Patel still hopeful of getting help from BCCI

All India Football Federation President Praful Patel today said he remains optimistic of getting Rs 12.5 crore grant from the BCCI despite the Cricket Board deciding against it.

"They have some tax issues hence until they are sorted out they can't give the money," Patel stated.

Asked whether he was still optimistic of getting the money at a later date, Patel said, "Yes, of course."

The BCCI had last year promised to give Rs 25 crore to the AIFF as financial help towards the Indian football team's preparations for the Asian Cup, which will be held in Doha in January 2011. It has already given Rs 12.5 crore.

However, the Cricket Board today decided against giving the remaining Rs 12.5 crore in its Working Committee meeting in Mumbai.

"We have already given the money but we can't pay the remainder because we no longer get concessions from the Income Tax Department," a Board official said after the meeting.

India have qualified for the Asian Cup for the first time after 1984 after winning the AFC Challenge Cup on 2008. 

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Pakistan down but not out, says Waqar

Pakistan coach Waqar Younis backed his side to be as resilient against England as they were against Australia after their latest top-order collapse left them on the brink of a crushing defeat.

Pakistan were 15 for three at stumps on the third day of the first Test against England at Trent Bridge here on Saturday, needing an unlikely 420 more runs for what would be a world record fourth innings victory total of 435.

The current fourth innings victory record is the 418 for seven made by the West Indies against Australia in Antigua in 2003.

No Pakistan batsman has so far made a hundred in a Test since the team arrived in Britain for a two-match series against Australia, which ended in a 1-1 draw, and the subsequent four clashes with England.

Indeed the fact their best score in this match so far has been tailender Umar Gul's Test-best 65 not out in the first innings, which at least prevented the follow-on, says a lot about the state of Pakistan's batting.

They arguably have not helped themselves by leaving out experienced top-order duo Mohammad Yousuf and Younus Khan from their tour squad following disciplinary sanctions imposed on both ex-captains following Pakistan's 3-0 series loss in Australia earlier this year.

However, Waqar said Pakistan had no choice for the present but to make do with top-order novices Azhar Ali, 25, and 20-year-old Umar Amin, who both made their debuts in Pakistan's 150-run first Test loss to Australia at Lord's, and ruled out a recall for either of the former skippers.

"One (Yousuf) is retired - we can't bring someone back who is retired - and the other (Younus) has serious issues with the (Pakistan) cricket board," fast bowling great Waqar told reporters.

Pakistan bounced back from a crushing reverse at Lord's to beat Australia by three wickets in the second Test at Headingley last week.

However, that win was achieved on the back of a superb display from the pace bowling trio of Mohammad Aamer, Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul which saw Australia dismissed for just 88 in their first innings.

And a sympathetic Waqar said the seamers' physical efforts, especially those of Aamer and Asif, were starting to catch up with his bowlers.

"Aamer and Asif have bowled superbly with, both the new and old ball even in the Australia series. Gul has bowled well in patches.

"The (fast) bowlers are really tired. These bowlers have been bowling too many overs from the Australia series. We don't want anyone injured and those three our are key bowlers."

Waqar was a frustrated spectator as Matt Prior's unbeaten 102 took England to a second innings total of 262 for nine declared that saw the wicketkeeper share a last-wicket stand of 49 with Steven Finn.

And he could only watch as Ali fell for nought, lbw to Stuart Broad and Amin departed, lbw for one, to James Anderson, before Saturday's close.

"It seems very, very hard form here on," Waqar said. "But we won against Australia so we are a very fine side and I've got no doubt they can make a comeback. It is a four-match Test series.

"I haven't given up on this Test yes, but it is not going to be very easy tomorrow (Sunday)," he added. 

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Where's South Africa's next major fast bowler?

March must seem a like very long time ago for Wayne Parnell. That's when he picked up a groin injury that initially sentenced him to six weeks on the sidelines. He had just been bought for $610,000 for the third season of the Indian Premier League by the Delhi Daredevils but was unable to vindicate his price tag. But while the GMR Group wouldn't have been happy to see their money spent on a player they couldn't use, Parnell's injury couldn't have come at a less disruptive time for the South African team. He was expected to return for their Caribbean crusade in May. That, though, didn't happen.

"I was misdiagnosed, so when the injury was reassessed, we found out that it was going to take longer to heal," Parnell told Cricinfo. It's been four months and Parnell is still on the mend, but what would have happened to the national team, if during Parnell's injury one from the dream pairing of Dale Steyn or Morne Morkel was also indisposed?

The only other upcoming player who has been identified as a genuine quick in the country is 24-year-old CJ de Villiers. It's possible he would have been fast-tracked onto the international stage. Else the administrators would have had to call on one of the fast-mediums or medium-fasts who have fallen off the assembly line of allrounders in recent times.

South Africa is awash in these two-in-one players and a quick scan of the franchises shows that the numbers are only growing.

"Cricketers like to be able to do both disciplines," explained national coach Corrie van Zyl. Former captain Shaun Pollock agreed: "With the way one-day cricket has developed, and the growth of Twenty20 cricket, more players want to contribute with both bat and ball. Players may also feel as though they always need to add something to their game and those who are not specialists may feel they can still hold down a place as an allrounder."

While that may reveal why multi-skilled cricketers are in abundance the world over, it doesn't explain why South Africa produces significantly more of the species than other countries.

"I would say that the conditions allow for this many allrounders to come through but that argument won't hold up because Australia has similar conditions and they have a lot more specialist fast bowlers. It must be a generational thing. Young players now want to be like Shaun Pollock. Before that they may have wanted to be like Brian McMillan and before that like Mike Procter," said Richard Pybus, former coach of Pakistan and currently in charge of the Cape Cobras franchise.

The preponderance of allrounders is one of the reasons South Africa are struggling to unearth more genuine fast bowlers to bolster their ranks. The only region with a wealth of fast-bowling talent is the Eastern Cape, where the Warriors franchise has nine pacemen on their books. They range from veterans like 33-year-old Garnett Kruger, who has played four matches for South Africa but is probably past his best, to young guns such as Siyamthanda Ntshona and Reece Williams.

It's the latter who show potential to grow into the next generation of South Africa quicks. For that to happen they need administrators with patience, as Pollock explained. "Genuine quicks are difficult to develop. The nature of cricket now is such that bowlers often have to play a containing role, and there's not as much opportunity as in the past to allow a young tearaway to just go wild." Time for development, though, is a luxury some teams can't afford.

"We have plenty of fast bowlers who can be just as effective in creating pressure. What we need now is for some of those to develop into genuine quicks, just like Allan Donald did," van Zyl said. "For that, they need to get more experience and build confidence. It would be nice to have one or two more who are almost ready to step onto the international stage, but we are realistic about finding them. Genuine quicks don't just fall out of trees."

And that's why reaction to Parnell when he first arrived was like that greeting the discovery of a golden apple that had tumbled off a branch. "When we find someone with that sort of genuine pace, it causes great excitement and we want to put him in every team," said van Zyl. "I went straight from school to the Under-19 side, the national academy, South Africa A and then the national side," Parnell confirmed. "It was non-stop for a long time and that may have resulted in the injury."

Overuse is a common problem because getting the balance between practice and rest is tricky. "There is a danger that if players under-bowl they are not conditioned and their bodies are not hardened for a match situation, but if they bowl too much, there is the risk of injury," explains Pybus.

Van Zyl said that Cricket South Africa has a plan in place to strike the correct balance. "We are adopting a new performance software programme at the end of August. It's a new athlete-monitoring system that will help us track details of a player's training. We are going to use this particularly for fast bowlers to ensure that we are not over-exposing them."

The problem of excessive wear and tear has already cost South Africa at least two genuine fast bowlers. Monde Zondeki, who famously took a wicket with his first ball in international cricket, had a string of back and side injuries caused by his mixed action. He made his debut in 2002 and played just one Test match in 2003 before being sidelined for two years. He last represented South Africa in 2008.

Another former Test player, Mfuneko Ngam, readily admits that nutrition and bone-density deficiencies contributed to the premature end of his career, but also pinned some blame for his decline on over-training.

