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Indian ODI skipper MS Dhoni was bought by the Chennai team for a whopping $1.5 million which is the highest price yet in the IPL bidding process. Australian player Andrew Symmonds was a close second at $1.35 million to Hyderabad. Updates on the Indian Premier League auction will continue.

Team owners of the Indian Premier League (IPL) convened in Mumbai for the formal auction of the 78 players to determine which player plays where. Indian ODI captain MS Dhoni has been the costliest sale yet to the Chennai team for $1.5 million.

NatWest Series [India in England] - 6th ODI - England v India 2007 season - Played at Kennington Oval, London, on 5 September 2007 (50-over match)

Result India won by 2 wickets (with 2 balls remaining)

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Controversial fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar said there was a need to change the culture of the Pakistan team’s dressing room with a captain who is honest and supportive of his players. “My experience is that in the past instead of using me as a match-winner some of the captains used to play matches with me,” Shoaib said in an apparent reference to Inzamam-ul Haq with whom he never had a smooth relationship.

“When you have a captain who has an ego problem or is jealous of performances of other players then you have a major problem in the team. I think there is a need to change our dressing room culture,” he told Geo TV.

Shoaib said there was a need to have an honest captain. “I may have disagreements with Imran Khan on some issues. But I have no doubt he was our best leader because he was honest and expected the same from players. He also didn’t have any jealousy factor,” he said.

“I think we need to change our method of training and practice. We need to learn to play on grass and stop making excuses. Because we are professionals and take money for playing,” he said. Shoaib said it was time for things to move on in Pakistan cricket and a change in culture because except for a good home series against England the team had not won anything significant and it also played badly in the World Cup.

Gag Order on Players

Pakistan cricketers attending the national training camp have been restricted from speaking to the media by manager-cum-coach Talat Ali after captain Shoaib Malik was misquoted in a recent report.

“Only the captain, chief selector and myself can speak to the media that is also if it is absolutely neccessary. When the matches start obviously the top performer will attend the media conference,” Talat said.

Meanwhile, pacer Mohammad Asif, returning from an elbow injury that forced him out of the World Cup, is going all out to be included in the team for the series against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi. Asif bowled long spells at the ongoing conditioning camp in Lahore.

Cullen Bailey, Chris Rogers, Ben Hilfenhaus, James Hopes and Adam Voges have been annointed as the future of Australian cricket following their elevation to Cricket Australia’s list of 25 contracted players.

CA announced the latest list today with New South Wales captain Simon Katich and Queensland fast bowler Michael Kasprowicz dumped.

Retired stars Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Damien Martyn and Justin Langer were also left off.

Victorian all-rounder Cameron White comes back onto the list after being ignored for last season’s.

Chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch says they have chosen an evenly balanced list of senior players combined with some of Australia’s young emerging talent.

“With the recent retirements Australian cricket is presented with a great challenge over the next 24 months,” he said in a statement.

“The retirement of Shane Warne is a significant issue for Australian cricket. While he is obviously irreplaceable we are pleased that we have experienced spinners in Stuart MacGill, who has a great Test record and Brad Hogg, who has just finished a highly successful World Cup.

“We will also look to Cullen Bailey and Dan Cullen to continue with their exciting development and realise their potential.

“While it still going to be a challenging time for Australian cricket, we consider it to be a very exciting one and are really confident that the group we have picked can help us to continue our dominance of world cricket.”

Cricket Australia decided on their list based on two criteria: the form of players over the last year, and the likelihood they will represent Australia over the next 12 months.

The contracted players are paid a base retainer according to a player ranking system decided by the panel.

They also receive match fees, tour fees and prize money for onfield success.

Former New Zealand fast bowler Dick Motz was found dead at his home in Christchurch on Sunday at the age of 67, New Zealand Press Association reported. Motz played 32 tests between 1961 and 1969 and was the first New Zealand bowler to take 100 test wickets.

“He was a great fast bowler who never knew when to stop. He had back trouble, but he kept on going,” former New Zealand captain Graham Dowling said.

