The fact that it’s the centenary year of Kumar Duleepsinhji adds a historical tinge to this season’s Duleep Trophy, which starts on October 20, but there is another prince who will be the centre of attention as East Zone take on North in the opening game at Rajkot. Simultaneously, South will play West at Baroda, in what is likely to be the more competitive of the two contests, but the events at Rajkot could have a huge bearing on the future of Indian cricket and will inevitably make the headlines.Recently dethroned from the Indian captaincy, and left out for the opening games of the series against Sri Lanka, Sourav Ganguly faces another crucial juncture in a career filled with such defining moments. Having just recovered from a mild tennis elbow, he will have to counter an effective pace attack, prove his fitness, and then form, to harbour hopes of returning to the Indian side for the rest of the series.Leading a side that starts as the underdogs, he will be up against a team that has a fine record in zonal tournaments over the last five years. Three bowlers he is likely to face – Gagandeep Singh, Joginder Sharma and Amit Mishra – ended among the top ten wicket-takers last season. The other, VRV Singh, has already established himself as one of the fastest operators around and shown that he is capable of hurrying the best. Suffice to say, he faces a daunting task. Needless to say, he has weathered many such storms in the past.Starting with his Test debut at Lord’s, Ganguly has shown that no challenge is beyond him. The last time he played a domestic first-class game in India, he returned from a side-strain problem to score 170. In the game before that, he produced a heroic 121 and helped Bengal stave off relegation by the slimmest of margins. Batting support may come from Shiv Sundar Das, Rohan Gavaskar and Laxmi Ratan Shukla, all former Indian players who have impressive domestic records, and, going by history, the Muncipal Stadium may help them grind out a big total.But North may have all the ammunition to wrap up the points. Led by Dinesh Mongia, they may not face too many challenges from the East Zone attack and Pankaj Dharmani, Ravneet Ricky and Shikhar Dhawan will be expected to shoulder the burden of putting runs on the board. North’s strength, though, lies in the bowling and their varied bowling attack makes them the favourites for the tournament.As the battle rages on at Rajkot, West Zone will take on South in the other game at Baroda. Zaheer Khan, left out of the Indian squad, will get a chance to reclaim his form while Dheeraj Jadhav, Niraj Patel and Ramesh Powar will be hoping to catch the eye. The VVS Laxman-led South Zone, though, comprising Lakshmipathy Balaji, Robin Uthappa and other young stars, might have other ideas.

Sourav Ganguly has been declared fit to take part in East Zone’s Duleep Trophy match against North Zone, to be played at Rajkot from October 20-24. Ganguly, who recently lost the captaincy of the one-day team, and was ruled out of the first two one-day internationals against Sri Lanka, was suffering from a mild tennis elbow. He was passed fit after being examined by John Gloster, the physiotherapist of the team, and Dr. Anant Joshi, the board-appointed sports medicine expert. The two examined Ganguly at a suburban hotel in Mumbai on Tuesday evening, and the board released a statement saying Ganguly was fit.”Dr. Anant Joshi and John Gloster re-evaluated Sourav’s elbow and were of the opinion that he has improved enough to participate in the Duleep Trophy match starting on 20th October 2005. Participation in this match will give a better overall picture as to the status of his recovery,” said Professor Ratnakar Shetty, executive secretary of the board. Neither Ganguly nor Gloster was available for comment soon after this statement was delivered by Shetty.Ganguly was first advised rest for 10 days on October 7, when he was examined by Joshi and Gloster. His being passed on Tuesday means that he will lead East Zone in their opening match of the Duleep Trophy. Ganguly had already made a foray into the nets, in his academy back home in Kolkata, on Monday, and batted for an extended period against Sourashish Lahiri and Murtaza Lodhgar, the Bengal spinners, and Shiv Shankar Rao, the Jharkand mediumpacer. He also spent some time bowling.The Indian squad for the first two one-dayers against Sri Lanka, to be played on October 25 and 28, was selected on October 13, and Ganguly was left out. A strong performance in the Duleep Trophy match, where the selectors will be watching his fitness more closely than his form, could pave the way for his return to the Indian team for the remaining matches in the series. The selectors are scheduled to meet again on October 28 in Mohali to pick the squad for the next two matches.

