Younis Khan and Intikhab Alam

Younis Khan has quit as captain of Pakistan’s cricket team in anger after being summoned to defend himself against allegations of deliberately losing matches, but his resignation has not been accepted.
he Pakistan Cricket Board said the batsman’s decision was a hasty one, and it plans to discuss the matter further with the player.

The 31-year-old, who was given the captaincy in January, having first led his national side in 2005, was furious when a government official accused Pakistan of deliberately losing two matches at the recent Champions Trophy in South Africa.

Jamshed Dasti, chairman of the National Assembly standing committee on sports, claimed Pakistan had lost to Australia in order to end rivals India’s hopes of qualifying for the semifinals.

He also said Younis’ team had deliberately lost the semifinal against New Zealand, a match the Pakistanis were confident of winning.

Younis, coach Intikhab Alam and PCB chairman Ijaz Butt were ordered to appear before the National Assembly in Islamabad on Tuesday.

“I could not stand criticism from all and sundry as it was affecting my performance. That is why I resigned,” Younis told The Dawn.

Intikhab said Younis had made “an emotional decision … to tender his resignation.”

“We have rejected match-fixing allegations at the meeting,” he said.

Younis led Pakistan to victory at the World Twenty20 tournament in England in June, but then his side suffered humiliating Test and one-day series defeats in Sri Lanka before the Champions Trophy.

He is a veteran of 63 Tests, scoring 16 centuries including a superb 313 in his first match as permanent captain against Sri Lanka in February.

Nathan Bracken

Nathan Bracken believes England will use their Ashes victory as motivation to complete a summer of misery for Australia when the two sides resume hostilities on Friday.

England will play the tourists for the first time since the hosts completed a 2-1 series win with a 197-run win at the Brit Oval.

The two sides had been due to play each other in two Twenty20 internationals in Manchester but both had to be abandoned due to rain.

The seven-match one day international series will begin at the ground where England claimed the Ashes, and Bracken, who was not in the Australia Test squad, believes Andrew Strauss’ team will be buoyed by their recent victory.

“The England side will be using the Ashes win as a motivation to try and beat us here in both forms,” the 31-year-old said.

“They will want to win the one form of the game that is left and walk away saying we beat Australia in both the Tests and the one-dayers.

“That will be their goal for the series and for us it will be our aim to stop them.”

England struggled to just 209 in their three-run win over Ireland just three days after winning the Ashes in their first one-day international game since the 2-0 ODI series win over the West Indies.

They followed up that series with a largely disappointing performance in the ICC Twenty20, where Paul Collingwood’s side failed to make the semi-finals and lost to minnows Holland.

Bracken believes, however, that the hosts have the quality to challenge Michael Clarke’s team, who sit one place above England in the ICC ODI rankings in third.

“On paper the England side has a lot of good cricketers in it,” he added.

“They have a lot of good players who are coming out of a good Ashes series of performing well and plus there’s also a few new guys who have been chucked in there who are eager to impress.

“The series is in England as well so if you are an English player playing in England there is no more motivation than playing Australia here.”

The last time the two sides met in an ODI series was in 2007 when England surprised the hosts down under by beating them in the Commonwealth Bank Series shortly after squandering the Ashes 5-0.

Bracken believes that loss will give the Australians an added incentive to beat their old rivals in this ODI series.

“The last ODI series here was a draw and the last time England was in Australia England won so realistically we haven’t beaten England in a one day series either here or in Australia for the last two times so we are trying to get revenge for those two,” the left arm seamer said.

“We haven’t been consistent enough in our one-day form, there has been glimmers of what we can do.

“We have put on good performances in Dubai (against the West Indies) and we played well at the end of the South Africa tour.

“But the consistency that we have prided ourselves on for as long as we can remember is probably not as good as we have expected it to be.”

Dickie Bird Gives His Last Decision In Test Cricket

Former greatest British Test umpire Dickie Bird has joined the chorus of people imploring the  International  Cricket Council (ICC) to change their rules to ensure the best officials are appointed  to the biggest series.

