Dilshan flies in for dramatic Twenty20 entry

Tillakaratne Dilshan is scheduled to touch down for a flying visit to New Zealand 90 minutes before Northern Knights play Wellington Firebirds in a Twenty20 domestic match on Friday. Dilshan caught a flight after Sri Lanka’s tri-series win in Bangladesh on Wednesday and his journey to the Bay of Plenty is due to finish with a helicopter ride landing on the Blake Park outfield.”It’s a reasonably tight schedule, so if there are hold-ups it could well be the case that he steps out of the chopper and into the changing room to pad up”, the Northern Knights coach Grant Bradburn said. “But for a player of Dilshan’s calibre, we’re absolutely prepared to accommodate that. Even if he doesn’t arrive until five to five, as far as I’m concerned he’s in the playing XI.”Dilshan, an explosive Twenty20 opener for his country, has missed the first five games of the campaign and Northern Districts, who are fourth in the six-team competition, are looking forward to his arrival. “We’ve heard that he is very keen to play for us irrespective of being straight off an international journey – and that immediately sent a big message to us about his keenness and commitment to team-mates he hasn’t even met yet,” Bradburn said.Dilshan said he was looking forward to a “new chapter in his cricketing life”. “I’ve never arrived at a ground in a helicopter before and the effort to get me to the game has made me feel very welcome,” he said. “It’s a good feeling to have at the start of my time in New Zealand.”

Flower questions UDRS benefits

England’s coach, Andy Flower, finds some aspects of the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) “illogical” and isn’t a supporter of the ICC initiative that was a focal point of the opening Test against South Africa at Centurion Park.England did not enjoy much success in their use of the system, with all four of their bowling referrals turned down. That disappointment was compounded, however, when Kevin Pietersen was bowled by Morne Morkel off in the first innings, off what appeared to be a no-ball. With that in mind, Flower argued that if technology was going to be used, it should check the foot position of the bowler every time.”I’m not a policy-maker and my ideas don’t count that much, but I don’t really like the questioning of the umpires by the players,” he told reporters in Durban. “I think there are also some illogical things about it. We have the technology to review no-balls every ball and we don’t use it.”The two most controversial moments came when England asked for a review of a caught-behind appeal against AB de Villiers in the first innings, but technology couldn’t detect what the players had believed to be an audible nick, then when Stuart Broad questioned the length of time South Africa had taken to refer JP Duminy’s lbw appeal to the third umpire.Upon being given out, Broad marched over to the on-field umpires, Steve Davis and Aleem Dar, and later went to visit the match referee, Roshan Mahanama, although no charges were brought against him. England have also raised the issue over the time taken between South Africa’s appeal and the TV umpire’s intervention.”We spoke to Roshan Mahanama about it and there is no clear indication over how much time it should take,” Flower said. “It’s not 20 or 30 seconds, but they do just want a brief exchange of views and then a decision made.”I personally don’t like it much to be honest, but it looks as though it’s here to stay and certainly is for this series, so there’s no point us grumbling about it. We just have to get on with it and make sure we deal with it.”While the review system doesn’t have Flower’s backing, the under-pressure pair of Alastair Cook and Ian Bell certainly do. He believes both men can bounce back from their twin failures at Centurion Park. Cook made scores of 15 and 12 having spent a lot of time in the latter part of the 2009 season working on his technique, while Bell managed seven runs in two innings, and was embarrassingly bowled when not offering a shot to Paul Harris.”Belly got some runs in the pre-tour games and I think he is feeling quite confident about the way he is playing,” Flower said. “He had a tough Test, of course. He made a misjudgement in the first innings and got nicked off in the second but he’s a high quality player and we are backing him. I think he will be fine.”Cooky scored runs for the Performance Squad up in Johannesburg then scored some runs in East London,” he added. “He’s had a tough Test and it was a tough Test for anyone against the new ball. He’s remodelled a few things but he is a strong young man, a very fine player and a leader in his own right. I think he is going to do good things for us this series.”Despite the batting problems, including the late collapse of 5 for 13, the series is still all-square and Flower was breathing a sigh of relief after the outcome. “Of course we are relieved that, after losing those wickets against the last new ball, we got out of it,” he said.”We always knew the second new ball was going to be a testing period, although we obviously didn’t think we would lose that many wickets. But we did well to fight back and hang on.”