England’s proud record of six consecutive unbeaten series is hanging by athread. Tomorrow’s third and final Test in Lahore represents their lastopportunity to draw level in a rubber that, until mid-morning on the fifthday at Multan, they seemed to have firmly in their grasp.Speaking to the press on the eve of the match, England’s captain, MichaelVaughan, conceded that England were still ruing their missedopportunities. “We played a good game at Multan where we should reallyhave won,” he said, “while at Faisalabad we created a few opportunities onthe fourth afternoon. We’ll just keep pushing ourselves a little bitfurther each game.”It is a long time since England were last in this situation. Not since theOval Test against South Africa in 2003 – Vaughan’s first series in charge- have they had to come from behind to steal a share of the series, whiletheir last series loss came in Sri Lanka three months later, when theywere hammered by an innings and 215 runs in the final Test in Colombo.”We’ve been playing catch-up cricket because we’ve lost both tosses,”conceded Vaughan. “It’s a big game for us all, seeing as we’re 1-0 downand we haven’t lost a series for two years now, but we’re looking forwardto the challenge.”After a strangely overcast weekend, there had been reports that the Lahorepitch would turn out to be damp and green, but an inspection on the eve ofthe match confounded such thoughts. “It’s certainly not an Englishgreentop,” said Vaughan. “As expected it looks a decent pitch, like theone we played on here five years ago. It’ll be a good batting pitch,offering a bit of assistance, but as we proved over the last two games, ifyou bowl with good discipline, you can put Pakistan under pressure.”England will hope it’s not too like the Lahore strip from the 2000-01tour. That match was memorable only for an astonishing feat of endurancefrom Graham Thorpe, who compiled a century in England’s first innings thatcontained just the one boundary. England, who need to force the pace inorder to beat both the opposition and the prevailing weather conditions,will hope for a little more life this time around.Vaughan confirmed yesterday that he would be returning to the top of theorder, where he has played 31 of his 63 Tests and scored 10 of his 15centuries. “I stress it’s only for this game,” he added. “Andrew Strausswill be straight back in for the India series and I’ll go back to No. 3.But I’ve had a lot of success opening, and hopefully there’ll be some morein this Test.”England’s other selection dilemma, however, remains unresolved, withAshley Giles’s longstanding hip injury continuing to be monitored. “We’rea little bit closer to a decision, but we’ll wait and see how everyonecomes through practice,” said Vaughan. “Ashley’s all right and he had a goodlong bowl, so we’ll see how he’s come through that. If we go in with onespinner, we have to make sure he can play a full part.”Giles is already due to fly home after the Test to undergo surgery on hisproblematic hip, and with just three tail-end wickets in the first twoTests, he has not exactly made an unanswerable case for inclusion.England, however, are famously loyal to their long-standing players, andso it remains more likely that Shaun Udal will sit out the match -assuming, of course, that England opt to play an extra seam bowler.”We’ll be looking for the best formula to take 20 wickets,” Vaughanstressed, adding that both James Anderson and Liam Plunkett were very muchin the frame for that extra seam-bowling position. For Anderson, a recallwould represent his first Test since a traumatic one-off match atJohannesburg last winter, when he played in place of Simon Jones and wascarted all around the park as his lack of match preparation was exposed byHerschelle Gibbs and Co.”That’s a long time ago,” said Vaughan. “Almost 12 months in fact. Jimmy’shad a good county season, and he bowled well in the warm-up game a fewweeks ago. Sometimes though, it’s better to go in fresh because if youplay all the time little things can creep into your mind, Just go out andsee where it takes you, because it usually takes you to a decent level ofperformance.”Paul Collingwood could do with a similar injection of devil-may-careconfidence, for his recall to the problematic No. 4 position representspossibly his last chance to prove himself as a Test batsman. He has theone-day series to come, in which he has long been an integral member ofthe squad, but in Tests he has managed just four outings in four years,with a highest score of 36.Vaughan refuses to be drawn on the significance of the occasion forCollingwood, although if England’s middle order is unproven, then the samecan also be said of Pakistan. Shahid Afridi and Younis Khan have been replaced by Asim Kamal at No.3 and Hasan Raza at No. 6; neither of those two will fill England’s bowlers with dread.One man, on the other hand, most certainly will. Inzamam himself, unmovedat the pivotal No. 5 position, again represents the single biggestobstacle to England’s ambitions of squaring the series. He was thedifference between the sides at Faisalabad, as Vaughan himself admitted.And if Vaughan cannot win a crucial toss and get runs on the board early,he could once again prove the difference at Lahore as well.Pakistan (probable) 1 Shoaib Malik, 2 Salman Butt, 3 Asim Kamal, 4 MohammadYousuf, 5 Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Hasan Raza, 7 Kamran Akmal (wk), 8 RanaNaved-ul-Hasan, 9 Shoaib Akhtar, 10 Mohammad Sami, 11 Danish KaneriaEngland (probable) 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Michael Vaughan (capt), 3 Ian Bell,4 Paul Collingwood, 5 Kevin Pietersen, 6 Andrew Flintoff, 7 Geraint Jones(wk), 8 Ashley Giles, 9 Matthew Hoggard, 10 Steve Harmison, 11 JamesAnderson

