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Gold League
Karachi Urban beat Rawalpindi by seven wickets on the final day of their Quaid-e-Azam Cricket Championship at Karachi to reach the top of the Gold League points table.Needing 110 runs for a win, Karachi Urban lost three wickets to reach the target in 26 overs. Agha Sabir, the Karachi Urban opener, made 44 and then Saeed Bin Nasir, who made 107 in Karachi Urban’s first-innings score of 506, finished it off with an unbeaten 29 off 30 balls.Rawalpindi, resuming at their overnight score of 63 for 2, were dismissed for 264 in their second innings. Awais Zia and Sohail Tanvir frustrated the Karachi Urban bowlers for some time with a 121-run stand for the seventh wicket after Rawalpindi had slumped to 127 for 6. Tanvir made 78 off 93 with 13 fours while Zia made 43.Tahir Khan, Karachi Urban’s offbreak bowler, followed his 5 for 112 in the first innings by getting 4 for 90 in 30 overs to finish with a match-haul of 9 for 202. Left-arm spinner Azam Hussain, a left-arm spinner, claimed 3 for 50 after taking 4 for 94 in the first.With their third win in four matches, Karachi Urban have raised their points tally to 24. Rawalpindi have slipped to the third spot behind defending champions Sialkot.Starting February 7 Karachi Urban will play Sialkot in their sixth round match at the Jinnah Stadium in Sialkot while Rawalpindi will play Lahore Shalimar at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.Defending champions Sialkot made a lunge towards the top of the table after they beat Lahore Shalimar by nine wickets at the Jinnah Stadium in Sialkot. Lahore Shalimar will be fighting to avoid relegation when they play Rawalpindi next.Lahore Shalimar, following on overnight at 198 for 3, were 16 runs behind Sialkot. They lost there last seven wickets for 59 runs with Mansoor Amjad, the 19-year old legbreak bowler who has been signed by Leicestershire for the 2007 season, taking 5 for 35 and Sarfraz Ahmed, a left-arm fast-medium bowler, taking 3 for 61.Sialkot scored the 44 needed to win in 10.1 overs losing one wicket in the process.Gaining the full nine points for the first time from their three wins in four matches, Sialkot now have a total of 21 points. They are now second behind Karachi Urban and pushing Rawalpindi to third place.Silver League
Quetta managed their only win of the tournament after they defeated Hyderabad by two wickets on the final day of their Silver League match at the Niaz Stadium in Hyderabad.Hyderabad set Quetta a target of 229 after being bowled out for 325 in their second innings.Umar Javed, Quetta’s No. 3 batsman, made an unbeaten 90, just missing out on his maiden first-class century, from 180 balls and hitting nine fours. He added 62 for the fifth wicket with Naseer Khan who made 36.Hyderabad still finish above Quetta in the Silver League table with an identical record of one win, three defeats and a draw from five matches with nine points.Abbottabad lost out on a place in the final after Lahore Ravi defeated them by 58 runs day at the Lahore City Cricket Association (LCCA) Ground.Lahore Ravi made 339 in their second innings after having conceded a first-innings lead of 152. Setting Abbottabad a target of 188, Lahore Ravi went on to bowl them out for 129 in 62 overs..Nasir Jalil, Abbottabad’s No. 9 batsman, top-scored for them with 28. Mohammad Bilal was the next highest with 26. Imran Ali got 4 for 54 to complete a match haul of 8 of 118 while Wahab Riaz followed his first innings 4 for 77 with 3 for 33 in 20 overs.Multan and Islamabad will now meet in the Silver League final after their match at the Diamond Club Ground in Islamabad ended in a draw with only 38 overs of play were possible due to inclement weather conditions.Multan were set a target of 644 and they ended the day at 127 for 5 – 512 runs short.Since Abbottabad were beaten by the Lahore Ravi and couldn’t add to their total of 12 points Multan retained their 21 and stayed at second position behind Islamabad. Having gained 36 from their first four matches, Islamabad earned three from the draw with Multan and ended with a total of 39.Multan were demoted from the Gold League after finishing at the bottom of the table last season. They are looking to return to the Gold League if they win the Silver League final to be played from February 7 to 11 at Gaddafi Stadium Lahore.

