game that he was hoping to inflict some mental scars before the final and the Test series to come. The first over, when he personally took 19 off James Anderson, showed that he meant business. However, any scars seemed to heal pretty quickly as Anderson came back to claim four wickets, and it was South Africa’s confidence that ended the evening more disfigured.Smith might have been hoping to rest some of his key players in Southampton, in advance of a final for which his team has already qualified, but now he will probably need to play them all in the hope that they can regain form and self-belief.Paul Adams will be one of those hoping to get a chance to repair the Edgbaston damage. After the injury to Nicky Boje – a fractured tibia and ankle-ligament damage that will require surgery – Adams is the only specialist spinner available for selection at Lord’s. But his 1 for 44 from six overs against England means there is plenty of room for improvement.Meanwhile, Zimbabwe can go into this match with no fear. They are expectedto lose, but will not want to miss out on the opportunity to leave Englandwith a decent result, to say nothing of being able to further bloody thoseSouth African noses. Zimbabwe’s captain, Heath Streak, has striven manfully to make something of his understrength team throughout this tour, and he is sure to be welcomed back warmly to Hampshire, where he played a few years ago.The Rose Bowl deserves a proper contest as it makes its first appearance onthe international scene. To move away from cosy little Northlands Road,Hampshire had to make a great leap of faith, utilise tremendous imagination,and pour in vast amounts of money and resources. This match represents thefirst repayment on that vision. The venue has made an important improvementto the infrastructure of English cricket, and if a near-capacity crowd caninspire Zimbabwe to inflict another defeat on South Africa prior to the Lord’s final, they could be doing even more for the health of the English game.South Africa (probable) 1 Herschelle Gibbs, 2 Graeme Smith (capt), 3 Jacques Kallis, 4 Jacques Rudolph, 5 Martin van Jaarsveld, 6 Andrew Hall, 7 Mark Boucher (wk), 8 Shaun Pollock, 9 Paul Adams, 10 Dewald Pretorius, 11 Makhaya Ntini.Zimbabwe 1 Dion Ebrahim, 2 Grant Flower, 3 Stuart Matsikenyeri, 4 Tatentda Taibu (wk) 5 Richard Sims, 6 Travis Friend, 7 Heath Streak (capt), 8 Andy Blignaut, 9 Sean Ervine, 10 Raymond Price, 11 Douglas Hondo.

Sri Lankan cricket captain Sanath Jayasuriya has requested help from SriLankan cricket fans for people in Hambantota who are suffering from a severedrought."I am requesting the people all over the world to come forward to help theresidents of Hambanthota who are faced with a severe drought. This is anational cause and the people need help badly," said the Sri Lankan captain,as his side was preparing to take on Bangladesh in the inaugural Test Matchbetween the two countries.Due to the present drought, drinking water in the area is scarce and the SriLankan cricket team has already donated mineral water bottles to theresidents of the area: "We just started with the cricket board and havealready collected 10,000 liters of water. I am requesting the public forsimilar donations."He added: "If the people would like to come up with some support they cancontact Kushil Gunasekara (Coordinating Secretary) at the Cricket Board andextend their cooperation."The national side will visit the area after the Bangladesh Test: "We will begoing to Hambantota on Sept 12 and can take any donations down with us."Donations of water and food can be made at the Board of Control for Cricketin Sri Lanka (BCCSL) headquarters at 35, Maitland Place, Colombo 7, SriLanka.

Scorecard

A solid team effort saw Bengal beat defending champions Mumbai by four wickets and enter the finals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy in Visakhapatnam. Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Debabrata Das made rapid half-centuries as Bengal easily chased down the target of 250 with more than four overs to spare.Mumbai’s top order, led by the tournament’s leading run-scorer Ajinkya Rahane’s 55, provided a superb platform, reaching 94 for 1 by the 19th over. However, Bengal took three wickets – including that of Rohit Sharma, Mumbai’s match-winner in the quarter-final – in quick succession, to leave them at a dicey 119 for 4.Captain Amol Muzumdar then anchored the innings with a measured 71, supported by Abhishek Nayar. The partnership swelled to 68 when offspinner Saurasish Lahiri dismissed Nayar, after which Mumbai were unable to accelerate – only 63 runs coming off the last 105 balls. Left-arm spinner Iresh Saxena was the pick of the bowlers, ending with 4 for 50 in his ten overs.Despite opener Shreevats Goswami’s 48 and No. 4 Manoj Tiwary’s efforts, Bengal were in trouble at 110 for 4. But Shukla (65) and Das (55*) added 94 at more than a run-a-ball set Bengal on course for a spot in the final. They now take on the winner of Tuesday’s match between Saurashtra and Vidarbha on April 10.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsWesley Barresi struck five sixes and seven fours during his 40-ball 75•ICC/Donald MacLeod

