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Sadagoppan Ramesh – the outback awaits © AFP

Irfan Pathan, currently on Ranji Trophy duty for Baroda, was woken up in the dead of night with the news that he had found a place in the 16-man squad that embarks on a tour of Australia later this month. However, there was no place for Murali Kartik, as the think-tank elected to go with five pace bowlers and only two spinners, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.The selection committee, led by Syed Kirmani, has given the team management an extra opening batting option by including Sadagoppan Ramesh, and there’s also wicketkeeping back-up in the shape of Deep Dasgupta. Patel has been designated as first-choice keeper, but any serious gaffes in the warm-up matches could see the gloves handed over.Ajit Agarkar and Zaheer Khan lead an inexperienced pace bowling attack that can only boast of 55 caps between them. Aavishkar Salvi and Irfan Pathan can look forward to making their Test debuts, if selected, against the strongest batting line-up in modern times.The batting order more or less picks itself, though Ramesh will certainly push Akash Chopra hard for the opportunity to be Virender Sehwag’s partner at the top of the order. Of the seven batsmen selected, Chopra and Sehwag are the only ones without experience of Australian conditions.Despite plenty of speculation to the contrary, it was as you were in the slow bowling department. Harbhajan has never played in Australia, while Kumble’s lone tour there – in 1999-2000 – ended with a paltry five wickets at a cost of 450 runs.India have toured Australia seven times since 1947-48, winning just three Tests matches out of 28. Of those, only one came against a full-strength Australian side – a sobering figure that the select 16 would do well to forget as they set out on the hardest assignment that any cricketer can ever undertake.Squad Sourav Ganguly (capt), Akash Chopra, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Parthiv Patel (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Ajit Agarkar, Sadagoppan Ramesh, Aavishkar Salvi, Deep Dasgupta (wk) and Irfan Pathan.Comment: No real surprises, except for the inclusion of Pathan, whose 87 wickets in 29 first-class games is hardly the stuff of legend. L Balaji has been knocking over batsmen for fun in domestic cricket, but Pathan’s potential to bowl quicker – allied to some sterling performances for the U-19 side – got him the nod.Reputation, rather than form, was the criteria, when it came to picking the spinners. Kartik bowled quite beautifully when given limited opportunities in the TVS Cup, but the selectors plumped instead for a woefully out-of-sorts Harbhajan, and Kumble, whose overseas record won’t have the Australians quaking in their size-12 boots.Privately, they reckon they’ve worked out both men, and if proof is provided in Brisbane three weeks from now, India could be on a hiding to nothing. The pace bowlers will have to bowl out of their skins to trouble Australia’s top seven, and this time, there will be no Javagal Srinath to look to for advice.All in all, a pretty conservative selection, which goes to illustrate that world-class talent is a lot thinner on the ground than the team’s cheerleaders would have you believe. Any smidgen of hope will rest on Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly piling up the runs. If that fails, even Santeria won’t help…

England’s most consistent Test batsmen during the last year, Graham Thorpe, who left the recent tour of India early in order to attend to marital problems at home, has made himself available to go back to India for the one-day series and then on to New Zealand.This was announced in a media release from the England and Wales Cricket Board today. It also said that Andrew Caddick, who withdrew from the England tour of India in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, has also confirmed his availability for the one-day series in India and both legs of the tour to New Zealand.Graham Thorpe said: “The past few weeks have been a difficult time for me and my family and I am grateful to the selectors for giving me as much time as I needed to come to this decision.”I now firmly believe that I can commit myself fully to cricket again and I hope to play a full part in both the one-day series in India and the one-day and Test series in New Zealand.”Chairman of selectors, David Graveney, added: “The selectors appreciate that this has been a difficult time for Graham and we are delighted that he has decided to commit himself in full to the remaining part of this winter’s tour programme. He is our leading batsman and I am sure that he will have a significant part to play in both India and New Zealand over the next three months.”Thorpe had not appeared to be himself in the early stages of the tour to India before announcing that he was returning home on the eve of the second Test in Ahmedabad. It will be a source of delight in the England camp if he can return to his form of old as he takes his place in the middle order.Caddick had forged a top-class new ball partnership with Darren Gough before the Yorkshireman decided to make himself unavailable for the Indian tour prior to the announcement of the teams. Caddick then decided he was not happy with the security situation and withdrew from the Test tour to India.As well as going to India now, he is also available to return to the land of his birth, New Zealand. The composition of England’s team to contest the Test series in New Zealand will be announced in due course, but there are no changes to the original squads already announced for the preceding one-day series in India and New Zealand.The England party leave for India on January 10th.

