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Shoaib Akhtar, the former Pakistan fast bowler, has said that he is “ready” to take up the bowling coach role, even on a part-time basis, if approached by the Pakistan Cricket Board. The PCB has been searching for a bowling coach since the appointment of Dav Whatmore as the head coach and Julien Fountain as the fielding coach.”I am ready to be the bowling coach. I will offer my services If the PCB contacts me,” Akhtar told reporters at the NCA in Lahore. “It’s an honour to serve the country and it can be done by helping the upcoming bowlers. It will give me a chance to pay back what the country has given me.”Akhtar, who retired after the World Cup in 2011, had 178 Test and 247 ODI wickets in a 14-year-long career marred by controversies and injuries.”The current lot of bowlers are good, but not as good as what we are known for in our strong history of fast bowling,” he said. “I always hear that we have talent, but what is more important is to hunt down that talent. Unfortunately, we have been struggling in fast bowling for the last one and half years.”Akhtar suggested that the PCB use the services of past greats, like Imran Khan, to unearth talent. “He [Imran] has that eye to spot the talent and it would be ideal if he could take out some time.”Pakistan, Akhtar said, had the in-house talent for the job, but he also suggested Daryl Foster as a possibility to return to the job he held in 2003, if Pakistan had to look outside. Recently, the PCB had also made a formal offer to Wasim Akram for a short-term coaching role for young fast bowlers but an agreement couldn’t be reached owing to Akram’s busy schedule.Commenting on the upcoming series against Australia in UAE, Akhtar said that the onus would be on spinners in the absence of experienced fast-bowlers. Pakistan have dropped Umar Gul and Mohammad Sami for the tour. “Pakistan is already lacking true strike bowlers and [Umar] Gul obviously will be missed this time. If pitches in UAE are flat, then I am afraid things won’t be good for the young fast-bowlers and the spinners, as usual, will have to take the extra load.”

ScorecardEngland Twenty20 opener Alex Hales’ fine form continued with the bat as he propelled Nottinghamshire back to the top of the Friends Life t20 North Group with a 41-run victory over Durham.Hales, 23, fresh from his brilliant 99 against the West Indies on his home ground last weekend, hit 88 off 51 balls with four sixes and six fours, sharing a club record partnership of 142 with Riki Wessels for the second wicket. Wessels himself made 53 and Michael Lumb 36 as Notts posted 210 for 3 in the first innings, Mitch Claydon picking up 3 for 34.Durham lost early wickets and although Ben Stokes (56) smashed four sixes from 32 balls, his dismissal by Darren Pattinson ended any hopes of a win for the visitors, who finished on 169 for 7.Notts have developed a formidable home record in T20 in the past two seasons, based on defending heavy first innings totals. They followed the recipe to perfection again with Lumb kick-starting the innings with a massive six over midwicket off Graham Onions, as well as thumping six boundaries, before he was caught by a diving Stokes at the start of the fifth over.Hales was only on seven at that point with Lumb dominating the strike, but slipped into gear by sweeping Scott Borthwick for six as Hales and Wessels blazed 142 from 13.3 overs. Durham’s night was summed up when Liam Plunkett was banned from the bowling attack after two head-high beamers to Wessels, who managed to pull both balls for four.Needing to get a good start, Durham were restricted to one run off the opening over from Harry Gurney and saw Herschelle Gibbs run out after a mix-up with Phil Mustard, who fell in the next over to Pattinson.Durham’s chances rested on the shoulders of the big-hitting Stokes, who briefly had the visitors up with the run-rate and reached his 50 with two straight sixes off Samit Patel, before his attempted paddle shot in the next over from Pattinson ended in the hands of short fine leg.That ended any hopes of a win, with the result putting Notts back ahead of Yorkshire on run-rate, both team having nine points from six matches.