Cameron White has shown his promise as a legspinner and a hard-hitting batsman © Getty Images

Somerset have named Cameron White and Dan Cullen, the Australian spinners, as their two overseas players for 2006 and have also recruited Charl Willoughby, the South African left-arm seamer, from Leicestershire on the Kolpak ruling.White, 22, is captain of Victoria and has played five one-day internationals for Australia while Cullen, 21, from South Australia, is rated as the most promising offspinner in the country.Willoughby played for Leicestershire during 2005 but has been snapped up by Somerset to bolster their new-ball attack, which has been injury-prone over the last few years as Andrew Caddick and Richard Johnson have suffered under the workload.Brian Rose, the director of cricket, told somersetcountycc.co.uk that the club closely assessed which areas they needed to strengthen ahead of next season. “We looked at our strengths and weaknesses and decided that we have a potentially fine batting line-up with a lot of talented and improving young players.”We have had to plan for the possibility of Ian Blackwell being on England duty for part of the season. We also feel we have two good young wicketkeepers and I think most supporters would agree that what we lack is bowling strength.”It was therefore decided to try and give the captain a greater variety of options, which we have done by signing a left-arm seamer, a leg-spinner and an off-spinner.”Rose said that White and Cullen will bring an added dimension to the Somerset attack and that the club will benefit from two young players with plenty to prove. “Cameron White clearly has qualities of character to be captain of Victoria at such a young age. As well as being a talented leg-spinner, he can bat at five or six, with the potential to go even higher in the order.”Dan Cullen is developing into an excellent offspinner and has been highly recommended to us by people who know their cricket. Both he and Cameron will be desperate to impress ahead of the next Ashes series so we will be employing two very determined young players.”

Best’s back: Tino returns to action for Barbados© Getty Images

West Indies have received a boost ahead of their vital home series against South Africa, which gets underway at the end of the month, with the news that Tino Best in on his way back from injury.Best’s exuberant personality and impressive pace earned him recognition as one of West Indies’ brightest young prospects, was forced home early from their tour of England last summer, after pulling up with a back strain during the first Test at Lord’s.Initially it had been hoped he would return in time for Champions Trophy later in the year, which West Indies won, thrillingly, by two wickets in the semi-darkness at The Oval. But the problem proved more serious and he was forced to remodel his action, with the help of Wendell Coppin, a former Young Barbados and Young West Indies fast bowler, who is also the personal coach of Best’s Barbados and West Indies team-mate, Fidel Edwards.And now Best is back, with no reported loss of pace. He has been recalled to the Barbados squad in place of the emerging paceman Jason Bennett, ahead of the ninth round of the Carib Beer Series, in which they take on the leaders, Jamaica, in Kingston. Barbados certainly need Best’s services, as they are bottom of the six-team table. Barbados are further boosted by the return of Ian Bradshaw, the hero of the Champions Trophy, who has been on leave since the end of the VB Series.

Western Province extended their lead in the Standard Bank Cup with aconvincing win over Boland, while Easterns slipped back after Griqualand West pulled off a surprise win in Benoni.PointsTableWestern Province 272 for 3 (Gibbs 98, Smith 71, Johnson 61*) beatBoland 140 (Strydom 35, Willoughby 3-29, Henderson 3-27) by 130 runs.
ScorecardOnce Western Province had amassed 272 for 3 in their allotted 45 overs, Boland had little hope of taking the Standard Bank Cup champions to the wire. Bowled out for 140 in 37 overs Boland had lost the game in the field with the national openers, Graeme Smith (71) and Herschelle Gibbs (98), putting on 132 in 24.3 overs. Gibbs failed to reach his hundred when coming down the pitch and splicing the drive to point.Boland’s morle was mometarily boosted when they got rid of Jacques Kallis for three, but once Neil Johnson (61*) and Ashwell Prince (35*) got together, the runs flowed off the bat.For Western Province, Charl Willoughby and Claude Henderson picked up three wickets apiece.Griqualand West 194 for 7 (Bosman 68*, Bossenger 43, Nel 3-26) beatEasterns 191 (Hall 58, Kruis 3-30, Gidley 3-36) by 3 wickets.
ScorecardJoint leaders with Western Province at the start of the evening, Easterns slipped back by losing to Griqualand West in Benoni. Winning the toss and batting first, Easterns could only muster 191 for 9 when the overs ran out. A 59 from Andrew Hall and 30s from the two de Bruyns was never going to be enough.Deon Kruis and Martin Gidley were the destroyers-in-chief, each taking three wickets.Griqualand West, at 61 for 5, was in danger of being bowled out cheaply but thanks to an undefeated 68 from Loots Bosman and 43 from Wendell Bossenger, their captain, they managed to work their way to the target. In the end they won by three wickets. Andre Nel was in fine form for Easterns, taking 3 for 26 in his nine overs.

