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S Badrinath will lead the Indian team in the Emerging Players Tournament to be played in Australia from July 20. Virat Kohli will be the vice-captain of the 16-man squad, announced by the selectors in Chennai on Monday.The other members in the side with international experience are legspinner Amit Mishra, opener M Vijay, allrounder Abhishek Nayar and Bengal batsman Manoj Tiwary.The quadrangular tournament, which runs from July 20 to August 1, will be played across different venues in Brisbane. The other teams are the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and the emerging players from South Africa and New Zealand.This will be the fifth edition of the tournament, and India will be looking to improve on their third-place finish last year. New Zealand are the defending champions, having beaten AIS by three wickets in the final at the Allan Border Field last year.India Emerging Players squad: S Badrinath (capt), Virat Kohli (vice-capt), M Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane, Manoj Tiwary, Ishank Jaggi, Abhishek Nayar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, R Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Wriddhiman Saha, Naman Ojha, Pankaj Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Pradeep Sangwan, Sudeep Tyagi

Afghanistan cricket took another major step forwards with news that President Hamid Karzai has given the go-ahead for creation of the country’s first national board.Karzai made the announcement during a meeting with the team on Tuesday. The establishment of a board was a requirement of funding from the ICC.Cricket had previously fallen under the country’s government-funded National Olympic Committee (NOC) which regulates and manages all major sports in the country. But cricket’s stakeholders have been openly critical of the way the sport was treated by the NOC, with particular concern at the lack of funding for a sport which has put the country on the international map.The lack of facilities means that Afghanistan are in effect a team in exile, although the substantial increase in payments from the ICC should help improve the infrastructure in a country which has no grass pitches. Despite that, the political situation inside Afghanistan makes it highly unlikely there will be any significant home fixtures.”This is breaking news for the sportsmen of Afghanistan,” the team’s secretary Taj Malook told AFP. “We will get our own budget and attract the international and government support we need. This has been much needed.”Unsurprisingly, Karzai will be the patron-in-chief of the new board, which is expected to be set up in the next few days.Officially, Afghanistan remains an Affiliate member of the ICC, the third and lowest rung available. However, given it now has full one-day status, it is likely to be promoted to Associate in the near future.

Anil Kumble, the Bangalore Royal Challengers legspinner, feels that this year’s team is “different” from the outfit that finished second last in 2008 and that the “intense” and “spot on” preparations in South Africa have helped immensely. Bangalore opened their IPL campaign with a resounding win on Saturday, dismissing the defending champions Rajasthan Royals for 58.”Let me make it clear that this is a different group and we have set out to achieve something and I daresay the result of our opening match is ample evidence of my claim,” Kumble wrote in his column for the . “I would be the first to admit that a few things were missing last year. But this time our preparation hasn’t just been intense but also spot on. Spending nearly two weeks in Johannesburg and playing as many as five practice matches – two against the local Lions and three among ourselves – gave us a good feel of the local conditions.”Bangalore revamped their squad after last-season’s failure, the most significant additions being Jesse Ryder and a new captain in Kevin Pietersen, who replaced Rahul Dravid. It was Dravid, however, who played the most crucial role in Bangalore’s victory, scoring 66 of 48 balls in testing conditions.”The Twenty20 game may not be for the oldies but as Sachin and Rahul also showed, we can have our days too,” Kumble wrote. “Individually too, Rahul had a point or two to prove. On pitches with bounce and movement, it is technique not flashiness that helps. Believe me, if not for Rahul’s technique, the Rajasthan bowlers would have looked far more effective than they did.”I am also glad to see Rahul among the runs because that means that if any two other batsmen among the likes of Jesse, Ross [Taylor], Kevin and Robin [Uthappa] click, we are looking at setting a serious target. And with our fast bowling looking twice as good while bowling in South Africa, as compared to India, we are on our way.”Kumble also had a successful game against Rajasthan. He picked up 5 for 5 and said he was “intrigued” by his performance. “I am coming off a long break and may have retired but the moment I am back on the cricket field, ball in hand, the feeling is the same as always. And in any format, a five-wicket haul sure makes one feel one is in the thick of things.”Bangalore’s second game is against Chennai Super Kings in Port Elizabeth on Monday.