Gloucestershire are facing one of the heaviest defeats in their history after closing the third day of the Vodafone Challenge Series match with Zimbabwe in Gloucester on 98-4 in their second innings.The tourists had earlier declined to enforce the follow on after dismissing Gloucestershire for 167 in their first innings of 568.Zimbabwe captain Andy Flower then struck 116 not out in his side’s second innings 258-2 declared, which left Gloucestershire a nominal 660 to win.Gloucestershire’s decision to rest seven first team regulars was again exposed by Zimbabwe on a day of sweltering heat at the King’s School festival ground.Gloucestershire resumed on 146-7, but that was effectively eight wickets down with acting captain Tim Hancock unable to bat because of a fractured knuckle on his left hand.The last two wickets added a further 21 runs before the innings was wrapped up by Paul Strang, who had Ben Gannon caught behind, and Heath Streak, who had Martyn Ball dismissed in the same fashion.Gloucestershire enjoyed some early success with the ball when Gannon had Craig Wishart caught at the wicket by Jack Russell for a rapid 40 and Jon Lewis removed Trevor Gripper, also caught by Russell, for eight.But thereafter Andy Flower and his brother Grant sent the ball fizzing to all parts of the ground with a fine display of attacking shots.Grant Flower had struck ten fours and a six in his 76 when he retired hurt with a minor finger injury, having put on 170 in 27 overs with his brother.But Andy Flower progressed to a chanceless century, which was brought up with a cut to the third man boundary off spinner Martyn Ball.When the Zimbabwe skipper decided to declare at tea, he had made 116 from 129 deliveries and struck 15 fours and two sixes.No-one suffered more in the Gloucestershire attack than Tom Cotterell, whose left-arm spin went for 86 runs in 19 wicketless overs.Gloucestershire’s second innings got off to a poor start with the cheap dismissals of openers Dominic Hewson and Imraan Mohammed.Hewson cut a Streak delivery to Dirk Viljoen at gully for 11, then Imraan was lbw to Pommie Mbangwa for four as he shuffled across his stumps.Matt Windows made a fluent 25 for Gloucestershire before he was bowled by a Streak delivery which kept low.And then Chris Taylor fell lbw to Paul Strang’s leg-spin as he failed to get sufficiently forward.Jack Russell reached an unbeaten 19 by the close, but there appears little chance of Gloucestershire escaping with a draw.

West Brom have not been shy when it comes to spending money on bringing new players to the club during transfer windows.

However, not every deal turns out the way everyone involved would have envisaged at the start. One example of this at Albion concerns Oliver Burke, who made the move to The Hawthorns from German club RB Leipzig back in 2017 for a reported £15m.

During his time with the Baggies, the centre-forward made just 24 appearances across all competitions, finding the net just once before he was sold to Sheffield United in September 2020.

Before that, the striker had loan spells in Scotland with Celtic, where he scored four goals and provided three assists in 19 appearances, followed by a period in Spain with Alaves were he found the back of the net just once in 32 games.

In 36 appearances for the Blades, things have been pretty much the same, with just two goals and one assist to his name for the Yorkshire club.

In January, the former Baggies dud joined Millwall on loan until the end of the season, where he has since made six league appearances but, rather unsurprisingly, hasn’t been able to score or set up a goal.

To highlight the attacker’s downfall since he arrived at The Hawthorns, Transfermarkt had his market value listed as £10.8m in October 2017, whereas it now stands at just £4.5m.

Having been called a “disgrace” by Frank McAvennie because of a poor performance he delivered in an Old Firm derby during his time on loan at Celtic, Burke’s career has completely stalled since his disappointing spell with West Brom, who must now be regretting spending such a significant amount of money on him in the first place.

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Even though Steve Bruce’s side have struggled to score at times this season, which may well cost them a promotion place, it wouldn’t seem likely that anyone at Albion would have been wishing they still had Burke available as a squad option, given how finding the net hasn’t exactly been easy for him in recent years.