"I wanted to be faster than anyone else because I thought it was the only way I would get into the national team. I didn't want to just be bowling 140kph but over 150ph, and that meant I had to practise more. I also didn't listen to the advice of my coaches. They would tell me to only run on grass, but I would go for runs on tar roads. Sometimes after training, I wouldn't feel tired out, so I would run an extra five kilometres just to feel as though I had worked enough."

Ngam played just three Test matches, and took 11 wickets, before being hit by a barrage of stress fractures. He now runs an academy, under the auspices of CSA, at the University of Fort Hare, for players of colour. While the academy caters to batsmen and bowlers, its initial mandate was to try and unearth the next Makhaya Ntini.

Ngam has found that the bowlers under his care have the same effervescent energy he once had. "They want to bowl all day and I have to tell them to stop. Quick bowlers really need to have enough access to information to know how to take care of their bodies," Ngam said.

The new approach from CSA should counter that problem, although it will take the individual bowlers themselves to put into practice what they learn. Parnell, for one, doesn't want to change too much of his action because "it got me where I was". He admits that a smoother action, "more like Steyn's" may provide him with a buffer against further injury, but says his own "slightly awkward" action is what gets him wickets.

Parnell has returned to the gym and said he is taking "baby steps" to making a comeback. On Twitter he revealed that he is leg-pressing 10 kilograms and benching five. He aims to be back for the domestic season, starting in September. If he isn't, it will be interesting to see who the back-up fast bowler for the national team will be. 

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Thank god for England v Pakistan

My sports pages are besieged by lawyers these days. They are not all bad fellows but their presence in headlines is usually a harbinger of doom or a full-blown conflict. In an ideal world, lawyers would take off their jackets, pull on a round-neck tee and a pair of sneakers and shriek and despair like any other fan.

And so the IPL is mired in legalese, there are calls for a recusal (which sounds like Sarah Palin or George Bush trying to say no), there are calls for Supreme Court judges, and even Cricinfo is being forced to turn to legalese: "The core issue of recusal of two members from the panel was debated..." Meanwhile, the image of the IPL, India's only major sports brand, takes a beating amid adjournments and myriad motions.

Elsewhere, an 83-year-old lady is moving the courts to allow her to head one of the factions hoping to run Indian hockey. Where a goal might have been considered a fair objective, a stay order is greeted with celebration. The Commonwealth Games are in the news only for water pouring into new stadiums, for swimmers tripping over unfinished construction, and for incurring costs that bear as much relation to the budget as my cover drive does to Sachin Tendulkar's.

And the Sinhalese Sports Club ground has joined a few others (Antigua, Ahmedabad…) where a lawyer is genuinely needed: to get a stay against curators preparing pitches that will make bowlers extinct faster than the Bengal tiger. At the time of typing this, eight wickets have fallen in three days and a century is news only if it is missed.

Ironically providing relief is a team that is normally in the news for parliamentary committees and senate commissions enquiring into its activities. But circumstances have thrown Pakistan a great opportunity, among the biggest in its history. It is an opportunity only they can spurn, for their cricket writes more baffling scripts there a writer of soaps could dream of.

With senior players under a cloud, and some unsure of whether they are active or retired, a group of youngsters with the most incredible ability has been thrown together. Three young fast bowlers, and doubtless a dozen more tucked away in fertile bylanes, are making the world sit up and take notice; enjoying using the Dukes ball and making it curve nastily. A young left-armer has emerged, who has the potential to cause batsmen a lot of distress, as have a swarm of young batsmen who take to cricket and its attendant pressures with the ease of a poet composing a ghazal. These are young, uncluttered - dare one say unspoilt - minds who are thankful for the opportunity of playing for their country. It seems, suddenly, in Pakistan cricket as if things were just meant to be; even though it is no more than a couple of weeks since their new captain quit! Now all they need is a young allrounder to bat at No. 6, a wicketkeeper who doesn't enjoy controversy, and some parliamentarians who can stay away from cricket. It will be criminal to miss an opportunity like this.

But arrayed against them are a group of cricketers, hitherto considered malleable, who seem to have acquired steel implants. England are playing the toughest cricket I have seen since Nasser Hussain brought sides to the subcontinent. From a distance, there seems a culture of openness; a gentleman captain and a tough coach, some underrated but resolute batsmen, a mighty fine spinner, and three seamers who keep picking up wickets. More than anything else, this looks a side willing to stamp on an opponent when he is down, where earlier they seemed happy putting up a temporary fight.

England and Pakistan are teams on the way up, at least for now, and their contest should be one for sports lovers. Their traditional opponents, Australia and India, rated above them, are faltering with what engineers might call structural defects. So maybe we should enjoy that while the lawyers roll up their sleeves in India and curators continue to bury bowlers in Sri Lanka.

If India searched for bowlers with the zeal with which they look for legal loopholes, and bowlers didn't vanish into the hungry pits that keep popping up everywhere, India's sports pages would make better reading. 

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Waqar wary of workload for fast men

For a brief moment this morning it felt like Pakistan seemed to have gained a foothold in this exciting Test. After Umar Gul's defiant burst with the bat, which relieved them of the burden of following on, Pakistan fought back admirably with their three fast men trampling the England batting order with authority. At 98 for 6, and the lead at 270, Pakistan held their heads high.

But as the full house at Trent Bridge welcomed the sun finally breaking through the clouds for the first time in two days about an hour after lunch, the visitors' body language steadily grew weary. With the pitch offering hardly any true bounce or movement and the ball losing its shine, Salman Butt duly rested his pace trio comprising the two Mohammads - Asif and Aamer - and Gul.

Subsequently Danish Kaneria, who was introduced for the first time in the day one over before tea, continued to operate from one end while the part-timers Shoaib Malik and Umar Amin bowled innocuous overs for Matt Prior to build to his century and wilt the Pakistan spirits with every additional run.

Just like Australia had escaped twice at Lord's after Pakistan's quicks had worked assiduously to demolish the specialist batsmen, Prior led England to recovery and then built further momentum in the company of the tail. What worked in the hosts' favour was there was nothing much for the fast bowler on a dry and slow pitch. Also keeping in mind a long summer ahead, Pakistan did not want to exhaust and risk injury to their match-winning pace trio.

"The [fast] bowlers were really tired," Waqar Younis, Pakistan coach, said after the day's play. "These [fast] bowlers have been bowling too many overs from the Australia series. We don't want anyone injured and those three our key bowlers."

If there was somebody he wasn't impressed with it was his main spinner Kaneria, who Waqar felt was a big letdown. The coach had a blunt appraisal of the legspinner in this match: "We struggled with Danish Kaneria. He was lacking confidence and he really struggled getting his rhythm going, which was tough for us."

Astonishingly, Kaneria failed to bowl any maidens and had only one wicket to his credit with his match figures reading: 33-0-171-1. Waqar pointed out that Kaneria's best opportunity to bounce back after an abysmal first-innings performance with the ball came early in the second session today.

With Stuart Broad hunting for runs this year and Jimmy Anderson on a king pair and Steven Finn playing only his third Test, Kaneria needed to dominate Prior, England's last specialist batsman. "At a stage when they were six down we just needed somebody to get up and take a wicket but that didn't happen," Waqar said.

For most of the afternoon Pakistan allowed things to happen and the early morning promise that Gul had injected into the team with his maiden half-century suddenly seemed distant. For the second time this summer Pakistan were chasing a 400-plus score for victory in the fourth innings - Australia had set them 440 at Lord's - and both times they knew it could've been a much easier, and achievable target.

Asked if he was disappointed at his top order failing to survive with about three quarters of an hour before the close of play, Waqar conceded that losing three wickets was too many. "In a way it is always disappointing when you lose wickets when you don't want to especially at the end of the day," Waqar said. "I wasn't expecting three wickets - maybe one, but they were right on target."

But the Pakistan coach said he couldn't blame the batsmen entirely, as they had endured a long and taxing day in the field. "It is always tough when you are in the field for 70 overs and then you have to go and bat and it is even tougher for the youngsters," Waqar said.

So, is it over for Pakistan in this Test? Waqar nearly admitted defeat. "It seems very, very hard form here on," he said nodding his head. That does not mean he is giving up on the series, because he reckons Pakistan have the ability to fight back just like they caught Ricky Ponting's men by surprise at Headingley.

