Dolphins offspinning allrounder Khaya Zondo’s bowling action has been cleared after an assessment was conducted at an ICC-accredited centre in Pretoria.Zondo, who was reported for a suspect bowling action in the semi-final of the Ram Slam competition between Dolphins and Cape Cobras in Durban on December 9, was required to submit an independent assessment of his bowling action in accordance with CSA regulations.The assessment which was conducted on December 17, revealed that all his deliveries were within the permitted 15-degree limit and therefore will be allowed to continue to bowl in domestic cricket.Zondo, whose primary role for his domestic franchise is with the bat, has taken 35 first-class wickets at an average of 34.11 with a best of 6 for 52, and also has 12 wickets in 64 T20s.
With a jaunty , Graeme Smith announced the arrival of South Africa in Pakistan for a short, sharp tour which takes in four cities, two Tests, two warm-up games and five one-day internationals in just over a month.Not that the tourists are likely to see much of the country anyway but security issues have hovered over the tour from the very start and Smith acknowledged, as he did before his departure, that being cooped up in hotels with little else to do would be as much a challenge as anything on the field. In 2005-06 Duncan Fletcher’s England side were unable to overcome similar problems, eventually losing both the Test and ODI series.”I’m not going to lie about it,” Smith said. “It’s different to how we live back home but its not the first time. Security issues are becoming a part of international sport and something we have come to terms with. It will be one of the challenges for us but the security provided to the team is fantastic. It allows us to focus on our cricket.”The cricket will not be of the kind they have been playing recently. South Africa and Pakistan played their last Test, against each other, in January this year and switching modes, in such little time, will not be easy.”Mentally it’s going to be tough to switch your mindset for the longer version, not only for us but also for Pakistan,” Smith said. “We haven’t played a Test for so many months now and it’s tough to play Test cricket on the subcontinent. Pakistan are formidable at home, so we have to be ready for that.”For focusing on the field, the composition of the 14-man squad couldn’t be better balanced: seven members of the side have toured Pakistan with the senior side before and seven others are making their first trip.The role of the seniors, Smith said, would be crucial: “We have some players with a lot of subcontinent experience now, and it’s important they help the young guys, especially in the bowling department, where we have some good new talent. The selection committee has given an opportunity to young players and we certainly feel that they can also play a role.”As they have done since their readmission into international cricket, South Africa will rely heavily on pace. Though the policy served them well in their early years in this region, the lack of spinning options has eventually told. South Africa have not won a series in the subcontinent – apart from beating Bangladesh – since 2000. Paul Harris’ tall, left-arm orthodox is the sole option and he bears a heavy responsibility.”You’ve got to have spin options available to select them,” Smith ruefully acknowledged. “But a big responsibility lies with Paul. He had a good debut and is a hungry guy. This will be a challenge to him. There will be tough times and also times when he will do well.”Two sides looking to improve their Test rankings, in the process of ensuring a smooth procession between older players and younger replacements, could come together to provide a stirring series.Mickey Arthur, South Africa’s coach, recognised the potential for a worthy battle. “We have a chance to blood a young team which could carry us for a couple of years to come. Pakistan might be in the same boat, we both want to get up in the rankings and that could make the series a thrilling one.”Smith is on the same page. “One thing I can predict is that this will be a tough series. There will be some very good cricket and a hard-fought battle.”With or without Shoaib Akhtar, as it happens. When asked whether facing a Shoaib-less Pakistan would be an advantage, Smith cheerily replied, “I don’t know, for us or for Pakistan?”South Africa play a three-day warm-up game against a Patron’s XI beginning tomorrow, before the first Test starts at the National Stadium on October 1.
