14 Tuesday 11th March, 2008 Good luck Gayle and tough luck Sarwan by Tony Becca Richards, , hris Gayle is back as the West , Lara himself, Indies . Based on all , , and Cthe reports, he probably Lara again, the fans sat back and deserves it, and good luck to him and looked forward to the West Indies the West Indies. under Sarwan. There is one question which I Unfortunately for Sarwan, he suf- must ask the West Indies selectors fered an injury to his shoulder dur- and the West Indies Board, ing the second Test match, he had to however, and it is this: What has hap- return home. pened to ? Ganga, his vice-captain, took Last year, after the disappoint- , after the West Indies had lost ment of the World Cup and the deci- the Test series 3-0, Gayle took over sion to remove , the selec- in the one-day series, after drawing tors sat down to select the man who the 20/20 contest 1-1, he led the West they would recommend to the board Indies to a 2-1 victory. as the captain of the team to Sarwan then came back for the PCB submits England and, as far as I know, there World and, after he was were only two considerations. injured again, Gayle was named - tain of the team to Zimbabwe and strong chargesheet They were South Africa. and Sarwan against Akhtar Sarwan was recommended to the What happened? board and the board accepted the rec- After suffering an injury during Controversial fast bowler Shoaib ommendation. Although the board the one-day series in Zimbabwe, Akhtar appears to be in deep trouble has always said that a captain is Gayle returned against South Africa Ramnaresh as the Cricket Board has sub- selected tour by tour or series by and, unfortunately for him, after Sarwan mitted a strong chargesheet against series, based on the West Indies his- leading the West Indies to victory in him, while coach has tory, based on what happened during the first Test, he suffered another asked the PCB not to consider the the reigns of , Gary injury in the second Test and was maverick speedster for Test matches. Sobers, , , not available after that. In a chargesheet submitted to the Viv According to reports, Is it that Sarwan did not live up No plan for development disciplinary committee hearing the Gayle is respected and to the expectations? Or is it that case against Shoaib, the PCB has loved by the players, given the opportunity, Gayle, with a By removing Sarwan as the cap- described the bowler as a lawbreaker he inspires them, he record of one victory and one loss in tain of the team without giving him in the game. did reasonably well two Test matches, five victories, a fair chance to prove himself, the According to sources, the PCB has as the captain and, if three losses, and one no-result in selectors and the board have once written that Shoaib has a record of nothing else, based nine one-day matches, performed again demonstrated one of the rea- breaching the terms of his central on his on-field brilliantly, proved himself to be supe- sons why West Indies cricket is still, contract and he has remained in the results, no one can rior to Sarwan and his record of one after so many, many years, languish- spotlight for wrong reasons. doubt that. loss and one draw in his two Test ing at number eight in both the Test To make matters worse for Shoaib, Apart from the matches, his three victories and one and one-day versions of the game. Lawson has also suggested that the influence of loss in four one-day matches, and By their actions, the selectors and express bowler be selected only for the Ganga, the could not be ignored or replaced? the board have shown that they have ODIs as he was not reliable for Test selectors, howev- Although captaincy is somewhat no plan for development, that they do cricket. "His future may lie in just er, talked about the different, apart from the fact that not know what they are doing. being a ODI bowler as his lack of reli- wonderful relation- there is an unwritten rule in sport Gayle, the man who many ability is not good for Test match ship between Sarwan which says that even if he performs, thought was an acting captain, the cricket," Lawson wrote. and the players. a substitute, under normal circum- man who said he had no problem The disciplinary committee met on They talked about stances, must give way to an injured playing under Sarwan when he Friday to go through the chargesheet his knowledge of the player when that player returns. returns, did reasonably well on the submitted against the fast bowler, who game. They talked about I do not believe that there is any- field, and no one can question that. is under a one year probation after how, as the vice-captain of thing between the two on the field. I So, too, however, did Sarwan - the being banned for 13 matches and fined the team under Lara and do not believe that Sarwan should man who was groomed for the job Rs 3.4 million for having a brawl with under Chanderpaul, he had have been replaced and without even and who was given the job. team-mate Muhammad Asif in South been groomed for the job looking at his utterances after the He did nothing wrong and had no Africa last year. for some five years. Stanford 20/20 final, I do not believe time to do anything wrong. Now, the board has charged Shoaib And the question is so for many reasons, including the Unless he is not human, Sarwan with giving media statements against this: What happened in fact it suggests that the selectors and must now be quietly wondering what the policies of the PCB after he was the short time and in the board are doing nothing but sin, what crime, did he or has he dropped from the new central con- the few matches in rolling the dice and hoping once committed. tracts list in January. which he captained again. Shoaib accused the board of hav- the team? ( Gleaner) ing double standards while dealing with the players and accused it of con- ducting `B` grade matches at domestic level. Shoaib, in his response to the PCB ICL launches T20 cricket season notice, has written rather passively to Board Chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf. "I NEW : The rebel ing sponsors kept away despite who will play for Delhi Jets in the ICL like Lara, Inzamam and Bond upcoming ICL edition for five mil- have every respect for you as one begins its the presence of ageing stalwarts month-long, 10-team competition. are reportedly in the 500,000-dol- lion dollars, half of what the would for an elder brother. More so, second edition on Sunday,deter- like Brian Lara and Inzamam-ul "I'm just