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Twenty-two years ago when the last great player exodus occurred Australia began five years of despair. Not until the 1989 Ashes could Australia prove they had left behind the suffering that followed the retirements of Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh, who left a 253-Test gap when they exited the SCG on January 6, 1984.Two months later in Guyana Greg Ritchie’s bulky frame slotted into the top order, Wayne Phillips was mistakenly turned into a makeshift wicketkeeper and Terry Alderman tried to fill Lillee’s space. By the fifth Test Queensland’s John Maguire had replaced Alderman and Australia were on the way to using 24 players in 46 matches until the 1989 tour, when stability and success was finally found. It took a further eight years and 77 games to introduce the same number of new personnel and by then Australia were world champions.The Test crown has retained the same shine ever since and Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne were two of its most significant polishers. Justin Langer also had a large part in the success and the trio leaves from the same gate as the previous triumvirate. Australia now enter another period of uncertainty, but the prospects of the trough being as deep as last time are remote.Allan Border was a reluctant successor to Kim Hughes, who resigned in tears against West Indies in 1984, and he won only three of his first 25 Tests in charge. The low points were home-and-away series losses to New Zealand in 1985-86 and giving up the Ashes a season later to an England team dubbed the worst ever to tour. The recovery was slow, painful and, ultimately, massively rewarding.Ricky Ponting does not have instant replacements for the big three, but he is fortunate to have a string of contenders who are capable of plugging holes. Australia’s ranking as world No. 1 may be in jeopardy over the next couple of years but the superpower status will remain. The planning through the Academy should stop a repeat of the 1980s horror.

In the past two years the focus of the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane has altered from developing emerging players for the first-class arena to preparing contenders for international action. A core group of bowlers including Ben Hilfenhaus, the Tasmania swing bowler, and Brett Dorey, the tall Western Australia fast man, was compiled as the Australian selectors prepared for life without McGrath. Shaun Tait also spent time in the set-up and with Mitchell Johnson’s re-emergence and the rapid development of Stuart Clark a batch of next-generation bowlers is on call.The opening spot created by Langer’s decision can be filled confidently by either Phil Jaques, who stepped into the Test side twice in 2006, or Chris Rogers, who has learned under Langer at Western Australia. A return to the top of the order for Michael Hussey, another batsman raised in Perth, should not be ruled out as it is his preferred position.While the batting and fast-bowling back-up is solid, the spin ranks are Australia’s major worry. In 15 years of trying no Australian has been able to emulate Warne – only Stuart MacGill has got close – and Daniel Cullen, Cullen Bailey, Beau Casson and Nathan Hauritz have the toughest assignments of all.Cullen and MacGill are the frontrunners to step in for Warne but Australia’s expectations of what a slow man should achieve must quickly be lowered. The 1980s showed that attempting to fill the shoes of legends takes decades rather than days.

Sachin Tendulkar has said that the Test series win in England was one of his most cherished moments in international cricket. Speaking at the tenth Castrol Awards for Cricketing Excellence in Kochi, Tendulkar also praised the current crop of young players, saying it was great to see them enjoying their cricket and playing with a positive frame of mind.”Beating England in England recently was one of my most memorable moments,” he said of the 1-0 series win. Talking about the changes in the game in recent times, he said: “It’s definitely a lot quicker, a lot faster and there are more big shots.”At the awards night, Sourav Ganguly and Jhulan Goswami were among the players who were honoured. Ganguly was named the best captain in 75 years of Indian Test cricket . Goswami, who was named the ICC Women’s Player of the Year in September, was the first recipient of the Outstanding Indian Cricketer of the Year for women.India’s Test history was divided into six different eras and the best cricketers of each era were awarded. The list of awardees were: CK Nayudu (1932-47), Vinoo Mankad (1947-61), Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi (1961-71), Sunil Gavaskar (1971-81), Kapil Dev (1981-97), Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid (1997-2006).Some members of the team which won the ICC World Twenty20 were also presented with mementos.

