The most impressive part of England’s performance today was that they overcame a home disadvantage. Edgbaston, a ground renowned for its partisan English supporters, transformed itself into little India with large sections of blue dominating the stands. Conches, bugles, flags, banners … this was an away game for England in every sense.Ian Bell, a Warwickshire local, might have felt out of place. Here he was, striking the dangerous legspin of Piyush Chawla for a sensational straight hit – only to be greeted by lukewarm applause. Imagine his mortification when the Eric Hollies stand, a bastion of the Barmy Army, was resonating with . As if two Indian spinners causing problems wasn’t enough, England were made to feel as if they were in Mohali.Did it feel like a home away from home? “Possibly at times,” said Bell in what must go down as the under-statement of the series. “It was a great atmosphere to play cricket, in front of a packed house. Good Indian side and a full house it was really a nice feeling to get a Man of the Match at the home ground.” Bell is a soft-spoken chap but that must roughly translate to: ‘I was shocked’. But it felt great to knock the stuffing out of them. And his 79, two catches and a run-out was a big factor.England’s captain Paul Collingwood couldn’t have had it easy at the start. The medical staff had decided to “err on the side of caution” with respect to Andrew Flintoff and Dimitri Mascarenhas, the star of the show at Bristol, injured his thumb while warming up. Further, he lost the toss. But England have been inserted at Edgbaston before (remember the Ashes in 2005?) and responded in style. He ended the day comparing the performance to the one they had put in at the Rose Bowl, an effort which he termed “near perfect”.”The openers came in and gave us a good start and then the bowlers also delivered,” he said. “It did get difficult against spinners with the ball stopping a bit, but to get 280 [sic] was in itself incredible. We’ve scored almost 300 every time, which proves that we are improving.”

Chris Tremlett’s comeback illustrated England’s tenacious performance. After being pounded at Bristol (0 for 73) and carted around in his first spell here – leaking 20 in his first two overs – he returned to remove Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, the two most important wickets of the day.”You’ve seen today that he’s got the character to bounce back,” said Collingwood. “We have a lot of faith in him. He’s quite relaxed to be honest. He is quite laid-back and he showed it in the Test matches. He’s a huge guy bowling with a lot of aggression at times but got the important wickets.”Facing spin in the middle overs is a bugbear. Chawla arrived with his quiver of legbreaks, googlies and top-spinners and engineered the dismissal of the series, bamboozling Kevin Pietersen for the second match in a row. On a ground that has a stand named after Eric Hollies, and on a day when Donald Bradman was born, Chawla’s googlies did a lot of talking.Ramesh Powar must have broken a new barrier today when one of his deliveries clocked 42mph. It’s a surprise that India got through their overs in quick time, what with Powar’s lobs taking an age to get to the other end, but he troubled them with variation.So Bell is maturing with every match – Dravid spoke about how England’s decision to persevere with him at No. 3 was paying off – Chawla is growing in confidence and Collingwood is growing as a leader. Powar is no doubt growing. England are talking about injecting fearlessness into their bloodstream and India are talking of positives. Someone should tell them that using words like “inject” and “positives” in a span of a few minutes is not advisable.

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.

