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The Pakistan Cricket Board does not regret allowing Mohammad Asif to play for the Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League (IPL), despite the latest injury the increasingly fragile pacer sustained in his right hand, which is likely to keep him out of the rest of the tournament. It is also possible that the injury keeps Asif from playing a full part for Pakistan in the tri-series tournament in Bangladesh from June 8.Asif split the webbing on his right hand in a game against the Deccan Chargers and has had stitches put in since. Virender Sehwag, his Delhi captain, said after yesterday’s game, that Asif split the webbing while fielding. “He’s getting fit. He has four stitches on his hand,” Sehwag said. “The doctors told us it would be a week before we could open them. Let’s wait and see.”The latest development is a further setback to Asif who has seen much of the sheen of a prodigious start in cricket taken away by a long-standing elbow injury. He has missed much of the last year, only returning to action against Bangladesh in the recent ODI series, having had surgery on his right elbow in Australia at the beginning of the year. Still, bowling with a protective brace on his right arm, there were concerns that he had returned too quickly, in an effort to be able to participate in the IPL in which he is the second-most expensive – and thus highly-paid – Pakistan player.If the new injury does prevent him from playing for Pakistan in the tri-series, the PCB is likely to bear the brunt of criticism for allowing him to play in India, though an official insisted there was nothing wrong with Asif going to India and that the injury could’ve happened “anytime, anywhere.””We have been in touch with the doctors in India,” Shafqat Naghmi, the PCB’s chief operating officer, told Cricinfo. “He has split the webbing but the stitches are in and will stay there for a week.”Naghmi insisted, however, that the board was fortunate that Asif’s elbow problem hadn’t been aggravated. “We’re lucky in that perspective that the more chronic problem – the elbow injury – hasn’t worsened. His elbow is fine.”He was fit when he went and we thought that the lighter workload of four overs per game would actually be good for him in terms of his comeback. This is just an accidental injury that could’ve happened anywhere, anytime.”The PCB’s approach to allowing their players to participate in the IPL appears to be in contrast to their approach towards county cricket. After a calamitous run of injuries to their fast bowlers last year, the PCB formulated a policy whereby they reserve the right to prevent a contracted player from playing for counties in England. Fast bowlers such as Asif and Umar Gul have not been allowed to take part in county cricket in order to protect them from potential injuries from a greater workload.No such problem exists with the IPL, however, says Naghmi. “The county workload, where you bowl 20 overs a day at times, and the IPL workload, where you bowl just four, is very different. There is not much chance of the workload being high in the IPL, so we don’t see a problem with that. Obviously if a player was injured or there is a real fear of injury, we wouldn’t allow a player to play in the IPL, but we don’t see a problem otherwise.”

Whoa there. Hold your horses.It’s about time a little straightening out was done on the cricket front.That’s to avoid some of the constant re-writing of history that is inadvertently, or perhaps that should be advertently, being done to cricket.Just as some of the great quotations of history are so commonly mashed up, so are some cricket facts.People may foul up Sir Winston Churchill’s famous words as Britain faced invasion in World War Two from the original, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat” to the sadly common “blood, sweat and tears”, who were after all, a very good rock group, but not a true representation of Churchill’s fighting talk. But they are wrong.All of which it might be said have nothing whatsoever to do with cricket.Ah, but there you are.It’s the mis-quoting that is the problem.And New Zealand cricket history is being done a serious dis-service by those who would perpetuate the myth that the Sri Lankan batsmen at the 1996 World Cup, bless their hearts, were the originators