IPL extends Pakistan's deadline

The IPL has extended the deadline for Pakistan’s players to submit the relevant documents needed to ensure their participation in next season’s IPL, even as Pakistan’s sports ministry seeks permission for the players to play there next year.The league’s chief executive, Sundar Raman, told Cricinfo that the deadline for the PCB to submit the no-objection certificates (NOCs) and other documents to enable the Pakistan players to take part in the 2010 tournament now stands extended to December 7.With the Pakistan team currently playing a Test series in New Zealand, it became clear over the last week that the necessary paperwork would take more time. Wasim Bari, the PCB’s chief operating officer, had earlier said the NOCs had already been sent by the board in order to initiate the visa process.A possible hurdle, however, could be created by the National Assembly Standing Committee on Sports which raised questions over the NOCs. “The NOCs issued to the cricketers for participation in the IPL is without the approval of the federal government hence they are illegal,’ said Jamshed Ahmed Dasti, an increasingly vocal legislative voice against the Pakistan board and head of the committee. “Who will be responsible for security of the players, not least the federal government, because it was never consulted for issuance of the NOC.”Pakistan’s sports ministry says it has no problems with the players going to India, but insisted that it had to seek permission first from the foreign and interior ministry. NOCs from three players – Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir and Abdul Razzaq – have been sent. “The (sports) ministry has referred the NOC cases of these players to the foreign office and interior ministry for political and security clearance,” spokesman Faik Ali told .”We processed the cases of these players on the very same day on urgent basis and we do hope to get the reply from both ministries by next week. The sports ministry has no objection that its players go and compete in IPL, but we have to seek the government’s clearance. Our ministry has forwarded the cases to the concerned ministries and now we will wait for their response.”Pakistan’s players were absent from the second IPL, held earlier this year in South Africa, after their government did not allow them to travel to India – where the tournament was originally to be held – for security reasons. The decision came in the wake of the Mumbai attacks last year, after which relations between India and Pakistan deteriorated considerably. Eleven players from Pakistan had taken part in the first IPL, though after the Mumbai attacks, only four were retained by their franchises, though their contracts were suspended until further resolution.The PCB has been keen on getting their players involved once again after Ijaz Butt, the board chairman, raised the matter on a trip to India last month and said after that the relevant government authorities had also cleared Pakistan’s players to play.

No home-and-away for new FTP

New details of the proposed post-2012 Future Tours Programme have emerged, with David Morgan, the ICC president, stating the home-and-away component of the current model could be scrapped. All teams at present must play each other twice in Test and one-day series over a six-year cycle, but Morgan said the new FTP could reduce the mandatory requirement to one series.Such a move would allow national boards greater flexibility in arranging bilateral “icon” series, and could lead to an over all reduction in scheduling depending on their manoeuvrings. Morgan was hopeful the relaxation of the home-and-away requirement would appease player unions, who have been outspoken in their criticism of the demands currently placed on elite cricketers.”The process is similar but the results will be different,” Morgan told Cricinfo of the draft FTP. “I can’t elaborate, but at the moment it’s a requirement that in any six-year cycle each full member has to play the other home and away in a minimum of two Tests and three one-day internationals. I believe there will be a relaxation of that. Perhaps not in the number of games, but there’s the possibility of instead having to play everybody home and away in a fixed cycle, you may either play them away or home.”The FTP essentially is a basket of bilateral agreements between the ten full members with some consideration given to the more proficient associate countries like Ireland and the Netherlands. That set of bilateral arrangements is continuing. I firmly believe that it is very important to consult with the players. Where FICA [Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations] is recognised, which is in the majority of countries, we are very happy to liaise and discuss things with Tim May and his team. I find them a responsible body.”FICA last month called on the ICC to scrap the FTP in its current format and enlist the services of independent consultants to devise a new scheduling system. In a letter addressed to the chief executives of cricket’s ten full-voting countries, which has been obtained by Cricinfo, May, the union’s chief executive, proposed an annual Test and one-day championship he believed would add context and attract renewed interest in the game.The notion of a Test championship model has been supported by a number of cricketing bodies, Cricket Australia and the Marylebone Cricket Club among them. FICA’s proposal would see the top eight nations split into two four-team conferences, with semi-finals and finals to be played every three years. The fourth and final year of the proposed cycle would be referred to as an “icon year”, and include the World Cup as well as high-profile bilateral series such as India-Pakistan and the Ashes.”We believe that the model of bi lateral ad hoc series that have been cricket’s structure for the past century (and again from 2012-2020) is fast becoming an outdated model, and will be unable to cater for the changing cricket landscape,” May wrote. “It is unusual for FICA to request the ICC and its member boards to review a decision of the ICC board, however, we are of the firm opinion that there are serious flaws in the proposed 2012-2020 FTP that will severely threaten the primacy of international cricket in future years.”The likelihood of such a model being adopted appears remote, however, with chief executives gravitating toward an FTP similar to that currently in operation, with the exception of the home-and-away requirement. Following a two-day board meeting in Johannesburg in October, the ICC issued a release stating an in principle agreement had been reached on the draft FTP.

