Australian media call for selectors' heads

Australian media called for the country's cricket chiefs to resign and urged wholesale reform of the game after a woeful showing which saw England retain the Ashes in the fourth Test. Ricky Ponting's side crashed to a humiliating innings and 157-run defeat in Melbourne on Thursday, allowing holders England to retain the Ashes in Australia for the first time in more than 20 years.

"You're all fired!" declared the front page of Sydney's Daily Telegraph tabloid, featuring shots of Ponting, vice-captain Michael Clarke, coach Tim Nielsen and Andrew Hilditch, Australia's chairman of selectors. Several newspapers carried pictures of the victorious England players performing "The Sprinkler", a comedy dance invented by spinner Graeme Swann, on the Melbourne Cricket Ground field. The magnitude of the loss, Australia's worst against England since 1956, added to the pain, but the Telegraph said it was the glaring lack of prospects in the home side which wounded most.

"In 1956 our national team was relatively young and inexperienced. For them the only way was up," it said in its editorial.

"In 2010 it's not quite the same... It could be that a top-to-bottom reconstruction is called for."

The Australian newspaper's Malcolm Conn agreed, calling for officials to fall on their swords.

"The Cricket Australia board is ultimately responsible for this country's tumble from grace as a Test nation," wrote Conn.

"It wallowed in the glory of Australia's decade of domination instead of reading the signs of what was coming."

He said an inept Australia had been "out-planned, out-thought, out-prepared and outplayed", "humiliated by a third-ranked nation which has one superstar, the South African-born Kevin Pietersen, when he gets his head right".

Former opener Stuart Clark said Australia's top-order was lacking and they had serious bowling issues, with no viable spinner and little variety in style.

"No one within the team or outside can dispute the fact that England have outplayed Australia in every facet of this game," Clark wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.

One letter to the Herald's editor lashed cricket officials for turning the team's top players "into a sideshow and a laughing stock" by allowing them to take part in adverts for fast food.

"Surely Cricket Australia has an obligation to ensure the team is prepared and presented as a beacon of integrity and ability (which it once was), not some over-commercialised, morally bankrupt group of B-grade actors promoting unhealthy diets," it said.

The newspaper's sports section led with "An Apology to England's Cricketers and Supporters", admitting it was "a superior team that deserved its triumph" and made the "Australian top order look like invertebrates".

"Not that you are prone to relinquishing it anyway, but we accept the urn this time truly belongs at Lord's," the Herald said. "We will call a moratorium on references to infrequent bathing, questionable orthodontistry, general pastiness and warm beer... We thank you for putting on a magnificent show."

Australian cricketers fall from gods to bedraggled larrikins

Andrew Strauss takes his England cricket team from Melbourne to Sydney for the final, celebratory chapter of their enthralling Ashes campaign assured but not smug in the assumption that opponents so long regarded as gods have been reduced to a larrikin rabble.

His counterpart, Ricky Ponting, fighting for his own future as much as that of his bedraggled team, will learn officially at noon tomorrow (1am GMT) if his captaincy is to be cut short or extended in the fifth Test, which starts on Monday.

The word is that he will hang on simply because there is no alternative, given the equally woeful form and downbeat demeanour of his understudy, Michael Clarke. That describes the mayhem within the Australian camp.

England, on the other hand, have only the sun-blessed uplands to gaze upon. There are no selection issues, no niggles, no foreboding.

They took the fourth Test by an innings and 157 runs to win the Ashes in Australia for the first time since Mike Gatting's team did so in 1987. Thereafter, England have scrapped for isolated victories, memorably at home five years ago and less dramatically in 2009.

All that has changed. They lead 2-1 here and they want to finish it off, 3-1. "It would be a damp squib if we didn't go on and win in Sydney," Strauss said, reflecting not only the new buoyancy of the England team but the diminution of the Australians. If England were to win a third Test, it would still be in the shadow of Mike Brearley's visit in 1979, when England beat a depleted side 5-1.

These Australians have not sunk that low, but they no longer inspire trepidation. There is even a feeling abroad bordering on pity, so ruthlessly have their weaknesses been exposed. If they prove their detractors and doubters wrong in the final Test in Sydney, which gives Australia the chance to level the scores but not take back the urn, it will more than likely be through English complacency rather than Australian vibrancy.