Scotland captain Preston Mommsen’s unbeaten 44-ball 68 went in vain after his bowlers and fielders conceded too many runs, to allow Netherlands amass 191 for 6. Netherlands’ 32-run win was set up by Wesley Barresi’s quick start and Peter Borren’s surge at the end which helped them collect 56 runs in the last five overs, after Scotland had dropped Barresi twice early on in the same over.Opting to bat with an unchanged side from the game against Afghanistan, Netherlands lost their first wicket, that of Stephan Myburgh, to Alasdair Evans in the third over before Ben Cooper joined Barresi. In their second-wicket partnership of 82 runs, Cooper’s contribution was only 12 off 14 as Barresi unleashed several orthodox shots, including drives and cuts before he was given two reprieves in three balls in the sixth over. He soon struck a six to make Scotland realise the price of that. He was particularly harsh against Michael Leask and Richie Berrington, collecting 25 runs off eight balls, put together. Evans provided a bit of respite by getting both batsmen out in the 11th over, but that only brought Borren on the pitch.The run rate was over nine when he walked out and he made sure it fell only fleetingly. After relying on singles early on, he let loose with two leg-side heaves in the 15th over, and pelted Watt for 19 runs in the 17th over with slog-sweeps and a reverse-sweep. His fifty off 24 balls acted as the a burn in the wounds after Scotland had hurt themselves to allow Barresi’s fifty off 27 balls. An 18-ball 24 from Roelof van der Merwe lifted them past 190. Evans took two more in his last over to finish with a career-best 5 for 24.Scotland, in response, were in a spot of bother early on after losing their openers in the first nine balls. They struggled to get partnerships going as left-arm spinners van der Merwe and Pieter Seelaar got the next four batsmen out, three of them holing out in the deep, to leave them reeling at 75 for 6. The required rate had shot up to 14 when Safyaan Sharif joined Mommsen with eight overs to go. Mommsen chaperoned the partnership of 80 runs for nearly eight overs, but it was a near-impossible task to accomplish with the tail and despite some meaty blows till the end, Scotland were all out for 159.

“Human relations, man management skills, these are very, very essential in today’s world in any field of work … having that compassion, having that closeness towards your employees. And the same goes for West Indies cricket.”Daren Ganga’s experiences on the recent West Indies tour of England have convinced him even more that the different parties in Caribbean cricket have to get their act together. Fast. “Everything is very dysfunctional, disjointed with the Board, the players, the management team, the selectors,” Ganga said. “Everyone needs to co-exist in harmony.”Appointed vice-captain for the Test series, Ganga found himself having to carry the full burden of leadership from the second Test of the four-match rubber following the shoulder injury which ended Ramnaresh Sarwan’s tour. He presided over a 3-0 loss.Ganga admitted to having “a lot of new challenges, some of which I wasn’t able to deal with properly”. Asked about those challenges, however, he declined to elaborate, saying only, “It’s off-the-field issues.”Ganga, though, was more forthcoming with what needed to change for the team to improve. “There is no consistency,” he said about a set-up in which there was a new trainer, and manager Michael Findlay joined a team in which David Moore, formerly Bennett King’s assistant, was on his first official tour in charge.”New trainer, new manager … if you keep having that happen over and over again, there will be no consistency in anything that you are doing. There is no building of any sort of respect, any sort of trust, any sort of foundation to move forward.”By his own admission, Ganga’s performance in his new role was not helped by the controversy back home between the executive of the WICB and the selection panel over the captain for the limited-overs section of the tour, in which Chris Gayle was eventually given the nod over Ganga.”It definitely contributed to the way I performed,” he said. “The stats would show (the difference) from the first Test match to the very next time I batted as captain. It was a distraction for me personally and by extension [to] Chris Gayle and the rest of the team. It was unfortunate. I can’t really comment on what exactly transpired. But it did not really help our cause in salvaging some pride in that Test series.”Asked, however, whether the relationship with his opening partner had been affected by the brouhaha, Ganga replied: “Not at all. Myself and Chris spoke frequently during that entire dilemma. We both shared similar views with regards to what was taking place and what the repercussions were going to be.”Omitted from the Twenty20 and ODI squad which went on to draw and win those respective series under Gayle, Ganga left England with a Test series average of 15.00 and his international career once again under a cloud.”I’m not totally worried about it,” he said about the technical problems which resulted in several leg-before dismissals. “It’s something that has plagued me throughout my career. England saw a deficiency and exploited it.”His struggles at the crease have also convinced Ganga, still keen for the challenge of leadership, to make a change. “What I’ve realised, it’s very difficult to open the batting and lead international sides. The mental energy that is expounded when you lead teams, especially in the longer version of the game, is difficult. If I am to lead West Indies some time in the future, I would want to see myself batting lower down the order.”Ganga is also pressing for a change in the approach by the West Indian authorities to spin bowlers. He wants to see them regularly in the Test team. “Talk of no quality spinner holds no credibility when these are the guys who are coming out with the most wickets in our regional competition year in, year out,” he said.”We again failed to realise the great need for a spinner in our bowling attack. If you look at the entire Test series in context, on two occasions we made in excess of 600 in total and we were still unable to win a Test match, hence the need for a spinner, for variety; hence the need for taking that risk in an attempt to bowl teams out twice to win a Test match.”

