Harbhajan Singh’s appeal over his three-Test ban will be heard in Adelaide on January 29 and 30, after the Test series between Australia and India, leaving him free to play the last two Tests. New Zealand judge John Hansen, the commissioner appointed to hear the appeal, has agreed to hold the hearing after the fourth Test in Adelaide following formal requests from Cricket Australia and the Indian board.”We would have preferred the appeal to be held earlier but it was not possible,” Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, said. “Both CA and the BCCI have requested the hearing to be held after the Test series for logistical reasons and, following due consideration, Justice Hansen agreed.”The reality is that it is likely to go into a second day as lawyers will be involved,” he said, “so we needed to have two clear days to assign to it. With just three full days between the third and fourth Tests, we were conscious of the teams’ travel arrangements and preparations for the match.”The provisions of the ICC Code of Conduct indicate that the hearing should be held within seven days of the commissioner being appointed but it may be delayed if circumstances make it unfeasible and the commissioner agrees, as in this case.Harbhajan was banned for three Tests after being found guilty under Level 3 of the International Cricket Council’s Code of Conduct following an incident that took place during the second Test between India and Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground. ICC match referee Mike Procter upheld the umpires’ report that Harbhajan had made a racist remark against Andrew Symonds and served him with the ban.

Scorecard
Wicketkeeper Mithun Ali and left-hand batsman Nadimuddin slammed centuries for Bangladesh Under-19s to set up a convincing 111-run win over Nepal Under-19s in the first one-dayer at the Khulna Divisional Stadium.After being sent in, Bangladesh were in a spot of bother, losing two wickets to medium-pacer Paras Khadka. However, from that stage onwards Bangladesh were in control of the match with Mithun and Nadimuddin putting on a massive 261 runs for the third wicket. Mithun struck 14 fours and three sixes in his 137-ball 142 while Nadimuddin carted 13 boundaries in his 134-ball 118. Their superb partnership saw Bangladesh set a daunting target of 303 for Nepal, who did themselves no favours by bowling 18 wides. Of the seven bowlers Nepal employed, only their opening bowlers, Khadka and Amrit Bhattarai, managed to keep their economy-rates below six.Nepal’s chase got off to a poor start as Mahesh Chhetri was run out with only four runs on the board. A 65-run stand followed between Anil Mandal and Gyanendra Malla but their sedate pace of scoring stymied Nepal’s chances of overhauling the target. Mandal and Khadka then stitched together another slow and steady partnership of 59 runs from 97 balls. A flurry of wickets saw the visitors stumble to 139 for 5 and despite being gifted 33 extras, Nepal fell well short of their target, mustering only 191. Barring wicketkeeper Mithun, all of Bangladesh’s players bowled during Nepal’s innings.The next match of the three-game series is at the same venue on Saturday.

James Bruce has announced his retirement from professional cricket to pursue a career in the City.Bruce represented Eton and Durham UCCE before signing for Hampshire as a fast-medium seamer in 2003. He was a member of the side that won the C&G Trophy in 2005 and enjoyed his most successful summers in 2006 and 2007, taking 38 and 39 wickets. He was awarded his county cap in 2006.”The decision to retire has been a decision that I have not made lightly,” said Bruce. “I’ve been gaining work experience in the City over the last three winters with the intention of developing a career for when I had finished playing. Whilst initially I didn’t know when that might be, I was always conscious of the importance of preparing for life after cricket.”The recent work that I have done this winter has made me realise that the transition from sport into the working world is not as easy a process as I originally thought. I have thoroughly enjoyed the work I have been doing and became aware that the longer I left this transition the harder it would be for me to secure a career in exactly what I wanted to do.””Over the last few years Brucey has put an enormous amount of work into getting his body and mind into a position where he has proved a formidable opponent for opposition batters,” Paul Terry, Hampshire’s coach, said. “It’s not an exaggeration to say, in the right conditions, he has become one of the better English-born bowlers. Having witnessed the work he put into his fitness in Perth in the early years, it always gave me a sense of pride to see how well his career had developed – a sentiment shared, no doubt, by all those who have helped him along the way.”In 49 first-class matches, Bruce took 124 wickets at 34.07. In 31 one-day outings his 44 wickets cost 22.18. he had few pretensions as a batsman and his 243 runs came at an average of 7.14.