Motz reached the landmark of 100 test wickets during a tour of England in 1969 but he was forced to retire from the game immediately afterwards due to a back injury.

TASMANIA swing bowler Ben Hilfenhaus was one of five new faces handed a central contract today as Australia plans for life without its retired stars.

First-time inclusions among Cricket Australia’s list of 25 contracted players for the 2007-2008 season were Hilfenhaus, South Australia leg spinner Cullen Bailey, Queensland all rounder James Hopes and Western Australia batsmen Chris Rogers and Adam Voges.

The recent retirements of Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Damien Martyn and Justin Langer freed up vacancies on the roster, while Michael Kasprowicz and Simon Katich failed to have their contracts renewed.

Veterans Jason Gillespie and Stuart MacGill were retained, and Victoria captain Cameron White was again offered a full contract.

“ This list of players still represents a very experienced group but also includes some exciting young talent. � – Andrew Hilditch
Chairman of selectors

With Redbacks off spinner Dan Cullen and World Cup star Brad Hogg also on the list, the National Selection Panel (NSP) named five frontline spinners in the wake of Warne’s departure.

“With the recent retirements of great players … Australian cricket is presented with a great challenge over the next 24 months,â€? chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said.

“The retirement of Shane Warne is a significant issue for Australian cricket. While he is obviously irreplaceable we are pleased that we have experienced spinners in Stuart MacGill, who has a great Test record and Brad Hogg, who has just finished a highly successful World Cup.

“We will also look to Cullen Bailey and Dan Cullen to continue with their exciting development and realise their potential.”

Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist, both of whom stated their intention to carry on playing after Australia’s third successive World Cup final triumph on Sunday, were unsurprisingly kept on by selectors.

An estimated $1.6 million in player payments was freed up by the glut of high-profile retirements in the Australia ranks.

The contracted players are paid a base retainer, which is scaled according to a player ranking system decided by the NSP. Each player also receives match fees, tour fees and prize money for on-field success.

Each member of Australia’s World Cup touring party received about $180,000 in bonuses for winning the tournament, in addition to $90,000 in touring fees.

Mitchell Johnson, one of two squad members not to play a match in the Caribbean, was awarded a contract along with fellow pacemen Nathan Bracken and emerging star Shaun Tait.

“As with Shane, the retirement of Glenn McGrath leaves a huge hole for Australian cricket, but the squad contains some really exciting fast-bowling talent in Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson and now the addition to the contracted list of Ben Hilfenhaus for the first time,” Hilditch added.

“While it still going to be a challenging time for Australian cricket, we consider it to be a very exciting one and are really confident that the group we have picked can help us to continue our dominance of world cricket.

“While we are thrilled with the team’s recent performances in claiming the ICC Champions Trophy, the Ashes series and the World Cup, we can now look forward to what can be seen as a new era for Australian cricket.

“This list of players still represents a very experienced group but also includes some exciting young talent that will ensure our reign as champions in both Test and one-day cricket can continue.”

Australia is scheduled to tour India for a limited-overs series later this year before hosting Sri Lanka and India in home summer Test series.

WORLD Cup hero Matthew Hayden is to play on, eager to help usher in the next generation of Test stars.

Hayden arrived home in Brisbane this morning, after cutting short Caribbean celebrations for the impending birth of his third child.

The veteran opener, who starred with three Cup centuries, said he has no intention to emulate player-of-the tournament Glenn McGrath and recent retirees Shane Warne, Justin Langer and Damien Martyn.

Hayden also tipped final man-of-the-match Adam Gilchrist to stay around for at least another year.

“This side wants to stay together for a little bit longer,” he said. “I think we’ve got a job to do within cricket just to try and set it up for the next stage of Australian cricket. “I don’t think you’ll see too many retirements, over the next 12 months anyway.’’

Tom Cartwright, who has died at the age of 71, was a great medium-pace bowler who, because he played in an era in which sheer pace was increasingly deemed all-important, was picked for only five Tests, a figure which mocks his immense skills.

