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Paul Collingwood was dropped from both the England Twenty20 and one-day squads announced Tuesday for the upcoming fixtures against Sri Lanka.

The veteran all-rounder retired from Test duty after England’s victorious Ashes campaign in Australia but was included in the World Cup squad.

However, upon his return home after England’s 10-wicket quarter-final thrashing by Sri Lanka, Collingwood was stripped of the Twenty20 captaincy — despite leading the side to the World Twenty20 title in the West Indies last year — and replaced as skipper by leadership novice Stuart Broad.

The 35-year-old Collingwood, a former England one-day captain, only recently returned to county action with Durham following a knee injury and England national selector Geoff Miller said: “Paul Collingwood has been an inspirational limited-overs cricketer for England over many years, and we still see a role for him in this capacity based on form and fitness.

“His omission is purely down to form over a period of time,” added Miller, a former England off-spinner.

“He has always brought a great deal to the England team, and we know he’ll be working as hard as ever to reach peak form and fitness — with an England recall firmly in the forefront of his mind.”

Meanwhile wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter and all-rounder Samit Patel won recalls to both squads.

Kiewswetter replaced Matt Prior, England’s Test gloveman who played at the World Cup.

South Africa-born Kiewswetter, also a hard-hitting batsman, played a key role in England’s World Twenty20 triumph in the Caribbean but then lost form and found himself out of international contention.

But he has recently impressed at county level and Miller said: “Craig has been in exciting form for Somerset so far this year — and while Matt Prior has been outstanding in the Test team, we believe Craig will offer some real firepower with the bat along with his ability with the gloves

Patel, 26, won the last of his 11 ODI caps in November 2008 and has finally accepted calls from the England management to improve his fitness.

His ability as a second spinner will enable England to field another slow bowler in addition to his county colleague Graeme Swann.

Fast-medium bowler Broad is expected to be fit to lead England for the first time at Bristol on Saturday despite bruising a heel during the drawn third Test against Sri Lanka at the Rose Bowl on Monday, a result that gave England the series 1-0.

England Test captain Andrew Strauss has retired from limited overs internationals so the one-day side will be led by Alastair Cook, even though his Test opening partner was not selected in the World Cup squad.

Meanwhile fast bowler Chris Tremlett, England’s man of the Sri Lanka Test series, appears to have been rested ahead of the four Tests against India starting next month.

Twenty20 squad

Stuart Broad (capt), Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Craig Kieswetter (wkt), Michael Lumb, Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Kevin Pietersen, Graeme Swann, Chris Woakes, Luke Wright

One-day squad

Alastair Cook (capt), James Anderson, Bell, Bopara, Broad, Dernbach, Finn, Kieswetter, Morgan, Patel, Pietersen, Swann, Jonathan Trott, Woakes

Jun 25: Lone Twenty20, Bristol

Jun 28: 1st ODI, The Oval

Jul 01: 2nd ODI, Headingley

Jul 03: 3rd ODI, Lord’s

Jul 06: 4th ODI, Trent Bridge

Jul 09: 5th ODI, Old Trafford

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SYDNEY, June 30, 2011 (AFP) – - West Indian Chris Gayle will form a dynamic opening partnership with David Warner after signing for Sydney Thunder for Australia’s Big Bash Twenty20 tournament, Cricket NSW said Thursday.

Gayle joined Sydney Thunder after the Perth Scorchers rejected his contractual demands, the Western Australia Cricket Association said.

Gayle, 31, has an outstanding T20 record and averages 32.46 in T20 internationals for the West Indies with a strike rate of 144.49.

He finished this year’s Indian Premier League season as the highest run-scorer in the tournament for the Bangalore Royal Challengers.

“I am thrilled to be able to come to Sydney and play for the Thunder,” Gayle said in a statement.

“Having worked well with (coach) John Dyson in the West Indies, I was impressed with his plans for the Thunder and I think the team will have a great chance to win this competition.

“I look forward to walking out to open the batting with David Warner when the season starts.”

The WACA said it made an offer of AUS$250,000 (US$265,000) to Gayle through his management company.

WACA chief executive Graeme Wood said it was disappointing to lose Gayle after he had played for the WA Warriors in the past two Big Bash competitions.

The Big Bash T20 tournament runs from December 30 to February 5.

Details of Gayle’s Sydney Thunder offer were not disclosed.

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Smaller nations have a chance to play at the 2015 World Cup after all, with the International Cricket Council (ICC) reversing their much-derided decision to reduce the event to 10 teams.

The strongest associate members such as Ireland have been campaigning for an opportunity to play in some kind of qualification competition against weaker full members like Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.