After enduring personal hell in the fourth Test, to go with three miserable Tests beforehand, Ponting is virtually begging for his job, the cracked little finger on his left hand no bigger an encumbrance than his reduced standing.

"As a player and a captain," Ponting said, "I still think I've got a lot to offer the Australian team, but I've got to sit down and think about that. I've got to make the decision that I feel is right for Australian cricket."

Yet the tough Tasmanian, 36 and vulnerable after averaging a meagre 16 so far in this series, knows that his team, as much as it can be regarded as such, has been shredded to a collection of demoralised individuals, old lags and young pups, certain neither of their own future nor the strategy that weakly binds them.

They are bedevilled by a lack of leadership at the very top, as players are picked in hope rather than expectation. Ponting, true to his character, continues to speak defiantly of levelling the series 2-2, although those prepared to believe him are dwindling in number and conviction by the day. After two decades of dominance, Australian cricket is staring into a bleak, dark space.

England retained the Ashes through the application of a disciplined and intelligent plan, qualities sorely missing in their opponents not just in this match but in all but one of the other three. Australia's victory in Perth last week is seen in retrospect as the last gasp of the remnants of a once-great side.

If there has been one virtue above all others that has driven England over the past six weeks, it has surely been the unfashionable one of patience, in technique and spirit. Contrary to all modern impulses, that is the way the highest form of the game is still best played.

Australia selected untried players wholly unsuited to the rigours of the five-day game, Talented shot-makers among them, such as Phillip Hughes and Steve Smith, sparkled fleetingly, much as they have done in the popular short-form of the game, before fizzling to earth like spent firecrackers.

Even in their doomed final stand here, they went out in a fit of gestures, the admirable fast bowler Peter Siddle and the wicketkeeper Brad Haddin throwing the bat at everything with the sort of nothing-to-lose freedom gifted to tailenders who have been badly let down by more able colleagues.

Grit once was a given. But, in a game whose historical verities are threatened by the demands for instant and quick entertainment, only the gnarled Michael Hussey proved England's equal.

When Strauss and his players went to the boundary ropes just before the redundant final lunch break to bathe in the applause of the Barmy Army, they knew they had mastered not only their hosts but the art of waiting.

"The Barmy Army have been outstanding in this game," Strauss said. "They have lit up the MCG. They are very special."

The Dunk a Pom ducking stool installed outside Gate 3 of the MCG served to oil rapport between rival supporters with an agreeably light hand for the first three days of this Test but irony was always going to give way to reality.

No more fairground levity. No more pretence at humility. No more wickets, no more runs, no more hope. The Ashes – that delightfully delicate but immensely powerful bond between two rivals of cultural commonality but ever-widening aspirations – would remain out of reach, geographically and metaphorically, for another three years.

This victory did more than take England 2-1 ahead in the five-match series. The win marked a significant shift in cricket hegemony, placing England a good way clear of Australia, ruthlessly dominant for two decades and more.

"It would be a very disappointing end if we weren't able to go on and win the series," Strauss said, "but we want to be No 1 in the world. That's our aim now."That is how far England have come in six weeks – and how far Australia have fallen.

Sohail Tanvir to Join Pak Squad in New Zealand

Pakistan Cricket Board has decided to send all rounder Sohail Tanvir to join the Pakistan Squad in New Zealand. Tanvir had initially been selected for the National Squads for T20 and Test matches against New Zealand for the ongoing series however he could not get fitness clearance for the T20matches.

According to Sohail Tanvir, he had no pain, discomfort anywhere in the body. However he was having stiffness in his lower back and legs during the last concluded camp for which he was treated appropriately. PCB’s team comprising doctor, physio and coaches have re-evaluated his fitness. The PCB team consulted the Australian doctor who performed surgery on Sohail Tanvir in whose view it takes approximately 18 months to 2 years for a graft to settle. Sohail has been participating and performing in domestic cricket and so far has claimed 33 wickets in 5 Matches that he played.