Scorecard

With England’s batting stocks in a healthy state, those players trying to force their way in through county cricket will have to wait patiently for their turn. The A team named to face Sri Lanka next week gives a fair indication of the pecking order and, on the first day at Lord’s, Ed Joyce offered reminder of why he is in that list, if not quite at the top.He is not in the immediate frame for a call-up after the winter successes of Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook and Owais Shah, but he enjoyed a reasonably impressive A tour of West Indies – with three half-centuries in the one-day series – and all he can do now is churn out a mountain of runs for Middlesex. This was a decent start and he was easily the most assured batsman on show after beginning confidently with punchy shots through the legside. He motored along a decent rate, in conditions that had tempted Robert Key, Kent’s captain, to bowl first but were initially wasted by the bowlers.Joyce is not quite in the flamboyant mould of most of England’s current order, but he knows his game and last season produced the goods as he racked up 1668 runs at 61 in the County Championship. He began this season with a minor blip, failing twice for MCC against Nottinghamshire, but the first serious bat of a summer can often be a hit and miss affair.Here, though, he was back to his compact best and didn’t offer a chance, progressing to a composed century off 148 balls, the 15th first-class ton of his career. He doesn’t make great use of the straight boundaries, preferring to work the ball square, but is content to wait for the right ball to hit. It can be easy to label a left-hander who doesn’t bludgeon the ball like Brian Lara, Matthew Hayden or Marcus Trescothick as a nudger and nurdler. While there is certainly this aspect to Joyce’s game he also possess the power to thread the infield – or go over it – as his late six into the Grandstand showed.What Joyce must now do is show that he is better than what is currently in the England side. Geoff Miller, the England selector, watched part of the day from the press box and hinted that it will take a lot of runs for the management to try new batsmen given the choices that are currently on offer.But as showed by the likes of Cook and Shah, who will line-up alongside Joyce for England A next week, a chance can come along out of the blue and then it is about grasping the moment. Middlesex were certainly grateful he took his chance today after they frittered away their tea position of 220 for 4. Kent’s bowling improved through the day, following a wasteful start with the new ball. Ed Smith, against his former team-mates, was squared-up and edged to second slip, while Shah didn’t settle during his brief stay in the middle. He was fortunate to escape a bottom-edged pull before edging to second slip straight after lunch.Joyce’s fluency was in sharp contrast to the obduracy of Ben Hutton, who took 148 balls over his 47 before top-edging a pull to long leg and wasting his hard graft. The attack continued to chip away and Justin Kemp was rewarded for a preserving display when he removed Nick Compton and Ben Scott, while Robbie Joseph deserved his Championship-best four-wicket haul. Martin van Jaarsveld had a good day at second slip, holding three catches of which the third, to remove Craig Wright, was a sharp effort in front of first slip.Middlesex’s late demise only went to highlight the importance of Joyce’s effort. He was a class apart today and more innings like this will make his case very hard to ignore – regardless of the other batsmen in the frame.

Eight Ranji players belonging to Bihar Players Association (BPA) protested in front of the Indian board’s office demanding that Bihar be allowed to take part in the domestic cricket season.The cricketers sat on a hunger strike at the BCCI headquarters where its working committee meeting was on, but were taken away by the police.”We have met BCCI chief Sharad Pawar twice. He assured us that the matter will be resolved in a month’s time but nothing has happened,” said Mrityunjai Tiwari, BPA president. Sunil Kumar, Dheeraj Kumar, Raju Vals and Nikhil Ranjan were among others who took part in the protest.The Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) became defunct in 2000, when the previous BCCI regime under Jagmohan Dalmiya granted affiliation to Jharkand, a new state carved out of Bihar.The present regime under Sharad Pawar took the decision of restoring the affiliation to the BCA. But the implementation of the decision was subject to approval by the Jharkhand High Court where the JCSA has filed a suit on the matter. “The matter is in the court but what is our fault,” Tiwary said. “All we want is to play cricket.”