The Indian Premier League has advised its eight franchisees to avoid brand conflicts “as far as possible” while using top players on their rolls for team endorsements.The IPL rules specify that each player will have to give ten days to the franchise for team endorsements, which should involve a minimum of three players from the team. But the franchises were reminded by IPL officials at a meeting in Mumbai today to avoid any potential legal hurdles by opting for a safer route.”Why get into those legal hassles, was the common line at the meeting,” a franchise representative who was present at the meeting said. “There is scope for conflict. For instance, we can insist that a top player, who has a personal endorsement with a particular brand, endorse the team which may be associated with a rival brand. And if the player pulls out, he will even have to face a cut in the fee he gets from the team. But we will try to avoid all that.”All the top Indian players have hefty endorsement deals with corporate majors like Pepsi and Reebok while the Australians have global team sponsors like Emirates and Foster’s to deal with.”It’s just the first year and everybody is trying to figure out where things stand, so there will be a spirit of accommodation,” an Indian cricketer, who is part of the IPL, said.The IPL officials, including Lalit Modi, its commissioner, also briefed franchise representatives on the rules governing the marketing and branding opportunities available for the tournament.

“I don’t know what they are doing,” remarked IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi about Jaipur, his home team, after the first players’ auction in Mumbai on February 20. Of the nearly US$ 42 million that was spent by the eight teams on blockbuster names, Jaipur had spent only around US$ 2.95 million.On Tuesday, after the second auction, Jaipur spent just US$ 385,000 more but emerged with the biggest smile of them all.For a total of US$ 3.35 million – just half a million over what Chennai and Hyderabad spent for MS Dhoni and Andrew Symonds in the first auction – Jaipur’s Rajasthan Royals are looking quite formidable: Shane Warne, Graeme Smith, Younis Khan, Shane Watson, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Kamran Akmal, Yusuf Pathan, Mohammad Kaif, Munaf Patel, Morne Morkel and Sohail Tanvir.”We have put together a great squad from the two auctions at our price,” Fraser Castellino, the CEO of the franchise, told Cricinfo. “I would call this a victory for us. Other teams have great squads too, but now I believe they may have overspent a bit. We believe we are well-placed now, as good as any of the other teams.”While spending just under three-fourths of the near US$ 5 million that the seven franchises have spent, Jaipur’s strategy of staggering their purchases across the two auctions seems to have worked.”We would like to be called a strategic franchise now,” Castellino said. “After today, few people will say we are a weak team. There were a lot of people who made fun of us last time. What they failed to understand then was we had a clear strategy, and we were as sure as they were that this was serious business.”On Tuesday, Jaipur started the ball rolling by picking up England allrounder Mascarenhas (US$ 100,000), with whom they had been negotiating for the last few days. Hampshire’s Twenty20 specialist was a last-minute addition to the auction after being cleared early on Tuesday morning by the county, which also has Warne on its rolls.Then, they bought Australian allrounder Watson (US$ 125,000), South Africa fast bowler Morkel (US$ 60,000) and Pakistan left-arm seamer Tanvir (US$ 100,000).Explaining the strategy, Castellino said, “Yes, there were good players in the first auction. But we also knew then that there were a lot of good Twenty20 specialists who missed out and who would come into play in the second auction. We targeted them this time, and our strategy has worked.”However, Jaipur could still run into some trouble with the second part of their strategy – tackling the minimum cap of US$ 3.3 million for the first auction in two attempts. While Castellino claimed that the cap covered the entire auction process and included the amount spent in the second auction as well, IPL governing council member IS Bindra told Cricinfo that the penalty for falling short last month “still stands”.”It was very clear early on that the first auction was just the first step,” Castellino said. “All the franchises knew then that there would be a second auction. And as far as we are concerned, we have crossed the minimum cap and adhered to the rules.”Jaipur now plans to rope in some more players from India, some of them through their Cricket Star talent hunt, steered by former India coach Greg Chappell.”We will be taking a few more players from India, especially through our Cricket Star programme through which we are currently talent-spotting across the country,” Castellino said. “If we find some exceptional talent we will fast-track him into the team this season, but there will be somebody from the programme in the team definitely next time.”

