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The annual central contracts for Indian cricketers were announced today, with the Board of Control for Cricket in India announcing a three-tier structure for 15 players.As expected Irfan Pathan was the only addition to the premier Group A category while Zaheer Khan, selected for the Pakistan tour, was demoted from Group B to Group C. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was given a central contract and was slotted in Group B while Parthiv Patel’s contract was not renewed. Ashish Nehra and Lakshmipathy Balaji, the former contracted players, were also ignored while Murali Kartik, who was not picked for the Pakistan tour, was retained in Group C. Gautam Gambhir was included in Group C, replacing Aakash Chopra from last year’s contract.At the moment the BCCI has allocated 26% of total profits towards payment of players’ salaries. Of this, 13% goes towards payments to the national team, while 13% goes to payments of domestic cricketers, cricketers who go on A-tours etc. It is expected that the premier slab A will fetch Rs 80 lakh to 1 crore (previously Rs 50 lakh), the second slab Rs 60-70 lakh (previously 35 lakh) and the last slab Rs 30-40 lakh (previously 20 lakh).Player contract detailsGroup A:Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan PathanGroup B:Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ajit AgarkarGroup C:Murali Kartik, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer khanLast season’s contractsGroup A:Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh.Group B:Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, Ashish Nehra, Ajit Agarkar, Lakshmipathy Balaji.Group C:Parthiv Patel, Aakash Chopra, Murali Kartik.

Beau Casson will enter the big time when he joins his new Australia team-mates at the national camp in Brisbane from Sunday. Casson, the left-arm wrist-spinner from New South Wales, was a surprise choice for the West Indies tour and will be trying to impress when the squad gets together.”I’m feeling a little anxious now, but I’m also excited about meeting the guys in camp and I’m probably lucky that I’ll have plenty of other New South Wales guys there to make me feel comfortable,” Casson told the Daily Telegraph. “I had a bit of a break, but the last few weeks have been good and I’ve upped the ante in terms of training and making sure everything is right.”Casson has been working with the opener Phil Jaques while some of their team-mates have been operating in the Indian Premier League. In a strong finish to the season, Casson scored 89 and took four wickets in the Pura Cup final victory on the way to earning a national spot next to Stuart MacGill.Following Brad Hogg’s retirement, MacGill will return for Australia after wrist and knee injuries cut short his 2007-08 campaign. He will be the No. 1 slow-bowling option in the three-Test series against West Indies, which starts in Jamaica on May 22. The team leaves Australia on May 9.

Saurabh Bandekar

Bandekar, a handy medium-pace bowler and batsman for Goa, has played 13 matches for India Under-19, including the 2006 World Cup in Sri Lanka. This speaks a lot for a player coming from Goa, hardly a feeder of talent for the national side. He started off as an opener for Goa U-14s, but has since slipped down the batting order. During his transition through the age groups to the senior Goa side, Bandekar improved on his bowling and now opens the bowling for his state. During the U-19 World Cup, his spell of 3 for 36 helped knock England out of the tournament.Last season, List A
Runs: 51, Ave: 17
Wickets: 6, Ave: 35.83Last season, Twenty20
Runs: 56, S/R: 71.79<br20-0-133-5

Swapnil Asnodkar

Battling amid the ruins that Goa normally find themselves in, the 23-year-old Asnodkar, Goa’s No. 3, has always been up against the odds. While analysing his stats – 1850 first-class runs at 37 – one must keep in mind the burden he has needed to shoulder in his six first-class seasons. He cracked 104 and 83 not out in last season’s Ranji one-day tournament, but it was his fiery run-a-ball 107, while opening for South Zone against East in the Deodhar Trophy, that made people take notice.Last season, List A
Runs: 470, Ave: 58.75Last season, Twenty20
Runs: 69, S/R: 116.94