"We won against Australia [so] we are a very fine side and I've got no doubt that they can make a comeback. It is a four-match Test series. I haven't given up on this Test yet, but it is not going to be very easy tomorrow." 

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India won't lose No.1 Spot

Despite losing the series opener, India managed to retain the numero uno status in the ICC Test Championship table by virtue of a hard-earned draw against Sri Lanka in the second Test in Colombo.

With 130 rating points in their kitty, India is now 11 points clear of second-placed South Africa (119) and will continue to enjoy the top spot in the chart irrespective of the result of the last match of the series.

However, India's 11-point lead at the top will be short-lived following its failure to win the current series against Sri Lanka.

If India wins the third Test, starting at P Sara Oval in Colombo on August 3, and draw the series, they will drop to 127 points, while the hosts will move to the third place with 115 points, ahead of both Australia and England.

If the match ends in a draw, India will slip to 124 points, just five ahead of both South Africa and Sri Lanka.

However, Kumar Sangakkara's side will be placed just below Graeme Smith's men when the ratings are calculated beyond the decimal point.

But another defeat for India will not only see they plummeting to 122 points but it will also lift Sri Lanka to 121 points and to the second position on the Test Championship table for only the second time since the current ranking system was introduced in 2003.

Sri Lanka had previously claimed the second spot in late August last year following a series win over New Zealand and stayed there until it lost 0-2 to India in December.

Australia, which fell from the top spot after losing The Ashes last year, stayed in third position but has dropped from 116 points to 113, just two ahead of England.

England (111), which is presently hosting Pakistan in a four-Test series, occupies the fourth spot followed by Sri Lanka (111), Pakistan (84), West Indies (79), New Zealand (78) and Bangladesh (7).

Meanwhile, Australia continues to top the ICC ODI Championship table with 132 points, 14 clear of closest rival India. South Africa (115) occupies the third position.

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Pakistan still in need of UDRS training

Pakistan's struggles with the Umpire Decision Review System continued on the second day at Trent Bridge, as they once again found themselves uncertain of how to use the technology to their advantage. After a wasteful first day, in which they had squandered both of their lifelines in the space of five minutes, their experience reached a new low when Azhar Ali declined to refer a caught-behind decision that, had he done so, would surely have enabled him to carry on with his innings.

The incident occurred in the 21st over, with Pakistan already close to meltdown on 41 for 3. James Anderson zipped a full-length outswinger through to the keeper, and belatedly joined the appeal as Matt Prior went up to claim the catch. Azhar's first instinct was to walk towards the non-striker, Umar Akmal, but seconds later he turned on his heel and walked to the dressing-room.

Subsequent replays, however, showed clearly that the ball had flicked Azhar's pocket on the way through to Prior, and there was no evidence on HotSpot that there had been any bat involved. Had the third umpire Marais Erasmus been presented with that evidence, in full view of the crowd via the replay screen, it is unlikely he would have upheld the onfield decision.

However, Pakistan's captain, Salman Butt, refused to blame his batsman for walking, and instead cast doubts about the reliability of the technology by stating that Azhar actually believed he had got an imperceptible edge on the ball.

"I think it was very honest of Azhar Ali, good sportsmanship," he said. "He edged it and he walked straight away. If we had taken the chance, who knows, it might have been not out because it didn't show anything and it also showed it clipped the trousers on the way. But he knew he was out, so there's no point taking the referral. If you are found out on the big screen, it doesn't look nice."

Butt recalled a similar incident during Pakistan's tour of Australia in January, when Michael Clarke survived a caught-behind appeal during his century at Hobart, when Snickometer picked up a noise as the ball flicked the sticker on the side of the bat, but the Hotspot replay proved inconclusive.

"Hawkeye is not 100 percent and neither is Hotspot," said Butt. "When the ball hits the sticker on the side [of the bat] it doesn't leave a mark. It happened with one or two decisions before. But the point is, if the batsman knows he has hit the ball there's no point taking a chance, because if it's up there on the big screen it's pretty embarrassing."

Either way, when coupled with the bloopers on the first day, most notably Kamran Akmal's crass decision to refer a catch that missed the bat by some distance, it's clear that Pakistan need some training in how to use the system to their advantage. England themselves had similar problems during the early stages of their tour of the Caribbean last March, but in recent months have become far more savvy.

"It's something to get used to," said Anderson. "We've not used it very well in the past and been on the wrong end of some tough decisions from it, but we've used it pretty well so far in this game. As it's used more and more in this game, the more we'll get used to it, and the better we'll use it.

"It's a case of knowing who to consult, because you've only got a short period of time to think before you refer," he added. "We try to keep as many people out of it as possible, and go for the three key people." 

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Pakistan bat with eyes wide shut

What does a Pakistan batsman think when he takes guard? Does he fancy himself to score a fighting hundred in testing conditions? Does he think of battening down the hatches, and standing strong in the face of swing, seam, bouncers, spin and even boos from the partisan English crowd? Does he think at all?

Based on evidence from this English summer, the average Pakistani batsman retains the anxiety of a first-timer at the top of the Cresta Run, faced with the prospect of hurtling down an ice-tunnel face down and experiencing G-forces measuring up to five. The key is to keep the eyes open and not panic. As at Lord's, then Headingley, and now Trent Bridge, Pakistan's batsmen have played as if they were blindfolded.

It was clear in the morning that all the batsmen would to fight against the twin threats of the bowlers and the overcast conditions, with the latter helping the former gain incisive movement. Mohammad Asif clubbed the two together perfectly to hasten England's downfall in the morning, as six wickets fell for 23 runs in 75 minutes.

Only eight overs remained before lunch. Salman Butt should have known what to expect, which ball to leave alone, when to go on the offensive and push the opponent back. Still he allowed the new-ball pair of Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson to dominate him. Broad did not waste time in firing in a bouncer, barely seen in the England innings, which hit the Pakistan captain on the head and softened him up. At the Radcliffe Road End Anderson put doubts in the Pakistanis' mind by swerving the ball both ways.

The ball that eventually claimed Butt - it failed to straighten and shaped away that wee bit - was a delivery good openers never go chasing. Butt was overpowered, and like a robot opened up and nicked one. He was not the only one. His partner Imran Farhat, who hit some powerful shots including a bold hook, was set up nicely by Anderson, bowling from the round the stumps.

Farhat should have been aware of the angle. He would've known from facing his own fast men in the nets how they sell the dummy to left-handers: usually they would bowl wide off the bowling crease and angle it towards the pads. Inadvertently the batsman would play for the inswinger and open his shoulders but to his horror would find the ball moving out at the last instant before taking an edge most times. Farhat should have done what he eventually did after getting out: left the ball alone.

It was the same with the Akmal brothers - Umar and Kamar - and the newcomers Azhar Ali and Umar Amin. Each of these gents hung limp bats while the bowlers laughed their way to victory. Let us not point out their inexperience, as players new to Test cricket always dream of doing deeds their heroes did when they were young themselves. To point out a recent example, Steve Smith plucked Australia out of a dangerous position to help set a challenging target on the third day in Headingley when Pakistan's bowlers had dominated the specialist batsmen earlier in the morning. Suddenly from a winning position Pakistan had been keeping their fingers crossed by the end of the day. Smith set the hearts racing with his impulsive shotmaking, because he realised the only way to turn the screw was go aggressive.

Likewise Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Aamer realised, even for a brief period late in the afternoon, that with a little bit of patience and pluck they could score runs comfortably. Soon they understood Stuart Broad was not as potent as Anderson and Steven Finn, so they could actually take advantage of that. And even when they lost their wickets, their reactions showed something that the top-order had failed to grasp. Both men knew that those had been balls to leave alone.

Reading the bowler, anticipating something that is going to happen, waiting till the last moment before reacting, letting the ball go away rather than chase it - these are skills batsmen learn every day in the nets. Coaches stress the same during every throwdown. Ultimately it is for the batsmen to play according to the situation.

Bowlers understand it, and expect it as well. "It is very rare you roll through teams," Jimmy Anderson, England's player of the day said about Pakistan's downfall. "They played pretty well towards the end and ball got soft and the wicket's quite slow. If you stick in there you can hang around for a period of time."