Umar Gul and Rao Iftikhar Anjum have been recalled for the first two one-day internationals against Bangladesh, but there is no room for Shoaib Akhtar in a near-full-strength Pakistan squad. Three finds from the ODI series against Zimbabwe at home recently – Nasir Jamshed, Sohail Khan and Wahab Riaz – were handed another opportunity to impress, while there was a recall for Bazid Khan after a fine Pentangular Cup.Gul, who travelled to Australia for a medical check-up on a longstanding back problem that prevented him from taking any part in the Test series against India last year, and Iftikhar – who had a poor series against Zimbabwe – return from injury to boost the bowling. With Mohammad Asif ruled out and Shoaib waiting to be cleared by the PCB’s disciplinary committee, Pakistan’s bowling attack also included Sohail Tanvir, Sohail Khan and allrounders Fawad Alam and Shahid Afridi, who make up the spin quotient.Bazid, who played one Test and three ODIs in 2004-05, finished as the Pentangular Cup’s second-highest run-scorer with 522 at 74.57, including three hundreds.In the ODIs against Zimbabwe, Pakistan tried out opener Jamshed and bowlers Sohail Khan – who shot to fame in his debut first-class season by grabbing 91 wickets – and Riaz, among other young hopefuls. Jamshed impressed with 197 runs at 39.40 as did the two bowlers. Both wicketkeepers from that series, Kamran Akmal and Sarfraz Ahmed, have been retained.While announcing the 16-man squad Salahuddin Ahmed, head of the selection committee, said that players such as Yasir Hameed, Yasir Arafat, Faisal Iqbal, Naumanullah, Abdur Rauf, Kamran Hussain, Junaid Zia, Yasir Ali, Umair Khan – who have all performed well on the domestic circuit – would be considered for the next three ODIs.The five-match series runs from April 6 to April 20.Pakistan squad Shoaib Malik (capt), Salman Butt, Nasir Jamshed, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal (wk), Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Sohail Khan, Wahab Riaz, Fawad Alam, Bazid Khan, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk).

Tendulkar recovering from injury
The Indian Premier League is nearly half over but its biggest draw Sachin Tendulkar is yet to play a game because of a groin injury. However, he is optimistic of joining the resurgent Mumbai Indians soon. “I can tell you roughly that I’m targetting the next match [against Chennai on May 14], Sachin said while watching Mumbai play Rajasthan from the sidelines. “If I’m in the middle, I should be able to compete, for if I’m not able to compete, I’ll be letting the team down.”Charu out, Brijesh in
After five defeats, a visibly rattled Bangalore Royal Challengers are wielding the axe. The first victim is Charu Sharma, the CEO of the franchise, who was held responsible for the team’s poor performance. Sources close to the team claim he was asked to step down by Vijay Mallya, the franchise owner, but the team spokesperson however said he stepped down due to “personal reasons.” Sharma has been replaced by Brijesh Patel, the former India Test player and secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association. The players are reportedly shocked by this move. The question is, who’s next?Was slap-gate premeditated?
According to a report in the , Sudhir Nanavati, the BCCI’s commissioner to look into the slapping incident involving Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth, told its sources in the Indian board that the attack seemed to have been premeditated. This was supposedly based on the reaction of the Mumbai Indians’ coach, Lalchand Rajput, immediately after the incident. Navanati, however, denied making such a statement. “The report that appeared in a newspaper is completely false. I can tell you I neither saw him [Rajput] neither clapping nor laughing when Harbhajan slapped Sreesanth from the video footage shown to me yesterday”, Nanavati told Cricinfo.No more games for DY Patil?
The 40 km commute from the team hotel to the DY Patil Stadium in Nerul is getting to the Mumbai players and the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) has stepped in, suggesting Mumbai’s last two matches – on May 14 and 16 – be moved to the Wankhede Stadium. The franchise owners, Reliance Industries Limited, are yet to confirm the move. Today’s game against Rajasthan Royals, however, stays at the DY Patil stadium.Fat wallets
Players can look forward to bigger earnings once the second season of the IPL gets underway, with the governing council deciding to scrap the $5 million cap on earnings. The move was prompted by the success of the current season, and players can look forward to an increase of upto a massive $15 million. “I can tell you that our players would already be the highest-paid across any sport in the world,” Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman and commissioner, was quoted as saying in .One more chance
Harbhajan Singh, who has been banned for 11 IPL matches for slapping Sreesanth after an IPL match in Mohali, has appealed to the Indian board to give him “one final chance” before taking further disciplinary action against him. “Along with accepting my most sincere and heartfelt apologies over this incident, I would like to appeal to the board’s sense of fairplay and ask for one final chance before taking any disciplinary action against me over this incident,” Harbhajan said a letter to the BCCI. The disciplinary hearing will be conducted commissioner Sudhir Nanavati, who was appointed by the BCCI, in Ahmedabad.