Ajinkya Rahane

Rahane, an aggressive opener, is yet to play a Ranji Trophy match for Mumbai, but has already struck two centuries in his first two first-class games – against Karachi Urban in the Mohammad Nissar Trophy and against Rest of India in the Irani Trophy. In 2007, he had an impressive Under-19 tour to New Zealand, where he scored 358 at 71.6 in Tests and 144 at 48 in ODIs. He is rated highly in the Mumbai circles, and looks like one for the future for the state, if not higher.Last season, List A
Runs: 162, Ave: 54Last season, Twenty20
Runs: 120, S/R: 93.02

Arjun Yadav

Yadav first came across as a promising batsman coming through the age groups, but eight years since his first-class debut, the promise is yet to transform. Strong performances in age-group cricket had earned him a place in the Indian Under-19 team for the World Cup in 1999-2000, but he did not play a single match in India’s victory there. Since then he has been a fairly regular fixture in the Hyderabad team, and has been picked for zonal and India A squads. Over seven seasons of first-class cricket, he has managed an average of 28.51.Last season, List A
Runs: 210, Ave: 26.25Last season, Twenty20
Runs: 17, S/R: 77.27

Rakesh Dhurv

Dhurv has been one of the most consistent performers for Saurashtra over the years, and played a key role in his teams’ capturing of the Ranji Plate title two years ago. A steady left-arm spinner to begin with, Dhurv has worked hard on his batting and has become a useful No. 6. On a few occasions, he has narrowly missed making it to the West Zone side for the Duleep Trophy.Last season, List A
Wickets: 4, Ave: 35
Last season, Twenty20
15-0-94-3

India have a perfect record of the wrong kind at Port Elizabeth – three losses, including one to Kenya – and with a fracture having ruled out Rahul Dravid, they face an unenviable task in trying to stay alive in the one-day series at St. George Park on Wednesday. Virender Sehwag, who has not been one half the vice-captain that Dravid was for Sourav Ganguly, needs to start showing that he still belongs at this level, and India must hope that the responsibility of leading the side rouses him from the slumber that has characterised his one-day cricket for most of the past 18 months.With both Yuvraj Singh and Dravid missing, the middle-order batting looks as thin as the team sheet it’s written on, and the current crisis might necessitate Sachin Tendulkar dropping down to No.4 to lend the middle some ballast. In such a situation, Wasim Jaffer, whose one-day debut lasted all of three balls in Durban, will get another opportunity to play himself into limited-overs plans.There will also be a change on the bowling front, with the extra pace and swing option offered by Sreesanth edging out the more skiddy option that Ajit Agarkar provides. Zaheer Khan has come back a reformed individual, and with Munaf Patel likely to sit out the rest of the series with an ankle injury, he and Sreesanth will be asked to make early inroads into a South African batting line-up that has been as vulnerable against the moving ball in recent times. And though the dry pitch won’t be a raging turner, both Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh should play.South Africa have brought Ashwell Prince into the squad, and his inclusion in the middle order will see AB de Villiers move up to open with Graeme Smith. Smith has looked woefully out of sorts with the bat in recent games, but with the team winning, it will be Loots Bosman that sits out. They will also have to pick two of three from Andrew Hall, Charl Langeveldt and a fit-again Andre Nel, with Robin Peterson’s left-arm slowbowling unlikely to be risked against a line-up struggling so much against pace.It was at Port Elizabeth that South Africa embarked on a remarkable unbeaten run in February 2005, after a period where they had lost lost 12 of 13 games , with the lone win coming against Bangladesh. Smith’s 105 led the way that day as South Africa chased down 268, and Sehwag will need to deliver a performance of similarly epic proportions if India are to even get started in this series.TeamsSouth Africa (likely): 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Loots Bosman, 3Jacques Kallis, 4 Herschelle Gibbs, 5 Ashwell Prince, 6 Mark Boucher (wk),7 Justin Kemp, 8 Shaun Pollock, 9 Andre Nel, 10 Charl Langeveldt, 11Makhaya Ntini.India (likely): 1 Virender Sehwag (capt), Wasim Jaffer, 3 MohammadKaif, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Dinesh Karthik, 6 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), 7Irfan Pathan, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Anil Kumble, 11Sreesanth.