He was also the man responsible for honing the fast-bowling talents of a young Ian Botham, who said about Tom that “he always had time, always had faith in me. I couldn’t have had a better man to teach me.”

Tom also played an unwitting part in one of the greatest scandals to rock the game. In 1968/69 he was not fit enough to accept a place on the England tour to South Africa and was replaced by Basil D’Oliveira. The tour was cancelled and South Africa were isolated from the international game.

Tom was initially a batsman who bowled a bit. He made his Warwickshire debut when still virtually a boy in 1952 but two years of National Service, allied to an already strong Warwickshire batting order, limited his opportunities. In fact, it was not until 1956 that he played with any regularity. In 1959 he made nearly 1,300 runs and took 80 wickets. It was during that summer that I first played against him, when he bowled big inswingers with the high action that characterised his bowling. From half a mile away you would have known it was Tom bowling. However, his acute cricket brain worked out the limitations of a method based purely on inswing - the difficulty of getting leg before decisions and the fact that the ball leaving the bat is more difficult to play than the one coming in.

Accordingly, though still using inswing at times, he deliberately limited the amount of it he obtained to a bat’s width. He developed an outswinger which, combined with movement either way off the pitch when it helped and complete control of length and line, made him a formidable performer.

Tom broke into the England side in 1964, playing twice against Australia, his debut being at Old Trafford when the Aussies made 656 for eight declared. Tom’s figures of 77-32-118-2 reflect his accuracy, stamina and guts.

Tom’s finest moment in Tests was at Trent Bridge in 1965 against South Africa when he would have skittled their powerful batting in the first innings but for Graeme Pollock making a dazzling century. As it was Tom still finished with six for 94.

He moved to Somerset in 1970, taking 408 first-class wickets at 18.87 in seven seasons. As Glamorgan coach he was called out of retirement in 1977, responding with one for 46 in the Championship against Middlesex.

Tom was a master of his craft. His incredible accuracy caused some people to classify him as “negative”. On a flat pitch, Tom had two slips and a gully and at least one close fielder on the leg side, with a second short leg posted if there was anything in the pitch. I cannot see how you could be negative if you have five close catchers and bowl every ball at the stumps. For virtually all bowlers the outswinger needs to be bowled from close to the stumps and the inswinger from wide on the crease. This gives batsmen a clue to the bowler’s intention. Tom, however, could bowl an inswinger from close in and an away swinger from wide, a nasty trick which he passed on to the young Botham.

I have never driven past a pub called The Nag’s Head without thinking that Tom’s face should be on the sign rather than a horse’s. He gave away absolutely nothing. For my part, I was more concerned with trying to keep Tom out than attempting to hit him anywhere.

In March this year Tom suffered a heart attack while out shopping in Neath. Nine days after the attack he was due to have launched his biography, The Flame Still Burns. It is a fitting title. Tom was a fine cricketer and his legacy speaks for itself.

The Professional Cricketers’ Association have unveiled a new system for ranking players based on their domestic performances this summer.

The rankings will reward every run scored, wicket taken and catch held, as well as giving credit for captaincy and to winning teams.

The PCA believe the rankings will identify the season’s most valuable player and will provide a more reliable marker of an individual’s performance.

PCA group chief executive Richard Bevan said: “We found that [performance statistics] were too focused on individual components of the games like averages and run rates. As a result, they didn’t take into account a player’s total contribution to their team, or whether the team actually won.”

Leicestershire will stage the final of the ICC Inter-Continental Cup between Ireland and Canada at Grace Road from May 22-25. Ireland will defend the title they won in 2005 in the first-class competition for emerging nations.

Warwickshire are giving trials to Vaughn van Jaarsveld with a view to signing the talented South African left-handed batsman as a Kolpak player for next season.

Van Jaarsveld, 22, will make his Warwickshire debut in today’s Second XI Championship match against Surrey at Cheam.