of the 15-over slog at the start of One-Day Internationals. In their case, Sanath Jayasuriya especially, helped them to a famous World Cup victory.But the facts are quite different.You see four years earlier, a big burly brute by the name of Mark Greatbatch, a batsman who had played a bit of rugby in his time, and another burly bloke, a bit shorter but who had played considerably more rugby, Rod Latham, took to the opposition bowling on several occasions. The North Stand at Eden Park took such a hammering it was pulled down a few years later.Oops sorry! It was pulled down but the Greatbatch-Latham hitting was only partly responsible, well, perhaps minutely.But check out the facts, especially in the games against the South Africans and the West Indies. Greatbatch wasn’t chosen for the two games against Australia and Sri Lanka and only came in when John Wright was injured.There’s no doubting the effectiveness of the Greatbatch-Latham combination. Against South Africa they scored 103 runs in 15 overs!They put on 67 in 11 overs against the West Indies a week later.Greatbatch scored 73 off 77 balls against India and New Zealand were 75/1 after 15 overs.Then followed with 35 off 37 balls against England.Fair chance that a recognisable practise of thrashing in the first 15 overs was well advanced before 1996, wouldn’t you agree?Certainly Greatbatch and Latham were the first successful duo in the art.It could be argued with little opposition that Glenn Turner developed the early assault years before anyone else, even if doing it all by himself, on the English county circuit.Kris Srikkanth started the same process in international matches for India in matches against Sri Lanka in 1982/83, just a month or two before Turner returned to the international scene from which he had been absent since 1979.Turner proceeded to show, in the one-day game what he had been doing in English county cricket for some seasons by toying with bowlers in the first 15 overs during England’s three ODIs tour of New Zealand in 1983 and it continued against Sri Lanka that same season.In his book, ‘Opening Up’ Turner described his approach, “My policy in such games was, when I felt in good nick and the ball looked as if it could be hit, to get after it.”In the first ODI at Auckland, Turner and Bruce Edgar put on 101 runs by the 21st over.In the second at Wellington, they scored 152 by the halfway stage of the innings. Turner scored at a strike of 100.Then in Christchurch, they failed. They scored only 64.In the Auckland match against Sri Lanka, Turner scored 140 off 130 balls at a strike rate of 107.69.But in a magnanimous show of bi-partisanship, all New Zealanders will admit that Australia might even lay claim to the initiation of the policy in one-day games, although it proved a oncer.The second final of the 1982/83 World Series in Melbourne saw Steve Smith and Graeme Wood put on 140 in 24 overs against a Richard Hadlee-less attack to well and truly sink New Zealand.Perhaps that should be enough evidence, or then again it might prove that ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.’Sorry, as Alexander Pope originally wrote it, that should be “A little learning is a dangerous thing”.

Veteran all rounder Graham Rose, returned to the scene for Somerset Seconds at Beckenham against Kent yesterday and ended the day with the impressive figures of seven overs , six maidens, three wickets for one run.After being put into bat the hosts were quickly in trouble and had slumped to 62 for 9 before a the last wicket pair came to their rescue.At the other end of the age range young Michael Parsons also enjoyed the good figures of 3 for 54 off 11.4 overs.When Somerset batted they had reached 120 for 6 by the close of play, with Piran Holloway making 38 and Matthew Gitsham 22.

