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Lights out in BangaloreThe Bangalore Royal Challengers’ home match against the Deccan Chargers yesterday was interrupted for close to six minutes when the lights on the western tower of the Chinnaswamy Stadium went off. But the situation was quickly resolved and the game resumed. According to a report in the , the Karnataka State Cricket Association has only about 500 replacement bulbs left, since the company that used to provide them, has closed.Yousuf’s wait continuesMohammad Yousuf will continue to be barred from the IPL after the arbiter hearing the case filed against him by the Indian Cricket League, filed an interim order to that effect. Hitesh Jain, the ICL’s lawyer, said that arbiter’s final order is expected in July. With his IPL hopes in limbo, Yousuf has signed with Lancashire as a short-term replacement for Brad Hodge, who has joined the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Ian Healy, the former Australian wicketkeeper, believes Adam Gilchrist’s lean batting run is an aberration but he will need to fight his way early into his innings in the Ashes series with England.Gilchrist gave a timely reminder of his devastating strokeplay with a whirlwind 63-ball hundred – 131 with 17 fours and four sixes – in Western Australia’s domestic one-day cup win over Queensland in Perth on Friday. Since the 2005 Ashes loss in England – a series in which Gilchrist made minimal impact as a batsman for the first time in his Test career – he has averaged 28.88 in 12 Tests, almost half his career level of 48.80.The English bowlers exposed a flaw in his batting technique by attacking him from around the wicket and bowling marginally short of a length with little width for Gilchrist to play his prolific run-scoring shots. Cramped for room and with the added problem of the ball swinging, Gilchrist found himself regularly chopping the ball on to his stumps or edging into the slips.But Healy sees nothing new in the English strategy and is in no doubt Gilchrist’s lean run is a one-off. “They have bowled at him like that for his whole career,” Healy told newspaper on Saturday. “Right from the start, opposition bowlers have tried to go around the wicket and cramp him for room around off-stump. He’s dealt with that for seven years, and he’s got the ability to counteract it. He just needs to get in and watch the ball intently. Maybe at the moment he does have to fight his way through that initial 20-ball or 20-run barrier. And it’s obviously better if he keeps the ball along the ground during that period.”In 12 Tests since the Ashes changed hands at The Oval, Gilchrist has batted 17 times and has been dismissed for 12 runs or fewer on 11 of those occasions having faced no more than four overs on each of those ill-fated trips to the crease. That constitutes 65 percent of his Test innings over that time. Before, he failed to reach 12 in just 28 percent of his trips to the middle.Gilchrist admitted that his recent Test-form has not been great but expressed confidence that he can “deliver whatever the team needs”. “The keeping feels fantastic, but the batting, I haven’t got the results in recent Test cricket,” Gilchrist told AAP. “Two Tests ago I got one of the best hundreds I have ever scored, which will forever and a day live in an unnoticed packet because it was Bangladesh in Bangladesh.”History won’t show how difficult that game was. But as a general rule, my results haven’t been there, and that has been a little bit frustrating. But … I am sure I can deliver whatever the team needs, when we need it. Whether that means living up to the results and statistics I have got before I am not sure. I am still certain I can deliver what the team requires.”And even though Gilchrist turned 35 last week, Healy does not subscribe to the theory that, when the years advance, it is a keeper’s batting acumen that deserts him before his glovework. Healy said that in the final year of his career (from age 34 onwards) he felt his batting skills were undiminished at training, but he just couldn’t pull it together in the middle and he failed to reach 20 in his final 16 Test innings.Ricky Ponting has no such misgivings about the form of Gilchrist. “I get asked these questions a lot about some of the senior players in the side, and it’s never a concern of mine,” he said. “I don’t need to worry about those blokes. It’s like when I get asked about [Glenn] McGrath or [Shane] Warne, or how [Matthew] Hayden is batting. They’ll be fine. They’ll sort it out because they have been too good for too long not to.”

