Kanpur, November 19
England's hope of boosting its pace attack was shattered with left-arm seamer Ryan Sidebottom failing to clear the fitness test for the third-one day International against India to be held here tomorrow.

Graeme Swann is likely to play as the off spinner was named in a 12-man squad on the eve of the match.

The 29-year-old Swann hogged the spotlight with his impressive showing in last year's one-day series victory in Sri Lanka, claiming seven wickets in four matches.

''Because I haven't played in the first two games, I'm in quite a unique position and should I get in the eleven tomorrow which I hope to do, I can walk out as if it is a fresh series,'' the bowler told reporters after the nets here today.

''The series in Sri Lanka last year had five matches. That is a good length series for a spin bowler, doesn't get too tired and doesn't get worked out by the batsmen.'' he added. Swann is likely to replace all-rounder Ravi Bopara, who did not attend nets due to stomach upset.

Ryan Sidebottom chance of returning to the side ended after he underwent a scan for a back problem, having just recovered from an Achilles injury that kept him out of the first two games.

Asserting that Yuvraj Singh was the most dangerous batsman in the Indian team who single-handedly knocked England out in the last two games, Swann stated that the visitors will try to get him out as early as possible in the third ODI.

He was also of view that the English team was also unlucky that Yuvraj, who was struggling with his form in the recent past, has chosen England to announce his return to form.

''We were a little unlucky. When the tour started, Yuvraj was down in form but he bounced back in the first two matches of the series and is looking hungry for more,'' Swann said.

However, he went on to add that England also has quality players like skipper Kevin Pietersen and all-rounder Andrew Flintoff who can be as destructive as Yuvraj on their day. He hoped that the duo will win tomorrow's tie for the visitors. ''We also got two very good hitters in Pietersen and Flintoff and though they have not fired on all cylinders, I hope tomorrow they would and we'll win the match,'' he said.

The off-spinner is also looking forward to bowl on the spin-friendly wickets to the Indian players who were generally known as good players of spin bowling.

After a spell of light showers this evening, the weather was likely to play a vital role during the third ODI to be played between India and England at Green Park stadium here tomorrow.

Though weather scientist Dr Anirudh Dubey of Chandra Shekhar Azad university of Agriculture Science and Technology has forecast that there would be no rain, but the cloudy weather hinted the possibilities of light drizzles in the morning.

Dubey said due to heavy snowfall in Himanchal areas, the weather has taken a U-turn.

Curator Shiv Kumar, meanwhile, said the wicket was covered soon after the last night drizzles and it would not affect the match. — UNI 

Kanpur, November 19
India, already leading the seven match series by 2-0, does not propose to experiment by way of making many changes in the winning combination for third ODI cricket match scheduled to be held at Green Park stadium here tomorrow.

''We would not experiment much with the team as all our boys, including speedster Ishant Sharma, are fit and most of them are in good form,'' skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni told mediapersons after morning nets.

Ishant who has missed the first two matches owing to injury is fit to play and likely to be included in the playing eleven-may be at the cost of RP Singh who was hit for 49 runs in five overs in the last ODI at Indore.

Pleased with the rampaging batting form of Yuvraj Singh, Dhoni hoped that he would make hattrick of tons at Kanpur tomorrow.

Yuvraj has hit two back-to-back centuries in the first two ODIs of the current series.

To a question, Dhoni said absence of Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguli and Rahul Dravid would not affect the performance and prospects of Indian team. While Saurav and Rahul are no more the part of one-day cricket, Sachin had opted out of the first three match.

Openers clicking with consistency and middle order responding rather well, India's batting looked formidable, he opined.

Dhoni said winning the toss would be advantageous for the team and added that if India would like to bat first. India had batted first in the last two matches which they had won quite comprehensively. — UNI

Team India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni today asserted that playing for national honour holds more appeal for him than turning out for his IPL franchise and he would like to play the first Test against England even at the cost of missing the Champions League final.

If Dhoni's IPL outfit - the Chennai Super Kings - manage to reach the Champions League final on December 10, it could mean that the Indian captain will have to miss the Ahmedabad Test which is scheduled to start the very next day.

However, the 27-year-old from Jharkhand attempted to put an end to the speculation by putting the ball in the BCCI's court.

''I have no information regarding this but for me, country always comes first,'' Dhoni told reporters after the Indian team's practice session ahead of tomorrow's third ODI against England.

''I will go by whatever BCCI decides but in case I have to make a choice, of course I would like to play the Test match,'' he added.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had earlier requested its English counterpart to delay the Ahmedabad Test by a day to allow Dhoni sufficient time to fly back from Chennai to Ahmedabad in time for the Test.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), however, had cited logistics problems and turned down the request.