Rajasthan made a confident start to their reply after dismissing Railways for 384 on the second day of their elite group encounter at Jaipur. The hosts were 92-0 with openers Anshu Jain and Vineet Saxena, unbeaten on 38 and 46 respectively.Earlier, overnight not out batsmen Yere Goud (49) and Jacob Martin (27) fell early as the defending Ranji Champions only succeeded in adding 102 runs before being dismissed in their first essay. For Rajasthan, left-arm quick Pudiyangum Krishnakumar and left-arm spinner Mohammad Aslam, who claimed three wickets each, were the most successful bowlers.At Wankhede Stadium,Mumbai, a century from opener Wasim Jaffer (106) and a 69 from all-rounder Ajit Agarkar helped hosts Mumbai gain a 179-run first innings lead. The contributions of the duo ensured that the hosts made 302 all out in reply to Delhi’s modest first innings total of 123. By stumps on the second day, Delhi had managed to reduce the deficit to 127 runs; openers Akash Chopra (33*) and Gautam Gambhir (17*) guiding their team to 52-0 in the second essay.A 118-run seventh wicket partnership between Nayan Mongia (70) and Irfan Pathan (54), meanwhile, helped Baroda reach 381 all out in their first innings against Tamil Nadu at Chennai. Valmik Buch, who made 30, was the other batsman who made a useful contribution for the visitors. When Tamil Nadu replied, Sadagoppan Ramesh (45) and Shridharan Sriram (66*) forged a 97-run second wicket partnership to guide the hosts to 112-2 at stumps.At the famed Eden Gardens ground, hosts Bengal were in deep strife replying to Himachal Pradesh’s first innings total of 290. The Tamil Nadu-born of-spinner Aashish Kapoor, who claimed four wickets for twelve runs, was the man responsible for initiating a collapse that reduced the hosts to 128-7 in their first essay. This after Devang Gandhi (63) and skipper Rohan Gavaskar (39) had put on 79 runs for the third wicket. But once Gandhi fell, wickets began to fall in a hurry. Left-arm quick Ashok Thakur, making his fourth appearance in first-class match provided able support to Kapoor snaring three wickets.In another elite group match played at Secunderabad, Andhra skipper MSK Prasad kept his team in the hunt for the first innings lead against Hyderabad. Prasad made a stroke-filled 91 not out while Y Venugopal Rao and Amit Pathak, weighed in with 59 and 51 respectively, as their team reached 274-5 in reply to Hyderabad’s 353.The Punjab-Orissa elite group match at the Barabati Stadium, Cuttack, for its part, was poised interestingly at the end of the second day’s play. After the hosts ended their first innings on 301, Punjab made 141-4. Orissa’s Sanjay Raul, who made 72, and Punja opener Ravneet Ricky, who made 51, were thestand-out batsmen of the day.Karnataka on course for an outright win against BiharAll-rounder B Akhil made 68 and claimed four second innings wickets as Karnataka piled on the pressure on Bihar at Ranchi. In the morning, Akhil’s stroke-filled fifty along with an overnight not out batsman Thilak Naidu’s 86 secured the visitors a handy 188-run lead. Faced with the task of avoiding an innings defeat, Bihar were soon in trouble. But captain Rajiv Kumar (31*) and Manish Kumar (13*) ensured that hosts lived to fight another day.At Indore, Abhijit Kale followed in his skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar’s footsteps, completing a patient hundred to guide Maharashtra to 334 in their first innings against Madhya Pradesh. Leg-spinner Narender Hirwani, who claimed four wickets, was the most successful bowler for the hosts.When Madhya Pradesh replied, it was the turn of their captain Amay Khurasiya to lead the way with an unbeaten 91. Khurasiya’s swashbuckling 112-ball knock, studded with 15 boundaries, ensured that his team were 141-2 at stumps, despite both the openers falling for low scores.Haryana, for their part, were in sight of an outright win in their low-scoring plate group match against Jammu and Kashmir. At the Molana Azad Stadium, Jammu, the visitors were 52-3 in their second essay, chasing 82 to win. Earlier, Haryana, who began the second day on 102-5, reached 168 all out – a lead of 47 runs – thanks in main to a 51 from overnight not out batsman Shafiq Khan. Spinners Jagtar Singh and Ashwani Gupta claimed four and three wickets respectively for the hosts.When Jammu and Kashmir, batted for a second time, middle-order batsman Kanvaljit Singh made 51 to guide his team to 128 all out on a difficult pitch, securing them an overall lead of 81 in the process. With medium-pacer Vijay Sharma claiming three wickets to reduce Haryana to 32-3 in the fourth innings, the hosts suddenly began to nourish hopes of a surprise win. But Haryana skipper Ajay Ratra walked in that stage and made an unbeaten 35-ball 21 to ensure that his team needed just 30 runs with seven second innings wickets remaining to complete their second win in second matches.

