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Outspoken former South Africa coach Ray Jennings believes there are better candidates to captain the national side than Graeme Smith.Jennings has no issue with Smith the batsman, who recently posted a new world Test opening partnership with Neil McKenzie, but does have reservations when it comes to him leading the side. “Graeme Smith is a superb cricketer. He has presence and mental toughness,” he told The Wisden Cricketer. “From a captaincy point of view I believe there are one or two other guys who are able to lead the team better than he does.”When pressed to name his preferred candidates, Jennings replied: “Names aren’t really important to me. I believe there are better guys to do the job but that’s my opinion. As a batsman there’s no doubt I’ll have Graeme in my side. He’s a solid cricketer and a fighter.”When asked to comment on the recent high profile fall out between senior administrators about racial quotas, Jennings said: “South African cricket has to understand that they don’t need to put issues like this in the media. They could have had the fight behind closed doors and iron it out there. It has put me and a lot of cricketers in an awkward position.”I’m sad that coloured players in the team could have a stigma attached, where they feel they are underprivileged when that’s not the case. It’s not about having a 50-50 or 60-40 split between white and coloured players. In our country the sides are picked on their cricketing ability because the players of colour are good enough to play.”Jennings, who served a six-month stint as national coach, also said he would take up the post if it came around again, but only under his own terms. “I would definitely take it up again but there would be a few conditions. I would look at the combination of the side: how it gets picked. I would also look at my management staff and how I put that together.”In a terse media release, Cricket South Africa said Jennings claimed to have been “misquoted” in the article.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsKieron Pollard struck five fours and three sixes during his unbeaten 37-ball 59•Caribbean Premier League

Kieron Pollard’s unbeaten 59 and Robin Peterson’s 3 for 13 set up a 17-run win for defending champions Barbados Tridents over Jamaica Tallawahs at Sabina Park. More importantly, the victory – Tridents’ fifth of the season – helped them pull clear of Tallawahs by two points at the top of the table.Tridents chose to bat and put on an opening stand of 31 before Jerome Taylor dismissed Dilshan Munaweera in the fifth over. Tridents lost three wickets for 33 runs during the middle overs and fell to 64 for 4, but Pollard and Jason Holder led a recovery be adding 58 runs for the fifth wicket, taking the team past 120. Pollard struck five fours and three sixes for his fifty, the batsman’s second of the season. Andre Russell dismissed Holder and Navin Stewart in the 19th over to leave the visitors on 124 for 6, but the final over of Tridents’ innings yielded 22 runs, with Pollard slamming two sixes and a four. His blitz meant that Tallawahs needed 147 for the win.However, the hosts’ chase did not begin well, as Ravi Rampaul dismissed the tournament’s top run-getter Chris Gayle early to end an 18-run opening partnership. Peterson then spun Tallawahs into further trouble, picking up the wickets of Chris Lynn, Mahela Jayawardene and Jermaine Blackwood all in the fifth over to reduce the team to 36 for 4.Chadwick Walton and Nkrumah Bonner revived the chase with a 67-run stand for the fifth wicket, but with the fall of Walton’s wicket in the 16th over, Tallawahs chances of a win were dented. Holder then dismissed Andre Russell and Rusty Theron in the 18th over to all but seal the game.

Virat Kohli is the highest-paid cricketer in the IPL, according to salary figures released by the league on Friday.While Kohli will cost his franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore Rs 12.5 crore (approximately USD 1.89 million) from their salary purse, they will actually pay him Rs 15 crore (USD 2.26 million). MS Dhoni, for long believed to be the most expensive IPL cricketer, will be paid USD 1.89 million, which is equal to his purse deduction, by the Pune franchise. Pune secured Dhoni in a draft of players who were part of the suspended Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals franchises.Apart from Royal Challengers, who are paying Kohli and Chris Gayle more than the purse deduction, Mumbai Indians are paying Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga and Ambati Rayudu more than the purse deduction they result in.However, contrary to the general perception that quite a few players used to get paid much more than the official purse deduction, quite a few have actually taken big cuts. Manan Vohra, retained by Kings XI Punjab, will get less than 10% of his Rs 4 crore (USD 600,000) purse deduction. Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir and David Miller are among those getting paid less than the purse deduction they are responsible for.Each franchise is required to spend a minimum of Rs 40 crore (USD 6 million) but not more than Rs 66 crore (USD 9.96 million) on their squad. However, when the franchise retains players, the purse-deduction slots are what are considered for the purpose of calculation of what it can and should spend.Kings XI are thus keen on saving money; after negotiating the salary with Vohra, they can actually spend far less than USD 600,000 on him. However, they will still lose USD 600,000 from their purse ahead of the auction. Royal Challengers, on the other hand, don’t seem to mind spending extra.In the case of former Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals players, though, the new franchises didn’t have any room to negotiate. The BCCI had assured the players left without teams but drafted by the two new teams they would be paid the same amount as they were earning earlier. So while Ravindra Jadeja might take away Rs 9.5 crore (USD 1.43 million) from Rajkot’s purse, he will actually get only Rs 5.5 crore (USD 0.83 million).