Alexander Downer, Australia’s foreign minister, said a visit to Zimbabwe by Australia’s cricketers would be “a propaganda victory” for Robert Mugabe. Downer said he would meet with Cricket Australia this week to discuss the tour, scheduled for September, but he believed the players should take a stand against Mugabe’s regime by boycotting the trip.”We can’t … formally ban them but I’ll be meeting with … Cricket Australia … during the course of this week and we’ll be having a series of discussions about how to manage this,” Downer said on the Perth radio station 6PR. “Normally I’m not a great fan of bringing politics into sport but in this particular case I think it is appropriate we should … take a very [tough] stand against Mugabe’s regime and do our best to stop the cricketers.”The government has already said it will pay any fine imposed by the ICC on CA if it cancels the tour, a stance reiterated by Downer. “But we haven’t reached that point yet and I need to talk through all the details of their contracts with them,” he said.”My view is that the tour shouldn’t go ahead and if it were to go ahead then Australia – which is after all the world championship team – would give Zimbabwe’s regime and its president, who has been the patron of Zimbabwe Cricket Association, a propaganda victory, a propaganda coup.”This is a horrific regime in Zimbabwe and we should take a stand against it, and included amongst those who should take a stand are our cricketers.” Ricky Ponting said last week each Australian player would be asked his opinion on whether the tour should go ahead.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Pakistan rode on a fluent 92 by Mohammad Hafeez and his breezy 87-run opening stand with Kamran Akmal to cruise to an emphatic seven-wicket win at Karachi and seal the series 3-1. On a flat batting track, West Indies only managed 238 despite a battling 101 from Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and they were made to pay for the lack of runs on the board, as Pakistan sailed home with 19 deliveries to spare.West Indies were coming off a convincing win themselves at Multan, but they carried none of that momentum into this match as Pakistan – bolstered by the return of Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mohammad Yousuf – dominated right from the start. Chanderpaul managed his fourth ODI century – and his first against Pakistan – but his knock consumed 142 deliveries, and the West Indian innings had little urgency till Brian Lara came to the crease and stroked a crisp 44, in the process becoming only the fifth batsman to get to 10,000 ODI runs.Pakistan’s bowlers, though, maintained a stranglehold on the scoring rate for most of the innings. Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, especially, was outstanding, nailing Chris Gayle right at the start – the fourth time Gayle fell to him in the series – and then returned with a swinging yorker at the end to dismiss Lara. He finished with well-deserved figures of 4 for 43, while Abdur Rehman, the promising left-arm spinner, had another impressive day, conceding just 39 from his ten overs for two wickets, including a peach to draw out and stump Marlon Samuels, West Indies’ hero at Multan.On a pitch which offered little pace, bounce or seam movement, the West Indian attack was woefully inadequate to curb the free-stroking Pakistan batsmen. Akmal’s 59-ball 56 offered the early impetus, as he creamed the short balls to the square boundaries and even struck a high full-toss from Daren Powell over square leg for six. Hafeez was relatively quiet, but he had his moments too – a straight six off a good-length ball from Powell was particularly spectacular.Reeling under the early onslaught, Lara delayed the third Powerplay till after Akmal fell, but that hardly helped matter, as Yasir Hameed joined the fun with a fluent 41. Hafeez, meanwhile, carried on in typically unhurried fashion, nurdling the singles and knocking off the odd boundary. Lara tried both pace and spin, but apart from Corey Collymore, none of them even managed to staunch the run-flow.Hameed fell to his own impetuosity when easy runs were there for the taking, but that only spurred Shoaib Malik to end things fast as he rushed to 34 from 36 balls. Hafeez lofted Gayle for a magnificent six to get into the 90s, but soon after fell to one from Dave Mohammed which kept low and beat his attempted pull. By then, though, the result was a foregone conclusion.