Indian advisor to their side at the ICC Under-19 World Cup Dilip Vengsarkar has taken a swipe at the organisation of the event and criticised the choice of New Zealand’s High Performance Centre at Lincoln University as the venue.Vengsarkar has also criticised the food arrangements for the Indian players, and he said one player Maninder Bisla lost about five kilograms and lived mostly on milk and fruit.Vengsarkar said the location of the event 20kms outside Christchurch made it difficult for teams to get into the central city for more ethnic dining, this being in spite of the fact that dining was available at the Lincoln township half a mile away from the University campus.Vengsarkar said the tournament should have been played at New Zealand’s major grounds.He missed the bus with his comments.The tournament was an age-group tournament and its location was assessed as ideal by the International Cricket Council.The fact remains also that the tournament would have been lost being played at New Zealand’s major grounds, because very few people would have turned up to watch.His complaints about food matters also preclude the efforts that were made to accommodate the requests of all 16 sides competing in the event.As for other complaints Vengsarkar also seems to have forgotten the advice that “when in Rome, do as the Romans do.” That is a fact of life in international cricket. That is why cricket is different in the various countries of the world. Everyone has its own flavour, and just as New Zealand teams adapt when going to India so other teams are expected to adapt when coming here.Tournament organiser Tim Murdoch said changes were made to the dining times for the Indian and Pakistan sides at their requests and there was a 90-minute window for all sides to have their meals.Murdoch said he did not know about Bisla’s problems with food but there were lots of food options available to all sides and many of the other teams had taken advantage of them.Murdoch said the Indian response had not been reflected by other sides in the evaluations that had been received on the running of the tournament.As far as the use of major grounds, Murdoch said this comment failed to appreciate that New Zealand’s domestic competition, the State Shield, was being played at the same time as the tournament and that the grounds would not have been available, nor would the organisers have had the staff to move around the various venues.”The ICC approved the grounds and felt they were entirely appropriate for the level of cricket being played,” he said.Vengsarkar also criticised the ICC for not dealing with throwing during the tournament.”Junaid Zia, their medium pacer, threw the ball blatantly while bowling and would have put Shoaib Akhtar to shame,” he said.Vengsarkar said Sri Lankan umpire Asoka de Silva had reported Pakistan fast bowler Junaid for throwing but had not heard how he should be treated.Murdoch said it had been agreed among the match officials before the tournament that players thought to have a suspect action would be reported under the accepted process and unless there was a blatant throwing episode, the players would not be called.He said Junaid had been reported from a couple of games and two others were also reported, a player from Nepal and one from Scotland.Murdoch had written to the ICC and alerted them over the reports.He said de Silva had been aware of the system before the tournament started.

Karnataka scored a comfortable 87 run win overminnows Goa in their Ranji One-Day encounter atChennai. On winning the toss, the Karnatakacaptain and opening batsman J Arun Kumar electedto bat first. A string of good scores from the topand middle order helped Karnataka make a solid260. Arun Kumar (58), GK Anil Kumar (59) andstumper Tilak Naidu’s unbeaten quick 54 made surethat there was little hope for the Goa side.When chasing the total that was large given thestrength of the Goa batting, they lost wickets atregular intervals. Skipper Praveen Amre made agood 50 in the middle of the innings but there wasno one to bat around him. Tamil Nadu importTanveer Jabbar lent a helping hand with 32, but itwas in vain. Karnataka seamer Dodda Ganesh scalped4/41 from his ten overs and Goa were all out for173. Karnataka gained two points from this match.

Scott Brown will ‘definitely’ return to Celtic ‘sooner or later’, talkSPORT pundit Gabriel Agbonlahor has said. 

The lowdown

The 36-year-old sits seventh on Celtic’s all-time appearance list with 620, having spent 14 years at the club between 2007 and 2021.

It was announced in March 2021, while John Kennedy was in interim charge of The Hoops, that Brown would leave Parkhead at the end of his contract and take on a player/coach role at Aberdeen.

