ICC Champions Trophy 2009 Squads

ICC Champions Trophy 2009 Squads:

Australia: Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke, Nathan Bracken, Callum Ferguson, Brad Haddin (wk) Nathan Hauritz, Ben Hilfenhaus, James Hopes, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Peter Siddle, Adam Voges, Shane Watson, Cameron White.

England: Andrew Strauss (capt), James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Joe Denly, Andrew Flintoff, Eoin Morgan, Matt Prior (wk), Adil Rashid, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, Luke Wright.

India: Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni (capt/wk), Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, RP Singh, Amit Mishra, Dinesh Karthik, and Abhishek Nayar

New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (capt), Shane Bond, Neil Broom, Ian Butler, Brendon Diamanti Grant Elliott, Martin Guptill, Gareth Hopkins, Brendon McCullum, Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram Jeetan Patel, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor, Daryl Tuffey

Pakistan: Younis Khan (capt), Imran Nazir, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Naved-ul Hasan, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Yousuf, Kamran Akmal (wk), Umar Gul, Mohammad Aamer, Mohammad Asif, Rao Iftikhar, Saeed Ajmal.

Sri Lanka: Kumar Sangakkara (capt), Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Kapugedera, Angelo Mathews, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis, Thilan Thushara, Nuwan Kulasekara, Dammika Prasad, Lasith Malinga, Thilina Kandamby

South Africa: Graeme Smith (capt), Johan Botha, Hashim Amla, Mark Boucher (wk), AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Albie Morkel, Makhaya Ntini, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Roelof van der Merwe

West Indies: Floyd Reifer (capt), Darren Sammy, David Bernard, Tino Best, Royston Crandon, Travis Dowlin, Andre Fletcher, Nikita Miller, Daren Powell, Kieran Powell, Dale Richards, Kemar Roach, Devon Smith, Gavin Tonge, Chadwick Walton (wk).

Australia drop to 4th place, SA tops the list

Australia's 2-1 Ashes defeat, confirmed with a heavy 197-run loss at The Oval on Sunday, has cost them their No. 1 spot in the ICC Test rankings.

Australia is now dropped to 4th place and South Africa topping the rankings list for tests.

It is the first time the Australians have lost their grip on the top spot since 2003, when the ICC introduced its current ranking system.

The defeat has cost them eight points but despite the series result they remain ahead of their arch rivals England, who are in fifth place. England gained six points but are still 11 behind Australia.

South Africa now the No. 1 Test team in the world, followed by Sri Lanka at the 2nd place while india reaching the 3rd spot.

SriLanka won easily in first test

Sri Lanka clinched a resounding 202-run victory on the final day to take a 1-0 lead in their two-match test series against New Zealand on Saturday.

The hosts set New Zealand an unlikely 413-run victory target and dismissed them for 210 in 71.5 overs shortly before tea on the final day.

Spinner Muttiah Muralitharan claimed three for 88 for a match haul of seven for 161, to mark an impressive return to test cricket after a knee injury.

England Won the Ashes

England won the Ashes with a 197-run win over Australia in the fifth and final Test at the Oval here on Sunday.

Victory, achieved with more than a day to spare, saw England take the five-match series 2-1.

Australia, set what would have been a record fourth innings victory total of 546, were bowled out for 348 with Michael Hussey last man out for 121, when he was caught close in by Alastair Cook off spinner Graeme Swann.

"It's a special moment. It hasn't sunk in yet. We had to dig in and fight," said England skipper Andrew Strauss.

"When we were bad in the series, we were very bad but when we were good we were very good."

Australia captain Ricky Ponting said: "We gave it all we could, but it wasn't enough. Full credit to England, they won the crucial moments and deserved to win the series.

"I think this series has shown that Test cricket is alive and well around the world."

From 327 for five, the end came swiftly with four wickets going down for 16 runs in 32 balls, with fast bowler Stephen Harmison taking three for seven in 13 himself.