Salman Butt had a different take on Pakistan's sorry state and thought Anderson & Co. took advantage of the conditions. "It is okay to say batsmen make mistakes but the runs were not coming as well," he said. "It shows how immaculate the line and lengths of the bowlers have been and the conditions have been very helpful to seam bowling. If they land the bowl in good areas then there is every kind of help for them."

It could have a very different story for Pakistan if their fielders had snatched the opportunities on the first day the way England did on Friday. Equally it could've have been another story for Pakistan if their batsmen had learnt from their past mistakes and put to use the basics they had honed for years before coming to international cricket. 

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'The more the pressure, the stronger I got'

Was it inevitable that you would become a cricketer?
My two cousins were Test captains. One, Majid Khan, became Test captain while I was playing. One was an Oxford Blue [Javed Burki] and one a Cambridge Blue [Majid]. If you're living up to people who have made it big, you face more pressure than ordinary cricketers. Doors open easier but you're always judged against them. I was always told that I had less talent than them.

You made your Test debut in England aged 18. What happened?
I had always had ambitions as a batsman but I was selected as a fast bowler because Pakistan hardly had any. I'd played very few first-class matches, and while in home conditions my slingy action was effective, in England I was totally at sea. I was dropped after that first Test and my team-mates openly told me I'd never get back into the team. But I'd been determined to be a Test cricketer since I was nine and there was never any chance, no matter how many setbacks I faced, that I would give up.

What turned you into a quick bowler?
In 1972, Australia came to England. I watched Dennis Lillee bowl and that's when I decided I wanted to be fast. It was the first time I'd seen a genuine fast bowler. Pakistan didn't have any, and I just loved it. It appealed to my instincts, my aggressive way of playing. I was a medium-pacer then and Worcester would encourage me to bowl that because I had a natural inswinger. But I was never satisfied, so if I ever got hit, I would try and bowl faster. That's how I got this aggressive streak, to seek revenge when a batsman tried to dominate, that made me into a fast bowler. I understood the limitations of how I used to bowl, so I completely restructured my bowling action between the ages of 18 and 25. I spent the winter after I finished at Oxford University [1975-76] in Pakistan, and that was really the turning point, because on those wickets you needed to have air speed. My first-class team [Pakistan International Airlines] encouraged me to bowl fast. In a year I'd gained pace and was genuinely fast.

You came third behind Jeff Thomson and Michael Holding at the famous speed test in Perth in 1978...
We were bowling bouncers and Jeff Thomson was bowling full-tosses, so there was a slight distortion, although he was probably still quicker. Out of eight balls I bowled, seven were quicker than Holding. I wasn't even at my peak - I was quicker in the next two years. In my peak I got nearly 100 wickets in about a year, 40 in a series against India, but I did my shin bone and missed three of my best years as a bowler.

What are your memories of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket?
It was the highest standard I've played. It was the greatest number of fast bowlers ever concentrated in one place - very high-calibre fast bowling. There were people like Tony Greig, Lawrence Rowe, Roy Fredericks, who were outstanding batsmen, but all three of them sank under the barrage of quick bowlers.

Did captaincy improve you as a player?
The more pressure I took, the stronger I got.

Teams follow captains they believe in. I used to tell them: "Do not be scared of losing, you'll never know how to win." I discovered why I was successful and others who were more talented than me weren't. My whole policy was aggressive: how am I going to win? Most who captained me used to enter a match thinking we should not lose. The result was that team selection became defensive. It's a big difference in strategy and attitude. I took this fear of losing away from them and that's why we used to pull off incredible victories from losing positions. We played superior opposition and did very well. You become fearless and that is a very important component in successful people, organisations, even countries.

Did you find it difficult being a bowling captain?
Batting captains never had a clue about bowlers. Most captaincy is done on the field. As a bowler I was far better equipped to deal with that than batting captains. The only batting captain I rated was Ian Chappell. He had a very good cricket mind and could deal with bowlers well. Apart from him, very few were good because they didn't understand bowlers. Because I was a bowling captain, I taught Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis from scratch. They had hardly played any first-class cricket and I would tell them what to do every ball because I had been through the process myself. I would set their fields and I would tell them what to think.

What were the raw ingredients that you saw in Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis?
Wasim was the most talented bowler I have seen apart from Holding. A natural. But he needed the art of taking wickets, fitness and advice, which I gave him. Waqar was a very strong bowler, not as gifted as Wasim, but much stronger physically. Mentally, Waqar was very tough. Wasim would give up a little bit when things got down; Waqar would keep coming back. But Wasim was much more talented.

How do you compare with the three other great allrounders from the 1970s and 80s: Botham, Hadlee, Kapil Dev?
We were all great competitors. I had my duels with all three. Botham was a better batsman than all of them, Hadlee was a better bowler than the others, and Kapil Dev, at one point, had great batting potential but never developed it. It's not easy at that level to keep developing both skills.

Ian Botham peaked very early. I think he was already on the downer at 26 or 27 because he had become very big. He started off as an allrounder of more promise than all of us because he had a great side-on bowling action and outswing. But by his late 20s his bowling was no longer effective. And batting-wise, the reason I don't think he fulfilled his potential is his performance against West Indies. I judge batsmen on their performance against the big boys and in critical situations. In that sense, Botham's performance against West Indies was just appalling - averaging about 14 with the bat and around 40 with the ball [in fact, 21 and 35].

Your bowling average was 21 against West Indies, the dominant team of the era. Did you raise your game against them?
The tougher the competition, the better it got out of me. Sometimes I used to lose motivation against the smaller teams. The lure of beating West Indies in the West Indies was the main reason I came out of retirement [in 1988]. We drew 1-1 but with neutral umpires we would have won 2-0 and I would have retired then because it was my ambition to beat the ultimate team in world cricket. I'm the only captain that never lost to West Indies in three series, all drawn.

They tested you completely. It demanded the greatest concentration, guts and a proper technique to face them. The batting was great too. Viv Richards was head and shoulders above everyone else. A genius. It was his reflexes, his timing, lightning footwork and his attitude. He was very courageous - a batsman who would take on challenges. His statistical record does not reflect his ability or the number of match-winning innings he played. He used to get bored, whereas other batsmen would bat for their averages.

What are your memories of the 1992 World Cup?
Great euphoria. I handpicked that young team and for them to win the World Cup from that impossible situation was a source of such happiness to the Pakistanis. I was so proud of that team. When I retired, I left the best Pakistan team in its history. I was very disappointed that it never achieved its potential. Match-fixing allegations dogged them.

Do you regret admitting to using a bottle top during the 1981 county season?
I regret that it distorted the whole discussion on ball-tampering; it took it to another level. I was trying to explain that ball-tampering had always been part of cricket. It was only when you crossed a certain limit that it became cheating. He [journalist Ivo Tennant] asked me point blank and I said, "Yes". I'd played a match at Sussex against Hampshire. It was a dead wicket, petering towards a draw. We had drinks and there was a bottle top. I scratched the ball trying to get resistance on the other side. I said: "That is cheating, you've crossed the line." I was illustrating the point. Then other people jumped in, people trying to settle scores, people taking money from tabloids to say: "I saw Imran ball-tampering". They were such liars and they made money. In that sense, I regretted it.

There must have been times when the pressure got to you, leading Pakistan for 10 years?
Cricket is the only captaincy in sport where you face pressure. In Pakistan the pressure is more than in other places because when the team loses, the captain's head comes on the chopping block, otherwise the board is removed. There were about 17 changes in the 10-12 years after I left. When I came in, there was a players' revolt against the captain and I was the compromise. In my 10 years I never had a problem. I had the complete respect of the team.

How did cricket prepare you for politics?
Politics is cut-throat. I find myself far better equipped than my colleagues because I learnt to compete and take knocks from sport. There is no better preparation for politics. It is the ultimate in character-building. Being a political leader is like being a cricket captain. You walk out to a stadium full of people, all responsibility on you, and if you can learn to take that responsibility, it equips you to do anything in life. 

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Happy with the way we played: Tendulkar

Tendulkar guided India with a classy 203 and helped his side end day four of the second Test at 669 for nine in reply to Sri Lanka's first innings score of 642 for four declared at a placid Sinhalese Sports Club wicket.

