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The 50th edition of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Pakistan’s premier domestic competition gets underway today, with 22 teams, comprising nine departments and 13 regions, in the fray.Eight matches will be played today, with the key clashes being the Group A match between Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and Pakistan Customs, and the Group B match between Karachi Blues and Rawalpindi.The two matches in Karachi have been postponed to tomorrow in light of the bomb blasts on Thursday (October 18) which killed approximately 140 people and injured hundreds.Two teams from the Gas departments, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (SNGPL), and Sui Southern Gas Company Ltd (SSGC), will be making their debuts at the top-grade. SSGC qualified for the first-class circuit after winning the Patron’s Trophy Grade-II Championship title last season.Meanwhile, Pakistan Customs has included three overseas players in its squad- Rawait Khan, Bilal Shafayat, and Mohammad Nabi Khan, who plays for Derbyshire, has represented Customs in three consecutive seasons from 2002-03. Shayafat, an allrounder with Northamptonshire, had played for National Bank in the 2002-03 season. Nabi is a 22-year-old middle-order batsman and offspinner, who made his first-class debut for MCC against Sri Lanka A earlier this year. However, he has played in Pakistan before, representing Afghanistan in the National Inter-District Senior Championship.A total of 55 matches will be contested prior to the final, which will be played between January 1 to 5, though the venue hasn’t yet been confirmed.Group A
HBL, Pakistan Customs, Lahore Ravi, The Water and Power Development Authority , Sialkot, NBP, Faisalabad, Multan, Karachi Whites, Hyderabad and SSGC.
Group B
Khan Research Laboratories, Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited, Pakistan International Airlines, SNGPL, Karachi Blues, Rawalpindi, Lahore Shalimar, Peshawar, Islamabad, Abbottabad and Quetta.

New South Wales 288 and 8 for 135 (Clark 62, Thornely 47*, Tait 4-46) beat South Australia 154 and 267 (Cosgrove 94, Borgas 72, Clark 6-39) by 2 wickets
Scorecard

An outstanding all-round display by Stuart Clark allowed New South Wales to sneak home by two wickets in a thrilling Pura Cup match against South Australia at Adelaide. Clark’s 6 for 39 first helped restrict the Redbacks to just 267 in their second innings, while his whirlwind 62 off 37 balls took the Blues home after they had stumbled to an unbelievable 5 for 12 chasing a target of 134.New South Wales would have expected to canter home after their fine performance in the field, but they were in for a rude shock as four wickets went down in the first two overs. Shaun Tait, who picked up his second four-wicket haul of the match, started the slide by trapping Phil Jaques and Ed Cowan in front in his first over, while Jason Gillespie repeated the dose, dismissing Greg Mail and Brad Haddin off successive balls. All four batsmen made ducks, and when Tait nailed Beau Casson soon after, the Blues had lost half their side with a paltry 12 runs on the board. Dominic Thornely and Aaron O’Brien then added 34 for the sixth wicket before Tait struck again, dismissing O’Brien to have New South Wales reeling at 6 for 46.Clark, with a first-class average of 13.45 and a highest of 35 before this game, then decided to make this match his own, crashing four sixes and three fours in an astonishing blitz that turned the game around. He finally fell to Cullen Bailey, who also dismissed Matthew Nicholson to leave the Redbacks within two wickets of a stunning win, but Thornely held his nerve and finally ended the match in style, smashing Tait for a six to seal the victory.Clark had earlier starred with the ball too, as South Australia failed in their attempt to set a huge fourth-innings target. A mammoth 165-run third-wicket stand between Mark Cosgrove (94) and Cameron Borgas (72) had them well placed at 2 for 178, but the rest of the batting folded meekly, with only Callum Ferguson (39) providing some resistance. After dismissing both openers yesterday, Clark got rid of Ferguson and then took care of the tail to finish with a six-wicket haul. That should have ensured an easy win for the Blues, but in the end it required him to put forth his best first-class batting performance for the Blues to sneak through.