Match facts

May 12, 2009
Start time 16.30 (14.30 GMT, 20.15 IST)

Big Picture

Mumbai will wait on the fitness of Zaheer Khan, who missed the last two games. If he comes in, Dhawal Kulkarni may have to make way•AFP

The scramble for the semi-final spots picks up pace with the Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians, ranked fifth and sixth respectively, taking on each other in Centurion. Seven teams still have a chance of making the semi-finals, with only Kolkata ruled out of the competition. With the tournament entering its business end, any slip-ups here will affect the teams’ chances of qualifying.For Mumbai, it’s essential they continue the momentum because they have a game each against Delhi and Chennai, the top two teams in the competition. They made refreshing progress with their batting in their previous game but they will have to summon up some consistency in their forthcoming matches.A victory for Punjab will push them up to No.4 but a defeat will see them slip one notch below. They too have tough games coming up, so staying afloat will be a challenge. They still haven’t figured out their strongest line-up, going by the number of changes in the batting. It’s time for the experimentation to end.

Form guide (completed matches, most recent first)

Kings XI Punjab – WLLWLThe relief was palpable in the Punjab camp when they stuttered to victory against Deccan Chargers after two successive defeats, but the composition of their top order is still a worry. In the last five games, they have tried out three different opening combinations and perhaps the only player who has cemented his position is Simon Katich. Karan Goel and Sunny Sohal have been inconsistent, while Kumar Sangakkara was also tried out, only to be pushed down the order. On the positive side, Mahela Jayawardene has returned to form after a quiet start and the bowling wears a more settled look.Mumbai Indians – WLLLWThree successive defeats threatened to derail Mumbai’s campaign but the tournament’s underachievers overcame their batting woes to script a 16-run win against Royal Challengers Bangalore. They reworked their batting order, promoting Ajinkya Rahane and reinstating Sanath Jayasuriya to the top, and lost only two wickets in the innings. The bowlers picked up wickets at regular intervals and later strangled the runs.

Watch out for

JP Duminy: The third-highest run-getter in the IPL has scored the most half-centuries (4) in the tournament. His ability to finish off an innings in style came in handy in his team’s last two victories.

Team news

Mumbai will wait on the fitness of Zaheer Khan, who missed the last two games. If he comes in, Dhawal Kulkarni may have to make way.Mumbai Indians 1 Sachin Tendulkar, 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 JP Duminy, 5 Abhishek Nayar, 6 Dwayne Bravo, 7 Harbhajan Singh, 8 Yogesh Takawale (wk), 9 Chetanya Nanda, 10 Dhawal Kulkarni/Zaheer Khan, 11 Lasith MalingaPunjab may retain their winning line-up, but the one main worry is Sreesanth’s inconsistency.Kings XI Punjab (probable) 1 Sunny Sohal, 2 Simon Katich, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Mahela Jayawardene, 6 Irfan Pathan, 7 Wilkin Mota, 8 Piyush Chawla, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Sreesanth, 11 Ramesh Powar

Stats and trivia

• Giving away extras may prove to be the Achilles heel for Punjab in the run-up to the last four. They have the dubious distinction of giving away 19 against Rajasthan in Durban, the highest in the tournament so far. They have also given away the third-highest number of freebies – 17 against Mumbai in Durban.
• Mahela Jayawardene has not only been in supreme form with the bat, he needs two more catches to go level with AB de Villiers of Delhi Daredevils for the most number of catches this season.
• Mumbai have the highest margin victory in terms of runs, when they thrashed Kolkata by 92 in Port Elizabeth. Chennai also had a similar margin of victory against Bangalore at the same venue.

Head-to-head record

Mumbai have lost all three games against Punjab so far. In their earlier meeting in this tournament, in Durban, Yusuf Abdulla helped Punjab clinch a last-over thriller. Few would have given them a chance after they managed just 119. Despite Duminy’s composed fifty, Mumbai fell short by three runs. They played out a similar thriller in Mumbai last year, with Punjab winning by one run. Punjab won the first encounter between the two teams last year by 66 runs.