Tendulkar mentioned that he was tempted to play the shots, but controlled himself as a partnership was crucial for India at that stage.

"When I was in the middle, it was important to go for a partnership and I am happy with the way we played. I was tempted to play my shots but that time the match was a critical situation and we had to hang in there," said the champion batsman.

With over 1300 runs scored in four days at the loss of just 13 wickets, he said the SSC wicket was not an ideal pitch for Test cricket.

"From a batsmen's point of view the pitch is definitely the best in the world. It is a batting paradise but it is not result oriented. It is a tough track to bowl on," Tendulkar said.

Although he is 37, Tendulkar is still going strong and the right-hander said it is his love for the game that keeps him fresh and rejuvenated all the time.

"I am enjoying every bit of it. I don't count the number of runs that I scored. It is nice to score runs and I am enjoying as much being in the middle as it is being in the past. It is fantastic," he said.

"I don't think much has changed but with age obviously you change your thought process. It's not only in cricket, also in life. You make decisions differently. You just get to know more about cricket. The learning process never stops, everyday you learn," Tendulkar said.

Tendulkar said that he has no qualms of not scoring a triple hundred yet in his career because he never played cricket for records.

"People look at records but I don't. Whenever it (triple hundred) has to come, it will come. It is never too late. I will keep trying, but that is not the end of the world for me. There are many more things in cricket and that is where the focus is. It's not on records," he said.

Tendulkar was full of praise for Suresh Raina, who made his maiden hundred today and became the 12th Indian cricketer to score a century on debut.

"I was very happy for him (Raina). Many guys doubted whether Suresh was a good Test player or not. He has done well, I am very pleased. The way he batted was fantastic," he said.

"All I told him was, enjoy this moment. You have earned something special. This will always be the highlight of your career. You will have many more hundreds, you will achieve many more things in your life, but this will always be something special."

"When playing with debutants it is important to make them comfortable and understand their mind set. Raina having played 98 matches before his Test debut debut helped a lot. I played with him and knew exactly what to expect from him also," he added.

Tendulkar was of the view that Sri Lanka possesses a decent bowling despite retired Muttiah Muralitharan, who quit Test cricket after the first match of the series against India at Galle with 800 Test wickets.

He also said that it would be unfair to compare any present day bowler with Muralitharan as it took the champion off-spinner years to achieve his 800 Test wicket mark.

"It's a decent attack. Obviously nobody is going to come overnight and get 800 wickets. It took Muralitharan 18 years to achieve the feat. He has worked hard, and similarly other guys playing for Sri Lanka will have to do that."

The Umpire Decision Review System may have its share of supporters but Sachin Tendulkar gave a thumbs down to the UDRS, saying he was not fully convinced with the controversial referral system.

Tendulkar said instead of UDRS, he was more in favour of the usage of new 'Hot-Spot' technology, which is an infra-red imaging system used in cricket to determine whether the ball has struck the batsman, bat or pad.

"I am not fully convinced with the referral system (UDRS). When I was here last time I was not convinced with many decisions. I did not feel comfortable, it was an experiment I felt," Tendulkar told reporters here after notching up his fifth double hundred in Tests.

"I would rather go with the Hot Spot because that establishes the contact between the bat and the bowl. That it is far better system according to me. The Hot Spot is much better," he said.

The UDRS has recently got some supporters in Australian captain Ricky Ponting, Sri Lankan spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan and former ICC umpire Rudi Koertzen, who called for the use of the system in every Test match. 

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Uncertain Kaneria fails to make his mark

Under bright skies in Nottingham and on a dry, low pitch, today was not a day for the fast bowlers to run rampant. Instead with plenty of turn on offer it was a day begging for the spinners to take control. Yet Pakistan's most experienced Test player, and their premier slow bowler, failed to rise to the occasion. Danish Kaneria will do well to keep his head down.

After the first session, where Mohammad Aamer had grabbed a couple of early wickets, Pakistan returned with a plan. First Mohammad Asif attacked Kevin Pietersen's off stump fervently and was rewarded when he got his man for the fifth time in seven games in England. Soon afterwards Aamer defeated Jonathan Trott's shuffle across the stumps to trap him leg before. With two new batsmen and Pakistan on top, Salman Butt brought Kaneria into the attack.

Having played 61 Tests Kaneria knew the plan: fire in the stock delivery and keep firing. It was the best way to play on the batsman's patience. Instead, for some inexplicable reason, Kaneria kept rushing in to deliver flatter, faster and fuller. Line, length, flight, variation - the basics of slow bowling - were completely ignored on the first day.

Throughout his five spells, Kaneria arrived at the crease like an ill-prepared student at an exam. Edgy, he was randomly ticking boxes, stabbing in the dark for the right formula. Eoin Morgan and Paul Collingwood sensed his anxiety and took full advantage. Full tosses were driven handsomely through yawning gaps on both sides of the wicket and straight balls were either deflected or cut with power for easy runs. Morgan, playing only his third Test, could even unleash his trademark reverse sweep as Kaneria sent down another innocuous leg break - a shot which created further gaps in an already stretched field.

Sadly, Pakistan's captain must share part of the blame. Considering the pitch was offering generous turn and surprising uneven bounce at times, Butt would've done well to keep Kaneria locked in at one end. In the past Kaneria has shown the appetite to bowl long spells and build pressure on the batsmen. A recent example was in Sydney at the beginning of this year where, returning from a finger injury, he spun a tight web around the nervous Australian middle order and, were it not for the appalling glovework of Kamran Akmal, would've helped Pakistan to victory.

Yet here Kaneria was not allowed to settle. He should have prodded and pleaded his skipper, still an infant as captain, to leave him operating at one end. That might have helped him buy time to work out the right plan to overhaul the opponent, but it wasn't to be.

As the English pair grew confident Kaneria grew timid. He was twitching and frustrated. It did not help when Akmal, the worst offender of the day, missed an easy stumping when Collingwood charged. Kaneria couldn't believe it but it was, of course, not the first time. At the SCG Kamran had failed to get rid of Michael Hussey three times in one Kaneria over including a stumping opportunity. It was that sort of a day for Pakistan's two most experienced players - both displayed frayed nerves, distracted mindsets and a complete lack of authority.

Nevertheless Kaneria cannot hang on to that one missed opportunity because it was the only chance he created in 21 overs. There was so much more he could have done. For starters he could have set his own fields, something successful bowlers always like to do. It was his responsibility in the light of Butt's inexperience. Minor things like that always prove pivotal in a Test.

Kaneria is Pakistan's fourth-best bowler of all time in terms of wickets but is yet to show the pro-activeness to impose himself, to take the decisions that will prove decisive or to have the aura past bowling greats like Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Abdul Qadir possessed. Instead he is happy to be put on a leash and be led. 

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Pakistan hopeful batsmen can undo fielding errors

After the high of Headingley, Pakistan's new-found confidence took something of a battering on the first day at Trent Bridge, as a combination of missed chances, squandered reviews and a double-hundred partnership between Eoin Morgan and Paul Collingwood conspired to take the game away from them. Nevertheless, on a flat deck that looks very good for batting, Pakistan remain confident of being able to reply in kind.

"It has been a very tough day for us today, but days come like this," said their rookie batsman, Umar Amin. "We tried our best but unfortunately we didn't get wickets at crucial times. But we'll try to come back again tomorrow. It will be a new day and we'll try to stick to the basics. There's not much in the pitch, but we'll try to restrict them to as little as possible."

At 118 for 4 in the first hour after lunch, Pakistan had an opening into England's middle order, with Collingwood and Morgan forced to graft for their runs against a dangerous moving ball. But crucial opportunities went begging courtesy of the keeper, Kamran Akmal, who was positioned too deep to collect a low nick when Morgan had made just 5, and later made a hash of a stumping with Collingwood still short of his half-century.

"We were in a good position, but unfortunately we gave it away," said Umar. "Eoin Morgan played a fantastic innings, but it was lucky that as soon as he came, Aamer got a snick but it didn't carry. Inshallah we'll come back tomorrow and try to get him out, because all of us tried very hard and we created half-chances, but we weren't able to capitalise on them."