Shane Warne has warned South Africa they could need their team psychologist after Australia has finished with them in the three-Test series starting on Friday. Referring to the squad’s plan to fly Francois Hugo from Johannesburg to motivate the players, Warne said it may be a good idea.”They might need one by the time we’ve finished with them,” Warne said. There is little love lost between the two Test nations and South Africa are aiming to regain some lost pride, having failed to beat Australia in a Test series since being readmitted to international cricket in 1991.Warne is a particular concern for the Proteas and has an excellent Test record against them, having taken 101 wickets at 22.34. The visitors have also rankled the Australians by claiming they use sledging to upset and distract their opponents. Herschelle Gibbs said last week the players had come to expect such tactics and would think something was wrong if they weren’t sledged.”As usual, the South Africans have had a bit too much to say, they should worry about their own backyard, get it in order first,” Warne said. After recovering from back soreness, Warne said he was looking forward to the first Test even though the WACA is not known for taking spin.”I feel pretty good, I’ve done a lot of yoga, I’ve done stretching, I’ve done pool and all the strengthening for my back,” he said. “It’s still a bit stiff, hopefully it will loosen up with another three or four more days of treatment. It’s an ongoing thing I suppose at 36. I’ve bowled a few balls over 15 years – I’m going to have to put up with some sort of soreness.”Warne was under no illusions about his role on the pace-friendly WACA, saying he would be called upon more to break partnerships than as a front-line strike bowler. “You know when you go there,” Warne said, “that you’re not going to take a big haul of wickets.”

Pakistan have included the uncapped opener Raffatullah Mohmand in their 18-man squad for a training camp ahead of the series against India. He replaces the dropped Hasan Raza while there is also no place for Mushtaq Ahmed.Mohmand, 29, scored 444 runs including three hundreds in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy last year and has caught the eye of Inzamam-ul-Haq. He also scored an impressive 55 against England in the warm-up match ahead of the one-day series in December.There are also recalls for the fit-again paceman Umar Gul and opener Yasir Hameed, who made 57 against England in the final one-day international. Gul played the last of his five Tests against India two years ago before being sidelined due to a back problem.Abdul Razzaq makes it into the squad despite fears that he would miss most of the Test series after being admitted to hospital with a serious chest infection.Pakistan squad Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Salman Butt, Shoaib Malik, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Mohammad Sami, Danish Kaneria, Arshad Khan, Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul, Asim Kamal, Yasir Hameed, Raffatullah Mohmand

ScorecardPankaj Singh’s six-wicket haul guided Rajasthan into Friday’s Ranji Trophy Plate final with a nine-wicket win over Orissa.Resuming their overnight score of 91 for 5, still 55 in arrears, Orissa lost Niranjan Behara early with the score on 97. Priyabrata Pradhan made 26 before being dismissed by Singh. Debashis Mohanty, the Orissa captain, and Rashmi Parida did offer some resistance with a 58-run partnership for the eighth wicket. Singh removed Mohanty five runs short of his half-century and Orissa were finally dismissed for 220, with Parida not out on 67.Rajastan will face either Saurashtra or Madhya Pradesh in the Plate group final on February 2.