Farhaan Berhardien takes South Africa to thrilling win

Farhaan Behardien hit a six off the last ball to hand South Africa a two-wicket victory over the home side in the final of the Hong Kong Cricket Sixes. Hong Kong, who had been the surprise package of the tournament, had beaten Davey Jacobs’ side twice already en route to the final, and looked on course for a third win with South Africa losing three wickets in the second eight-ball over.Chasing 98 with only 24 balls to spare, Behardien and his Titans team-mate, David Wiese, took charge before retiring according to the rules of the tournament, which state that a player must retire after reaching 30. While Wiese made 32 off 13 balls, Behardien went on the rampage with a nine-ball 31.Both players had to come back though, after the other batsmen had been dismissed. Behardien hit a six off the second ball and then had to retire to be replaced by Wiese, who was sent back first ball. Werner Coetsee then faced the next four balls scoring a six off the second and a single off the fourth.That left Behardien on strike with five needed for victory. He lofted Mark Wright out of the ground to finish on 37 off 10 balls.”I remember just thinking about how the atmosphere was unbelievable and I was soaking up the atmosphere, with everyone cheering for Hong Kong,” said Behardien. “I knew I had to hit a six and I was fortunate enough that it came off today. In this form of cricket you have to try to hit the ball as hard as you can and try and get sixes. That’s about it, really. I think the team chasing always has a better chance of winning.””It was a pretty exciting finish,” said Davey Jacobs, the South Africa captain. “Hong Kong were probably the most consistent team in the tournament and fortunately we managed to beat them when it counted.”Despite losing their first game of the tournament, Hong Kong captain Najeeb Amar was proud of the performance of his players. “It’s disappointing,” Najeeb said. “We lost the toss and I like to win the toss and chase. It was a huge decision for us, but we have shown the world how close we were in this competition. I’ve no words to thank my team mates because they’ve done a great job playing against all these Test-playing nations.”Hong Kong’s Irfan Ahmed won the Ben Hollioake Trophy, awarded to the tournament’s leading player. “It was great to play in this competition,” said Irfan. “We did well and I’ve been looking forward to this for quite a while. Almost everything went well. I want to go into the IPL and this was a good chance for me to show what I can do if I’m given a bigger opportunity.”Apart from losing to Hong Kong twice, South Africa were victorious against Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and England on their way to picking up the winners’ cheque of HK$55 000. It was also their second title in the last four years, having won under Nicky Boje in 2006.Gerald Majola, the Cricket South Africa chief executive, congratulated the team on their victory. “All credit must go to Davey Jacobs and his merry men for winning the Hong Kong Sixes in nail-biting fashion,” Majola said. “It’s wonderful to see a South African team winning an international knock-out competition by holding their nerve. Winning becomes a habit, and this bodes well for major tournaments in the future.”New Zealand won the Plate final by defeating Australia by five wickets.