With the international calendar getting more and more cramped every year, Dhoni stated that it is getting increasingly tough for the players and they would eventually cut down on participation, much like he did in the recent past.

''I myself opted out of the Test series in Sri Lanka because I needed a break. It's important for a player to decide when he cannot take it anymore. It's getting increasingly tough, especially for the fast bowlers,'' he pointed out. — UNI 

Melbourne, November 19
Ricky Ponting has lashed out at legendary Indian Sunil Gavaskar and other former players for often blaming the Australian team for on-field confrontations, saying the Indian opener was not an angel during his playing days.

“I know that over the past 10 years, probably longer, a notion has developed that the Australian team walks out onto the field intent on getting in faces and having a few words...

“Unfortunately, as soon as a spectator or a commentator spots one of my team chipping on opponent, they assume it is a pre-meditated attack," Ponting said.

"The most laughable aspect is when I hear former players complaining, as though they never put a toe out of line in their day.

"I still have a vivid image of Sunil Gavaskar angrily trying to take his opening partner off the MCG with him in 1981 when he was given out lbw in a Test match, but to hear him today you'd think he was positively angelic when he was the best opening batsman in the world," he wrote in his 'Captain's Diary 2008'.

Ponting said he was disappointed by the hypocrisy of former cricketers who never kept the standards in their hey-days but were demanding the same from his team.

"In the four or five days after the Sydney Test... inevitably, some ex-players -- mostly the usual suspects -- were into us, and I found their hypocrisy extremely disappointing. They were demanding standards from us that they had never kept themselves when they were Test stars.

"The classic came when Tony Grieg suggested that the batsmen of today should be walking to make it easier for the umpires. This was coming from a bloke who in his day made a virtue out of not walking.

"I always presumed that ex-players are employed by media outlets because their experience gives them a rare insight into the pressure elite cricketers are under and the way we think, but it seems to me that many of them forget about their past lives the minute they are handed a press pass.

Ponting also took a dig at just retired Indian captain Anil Kumble, saying his comment 'only one team was playing within the spirit of the game' after the Sydney Test was borrowed from a former Australian skipper Bill Woodfull.

"I'm not sure how extensive Anil's knowledge of cricket history is, but -- as was picked up immediately by reporters -- his comments echoed those made by Australian captain Bill Woodfull during the acrimonious bodyline series of 1932-33.

"'There are two teams out there, one is trying to play cricket and the other is not', Woodfull had said to English managers during the third Test of that series," he said. — PTI 

Melbourne, November 19
Clearing the air over troubled allrounder Andrew Symonds' inclusion, Australian skipper Ricky Ponting today said the allrounder will certainly play in the first cricket Test against New Zealand tomorrow.

However, Ponting made it clear that Shane Watson and off-spinner Jason Krejza will have to fight it out for the remaining spot.

"Andrew Symonds will definitely play the game, back into the Test team, which is fantastic news for him," he said adding, "We'll wait until tomorrow morning until we finalise what the final 11 will be, but it will be down to Krejza and Watson," Ponting was quoted as saying in 'The Age'.

Ponting also cleared doubts about Symonds's form, saying the Queenslander has done enough in the past two years to justify his selection.

"Obviously with Symmo, when he was deemed to be fit and ready to go again I think it was important that we got him back into that team.

"Him being a senior member of our team and someone who was a very successful member of our team before he went out of it, it almost becomes an injury-type replacement. He's been out for a couple of months but he's fit and ready to go now and he deserves his spot back in the side," he said.

Ponting said he would take a final call on the final playing XI at the last minute, saying it would depend heavily on the weather conditions overnight and either Watson or Krejza would be unlucky to sit out tomorrow.

"They will be desperately unlucky, whoever misses out there," Ponting said.

"Krejza's taken 12 wickets in the last Test match he played and at different times in the Indian series. Shane Watson was probably our best bowler. So there are tough decisions to be made there, he said. — PTI 

Rajkot, November 19
Riding on superb batting performances by Cheteshwar Pujara (189 off 182 balls) and skipper Jaydev Shah (178 runs off 199 balls) Saurashtra scored 679 runs for eight (declared), and gained three points from the drawn match against Punjab on the last day of the four-day Ranji Trophy match here today.

Jaydev Shah’s illustrous innings of 178 runs, studded with 25 fours and four sixes, was the main attraction of the day. As the match was poised for a draw and only academic interest remained in the match, it was called off before the start of the mandatory overs as soon as Saurashtra declared their first innnings at 679 for eight, shortly after the tea break.