New Zealand fast bowler Tim Southee, who failed to make the Test squad for the upcoming Caribbean tour, has said that he has been using the off-season to work on his batting, in a bid to cement his place in the Test side in the future.Southee, 23, played in South Africa’s last Test series, in March against South Africa, but was dropped after conceding 140 runs for no wicket in the first Test. He said that being dropped from the side was an eye opener. “It’s not a nice feeling being left out. It’s been a kick up the backside for me,” Southee told .He said that he hoped to contribute as an allrounder in future and that he worked with New Zealand batting mentor Bob Carter to improve his batting. “I have to go out and score some runs. It’s something that I’ve wanted to work on and now having a few months off, it would have been a waste not to do some work on it.”For me, if we can get our bowlers scoring runs, then that’s got to be a good thing for New Zealand cricket and I want to be a part of that; to contribute with the bat as well as with the ball and not make so many silly decisions when I bat.”Southee, who has scored 485 runs from 17 Tests at an average of 20.20, said that he hoped New Zealand’s lower order could emulate that of England and score runs regularly. “Hopefully we’re making progress,” he said. “It makes it tough as a bowler, when you know the opposition’s tail isn’t just going to fold.”New Zealand’s seamers will head to Brisbane on Saturday for a stint with head coach John Wright before joining the rest of the side heading to the West Indies via Florida at the end of the month.Southee said that he had worked on his action as well, in the lead up to the limited-overs leg of the Caribbean tour. “I just needed to change a couple of things in my action,” he said. “It wasn’t major, I was just rushing through the crease. I’m more of a rhythm bowler but I was trying to muscle it down, so I was losing the bounce I get and the swing.”New Zealand will play two Twenty20 internationals, five ODIs and two Test matches during the five week tour.Edited by Carlyle Laurie

Ajmal Shahzad is free to leave by Yorkshire because he is a strong-willed individual whose reluctance to accept team discipline has caused an irrevocable breakdown in relations, according to Yorkshire’s chairman, Colin Graves, and director of cricket, Martyn Moxon.”Cricket is a team game and Yorkshire is bigger than everybody,” Graves said as he acted to counter criticism of Yorkshire’s ability to lose an England fast bowler only one month into a new season. “I am not prepared to have somebody playing for Yorkshire who does not want to be part of the team. All the comments I have heard from Ajmal are about him, not about the team. And as far as I am concerned, cricket is a team game. There is no point having a player where he doesn’t want to be.”As first reported on ESPNcricinfo, Shahzad’s stormy relationship with Yorkshire had been a prolonged one, with the disagreement over his bowling tactics leaving the county and player increasingly at loggerheads.Shahzad saw himself as a free spirit, who should be allowed to bring his attacking inclinations to the fore with a rich diet of bouncers, yorkers and slower balls. Yorkshire, much in the manner of England, wanted a more disciplined fast bowler dedicated to building pressure. The new coach, Jason Gillespie, was unable to win Shahzad over.Whichever county signs Shahzad, or takes him on loan until the end of the season, should be aware that they have an attacking bowler on their hands who will not easily be regimented. Perhaps some suitors will accept that quite happily.Graves called a clear-the-air meeting with Shahzad, his agent Neil Fairbrother and Yorkshire’s coaching staff at Headingley on Tuesday after receiving reports of Shahzad’s discontent during a Championship match against Kent at Canterbury and that he had voiced his intention to leave at the end of the season.”I decided the best thing to do was to bring this to a head,” he said. “I listened to everybody – I sat quietly for 40 minutes which is unusual for me – and at the end of the day I turned round and said there was no way forward. We were back where we were last season, everybody else was wrong and Ajmal had his own ideas. This is a team game. I am not prepared to have someone playing for Yorkshire who does not want to be part of the team.”He was unhappy with the situation last year on the coaching side and we are three matches into this year, with a new set-up, and we still have a problem. We decided it was the best thing, if he didn’t want to be around next year, and he was unhappy this year, that he should leave. We don’t want ongoing management problems with one person.”Moxon is offended by implications that Yorkshire’s approach has been insensitive. Insensitive perhaps not: abrupt definitely. “I am absolutely gutted that we are losing somebody with Ajmal’s potential,” Moxon said. “I have told him how highly I rate him many times. We have tried to do everything we can do to accommodate him and make him happy playing his cricket at Yorkshire. However we feel that the issue has gone beyond repairable.”We would not be letting him go if we did not feel it was better for both parties to part. What we do want is an amicable separation. We do not want to be slagging each other off in the media.”This is all about Ajmal’s cricket and where he wants to pursue his career. The club and the staff have bent over backwards for several years now to try to satisfy Ajmal and how he wants to play his cricket but it has become clear that we will not get the best out of him at Yorkshire.”Obviously when there is a parting of the ways then something is not right. It is about how he sees himself as a bowler. How we see him as a cricketer is exactly the same as the England management see him. Sometimes Ajmal doesn’t agree with that. He has very strong views on how he sees himself. He wants to be doing lots of stuff. The last thing that a team needs is a player who is unhappy.”Jason Gillespie has very strong ideas about what he wants the bowlers to do. If one bowler strays away from that plan, that bowler is not a team player. That is what we can’t afford. There is no one person bigger than the team. We saw in 2010 when we were a tight unit we did well. When you have one or two people not singing from the same hymn sheet you have a problem. I was hoping that Jason would be able to come in and give Ajmal the backing, the encouragement, the advice and the nous that he wants, but he is a strong character and he has his own views.”The fact remains, however, that Yorkshire have false-started in their efforts to return to Division One at the first attempt. The Australia quick Mitchell Starc is due to arrive within the next few days and, if Shahzad finds a new county, more funds will be available. Will that money finance Headingley’s debts or go on another bowling reinforcement? “We haven’t even discussed it,” Graves said.Graves dismissed suggestions that Shahzad’s departure will play badly in Yorkshire’s Asian communities, where so much work has been done in the past decade to forge relationships. “As far as I am concerned I have worked with the Asian community for 40-odd years. I know the Asian community better than anybody. At the end of the day that community will be as disappointed as we are.”I feel sorry for Martyn and for Andrew Gale who have worked strenuously for the past 12 months to try to make him part of the time. I really hope it works out for him. But how many matches has he won for Yorkshire?”