After evaluating Sohail Tanvir, the PCB team is of the view that the more he plays the graft will settle and bending of the knee will improve with the passage of time. Therefore Sohail should carry on normally in cricket and try to avoid fielding positions in circle especially that require sharp bending as his bowling and batting ability can be fully utilized without further deterioration or pain in his left knee.

Eden Park views vary

Eden Park's changed configuration for cricket has resulted in a different dynamic for bowlers, and for captains in field settings. New Zealand captain in Boxing Day's Twenty20 match, won by his side by five wickets over Pakistan, Ross Taylor said the boundaries were much bigger square of the wicket and they rated with some of the bigger grounds in world cricket in those areas.

'If we erred we erred on the shorter side and we hoped if they were going to hit sixes they were going to hit them over the bigger boundary but the angles were probably a little easier than the last ground," he said.

Taylor said the ground had traditionally be a left-hander's ground but its changed nature meant it had probably evened up as a batsman. Hat-trick taker Tim Southee said: "With the ground a bit bigger square you've got more margin for error with slower balls and bouncers."

Taylor, in contrast to Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi, didn't think there would be any problem with the ground being too small for one-day internationals.

"There's still a lot of reward in bowling well and bowling to a plan."Afridi said he felt the ground was suitable for Twenty20 with people coming in to see plenty of strokes played. He didn't feel it was as suitable for One-Day Internationals.

South Africa bowls first in second Test

South Africa won the toss and chose to bowl first in the second test against India on Sunday on a pitch expected to suit fast bowlers early on. Proteas captain Graeme Smith opted to give his pace attack first use of a green wicket at Kingsmead, which has lots of grass cover after rain during the week leading up to the match. The pitch is expected to be fast and bouncy in overcast conditions on the first day in Durban.

South Africa retained the same team that won the first match of the three—test series at Centurion by an innings and 25 runs. Batsman Hashim Amla will play his 50th test at his home ground.

India made three changes, with Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara and fast bowler Zaheer Khan in for Gautam Gambhir, who is injured, and Suresh Raina and Jaidev Unadkat, who are both dropped.

Vijay was called in to replace Gambhir, as the opening batsman has a left hand injury, while Pujara has replaced the out—of form Raina in the middle order. The 22—year—old Pujara plays his second test after making his debut against Australia in October.

Zaheer has recovered from the hamstring injury that kept the experienced fast bowler out of the opening test, and he will return to lead India’s bowling attack. The 19—year—old Unadkat went wicketless on debut at Centurion.

The start at Kingsmead was delayed for an hour after early morning rain in the east coast city.

Teams-

South Africa- Graeme Smith (captain), Alviro Petersen, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Ashwell Prince, Mark Boucher, Paul Harris, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

India- Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Murali Vijay, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Cheteshwar Pujara, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth.

World Cup 2011: Impotent Pakistan bowling attack

Imran Khan is one man whose views on cricket fans all across the globe are regarded very highly. He was recently asked about Pakistan’s chances in the upcoming world cup. He said Pakistan’s chances would depend heavily on whether Mohammad Aamir and Mohammad Asif are available for World Cup or not.

According to Imran, Aamir and Asif make the best opening bowling pair of the world and Aamir is streets ahead of Wasim Akram. Imran called Asif as the bowler of the generation very early in his career when he emerged on the scene by demolishing India’s much-hyped batting lineup boasting of names like Tendulkar, Dravid, Sehwag and Laxman in Karachi Test in 2006.

Imran said Afridi is the right man to lead Pakistan team in the World Cup and if he hits a purple patch he can lead the team to triumph in the World Cup. On the other end, Shoaib Akhtar, man famously known as ‘Rawalpindi Express’ is on the fag end of his career but still manages to bowl around 150 kilometers per hour.

His first spell these days is as good as it used to be when he was in his peak years but he struggles in his second and third spells and people find it easier to hit him with the old ball these days. He will definitely be looking to end his career on a high note and have a last laugh in the World Cup but if the two As are available I think he will struggle to find a place as will Umar Gul who is renowned for his death bowling because picking wickets with the new ball is far more crucial than death bowling as you are looking to minimize the damage at the death whereas you look to attack with the new ball and put the opposition on the back foot early on in the game. As far as spin options are concerned, Pakistan is well served with Afridi, Rehman and Ajmal backed up by Hafeez or Shoaib Malik whoever plays in the final lineup.