It was the perfect end to the perfect story.Sagicor University of the West Indies (UWI) ended their dream season on Saturday night by defeating Carib Carlton by six wickets to win the Sagicor General Super Cup. The result was their tenth consecutive win of the tournament and they maintained a 100% record this year.The climax came around 10 pm, as scores of elated students and supporters sprinted onto the 3Ws Oval to hoist Floyd Reifer in the air after they reached 234 for 6 off 48.2 overs. Reifer, 35, was brilliant with the bat hitting 78 not out off 82 balls to walk home to victory in the first day/night match at this level.He was edged out for the Man-Of-The-Match award by Nekoli Parris who made an accomplished 93 at No. 3 – adding 150 for the third wicket with Reifer – in the march to victory and the winner’s cheque of $10,000.”We came prepared for this and we planned it moment by moment. I was really up for this . . . I was in fighting mode and all the guys gave 100% and more,” Reifer told The Nation in the locker room as the night’s party got into full swing. “We batted well after the bowlers did a good job for us . . . This is special for the team and very special for me. We played unbeaten [in the Super Cup] this year and I rate this result very highly.”After limiting Carlton to 233 for 6 off 50 overs, UWI were never in trouble during their chase. Reifer joined Parris at 55 for 2 and together they dominated. Reifer crashed eight glorious fours and two towering sixes off 83 balls, while Parris – who would have caught the eye of Sir Garfield Sobers in the stands – showed his class with eight boundaries off 127 balls in three hours of entertainment.They came together after free-scoring left-hander Omar Phillips showed a blitz of brilliance with 30 from 57 balls – with a memorable whip over mid-wicket off Corey Collymore. “He (Parris) batted so well. He kept his cool and never looked under pressure. He just keeps getting better and is definitely one for the future,” Reifer said.Captain Shirley Clarke, a former Carlton skipper – made little contribution to the win making a single and going wicketless off eight overs – but said that winning the title was testimony to the hard work put in during the season. “We’re elated. We have only been in the competition [Division 1] for two years so we feel like true kings. We have worked hard and deserve our success. Thanks to everyone for their contribution,” Clarke said. “We thought we could restrict them for around 170 but they got away near the end and managed to get away from us a bit. It was the first time we were chasing under lights, but we were confident because we knew we had depth.”Carlton had a good start from skipper Dale Richards, who made 60 from 68 balls at the top of the innings, but in the middle overs they stalled. The innings had a rousing end as Carlo Morris hit two sixes in 61 not out from 78 balls. He added 26 for the sixth wicket with Marlon Graham (16) and then an unbroken 47 in the final five overs with Nikolai Charles (17 not out).

Jacob Martin, the Baroda batsman who also played 10 ODIs for India, has informed his association that he is ending his 16-year first-class career.”Martin was selected to go with the Baroda team, which left here [Baroda] today for Hyderabad, for the Ranji Trophy Super League division tie from November 23-26, but withdrew from the trip last night saying he is retiring from cricket,” a spokesperson from the Baroda Cricket Association told PTI on Tuesday.Martin, 35, was a prolific batsman in the domestic circuit, scoring 8563 runs at 48.10 from 127 matches, with 23 centuries and 44 half-centuries. In the 1998-99 domestic season, Martin made over 1000 runs, a feat accomplished by only five players before him, and a couple after.The national selectors took note of his performances and drafted Martin into the national one-day squad for the three-match against West Indies in Canada. But Martin could not mirror his domestic success in ODIs. He scored 158 runs at an average of 22.57 from 10 games with a highest score of 39 against Pakistan in the Carlton and United tri-series in Australia. Martin scored 36 in his last ODI, but could not prevent India’s 70-run loss to Kenya in Port Elizabeth on October 17, 2001.Martin shifted allegiance to Railways in the 2002-03 domestic season before returning to represent Baroda for four more seasons.

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.”

Rumours that Shane Bond is set to retire from international cricket have been floating around ever since he recently said that it was “frustrating” to keep getting injured.But Heath Mills, the New Zealand Cricket Players Association chief, tried to quash such rumours, insisting Bond was available for New Zealand. “At this stage Shane Bond is certainly available to play Test and one-day cricket, but I’m not in position to make any other comment at this stage,” Mills told the .Bond was unavailable for the Chappell-Hadlee Series and will also miss the entire series against Bangladesh due to an abdominal tear he suffered during New Zealand’s tour to South Africa. He hopes to recover in time for England’s visit in February.Reports hinting at his retirement were also fuelled by offers that Bond had received from the Indian Cricket League, which he decided not to join, and the Indian Premier League, which he expressed an interest in. Leanne McGoldrick, Bond’s agent, said he was in regular contact with Justin Vaughan, New Zealand Cricket’s chief executive. “When he [Shane] is ready to let everyone know what he is doing, then he will,” she said.

