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The Twenty20 internationals between South Africa and Australia will provide players with a chance to seal their spots in the respective squads for the World Twenty20 in England which begins in June. South Africa coach Mickey Arthur and batsmen AB de Villiers, both underlined the importance of the two-match series, the first of which gets underway on Friday in Johannesburg.”This is a very important weekend for players to show their worth on the international stage,” Arthur told . “All 15 members of the squad will play at least one match and we also want to assess how players contribute in the dressing room environment and at practice.”While Australia are ranked No. 1 in Tests, South Africa are the world’s top one-day team, and both sides would be keen to take the upper hand in the Twenty20 format.”We’ve got a nice brand of cricket in Tests and one-dayers and we’re still looking for a certain type of brand in the Twenty20s. We are working on that,” said de Villiers. “We’ve had some good matches in the past, and some disappointing ones. We’re looking for that brand It’s not yet there, but we’ll definitely find it in the next few games. It’s very important with a World Cup coming up.”Australia captain Ricky Ponting indicated that there would be experiments with the team lineup to help find the best mix for the World Cup. “It’s about time we started looking ahead to the Twenty20 World Cup as well and started to try to pencil in what we think is going to be our best team for that,” Ponting said.The visitors hold the upper hand when it comes to the Twenty20 matches between the teams, with three wins from four – all at home – compared to South Africa’s lone win in Johannesburg back in February 2006.

It was all but inevitable that New Zealand would beat eighth-ranked Pakistan at the Drummoyne Oval on Thursday and seal their place in the final. Yet the way they did should send a warning to England, whose 17-win streak came to a shuddering stop against Australia over in North Sydney.Their coach Gary Stead played down his side’s thumping performance – which included 168 from Suzie Bates and Haidee Tiffen’s maiden ODI century in a world-record stand of 262 – but was not shy about stating their prospects for Sunday’s final against England.”I will be telling our girls we’re going to go really, really hard at England and we’re going to try to smash them off the ground early in the game.” Stead said. “It’s a little hard to take too much from this game. It’s not the standard of England by any means, but you see special innings occasionally and the partnership there between Suzie and Haidee was outstanding and to break some world records is really important to our team.”Haidee’s had a pretty good tournament, she’s been good with some runs and Suzie’s starting to show some nice form and coming into the business end of the tournament, that’s important. We know she’s a classy player who can hit the ball pretty hard and she showed that today.”If we’re confident and we trust our instincts I think we can beat anyone. We’re really looking forward to the game and if we can relax and play good cricket and trust our abilities I’m sure we can do well.”Stead dismissed the suggestion that New Zealand may have preferred a stronger opposition heading into the final. “I don’t think it matters too much,” he said. “We had some tough games against India and Australia and England earlier. I think it’s nice for the girls that they’ve had the chance to go out there and feel good about their games and they’re confident.”Tiffen played the anchor as Bates smashed her way to breaking records. “I thought the really good thing in their partnership was the roles they played,” Stead said. “Haidee understood she was the run-getter and after a while Suzie said ‘Right, it’s boom time’ and she went big.”Then he watched as Tiffen brought up her first century with a dab to square. “When Haidee had it in her sights you could see she wasn’t going to miss out,” he said. “She knuckled down.”Having piled up 7 for 373, New Zealand had their sloppy fielding moments but in defending such a huge total they were never in trouble. Besides, they had their minds on other, much grander, matters.

John Key, New Zealand’s prime minister, gave his clearest message yet that he was prepared to step in to prevent the tour of Zimbabwe in July go ahead.”I’m pretty reluctant for the Black Caps to travel,” Key said. “There are very real, genuine security risks for our players.” Asked if he was willing to go further than his predecessor and actually ban the players from going he said that he was. “There are some options that I am working through at the moment.”We don’t support that regime. We don’t support what is happening in that country, and we don’t want to give a signal that we do.”If Key does step in, then it will free New Zealand Cricket from having to make a difficult choice.”It’s a political question and requires a political solution; it’s not a decision NZC should have to make,” Justin Vaughan, the board’s CEO, said. “We are a group of cricket administrators. We might have strong feelings about the situation in Zimbabwe but judging international politics is not what we’re about.”