Ponting ponders Australia's batting options

Australia have embarked on their one-day tour of India uncertain of their preferred batting line-up with injuries to Michael Clarke and Callum Ferguson forcing adjustments to their Champions Trophy-winning side. It has left Ricky Ponting and the selectors with several choices ahead of the seven-match series, which starts on Sunday.Ferguson is sidelined for up to a year with a serious knee injury picked up in the final against New Zealand, while Clarke could join the squad late in the series if his back soreness eases. Shaun Marsh is in the 15-man group but faces a challenge to bump the in-form Tim Paine from the opening spot, while regular 12th man Adam Voges might finally get a run of opportunities.”The selectors and myself are going to have a bit of thinking to do over the next few days as to what we do with the batting line-up,” Ponting said at Sydney Airport on Monday as he prepared to fly out to India. “Paine coming in has had a fair bit of success at the top of the order and given himself every opportunity to remain there.”You go back six or seven months, then Shaun was one of the up-and-coming batsmen in our Australian team and someone who has got a very good record at the top of the order for us, so we’ve got some tough decisions to make there. But whichever way we go there we know we’ve got very good depth in our batting with someone like Shaun coming back in, so hopefully we get it right on the morning of the first game.”Marsh hasn’t played for Australia since April, when he suffered a hamstring injury during the one-day series against Pakistan in the UAE. At least Ponting is familiar with Marsh – not so the new spinner in Australia’s squad. Jon Holland, the Victorian left-armer, was a surprise selection and he’ll be doing well if Ponting even recognises him when the group gathers in India.”I’ve seen 20 minutes of him bowling in the nets leading up to the Boxing Day Test last year, that’s as much as I’ve seen of Jon,” Ponting said. “He gets good raps from all the other Victorian guys … everyone believes he’s got a good future. It’s great to have a young cricketer around the group, especially a young spinner making a tour of India.”Holland, 22, is already in India, where he has played every match for Victoria in the Champions League Twenty20. There’s no guarantee Holland will play in the ODI series, with Nathan Hauritz firmly entrenched as the leading spinner, but Ponting hopes he will at least gain important experience for the future.”You can’t help but learn when you get over there and bowl in those conditions and bowl to better players like Jon will be doing,” Ponting said. “He’ll be bowling to all the Australian batsmen over the next few weeks and he might get an opportunity to bowl to some very good players of spin in the Indian batsmen, so some great opportunities lie ahead for Jon. I’m looking forward to spending some time with him over the next few weeks.”Australia enter the series in form, thanks to their Champions Trophy triumph, but Ponting said little could be read into that tournament in South Africa, where India failed to progress past the group stage. “They will be particularly hard to beat in India, they always are,” Ponting said.”They definitely play a lot better at home than they do when they travel.”

We're more of a working-class team now – Hussey

Michael Hussey does not believe Australia’s “working class” cricketers can be considered the best one-day side in the world, despite moving within two ratings points of the top-ranked South Africans in the ICC standings. Having won eight of their last nine matches against Pakistan, Scotland and England, the Australians could reclaim the No. 1 ODI ranking with victories in the double-header at Trent Bridge and the series finale at Chester-le-Street; results that would seal an unprecedented 7-0 series sweep over Andrew Strauss’s men.Hussey, though, insists that only a strong showing at the Champions Trophy will determine whether this reconfigured and recalibrated Australian side is truly worthy of recognition as the world’s pre-eminent ODI force. Further obstacles lie ahead in the form of a seven-match one-day series in India, and home series against West Indies and Pakistan, prompting Hussey to reserve judgement on Australia’s place in the international pecking order.”We have got a lot of new faces around the squad but realistically I think we’ve got a lot of work to do before we can honestly claim that we’re the best one-day team in the world,” Hussey said. “It’s definitely a motivating factor for the team to try and be the best team in the world, but I don’t think that’s where we see ourselves at the moment. We’re building a new team, a new environment, a new culture and trying to take bits and pieces from the past regimes and trying to improve on those as well.”We’ll probably get a better idea after the Champions Trophy where we probably sit. Similarly, with where we sit in the Test match rankings, we had a pretty good idea after playing South Africa home and away and obviously playing England in England. We probably have a fair idea of where we sit in the Test match arena.”Australia and England began the current ODI series ranked third and fourth respectively on the ICC table, but four consecutive victories to the tourists have changed the landscape dramatically. Ricky Ponting’s side moved into a tie for second-place with India as of Sunday, while England plummeted to seventh behind Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Short of a dramatic turnaround in the final three matches in Nottingham and Durham, it is difficult to see England figuring at the Champions Trophy.For Australia, reclamation of the No. 1 ODI ranking will not erase the bitter memories of a tour that has witnessed a calamitous World Twenty20 campaign and an Ashes series defeat, but it will imbue a sense of confidence in the younger members of the squad. Hussey considers himself a generational bridge between those players and the that won the past three consecutive World Cups, and is hopeful Australia’s current side can continue the winning ways, if not the sheer dominance, of their forebears.”I think we’re more of a working class team now,” he said. “When I first started playing it was an unbelievable team to be involved with. There was so much confidence, there was so much presence about the team. Basically, you did expect to win every single game and win it well. We had so many match winners, that if Hayden didn’t come off, it’d be Gilchrist or it’d be Ponting, or McGrath would get the wickets. It was expected and it’s generally what happened.”Being part of this team, everyone has a specific job they’ve got to do and we all have to be doing our jobs if we’re going to win and win well. We don’t rely just on one player to make all the runs or to be the match-winner. We’ve all got to chip in and do our bit.”I actually get on well with the younger generation. They are different, but it’s good because I can learn a bit off them as well. I am available for anyone who wants to chat at any time. And it goes both ways. I like to chat to them about computer games and stuff – which I know absolutely know nothing about – which hopefully can help my kids.”Never before has an Australian side whitewashed a bilateral seven-game one-day international series, and Ponting is making strides to ensure complacency does not take hold in the final week of the tour. With the limited overs series sealed at Lord’s on Saturday, the Australian captain impressed upon his players the need to drive home their advantage and rediscover their ruthless edge ahead of the Champions Trophy.”Ricky’s been on our hammer already basically about trying to maintain our momentum,” Hussey said. “We’ve also identified some areas we need to improve. We want to finish this summer well here in England and it’s a really good lead-up to the Champions Trophy as well.”I’m sure [a whitewash of England] is a motivating thing for us but we’ve just got to worry about this game really. If we don’t win this one then that’s out the window. It’s been great to win this series but we want to keep the momentum going forward leading into the Champions Trophy. We still think we can improve a lot and we’re going to have to improve a lot more to be right up there in this Champions Trophy.”