Pakistan's morale dipped even further when they used up both of their reviews in the space of five minutes, as Kevin Pietersen survived a referral for lbw and caught-behind in quick succession. Akmal, in his capacity as wicketkeeper and senior player, was the key man in persuading his team to go to the third umpire on both occasions, but Umar believed the calls were justified.

"I think the review system is good when it goes in your favour," he said. "I thought at the time they were out, but unfortunately, they weren't, so I just consider it a hard day at the office. The senior players gave their opinions about those incidents, and it was the keeper who was the main man, but he's a very tough man and he'll come back tomorrow and try to compensate with his batting. I'm sure he'll do good tomorrow."

Morgan also had a brush with the review system in the course of his innings, when on 78 he was adjudged lbw as Danish Kaneria came round the wicket. "It was the first time I've used it, so it's been a bit different," he said. "I walked down the wicket and Colly said I think you should review it, so that knocked it on the head.

"The important thing is communication between the two batsmen, and being honest about it," he added. "If it feels natural then refer it, because the angle he was coming from, it was going to struggle to hit the stumps."

Pakistan have a big challenge ahead of them if they are to get back into this match, but under Salman Butt and through their exploits against Australia, they currently have the spirit to overcome adversity. At the close, the players went into a huddle on the boundary's edge, to reflect on a performance that hadn't gone to plan, and to start the process of regaining some measure of control.

"In cricket you learn every new day," said Umar. "We are a young unit, and we're becoming more and more united. We back each other and our captain, and we're becoming a very good unit. I think this is the perfect pitch for batsmen, so we'll try to make full use tomorrow. The key on this pitch is to stay on the front foot and manage the ball there. It won't be very difficult tomorrow." 

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Morgan proves the man for all formats

Eoin Morgan's impact on the first day at Trent Bridge was so emphatic, at times you wondered what all the pre-match fuss had been about. All that talk of Pakistan's pace attack being the best and most varied in the world, and those deceptive memories of Australia being bundled out for 88, seemed somewhat irrelevant while Morgan and Paul Collingwood were muscling along in the post-tea session, taking their fifth-wicket stand to a game-shaping 213.

And yet, nothing that transpired was remotely out of keeping with the nature of England's opponents. It was Andrew Strauss who said it best on the eve of the game, when he pointed out that Pakistan were unlikely to maintain their disciplines for a full five days of a Test match, and therefore the onus was on England to settle into a consistent mindset, and to ready themselves to seize their moments in the ascendancy.

Nobody, however, carried out those orders to a greater or more thrilling effect than Morgan - certainly not Strauss himself, who looked thoroughly aghast at giving his innings away with a loose carve on 45. He needed some luck, most notably on 5 when he edged just short of the keeper, and again on 78, when an lbw appeal was over-turned on review, but for a man about whose durability doubts had continued to linger, Morgan's response was emphatic and protracted.

"This is a massive moment in my career," he said at the close. "It's extremely satisfying to score a Test match hundred in only my third game. It's a great achievement and I feel very proud. I think I've answered some questions and I think I've improved my game a lot, especially in this form of the game. I don't yet know exactly what Test cricket is about, but I have no doubt over my talent. I'm a confident player and I like to express myself, and hopefully I've got a lot more runs to score in the future."

Way back in the mists of time - in Sharjah in fact, before the tour of Bangladesh and long before the World Twenty20 triumph, Andy Flower had pooh-poohed the notion of Morgan being fast-tracked into the Test side because, he said, he needed to see him make runs in the County Championship before throwing him into the five-day mix. It was, on the face of it, a fair enough requirement: in 2009, Morgan had managed 413 runs at 24.29 for Middlesex, and had contributed indifferent scores of 4 and 28 not out in his one outing for England Lions against the Australians.

However, Flower is nothing if not a pragmatist, and having studied the ECB's spectacularly hotchpotch fixture list, he realised that first-class experience was simply not feasible - at least, not if he wanted to get Morgan on that plane to Australia. Thanks to England commitments and a six-week slew of domestic Twenty20 games, Morgan's first and only Champo appearance came for Middlesex against Sussex last week - a full two months after he had made his Test debut.

His performance in that game at Uxbridge hinted at the steel he could bring to England's middle-order - with Middlesex on the ropes, he ground out a dogged unbeaten 58 to save the game with two wickets standing - but today at Trent Bridge, the far greater fascination was the manner in which he managed to transfer his flamboyance across formats.

The straight six with which he went to his maiden Test hundred was a moment of ebullience that will be replayed for weeks to come, but the most eyecatching passage of play was his acceleration in the second hour after lunch. He and Collingwood had done the hard yards in grinding out 25 runs in 15 overs, but then, after Collingwood had loosened the defences with a brace of crunched cuts off Umar Gul, Morgan burst through the tackles like Brian O'Driscoll at Croke Park. Six fours in 12 balls hoisted his personal total from 9 to 33, and England's past the 150-mark, to establish a command that had not been relinquished at the close.

"The major factor today was I allowed myself to get in under difficult circumstances because the ball did a lot early on," said Morgan. "Paul is a great man to have around with plenty experience and a huge number of games, and we set up a great platform by getting past the swing and taking advantage when the ball went soft. It was a passage in the game that felt natural and right. The ball was coming on and I played it as it comes."

The best of his strokes was also the most anticipated, as he flipped his wrists at the point of delivery and patted Shoaib Malik with perfect timing through backward point. And that shot changed the parameters of Pakistan's attacking options as well. Later in the day, as Morgan closed in on his century, Danish Kaneria found himself bowling with a wide third man to intercept that reverse-sweep, which in turn left the covers ripe for the drive - twice in three balls as it transpired.

"The reverse sweep I played moved a fielder about 20 yards to his right, and I probably scored about 20 runs to his left," said Morgan. "I think it did create a lot of opportunities. But the feeling of getting to three figures was fantastic. I was glad he [Shoaib] lobbed it up. They brought the field up and I was expecting him to dart it in, and I would maybe nurdle it for one or something. But when he threw it up I knew I had to free my arms."

Morgan's place in this team would not even have been available had it not been for the broken foot that Ian Bell suffered while fielding against Bangladesh at Bristol, but he seized his opportunity with the same cold calculation that he has brought to innumerable one-day run-chases, most notably at Mirpur and the Rose Bowl. By the close it was hard to find fault with any aspect of his performance, even if the pitch was too slow to test him with the short ball - the one key area where Michael Bevan, the Aussie whom he most resembles, was badly found out at Test level.

But all that is for the future - a future that seems so much more assured now than it did at the end of the Old Trafford Test, when consecutive scores of 37 and 44 against Bangladesh had left his immediate Test career hanging on the whims of fate and squad rotation. "I don't really see it in that circumstance," he said, when asked about the opening that Bell's injury presented to him. "I see it as an opportunity to score runs and go out and represent England. But I'm far from thinking of a double hundred. The pitch is starting to deteriorate, so as many on the board as possible will be a massive advantage." 

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A nerveless six and nervy behind the sticks

Innings of the day
With a sashay down the track and a full swing of the bat, Eoin Morgan deposited Shoaib Malik back over his head for six to power along to his maiden Test century, and dismiss any doubts about his aptitude for first-class cricket. The nervelessness of his performance belied the struggle in which it began, with three wickets tumbling either side of lunch to leave England awkwardly placed at 118 for 4. But with Paul Collingwood steadfast alongside him, Morgan set his team's sights on domination. Morgan may already be England's one-day finisher, but in Test cricket he is only just getting started.

Non-controversy of the day
England, Pakistan, umpiring. Over the years, that potent trio of ingredients have led to all manner of spectacular conflagrations, from Mike Gatting's finger-jabbing in Faisalabad to the Darrell Hair stand-off at The Oval. And with that in mind, the decision to incorporate UDRS into this series was taken with some trepidation, given all the teething problems that it has encountered in recent months. But contrary to all expectations, the first review went without a glitch. Jonathan Trott sought a second opinion after being adjudged lbw by Asoka de Silva, but it was immediately clear he had got an inside-edge. The replay was shown on the big screen as well, so the crowd and the players had no doubt about the reasons for the reversal, and everyone got on with the game.