It was a remarkable turnaround for England, who'd lost the fourth Test by an innings and 80 runs at Headingley, and had only clung on for a draw in the series opener at Cardiff by a single wicket.

Zimbabwe batsman equals Saeed Anwar’s world record

Zimbabwe batsman Charles Coventry equaled the record of the highest individual ODI innings, set by Pakistan’s Saeed Anwar, smashing an unbeaten 194 runs against Bangladesh in the fourth One-day International here on Sunday.

Batting first, Zimbabwe made 312 runs for eight wickets in the allotted 50 overs at the Queen’s Sports Club ground in Bulawayo.

The main highlight of the innings was Coventry’s marathon batting as the right-hand middle-order batsman struck seven sixes and 16 fours, facing 156 balls.

He equaled the 12-year-old world record of stylish left-hand batsman Saeed Anwar, who made 194 from 146 balls against India at Chennai.

Umar Akamal and Rao shine as Pakistan get the first win.

Teenager Umar Akmal smashed an unbeaten 102 off 72 balls as Pakistan won the fourth one-dayer by 146 runs on Friday to record their first win on a dismal tour of Sri Lanka.

Umar’s maiden international century and a dogged 89 from skipper Younus Khan lifted Pakistan to 321-5 after the tourists elected to bat in the day-night match at the Premadasa stadium.

Seamer Rao Iftikhar then grabbed 5-30 as Sri Lanka were shot out for 175 in 36.1 overs, handing Pakistan a badly-needed win after they were beaten 2-0 in the Test series and lost the first three one-dayers.

The fifth and final match will be played at the same venue on Sunday.

Umar, 19, younger brother of the team’s wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal, pounded four sixes and five boundaries in only his third international.

Younus stayed rock-solid at the other end as Umar punished the wayward Sri Lankan attack during a fifth-wicket partnership of 176 runs after Pakistan slipped to 130-4.

Sri Lanka appeared to make light of the daunting target when they moved to 101-1 in the 16th over, before losing their last nine wickets for 74 runs.

Left-handed opener Upul Tharanga top-scored with 80 off 89 balls and skipper Kumar Sangakkara made 39, but none of the other top order batsmen delivered.

Spinners Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal supported Iftikhar with two wickets each.

Earlier, Pakistan made a sound start as Imran Nazir, playing for the first time in the series, hit 23 in a first-wicket stand of 61 with Kamran Akmal by the 10th over.

Kamran then put on 45 for the second wicket with Younus to lift Pakistan to 106-1, before another middle-order collapse saw three wickets fall for 24 runs.

Leg-spinner Malinga Bandara, himself making his first appearance in the series, bowled Kamran and trapped Misbah-ul-Haq leg-before to finish with two for 44 in 10 overs.

Lasith Malinga went for 79 runs in his 10 wicketless overs, while fellow paceman Thilan Thushara took two wickets for 74 runs.

Sri Lanka rested three frontline bowlers, Muttiah Muralitharan, Nuwan Kulasekara and Dilhara Fernando, and replaced them with Ajantha Mendis, Bandara and Malinga.

Pakistan were forced to leave out the injured duo of Umar Gul and Abdul Razzaq and also dropped Nasir Jamshed and Fawad Alam.

They were replaced by Nazir, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah and Iftikhar.

Australia in danger to slip to fourth in Test rankings

Australia stand to lose substantially more than their aura over the next month.

An Ashes series defeat would precipitate a stunning fall from grace by relegating Ricky Ponting’s men to fourth place on the ICC Test ladder behind South Africa, Sri Lanka and India.

A drawn series will place them second after Graeme Smith’s men. Either rain or England could seal Australia’s demise in the coming weeks.

The tourists require victory at both Headingley and The Oval to retain their No 1 Test ranking, but a bleak weather forecast for Yorkshire could greatly reduce their chances of forcing a result in the fourth Test.

Not since 2003, when South Africa held the ICC Test mace for a four-month period, have Australia occupied a place anywhere other than the pinnacle of Test cricket.

