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Singapore defeated Kuwait by six wickets to win the ACC Under-15 Elite Cup in Bhaktapur, Nepal. It was, however, a slightly hollow victory, as eight of the ten competing sides had earlier been disqualified for fielding over-age players, and so Singapore and Kuwait contested the final as they were the only teams remaining in the competition.The Asian Cricket Council had taken drastic action on Saturday and kicked out hosts and defending champions Nepal as well as Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Thailand after its medical board reported that all the squads from those countries contained players over the stipulated age limit. Sunday’s semi-finals – Nepal v Singapore and Afghanistan v Hong Kong – were scrapped.”In instances where more than two players in each 14-man squad have been found to be over-aged, the teams have been disqualified from the competition,” an ACC media spokesman explained. He added that some teams contained as many as nine over-age players. “One hundred and forty radiology examinations have been conducted in Nepal since the team’s arrival with all the players from the ten participating teams,” he added.Ashraful Haq, the ACC’s chief executive, met team managers to explain the decision. “Our age-verification protocols have been tested and proven to work,” he said. “We stand by the results found. In the long-run, cricket in Asia will benefit. Results such as this should act an eye-opener to all our members.”The tournament had already got off to a bad start when UAE were sent home as their squad did not contain any UAE passport-holders.An ACC spokesman explained that age verification was not easy in some areas. “All countries were asked to provide the appropriate medical data on each of their players before the tournament started. They did not comply.”

“I love the spotlight. The Aussies should be worried I am coming.” Meet the quote-a-minute, bold and brash Sreesanth. He even refers to himself in the third person. “Sreesanth’s way is to be aggressive. Sreesanth will always remain Sreesanth.”Sreesanth was in Delhi, where it’s bitterly cold, as the chief guest for the Gatorade Pacers’ talent hunt but didn’t allow the weather to dampen his spirits. The press descended on the arena and he indulged them, extensively and individually. Even as the event wrapped up in the evening and the attendees hurried towards the warmth of their cars, Sreesanth was addressing his audience, revelling in the spotlight.A shoulder injury had ruled him out of the home Tests against Pakistan and the ongoing series in Australia but he has been training and is ready to make a comeback during the triangular series in Australia in February.”More than their [Australia’s] batsmen, I have been working on my own bowling,” Sreesanth said. “I felt my left arm was not kicking into the bowling action properly. So I went back to the technique I picked up at the MRF Pace Foundation years before. I held a ball in my left hand too and, now, I had to drag it back down so that I could hurl the one in my right hand properly. As a result, the left palm doesn’t open out and the hand doesn’t fall away. I have just worked on my load-up too and I’m very pleased with the way everything is going.”He cannot wait to get to Australia. He recounted with glee the sledging in the recent Australia-India encounters that he played in and took pride in how “we [India] never backed down. Why should we? We have players who can give it back with interest.”It’s not all hot air, though, and his talent for the verbal battle surfaced when he told of an incident involving Brian Lara. “He [Lara] defended a ball with an exaggerated back-and-across movement and I just stood there and murmured my disapproval,” Sreesanth said. “Next ball he was beaten and I said, ‘is this the King Charles Lara? Who is this impostor, moving around nervously?

“I should have kept my mouth shut for the next ball – mind you, it was a length ball – Lara just pulled it over the church beyond the boundary! He is a true legend.”Sreesanth’s cricketing life seems to be a series of Youtube moments. He explained his famous dance after hitting Andre Nel for a six in Johannesburg.”He [Nel], along with [Mark] Boucher and [Herschelle] Gibbs were constantly at me. Nel tapped his chest and said, ‘you need a big heart to play’ and he sniffed in the air and said, ‘I smell blood.’ I sniffed back, ‘where where?’ and prayed to God to give me the strength to hit that six. You should have seen his face. I asked him, ‘how was that slap and where is your tongue now?’ He just went quietly back to his run-up.”The manner in which Sreesanth re-tells these incidents makes you feel that he enjoys the adrenalin rush in the middle. In his mind, he is the biggest star in the world and the cricket field is a great stage for him to enact his own script. “What’s the worst that can happen? Six sixes? I can always come back next over. All I need is just one ball to get him [the batsman] out.”Unlike other bowlers who remember their wickets, Sreesanth remembers how many catches were dropped off him. “They will tell me I took x number of wickets but I will add these dropped catches to them. It helps me lift myself when my mood is down.” Sreesanth’s brother actually records the number of dropped catches and keeps him informed and motivated.In February, Sreesanth will once again encounter the likes of Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds with whom he has had run-ins in the past. Unless he has mellowed down during his forced rest, expect more fiery exchanges on the field.