Mohammad Asif, the Pakistan fast bowler, has been released from his IPL contract by the Delhi Daredevils after 48 hours of meetings between the two parties.”Due to personal reasons I’m having to take this step, and definitely it has not been easy requesting for this as I still have a contract valid for another two seasons, with lucrative financial benefits,” Asif said. “Currently I’m under a tremendous amount of pressure at all ends and need to regain my focus on resolving matters by addressing them individually.”My only purpose and wish is to play for my nation Pakistan again, and for that I need to disengage from any other cricket engagements and work towards this.”Delhi bought Asif for US$650,000 on a three-year contract, making him the second-most expensive Pakistan player in the league. He had a mixed tournament on the field, picking up eight wickets in eight games. He appealed against a failed drug test last year but was suspended by the previous PCB administration from all forms of the game pending the outcome of the IPL inquiry. The drugs tribunal set up by the league had a preliminary hearing in October with a follow-up to be held on January 24 in Mumbai.Sources said the hearing would take place as scheduled, and Asif, during his talks with the Delhi Daredevils officials, sounded confident and on top of the issue.Besides the controversy, Asif is also embroiled in another mess after he was detained at Dubai airport last June for possession of opium, a matter the PCB is looking into.

Rohit Sharma, the Indian batsman, is hoping a good performance in the upcoming ODI series in Sri Lanka will help him secure a spot in the Test side. A successful one-day series in Australia early in 2008 helped Rohit settle in the Indian middle-order and he said he had improved steadily since then.”Though I did not play in the Test series in Sri Lanka [last July-August], I worked on my technique under Gary Kirsten’s guidance,” Rohit told the . “My footwork is much better now and even my shot selection has improved. My job is to perform. Hopefully, it should help me seal a Test spot.”Over the last year, when he played 28 of his 32 ODIs, Rohit scored three half-centuries – two in Australia – at 25.33. He put in an impressive performance in the Ranji Trophy, scoring two centuries in the final and aggregating 747 runs at 74.70 in the tournament that his team, Mumbai, won.He was under-par in the five ODIs in Sri Lanka last year, with a top score of 32, but India won the series 3-2 and he said the pressure would now be on Sri Lanka. “India are a strong side now. We beat Australia and then England. On the other hand, Sri Lanka look patchy. I feel the pressure will be on them. We are confident of beating them in their own backyard once again.”Sri Lanka were beaten by Bangladesh in a league game of the tri-nation series and narrowly avoided another defeat to the same opposition in the final. They also lost the first ODI in Pakistan before bouncing back with a 129-run rout in the second.

Sri Lanka will split their tour to Pakistan over two legs in January and February, playing in total, three ODIs and two Tests. A gap in between of over two weeks thus paves the way for Sri Lanka to host a potential one-day series against India.After much negotiation and tweaking of provisional itineraries, Sri Lanka will now arrive in Pakistan on January 18 to play three day-night ODIs, leave and then come back on February 14th to play two Tests.”The ODIs will be played on January 21, 24 and 27 at Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad respectively,” Salim Altaf, chief operating officer PCB, told Cricinfo.”They will then come back on February 14 to play two Tests in Karachi and Lahore. Those dates will be announced soon,” he said.The gap in between allows Sri Lanka to ink in a series against India, something their sports minister Gamini Lokuge said was “60% certain” recently. Though BCCI officials have confirmed that contact has been made unofficially with Sri Lanka for a possible ODI series in between, they maintain they will consider a series against Sri Lanka only after they get a response from New Zealand Cricket (NZC) on their request for an additional Test for India’s tour in March. That series starts on March 6 and currently includes two Tests, five ODIs and one Twenty20.Duleep Mendis, the SLC CEO, told Cricinfo that though they have prepared a split tour itinerary with a one-day series against India in mind, nothing has been officially firmed up yet. “We are still in the process of finalising the India series,” Mendi said. “All I can say is that if that series goes ahead, it will happen in Sri Lanka.”The fixture scramble is essentially the result of India pulling out from their tour to Pakistan in January-February after the Indian government refused to grant the team permission to travel across the border. Relations between the two neighbours are at a low as a result of the Mumbai attacks last November.Sri Lanka agreed to replace India and travel to cricket-starved Pakistan. But finalising the itinerary proved trickier than was originally forseen as the resulting gap in India’s schedule meant they were also looking for ways to fill it, potentially through a series against Sri Lanka and the extra Test against New Zealand.