If Pakistan’s effort with the bat was impressive, then their bowling display was even better on a pitch which offered little assistance to bowlers. Almost all bowlers kept a tight control over line and length, bowled on one side of the wicket, and gave few scoring opportunities.The dominance started early, when Naved nailed Gayle with one that straightened after pitching on middle, trapping him plumb in front. Lendl Simmons started to get into his stride before chopping Mohammad Sami back onto his stumps, and when Samuels fell to a peach of a delivery from Rehman – it drifted in, then spun away, completely beating the batsman – West Indies were struggling at 104 for 4 in the 27th.On a pitch where 250 seemed to be the par score, West Indies were clearly behind the eight-ball, but Lara and Chanderpaul went about rectifying that. Lara had only managed 27 in his three previous innings in the series, but here he was at his purposeful best. After a slow start, where the intent was to knock the ball around for singles, Lara soon started using his feet against the spinners. Chanderpaul continued to turn the strike over, and the runs soon started coming at more than five an over. Lara’s footwork was at his best against Mohammad Hafeez, whom he tonked over cover for four, and Rehman. Naved, though, ensured that the innings remained only an entertaining cameo, as he slipped in an inswinger which crashed into the stumps off the pads.With Lara back in the hutch, the onus was on Chanderpaul to keep it going, but instead Pakistan’s bowlers seized on the opportunity to exert pressure. Chanderpaul himself was struggling with a leg injury which forced him to opt for a runner, and could only take the singles when boundaries were needed. With Naved bowling his swinging yorkers with outstanding accuracy, West Indies only managed 38 in the last six overs, and in the end the total they managed posed few problems for Pakistan.

Bangladesh, Pakistan and Kenya will get in their final bit of practice ahead of the Twenty20 World Championship in a four-nation tournament beginning in Nairobi tomorrow. Uganda will relish the opportunity to play against higher opposition and dip their fingers into the slam-bang form of the game that has grown in popularity.The tournament begins with Kenya taking on Bangladesh and Pakistan playing Uganda. The most anticipated match, between Bangladesh and Pakistan, is on September 2.Geoff Lawson, the former Australian fast bowler and current coach of Pakistan, sees the tournament as an opportunity to practice. “We can prepare strategies, try and find the right balances, work out plans and play any number of practice games but that can only take you so far,” Lawson said. “Until the first match happens, we won’t really know what to expect.”Pakistan, with big names that can attract the crowds in Nairobi, are easy favourites to lift the tournament because of their Twenty20 experience. Shoaib Malik, who recently said that the captaincy has made him stronger, Imran Nazir and Shahid Afridi are all big hitters of the cricket ball, and Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Akhtar are two exciting fast bowlers who form a lethal opening combination.Bangladesh, who have not played international cricket since late July, warmed up for the Twenty20 World Championship with a number of practice matches in Mirpur, near Dhaka. Mohammad Ashraful, the captain, hoped this tournament would offer much-needed exposure ahead of the bigger prize in South Africa.”It is good for us to play in this tournament since we expect the Kenyan conditions to be the same as in South Africa,” he told AFP. “We have not played many Twenty20 matches and this tournament will help gauge the playing abilities of the players.”Kenya struggled recently against the A sides of India and Sri Lanka and have little experience of the Twenty20 game. Uganda, led by Joel Olweny, have four Under-19 players – Roger Mukasa, Arthur Kyobe, Charles Waiswa and Ronald Ssemanda – and three new faces in Martin Ondeko, Kebba Nicholas and Jeremy Kibuuka-Musoke.The four-day competition will be completed when Pakistan face Kenya on September 4; two days later the teams – barring Uganda – fly to Johannesburg for the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has dismissed media reports that it was unhappy with Sunil Gavaskar and was planning to challenge his role as ICC’s head of Cricket Committee as “rubbish and baseless”.”We are neither making any report nor intend to make any report against Sunil Gavaskar. We respect and accept his decisions,” Abbas Zaidi, the PCB’s director board operations, told PTI from Lahore.The PCB was said to be very unhappy with the influence Gavaskar has over decisions, and this week’s appointment of Javagal Srinath as an ICC match referee ahead of any of the four individuals it nominated appears to have been the final straw. Pakistan’s rejected nominees were Colonel Naushad Ali, Talat Ali, Pervez Sajjad and Hasan Jameel.”It’s no secret that Pakistan is not very satisfied with the working of the former Indian captain as head of the committee playing and they feel the time has come now for a change at the head of this committee,” a PCB source was quoted as saying by The News.But Zaidi reiterated that the PCB doesn’t make these sorts of irresponsible statements. “These may be the views of one or two people, I don’t know, but the PCB has got nothing to do with these statements. We are an affiliated unit of the ICC and if we have any problems, we now how to address them. We don’t believe in issuing statements or maligning any office-bearer of the ICC, particularly of the stature of Gavaskar.”