Michael Klinger has justified his move from Victoria to South Australia by being named the best player across all formats in his adopted state in 2008-09. Klinger’s first season with South Australia culminated in the Redbacks’ top prize, the Neil Dansie Medal, which he won with 300 votes ahead of the second-placed Callum Ferguson on 218.Klinger’s phenomenal season brought him 1203 Sheffield Shield runs at 70.76, first in the competition ahead of Victoria’s Chris Rogers, who like Klinger won the top prize in his first year at his new state. Klinger also received the Lord Hampden Trophy for the best Redbacks player in the Sheffield Shield and shared the limited-overs award with Ferguson.In the FR Cup, Klinger was the state’s top scorer with 469 runs at 52.11 while Ferguson collected 406 at 45.11 and made his one-day international debut at the tail-end of the summer. Daniel Harris won the Barry Jarman Trophy and Kris Britt picked up the Andrea McCauley Trophy as the most outstanding South Australia player in the Women’s National Cricket League.After a string of disappointing seasons, the Redbacks made solid progress in 2008-09 and finished third in both the Sheffield Shield and FR Cup. Jamie Cox, the SACA high performance manager, commended the players for their increased maturity during the summer.”Many of those recognsied tonight have stepped up into new roles both on and off the field,” Cox said. “It has been a watershed year for the Redbacks. Under the leadership of coach, Mark Sorell and captain, Graham Manou the squad has demonstrated the grit and determination needed to earn back the respect of fans and competitors.”

In the lead-up to this match AB de Villiers spoke of his desire to become the best batsman in the world. It’s a bold ambition for a player currently sitting 21st on the ICC’s Test batting rankings. But for a man who has just turned 25 and has enjoyed the most prolific year of his career, it’s a commendable aspiration.The first step would be to develop into the leading batsman in his own side and on the third day at the Wanderers he was without question South Africa’s star. de Villiers came in at a precarious 49 for 3 and together with Neil McKenzie slowly put things back on track. That there was a further derailment later in the innings was not de Villiers’ fault.His brilliant 104 was his fifth Test century since the start of 2008, a calendar year that brought him 1061 runs at 58.94. In the four Tests against Australia in the past couple of months he has been South Africa’s leading scorer with 347 runs, ahead of acknowledged champions like Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis.To achieve that feat batting from No. 5 deserves extra credit. When he spoke of his desire to become the world’s best batsman he specifically pointed out that it was next to impossible to manage that while coming in at five or six. de Villiers wants to bat at No. 4 and with Kallisstruggling for form it would not be the worst move for South Africa to make a middle-order switch.In four of his five most recent hundreds de Villiers has been left unbeaten, sometimes due to declaration, sometimes because he had run out of partners and once, memorably, because he had orchestrated the world’s second highest Test run chase. On this occasion, when he walked off the Wanderers with 104 next to his name, his team-mates had lacked the ability to stay alive in the difficult conditions that de Villiers had mastered.His first 100 balls brought 34 runs as survival was the primary objective. An inexperienced attack made up of Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus didn’t give away many scoring opportunities. In general his partners didn’t fall due to lack of patience but because of an inability to fend off the dangerous swinging, seaming or bouncing balls.That was not a problem for de Villiers, whose eyes were good. Australia tried to bowl fuller than South Africa had and when de Villiers was given opportunities to drive he did so with excellenttiming and judgment. As his colleagues came and went, he lifted his rate and managed to reach his century with a forceful pull to the boundary off Hilfenhaus.His final contribution of 104 out of 220 was a mammoth effort in trying circumstances. Since the tour of Australia he has had his wisdom teeth removed but clearly hasn’t lost any smarts. For a man who made his Test debut at 20 – incidentally the same age as Australia’s Phillip Hughes – nearly five years at the highest level has been invaluable.”I’ve worked on a few things over the last few years and it’s coming together pretty nicely,” de Villiers said. “If anything I’m just taking my opportunities better than ever. When I get to 50 I try andmake sure that I get to 100. My technique has got better of the last few years and I’m obviously a better player with experience.”Going on to capitalise on his fifties has been a notable feature of his play in recent months. Of the past eight times he has reached 50 in a Test innings he has turned it into three figures on five occasions. This is a man who has learnt the art of fulfilling his promise.It is fitting that he spoke of converting starts during his 50th Test. If he can also turn that half-century into a hundred, South African cricket will be all the better for it. It might even give him a chance of becoming the world’s best.