The ICC executive board however reversed its previous decisions and approved a 14-team format for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 to be held in Australia and New Zealand, and a 12-team format for the ICC World Twenty20 events in 2012 (Sri Lanka) and 2014 (Bangladesh).

“The board had previously decided in October 2010 that the ICC Cricket World Cup would comprise a 10-team event and that the ICC World Twenty20 events would involve 16 teams. In April 2011, the board had agreed that only the full members would participate in 2015 and that all members would be given an opportunity to participate in the 2019 World Cup through a qualification process,” the ICC said in a statement.

The ICC executive board opted to retain the 14-team format that was used at the highly successful and universally-acclaimed ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, with the 10 full members being joined by four associate or affiliate qualifiers.

Zimbabwe is a full member. Zimbabwe Cricket president Peter Chingoka attended the executive meeting in Hong Kong.

The ICC World Twenty20 in 2012 and 2014 will now remain as 12-team events (10 full members and two associates/affiliates), which has been the format for the ICC World Twenty20 events since its inception in 2007.

In addition, the board confirmed that the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2019 would be a 10-team event with the top eight in the Reliance ICC rankings earning their qualification automatically and the remaining two places being decided by a qualification competition.

The board also confirmed introduction of the promotion/relegation system previously agreed.

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It takes just 30 seconds, but it can launch a million-dollar career for you – in baseball. The Million Dollar Arm (TMDA) nationwide tryouts – currently under way across the country – is an amazing crossover experiment, where an American sports management company is working its way through India’s cricket-crazy millions to find the next big baseball pitcher.

Throw a ball!

All you have to do is turn up at the tryout and throw a ball into a net, while your ‘shoulder speed’ is measured. “In 30 seconds, we can tell if a teenager has a future career in baseball,” says Vivek Daglur, vice-president of Turn On, the official partner of TMDA in India. TMDA was the brainchild of Jeff Bernstein, a sports agent in the U.S., who felt that India had the potential to be a goldmine of pitching talent. “He knew that Indian teenagers are constantly playing cricket – at home, on the street, in school and in college – and that their bowling action isn’t that different from pitching in baseball,” says Daglur. “When you consider that we’re also one of the youngest nations in the world (with about 550 million under the age of 25), you wonder why no one thought of this before.”

Hunt’s on

Tryouts were recently held in Chennai, as part of TMDA’s 50-plus city talent hunt, with between 250 and 400 youngsters turning out at each stop.

Quite a response, given that baseball doesn’t register on the radar of your average Indian sports fan. But then, TMDA offers the promise of a $1 million prize for the winner, and a chance for the top pitchers to travel abroad and be part of a professional major league baseball team.

Take the case of Rinku Singh and Dinesh Kumar Patel, the winners of the first edition of TMDA that was held back in 2008. The two, both from villages near Varanasi, spent six months training in Los Angeles (all fully paid for), learning the basics of the game, and being groomed to become the first two professional Indian baseball players ever. Today, Rinku plays in the rookie leagues, and is tipped to make the major leagues in a couple of years. Dinesh, on the other hand, is back in India, having found the going a bit rough, but is upbeat about his plans of playing in China or for India (yes, we do have a baseball team).

Their remarkable story has garnered so much attention in the U.S. that Walt Disney is planning to bring out a movie on their rags-to-riches story. “The scriptwriter was in India recently, visiting their villages, and trying to understand the country,” says Daglur. “If all goes well, it should be out next year.”

Getting bigger

This second edition of TMDA is even bigger, since it has the full support of Major League Baseball (MLB, comparable to the ICC in cricket, according to Daglur). “This means that the winners will have all the leagues across the world open to them,” he says.

It really is a one-of-a-kind chance for teenagers with big sporting dreams. “You don’t need to know baseball, you don’t even need to have a sporting background,” says Daglur. “This platform gives kids, even those from tier-two and -three towns, a totally unbiased opportunity; all we ask for is the willingness to work hard.”

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Karachi, June 29 : The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Wednesday decided against punishing controversial national selector Mohammad Ilyas for his role in the Board’s dispute with all-rounder Shahid Afridi.

A three-man PCB disciplinary committee, that heard Ilyas’s side of the story Tuesday, has recommended that the board lift the suspension on Ilyas which was imposed on the former Pakistan Test cricketer for violating the PCB’s code of conduct.

Earlier this month, Ilyas was suspended and served two show-cause notices for his role in the dispute involving Afridi’s outburst against the PCB and appearing on a television show with banned player Salman Butt.

He was found guilty of breaching clauses 8 and 9 of his PCB contract. Under ICC rules, no board member is allowed to interact with a banned player. Ilyas took part in a TV show that also featured Butt, who was banned by the ICC for his role in a spot-fixing scandal.

“Mr Ilyas was asked to explain the reasons for his recent conduct. He mentioned that he should have sought permission from PCB before appearing in the talk show,” said a statement issued by the PCB.