Struggle of the day
Kevin Pietersen has effectively been on a mid-summer sabbatical, having been rested for the Bangladesh ODIs and snubbed by his soon-to-be-former county Hampshire. And his rustiness showed in a very sketchy return to the crease, which began with his habitual desperation to get off the mark (nine balls elapsed before a nudge to short midwicket), and continued through two unsuccessful attempts from Pakistan to have not-out decisions overturned. But eventually it was left to Mohammad Asif to do what he does best. A good-length delivery, a hint of nip off the seam, and Pietersen's tentative defence led to an inside-edge onto his stumps. Who needs referrals when you can rattle the timbers?

Pragmatism of the day
Trott's second encounter with the review system was less enjoyable than his first, as Mohammad Aamer persuaded him to play no stroke to a full-length outswinger, and umpire Tony Hill thought long and hard before eventually raising his finger. Trott was unimpressed, and called for the second opinion, but the ball was shown to be clipping the top of off. Whether he thought about the implications or not, Hill's choice of decision was intriguing. Had he turned down the appeal, which could have been justified, Pakistan would doubtless have felt aggrieved having already wasted their two reviews. Instead, the onus was placed on Trott to seek the referral if he felt it was justified, just as it was several hours later, when Eoin Morgan was reprieved against Danish Kaneria. It may skew the traditional thinking about the role of the umpire and the benefit of doubt going to the batsman. But on both occasions, justice was served in the end, while at the same time a controversy was neatly sidestepped.

Klutz of the day
He spilled an easy catch first thing in the morning, then claimed a catch shamelessly when replays clearly revealed the ball had bounced into his gloves, and finally he missed a regulation stumping an hour before the close. After an impressive Test at Headingley, Kamran Akmal resumed his bid to be recognised as the world's worst wicketkeeper. Each of his three moments involved one of England's key men of the day - Andrew Strauss, Eoin Morgan and Paul Collingwood - and but for the Akmal horror show, Pakistan could so easily have finished the day with a share of the spoils.

No-baller of the day
All through the summer Umar Gul has been missing his bowling stride. In two Tests against Australia, he bowled a whopping 18 no-balls, and given that tally, one would have expected him to do the adjustments and get the rhythm correct in the nets, before the England series. Sadly, there was no coherence once again in his run-up. He started off with a false start, and then delivered five no-balls during the course of the day.

Crowd of the day
After disappointing attendances for the Australia-Pakistan Tests, the general consensus was that normal service would be resumed as soon as England donned their whites and got back to playing the Nation's Favourite Form of Cricket ©. But the gaps in the stands were dispiriting in the extreme. Given that England had not played a Test since early June, and not taken on a major nation at home since the Ashes last August, a full house should have been taken for granted, especially given how exciting the Pakistanis have proven to be in recent weeks. But somehow it seemed appropriate in a season of muddled priorities. The ECB's fixture list is a shambles, and it's as if the punters have got bored of waiting for the show to begin. 

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I could not adjust to Test cricket: Afridi

Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi has rubbished rumors that his decision to quit the captaincy and retire from the longer version of the game was due to problems with his teammates.

"I have no problems with anyone, neither am I unhappy with anyone. My decision to retire from Tests was not an emotional one," Afridi told the media after returning home from England.

Afridi stunned Pakistan cricket fans when he announced his decision to retire from Tests after leading the team in the first Test against Australia at Lord's earlier this month.

The Pakistan cricket Board had to appoint opener Salman Butt in his place as Test captain for the matches in England but Afridi said he plans to continue playing ODIs and T20s as skipper and will join the team later on in England.

"I didn't take an emotional decision. I took it after much thought. I realised after the Test I was not able to adjust to Test cricket so I took the decision."

"I took the decision in the larger interests of the team because I didn't want to continue playing in a form of cricket to which I was not adjusting," Afridi said.

The flamboyant all-rounder appeared in his first Test against Australia in four years time and Pakistan lost by 150 runs.

Afridi made it clear he had all the support of the team behind him as captain and senior player.

He supported the decision to elevate Salman Butt to the role of test captain.

"I think Butt is a good choice because he has now been playing for some years and has a good sense of cricket," he said.

But Afridi cautioned his teammates to be prepared for a tough series against England that begins from Thursday at Nottingham.

"I think England would be a tougher opponent than Australia in English conditions because they have home advantage and they are playing well at the moment," he said.

Afridi said Pakistan's strength lay in its bowling. "Butt can rely on Muhammad Aamer, Muhammad Asif and Umar Gul because they are bowling the best I have seen them bowl for a while now," he said. 

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Carefree Sehwag unconcerned by missed ton

To listen to Virender Sehwag is to realise that perhaps we take our game too seriously. That, after all is said and done, it is just a sport. Two matches in a row he has thrown away his wicket with the bowlers at his mercy. One of them became part of the reason why India find themselves 1-0 down in the series, the other hasn't been as fatal, thanks to Sachin Tendulkar. At least that's what it looks like now.

In the second of those instances, Sehwag had shown remarkable patience and application in giving India a superb start, but threw it away when he tried to go from 99 to 105 - off the first ball he faced from Suraj Randiv today. The mind was made up to charge at the bowler, he saw a shortish delivery that he couldn't reach, made a last-ditch effort to fetch it and drag it to the on side, and missed the straighter one. He just shrugged his shoulders and said, "Yes I read it. I knew it was the doosra, but I went for the shot."

It is not as if he is irresponsible or mindless. To suggest any of those would be unfair, and disrespectful to one of the sharper brains around. Still he gets really annoyed when all the opposition is trying to do is to contain. He fought his instinct for long durations today, and when he saw a new bowler, he perhaps saw an opportunity for a boundary: he had scored only one in the 16 previous overs.

"I am disappointed," he said. "Not because I was out on 99, but because today's day could have been very good for us if we were one or two down. We had a great opportunity to post a big total. But thanks to Sachin Tendulkar we are back in a good situation. If we play well tomorrow then we can avoid the follow-on and also bat the whole day."

Sehwag didn't quite panic then, at the mammoth Sri Lankan total. "Not really because the wicket is so good to bat on," he said. "I knew somebody will make a big one. I was expecting from VVS [Laxman] and Sachin to complete the hundreds, unfortunately Laxman got out. Full praise to Suresh Raina, he batted really well and scored his fifty. I am hoping that tomorrow morning he will come and complete his hundred."

Sehwag deserves praise for the way he began yesterday himself. It wasn't an easy job to play as aggressively as he did after having spent so much time in the field, and the debacle of the first match. "There was an opportunity if you bat for 18 overs," he said. "You have a chance to score 50. I grabbed the opportunity and scored 60 not out, and I came today morning and tried to score a big one but unfortunately I got out."

Asked if anybody was waiting in the dressing room to pull him up after that dismissal, Sehwag said, "Probably, I have played (too) many Test matches for anybody to come and tell me I have missed a hundred. It is written there in big letters that I made 99."

Thankfully for Sehwag and India, there was Tendulkar to cover up for his error today. Asked if there was anything new to learn from Tendulkar's batting, Sehwag is honest. "It is difficult to say what we have learned from watching him," he says. "Everyday we listen to him in the dressing room, and that is as good as learning.

"Looking at Suresh Raina batting and Tendulkar, it is difficult to say who is making debut. The big plus point is about Sachin is that whenever he gets down to play it is as if he is playing his first game." 

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Randiv revels in maiden wicket

Test debutant Suraj Randiv was ecstatic after getting his first wicket, that of Virender Sehwag, with a doosra. "Sehwag was on 99 at that time. I thought he might go for a big shot and I thought of bowling a doosra at him. It worked and I got his wicket," said Randiv who ended the third day of the second Test with figures of 2 for 108. "When you get a player of his calibre it's a big thing. It's a privilege. I just came onto bowl and I thought he will do something different. Our bowlers hadn't given him any easy runs at that stage."

Sehwag had said after the day's play that he had spotted Randiv's doosra, but decided to attempt the big hit anyway. "I bowl the doosra but like Murali it doesn't go the other way a lot," Randiv said. "But I got some bounce and some help (today)," he said.

Randiv said that he was a bit nervous playing in his first Test. "However, with confidence that goes away. I had an opportunity to bowl a lot and it just went away. I guess any player will be nervous."