Sri Lanka are about to find out whether home ground advantage is a blessing or a handicap when they set out on their quest to win the Under-19 World Cup next month.The venues and conditions may be familiar to Angelo Mathews and his side but set against that will be the enormous expectations on the players to do well in their own backyard.And it will be their ability to deal with those expectations that could go a long way to deciding whether or not Sri Lanka achieves the goal of becoming U19 World Champions.History is against the hosts as only one team has ever won the tournament on home soil – and that was Australia way back in 1988 when only eight teams took part.Since then the closest any home side has come to being champions is Sri Lanka, as they finished runners-up in 2000 when they were beaten by six wickets by a powerful Indian line-up.Sri Lanka’s players do, however, have several factors on their side this time around as they bid for glory including, crucially, the draw.The hosts have been included in Group C and although that group also includes tournament favourites India, that is not necessarily a disaster for Sri Lanka.It means that providing they finish as one of the top two sides – and New Zealand and Uganda are also standing in the way – they will not have to face India again until a possible meeting in the final as the two sub-continent sides have different potential paths to that ultimate match.Also in the side’s favour is the fact the core of the squad has been playing together for the past seven months now and during that time they have improved steadily and produced some encouraging results.That seven-month period did not start all that auspiciously with a disappointing tour of England in which they lost the ODI series 2-0 (with one match washed out) before they lost all three Test matches.But since then results have improved as Sri Lanka reached the final of the six-team Afro-Asian U19 Cup in Vishakapatnam in November and then did likewise in a tri-series also involving hosts Bangladesh and England the following month.During that intense period of matches several players produced impressive form and that bodes well for the main event of the World Cup.Chief among those leading performers was the captain Mathews, who is the only remaining member of the squad that took part in the previous tournament in Bangladesh two years ago.Mathews was comfortably Sri Lanka’s leading batsman on the tour of England, scoring an unbeaten 123 in the final Test of the series at Headingley, and he followed that by being the leading run-scorer in the tri-series in Bangladesh with 302 runs in seven matches.He really is the heartbeat of the side as he has also opened the bowling with his medium-pacers and if he hits form then Sri Lanka will be a real threat to any opponent.Mathews’ abilities as a batsman are likely to be complimented by several others, all of them vying for top-order places. Wicketkeeper Sameera de Zoysa and Dimuth Karunaratne have opened together on a regular basis and they are likely to be followed by SachithraSerasinghe and Hans Fernando.Karunaratne is also a capable medium-pacer while Fernando impressed in the tri-series with scores of 119 not out (from only 106 balls) and 70 against England.With the ball, Sri Lanka are expected to rely heavily on the skills of off-spinner Rajeewa Weerasinghe, an exciting talent who performed superbly during both the Afro-Asian Cup and that tri-series in Bangladesh.He took 15 wickets in the latter tournament and he could well be another key figure if Sri Lanka are going to progress in the World Cup.Sachith Pathirana, a 16-year-old left-arm spinner, is another slow bowler that Sri Lanka will look to for both control and penetration while another left-armer, Malinga Pushpakumara, made an impact in the tri-series by taking 4 for 39 in Sri Lanka’s solitary win overBangladesh.The seam attack includes not only allrounders Mathews and Karunaratne but also Shalika Karunanayake (also a capable lower-order hitter) and Chathupama Gunasinghe, both of them veterans of the England tour last year where they showed promise in unfamiliar conditions.Recent results suggest Sri Lanka will be extremely competitive and they have an impressive record to maintain as they are one of only four sides that have always reached the Super League stage.The fact their Group C opponents India and New Zealand are also in that list (along with Pakistan) means that at least one side will lose that proud boast in the next two weeks.Sri Lanka will be hoping it is not them and they will know if they can win some matches early on, build some momentum and generate increasing interest and support then they really can go all the way and lift the trophy on February 19.Sri Lanka squad Angelo Mathews (capt), Sameera de Zoysa,Dilhan Cooray, Hans Fernando, Chathupama Gunasinghe, Shalika Karunanayake, Dimuth Karunaratne, Sachith Pathirana, Prabudha Perera, Thisara Perera, Ashan Priyanjara, Malinga Pushpakumara, Sachithra Serasinghe, Rajeewa Weerasinghe.

Kookaburra, the company sponsoring Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey, will have its banned bats tested using laser vibration in a bid to show the graphite stickers on the back do not increase its power. The Marylebone Cricket Club last week ruled three of Kookaburra’s styles were illegal and the company withdrew the products from Test and ODI markets.Ponting will use his Kahuna and Hussey his Beast in the one-day games in South Africa, but the pair needs replacements for the three-Test series starting on March 15. “There’s a couple of good ones at the moment I don’t really want to part company with,” Ponting told . “I’m going to be right to use those bats until the end of the one-day series and then it’s going to be up to me over there to get the black graphite off the back of the bat so I can use them in the Test series.”The reported Kookaburra had provided scientific evidence from independent sources to argue the strip does not form an integral part of the blade and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology would conduct vibration testing. “The MCC says its experts have raised the point that the covering changes the amount of vibration and thus increases the power,” Rob Elliott, Kookaburra’s managing director, told the paper. “We know this isn’t true, from anecdotal evidence and testing, and now we’re proving it.”