James Hopes has become the second young talent of Australian cricket to praise Bennett King, who will coach West Indies in the three-Test series starting at Brisbane next week. Shane Watson raved this week about King’s work that helped rebuild his game following stress fractures, and Hopes, who made his one-day international debut this year, has also credited him with reviving his fortunes.King, the former Queensland coach, told Hopes he would need to lift his effort to be a successful player and the chat pushed him towards the ING Cup Player of the Year award last summer and into the national team. “Kingy really showed me what was required to make the next step and put it down plain in front of me what I needed to do if I wanted to make it as a cricketer,” Hopes told .”My results over the past 18 months have been long overdue from a personal viewpoint. Most of it can probably be put down to the fact it took me quite a while to realise that as an allrounder I couldn’t afford to let any part of my game slip. I couldn’t cut corners.”Hopes will be on the opposite side to King tomorrow when he starts the four-day tour match for Queensland at Allan Border Field. West Indies are currently ranked third-last on the ICC Test table, but Hopes said King was the ideal man to lift the side. “Bennett is among the best coaches in the world,” he said. “They have some world-class players and some remarkable talent coming through, it’s just a case of being patient. They’ve had stability problems in the side for the past few years, but I couldn’t think of a better person to have.”Queensland and West Indies had hoped to field 12 players for the match but Cricket Australia over-ruled the request that would have affected the game’s status as first-class. The opening Test begins at the Gabba on November 3.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has approved the restructured graded-payment system for the international cricketers. Jagmohan Dalmiya, the president of the board, confirmed this after the working-committee meeting in Kolkata. However, the board rejected a request to increase the non-playing members’ match fee by 20%.The players will be divided into three grades, receiving Rs5million (US$108,000 approx), Rs3.5million (US$75,000 approx) and Rs2million (US$44,000 approx) respectively on an annual basis. Apart from this the players will continue to receive their match fees.Dalmiya said the players could have signed the documents before their departure for Holland, but it could not be done since John Wright was unavailable. quoted Dalmiya as saying, “Had this confirmation come two days earlier, the contracts could have been signed by now. Now let us see if it could be done tomorrow. Otherwise it would be done after the team returns from England.”Wright, Sourav Ganguly, Syed Kirmani (the chairman of selectors), and SK Nair, the secretary of the BCCI, will decide the slotting of the players into the various grades.

JOHANNESBURG, March 3 AFP – Among the millions of cricket enthusiasts following the progress of Sourav Ganguly’s Indian team at the World Cup, the identity of two caught even the players by surprise.India’s deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishan Advani and army chief General Nirmal Vij were the first to call Ganguly’s team after the six-wicket win over arch-rivals Pakistan at centurion last Saturday.Advani spoke to team manager Jyoti Bajpai on the phone from New Delhi and later made separate calls to Ganguly and man-of-the-match Sachin Tendulkar who hit 98 off 75 balls to lead India’s charge of Pakistan’s 7-273.General Vij asked Bajpai to convey his congratulations to the entire 15-man squad, a team official said.”The boys were mighty proud when they were told that the Deputy Prime Minister and Army Chief had called,” the official said.”Both congratulated the team and then asked them to keep up the good work.”The Indians have received thousands of calls since Saturday from fans around the world for maintaining their unbeaten streak against Pakistan at the World Cup.”We have only made it to the Super Sixes. Wonder what awaits us if we win the World Cup?” the official said.Seamer Javagal Srinath and Tendulkar are the only players in the current team who have featured in all World Cup wins against Pakistan in 1992, 1996, 1999 and now.”It’s a terrific feeling, but we have a lot of hard work ahead in the tournament,” said Srinath, looking forward to the start of the Super Sixes on Friday.The Indians, whose only loss in the league came against Australia, will carry forward eight points into the Super Sixes – four gained against the third-placed qualifier and four more from the non-qualifiers.Their opponents for the three matches in the Super Sixes will be known only on Tuesday when the Group B league ends.Kenya are the only ones from the other group assured of a place in the next round, while Sri Lanka, South Africa and New Zealand battle for the two remaining spots.India will play the second-placed team from Group B in their first Super Sixes match under the Newlands lights at Cape Town on Friday.They then clash with group B winner at the Wanderers on March 10 before returning to SuperSport Park in Centurion for the last match against the third team from Group B on March 15.It will be India’s third game in Centurion, having lost to Australia there on February 15 before defeating Pakistan on Saturday.