Greg Chappell and Rahul Dravid have stressed that the Indian team should look at the forthcoming tour of South Africa as an opportunity to play good cricket and produce results, rather than worry about the recent losses or be overly concerned at the kind of conditions they will face on the tour.”I think most teams find it difficult when they go on to different surfaces,” said Chappell. “It will be a challenge for us, we have given it quite a bit of consideration. It’s an opportune time to have a challenge such as this given the development of the players. If we play as good as we can, we’ll make a very good series of it. Having said that, most of the senior guys know the conditions particularly well and had good success during the World Cup in 2003.””Adjusting to bounce is going to be critical,” said Dravid, who had personal success in South Africa. “As a batsman you’ve got to show patience, show a bit of courage. One’s character is going to be tested on the tour. It is a great opportunity to learn about yourself and your game.” Dravid added that it was sometimes better to be batting on pitcheswith bounce than on the slow, low wickets that you encounter in the subcontinent. “Rather than worry about seam or bounce I’d like to look at it this way. There are good wickets in South Africa. The pitches give you a chance to play your shots, the sort of shots you can’t play on low and slow wickets. You can trust the bounce. On slow, low tracks your back-foot game is completely ruled out. Here you have more scoring options.”Chappell also did not agree that India’s bad record in bilateral series in South Africa would have an impact on the team’s performance. “History is going to make no difference on this tour,” he said. “We hadn’t won a Test series in West Indies in 35 yearsand recently we went there and won a Test series. How you play on the tour is important. It’ll have nothing to do with what’s happened in the past.”Dravid and Chappell were both happy that Anil Kumble and Zaheer Khan, two experienced campaigners, had returned to the squad. “Anil brings a lot of experience and his obvious skill as a cricketer,” said Dravid. “But he also brings his personality to the mix and that’s important to us as a team. We’ve always had Anil at the back of our minds. It was only a question of bringing him back at the right time and in the lead-up to the World Cup. I think this is the right time.””I am impressed with what Zaheer has done,” said Chappell. “He has worked on his fitness and form and made his way back into the team. We have the variety in the bowling that we need to give us a chance to win in all conditions.”Dravid also said that he expected the spinners to play a role even in conditions that may not be ideally suited to them. “From experience I know that we’re not going to get square turners in South Africa. Having said that there’s always a bit of bounce in the wickets and this helps both Kumble and Harbhajan, given the kind of bowlers they are. They’re both quality spinners and can play a role on any kind of wickets.”Chappell and Dravid both said that the players had been given strict training routines to follow in the time since India were knocked out of the Champions Trophy after failing to reach the semifinals. The individuals also had a chance to go back to their homes and train with their domestic teams in the interim.
Simon Jones will be given more time to prove his fitness for this winter’s tour of Pakistan, even though he seems certain to be named in the touring squad when it is announced on Monday. Jones, 26, whose 18 wickets at 21 apiece were an invaluable contribution to England’s thrilling Ashes victory, was forced to miss the fifth Test at The Oval after developing a bone spur on his right ankle.According to a report in The Guardian, it is still unclear whether surgery will be required to sort out the anterior impingement, a problem very similar to the one caused Andrew Flintoff discomfort during last winter’s tour of South Africa. Like Jones, Flintoff underwent a course of anti-inflammatory tablets, injections and ice treatment to see him through the series, but eventually flew home after the fifth Test at Centurion for a successful operation.”With this kind of injury you have to be patient and wait,” Dr Peter Gregory, the England & Wales Cricket Board’s chief medical officer, told The Guardian. “What we weren’t able to do was give him a good rest because of his fitness test before the final Test. We will have a better idea at the end of next week. There is no definitive on whether to operate or not, it is not as simple as that. It is a pain thing and some people can get through better than others.”Duncan Fletcher, England’s coach, remains “optimistic” about Jones’ powers of recovery, although he admitted that his ability to reverse-swing the old ball would be of vital importance to England on an arduous tour of the sub-continent. “He will be key to us,” Fletcher said. “The wickets they produced last time we toured were for spinners. If they try to take us on with spin they have a huge problem now because it will play into our hands. If they prepare those dry wickets we can fight with reverse-swing.”
Sir Donald Bradman was indisputably the greatest player the game has ever seen. He broke nearly all of cricket’s records, and most of its rules as well, with a wonderfully unorthodox technique that suggested that his eyesight must have been second-to-none.In fact, that assumption could not have been further from the truth. Bradman’s vision was so faulty that he was invalided out of the Australian Army during the Second World War. Instead, he owed his success to other attributes – namely his supreme concentration, nimble footwork and natural talent.The talent was God-given, but the rest he had to work at – and most of that work was done in his own backyard as a small boy, where he used to practise for hours on end, using a cricket stump to hit a golf ball against a galvanised iron water tank.”To me, it was only fun,” Bradman later admitted, “but looking back, it was probably a concentrated exercise in accuracy and wonderful training for my eyesight. The golf ball came back pretty fast and I had very little time … to get into position for a shot.”The training paid the richest of dividends. Bradman retired from Test cricket in 1948 after a 20-year career, in which he had scored 6996 runs in 52 Tests, at an average of 99.94. No player – past, present or future – has, or ever will, come close to surpassing his achievements.