Andrew Strauss says England must fight “fire with fire” during the Ashes and not be overawed by the reputations of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne.Strauss, who is Andrew Flintoff’s vice-captain for the tour, has called on his team-mates to repeat their efforts of the 2005 series when an aggressive approach was a key part of regaining the Ashes. Although Warne took 40 wickets, the England batsmen were not afraid to attack him and Strauss wants more of the same.”It’s easy to get lured into thinking that every ball from [Shane] Warne or [Glenn] McGrath is going to be an unplayable delivery, and that’s a trap we must try to avoid,” he told the Daily Telegraph. “One of the plus points of our performances against Australia last year was we did play the ball rather than the bowler, which is going to be important again this winter.”If our batsmen learned one salutary lesson last year, it was that the only way to play the Aussies is to take them on. When you try to hang around or you are content just to occupy the crease and survive, you are liable to come unstuck because they just swarm all over you. But if you answer fire with fire – and pick the right balls to go after – it is possible to live with them as Michael Vaughan showed on the last Ashes tour.”England are due for their first serious net session on Tuesday ahead of the tour opener against a Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra on Friday. The first Test begins in Brisbane on November 23.

Shoaib Akhtar, who pulled out of the Test series against India due to a hamstring injury, is hoping to recover in time for the one-day internationals beginning on April 2 at Kochi. Akhtar has set a target of three weeks to fully recover from the injury.”It is so disappointing to be sitting in Lahore while the team is preparing for the Test series in India. But there is nothing much I can do about the injury except try to regain my fitness as soon as possible,” Shoaib said in an interview to . “I have been training regularly with the board’s South African trainer Grant Compton and he says I should be fit in two-and-a-half weeks’ time. As soon as I am fit I will play in a match to test out my fitness before making myself available for the one-dayers.”Wasim Bari, the chief selector, had asked Akhtar to participate in a match to prove his fitness before being considered for selection for the six one-dayers. Pakistan’s bowling line-up has been weakened with the absence of Shoaib and the pace attack largely dependent on Mohammad Sami and Naved-ul-Hasan.Akhtar, whose commitment towards Pakistan cricket was questioned, said he’d give the series his best if selected for the ODIs. “If I can make it for the one-dayers in India I can assure you I will give more than 100% for the team. Playing against India and their batsmen is always a big challenge and I love to do well against them.”Akhtar holds an impressive record against India with 15 wickets in 4 matches at 27.66. His most renowned spell came in Kolkata in the Asian Test Championship in 1999, when he bowled Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar with consecutive late-swinging yorkers. He claimed eight wickets and Pakistan won by 46 runs.