In other news – £11.5m wasted: “Lazy” £26k-p/w West Brom flop has been draining Lai for 137 weeks

Anil Kumble touched down in Australia with the belief India can win the series, though he was careful not to make any outlandish predictions © Getty Images

Anil Kumble has always been a master of turn but even he had a hard time spinning a convincing argument that India could beat Australia in their four-Test series. They have the motivation – five or more of their champion veterans are desperate for success on what will almost certainly be their last tour of Australia – but how do you defeat a team that has not lost a home Test series since 1992-93?Kumble’s men arrived in Melbourne eight days ahead of the Boxing Day Test and the captain spent his first press conference trying to persuade the media that India could break that spell. He ticked off the reasons India would be a threat, then found just as many causes for his own side to be concerned about Australia’s power. He chose his words carefully, which was not surprising for a man who has heard the spin from his captaincy predecessors on visits to Australia, and has seen the results.Fittingly, his major argument revolved around spin, which he declared as Australia’s biggest weakness. Shane Warne was proving difficult to replace, he said, and India’s batsmen would not mind facing up to a third-choice slow bowler with Stuart MacGill unavailable. “If the wickets help spin, then definitely we have the advantage,” Kumble said. “It will definitely help us if it turns in Melbourne and Sydney.”Brad Hogg is in Australia’s 12-man squad but may yet be squeezed out if a four-man pace attack is favoured. Hogg was impressive in the recent ODI series against India, although Kumble said facing him in a Test match would be a completely different scenario.Kumble brightened when he mulled over Australia’s double-loss of Warne and Glenn McGrath. Then he remembered that neither of them played last time India toured Australia in 2003-04, when Warne was enduring his drugs ban and McGrath had an ankle injury.”It definitely gives you a bit of confidence,” he said. “But having said that the last time around when we played here Glenn was injured and Warney was not there, so …” His voice trailed off. If Kumble is a man who sees the glass as half-full, the sentence might have finished with “and we didn’t lose”. If his glass is half-empty, the thought could have been “no Warne, no McGrath and we still couldn’t beat them.”India did play well on that visit, securing a 1-1 draw and Kumble saw no reason that their style of play should change this time around. But he was careful not to make any predictions that would come back to bite him.”Most of the senior cricketers probably are here on their last tour to Australia, so it’s very important that we go back victorious. But not many people come here and go back victorious,” he said. “We know that Australia is a tough opposition and I think we have the experience and the quality to go out there and do our best.”Exactly how much experience and quality India will put on the field in the first Test is still up in the air. Virender Sehwag was a late addition to the squad and they are also keen to play Yuvraj Singh – if they can find a place for him in their strong batting line-up. Kumble was not concerned about chopping and changing an order that had been successful against England and Pakistan, although he was still unsure who would get a run in their only warm-up game, a three-day encounter against Victoria at the Junction Oval starting on Thursday.Kumble was at least confident that India’s recent Test series victories against England and Pakistan had prepared them well, whereas Australia have had only two Tests against Sri Lanka since their Ashes triumph in 2006-07. “Australia is always tough whether they’ve played enough cricket or not,” he said. “[But] in that sense, we are pretty well prepared.”Squad Wasim Jaffer, Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Karthik, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Anil Kumble (capt), Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Pankaj Singh.