Rawalpindi will not be hosting its scheduled matches during India’s tour of Pakistan in January next year due to the delay in renovation work at the stadium. The second Test (January 21-25) and third ODI (February 11), originally to be played at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, are likely to be shifted to Multan or Faisalabad.”We will not be able to finish the renovation work that includes the relaying of the outfield,” Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, said. “We have couple of other venues in mind and will shift the Rawalpindi matches there.” The venue had earlier been dropped for security reasons for the Champions Trophy this year. The ICC restricted the tournament – which was eventually postponed – to two cities, Lahore and Karachi.Butt is expected to travel to India to try allay India’s security concerns over the tour. Twin blasts outside the grounds at Peshawar and Lahore recently have raised concerns about player safety in the country. Recently, a tour by India’s junior hockey team to Pakistan was scrapped at the last minute after the Indian government refused to approve the security plans offered by Pakistan.The BCCI has sought clearance from its government for the tour, and Butt said the PCB has not set any cut-off time. “When we want the series to go as planned why should we set any cut-off time?” he said. The PCB has lined up the neutral venues of Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Dubai for the series against India, should the team fail to receive government clearance to travel to Pakistan.The last match in Rawalpindi, a one-dayer between West Indies and Pakistan, in December 2006, was washed out due to rain. India last toured Pakistan in 2005-06, losing the Test series 0-1 but emerging 4-1 victors in the ODI series that followed. Three Tests, five ODIs and a Twenty20 international are lined up for the tour starting in January.

Aamer Sohail, the former Pakistan captain and opener, has been appointed director of the National Cricket Academy (NCA), replacing Mudassar Nazar who left for a coaching post with the ICC last month.The decision was taken by the PCB’s governing board who met today for the first time under the chairmanship of Ijaz Butt. Sohail had been widely touted to pick up a key role in the current administration, though many had thought he would resurrect his role as chief selector again. He first held that position in 2003.”I think it is a challenging role,” Sohail told Cricinfo. “But it is one I am really looking forward to. Over the last few years we have trained so many coaches at the NCA – about 250 of them – and we don’t have enough players for that number. The challenge is to strike a balance so that coaches are working in the right areas with players.”A mild controversy had broken out over the post last week when Salim Malik claimed he had been offered the post. That was later denied by the board.No decision was taken at the meeting on the new selection committee; currently Saleem Jaffar heads an interim committee which includes Ijaz Ahmed and Shoaib Mohammad as members. Ijaz, however, is said to be in line for a more senior role, possibly as fielding coach for the national side.But the board has welcomed back Wasim Bari, the former wicketkeeper and chief selector, into the fold, appointing him director of human resources and administration. Salim Altaf’s redesignation to chief operating officer – taking over from Shafqat Naghmi – was also approved at the meeting.