Claire Taylor has fought off stiff competition to scoop England women’s Player of the Year courtesy of strong batting performances in all forms of the game. In an unprecedented winter of success in Australasia, the team retained the Ashes and drew 2-2 in the one-dayers against the world champions Australia, while thumping New Zealand 4-0.Taylor, who topped the Most Valuable Player (MVP) rankings, hit half-centuries both innings of the one-off Ashes Test, while scoring two centuries and two fifties in ODIs in the voting period. She also narrowly missed out on the ICC Player of the Year award last September – which was won by India’s Jhulan Goswami – but said she was “honoured” to have been chosen for the England title.”I’m really looking forward to the next eighteen months,” said Taylor, “with two very exciting competitions in the World Cup and the World Twenty20 as well as the prospect of more Test cricket with the Ashes in 2009.”She has previously attributed her continued success over the last four years to off-field activities such as working as a management consultant and taking up the violin again which has allowed a work-life balance and taken the intensity away from constant cricket.The allrounder Jenny Gunn was second in the rankings, picking up consistent wickets although she missed out on the Ashes Test through injury.England captain Charlotte Edwards was another strong contender, having helped reverse the side’s fortunes in a home defeat against New Zealand to lead them in their campaign abroad amid off-field disruptions in which they lost their coach Mark Dobson and their most experienced player Jane Smit.Edwards also contributed four unbeaten fifties in ODIs, while making 94 in the Ashes, and she took valuable late wickets in the limited-overs format.

Cricket’s determination to reassert itself as England’s national summer sport has received a fillip with the release of record attendance figures since the ECB was founded 18 years ago.Professional cricket in England, at both domestic and international level, attracted 2,328,000 spectators in 2015 – and much of that impetus has come from a rejuvenating county system which has returned record attendances across all three formats since ECB records began.In county cricket more than 1.5 million people attended LV=County Championship, Royal London One-Day Cup and NatWest T20 Blast matches combined and all three competitions recorded increased total attendances year-on-year. For the first time, more spectators watched T20 cricket than England internationals.International attendances were also up – by 75,000 on 2014 – despite all five Investec Ashes Test matches finishing inside four days – in a summer also enhanced by an attractive New Zealand side and sell-out Women’s internationals.

On the up

• More than 560,000 fans watched England in Investec Test matches; 193,000 in Royal London ODIs and 31,000 in NatWest International T20s.

• 513,000 people watched LV =County Championship matches – up from 495,000 last year.

• More than 200,000 people attended the 72 Royal London One-Day Cup matches – an increase of around 500 per match on the previous year.