However, a year later, he agreed to prematurely end his spell at Pittodrie and is now thought to be considering his options.

The latest

Agbonlahor has said that Brown would be a ‘perfect’ addition to Ange Postecoglou’s coaching staff, but cautioned that he may still want to continue playing for the time being.

The ex-Aston Villa striker told Football Insider: “Oh, it would be perfect to have him on the coaching staff. To have him on the bench with the manager would be perfect. But we don’t know what he’s thinking.

“He still might have a year or two left in him playing. But sooner or later he will definitely be back at Celtic.”

The verdict

There’s no doubt that Brown is a legend at Celtic. In addition to his lofty appearance tally, he boasts a mighty haul of 22 trophies from his time in Glasgow, including 10 Premiership titles.

It’s no surprise, then, that Ange Postecoglou said recently that ‘there will always be an open door here’ for Brown, who left a ‘massive legacy’ and ‘will go down as one of the greatest ever’.

The £540,000-rated midfielder may still have something to offer as a player, having started 23 league games for Aberdeen before his exit from Pittodrie. In those appearances, he averaged 3.3 accurate long balls, 1.8 clearances, 1.5 tackles and 1.5 interceptions.

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However, a report from Sky Sports suggested that he was looking ‘to focus his efforts on becoming a manager’.

Rather than working in the shadow of Postecoglou, perhaps he will hope to prove himself elsewhere and potentially earn a crack at the job when the Australian moves on from Parkhead.

In other news, this player was spotted at Lennoxtown in a potentially big development

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

	Virender Sehwag was in a murderous mood in Canberra © Getty Images

A 73-ball hundred from Virender Sehwag and a tempered 97 from Dinesh Karthik opened up a few batting options as the Indians warmed up against ACT XI in Canberra. In a match consigned to a draw a sixth successive failure for Yuvraj Singh, chipping a full toss to the covers, all but sealed his fate for the rest of the series.Sehwag and Karthik added 158 for the opening stand, allowing the Indians to declare at 4 for 281 in the tea break. The hosts, chasing an improbable 315, batted for 17 overs in the final session before deciding to settle for a draw at the start of the mandatory overs.Sehwag hammered 18 fours and two sixes during the course of his 113, one where a wayward attack paid the price in the face of a murderous batsman. Unlike in the first dig, he wasn’t in a mood to wait. He smashed three fours off left-arm seamer Ash Perera’s first over, rocking on to the back foot and smattering the off side hoardings. He was lucky on 16, when Richard Sherlock was slow to take off for a regulation catch at square leg, but made the most of his chance with a string of crisply-struck boundaries.The left-armer’s angle was meat and drink for Sehwag, moving back and slashing wildly, but the right-arm medium pacers proved sitting ducks as well. Adam Ritchard was spanked for 10 runs in his first over, coming after the drinks break, and Ryan Bulger, the legspinner, struggled in the face of the assault. Sehwag, who brought up his fifty in 38 balls, lofted Bulger for a six over extra cover but was lucky again on 92 when he was let off by the fielder at mid-on.He brought up his century with a flick through square, shuffling across and tucking Ritchard for four, and went ballistic soon after – slashing one through point and mowing a massive six over wide long-on. He fell trying to glide Mark Higgs’ left-arm spin, angling the ball into the wicketkeeper’s gloves.Karthik was forced to play second fiddle amid the carnage but managed a few fine strokes of his own. He was let off on 19, when wicketkeeper James Crosthwaite missed a thick edge off Bulger, but was more confident after lunch. He wasn’t afraid to pull, a shot that got him out in the first innings, and reeled off a few straight-drives that suggested he was rediscovering his groove. He fell three short of a century, trying to turn a full one from Bulger to the leg side but being trapped in front instead.Bulger soon had Wasim Jaffer, sent in at No. 3, poking at a legbreak outside off but it was the wicket of Yuvraj that would have worried the Indians the most. Offered a full toss outside off, he chipped to the covers and saw Jonathan Dean pull off a sensational catch diving to his right. Barring injuries, it could probably be his last chance before the one-day series.The game petered into a draw in the final stages. Pankaj Singh picked up his first wicket of the tour, adding one more before stumps, while Irfan Pathan did his chances no harm with the wicket of Chris Rogers, a batsman he could encounter in the third Test in Perth that starts in three days’ time.