There is a competition for a slot between Ajmal and Rehman in the final playing eleven. Rehman is economical in the middle overs whereas with Ajmal you have the luxury of using him at the death and in power plays for his doosra. For Pakistan it is important that they go with experienced players and don’t experiment too much something that Shahid Afridi asked for in his recent interview. Players like Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal who are the top guns in limited overs cricket have been missing in recent times which baffle logic.

Fawad Alam, who is not a natural batsman when it comes to limited overs cricket yet he somehow produces results, I don’t really think he should be part of limited overs squad. In my view, he is a quality test player and should be given a run in test matches. After all, he got 168 against Sri Lanka in conditions in which everyone else failed and has an habit of staying long at crease in any format of the game and scoring runs consistently.

I talked about Shoaib Akhtar being at the end of his career. Another player that we probably going to see for the last time is classy Mohammad Yousuf, who is all about grace, timing and perfection. I really think for Pakistan to have a good chance in the World Cup we must stick with experienced, tried and tested hands rather than going with rookies.

Younus Khan and Yousuf in the middle order followed by enterprising and entertaining Umar Akmal is the way to go. Razzaq has been the star for Pakistan in recent times and his hitting in the closing overs will be similar to what Klusener used to produce during 1999 WC.

Hafeez has been a much-improved performer in recent times and has made handy contributions with both bat and ball but he will face competition from Shoaib Malik for a place if Malik gets a clearance from the International Cricket Council (ICC).

For Pakistan’s sake, it is imperative that the trio accused of spot fixing including Aamir, Asif and Salman Butt is cleared. If they are cleared I see Pakistan able to stage a triumph. People might say I am over optimistic but I really have hope especially from Shahid Afridi’s ability to inspire others and the world’s most talented new ball pair in Aamir and Asif. We have all the talent in the world. It’s just about execution and having the right man available at a time!

I will name a squad and playing 11 here which I think would be best equipped to win the World Cup for the Men in Green. Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal, Younus Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi ©, Abdul Razzaq, Mohammad Aamir, Abdur Rehman, and Mohammad Asif. Reserves: Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Gul, Asad Shafiq.

The Year in Review: Cricket

How weirdly appropriate that judgment on Mohammad Aamer and his Pakistan team-mates Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif will be passed in Doha in January. The agony of the teenager was, after all, played out last summer at Lord's, the old centre of the cricket world, but with never a stronger sense that so much of his game, among others, had become so detached from its moorings. Thus his trial goes on beyond the known boundaries of sport, give or take the virtual World Cup of football planned for 2022 in the Qatar capital and the surrounding desert.

Not a lot can be expected, on past evidence, from this ill-starred chamber of sports justice in the wake of a year when there were so many instances of moral breakdown, from the stunning decisions of Fifa to award World Cups to a Russia plagued by racism and corruption and a Qatar which could only have been less appropriate had it relocated to the other side of Mars, to rugby union's Pontius Pilate washing of hands over the Bloodgate scandal of Harlequins.

So wretched a year it was indeed, it was almost impossible to fix on the most gut-wrenching example of self-immolation by the games we play.

This was almost so, but not quite. The fall of the wonderfully gifted youth from the Punjab represented such a haunting failure of care, and onslaught of cynicism and hypocrisy, that for some the memory of it will never be shaken.

There might, it is true, be some redemption down the years, if Aamer can somehow be restored to something of what he represented on a thrilling morning just 48 hours before he was transformed from an heroic young champion of cricket to one of the game's ultimate pariahs.

But what chance can we give for such a possibility? It is a small one when you consider the background to the accusation that he and Butt and Asif conspired to prove their willingness to meet "spot-fixing" demands by illegal bookmakers operating in an unfettered Indian betting market.

One of Butt's lawyers, Aftab Gul, was less than reassuring on the approach of the Doha hearing. He declared: "Corruption is rife in world cricket. I have so much evidence. I will tell you names which will make your hair stand on end. The worst corruption involves 'spot-fixing'. It is so much easier than any other form."