disappointed that lar bracket, a sum still big enough BCCI bagged for naming the IPL because you have been quite a helping mined to prosper despite facing a Haq. players are getting banned. I just to attract players from around the after a real estate giant. daunting battle against the offi- The second edition offers little don't think that is fair. All boards world. But monetary comparisons hand throughout your tenure," he cial, super-rich Indian Premier respite as the powerful BCCI want to make money and they New recruits to the ICL, were unfair, according to Kapil wrote League. moves to crush any opposition to have been quick to jump in with besides Bond, include fellow Kiwi Dev, the legendary Indian all- Shoaib also stated that it was not The ICL, bankrolled by the its multi-million dollar IPL that the BCCI, basically doing what , South African rounder who heads the ICL's exec- his intention to be critical of the PCB country's largest listed media will debut on April 18. they told them." , of utive board. and he regrets any inconvenience company Zee Telefilms, organised The first match, between the The ICL has kept players' Zimbabwe and of "It's not about how much you caused by him. its first Twenty20 tournament last Rockets, led by salaries a secret, unlike the BCCI the West Indies, according to the pay the players but how serious But now it seems unlikely that the December with a host of retired Australian , and that organised last month's publi- organisers. they are about the event," Dev PCB is willing to be lenient with the and semi-retired international the Chandigarh Lions, captained cised auction of leading players With 15 players from across said. stars and domestic players. by New Zealand allrounder Chris for the IPL, which has already the in the bag, the ICL "My domestic players are bowler as they have told the discipli- The event, held in remote Cairns, will again be played in netted an astonishing two billion opted to field an all-Pakistan team motivated because they get a nary committee that his off-the-field Panchkula in northern Panchkula. dollars in rights and sponsorship. called the Badshahs chance to play against the game's activities did no more than tarnish the because the Board of Control for Cricket boards around the Mahendra Singh Dhoni was (Lahore Kings) in a bid to cash in greats. The international stars we image of the country and the game. (BCCI) refused to world have banned players join- bought by the franchise on the traditional rivalry between have are also determined to make "His outbursts in the media, brawls release regular grounds to the ing the ICL from playing official for 1.5 million dollars to play a the two nations. the ICL a success because they with his colleagues and team officials, rebel outfit, barely created a rip- matches, a move that has irked minimum of 14 Twenty20 match- "A Pakistan team add a whole have been snubbed by their own disinclination to accept PCB policies ple. new recruits like New Zealand es over 44 days. new dimension to the league," boards. Held at the same time as the fast bowler . The price for other top stars said Himanshu Mody,the ICL's "We are promoting the game, on sponsorships and other issues, official India-Pakistan home "We're professional cricketers ranged from 500,000 dollars to a business head. is there anything wrong with snubbing establishment procedures on series, the tournament drew poor and we should be able to play any- million dollars. A financial services company that?," Dev asked. fitness, paint him as a lawbreaker in television ratings and big-spend- where and for anyone," said Bond, In contrast, top-earners at the bought the title rights for the (zeecric.com) cricket," the chargesheet says. "PCB in the past faced the brunt of ignoring his acts. The Board has been IPL to conduct second labeled as helpless when it comes to Wheelchair tennis Yan victim Jan... taking action against Shoaib," it adds. Serbian tennis The PCB has also informed the dis- player auction player and world ciplinary committee that based on his NEW DELHI (AP) - After He is among 18 players up camp for juniors number four recent performances and behavior, the spending almost US$42 million for auction to teams that have (euro28.5 million) on players in not exhausted their salary caps. and seniors Jelena Jankovic governing body decided to downgrade frenzied bidding at Misbah-ul-Haq, the star is attended to by Shoaib`s central contract from `A` cat- last month, the Indian Premier performer on Pakistan's 2007 by Revata S. Silva a trainer during egory to special retainership. League's eight franchises get tour of India, is also among the a quarter-final Sources in the board have also another chance to fill out their group that includes Ross The Sri Lanka Tennis Association match against pointed out that even former coach rosters on Tuesday. Taylor, Jamie How and Kyle (SLTA) is to conduct a wheelchair tennis China's Zi Yan at Bob Woolmer was never happy with South Africa's Ashwell Mills from New Zealand, and training camp for disabled adults who Bangalore Open Shoaib`s behaviour and commitment Prince and Pakistan's Australians and are over 18 years of age on March 15 and 2008 women's to the team. Mohammad Yousuf are likely . tennis tourna- to be the focus of attention As in the first auction, 16 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the SLTA hard Woolmer had even informed the after being withdrawn from the there are no England players courts at Marcus Fernando Mawatha, ment in board that during the second Test first auction. available to play in the IPL. Colombo 7. The event is sponsored by Bangalore, against South Africa in Port Elizabeth Yousuf is involved in a England's players are commit- the International Tennis Federation India, Friday, in early 2007, Shoaib refused to take legal battle to get released from ted to national team and county under ‘Cruffy Foundation.’ March 7, 2008. the field saying he had a hamstring a contract with the rebel Indian duty in an increasingly crowd- The SLTA’s wheelchair training pro- Yan won 6-3, 3- problem. But team physiotherapist Cricket League, a rival ed cricket calendar. 6, 6-3. Twenty20 competition which is gramme for Under-18 juniors will be Darryn Lifsun found no clinical signs The inaugural IPL season (AP Photo/Aijaz not sanctioned by the held on March 23 and 24 from 9 a.m. to 5 of any injury, a source said. starts April 18 in the southern Rahi) International Cricket Council. city of Bangalore. p.m.