At his very first press conference today, Ijaz Butt, the PCB’s new chairman, made a series of startling revelations about the ICC’s discussions over the unauthorised ICL at a board meeting last week. The ICC, he said, has been warned by its lawyers of the problems ahead if it is sued by the ICL. He also spoke of plans of a possible “merger” with the IPL and of the PCB’s own possible openness to its younger ICL players returning to the national fold.”The BCCI was asked to have a meeting with them [ICL] and decide as to what needs to be done in the future,” Butt said. “We [ICC] are considering their application because the ICC lawyers feel that they have a very strong case and if they sue us we may find ourselves in trouble. The BCCI has been given 21 days to discuss this matter and come back to the ICC for consideration.” Butt, the former Test cricketer, was present at the ICC meeting in Dubai last week where the ICL issue was discussed.The league has been striving to gain official recognition since it first emerged on the scene last year but has failed to make any headway thus far in the face of stiff BCCI resistance. League officials finally managed to meet the ICC recently; as a result of which, the ICC asked the BCCI to meet the ICL during their board meeting last week. That meeting, however, proved unsuccessful and the BCCI is due to provide a follow-up report to the ICC.The failure prompted Kapil Dev, the ICL chairman, to warn that legal action is very likely if the ICC now doesn’t respond to the league’s bid for official recognition at its next board meeting. The ICL has issued a letter to the ICC to convene a board meeting after the talks with the BCCI failed.”I think we are on very good ground as far as a legal case goes,” Kapil said. “Eventually we will do that [take legal action]. We are not the ones who are enforcing bans on players or umpires.”The ICC refused to comment on Butt’s statement. “The ICC considered the ICL application at the board meeting last week,” an ICC spokesman told Cricinfo. “In that meeting, the BCCI requested to meet ICL officials and said it will report back in writing as soon as possible. Until then, we have no further comment.”All ICC member boards have barred or banned players signed up by the ICL. Pakistan was one of the countries hit hardest by the ICL exodus, losing almost an entire second XI in the shape of the popular and successful Lahore Badshahs. Under the previous administration, the PCB imposed bans on all players in the ICL from domestic and international cricket. Some players tried initially to fight the bans in court, though eventually their efforts seem to have petered out. Butt hinted, however, he might be open to reviewing the bans.Butt said that Inzamam-ul-Haq, captain of the Badshahs, had contact him in a bid to resolve the matter. “You people have your views, my predecessors have their views, I have my views. I don’t know which one is correct is about the ICL,” Butt said. “When I reached Dubai I got a phone call from Inzamam-ul-Haq who said he wanted to meet me along with Subhash Chandra [chairman of Essel, the owners of the ICL]. I told him it’s no use coming right now because by the time you reach here this is one of the major matters to be discussed.”I said I have my views and I have discussed my views with India and I don’t know what your views are. He told me about his stance and I said to a certain extent we have an interest and will definitely support it. But I don’t know what is the view of the other people.”But perhaps the most significant revelation was that there had apparently been talk of some kind of a merger between the two leagues. “They [ICC] have small subcommittees who decide…the likelihood from what I discussed unofficially with Mr. Modi and Mr. Shashank [Manohar] I believe that a merger might happen.”Our interest, which is my view also, is that we have to consider the youngsters who are playing in the ICL. While you are saying one can play and the other cannot for us they are just two leagues. Either ban both but why is it that you are banning the ICL and not the other?”Butt’s public comments, of what appear to have been private discussions, are sure to stir up a hornet’s nest within the ICC and its member bodies in coming days.

The administrative revamp of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) continuesapace with Shafqat Naghmi, an influential senior official from theprevious regime, wanting to step down with a new chairman now in place.Naghmi, the board’s chief operating officer, joined the PCB as aseasoned governmental bureaucrat during the tenure of Nasim Ashraf in 2007and quickly became a key figure in the board. When Ashraf resigned inAugust, Naghmi became, in effect, the de facto head of the board. But thearrival of Ijaz Butt, with whom he is believed to have a poorrelationship, has prompted him to reconsider his future.”I don’t think I have much to contribute to this administration,” Naghmitold Cricinfo. “Apparently a letter has been sent to the government fromthe board asking them to appoint me somewhere else. I came here because itis a game we all love in this country and I wanted to contribute to it.”There seems little doubt he will not go, especially in light of astatement made by Butt at his first press conference since becomingchairman. Responding to reports that senior officials had been trying totake away documents and files from the board’s headquarters at GaddafiStadium, Butt seemingly singled out Naghmi. “Yesterday there was a manrunning out – with due apologies it was the chief operating officer, whotried to take some files with him in his car.”Nadeem Akram, director HR and another key figure in the Ashrafadministration, has been eased out, while reports suggest that MansoorSuhail, director media, will also go the way of Naghmi, and back to agovernment posting.The developments come swiftly on the heels of the resignation ofSalahuddin Ahmed as chief selector and that of Talat Ali, the team’smanager over the last two years. One official summed up the changessuccinctly: “The board has apparently become a revenge house where eachadministration tries to eradicate everything and everyone from theprevious one.”