Kiran More, India’s chairman of selectors, categorically said that it was premature to say whether Sachin Tendulkar would be available or not for the four-Test series against West Indies.”It’s too early to say anything on Sachin’s fitness,” More told repoters in Mumbai. “It’s for team physio John Gloster and Sachin to judge. He’s already started light workouts. His cricketing ability is not in doubt and we will give him the opportunity to test his fitness. But I cannot say more.”Tendulkar is recuperating from a shoulder operation he underwent towards the end of May and was not available for the five-match ODI series in the Caribbean starting on May 18.More said, “I am constantly being updated about his progress by Gloster, every two days. I hope to get a report by the 20th or 21st of this month before we sit to choose the Test team, in all likelihood on the 22nd before the third ODI [at St Kitts on May 23].”Wasim Jaffer is also making good progress. Ashish Nehra has started bowling, I am told, while L Balaji is also on the way back to fitness. All in all it’s a good sign, with Zaheer Khan also playing in England.”More said ideally the selectors were looking towards a pool of eight to nine fast bowlers to cope with the cricket in store for the senior team. More was also happy that the Indian board has decided to have constant A team tours as well.”We need to have backups for each fast bowler. The ideal way is to get an A tour on when the India team is playing a series so that whenever a replacement is needed for some reason the available player is match-fit and ready to step in like it was the case with England.”More was referring to opener Alastair Cook and fast bowler James Anderson stepping in straight from an A team tour in the West Indies to fill in the gap left by the absence of key players when England visited India recently.”I was happy to see the way the A team performed in Abu Dhabi”, he added. “The youngsters are really coming up. They could have done well in the final. They could not finish off a fine tournament, but overall I am very happy with the way the youngsters performed.”More indicated that a second wicketkeeper is expected to be chosen for the Test series in addition to first choice Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He said that though the team had performed exceptionally well in one-day cricket, a lot of work remained to be done before the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies next year to make India a formidable outfit.

Kyle Mills, the New Zealand seamer, has been ruled out for up to 12 months with a knee tendon problem which requires surgery.He was a late call-up to New Zealand’s squad in Australia and played just one match, taking 1 for 72 at Perth against the hosts. However, his injury prevented him taking the field again as New Zealand missed out on a place in the finals.Mills has been unable to sleep for the past week and painkillers have been ineffective so going under the knife is the only option. “He’ll have an operation as soon as possible on a patella tendon,” John Bracewell, New Zealand’s coach, said as the team arrived back at Auckland airport.”It’s devastating news, really – both for Kyle and the team, and also for what’s been a two-year programme to build him into one of the leading bowlers in world cricket.””It’s been a hard decision for him but he says he’s only going to let down the team if he tries to struggle through the World Cup and can only play every so often.”Bracwell added that a replacement, who will play in the Chappell-Hadlee series which starts on February 16, will be named after consultation with Sir Richard Hadlee in his role as selection advisor.

It was a depressing end to a superb innings. As Alastair Cook trudged despairingly from the crease after recording his maiden Ashes century, he was so crestfallen he could barely raise his bat to acknowledge a deserved standing ovation. He was seen in the dressing-room being consoled and congratulated in equal measure by his team-mates, and afterwards he admitted to mixed feelings about what he proclaimed to be the finest innings of his fledgling Test career.”I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t get that nagging feeling I could be walking out to get a bigger one and get us closer to the target,” said Cook at the close. His departure, caught behind off Glenn McGrath with just 16 balls of the day’s play remaining, turned a day of genuine hope for England into another one of grim resignation. With just five wickets remaining and an entire day to survive, Australia seem certain to regain the Ashes by the close of play tomorrow.Even so, Cook can and should be immensely proud of yet another performance that belied his tender years. This was his fourth Test century in 12 matches, an achievement that brackets him alongside Sunil Gavaskar, Graeme Pollock and Vinod Kambli – all of whom made that many hundreds before their 22nd birthday. “I think it helps being 21,” he said of the way he survived yet another intensely humid day, batting for six-and-a-half hours and 290 balls for a nuggety 116.”I’ve felt in quite good nick throughout the series but I haven’t got a score,” said Cook, whose highest to date had been 43 in the second innings at the Gabba. “It’s been frustrating to keep making starts but if someone had offered me a hundred, I’d have taken it, especially against Australia in Australia on a turning wicket. But it would be nice if I was not out this evening, and could come back tomorrow and get an even bigger one.”Quite apart from the effort that he showed, his composure at the crease was the most striking feature of his innings. “Lessons had been learnt from Adelaide,” he admitted, as he and Ian Bell – who greeted Shane Warne with two sweetly struck sixes – made a concerted effort to stay positive in the face of huge Australian pressure. “We had a change of mentality,” Cook said. “The balls come on a bit better here and it’s easier to score runs, which was hard at Adelaide.