South Africa made clear their intentions to recapture the No 1 ranking when they defeated Australia in a Test series for the first time in 16 years last summer, but Australia’s stirring riposte on South African soil provided them with a degree of breathing room.

Australia have won just five of their past 14 Tests, three of which were against the South Africans, and their inability to register a victory in the first three Tests of the Ashes series has drawn Smith’s side to within two points of the top ranking.

Like Andrew Strauss, South African coach Arthur feels the Australians have lost their aura, but warned England against underestimating them in the final two Tests of the Ashes series.

‘I do agree with Andrew in that the Australians have looked susceptible when placed under pressure,’ Arthur said.

‘With Australian sides of old, you could try and place all the pressure in the world on them and they would come through it unscathed more often than not. This younger side has shown the odd crack in those situations, and we saw that when we won many of the big moments when we played them in Australia. The aura has gone a little bit.

Sponsor protests over missing logo

A leading beverages company which is currently the official sponsor of the Pakistan cricket team, on Monday lodged a huge protest over the negligence of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for not displaying the logo of the company on the kit of the Pakistani players in the first two One-day Internationals against Sri Lanka during the ongoing tour.

Reliable sources told Dawn that the officials of the beverages company expressed annoyance over PCB’s carelessness due to which its brand message — for which they are paying the PCB a handsome amount — could not be beamed to the audiences worldwide.

Sources further said the officials of the sponsors threatened that such blunder in future could force them to disassociate itself from the PCB.

They added that it was after the sponsor pointed out the irregularity that the PCB sent the logo with its ‘A’ team also which left for Sri Lanka the other day to play matches against their counterparts.

Although the responsibility for displaying the logo lies mainly with the PCB, team manager Yawar Saeed and his assistant manager also failed to check the error.

According to the ICC rules, the manager and his staff are responsible to check and ensure that no objectionable words or pictures are printed on the pads, bats or kits of the players.

Pakistan cricket suffering after lost in SriLanka

Former players Tuesday called for a major shake-up in Pakistani cricket after the national side lost the five-match one-day series against Sri Lanka 3-0.

Sri Lanka, who won the preceding three-Test series 2-0 to post their first home series win against Pakistan, crushed Pakistan by six wickets on Monday to secure the limited-overs contest as well.

Sri Lanka have never won a home one-day series against Pakistan before and are now eyeing a clean sweep.

Mahela Jayawardene scored a brisk 123 for his first one-day century in two years to help Sri Lanka overhaul a daunting 289-run target at the Rangiri International Stadium.

Pakistani former captain Zaheer Abbas said the defeat stressed the need for a major overhaul.

"The World Twenty20 win had hid all the weaknesses in the team and the cricket board," said Abbas, referring to Pakistan's triumph in England in June.

"The top man doesn't know much about the intricacies of cricket and is taking decisions to please his friends," Abbas said of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt. "From top to bottom we need changes.

"Since this board has taken over we have lost the Champions Trophy, we have been stripped of World Cup 2011 matches and we have failed to handle the team, so this is total mismanagement, which is unacceptable," said Abbas.

Security fears in Pakistan forced the International Cricket Council (ICC) to relocate the biennial Champions Trophy to South Africa in February. Two months later, the ICC also had to move World Cup 2011 matches out of Pakistan.

"The coach (Intikhab Alam) must go, and the captain (Younus Khan) also lacks the qualities of a good leader," said Abbas.

Former chief selector Abdul Qadir demanded resignations from the board and the team.

"They should feel ashamed," said Qadir, who resigned in June after alleging interference in selection matters from the PCB and Alam.

"Defeats are part and parcel of the game, but shameful defeats are unacceptable."

Former captain Aamir Sohail, who last month resigned as the PCB's development director after differences with management, also slammed the Pakistani setup.

"No one, from the board officials to the team management, seems to have a clear plan in mind," he said.

"Some of the decisions make no sense, like two regular openers were sent to Sri Lanka but we used makeshift openers in the series which we have lost now."