Cricket Kenya is set to announce the launch of a national elite league with matches starting this November.In the aftermath of Kenya’s performances at the ICC World Twenty20 there was widespread media criticism of the fact that there was no such competition, but it emerges that the board’s plans were already at an advanced stage.The proposals are for a four-side zonal league in which teams will play in three formats – three-day, one-day and Twenty20. The zonal sides will be geographically based, with it appearing likely that two will come from Nairobi, one from the Coast and one from the other regions.Players in the centrally-contracted national squad will be divided between the four sides to ensure there is balance between the teams and to ensure that the standard of all matches is as high as possible. In practice, that will probably mean that each team has seven local players supplemented with four members of the national side.”This will give ample opportunity for people to play for the zones who will be able to show us what they can do in each type of format,” Samir Inamdar, CK’s chairman, told Cricinfo. “The selectors will then be able to distinguish between players who are good at one format but not at another, rather than have the same squad throughout.”Inamdar admitted that getting sides out for three-day matches could pose the biggest problem. Most non-contracted players are unavailable in the week, and five players who were invited to join the national squad as they prepared for the ICC World Twenty20 all declined because of work commitments. To work round this Inamdar said that three-day matches might be played over long weekends or scheduled to coincide with public holidays.CK is seeking corporate sponsors for each region to help offset travel costs, and also an overall tournament sponsor. It is likely to receive a US$20,000 grant from the Africa Cricket Association to help cover costs.

ScorecardAhead of their two Twenty20 matches against England next week, West Indies slipped to a humiliating 51-run defeat at the hands of Derbyshire at the County Ground, with Ant Botha and Tom Lungley each picking up four wickets.To further compound West Indian woes, their team today was far stronger than the mishmash they put out against the England Lions last week, when five players from English league cricket were drafted in. Dwayne Smith, Austin Richards and Lendl Simmons were all included today, but it had little positive effect as their batsmen capitulated to 84 all out in the 16th over, chasing a modest 136.Chris Gayle was first to go, bowled by Lungley for 4 and the same bowler trapped Marlon Samuels, the very next ball, for a duck. Simmons only lasted nine balls, but Richards at least held one end up in his fighting 25, cracking three fours and a six. He received encouraging support from Dwayne Bravo (12 from 12) and Smith (13 from 15) but, neither could partner him for a lengthy period. From a precarious 67 for 4, West Indies lost their last six wickets for 17 runs.The defeat is all the more concerning, not simply because the team they fielded was so much stronger, but for their brittle batting after a promising effort with the ball. Only Derbyshire’s captain, Simon Katich, with an industrious 31 from 28 balls, threatened to take the attack to West Indies’ bowlers, their spinners – Samuels and Gayle – taking three wickets in six overs between them. Chris Taylor, who ended unbeaten on 28 (from 25) also provided good support, but the restrictions West Indies imposed on Derbyshire’s first 10 overs hampered their progress.In the end, 135 was more than enough. Their next and final warm-up match, another Twenty20 against a PCA Masters XI on Tuesday, now takes on an even greater significance.David Moore, the West Indies coach, slammed the team’s batting performance after the game. “It is very disappointing,” Moore said. “We committed the cardinal sin to not bat our 20 overs out. We lost six wickets in four overs, played poor shots, it was very poor batting.”