Less than 24 hours after Lord Malloch-Brown, the Foreign Office minister, told the House of Lords that the government would not bar Zimbabwe from playing in England in 2009, there were contradictory comments coming from inside Westminster.Malloch-Brown told the Lords that the final decision was with the ECB and “it is not for us to intervene directly in this matter”. That provoked an angry response from Kate Hoey, the former sports minister and chair of the parliamentary all-party committee on Zimbabwe, who told Cricinfo: “It does not seem to reflect the views of Downing Street earlier this year. It would be a travesty if we gave visas to any Zimbabwean cricket team to tour and I want to see the prime minister clarify the situation.”Within hours a source close to the prime minister reaffirmed the government’s stance on Zimbabwe. “We will not leave the ECB in the lurch and expect them to take the responsibility,” he was quoted as saying by The Times. “We will talk to them over the next few weeks over how this is done, but we are against it and the world will know we are against it.”Government sources looked to distance themselves from Malloch-Brown’s comments, insisting he was merely giving the letter-of-the-book foreign office position as opposed to the view held by Gordon Brown.If the government refused to allow the Zimbabwe side to tour in 2009 then the ECB will avoid being fined by the ICC as it will be something out of their control. However, it is increasingly likely that Zimbabwe will be allowed to take part in the ICC World Twenty20 later in the summer as barring Zimbabwe then would almost inevitably lead to the tournament being moved elsewhere.While there is no hurry for any decision regarding the 2009 series, the ECB will want a clear indication soon to allow it to make alternative arrangements.The ICC is also likely to ask for clarification whether Peter Chingoka, the Zimbabwe Cricket chairman, will be allowed to attend its annual meeting in London in June. He was refused a UK visa in October because of what government sources said was his close links to the Mugabe regime, and were he not to be allowed into London to attend the June get-together, it may mean that would also need to be moved to a country where he was welcome.

“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.

Scorecard

Wasim Jaffer and Ajinkya Rahane led West Zone’s strong reply to England Lions’ 355 on the second day at the Moti Bagh Stadium in Vadodara. West, needing an outright win to advance, ended the day on 187 for 1 with Jaffer and Rahane still unbeaten.Earlier, the Lions’ overnight batsmen, captain Michael Yardy (169) and nightwatchman Graham Onions (31) guided their side to a solid 322 for 4 before a dramatic collapse allowed West back into the game. The Saurashtra pair of Sandeep Jobanputra and Rakesh Dhurv shared five of the last six wickets to spark West’s fightback.Jobanputra accounted for the overnight pair; bowling Yardy and then removing Onions in his next over before wicketkeeper James Foster fell to Dhurv for a duck. Liam Plunkett swung his bat around for a 22-ball 19, scoring all the runs in a partnership with Adil Rashid, who ground out 9 off 55 deliveries.After the Lions innings folded, West’s reply got off to a poor start with Sahil Kukreja offering Foster a catch in the first over. There were no more successes for the Lions as the Mumbai pair of Jaffer and Rahane forged a 187-run partnership to keep West’s hopes of progressing still alive.Jaffer, who has been a regular Test opener for the Indian side over the past two years, ended the day on a patient 87, including thirteen boundaries while Rahane was a touch more aggressive, stroking 18 fours in his 93.With a strong batting line-up – including Parthiv Patel, Cheteshwar Pujara, the highest run-getter in the Ranji Trophy this season, and Yusuf Pathan, who slammed a whirlwind century in his previous game – to follow, West will fancy their chances of racking up a big first-innings score to pile the pressure on the Lions.

Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium will not be hosting any of the matches of the Indian Premier League after the league and Reliance Industries, owners of the city franchise, found unacceptable the conditions imposed by the Cricket Club of India (CCI), to whom the stadium belongs.The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) had enquired whether the CCI could stage matches at the Brabourne; the CCI’s executive committee decided to offer the ground but not the clubhouse and the club members’ children’s enclosure.These conditions were unacceptable to both the IPL and Reliance Industries Limited, the owners of the Mumbai franchise, since the agreement between the franchise and the IPL states that 80% of all categories of seating must be available to the franchise, and the remaining 20% to the concerned local association, in this case MCA, the BCCI, and the IPL.”If the [club] members are not able to watch the match, we won’t have it. It’s an inherent right of the CCI member to watch the match and not pay for it and this is mentioned in the by-laws of the club,” Raj Singh Dungarpur, the CCI president and former BCCI president, said. Hosting future international matches, he said, would not, however, be an issue.”There is no confrontation between us, our issue is that just the staging authority wouldn’t be able to watch the match and that’s not right. There is no misunderstanding and we will continue to host matches for the board [BCCI].”The move puts the MCA in a quandary, since the local associations are responsible for finalising the stadiums for the eight city-based franchises of the IPL. Mumbai is slated to host a total of ten matches, including the seven home games of the Mumbai Indians, and more importantly the semi-finals and final of the inaugural edition. The Brabourne Stadium had been tipped to host the semi-finals and final.However, with it being ruled out, the options left are the DY Patil Stadium and the Wankhede Stadium; renovation work scheduled for the latter may now have to be postponed till the end of the IPL.