Such optimistic figures come while debates continue over the restructuring of the county game with the intention of making it more relevant to modern-day needs, financially more stable and able to equip England with a steady supply of international cricketers who can succeed across all three formats.England and Wales will stake the 2017 Champions Trophy and the World Cup two years later and the tournaments are regarded as critical in bringing the sort of lift to the game that was experienced in the 2005 Ashes series.They come, too, with negotiations underway for the next round of TV contracts, with BT expected to be a big player alongside Sky, but with the BBC looking more financially-strapped than ever when it comes to sporty, so reducing options in the free-to-air market.The growth in attendances on England’s professional circuit will also persuade traditionalists to argue for the retention of the 18-county format. Change in county cricket does not come easily – unlike tinkering – and the counties have won assurances that there will be no major changes ahead before the new TV deals come into being.But a deeper analysis of the figures will, perhaps inevitably, reveal winners and losers – suggesting that if revolution is off the agenda, for the moment at least, evolution is quickening. The fact that only 11 of the 18 first-class counties achieved gains in T20 attendances provides further proof that the financial gap between the Haves and the Have Nots may be widening and that England’s professional circuit, by enabling the best to flourish, might eventually deliver a successful elite capable of winning the TV deals that are vital to the game’s financial health.Much of the recent domestic growth is being driven by the increasingly powerful Test match counties – Surrey, for example, in the NatWest Blast, where big crowds at Kia Oval provides the sort of atmosphere that can be marketed worldwide or Yorkshire, where two Championship wins in succession have reawakened loyalties towards first-class cricket’s oldest competition.Hampshire are claiming that they are one of only two counties to record an increase in all three domestic competitions in 2015, Yorkshire being the other.Of the seven countries whose T20 crowds did not increase with the overall trend, three counties – Somerset, Sussex and Essex – have been playing to capacity crowds for some time. Glamorgan suffered by having an inbalance of home fixtures in May. Northants are known to be in financial disarray. One of the big losers was Durham, who are struggling to attract big crowds to Chester-le-Street for internationals and county fixtures.The story was not just about the international grounds, however, with Kent also showing notable signs of stirring after many years ion the doldrums on the back of a vibrant, young T20 side.The commitment to ground improvements over the past decade might have put county finances under strain – collective debts are estimated at £170m – but it has delivered venues, both big and small, more able to meet modern needs.Tom Harrison, ECB’s chief executive, said: “Across the summer attendances grew for each of the county competitions as well as the international games. These figures reflect a big effort by the counties, our international venues and partners to enhance the match-day experience, improve facilities and make our cricket grounds as fan-friendly and accessible as possible.”They are all good signs and there are big opportunities ahead. We know that there’s more that can be done to draw people to watch and play cricket and further improve standards across the game.”

Lancashire have signed Neil Wagner as their overseas player for the majority of their 2016 first-class season.Wagner, the New Zealand left-arm seamer, will be available from the start of the County Championship season and will feature primarily in that competition. He will be available until at least the end of July and could be available for the entire season if not required for New Zealand’s tour of South Africa.He has currently taken 67 wickets from his 18 Tests. He has previously had a brief spell in county cricket with Northamptonshire – he came into a struggling side in 2014 and took only 10 first-class wickets in five matches at a cost of 72.80 apiece – and has also played club cricket in the region for Ormskirk in 2008. He claimed five wickets in an over while playing for Otago against Wellington in April 2011.His aggression, stamina and commitment should render him a useful addition to a Lancashire side that was promoted back to Division One at the end of last year. With the top division almost certain to shrink to eight teams (from nine) at the end of 2016, Lancashire will have little opportunity to consolidate.”We are delighted to have brought in Neil Wagner to strengthen our bowling attack,” Lancashire coach, Ashley Giles, said. “Neil is a world class bowler with a tremendous pedigree and having him available for such an extended period will give our Division One campaign a real boost.””I am extremely excited to play for such a great club,” Wagner said. “I have always admired Lancashire, ever since playing in the Liverpool Lancashire league for Ormskirk in 2008.”