Under ICC regulations, umpires are banned from standing in matches involving teams from their own countries, ensuring matches are overseen by “neutral” umpires.

Critics have argued that the best umpires should be appointed regardless of their nationality and the teams involved, and the issue came to a head during the recent Ashes series between England and Australia.

Australia’s Simon Taufel has been officially recognised as the ICC’s umpire of the year for the past five seasons but was prevented from officiating in the Ashes, which was clouded by a series of contentious decisions.

“I don’t know whether the ICC or the ruling body has got the best umpires, but you must get the best umpires, especially to do an Ashes series when there’s so much at stake,” Bird told Sky Sports on Tuesday.

“Decisions can cost a Test match or a player’s career. It looked at times as if the pressure got at the two umpires out in the middle.”

Bird, 76, said he sympathised with the umpires who did control the Ashes series because of the extra scrutiny they were under but said their jobs would be made easier if more video replays were allowed.

“It’s not an easy job, it’s very difficult, but now there are electronic aids so they should be able to get most of the decisions right,” he said.

ICC champions trophy, 2009

The sixth edition of ICC Champions Trophy will be held in Johannesburg and Centurion of South Africa from September 22nd, 2009 to October 5th, 2009. Top 8 countries of ODI ranking Australia, South Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, England, West Indies and New Zealand will participate the Champions Trophy’ 09  into two groups, Group A and Group B. The two groups are made from where top two battles in Semi-finals and finally the best ones come in the final. 15 matches will be played in only 14 days at two venues including The Wanderers and Centurion Park. Last time in Champions trophy there were 21 matches played.

All the countries finalized their squad for 2nd most attractive tournament of Cricket word.

Let’s see the squad of All the countries.

1. South Africa: Graeme Smith, Johan Botha, Hashim Amla, Mark Boucher, 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.

Main highlight of South African squad are Lonwabo Tsotsobe makes his return after injury and Robin Peterson replaces Morne Morkel in the squad in the other change from the squad which played against Australia earlier in the year.

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

The Australian selectors have named a squad to defend the title they won in 2006 with few surprises, save for perhaps the inclusion of pace bowler Peter Siddle and Cameron White, who have not been regular members of the squad in the last two years.

Australia begin their defence with a match against the West Indies on 26th September, also playing India and Pakistan in Group A.

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

England will be without Kevin Pietersen and fast bowler Steve Harmison also misses out through injury. Kent opener Joe Denly is the only uncapped player in England’s squads for the Champions Trophy in South Africa.

4. India : Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Abhishek Nayar, RP Singh, Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra.

36-year-old Rahul Dravid has been handed a recall by the Indian selectors for the Champions Trophy in South Africa having not played an ODI since 2007. However, India remain without two of their major stars with Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan missing, both recovering from shoulder surgery and another man to miss out is left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha, replaced by leg-spinner Amit Mishra.

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

6. West Indies: Floyd Reifer (captain), Darren Sammy (vice-captain), 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.

The provisional squad omitted its major stars following a contract dispute and they have not been recalled, meaning the squad will be captained by Floyd Reifer, as it was during recent home series against Bangladesh. Fast bowlers Tino Best and Daren Powell, batsman Devon Smith and spinner Nikita Miller are among those players who do have One-Day International experience to draw on.

7. New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (captain), 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.

Fast bowlers Shane Bond and Daryl Tuffey have been named in New Zealand’s 15-man squad for the Champions Trophy. Both men are eligible to return to international cricket after they broke their contracts with the Indian Cricket League, the Twenty20 league which is deemed to be unofficial cricket by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

8. Pakistan: Younus Khan (captain), Imran Nazir, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umer Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Rana Naved-ul Hasan, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Yousuf, Kamran Akmal, Umar Gul, Mohammad Aamir, Mohammad Asif, Rao Iftikhar, Saeed Ajmal.

Fast bowler Mohammad Asif has been named in Pakistan’s 15-man Champions Trophy squad despite his 12-month doping ban only running out one day before their opening fixture against the West Indies on 23rd September. Pakistan also take on Australia and India in Group A of the tournament. Asif, who tested positive for nandralone in the 2008 Indian Premier League when playing for the Delhi Daredevils, last played an ODI in April 2008 against Bangladesh.