India lately has been hoping for Virender Sehwag to come good. There have been endless public assurances and even bouts of captaincy for good measure. It hasn’t worked. Jamshedpur only added to the unease.India might not fret a great deal about the loss in the sixth one-dayer. Heat was terrible and there were far too many replacements, including a new set of medium-pacers. But it needs a reassurance on its top order. India is not willing to let go on Sehwag or Mohammad Kaif, or for that matter Sachin Tendulkar. But time is running out.Ideally, all of India would love to have these men in the 2007 World Cup. But it also needs time to think of alternatives. Between now and the Caribbean Carnival, a new player could at the most have 15 one-day internationals. If India must change horses in the midstream, the time to do it is now. That Sehwag has been affected is there for all to see. His initial bravado has given way to skepticism. Sehwag in repose at the crease has resembled a cat ready to pounce on anything which comes his way. A cobra in coil, a panther on haunches, a falcon in that strategic patrolling of the sky. He is a quintessential four-man; always visualizing the shortest and swiftest passage of the ball to the boundary. Not at the moment though. Bowlers now are teasing him outside the off-stump and he is curbing himself. He has put his instincts on hold which is a dangerous ploy for those who are nature’s product. He has even begun to weigh the virtue of pull shot these days. Sehwag is not the kind of batsman who can get away by restructuring his batting.Mohammad Kaif’s case is equally a study in regret. He has been dealt harshly by fate: his 90s and 50s have usually resulted in his omission in the next game while for others it generally is a license for the next dozen games. Now when a string of failures have come, Kaif is leaning not so much on his reputation as on goodwill. Not long ago, he was one safe pair of legs in a bunch of no-gooders. Now even he doesn’t stand out among Generation Next of Indian cricket. Kaif of today will increasingly have to lean on his batting to firm up his base. Mere fielding will not do.One guesses there are still three games for these men to sort themselves out. It isn’t the case of loss of ability; but a snapping up of confidence. They are lucky that India is winning otherwise they would have been still more untenable. One senses that India would still have decided on the two by the end of Abu Dhabi gamesAmong the youngsters, Ramesh Pawar has steadily gained in impression. In Jamshedpur, he stuck it out with bat. He has the sort of frame which would be ridiculed in modern era. One is now used to seeing a lot of fitter, stronger and mobile cricketers on the field. He is a complete antithesis of it and sooner or later the cry on his frame would only get shrill. For the moment though, he is allowing India to play with five bowlers. Pawar’s presence has also galvanized Harbhajan Singh, who has by far been the best bowler on either side in the one-day series. Against better players of spin than England, it would be tricky for India to choose between the two of them.England, on their part, would be happy for the form of James Anderson who has been one spirited presence since the Mumbai Test. Andrew Flintoff now probably can choose to stay in the hut in Indore as well. Andrew Strauss too could smile as there wasn’t an Irfan Pathan to keep him in torment. Ian Bell didn’t have to bat out of his skin because of the low target and it suited England fine. By the evidence of this game, it seems okay that these three Indian medium-pacers are not the first choice of the team management.Finally, it is nigh difficult to believe that any cricketer would be keen for competitive cricket in weather as severe as the one in Jamshedpur. Mercury is rising in India and it’s time to lay down the arms.

Zimbabwe cricket has suffered another loss with the news that Noel Peck, who has been head groundsman at Bulawayo’s Queens Club since 1988, has resigned.Cricinfo has learnt that Peck quit on April 5 and is now serving out his three-month notice period before leaving at the end of June. It is understood that he will then leave Zimbabwe and settle in England, where he has family, and once there he hopes to continue working as a groundman.Peck, who is 60, is also responsible for the maintenance of the pitches at Bulawayo Athletic Club and the recently-built Emakhandeni Cricket Ground.He started maintaining the wicket at Queens on a part-time basis as he was still employed by the National Railways of Zimbabwe. He prepared the wicket for the first Test match to be played at Queens when Zimbabwe took on Sri Lanka in October 1994.In 1997, Peck resigned from the NRZ and was taken on by the Zimbabwe Cricket Union the following year as a full-time curator. He has maintained both the playing and practice area that have been praised by a number of touring sides.