Randiv stated that there was more help for the spinners on the wicket than for the fast bowlers. "There was a lot of bounce on the track but it was a bit slow." He said that he was not overawed by the reputation of the Indian batting line-up. "I was just thinking of bowling my line and length. I got a bit of bounce with my action. It was very difficult to bowl a good line and length to Sachin [Tendulkar]. He comes forward and he goes back. It is very difficult to get a correct line and length to him. I think I bowled well to him.

He said there was still a lot of hard work ahead for Sri Lanka in the Test. "We need to stop the runs. We need to work hard. The pitch is good and it is very hard to get wickets. We have to be disciplined." 

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Different strokes, similar result

Watching Virender Sehwag bat is a thrilling experience. From spectators to the players' gallery to the bowler, even the umpires, he keeps everybody interested. Sachin Tendulkar kills that interest for the bowlers. At times, like today, India need both of them to do their thing on the same day. More so Tendulkar.

It was a fascinating contest between Sehwag and Sehwag before he threw it all away. The fields were set to repeat his Nagpur and Galle dismissal. Third man, deep point and sweeper-cover were in "catching positions". Angelo Mathews was bowling short, angling it away, almost trying to simulate what Chanaka Welegedara did in Galle. In reaction to that dismissal and the collapse that followed, Sehwag had said he would play the shot again in the series.

Well, don't believe those press conferences. Of course he lied. Of course he wouldn't play that shot. Not in the air at any rate. But the possibilities remained. What if he gets annoyed again? What if he thinks "let me hit a six over those men on the off-side boundary"? In the four overs approaching stumps yesterday, and in five this morning, Sehwag kept leaving Mathews' deliveries alone. He even smiled at the Sri Lankans, suggesting he knew what they were up to. He quelled that gnawing feeling he gets when runs don't come by punching anything close enough to him through covers or through mid-on.

Then Sri Lanka blocked those areas too. Sehwag started picking singles in response. There was a spell of play when he faced just 29 deliveries in 16 overs, hitting just one boundary, and still scoring 24 runs. M Vijay, the man with the majority of the strike then, did his part too. Sehwag was making up for the mistake in Galle, but then the sight of an offspinner proved to be too much.

Sehwag had overcome all of Sri Lanka's strategies until then. When they bowled full looking for swing, they were driven mercilessly. When they bowled short and wide, he didn't go after them. When they bowled short into the body, he managed to keep them down. When they introduced Suraj Randiv, a rush of blood happened to the head, and Sehwag became only the third man in Test cricket to get stumped on 99.

One of those three instances, with John Wright, led to an agonising defeat for New Zealand with a precious few minutes left in the Auckland Test of 1991-92. India haven't quite averted that fate just as yet, but Tendulkar has made sure it is not the favoured result with two days to go.

The thing with Tendulkar is, there aren't many such formulae that work. You stop the fours, he can patiently work the singles. You stop the singles, he can easily find the gaps. You try to protect one side of the field, he can manoeuvre the ball into other parts. Bad shots, once he is set, are rare.

Three wickets fell for eight runs then, in the minutes before lunch, but no procession followed after the break. Even as VVS Laxman kept looking to whip the spinners to the leg side, and kept getting leading edges, the bowlers kept meeting the middle of the bat at the other end.

Randiv, who got the wickets of Sehwag and Rahul Dravid, summed up how difficult it was bowling to Tendulkar. He said it was difficult to get used to a particular line and length because Tendulkar would play almost identical deliveries off either foot. Then there was the paddle sweep. And when he went back, there were both the varieties of the cut. He also showed to Sehwag, off the same bowler, how the six should have been hit. Apart from that he hit 10 fours off Randiv, Sri Lanka's most impressive bowler on the day.

There was an odd nervy moment when the ball stopped on Tendulkar. One of them came early when he read an Ajantha Mendis googly, but ended up hitting it in the air towards silly mid-on. Another came when he looked to upper-cut Dilhara Fernando, but didn't quite go through with the shot. Prasanna Jayawardene dropped him, and is still awaiting a second mistake.

When Tendulkar reached the century, Sehwag was a relieved man, cheering from the balcony. "I am disappointed," Sehwag said. "Not because I was out on 99 but because today's day could have been very good for us if we were one or two down. We had a great opportunity to post a big total. But thanks to Sachin Tendulkar we are back in a good situation. If we play well tomorrow then we can avoid the follow-on and also bat the whole day." It helps when, unlike in Galle, there is somebody to cover up for a rare mistake you make - that too on 109 and on 99. 

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Muralitharan hits back at Bishan Bedi

Retired spin great Muttiah Muralitharan lashed out at his long-time detractor Bishan Singh Bedi, calling the former Indian captain a controversy monger and an ordinary bowler who would have been hammered by any batsman if was he playing now.

Bedi has been an untiring critic of Muralitharan by repeatedly calling the Sri Lankan a "chucker" and asking the ICC to ban the Sri Lankan's "doosra" as it was illegal.

Muralitharan, who retired last week after completing 800 Test wickets at Galle against India, made an uncharacteristic attack on Bedi.

Asked about the lack of world-class spinners in India, except for Harbhajan Singh, Muralitharan said Bedi was not in the league B S Chandrasekhar, Srinivas Venkataraghavan and Erapalli Prasanna.

"Bedi, I don't think he does not even come to a contest on that. I saw some bowling of his playing days. In the modern era, if he plays he will get hammered every ball, that is what will happen. So no comparison," the world's most successful spinner told PTI in an interview.

"Prasanna is a good bowler. I have seen his bowling. Venkataraghavan is good. But Bedi does not come under it," he said.

Murali did not mention explicitly the constant criticism he had suffered at the hands of Bedi, but advised the the former spinner to refrain from whipping up controversies.

"He (Bedi) is also a controversial person. He has lot of controversies everywhere in the world. And he should think about himself first rather than talking about other people," Muralitharan said.

Asked about Bedi's comments on banning the 'doosra' from international cricket, Muralitharan derided Bedi, saying that since he (Bedi) had no variations in his bowling he was critical of others.

"He (Bedi) did not have any variation. He just bowled left arm spin and the pitch did the variations for him. That is what he bowled," he said.

Muralitharan said Anil Kumble was the best spinner India has produced and records speak for themselves.

"You forget the best spinner is Anil Kumble. Not Bedi or Venkataraghavan or any other. I think the best ever spinner produced (in India) is Kumble. No doubt about it and nobody can doubt it. Statistics-wise and on the basis of other things, he is far ahead than other guys", he said.

Muralitharan refused to compare Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, but said that on the basis of statistics, the Indian maestro was ahead of any other batsman.

"Sachin and Lara have been the most consistent batsmen in the world (to face my bowling). I admire them. I have most regards for those two guys and now place Ricky Ponting also in that list.

"I don't know who plays me the better. They are different individuals. Statistics-wise Sachin is heading the pack. You can say Sachin is the best on that basis. But you see the other two players are great players, they are also legends. I think you cannot make comparisons. They play in different conditions and situation," he said.

Muralitharan said he has no regrets in his cricketing career, even though controversies over his action followed him throughout.

"It (controversy) did not haunt me at all. I went through it and I have done what I wanted to do in my cricketing life. So no regrets. Nothing. I am very happy to retire (from Test cricket)," he said.

On the volume of cricket with the Twenty20 explosion, Murali did not feel it had contributed to players getting more injuries.

"I don't think so. If a player is fit to play he should play every format. The players' careers are very short, they enjoy all form of the game. So the three forms of cricket will continue though Tests are the ultimate," he said.

Muralitharan said it would be difficult for India to come back into the three-match series against Sri Lanka as they have little chance to win the second Test.

"Sri Lanka is too strong at the moment. They are playing really well and the batsmen are getting lot of runs. It could be difficult to get a result in this match unless Sri Lanka wins. India cannot win this Test match. Unless something unpredictable happens," he said.

Murali also said that the Australians were not in a terminal decline, and were still a force to reckon with.

"Very difficult to say Australia have declined. They may decline for about a year, six months, five months. Then they can come back. So you can't say they are a bad side. They are a very good side," he said.

"Statistically, they were performing brilliantly during the last decade. Now they missed players like Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath ... Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer to open. So the youngsters will have to come and fill the void. It took a little bit of time for them," he added. 

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