The squad also includes four players who have severed their links with the Indian Cricket League in batsmen Imran Nazir and Mohammad Yousuf, all-rounder Abdul Razzaq, and bowler Rana Naved-ul-Hasan while Umar Akmal retains his place in the squad after an impressive start to his international career against Sri Lanka.

England celebration after the victory of Ashes

Andrew Flintoff returned in place of Graham Onions for the fifth Ashes Test at The Oval and other than that Jonathan Trott was the only change to the England line-up from the team which slumped to defeat within two and a half days at Headingley.

Warwickshire batsman Trott justified his selection with a debut second-innings hundred while youngsters such as Stuart Broad came good under pressure after difficult starts.

Miller now wants the team to build on their 2-1 series success against Australia.

He said: “It’s always easy to gamble. We’re not in the throes of gambling. We’ve set out the way we want to go forward – the word we use so often and it’s important now is ‘consistency’.

“We’ll continue to do that. It’s proved that is the way forward. The youngsters, when they feel they’re secure and part of a unit, they start getting better and better and that augurs well for the future.

“Everyone played really well. We scored 700 runs on that wicket so we deserved the victory.”

Broad, whose five wickets for 37 runs in the first innings at The Oval earned him the man-of-the-match award, has been tipped as the natural successor to Flintoff.

But Miller has warned not to heap too much expectation on the 23 year-old’s shoulders.

“It doesn’t necessarily just fall on Stuart, we’ll have to assess it,” he said.

“We know all right Fred (Flintoff) is not going to be part of our middle order but we’re looking at players continually who can fit into that category and move on.”

Of Flintoff, who bowed out from Test cricket in style yesterday with the crucial run-out of Australia captain Ricky Ponting, Miller added: “He’s been absolutely fantastic for the game of cricket worldwide and certainly for England.

“We will miss him but he’s made a decision. He knows what his body’s like so we’ll run with that.

“He’s not packed up on one-day cricket so when everything’s sorted out with his operation, or whatever happens to him on Tuesday, we’ll take it from there.

“It might be a long break but we know what he’s capable of doing. We know what he wants, he’s passionate to play for England and you saw it yesterday.”

Symonds want to take green bagy cap

England regained the Ashes with a 197-run win over Australia in the fifth and final Test at the Oval on Sunday. Victory, achieved with more than a day to spare, saw England take the five-match series 2-1. England victory’s left Ponting with the unwanted record of becoming only the second Australia captain, since Billy Murdoch in 1890, to be in charge of two losing Ashes tours of England. And it also knocked Australia off top spot in the Test rankings.

With Australia losing their grip on the Ashes, troubled all-rounder Andrew Symonds has added further insult to the injury by criticizing the world champion’s team culture that led to his unceremonious ouster from the national side. Symonds, who has been watching the Ashes on television, said the rigid team rules still rankle him.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Symond quoted ” “I suppose you like to go out on your own terms. But the way I was, that I am, and the way the game was headed … if you can’t sit in the pub and watch a football game over a beer, if that’s upsetting team rules and harmony, there’s no place for me anymore ”

“I’m not bitter. I’m not angry. It was just the way it unfolded. Now I can go and watch my footy team play and relax doing it. I would have liked to have gone out on my own steam, but it’s not a train smash, mate. It’s one of those things.

“I’m a keen Broncos supporter. They’ve been great to me, they’ve welcomed me with open arms. I’ve found it interesting to sit in on team meetings and see how they go about preparing for a game,” he added.

Symonds said although he is upset with the way he was thrown out of the Australian team, he still desires to wear the baggy green

The 34-year-old all-rounder met Queensland cricket chief Graham Dixon and expressed his desire to play for the domestic side once again, a decision which was inspired by a casual chat with former Test opener Matthew Hayden.

“I know when I came back I still had the passion to play Test cricket – I wouldn’t have bothered training otherwise. I wouldn’t have bothered trying to get fit again. But I’m happy with life now. It’s water under the bridge. I didn’t plan for it to end the way it did.”