Public broadcaster Doordarshan and private network Nimbus have failed to reach an agreement on telecast of ongoing India-West Indies cricket series, dampening hopes of a resolution to the dispute before Wednesday’s match at Cuttack.Criticising the “rigid line” taken by the Indian information and broadcasting ministry and the state broadcasteing corporation Prasar Bharati, BCCI rights holder Nimbus challenged the public broadcaster to produce its own programme and go live.”We offered Prasar Bharati a deal where they could have live feed of the matches if they encrypt signals or they could go in for a 15-minute delayed feed”, Digvijay Singh, the CEO of Nimbus, told PTI immediately after the talks with Prasar Bharati. “However, since they do not agree to both these, all I can say is they can come to the stadium with their equipment and go live if they believe they are so entitled under guidelines.”Asked if this would not be illegal, he said: “Let them first do it, then we will see.”L D Mandloi, the director-general of national broadcaster Doordarshan (DD), ruled out any live recording from the stadium, saying, “How can we do it without an agreement? It is not possible.”Today’s talks between the two broadcasters came even as both approached the courts to resolve the matter and swing things in their favour. Nimbus went to the Delhi High Court, challenging the Centre’s uplinking guidelines that make it mandatory on private broadcasters to share feed of sporting events of “national interest” with public broadcaster Prasar Bharati. The Delhi High Court has fixed the matter for hearing tomorrow.On the other hand, Prasar Bharati filed caveats in the Supreme Court and Delhi and Bombay High Courts, pleading that it be heard whenever the matter regarding the telecast row would be taken up.While the BCCI has thrown its support behind Nimbus, the Indian government has taken a serious view of the public broadcaster being denied telecast rights. P R Dasmunshi, the information and broadcasting minister, who has said the government will take steps to bring in a law making mandatory to share feed of sporting events of national interest with DD, questioned the BCCI rights award to Nimbus, saying terrestrial rights cannot be sold to any private broadcaster as they were not under the jurisdiction of the cricket board.”Terrestrial rights to Doordarshan and radio cannot be overshadowed by any private marketing company. I will not be under pressure of any sort in this regard”, he said, adding that once the law was in place there would be no scope for the broadcaster to violate it.

Sachin Tendulkar looks forward to playing at Karachi, where he made his debut all those years ago © Getty Images

Sachin Tendulkar has said that he doesn’t have any specific targets for the series but hopes to play as positively as possible and enjoy himself. Terming battles against Pakistan “special”, he felt that India needed to concentrate on their gameplan, rather than worry about individuals in the opposition camp.Tendulkar, who kicked off his fourth tour to Pakistan with a confident 74 in the warm-up game in Lahore, revealed that he would adopt the same approach that had served him well all these years and talked about the big challenges that India had to brace themselves for. “When I started off, I didn’t think I would make 35 hundreds,” he said while addressing a press conference three days prior to the first Test at Lahore. “It’s always been that way and I don’t have any specific targets for this series.”Looking ahead to playing at Karachi, the venue where he made his debut, he hoped that India could repeat their memorable performance in 2004. “We played at Karachi last time and it turned out to be a memorable match,” he added. “I am hoping for a repeat performance this time. There is always excitement when India plays Pakistan. It’s a very competitive atmosphere. But the real inspiration comes from wearing the India cap, and it doesn’t really matter who you are playing. As long as you’re playing for India, that is motivation enough.”Though he acknowledged the quality that Pakistan possessed in the bowling stakes, he refused to be drawn into personal battles when asked specifically about Shoaib Akhtar, who was instrumental in Pakistan trumping England recently. “He’s bowling well at the moment and looks in good form. But we’re not thinking about what they will do to us, we’re more interested in what we can do to them. They have a quality bowling line-up with other good bowlers too. It should be a tough battle.”

The excitement of an India-Pakistan series does affect the players because there is so much hype

Asked whether the two teams were meeting too often, highlighted by three series in the last two years, Tendulkar spoke about the importance of finding the right balance. “Earlier people complained that we weren’t playing that often,” he continued, “now they are saying we are playing too often. We should strike a right balance so that there is no overdose and at the same time not deprive the public of India-Pakistan contests.”Tendulkar conceded that Pakistan are in prime form, after their excellent series win over England recently, and conceded India had their work cut out. “Pakistan has shown confidence and a right kind of attitude, so it would definitely be a tough series,” he said. “Pakistan have been playing well and have carried a good momentum. I think this series will be more competitive than in 2004.””To carry that 2004 experience would be important for us. But we don’t need to be over-confident,” he said. “When we came here last time we had really played well in Australia and followed that up by beating Pakistan. We want to do as well here this time.”International cricket is always competitive but, to be honest, the excitement of an India-Pakistan series does affect the players because there is so much hype in both countries. One feels it is a special series. But it is all about competitiveness, nothing more than that. We eventually go out and play cricket but it gets very hard.”