“We stuck to our gameplans and tried not to get overawed by the situation,” he continued, after the pair had added 170 for the second wicket in a partnership that lasted for 56 overs. “Playing Australia in Australia is quite tough. You’ve got guys with 700 and 500 Test wickets coming at you at two ends, so you are made to work for every run.”That hard work was exacerbated by another typically theatrical performance from Warne, whose appealing was insistent and at times excessive, as he toiled through 31 overs for figures of 1 for 100. “He’s always a bit unlucky isn’t he?” joked Cook. “There was a bit of banter, but that’s just the way the Aussies play their cricket. They play it tough but if someone does well they congratulate them. They’ve been very good like that.” Sure enough, Cook was shaken by the hand by Warne when he notched up his hundred.Though he was still disappointed by his late dismissal, Cook still held out hopes of the draw, an achievement that South Africa managed in similar circumstances last year at the WACA. “It would be nice if we were still three-down, but we’re still in there fighting hard,” he said. “I think the pitch will hold up, because there’s only a couple of balls that did anything all day. One to KP didn’t bounce and a couple have gone through the top, so we hope it’ll stay together.”Unfortunately those last two wickets set us back a bit, but there’s a lot of fight in here. KP and Freddie don’t hang around, so who knows what can happen if we get through the first hour, first session, like we did this morning. Some people are due some runs, and hopefully they can perform tomorrow.”

The success of Glenn McGrath’s international return over the next two months will have a strong impact on who bats at No. 6 in the first Ashes Test, according to Ricky Ponting. McGrath leaves this week for his first action since withdrawing from the team in January with the team balance for the England series hinging on his lanky shoulders.If McGrath, 36, stutters through the Malaysian tri-series and the Champions Trophy Australia will seriously consider using the allrounder Shane Watson at No. 6 instead of the batting specialist Michael Clarke. With almost three months until the start of Ashes it seems to be the only position in question, although injuries and the form of McGrath after his wife’s battle with cancer will also be factors.”I don’t think there’s any doubt [a fifth bowling option] would help,” Ponting said in the Sydney Morning Herald. “We probably felt coming back from the last Ashes series that at times we were a bowler down, or that it would have been nice to have someone else to go to with the ball through that series.”I think that a lot of that No. 6 position could come down to how Glenn’s going at the time. If we’ve got Glenn, Brett [Lee], probably Stuey Clark and [Shane] Warney all bowling well, then there mightn’t be a greater need for another, unless it’s me or Damien Martyn rolling our arm over, but hopefully that doesn’t happen. It all depends on how Glenn comes along.”The Ashes lead-up will also include at least one Pura Cup game for every player – it could be more with an early exit at the Champions Trophy – and Ponting said the series would be thought about in Malaysia and India. “I don’t think one-day form as such counts for a lot as far as Test form goes, but if you’re out in the middle, hitting balls and scoring runs – or taking wickets and bowling the ball where you want to – it doesn’t matter what form of the game you are playing,” he told . “You can feel like you’ve got your game in pretty good order.”Ponting told the he still had aches and pains from the pre-season camp but said it was a huge success despite a knee injury to Stuart MacGill. “The one downside was that there might have been a couple of little niggles from it,” he told the paper. “Hopefully we can all get over that. The team is a lot closer and stronger now than it’s been for a long time as a result of that camp.”