Aamer and Naved earn Pakistan easy consolation win

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Opening salvos: Mohammad Aamer and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan took eight wickets between them•AFP

A hostile Mohammad Aamer and an inconsistent-but-smart Naved-ul-Hasan sent Sri Lanka crashing to what was very nearly their worst-ever ODI defeat at home. Naved earlier gave Pakistan’s total a boost with hefty hitting in the final overs, after Pakistan had threatened to let half-centuries from Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq go to waste. Sri Lanka however, took the series having already won the first three matches.This was also the 10th straight time that a side batting first won at the R Premadasa Stadium. It can’t be ascertained if it was just the conditions, but the Pakistan pace bowlers were way better than their Sri Lankan counterparts. Aamer and Naved got more movement, and demonstrated better control and variation.Aamer set the agenda with the first ball, a brute that injured Upul Tharanga’s middle finger. Even if the finger wasn’t broken, the spirit was as he played and missed at an away-swinger next. The third ball, short and climbing into Tharanga, duly produced the edge. Even before the returning Sanath Jayasuriya could cause any damage, Naved flummoxed him with a superb slower delivery, putting the onus squarely on Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara.They added 35 in 37 deliveries, targeting Naved, before the veteran bowler fooled Sangakkara too with a slower one. Even before Sri Lanka could recover from that blow, Jayawardene edged an angling delivery from Aamer, finishing the match – at 58 for 4 – for all practical purposes.Aamer and Naved, though, proceeded to take out whatever life remained in the contest. Aamer did away with Chamara Kapugedera and Angelo Mathews in his next two overs, while Naved came back to take out Nuwan Kaulasekara and Dammika Prasad. Kulasekara’s dismissal was a splendid effort by Misbah, diving forward at first slip, giving him his third catch of the innings. Aamer finished with a career-best effort and Naved reached 100 wickets in ODIs.Thilina Kandamby and Malinga Bandara delayed the inevitable, but the record for the highest successful chase at the Premadasa Stadium never really came under threat. That Pakistan got to that total was largely due to the responsible fifties from Younis and Misbah.After an 83-run stand between Younis and Misbah for the fourth wicket, Pakistan lost three quick wickets, making them reassess the total they aimed for, but Naved’s late hitting made sure they felt confident going into the defence.Throughout their disastrous tour Younis has spoken about the importance of partnerships. Today he was involved in three valuable ones. The first one started after the first ball of the match, when umpire Gamini Silva welcomed back Nuwan Kulasekara by missing a thick inside edge from Kamran Akmal, and giving Sri Lanka a bonus wicket.Younis was sedate to begin with, enjoying a ferocious start from Iman Nazir from the other end. Nazir, playing his second match since his comeback from the ICL, raced to 35 from 21 balls in the first seven overs, as Prasad’s first three overs went for 30. Sangakkara then took a gamble, bringing on Mendis in the eighth over. The Pakistan batsmen have been exceptional in playing Mendis, looking to play him straight as often as possible, but Nazir went to turn the second ball he faced from him to midwicket, paying the price as he was trapped plumb in front.Younis found the perfect partner in Mohammad Yousuf, who did the majority of the scoring in the 68-run third-wicket partnership. But by the time Yousuf fell for 43, Younis looked set to convert the slow start.Younis, 13 off 39 at one stage, had started accelerating and along with Misbah, who also started fluently, Younis threatened to take Pakistan past 300. It was a typical Younis knock – a slow start, an increase in the number of singles and doubles in the middle portions, and only a few boundaries. Without a flurry of hits to the fence, Younis got 37 off the next 32 balls he faced, to reach his second fifty in a row.If Younis was playing an ideal middle-order ODI innings, Misbah at the other end started to mirror him, rotating the strike with ease. His first boundary came off the 25th ball, but he had reached 19 by then. He looked to dominate against the spinners, Jayasuriya and Bandara, getting three boundaries, and by the time the ball was changed after 34 overs, Pakistan had reached 186 for 3. With the slightly newer ball, Sangakkara brought back Prasad.Younis’ fall to a yorker from Prasad was followed by two more quick wickets, at which point Misbah took control and set himself to bat through the innings. He got good support from Naved, who hit two huge sixes and a boundary in the batting Powerplay, also the last five overs of the innings. Naved scored 33 off 29, Pakistan got 46 in the last five, and Misbah finished with an unbeaten 73.