Spot-fixing does not shape the outcome of matches. It drains away the concept of honest endeavour, open-hearted competition. It is a series of small conspiracies, bowl a no-ball now, land the odds, and then get on with the job of playing the game. It is an accumulation of rottenness, which starts with, relatively speaking, a misdemeanour and then consumes anything of value.

At Lord's last summer it put you in mind of the perhaps apocryphal cry of the Chicago street urchin when the fabled baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson went to answer charges that he had thrown the "Black Sox" World Series. "Say it ain't so, Joe," the boy was said to have implored. At Lord's there had to be the forlorn echo: "Say No, Mo."

The pain and despair at Lord's could only be exaggerated if you had followed even a little of Aamer's summer. You had heard of his reputation when you went along to Trent Bridge to see him against England, heard Wasim Akram's assessment that he was a smarter, more intuitive bowler than he had been at a similar age, but it was no adequate preparation for the beauty and the brilliance of the boy's game.

Gauche, poorly educated he may have been, but Aamer was stunning in his action and his instinct. You were compelled to watch his every delivery and as you did so, inevitably, you had the thrill that comes when you are sure, not out of any extraordinary knowledge or technical insight but the sheer invasion of reality that here is a perfectly formed talent.

You felt the same when you saw George Best and Sugar Ray Leonard and Roger Federer and Sachin Tendulkar for the first time.

At Lord's, even as the News of the World investigators were applying the finishing touches to their damning dossier, the promise of Aamer was delivered in an improbable, unforgettable rush. He was simply unplayable as one after another English batsman failed to cope with beautiful flight and movement.

Then we heard how he had been subverted by a betting ring, apparently, whose principal fixer felt empowered to call him in his hotel room with the greeting: "Hey, fucker."

No one was in a position to say that, for all his lack of schooling and example, he was without blame, but what was so apparent was that within a society shot through with corruption and a cricket association long assailed by charges that its teams had been penetrated and utterly compromised by match-fixers was a total lack of protection.

Then there was the picture that compounded the misery and gave a fine edge to the statement of the former Ashes-winning fast bowler Bob Willis that he had been moved near to tears by the news that the career of such a perfect young talent might be in ruins. It was of Giles Clarke, the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, handing to Aamer the prize for being Pakistan's player of the series. Clarke wore an expression of such contempt that the wonder was that he had not borrowed a face mask and some plastic gloves for the pitilessly empty ceremony.

It was impossible not to remember the chairman's rather different mood when embracing Allen Stanford, the American patron of English cricket now awaiting Federal trial for massive fraud, when his helicopter landed at Lord's bearing millions of dollars in a large container. That, though, was a day of the most vulgar celebration of quick money from wherever it came. The new one at Lord's was to mark some unremitting moral judgment on a boy raised in the grinding poverty of a poor Punjabi village.

Denouement in Doha is unlikely to remove any of the rawness of the emotions provoked by the sight of Clarke's disdain for a once gilded youth who could only stare at the ground slipping beneath him. But then, who knows, someone might just have the nerve to draw a line in the sand. It may be too late to say, "No, Mo" but not, out of conscience, to hold out, finally, a helping hand.

ICC rejects Butt's application for delay in hearing

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has rejected suspended Pakistan cricketer Salman Butt's application to delay the hearing into the spot-fixing allegations against him and two other cricketers from his country.

Thus, the hearing will take place as scheduled from January 6-11 in Doha. Butt along with pace duo of Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer were suspended by the ICC when allegation of spot-fixing surfaced against them during the Lord's Test against England in September. Michael Beloff, Chairman of the ICC Anti-Corruption Tribunal, heard the plea Butt's legal representation and ruled against the adjournment, Wednesday night.

"Mr Beloff, the Chairman of the ICC Anti-Corruption Tribunal, following a lengthy telephone hearing and having received written submissions, has ruled that Mr Butt's application is denied and as such, the full hearing will take place as scheduled from 6-11 January 2011 in Doha, Qatar," an ICC statement said.

It was only Butt who wanted a delay in the hearing and both Asif and Aamer were keen that hearing takes place as soon as possible. Butt wanted Scotland Yard to complete its separate investigation into the issue before facing the ICC hearing.