Adam Gilchrist has predicted Twenty20 will become cricket’s “staple diet” in the next ten years and a window may have to be carved into the programme to fit in the traditional contests. Gilchrist has returned to Australia impressed with the Indian Premier League, which he compared with the excitement of the Olympics, and said the concept would be “a landmark in the history of cricket”.”The great discussion at the moment is whether we carve out a window for the IPL,” Gilchrist said in the Australian. “I envisage that, potentially, within ten years it could be more a case of trying to carve out a window for international cricket as this format becomes more of a staple diet.”Twenty20 is being flooded with cash – Allen Stanford launched a US$20m series at Lord’s on Thursday – and Ricky Ponting, who appeared in the first two weeks of the IPL, is concerned by the huge financial rewards. “I’ve always been a little bit worried that if money keeps growing and growing and growing in that version of the game then all of a sudden young kids who are 14, 15, 16 now and want to make cricket their career may not even consider playing for their countries,” Ponting told the paper.”They might be trying to get a crack at the IPL or a competition somewhere like that and hopefully make a name for themselves and totally turn their back on the international game. That’s what I’m worried about.”David Hussey, the Victoria, Kolkata and Nottinghamshire batsman, told the Age he was “seriously worried” about domestic players chasing the money instead of focusing on first-class contests. “I’m just imploring that the ICC and the IPL all get together and keep a keen interest in Test cricket because that is what this game’s all about,” he said.Hussey, who will join the Australian one-day team in the Caribbean over the next couple of days, was signed by Kolkata for US$625,000, but said he remained a traditionalist. “My priority is still the same,” he said. “I’m a traditionalist and I always had the goal growing up that I wanted to play cricket for Australia. I’ve got a little window of opportunity in the West Indies. Hopefully, I get a chance and if I do I will take it with both hands. I desperately want to play.”Gilchrist has suggested caution on making decisions about the IPL’s future, but he was amazed by the success of the tournament. “It was quite overwhelming to see an event capture the attention and mindset and imagination of a country,” he said. “The only thing I can think of that was comparable was maybe the Olympics when they were in Sydney. But the Olympics was about two weeks, this was 45 days every night.”

Rob Turner’s Golf day that was held at Enmore Park recently was a great success, and was enjoyed by all of those who attended.In all ten teams of four entered, which included eight Somerset cricketer’s, and fortunately despite the strong wind the day remained dry throughout.The day began with coffee and bacon rolls on arrival, followed by an 18 holes of golf in which there was some high scoring. The eventual winners of the stableford competition were Mike Smith, Chris Perkins, Mike Perry and Ian Blackwell, who finished with a tremendous 97 points.A nine hole putting competition was also held, which was won by Keith Bigwood. The nearest the pin competition was won by Tony Mann, and the longest drive was claimed by Matt Bulbeck.Following the golf a superb three course meal was enjoyed by all in the excellent club house, along with the prize giving and a grand draw.Rob Turner would like to thank everyone who was involved in any way in helping to make the day such a success.The next two events in Rob’s Benefit Year are the Six-a-side CricketCompetition at Honiton Cricket Club on July 1st and the Summer Ball at Taunton School on July 6th.Further details of either of these events can be obtained from Doreen Barnes, 01455 230489, Mary Elworthy, 01823 400679, or visit Rob’s website www.robturner2002.co.uk

Lancashire duly secured victory in plenty of time for lunch, giving Hampshire their second Frizzell Championship defeat of the season, which with the ECB imposing a 8 point penalty for a sub-standard pitch meant the home side finished their match minus five, having won three bowling points after Lancashire were dismissed in their first innings.The batting today reflected the dire situation at the start of day. Resuming at 54 for 4, still 174 from an unlikely win, John Francis and Zimbabwean Neil Johnson raised a slight hope, posting 27 runs before being bowled by Keedy’s second ball of the day. From then on it was a procession with John Wood polishing off the tail.The talk of the day was however the state of the pitch, and Director of Cricket Tim Tremlett issued the following statement …”Hampshire Cricket acknowledges that the Championship pitch versus Lancashire was below average but nonetheless feel harshly treated in having 8 points deducted”.”Nigel Gray is in constant touch with the ECB and we will be seeking further advicew and guidance to ensure that this situation does not re-occur”.Hampshire’s next home Championship match is not until August 14th, so much work will be done between now and then.