Punjab skipper Pankaj Dharmani used as many as eleven bowlers including himself and wicket-keeper Uday Kaul. Tailender Kamlesh Makwana and Sandeep Jobanputra remained not out on 12 and 25 runs respectively when hosts declared the innings.

Resuming at the overnight score of 405 for four, Ravindra Jadeja and Jaydev Shah stitched together their partnership of 161 runs for the fifth wicket before the former was stumped by Uday Kaul off V Khanna. He made his exit after scoring 56 runs in which he executed six boundaries.

Spinner V Khanna and Charanjeet Singh shared five wickets between them as the other bowlers failed to provide any show against the hosts. Khanna took three wickets for 161 while Charanjeet singh grabbed two wickets for 220 runs.

Punjab made 482 runs in their first essay and managed one point from this match.

Brief Scores: Punjab (Ist Innings): 482

Gurgaon, November 19
The Indian Cricket League (ICL) today announced its team composition for the ICL 20s World Series that starts from November 23. The tournament features four teams take on each other, once in a round robin format, followed by a final between the two top standing teams.

Inzaman-ul-Haq will lead the formidable ICL Pakistani team, while Chris Harris will lead a galaxy of international stalwarts representing ICL World, Habibul Bashar will lead the ICL Bangladesh and R. Sathish will lead the young talented ICL India. This premium ICL tournament features the top performing players from a talent pool of over 150 domestic and international players, in the recently concluded ICL 20s Indian Championship.

While talking to The Tribune about the tournament and selection process, ICL executive board member, Kiran More said, “The ICL 20s World Series was conceptualised in ICL Season-I, with the primary objective of giving exposure to our domestic talent to the next level of international competition. The last ICL 20s World Series was a fairytale story and extremely gratifying on a personal level with the ICL-India team taking top honours. This time around, with the additional team from Bangladesh, a resurgent and determined ICL Pakistani and much stronger ICL-World; offers the stiffest challenge ever faced by the young ICL-India team”.

The tournament offers a prize money corpus of Rs 2.74 crore. Winners of this tournament stand to gain Rs 1.25 crore and runner-up will cash in Rs 75 lakh. The financial incentive for every win at the league stage will be a handsome Rs 10 lakh while the Man of the Match will cash in Rs 2 lakh.

BRIEFLY

NEW DELHI
Cartier to sculpt C League trophy: The Twenty20 Champions League have commissioned world renowned French jeweller and luxury brand - Cartier, to sculpt Winners Trophy to be presented after final on December 10 in Mumbai. The exquisitely hand-sculpted trophy designed exclusively for the December 3-10 tourney will measure 41 cm in height, with a diameter of 31 cm and weigh just over 7 kilos. The trophy will be unveiled prior to the inaugural match of the League. 
— PTI

Dhyanchand’s b’day as national sports day: Praising legendary hockey player Major Dhyanchand as the greatest ever sportsman to be born in in India, sports minister MS Gill on Wednesday said his birthday, which falls on August 29, will be celebrated as ‘National Sports Day’. “I will take steps to ensure that Dhyanchand’s birthday is commemorated as National Sports Day from next year onwards. I will write to the education ministry about this,” Gill told mediapersons on the sidelines of a function here. — UNI

Prakash bows out of Knoxville Challenger: Prakash Amritraj made an early exit from the $50,000 ATP Challenger series event in Knoxville, USA after losing his singles and doubles first round matches. Australian wild card John Partick Smith after annexing the first set but Smith showed tremendous will to come back and script the 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 ouster of the Indian Davis Cupper. In doubles, Prakash and his brother Stephen lost 3-6, 6-7 to French pair of Olivuier Charroin and Nicolas Tourte. — PTI

BANGALORE
Kirmani hospitalised after chest pain: Former India wicket-keeper Syed Kirmani has been admitted to a private multi-speciality hospital here for “mild chest pain”. Kirmani (58), who complained of mild chest pain, was admitted to Wockhardt Hospital last night and had been kept in the ICU, Dr Ranganath Naik Consultant Cardiologist of the hospital told PTI on Wednesday. He said the veteran cricketer, who was a part of the 1983 World Cup wining team, would be kept under observation. — PTI

DRESDEN
Indian men well placed in chess Olympiad: Starting as underdogs in the absence of Viswanathan Anand, Indian men are doing well with former world junior champion P Harikrishna and Krishnan Sasikiran displaying brilliant forms in the 32nd edition of the chess Olympiad underway here. With six rounds remaining after Wednesday’s rest day in the 144-team tournament, the Indian team is placed joint-seventh and are just one point behind the six leaders Russia, Armenia, Germany, Azerbaijan, England and Ukraine. The Indian women apparently ran out of steam against Hungary in the fifth round. — PTI