The national selection committee announced a squad of 26 players to attend the third and final training and fitness camp to be held in Karachi. The camp, that runs from July 27 to August 6, will be supervised by Talat Ali with Haroon Rashid and Aaqib Javed serving as batting and bowling coaches respectively.Asim Kamal, thought by many as the perfect heir to Inzamam-ul-Haq, has been omitted from the third fitness camp even after being part of the 22 that took part in the second camp in Lahore. Five new faces, including fast bowler Mohammad Irshad, batsmen Shahid Yousuf, Khalid Latif, Khurram Manzoor and left-arm fast bowler Sohail Tanvir have been added to the squad for the Karachi camp.Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, a prolific performer for Pakistan during the absence of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, has been overlooked again for the camps. Naved, currently playing for Sussex, was neither named in the first two camps nor was he awarded a central contract.A 15-man squad for the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa will be named at the end of the camp. According to sources, Younis Khan, who is currently playing county cricket in England, is most likely to be selected in the 15-member squad despite not being included in the list of 26 probables. The selected squad would then attend the final phase of the camp at Gaddafi Stadium from August 19 to 26.Squad: Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Sami, Najaf Shah, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Irshad, Khurram Manzoor, Shoaib Akhtar, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Yousuf, Abdul Rehman, Mohammad Hafeez, Rao Iftikhar, Imran Farhat, Sohail Tanveer, Yasir Hameed, Naveed Latif, Shoaib Malik, Faisal Iqbal, Abdul Razzaq, Umer Gul, Kamran Akmal, Salman Butt, Shahid Yousuf, Misbah Ul Haq, Imran Nazir, Khalid Latif

A dramatic day at Newlands witnessed 18 wickets fall, but the bat finally dominated during the final session as the Cape Cobras took a firm grip against the Titans. The day began with Alfonso Thomas tearing through the Cape Cobras with a career-best 7 for 54 as the last six wickets fell for 40 runs. However, the Titans then collapsed in more spectacular fashion as they crumbled for 103 with Vernon Philander rushing through the tail with 4 for 6. But sanity prevailed as the Cape Cobras built on their first innings lead with Andrew Puttick striking a measured half-century and Herschelle Gibbs a boundary-studded 56.Matthew Harris hit his second hundred in two matches as the Lions gained a 104-run lead over the Warriors. The wicketkeeper came in at 161 for 4 and was last-man out after facing 143 balls. His hundred built on the solid work from Justin Ontong and Neil McKenzie, who added 130 for the third wicket, but it would not have been possible without the obdurate support of Gerhard de Bruin who made 16 in almost two hours. Harris and de Bruin added 90 after the Lions slipped to 226 for 8. Johan Botha, the offspinner, enhanced his international claims with four wickets as South Africa considers their spin bowling options for the tour of India.An impressive performance from the Dolphins’ top order put them on course for a sizeable lead against the Eagles. They already hold a 74 run advantage following Imraan Khan’s 118. His century was the major contribution while Hashim Amla and Dale Benkenstein also passed fifty. Benkenstein will aim to build on today’s work, ending the day unbeaten on 71. Nicky Boje kept a semblance of control on the scoring rate, toiling through 26 overs and claiming 2 for 55.