‘If you take the national team we had a fear of going out and winning but it’s no more now. Our results in England and New Zealand prove that’ – Dharmadasa © Getty Images

Sri Lanka Cricket’s (SLC) interim committee administration under entrepreneur Jayantha Dharmadasa has been in office for nearly two years. Reviewing the work done by the interim committee in the past 21 months, Dharmadasa said he was happy the way things had gone. He said that along with head coach Tom Moody and the cricket committee, the interim committee members had got together and worked as a team with each individual doing his part.”Our interest has been the development of the game. We have put a system in place and whoever is administering cricket in this country the others should support them.”The results of our endeavours will be there in another year or two, not now. If you take the national team we had a fear of going out and winning but it’s no more now. Our results in England and New Zealand prove that. The team is performing very well. The team management and the players should take the full credit. They have done marvellously well. Even with Mahela, Marvan, Tharanga and Dilshan not scoring they are still winning,” said Dharmadasa.”We are eyeing the World Cup and all our planning and energies have been directed towards it. I hope we can win it,” he added.One of the major issues Dharmadasa had to tackle aftet the interim committee took over was to win back the confidence of the ICC which had been damaged by the action of a former SLC president. The latter had brought upon the ire of the ICC membership when he had voted against an extension for former ICC president Ishan Mani for another year when all the other nine full members had voted in favour.”When I went to the ICC meeting their director board did not have any trust or faith with Sri Lanka Cricket because one of our former presidents had gone and messed up our relationship with them,” said Dharmadasa.”With a lot of public relations work and good decision-making I have managed to get the ICC together and support us. Whatever we have asked for they have given. When the issue of hosting the 2011 World Cup came up, with all the problems in the country Sri Lanka was given a chance to host it. That shows that the ICC had the fullest confidence in Sri Lanka cricket and its administrators.”While fully supporting the nomination of the Indian board president Sharad Pawar as the next ICC president, Dharmadasa said that Sri Lanka would have a very good case of vying for the post should Pawar, who is reportedly not in the best of health, is unable to contest the elections in another two or three years. Percy Sonn succeeded Ishan Mani to the post in July last year and can remain uncontested for two years and even extend it to three if the ICC members agree.”It is too early for all these things to happen. We should not be talking about it now. I have raised this question at the ICC,” said Dharmadasa who is also Asian Cricket Council (ACC) president and member of the ICC Finance Committee..Speaking of Sri Lanka’s support for Pawar, Dharmadasa said: “Although Pawar is not a cricketer he is a top class administrator. I have worked with him at most ICC director board meetings and his decision making is first-class. He is the most suitable person to be the next president of the ICC. He is very powerful in India. When you are powerful in India you are powerful in rest of the world. As I see it there will be no contest for the presidency.” England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman David Morgan is the other candidate running for the post.

Peter Chingoka: announced self-imposed suspension © Getty Images

The interim board that is currently in charge of Zimbabwe cricket has chosen to suspend the national team from Test cricket until early next year.The decision, which was announced at a meeting in Harare on Wednesday, means that Zimbabwe’s two-Test tour of the Caribbean, scheduled for April and May, will now not take place, despite earlier assurances to the contrary from Peter Chingoka, the chairman.Given that Chingoka met with the ICC chairman and chief executive, Ehsan Mani and Malcolm Speed, last week, it is inconceivable that this course of action was not discussed. As was the case when Zimbabwe excused themselves from Test cricket in 2004, it is likely to have been done with the ICC’s blessing and been welcomed at their headquarters in Dubai.Though they are to sit out of Test cricket for the foreseeable future, Zimbabwe Cricket remains hopeful that the five-match one-day leg of their Caribbean tour will go ahead as planned. The news, however, will not go down well with the West Indies board who less than a week ago were assured by Chingoka the full tour was on.”While the side goes through the programme to prepare it adequately for the rigours of Test cricket, ZC has no doubt that the team will be competitive in its ODI commitments under the Future Tours Programme,” added Chingoka, who hoped that the team would resume its Test status on the tour to Sri Lanka in February 2007.According to a ZC press release, the decision to suspend its participation in Test matches was reached after consideration of the recent performances by the national and A teams. “The young teams remain full of potential and hopes abound for their development into a strong and competitive performer on the Test arena.”ZC is now putting in place a programme to galvanise the development of the Zimbabwe squads,” the release concluded. “It will work with other Test nations and the ICC itself to realise this objective.”