Arinaitwe sets up historic Uganda win

Scorecard
Bermuda’s batsmen wilted for the second time in the match to hand Uganda a seven-wicket win in Hamilton, their maiden victory in a four-day international match. The hosts lost their last six wickets for 42 runs, crashing to 138 before Uganda knocked off the winning runs for the loss of just three wickets.Bermuda’s overnight batsmen David Hemp and Kevon Fubler looked to stretch their lead and made steady progress at the start. But the introduction of the offspinner Davis Arinaitwe jolted them. He dismissed Hemp, caught behind for 38 with a delivery that bounced awkwardly off a fullish length, and then took a sharp return catch to get rid of Jekon Edness. Akbar Baig, the offspinner, took two wickets to run through the tail. The pair shared seven wickets between them to set up the victory, which was achieved 40 minutes after tea.Arinaitwe rounded off a good day with an unbeaten 30 to see his team through. Uganda lost an early wicket, that of Roger Mukasa, before Lawrence Sematimba put them on course to the target of 111 with a steady 39.

Players could quit Tests for high IPL pay – Kirsten

Gary Kirsten, India’s coach, has joined the debate on IPL’s threat to Test cricket and said if players are paid substantially more for playing in the Twenty20 league then there will be others like Andrew Flintoff who will quit Tests.”It’s a natural progression that the guys are then going to say ‘I’m not interested in bowling 25 overs in a day when I can bowl four overs in a six-week period and earn three times as much’,” Kirtsen said. “The worrying side that I’m seeing is that a guy like Andrew Flintoff, a high profile cricketer, has now made the decision to leave Test cricket, because he feels that he can get more out of his body and earn much more money by moving away from Test cricket and playing ODIs and Twenty20 cricket. He’s perfectly right in his decision. Why not?”Kirsten said if countries wanted Test cricket to remain as the No. 1 format then priorities had to be sorted. “India plays six Tests this year. Is that sufficient or are there other priorities? I don’t know.”Kirsten also said the number of Twenty20s per tour should be increased in place of ODIs. “It’s quite interesting that we’ve got a Twenty20 World Cup in April next year in the West Indies and Team India don’t play one Twenty20 game until that tournament starts. What should be happening is that we should be going on tour and playing six Twenty20 games and one or two 50-over games. I think that’s going to happen. It’s just a matter of time.”New Zealand players have decided to forgo next year’s IPL for a Test series against Australia at home. Daniel Vettori, the New Zealand captain, said while the national side had to be the players’ priority, it was difficult for them to continue to turn down the money.

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