The three teams taking part in the DLF Cup will be hoping that historydoesn’t repeat itself. The last time they played each other in athree-cornered contest, way back in 1991-92, Australia went on to beatIndia in the World Series final. Yet, none of the teams went on to makemuch of an impression at the World Cup that followed, shunted out of thesemi-final places by the likes of New Zealand and the new boys, SouthAfrica.Some sections of the Australian media are already querying the value ofthis tournament. The spectre of injuries, with the Ashes just two monthsaway, and skepticism over the BCCI’s plans to promote the game innon-traditional centres had much to do with that. India and West Indieswill, however, see it as a tremendous opportunity to test themselvesagainst the very best. And with the exception of the rested AdamGilchrist, Australia have arrived here with as strong a team as they couldhope to field.Rustiness could well play a part. India and West Indies last played inearly July, and their one-day series – won 4-1 by the rejuvenatedCaribbean outfit – was as far back as late May, while Australia last gottheir flannels dirty on their tour of Bangladesh in April.Shortly before that, they had suffered the humiliation of being unable todefend 434 against South Africa, an eventuality that would have beenalmost unthinkable had a certain GD McGrath been in the line-up. Australiaremain a formidable side without him, but even at the ripe old age of 36,he’s the X-factor that can never be discounted. McGrath’s presence willalso give Brett Lee even greater freedom to let rip, and it will also beinteresting to see how the lanky Stuart Clark – impressive in his role asMcGrath’s replacement – goes against the shot-happy Indians, both East andWest.The batting is intimidating on paper, with the likes of Ricky Ponting andAndrew Symonds capable of turning a match in the space of a few overs. Andfor Michael Clarke, who launched his Test career so memorably againstIndia two years ago, it’s another chance to rediscover the sort of formthat made him one of the game’s most exciting young talents.India also have a couple of young ‘uns on the road to redemption. Aftersome stellar displays with both bat and ball last season, the wheels cameoff for Irfan Pathan in the West Indies. So too Suresh Raina, who caughtthe eye with some superb knocks before it all went awry in the Caribbean.India will be hamstrung in the initial exchanges by the illness that hasruled Yuvraj Singh out of at least one game. Yuvraj was in resplendentform last season, going from mercurial talent to genuinely consistentmatchwinner with some sublime efforts in pressure situations.His absence will be offset by the return of Sachin Tendulkar, the mostsuccessful batsman in the history of the white-ball game. If he andVirender Sehwag can revive the chemistry at the top of the order, evenAustralia’s famed bowling line-up could be in for a struggle. Tendulkarmay also play his part with the ball, as India explore their options aheadof the Champions Trophy on home soil. If Brett Lee’s assessment that theball will swing is correct, then India are likely to have Munaf Patel or SSreesanth sharing the new ball with Pathan, leaving the newly consistentAjit Agarkar to operate as first change.With so many part-time slow bowling options, Ramesh Powar may struggle toget a game in tandem with Harbhajan Singh, except in the unlikely event ofLes Burdett, the Adelaide curator, preparing a square turner.For a team that has always prided itself on its array of fast-bowlingtalent, West Indies also have one of the one-day game’s better slowbowlers in Chris Gayle, whose height and accuracy makes him so hard to getaway. Gayle though will be a second line of attack, with Fidel Edwards andJerome Taylor expected to provide shock value with the new ball. IanBradshaw and Corey Collymore form a steady support cast.With the last hurrah not far away, Brian Lara will also be keen to imposehimself with the bat. Gayle’s destructive capabilities in that regard areperfectly complemented by the maturity with which Ramnaresh Sarwan andShivnarine Chanderpaul bat these days. Their game-breaker, though, couldbe the ebullient Dwayne Bravo, whose allround skills and composure insweaty-palm moments had much to do with the pasting that India got in theCaribbean.If the rankings are any guide, it should be a tussle between Australia andIndia, with West Indies providing the nuisance value. Yet, as Bravo andhis mates showed not so long ago, rankings don’t count for much when youtap into the inspiration that can elevate your skills to a higher plane.And what better way to ambush Australia than to catch them cold, comingstraight out of a hibernation that would put a hedgehog to shame.

West Indies aim to negate Australia’s intimidating legspin threats before launching a fierce bowling assault on their rivals in the three-Test series starting in Brisbane on November 3. The fast men are not as furious as their predecessors of the past 30 years, but the coach Bennett King is confident they will exploit the bouncy pitches even if they aren’t as tall as the men who knocked over Australia during the Ashes.”We have a very different set of bowlers to England, given they are all around 6ft4in [193cm] and our blokes are all around 5ft9in [175cm],” King said in . “But we have three or four blokes who bowl around that 90-95mph [145-155kph] mark and hopefully even quicker, so we have a bit of firepower there which can hopefully unsettle the Aussies.”Back home they are forced to bowl to their knees on really flat tracks which are batsmen and even spin-friendly.” The squad arrived in Brisbane on Thursday and Corey Collymore is expected to lead the attack with back-up from Tino Best, Jermaine Lawson and Fidel Edwards.While the bowling appears settled, the batsmen’s weaknesses to legspin will mean a host of local slow men will be called to assist their preparation for a potential confrontation with Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill. The pair performed well in tandem during the Super Test and will be considered for Brisbane even though the surface usually suits the fast bowlers.”With what happened in the recent Test match you’d have to expect that [both Warne and MacGill playing] could happen again,” Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the captain, told the paper. “We know it will be tough but that is what makes you a Test cricketer. You have to deal with whatever may be in front of you.” West Indies play Queensland in a four-day match starting on Thursday.