It’s coming up to two years since I was given the honour of captaining SriLanka. It’s a job that I cherish and that I am very proud to be doing for mycountry. I would have to admit though that it’s not all been plain sailing -the first six months were particularly difficult.The job was given to me after our disappointing performance in the 1999World Cup in England. I had captained the Sri Lanka Under 24 in SouthAfrica, but had never experienced the kind of pressure associated with thenational captaincy.For a start, I was stepping into the shoes of Arjuna Ranatunga, who had ledthe side with such distinction for so long. He left a legacy that was alwaysgoing to be difficult to follow. There was a question mark in my head – canI do it?The huge weight of expectation was a difficult burden to carry. The public’sexpectations had soared after becoming world champions and after the defeatin England the team had a responsibility to perform better. Being thecaptain, the brunt of that responsibility fell on my shoulders and I had tolearn how to carry it.I was lucky though on two counts. Firstly, Dav Whatmore had returned ascoach and was expertly backed up by physiotherapist Alex Kontouri, both ofwhom were full of encouragement and advice. Secondly, the team gave me 100per cent support.The first thing I did upon being given the job was to call together theplayers for a meeting, in which I spelled out our objectives and asked themfor their total support. They did so and continue to do so, which makes thejob so much easier and helped through that difficult early period.The overriding goal was to bring the team together. We needed to merge the15 players and 15 minds into one cohesive whole, so that we could moveforward together as a group, rather thanas a collection of individuals. We achieved that and created a strong teamspirit within the group.Now, when I look back, I believe that we have come a long way. Throughoutthe last two years the emphasis has been on young players, especially in theone-day side, and some have now established their positions in the side. Wenow have a nucleus of talented players and the basis of a tremendously goodside in the future.Although grooming youngsters, we have met with plenty of success and havewon a handful of one-day tournaments. In the Test matches, however, afterearly wins against Australia, Zimbabwe, and Pakistan, we still have a longway to go. The recent loss to England was particularly disappointing.Personally, I feel a large part of the problem has been a lack ofexperience. Test cricket is harder than limited overs, hence the need forexperienced players like Aravinda de Silva and Hashan Tillakaratne.The young players need more games under their belt. Only then will theydevelop the necessary confidence to withstand the pressure of Test cricket.We are moving in the right direction, but need some positive results soon.With youngsters coming into the side and the extra responsibility of thecaptaincy, my batting has developed. I went through a lean patch aftertaking on the job, but emerged from that and have matured as a batsman.Crucially, I have learnt how to adapt my game to the situation and this hasincreased my consistency. That is not to say that I no longer will go forshots, it just depends on the situation.Technically too, I have been working closely with Dav, making slightadjustments to my technique. These have worked and I am looking forward toscoring plenty of runs in the future, hopefully during this tournament!So, two years have passed, much has been achieved, but there is still plentyto be done. We now have to focus more on the 2003 World Cup in South Africaand for this have identified the need for fast bowling all rounders. Duringthe next 18-months we want to start introducing these players wherever theconditions allow it.Now though it’s time to get stuck in because the action is about to startagain.

Glenn McGrath was installed as Worcestershire’s Player of the Year after a defiant but ultimately unsuccessful bid to snatch promotion with victory over Northamptonshire at New Road.The Australian took eight for 41 – the second best return of his career – to dismiss the Second Division champions for 125 and become the leading bowler in the Championship with 76 wickets.But Worcestershire were unable to clutch the last straw when set to make 262 in 43 overs. They could only hold on for a draw at 119 for six with Ryan Driver unbeaten on 47 when bad light brought about an earlyclose.Openers Paul Pollard and Elliott Wilson to leg-side catches in the first two overs from Darren Cousins and Paul Taylor.The long-serving left-armer, Taylor, went on to take four of the first five wickets, including danger man Vikram Solanki, who played one big shot too many after racing to 30 out of 41.So Northamptonshire head for the top-flight while Worcestershire stay in the lower division – and with no McGrath to boost their chances next year. He will be touring with Australia before returning to the county in 2002.An all-action last day began with Worcestershire needing to add 61 to their overnight 50 for five if they were to head off the threat of the follow-on.This was achieved in quick time by David Leatherdale (46) and Steve Rhodes (42) before a declaration at 124 for seven presented Northants with a lead of 136 but only 80 overs in which to conjure up a result.The possibility of setting a target was taken out of their hands as McGrath bowled Adrian Rollins first ball and captured five for 31 in his first spell. Kevin Innes and Toby Baiiley then added precious runs before their tormentor returned to polish off the last three wickets in 11 balls.