Western Province 43 (Zoysa 6-12) and 32 for 1 v Central Province 133Nuwan Zoysa took six wickets for 12 runs as Western Province slumped to 43 all out on the first day of the Inter-Provincial Tournament at Colombo. Ruchira Perera took the other four wickets as only one batsman, Chaminda Vaas (15), reached double figures in a miserable first innings for the home side. Central Province fared slightly better in their reply, before capitulating to 133. Westerns made a brighter start to what was their second innings of the day, and they had reached 32 for 1 at the close.The day had got off to a flyer for Central, as Zoysa (9-3-12-6) dismissed Michael Vandort for 0 on the fourth ball. Things went from bad to worse … and then on to the truly terrible as three wickets fell on 14 – and the rest soon followed.Four of Central’s batsmen managed to achieve double figures but, after making starts, no one could go on, Thilan Samaraweera topscoring with 27. It was definitely a day for the bowlers, Dinuka Hettiarachchi took 3 for 22 and Chaminda Vaas took 3 for 27.When a weary Westerns commenced their second innings, Vandort had more success. He reached 21 before caught him off the bowling of Dilruwan Perera. On the strength of today’s performances, this four-day match is unlikely to stretch beyond two days.Shantha Kalavitigoda and Gayan Ramyalumara struck an unbeaten stand of 205 to cement a strong position for North Central Province on the first day at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium. They had a lead of 165 by the close, with nine wickets still remaining in their first innings. Southern Province batted first, and were reduced to 86 all out, as Nuwan Kulasekara and Farveez Maharoof took four wickets each.Avishka Gunawardene was the only wicket to fall in SP’s innings (46 for 1). He made 23. Undeterred, Kalavitigoda struck 19 fours and three sixes as he rattled along to 126 by the close. Ramyalumara played an admirable supporting act, his undefeated 78 included 12 fours.Batting was a different story for Southern Province, who struggled throughout. Their only partnership of note was that of Saman Jayantha and Anushka Polonowita, who mustered 39 between them. SP’s bowlers head into the second day with much work to do to get their team back into the match.

Pakistan today announced an 18-man squad for their second Test against South Africa, which starts at Faisalabad on Friday (Oct 24). Yousuf Youhana, who led Pakistan to an eight-wicket victory in the first Test, has been ruled out with a hamstring injury, but Inzamam-ul-Haq has recovered from his own hamstring problem and returns as captain.There was a recall for Abdul Razzaq, and a first call for Mansoor Amjad, a wrist-spinner, who is only 17 years old and yet to play a first-class match. He has represented Pakistan at junior level, including the Under-15 World Cup in England and the recent Emerging Teams Trophy.Meanwhile, Shoaib Akhtar has been retained even though he has an ICC-imposed ban hanging over him after being found guilty of using abusive language against Paul Adams on the first day of the opening Test. There is also a slight doubt over his fitness after he limped from the field yesterday with a hamstring strain. Shoaib’s appeal against his ban will be heard by Richie Benaud, the former Australian Test captain, and if it is successful he will be available for selection.Squad
Taufeeq Umar, Imran Farhat, Yasir Hameed, Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Asim Kamal, Faisal Iqbal, Misbah-ul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq, Moin Khan (wk), Kamran Akmal (wk), Shoaib Malik, Mushtaq Ahmed, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami, Danish Kaneria, Mansoor Amjad, Shabbir Ahmed, Salman Butt.

The West Indies selectors have made yet another change to the team for the upcoming triangular one-day international series, which begins next weekend.Jamaican opening batsman, Leon Garrick, who was previously dropped from the one-day squad, will now remain in Sri Lanka for the triangular series while his compatriot, Wavell Hinds, will instead return to the Caribbean.Hinds’ premature departure from Sri Lanka comes as a result of a death in the family, and he is expected in the Caribbean on Sunday. Garrick, who has yet to play in any of the tour matches, can look forward to opening the batting with his regular (Jamaican) opening partner, Chris Gayle during the shorter version of the game.Gayle, who himself has flattered to deceive ahead of the current Test series, must also be looking forward to the one-day series to make amends for his sub-par performances so far. Meanwhile Ganga, who is less suited to the shorter version of the game, is expected to make way for Garrick at the top of the batting order.The West Indies, who have already conceded the Test series, must now play to salvage pride and bolster hope and confidence for their fans in the Caribbean who have been deprived – for the first time – of being able to see or hear commentaries of the tour.The triangular one-day series will involve the West Indies, Zimbabwe and host country Sri Lanka, and begins on December 8.