Ernest Hilaire, the West Indies Cricket Board CEO, has said selectors should focus on selecting the ‘best XI’ for the West Indies team, one that was a strong collective unit rather than just comprising 11 star players.”For a decade or so the selectors were guided by a process which had them arriving at the eleven best players to take the field,” Hilaire said, during the Barbados Cricket Association Awards ceremony. “With the eleven best players on the park our results went from bad to worse and yet worse still.West Indies have been without the services of Chris Gayle since the 2011 World Cup, owing to his differences with the board, and Dwayne Bravo intermittently, due to his Twenty20 commitments elsewhere.”There has been a paradigm shift. The emphasis is on selecting, not necessarily the eleven best players but the ‘best eleven’. It is not dissimilar to asking whether we prefer a team of stars or a star team. They are decidedly different.”The best eleven may not include the most attractive players but is rather a combination of players who, as a group, are more likely to bring positive results and show a commitment to sustained development.”Hilaire said the West Indies team has been steadily improving and is on the right path. “Though the victories have not been tumbling in, there can be little doubt that West Indies cricket is showing the signs of learning the first characteristic of any successful enterprise – the determination to succeed.””We have seen a greater commitment to fight to the very end, we have seen what was once thumping three and four day defeats in Test cricket now turned into epic final-day battles.”This new approach is not far off from producing the results we all yearn for. Change does not happen overnight, it is a process, sometimes painful, always with mistakes and mis-steps but once on the right path the results are certain.”I implore you to recognise that from the days when our team seemed conditioned to losing we now have a team which is battling to win and believing that it can in fact achieve victories.”Australia toured West Indies recently and the hosts drew the ODI series but lost the Tests 0-2. West Indies are now in England for a full tour.

Rajasthan Royals batsman Owais Shah says his decision to attack Mumbai Indians fast bowler Lasith Malinga during their match on Wednesday was a “mistake”. Shah was bowled by a Malinga yorker in the bowler’s penultimate over and his dismissal left Royals needing 64 off 35 balls. They fell 27 shortRoyals, who were chasing 198, had lost their way at the start with Rahul Dravid falling for 3 and Shreevats Goswami without scoring. Shah kept the chase going by attacking the Mumbai Indians bowlers from the start but was dismissed in the 15th over. Royals eventually went on to suffer their first defeat of the season.”I made a mistake by not playing out Lasith Malinga, who is very dangerous,” Shah said after the game. “I didn’t have to play too many shots against him. Maybe I should have stuck around and seen Malinga off and then tried to attack the other bowlers. Malinga has a lethal yorker. I made a mistake and I’m quite happy to hold my hand up and say – next time I won’t make that mistake.”At the end of the day we didn’t win, so my efforts were useless. I tried my best to get the team to win the game and to get the team as close as possible. But the best players take you all the way, so something that was missing was the finishing touch.”Shah is playing for Royals this year after having been part of Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi Daredevils and KochiTuskers Kerala in previous IPL seasons. However, this is the first time Shah has had a regular run in the XI, having been on the bench regularly in previous years. He’s scored 14 not out, 23 not out and 76 in three innings for Royals.”This is the first time I’ve had much of a chance, this is the first time I’ve played in an IPL team. I actually feel like I’m having a proper run in a side now,” Shah said. “I didn’t really play for Delhi , when I was there, I played four games for Kolkata Knight Riders. I played three games for Kochi last year, so I’ve hardly played.”Royals have played three matches in IPL 2012, winning their first two before losing to Mumbai Indians at Wankhede Stadium.