Lalchand Rajput, the former Indian opener who recently coached the Under-19 side on their successful England tour, was pleased with the way some young players developed and was optimistic of a few of them stepping up to the higher grade.”It was a very good trip and a successful one too as we won both the series,” Rajput told the Press Trust of India. “We should have won the first Test too after having swept the one-day series, but England managed to bat out the final day and earn a draw.”Singling out a few players as the most impressive ones on the trip, Rajput said they all needed to keep working hard on their game. “The batsmen to impress the most were Delhi’s Viraj Kohli, captain Tanmay Srivastava of Uttar Pradesh, opener Parvez Aziz of Assam and Bodapati Sumanth of Andhra. In bowling, the medium-pace trio of Vijaykumar Yo Mahesh (TN), Abu Nacheem (Assam) and Ishan Sharma (Delhi), along with left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem caught the eye.”Rajput, 44, who played two Tests and four ODIs for India in the mid-eighties, spoke about the strengths of some of the young batsmen on tour. He described Aziz as an attacking opening batsman who provided the team with brisk starts. “He used to stroke his way to quick 60s and 70s and batted aggressively in the Tests too,” he added. “Kohli showed strong technical skills against both pace and spin while captain Srivastava impressed with his sound temperament and willingness to play long innings. Sumanth could hit the spinners out of the attack easily and showed fine finishing instincts in the one dayers by making a very impressive 97 not out in the last match.”He had special praise for his medium-pacers. “I was very impressed with medium pacer Ishant Sharma who, at 17, worked up good pace in excess of 135 kph. I see him improving much more in two years’ time,” he continued. “Both Yo Mahesh, who got a hat-trick in one of the one-dayers, and Nacheem also bowled well, keeping a good line and length.”The Under-19 side are scheduled to tour Pakistan next month. They are also set to visit New Zealand in the end of the year.

England’s squad for the controversial tour of Zimbabwe in November will be revealed this afternoon, and it is likely that the names of several senior players will be absent, some for political reasons, others because they need their batteries recharging. But the announcement follows a day of heated telephone discussions.On one side was Duncan Fletcher, England’s coach, who has been arguing that some of his big-name players need to take time off, and missing a five-match series against a dire Zimbabwe side would provide just that break. On the other hand, the officials of the ECB, who suddenly became involved in the selection of the squad and, if reports are to be believed, attempted to force Fletcher’s hand.It appears that Fletcher’s arguments were challenged by the ECB’s management, including David Morgan, the chairman, and Tim Lamb, the outgoing chief executive, who wanted a full-strength squad chosen. Morgan came under pressure to compromise, but it is thought that he demanded that Michael Vaughan lead the side in return for allowing some senior players to stay at home.Forgetting the political background, Fletcher is reported to have argued that after a gruelling six months in which England have played 11 Tests and numerous one-dayers with little respite, some key players were jaded. Steve Harmison said last week that he would not be touring for moral reasons, and Fletcher named Vaughan, Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Flintoff and Ashley Giles as others who needed a rest.The financial penalties facing England were they not to tour made the trip inevitable. But the make-up of the squad should have been left to the selectors. The ECB will probably argue that had it sent a weakened side then it would have faced punishment, but that it highly unlikely. Given the increasingly punishing schedules of international cricket, the resting of exhausted players for series against weaker opponents will become more common. But the ECB is running scared.There were further complications with the final selection as David Graveney, the chairman of selectors, scrambled to ensure that those picked were actually willing to go.