ScorecardJake Carder pulls during his 58•Cricket Australia

Cricket Australia XI’s top order all chipped in with handy knocks, helping the team secure the lead against West Indians on the second day of the tour match in Brisbane.West Indians, who began the day precariously placed at 154 for 6, were led by Carlos Brathwaite’s patient 47, but received little by way of support from the other players, as the team eventually folded for 243. Medium-pacer Simon Milenko was the pick of the hosts’ bowlers, collecting 5 for 76, while James Bazley and Cameron Boyce shared two scalps apiece.CA XI began their reply positively, as the openers Jordan Silk and Jake Carder shared a 68-run partnership. Carder was the more aggressive foil of the two, stroking 58 off 77 balls, but both batsmen fell in quick succession of each other. The hosts, though, did not lose any momentum, as Nick Stevens (46) and Josh Inglis (44) kept the runs flowing by stringing together an 86-run partnership. Once again, CA XI lost two quick wickets, but once again, the visitors failed to make the most of their breakthroughs, as Jimmy Peirson and Matthew Short put up an unbroken stand of 52 to grab the lead. CA XI were 4 for 245 when stumps were called, leading by two runs.

Scorecard
Sri Lanka A completed another victory against Zimbabwe Select to end the series 3-0, beating them by 31 runs. The Zimbabweans were strongly placed in the chase of 264, with Vusi Sibanda and Chamu Chibabha taking them to 148 for 2 inside the first 30 overs, but when they both fell with 198 on the board, the rest of the innings fell away as Rangana Herath and Dilruwa Perera swept up.All of the Sri Lankans’ top five made decent starts, with Mahela Udawatte and Perera putting on an opening stand of 74. Once Gary Brent had removed Udawatte for 21, the home side took wickets at steady intervals. It was the first of four wickets for Brent, the most successful bowler, while there were two each for Chibhabha and Elton Chigumbura.Thilina Kandamby led them with 62, and he and Dammika Prasad (28) gave them a late boost with 74 for the seventh wicket to take them to 264, which proved the difference as Sri Lanka A signed off their tour on a high note.

The West Indies selectors today named the replacements for the West Indies B team, as well as a new captain and vice captain for the remainder of the Carib Beer Series.Shawn Findlay, from Jamaica, Austin Richards, Jr, from the Leeward Islands, and Patrick Brown and Ryan Austin from Barbados, are the four replacements. They come in for Denesh Ramdin, Lendl Simmons, Assad Fudadin and Mervin Matthew for the match against the Leeward Islands in Nevis, on January 23, 2004.Meanwhile, Jason Haynes has been named to take over the captaincy from Ramdin, who will be playing in the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh. Haynes’s deputy will be Jason Bennett.The West Indies B team, fresh from their win over Kenya in the Carib Beer Cup, face Trinidad this weekend.

The ECB has blocked Ian Harvey from playing as a non-overseas player because of a delay in the paperwork relating to his British Citizenship. His application is currently with the Home Office and legally he doesn’t qualify until the final documents have been completed.During the opening weeks of the season Harvey has been covering for the injured Travis Birt at Derbyshire, but now that Birt is ready to play Harvey will have to stand down until he is officially cleared. However, there was a similar situation with Ottis Gibson in 2004 when he was trying to join Leicestershire and the ECB allowed him to play despite his papers being stuck at the Home Office.Tom Sears, the Derbyshire chief executive, told the club website: “We are extremely disappointed with the ECB’s stance on this issue. Ian has played in this country since 1999, his wife is a British citizen, he has met all the criteria to qualify for British citizenship and completed the required fours years of residency.”He submitted his application for citizenship at the earliest opportunity but the ECB is still not allowing him to play even though they have in a previous case.”The ECB has said that Gibson had to wait longer than Harvey which is why his case was treated differently but Derbyshire are not happy with what they see as double standards.”The Home Office have said that Ian is entitled to live and work in this country but the ECB are saying he can only play as one of our two overseas players until he gets his citizenship.”The question I have asked of the ECB is if they can impose a limit on players given indefinite leave to remain, why can they not do the same with EU or Kolpak players? All these players have been told they have the right to work on this country but we can set limits on some and not others? It needs clarifying and sorting out quickly.”The club have said they will not be offering a legal challenge to the decision, which means that Harvey will remain on the sidelines for the near future. He has been in impressive form during early season with two centuries in the County Championship, where he currently averages 144.