England captain Andrew Strauss is anticipating a tough test of his side in Sri Lanka but insists that they can take the heat.England succumbed to a 3-0 Test series defeat against Pakistan in the UAE with a failure to adapt to the conditions and the Pakistan spinners seen as major factors in their downfall.Strauss is expecting conditions in Sri Lanka to prove even tougher. While his batsmen are likely to be tested by spin once again, they now face the added problem of the high heat and humidity of Sri Lanka. Strauss takes comfort from the fact that his side know what to expect, however, with seven of the squad (Ian Bell, James Tredwell, Steven Davies, Monty Panesar, Samit Patel, Matt Prior and Strauss) who were not involved in the limited-overs section of the tour to the UAE, travelling to Sri Lanka early in order to practise and acclimatise under the watchful eye of Graham Gooch. The remainder of the squad joined them on March 10.England now play two warm-up games, with the first – against the Sri Lanka Board XI – starting on Thursday and the two Test series starting on March 26.”The conditions here are very different to Dubai,” Strauss said. “There’s a lot more humidity and the heat is much more of a factor for us out here. Some of us have been here a week now getting used to it and getting used to the challenges. For the guys who have been in England for a while it’s the contrast more than anything that gets you.”Hopefully once the Tests start we’ll be very much on top of it. You need to have strategies in place because no matter what sport you’re playing, in whatever part of the world, if you overheat then you’re in trouble.”None of England’s top six averaged more than 26 in the whitewash against Pakistan but Strauss believes the lessons from that contest have already been absorbed and also cautioned the batsmen at only focussing on the spin threat.”Over the course of the last series we were forced to address a few issues,” he said. “To a man, I think the guys did that and we saw some of the benefits in the one-day series.”But it’s important we’re not transfixed by spin and concentrate all of our efforts on that. We need to be on the ball against the seamers in the first session of the match. In a lot of Test matches out here, the ball nibbles around a bit on the first day. We’ve got to make sure we leave no stone unturned so we’re not surprised by anything on the pitch.”It is also an important tour for Strauss personally. He failed to score a Test century throughout 2011 and has only scored one in his last 46 innings. He did, however, make a half-century in his final innings of the series against Pakistan and feels a return to form is imminent.”You always want to be in good form, you always want to lead from the front,” Strauss said. “I was quite encouraged by how I started to play towards the end of the Pakistan series and I need to build on that in next couple of Tests. The one-day guys haven’t had a lot of time off so I can come back in and add some real impetus and motivation to them having had a decent rest myself.”

Australia’s wicketkeeper Brad Haddin has said he feels like he has been dropped from the ODI side rather than rested. And Haddin believes that he could find it hard to force his way back into the one-day squad if his replacement Matthew Wade performs strongly in the first few games of the tri-series with India and Sri Lanka.Australia’s national selector John Inverarity said on Monday that Haddin deserved to put his feet up after a gruelling schedule of Tests over the past few months. However, he also said the selection panel had an open mind about who would keep wicket for the remainder of the one-day series, the squad having only been named for the first three matches.”I think anytime you’re out of the Australian Cricket team you’re dropped,” Haddin said on the Sydney radio station . “You give another guy an opportunity to take your spot. If they do well you could find it hard to get back in the team but that’s the way it is and I’ve just got to deal with that.”We need to see how young Matty Wade goes at this level. It’s seen as a good opportunity to play him and from my point of view, if he does well there’s no guarantee you’ll get your spot. Once you’ve given it up you give someone an opportunity and you might not play again … If you give your spot up, you’ve got no right to walk straight back in.”Haddin, 34, last year retired from Twenty20 internationals but remained part of Australia’s Test and one-day setup. However, a summer in which he failed to have a major impact with the bat and initially made some errors behind the stumps has left Haddin under pressure to hold his place, although he is expected to be one of the two keepers who will take part in the Test tour of the West Indies in April.He will captain the Prime Minister’s XI in a one-day game against Sri Lanka in Canberra on Friday. Wade, 24, will make his ODI debut against India at the MCG on Sunday.