Daniel Vettori was desperate for a Chappell-Hadlee Series trophy but will settle for having a young side that is showing it can match the best teams in the world. New Zealand frightened Australia during the five-match contest and were only a few overs from being in a position to take the overall prize when rain intervened at the Gabba, ending their chase with 33 required from 36 balls.Martin Guptill, the Auckland batsman in his seventh ODI, charged to an unbelievable 64 from 34 deliveries to set up the frenetic pursuit. “I feel pretty good at the moment,” Guptill said. “I’m finding some good areas and hitting the ball cleanly. It was good to get a good score from so few balls.”Guptill launched his second delivery for six behind square leg and pulled Mitchell Johnson’s opening offering into the grandstand. “I knew he was going to bounce me early,” he said. “I saw it, went after it and it went into the first tier. That’s one of the biggest hits in my career so far.”He sped to a half-century in 24 balls and with the debutant Brendon Diamanti took New Zealand closer to an out-of-reach victory. Guptill said the explosive performance “was an exception”. “I’m attacking, but probably not that attacking,” he said.Vettori was amazed by the performance, calling it “some of the best strokeplay I’ve ever seen”. “That was a fantastic innings,” Vettori said. “It was some clean hitting and those are some pretty big boundaries he’s clearing. Those are really big hits back in New Zealand.”In partnership with Diamanti, Guptill led his team to the verge of victory when the rain ended their 50-run stand. “That’s pretty impressive doing that against Australia in a must-win situation,” Vettori said.Vettori saw plenty of good signs for the future in Brisbane, and during the series. “I’m happy that these guys keep turning up and performing,” Vettori said. “If you look at the line-up Martin Guptill continues to impress, Grant Elliott had a successful series, Neil Broom has impressed me, Iain O’Brien has done a pretty good job with his role in the side.”You throw in the likes of Styris, Oram and Ryder back in the mix and you have a nice group of 15 or 16 guys.” After Sunday’s Twenty20 New Zealand’s next engagements are against India later in the month.

Coach Andy Moles has called for more consistency from his team after they clinched a 2-1 win in the ODI series against West Indies. The victory gave Moles his first series win in charge – the two teams had drawn the Test and Twenty20 series.”To get a win under our belts is really key, we want to become a winning unit,” Moles told NZPA. “I think we played some good cricket and some inconsistent cricket at times. Looking over the series it shows we need to be more consistent in certain areas but we’re pleased to get a win under the belt.”New Zealand clinched the ODI series in a rain-affected game in Napier, one of the many weather interruptions during West Indies’ visit. “The batters had a stop-start sort of season all the way,” Moles said. “We’ve been on and off throughout the whole six or seven weeks. The batters have struggled to get match rhythm.”We had certain individuals do well but, moving forward to Australia, we’ve got to get a lot more consistency into our batting and build partnerships.”Among the positives for the team was the emergence of Martin Guptill, who became the first New Zealander to score a century on debut in the fourth ODI in Auckland. With aggressive openers in Jesse Ryder and Brendon McCullum, Guptill could prove the ideal foil at one-drop. “It just shows he’s certainly not out of his depth, getting a hundred and backing it up with 40-odd,” Moles said.Ross Taylor topped the run-charts for the team, scoring unbeaten fifties in the wins in Wellington and Napier, which even earned him praise from captain Daniel Vettori. “We’re starting to see him as someone we can bat around,” Moles said. “Players improve in gradients and they stand still for a while. Ross is now on one of those upwards curves in his career.”New Zealand next face No.1-ranked Australia, who beat them 2-0 in the Test series last year, in the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy. The five-ODI series begins on February 1.