Michael Vaughan has insisted that he has enough steel to be a successful England captain after Ray Illingworth accused him of "captaincy by committee" during the team’s crushing innings defeat against South Africa at Lord’s.Vaughan told reporters, “I ain’t soft. I can’t be soft, I play international cricket and I’ve scored quite a few runs against good teams.” The Lord’s match was Vaughan’s first Test as captain, and he found his relaxed style of leadership, much praised during England’s victorious one-day series, under scrutiny. The heavy defeat prompted Illingworth, who led England to an Ashes victory in Australia in 1970-71, to question Vaughan’s leadership skills. But Vaughan replied: “I’ll do the job my way. I’m a relaxed player and I believe people play better when they are relaxed.”He also insisted he had no problem captaining Nasser Hussain. “Lord’s was difficult for everyone. He [Hussain] didn’t get many runs, he dropped an easy catch. Anyone would be down in the dumps. But he gave a couple of rollickings to some of the lads in the field during practice and that’s the Nasser Hussain I want in the England team. He’s a hell of a role model when he’s playing well.”Vaughan was positive that England could turn the series around: “We’re only 1-0 down with three to play. Here and Headingley [the venue for the fourth Test] are result wickets." And to prove that the deficit was not insurmountable, he cited England’s series win against South Africa in 1998 when they came back to win 2-1 after being 1-0 down.On the final XI to start tomorrow, he confirmed that Ed Smith would make his debut in place of Anthony McGrath and that Gareth Batty had been released from the squad. But he was more cagey about his seam-bowling line-up, revealing that only Andrew Flintoff was guaranteed a place. That leaves James Kirtley and Glen Chapple competing alongside James Anderson and Stephen Harmison for the final spots in a four-man pace attack.
Brian Lara, temporarily at least, silenced his vocal band of critics onTuesday with a superb century on his return to Test cricket in the firstTest against Sri Lanka at Galle.Lara, who pulled out of the West Indies tour to Zimbabwe and Kenya in Julyand August with a long-standing hamstring injury, scored an unbeaten 117 asthe West Indies piled up 316-3 on the opening day.There are always going to be critics," he admitted. "But I have got to goout there and do my job. The coach asked me what I want to do this seriesand I told him that I want to make plenty of runs and spend a lot of time inthe middle."Critics voiced concern over his inclusion in the squad for Sri Lanka when itwas revealed that he was still suffering from his hamstring injury.Moreover, they argued that the 32-year-old Trinidadian batting genius hadlong lost his hunger for runs.He, though, claims that the emergence of new West Indian batting talent hasprovided the stimulus to develop his game."The competition within the side is greater than what it has been in yearsgone by," he said. "The young players like Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan andDaren Ganga are special and batting with them brings out the best in me.""I have been working on a few things in the last six weeks since I returned.I am looking to play bit straighter and show the full face of the bat. It isnice to go out there, work on something, and get the results"Ominously for Sri Lanka, Lara, the record holder for the highest scores inboth Test and first class cricket, maintains that he is not yet finished inthis match: "I’m very happy now, but I am going to come back tomorrow andlook for something really big.""It’s a very good position but it is very important that the second inningsis not a very important innings. We need to get 500-600 runs and put SriLanka under pressure. We cannot allow them to get back into the game."Hopefully, the wicket will crumble, as we are now playing three spinners.The longer we stay out there the better."Lara came to the wicket at the fall of Daren Ganga, with the West Indianinnings evenly poised on 95-2, but quickly took the came away from Sri Lankawith a 150 ball century in a 145 run stand with Ramnaresh Sarwan and anunbeaten 76 run fourth wicket partnership.He was dropped on 31 and 93, but was only consistently troubled byoff-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who rolled out 40 overs of testing spin."Muralitharan is a very good bowler and it’s a great competition betweenus," he said. "I appreciate his ability to bowl off-spin. He is somethingspecial in world cricket.Lara looked to play him positively, right from the start when he got off themark with a fine sweep for four."I think you have to keep him thinking," he said. "He is going to keep youunder pressure if you just look to stay there, so I think you need to keepscoring."