Powerless at Eden
A little over a month after an embarrassing flood-light failure, Eden Gardens witnessed another power-cut – this time only a partial one as some of the bulbs in each of the four floodlight towers went off. However, attention was soon diverted by a norwester that hit the city soon after, bringing the Kolkata v Chennai game to an abrupt halt.Prasun Mukherjee, the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal, said the bulbs went off due to the storm. “I have been told by the technical people deployed there that it was due to the norwester that the bulbs conked out”.Mendis for Kolkata
Ajantha Mendis, the Sri Lankan spinner who bowls offbreaks and legbreaks, has been signed on to the Kolkata Knight Riders squad till the end of the current season. Mendis’ compatriot, allrounder Kaushal Weeraratne, has been invited to join Kolkata in training for a week. Weeraratne is the record holder for the fastest fifty in List A cricket.Slow on the money
Neil Maxwell, the chief executive of Kings XI Punjab, has admitted there have been delays in paying the players, and blamed it on “taxation issues”. Maxwell, who also manages a few Australian players, said the payments were being done in instalments. “The players are being paid in instalments because there are a number of taxation issues,” Maxwell told news channel NDTV reacting to Australian media reports which suggested players were getting frustrated. “It is the first instalment that is taking the most time because it’s not simple as a lot of taxes are involved.”I think too much is being made out of it. It’s a little lengthy process and everyone has to be patient. The players are contracted with their franchises and they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding.”No age for Twenty20
After Sourav Ganguly pointed out that most of the IPL centurions were over 30 and that Twenty20 was not simply a young man’s game, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has said the question is not about experience but fitness. “I have always stressed on fitness,” Dhoni said. “The ones who are doing well in the IPL are the ones who are fit enough to do so.” He also said captaining the Chennai Super Kings was a tougher task than leading India. “I’ve got such a talented bunch of performers with me [in Chennai]. I perhaps would have liked to have a few more options in the bowling department. But no complaints.”Service tax notice
Service tax authorities are considering issuing a notice to Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) for alleged evasion of tax in the IPL. “Some of the areas of IPL such as event management, advertising and details of its franchise arrangements, comes under the purview of Service Tax and we are considering issuing a notice to PCA for conducting IPL and evading the service tax,” said S D Sra, Chief Commissioner of Central Excise and Customs (Chandigarh Zone).

Fast bowler Mitchell Johnson is going to skip the upcoming season of the Big Bash League to rest his body and spend time with his family. Johnson’s retirement from international cricket last month had raised his prospects of playing the BBL for the very first time for his home club and defending champions Perth Scorchers.”[It] is a real shame because I think everyone in Australia was hoping he’d play,” Scorchers coach Justin Langer told radio station on Thursday. “And I really respect where he’s at. He retired for a reason and he won’t be playing.”Since the BBL was going to run parallel to the Australian international home schedule, the Scorchers were hoping to get Johnson on board in the absence of Adam Voges, Mitchell Marsh and Shaun Marsh and Nathan Coulter-Nile who are part of the Test squad to play West Indies. Johnson’s management, however, said he would explore the option of playing the BBL next summer.Head of the BBL Anthony Everard was confident that despite the absence of a few international names, the quality of the fifth season of the BBL would surpass that of the previous four seasons.”We would have been delighted to have a player of Mitch’s quality involved,” Everard told . “We’re disappointed that he won’t be involved this year, however the quality of players we have this season is the best we’ve ever had, both in terms of domestic players and overseas players. To have guys like Brad Haddin and Shane Watson playing for the first time in a meaningful way is fantastic. And then there’s the internationals, the likes of [Kevin] Pietersen, [Chris] Gayle, [Kumar] Sangakkara, [Jacques] Kallis – I could go on. The quality is the best we’ve had in four seasons so there’s still a lot of look forward to for fans.”The Scorchers have played all four finals of the BBL so far and won the last two tournaments. Their squad will be strengthened by England allrounder David Willey, who impressed in his first international season as a limited-overs player and will miss the ongoing England Lions tour of the UAE.”You can just start to feel it heating up,” Langer said. “We’ve got a good crew of players. Again, the expectations are very high, and that’s good. A lot will depend on who’s playing for Australia and if we can get our best guys on the park.”The Scorchers open their season on December 21 against the Adelaide Strikers at home.