Manzur Ahmed, the chief executive officer of Bangladesh Cricket Board and a former national cricketer, died on January 10 in Dhaka. He was 55.BCB officials confirmed the news at a programme organised ahead of the Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20 tournament. Manzur was originally scheduled to attend the programme.A wicketkeeper-batsman in the 1980s, Manzur was appointed as the BCB CEO in September 2010. Earlier, he had served as the CEO of the Brunei Darussalam Cricket Association since 2005, following stints as an executive member and development manager of the association. He was also a member of the Asian Cricket Council’s executive board.”The news of Manzur Ahmed’s sudden passing away has shocked everyone at the ICC and our thoughts and prayers go out to members of his family and friends,” ICC chief Haroon Lorgat said. “Mr. Ahmed was a respectable person and clearly loved the game of cricket. He will surely be missed by all of his family, friends and cricket colleagues. His sudden passing away comes as a personal shock and reminds me of the value of time and good relations. I had closely worked with him during the organizing of the ICC cricket World Cup 2011.””I have lost a brother, a friend, a confidante and a fellow cricketer with whom I have enjoyed many fine days on and off the field,” ACC chief executive Syed Ashraful Huq said.

Michael Clarke, the Australia captain, has said fast bowler Ryan Harris has looked ready to play while bowling in the nets, though he is not sure if Harris is 100% fit. Harris, who missed the MCG Test, could be available for the New Year’s Test in Sydney, which would give the selectors the option to play four quicks after the three fast bowlers who played the Boxing Day Test employed speed and swing to maul India.Since recovering from a hip complaint that kept him out of the South Africa tour, Harris has played in the Twenty20 Big Bash League while also committing to a staunch fitness regimen in order to improve his ability to stay sound for five days of a Test. He bowled sturdily in the nets at the MCG during the first Test and will likely spend more time with the team in Sydney irrespective of whether or not he is named in the squad. Beyond Sydney is Perth’s often fiery pitch, where Harris claimed nine wickets against England last summer.”I’ve seen Ryan bowl in the nets over the last few days and he looks pretty good,” Clarke said. “I don’t know if he is 100% fit but from what I’ve seen in the nets he looks ready to go. That’s probably one of the bonuses we’ve got at the moment: our attack is bowling really well, and we have guys like Ryan on the mend and not too far from being fully fit. I think it is a good problem to have.”Adding to the anticipation of Harris’ return is the level of discomfort inflicted on India’s batsmen by James Pattinson, Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus in Melbourne, the trio sharing 19 wickets in Australia’s 122-run victory. Given the SCG’s recent tendency to produce grassy surfaces that offer seam and swing in addition to the more traditional spin, Clarke said he and the selection panel will consider the merits of playing four quicks at the ground if conditions are suitable.”The SCG of late has had a fair bit of grass on it, so we’ll have to assess conditions. That’s something we have to talk about as a selection panel; it is a good option to have. It is great news for us if Ryan is fully fit. He puts pressure on the rest of the bowlers and gives us an extra string to our bow.”Ryan has had a lot of success for us and he’s a quality bowler, so we need to look at the conditions. If it is going to spin or if it is a bit dry we can talk about two spinners, we can talk about an allrounder, but if it has got grass on it like it did last year there is a chance we could play four fast bowlers.”Daniel Christian, the uncapped allrounder, is another player who will be considered in the continued absence of vice-captain Shane Watson, who short of a medical miracle will be strictly a spectator in Sydney. Clarke and the selectors were vindicated in their use of four bowlers on an MCG surface that retained its life throughout, but may want to take a different tack at the SCG, where the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman have formidable records.”This pitch had a fair bit of grass on it for the MCG, and I felt there was going to be enough there through the whole game,” Clarke said. “I’ve got confidence in [Nathan] Lyon as well; I think he’s a wonderful talent, he can hold up an end even if he’s not taking wickets. I think we picked the best XI players in these conditions, on this pitch.”As a fielding captain, Clarke enjoyed perhaps his best match to date, shuffling his resources efficiently. He particularly enjoyed the fact that on eight occasions he brought a bowler on and the bowler got a wicket in his first over of a spell.”It is nice to have bowling changes work. For me the most important thing about bowling changes is to manage the bowlers at the right time. If I feel somebody else can take a wicket I’ll have a crack with that, and sometimes it doesn’t work. It helps when you’ve got stock like I’ve got: three fast bowlers, bowling with great control, good pace. That makes a big difference and then it is about trying to manage them as best as I can.”