“Mr Ilyas said that he felt he had to defend his honour after being subjected to accusations of a personal nature. The committee noted that Mr Ilyas had responded to personal comments made against him but had not criticised the PCB, its management, or its policies.

“The committee issued a short order in which it recommended that PCB issue a warning to Mr Ilyas to exercise caution while dealing with the media in the future. The committee also recommended that PCB lift Mr Ilyas’s suspension. A detailed order will be issued at a later date.”

–IANS

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The age of three captains is upon us and suddenly English cricket is feeling a little unstable. Depression in Bristol one minute, delight in south London the next. The certainty that followed victory in the Ashes Test series has given way to insecurity as England’s one-day future is left in the hands of two inexperienced captains with much to prove.

Stuart Broad supervised a thumping defeat on his debut as Twenty20 captain at Bristol on Saturday and spent much of the time skippering the side from third man, which seemed an odd way to go about things.

Three days on, Alastair Cook failed in his first innings as England’s 50-over captain, his first innings in this format for 15 months, but life improved thereafter as he stood serenely at mid-on and mid-off while Jimmy Anderson first reduced Sri Lanka to 15 for four, added a storming catch at midwicket to dismiss Angelo Mathews for good measure, and turned it into a rout. Cook was all warm and safe in his Anderson shelter.

Not that any conclusions should be drawn from a confused night like this. Cook’s suitability for 50-over cricket is already a point at issue and here he was in charge of a match reduced to 32 overs, which, arithmetically at least, is actually closer to Broadland than Cookland. What would have happened if rain had cut the match to 20 overs? Would he have felt obliged to ask Broad to take over? It could all become very complicated.

Cook, famously, barely sweats, but he would only need to reflect on his batting failure to bring on a hot flush. If there is a dismissal in cricket that proves absolutely nothing, it is the legside strangle and he suffered one when he least needed it as he glanced the third ball he faced, a Lasith Malinga slingshot, to the wicketkeeper.

A legside strangle is less a dismissal than an alibi, a stroke of misfortune, quite literally, one that defies rational judgment and insists that all conclusions are left in abeyance. The only appropriate response is “What a way to go!” Anybody tempted to over-analyse really should get out more.

No mode of dismissal brings with it so much emptiness, so much of a sense that fatalism has held sway. The gods were having their sport and all Cook could do was bury his frustration and await the four games left in what is being regarded, prematurely but undeniably, as a defining series in his one-day career.

There have been times when a wicketkeeper’s catch down the legside has had greater meaning. Australia used to bowl deliberately like this at David Gower in the mid-80s, actively hunting a sucker of a dismissal, recognising that Gower’s enchanting strokeplay could occasional lapse into something lackadaisical down the legside. It worked, too; Gower was gifted and careless with it.

If it is the result of a preconceived plan, it is not a strangle, not in the truest sense. A perfect legside strangle needs a bowler to be derided by his team-mates for outrageous fortune. The Sri Lankans did their share of grinning as Cook walked off, just as England did in the Perth Test last winter when Ricky Ponting, desperate for runs to shore up his Test career, was fiddled out down the legside by Anderson and began to harbour doubts that his Ashes luck would ever turn.

At least Cook had the consolation of an immediate strike rate of 166.3, roughly double what he needs to achieve long-term to convince the doubters that he can cut it in the 50-over game. He made five runs from his three balls, collecting a single first ball and then clipping a half-volley from Malinga in front of square for four. “It was all going rather well,” somebody observed ruefully.

England will require both professionalism and unity if they are not to impale themselves on the prongs of their captaincy trident. It is a sign, in many ways, not of confusion, but of confidence, a belief that the structures that centre on Andy Flower as coach and Hugh Morris as the MD of England cricket have created a sense of discipline in which responsibilities can be shared and demarcation lines understood. The sense that Andrew Strauss is head boy of the three captains brings further complexity, although that is bound to wane in time.

If England are mature enough to cope with three captains, it is questionable whether the rest of us are. In simplistic terms, Broad failed, Cook succeeded and some people will never stop seeing it that way.

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ISLAMABAD (AP) ” The Pakistan Cricket Board has finalized a deal for the United Arab Emirates to host its series against Sri Lanka and England.

PCB spokesman Nadeem Sarwar says the series against Sri Lanka will be played in October-November, while Pakistan will play England early next year.

The PCB was exploring the possibility of Zimbabwe as the other neutral venue, but Sarwar says both series will be played in the UAE.

Dubai and Abu Dhabi are the two cities which will host one-day internationals, Twenty20s and test matches .

Pakistan has been forced to look for venues abroad for its home series since gunmen attacked Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore in 2009.

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