Perth Scorchers not only failed to break their opening-game hoodoo in the Big Bash League, losing to Adelaide Strikers, but to add to their woes, Nathan Coulter-Nile suffered a nasty dislocation on his shoulder. Coulter-Nile slipped after a misfire at backward point, and fell awkwardly on his right shoulder. He was substituted off the ground in the 12th over, and did not reappear.It is a bitter pill for Coulter-Nile to swallow after surprisingly emerging into Test calculations ahead of the West Indies series. Coulter-Nile was in the frame to make his Test debut on Boxing Day, but now those dreams are in serious jeopardy. Victoria pacer Scott Boland – who was on standby for the first Test – is most likely to replace Coulter-Nile in the squad, if necessary.Coulter-Nile had enjoyed a fine all-round performance starting with a blistering cameo of 18 off 8 balls, including two towering sixes to help the Scorchers reach a competitive total of 6 for 151. He then performed with the ball to snare the wicket of Strikers opener Craig Simmons and was boasting figures of 3-0-18-1 before injury struck.After the match, the Scorchers captain Adam Voges said Coulter-Nile would have scans on Tuesday. “His shoulder is back in place, fingers crossed,” he said.The dislocation is the latest injury in a horror-run for Coulter-Nile, who has suffered numerous knocks this year. He picked up a calf strain during Australia’s limited-overs tour of England in September, and suffered a left shoulder injury after landing awkwardly in a training mishap during the Matador BBQ One-Day Cup in October.Having endured his own string of injury problems over the years, Scorchers allrounder Mitchell Marsh was sympathetic of his team-mate’s plight. “Nathan has had a tough time of it with injuries. We just want him back,” Mitchell told ESPNcricinfo.While his Test team-mates Voges and brother Shaun performed solidly, Mitchell had a poor game, making just one run and going wicketless. He failed to make contact with a flighted Adil Rashid delivery after lazily charging the pitch and was bowled off just the second delivery he faced. Mitchell’s dismissal stifled the Scorchers’ momentum, and they were unable to recover fully.Mitchell said he was disappointed with his performance, but believed he was in good shape ahead of his Boxing Day Test debut. “It was disappointing to miss a full toss, it was unfortunate but it happens,” he said. “I feel really good right now and I’m looking forward to Melbourne after missing last year’s Test due to injury. The MCG Test is a special week.”Mitchell said he hoped to play the Boxing Day Test with his brother Shaun, who dazzled early in the Scorchers’ innings with a 35-ball 47. Shaun is in a battle with Usman Khawaja and Joe Burns to retain his Test spot.”[Shaun’s] in very good form, and has been for the last 12 months,” Mitchell said. “That decision is above my pay grade but hopefully he gets picked. It would be extra special to play with Shaun during Boxing Day and enjoy the occasion with family.”After losing their opening game for the fifth straight year, Mitchell was at a loss for the Scorchers’ perennial slow starts to the BBL campaign.”I can’t put my finger on it because it is very important to start these tournaments well. Maybe we tried too hard,” he said. “For the team we had, we didn’t put enough runs on the board. It was a beautiful wicket, 180 would have been a good total.”

Australia’s decision to travel with a team doctor for the first time in 20 years paid off immediately as a stomach bug floored Michael Clarke in the hours leading up to his century on Saturday. Clarke reportedly woke at 1am on the morning of the match severely ill and only an intense course of medication allowed him to play.Clarke showed few signs of the illness as he compiled 130 at nearly a run a ball at Bangalore, although his good work was partly wasted as rain washed away Australia’s hopes of victory. Without help from the doctor John Orchard, the Australians believed Clarke would not only have missed the Bangalore game but potentially Tuesday’s match at Kochi as well.”I was certainly giving him [Orchard] a high five when Pup got his hundred,” Adam Gilchrist, the stand-in captain, told the . “Pup was up all night with gastro and without a medical professional there is no way he would have played.”The reported Clarke had 12 hours of intense antibiotic and rehydration treatment before his lengthy innings and had eaten just four pieces of plain toast prior to the match. He made it through with the help of constant deliveries of tablets and drinks from the dressing-room and his batting partner for much of the day, Brad Haddin, saw no indication the illness had lingered.”He was in a better state than me at the end, I don’t know what happened but he was going all right out there,” Haddin told the . “I heard he had a rough night [but] he came through well and there’s no signs of it.”

A soil shortage at the SCG threatened to end the pitch’s reputation as a spinner’s paradise, but the discovery of a new source of dirt will preserve the surface’s distinct characteristics. With the groundsman’s stores of Bulli soil dwindling and development covering over the previous hotspots, Tom Parker, the curator, learned the Wollongong Golf Club was reconfiguring its layout and had found two seams of the treasured product.The SCG Trust was able to remove about 2000 tonnes of the dirt, which will be enough to satisfy the nine pitches at the ground through to the next century. “Bulli soil has been in use at the SCG since day one and we’re talking of more than 150 years,” Parker said in The Australian. “It’s volcanic in nature with 65 percent clay content.”The soil is normally found at the base of the Illawarra escarpment [south of Sydney], but sadly a lot of the area is now built out. The high clay content in the soil makes the pitch set hard and provides true bounce.” It also lights up the eyes of the spinners and Shane Warne, Stuart MacGill, Bob Holland, Allan Border and Murray Bennett have starred in Sydney Tests. MacGill, who plays for New South Wales, even refers to the ground as “my house”.”This new stockpile of Bulli soil will certainly see me out in the job, good and proper,” Parker, 39, said. “We had originally acquired a very small quantity of Bulli soil from the same club not long after I first started here ten years ago. But that was only one-tenth of the soil we’ve managed to recover this time from the original 7000 tonnes of earth removed from the site.”The pitch for the fifth Ashes Test, which starts on January 2, is expected to be a typical Sydney wicket and the news is not good for the English batsmen who have struggled to play Warne and MacGill. “By the fourth, and certainly on the fifth day, it will break up and take spin,” Parker said. “It will take maximum spin for the likes of both Warne and MacGill to bowl in tandem against the Englishmen.”