Bushrangers vice-captain and champion wicketkeeper Darren Berry, will tomorrow break Dean Jones’ all-time games record for Victoria, in the Pura Cup clash against the Tasmanian Tigers.Berry, who currently shares the record with Jones on 124 matches, said he was looking forward to the occasion. “At the start of my career, to think I would one day break this record would have been unimaginable. This is an honour I rank as high as any I have received throughout my career and I’ve been very privileged to have played with so many great players in that time. My major focus now however is the match itself and hopefully contributing strongly to a Bushranger victory”.The Bushrangers finalised their twelve for the match, when paceman Mick Lewis was left out of the initial thirteen man squad. Bushrangers coach David Hookes said that Lewis had not recovered sufficiently from the groin strain he incurred during the previous Pura Cup match against the Southern Redbacks. “Our upcoming schedule is extremely heavy and as such we just can’t take risks on players that aren’t one hundred per cent. Mick was close, but ultimately the selectors felt it in his long-term interests that he miss the match”.Lewis’ misfortune now paves the way for Shane Harwood to possibly make his first-class debut for the Bushrangers. Harwood comes into the match in fine form, snaring nine wickets for his club side Melbourne on the weekend.BUSHRANGERSShane Warne (c), Darren Berry (vc), Jason Arnberger, Will Carr, Matthew Elliott, Ian Harvey, Shane Harwood, Brad Hodge, Mathew Inness, Nick Jewell, Jon Moss, Graeme Rummans

Canada, despite several key players missing or struggling through injuries squeaked out a thrilling victory over Namibia yesterday at Windhoek. The last time the two teams met in Toronto it was Namibia who came out on top with a last over win by two wickets. This time the results were reversed, with Canada obtaining the winning runs from the 6th ball of the 50th over.Canada started the match missing two key players, Nick Degroot suffering from damaged knee ligaments, and Muneeb Diwan a dislocated finger. In addition Sanjay Thuraisingam, who had missed the previous match with a respiratory infection, and Ashish Bagai, suffering from lower back problems, played although less than fully fit.Canada opened the bowling with Joseph and Codrington, and it was Codrington who made the initial breakthrough, bowling van der Merwe for 2. The pace bowlers were not effective however, and Walters and Keulder saw Namibia past 50 without further loss. The introduction of the spinners drastically slowed the run rate, with the batsmen unable to get either Davison or Seeberan away. Davison bowled Walters, and Seeberan dismissed Murgatroyd and Keulder. The Namibian middle order all contributed useful runs but no-one was able to build a significant innings. Davison chipped in with a second wicket, but Namibia stil seemed poised for a total of over 200 when Thuraisingam returned for a second spell. As Namibia strove to raise the tempo with the final overs approaching, Thuraisingam rapidly dismissed skipper DB Kotze, BL Kotze, and Snyman, finishing with the figures of 3/37 off his 10 overs, a courageous performance. Skipper Joe Harris bowled the final over, and picked up a second wicket as Namibia were all out for 170 with three balls remaining. Seeberan had the remarkable figures of 1/16 off his 10 overs, and Davison 2/29 from 10 overs.Missing Degroot and Diwan, Canada’s batting was not at full strength. The unusual combination of Davison and Maraj opened the batting. Davison took an agressive approach and hit three quick boundaries, taking the opening partnership to 32 before being bowled by Snyman. Chumney and Maraj added useful runs, until Louw dismissed both. Louw bowled superbly, and the Canadian bats found it almost impossible to score from him. He took a third wicket when Billcliff was caught by Walters for only 7. At 95/4 Canada were in danger of collapse, so Bagai chose a mostly defensive role. When Harris fell to Burger, Canada were still 48 runs short; Sattaur made only three before being bowled by Burger, and Canada were 132/6, with few overs remaining. Thuraisingam contributed a vital eight runs, Codrington was run out, and with only two wickets left, Canada still needed twenty to win. Bagai and Joseph were the heroes of an amazing last over win against UAE in Toronto, and the experience stood them in good stead, as they saw Canada home off the last possible ball. Bagai was unbeaten on 34, a patient innings, facing 102 balls in total, and Joseph made 9. Louw finished with the superb figures of 10 overs, 5 maidens, 3 wickets, for 8 runs.