Crystal Palace will be without midfielder James McArthur against Manchester City, football.london’s Mark Wyatt reports.
The Lowdown: Injury problems
McArthur, labelled as ‘undroppable’ by Dan Cook, missed 11 Premier League games earlier in the season but made a return last month against Brentford.
He appeared to be over his injury problems after featuring in four successive league games but was missing against Wolves last weekend.
The central midfielder, who is out of contract in the summer, has joined Joel Ward and Nathan Ferguson on the injury table, and a return on Monday evening isn’t on the cards for the Scot.
The Latest: Wyatt’s report
Wyatt shared a story for football.london on Thursday evening following Patrick Vieira’s press conference earlier in the day.
He claimed that McArthur, who played a key role in the win at the Etihad back in October, won’t be available at Selhurst Park.
The Verdict: Not ideal
Palace have lost just one of their last eight games in all competitions, half of which have been without McArthur, but not having him available isn’t ideal for Vieira.
He captained the side on numerous occasions earlier in the season, so his leadership qualities could have come in handy, even it was just being part of the match-day squad.
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However, Vieira will now have to rely on his other midfield options against Pep Guardiola’s side, as he looks to do the double over the defending champions.
In other news: Palace and John Textor now hit with off-field blow as news emerges.
18.1 Broad to Yuvraj Singh, SIX, that’s out the ground, super shot over cow corner and it just kept going up.18.2 Broad to Yuvraj Singh, SIX, now that really is sweet, no more than a dismissive flick off his legs, swatting a fly, and the ball arcs deep into the crowd beyond backward square leg. The dodgy TV measurement says that’s 111 yards but as it landed outside the ground how do they know? They guess that’s how.18.3 Broad to Yuvraj Singh, SIX, he’s hitting them everywhere, he steps to leg and smashes the ball over extra cover and it keeps on traveling. The fireworks start on top of the scoreboard and they’ve been going off in the middle for some time.18.4 Broad to Yuvraj Singh, SIX, Shiver me timbers! Broad goes round the wicket, bowls a filthy wide full toss and Yuvraj steers it over backward point and it clears the rope again.18.5 Broad to Yuvraj Singh, SIX, down on one knee and larruped over midwicket, that one was more nine iron, it went into the night sky and dropped with a thud in the jubilant crowd. England have a team meeting.Broad looks quizzical and miserable. Can he, can Yuvraj do it. Broad looks like a man who knows he is about to be mauled again.18.6 Broad to Yuvraj Singh, SIX, and he has, Yuvraj leans back and smacks that over wide mid-on. It was the maximum from the moment it left that bat and the crowd was roaring as it flew.
England’s chances of retaining the Ashes later this year depend largely on the performance of their strike bowler Steve Harmison, feels Ian Chappell, the former Australian captain, now a leading television commentator. England defend the Ashes they won at home last year against Australia in the first of five Tests in Brisbane, starting on November 23.”So much depends on how Steve Harmison bowls. It may be a reason why they gave Andrew Flintoff the captaincy – apparently he’s very matey with Harmison,” Chappell told . “Some of the stuff I saw from him against Pakistan (in the recent Test series) was absolute crap. But if he bowls as well as he can, England will be right in it.”Chappell said England’s decision to opt for Flintoff as captain over Andrew Strauss has reflected a change in attitude with England, Australia’s traditional rivals.”They could have gone the safe route and made Strauss captain. But they won the Ashes by taking the aggressive route and picking someone like Kevin Pietersen. Logic says that to retain the Ashes, they’ve got to keep taking risks and they’ve done that by making Flintoff captain.”Chappell felt it also makes sense that Flintoff was preferred as captain as he understands the tactical side of bowling better than opening batsman Strauss.”What does a captain do with batting? He basically just picks the order. The important side is out on the field. Who better to understand bowling than a bowler? There haven’t been many bowling captains and that’s probably been a mistake. There’s no reason why Flintoff can’t do it. The danger is that he’s coming back from a serious injury and needs to find his form as a bowler. He might overbowl himself in a bid to lift the team.”They’ll miss Michael Vaughan’s captaincy but Flintoff is a bit of a Shane Warne: he loves competing. When the heat’s on, Flintoff will want to bowl, but he can’t do it all the time. That’s when Strauss will have to know when to step in and say, ‘Not now, save it for later’. If everything goes right for England, it will be very competitive. But it could easily turn bad for them.”