South African batsman JP Duminy’s rising stature in international cricket was reflected in the final IPL auction list of 43 cricketers. Duminy’s base price has been pegged at US$300,000, the most expensive after those of Kevin Pietersen, Michael Clarke and Andrew Flintoff.The new list has only 43 players – the original had 111 – and includes 15 from Australia, four from Bangladesh, seven from England, three from New Zealand, five from South Africa, four from Sri Lanka, and five from the West Indies.Each franchise has a maximum of US$2m to spend on their overseas signings in the auction. The bidding for Pietersen will start at $1.35m, while that for Clarke and Flintoff will begin at $1m and $950,000 respectively.Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, said the franchises with Pakistan players on their roster would be allowed to use money equal to the cost of the player to make purchases after the auction. Pakistan players have not been allowed by their government to participate in the league this season.”The Pakistan players have a three-year contract with the franchises and the only reason of their unavailability could be injuries. But since that is not the case here, we will have to look at the legal aspect of the issue,” Modi said. “The spots for Pakistan players will be freed up and the money they invested on these players last year would be made automatically available post auction, so that the teams can buy new replacement players.”Modi told Cricinfo that if franchises buy replacements for Pakistan players from the auction – as they are entitled to – they would have to stay within the US$ 2 million cap. “After the auction, they will be allowed to spend the equivalent of what they would have paid the Pakistan player for this year on a replacement,” Modi said. “However, this replacement will have to be from our original list of players that was released last week.”The new group also includes ten players who were not on the original one: Aaron Bird, Brett Geeves, Daniel Harris, Dominic Thornley, Jon Moss, Phil Jaques, Steven Smith, Samit Patel, Chamara Kapugedera and Jerome Taylor. Geeves was with the Delhi Daredevils for the IPL’s inaugural season, while Kapugedera and Thornley played for the Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians respectively.Final list of players for auction (all figures in US$)
Australia: Aaron Bird (45,000), Brett Geeves (45,000), Bryce McGain (50,000), Daniel Harris (50,000), Dominic Thornley (50,000), George Bailey (50,000), Jon Moss (50,000), Michael Clarke (1,000,000), Michael Dighton (85,000), Michael Hill (50,000), Phil Jaques (100,000), Shane Harwood (75,000), Shaun Tait (250,000), Steven Smith (75,000), Stuart Clark (250,000).England: Kevin Pietersen (1,350,000), Andrew Flintoff (950,000), Luke Wright (150,000), Owais Shah (150,000), Paul Collingwood (250,000), Ravi Bopara (150,000), Samit Patel (100,000).Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan (75,000), Mohammad Ashraful (75,000), Mashrafe Mortaza (50,000), Tamim Iqbal (50,000).New Zealand: James Franklin (50,000), Jesse Ryder (100,000), Kyle Mills (150,000).South Africa: Gulam Bodi (100,000), JP Duminy (300,000), Morne van Wyk (100,000), Tyron Henderson (100,000), Yusuf Abdullah (25,000).Sri Lanka: Thilan Thushara (100,000), Nuwan Kulasekara (100,000), Kaushalya Weeraratne (50,000), Chamara Kapugedera (150,000).West Indies: Kieron Pollard (60,000), Fidel Edwards (150,000), Dwayne Smith (tbc), Kemar Roach (50,000), Jerome Taylor (tbc).

Australia’s selectors hope Brett Lee and Matthew Hayden will continue to be part of their plans for the Ashes despite both men spluttering since the tour of India. The senior players were retained for the Boxing Day Test on Friday, but their futures have been clouded by low returns and their lack of contributions during the record-breaking defeat to South Africa on Sunday.”The expectation is that Brett will play,” Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, told AAP. “As far as the long-term future is concerned, we see all the senior players, including Brett, as critical to our rebuilding phase. We’ll be very reluctant to look at younger players who we bring in as being under significant pressure.”Hilditch said he was “reasonably happy” with the way Lee bowled in Perth and he didn’t believe the fast bowler was nearing retirement. “We don’t think Brett’s at that stage, he’s a really fit person, he’s got a perfect fast bowling build, I’m told by all the specialists, and most think with the right core strength and conditioning programs he can actually bowl faster,” he said. “So that’s going to be the key over the next six months before the Ashes.”Despite the second Test being only a few days away, Hilditch also spoke about Hayden in terms of the Ashes trip. “We haven’t had any of those discussions [about retirement],” he said. “The only discussions go back a long time ago, which was made quite clear that our plans were we’d like him to get through to the end of the Ashes, which we see as critical. He’s one of those players we’d not want to lose before the Ashes.”Hilditch said Hayden, who has scored 48 runs in three Tests, was going through a “rough time”. “We’ve just got to back our judgment and our judgment looking at him in the nets, looking at the way he’s moving, the way he’s catching, there’s no indications that he’s not just around the corner from a big score,” he said. “I wouldn’t mind backing him for a big score in the Boxing Day Test.”Australia have brought in Nathan Hauritz and Ben Hilfenhaus for the game in Melbourne and there will be more changes before the match. Peter Siddle, who played his second Test in Perth, is also in the 13-man squad.