KC Ibrahim, who played four Tests for India against West Indies in 1948-49, has died at his home in Karachi. He was 88 and at the time of his death was India’s oldest living Test player.He made his Test debut in the first match of the 1948-49 series at home to West Indies, his sheer weight of runs the previous summer making him an automatic pick. Opening with Vinoo Mankad, he scored 85 and 44, but in his next six innings he made only 40 runs and he had retired by the time England toured in 1951-52.Ibrahim’s Mumbai team-mate, Madhav Mantri, said he was “a solid player and one who believed in staying at the wicket for as long as possible.” He captained the Mumbai side that won the Ranji Trophy in 1947-48 and Mantri described him as “a fine captain, someone who believed in backing his players.”A top-order batsman who sometimes opened, Ibrahim made his first-class debut in 1938-39 and from 1941-42 onwards scored heavily in domestic cricket. He began that season with an unbeaten 230 and ended with 117 in Bombay’s innings win in the Ranji Trophy final.He reached his peak in 1947-48 when he scored 1171 runs at 167.29, including four hundreds, a record that won him the Indian Cricketer of the Year award for the season. He started the season with scores of 218*, 36*, 234*, 77* and 144, a total of 709 runs without being dismissed. In the last three innings of the previous season his scores had been 2, 2 and 4. He moved to Karachi in 1950 and that marked the end of his first-class career.He was in poor health for the last few years of his life. During India’s 2006 tour to Pakistan, a couple of journalists went to visit him. One of them, Jasvinder Sidhu, from the Hindi daily , remembers: “He didn’t want us to photograph him. He said, ‘I don’t want my friends in Bombay and Delhi to see my current state. Tell them I’m fine.'”

Michael Bevan has responded to another excellent Mark Ramprakash hundred byfiring a sweet half century of his own to afford Sussex a slight edge overMiddlesex after three days of the teams’ absorbing County Championshipfixture at Southgate.Bevan (57*) reached his milestone in smart time to lead the visitors to asecond innings mark of 118/3 by stumps, one which leaves them precisely 150runs short of victory in a contest in which they have always appeared tohave their noses slightly in front. Typically, it was the Australian’s eyefor spotting gaps in the field, and placing his shots into them with aminimum of fuss, which lay at the core of his innings. Although aninjudicious attempt from Toby Pierce (25) to loft a Phil Tufnell (2/39)delivery over mid wicket and a similarly ill-timed lapse in concentrationfrom Chris Adams (20) in pushing out an arm ball from the same bowler didnot help the cause, his efforts largely ensured that Sussex was back ontrack for success by the time that stumps were finally drawn.Just in case no-one had noticed the events of two days ago, it had earlierbeen Ramprakash (112) who had dominated the opening two sessions of theday’s play with a brilliantly crafted fiftieth first-class century. Rightnow – with another Test axing hanging over his head and his Middlesexbatting teammates seemingly doing precious little on the field to help easethe pain – he could have been forgiven for cutting a tragic figure. But,in again summoning the mental and physical resources to prove himself a cutabove his colleagues, he proved the very antithesis. It was a courageousdisplay and was full of character, no mean feat considering that he spentthe first half of it watching another succession of batsmen come and go atthe other end. It wasn’t until Richard Johnson (52) followed his lead, andbatted with unstinting application to contribute half of a priceless 104run stand for the eighth wicket, that the formidable right hander finallyattained the support that he deserved.

Mike Brearley, the former England captain, will serve as the next president of MCC. His one-year term of office will begin on October 1 and he will replace Doug Insole, who made the announcement during MCC’s AGM on Wednesday afternoon at Lord’s.Brearley captained England in 31 of his 39 Tests, including the 1981 Ashes series, and overall won 18 matches while in charge. He also played 25 ODIs and led England in the 1979 World Cup final at Lord’s.His first spell leading England was between 1977 and 1979-80 when he won acclaim for his captaincy even though his batting was often criticised, and his Test average of 22.88 showed that he was not good enough to hold his own as a batsman. But after Ian Botham failed as his successor, he returned in 1981 with England trailing to Australia and guided his side to a remarkable 3-1 series win before retiring again.His first-class career spanned two decades and he led Middlesex for 12 seasons – at county level he was far more effective, as an average of almost 38 shows. He turned Middlesex from perennial underachievers into the best team in the land, leading them to three Championships (plus one that was shared) and two Gillette Cups.Brearley wrote three books about Ashes series he played in, and on retiring penned The Art of Captaincy, considered the definite work on the subject. He was named one of Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year in 1977 and a year later was awarded an OBE for his services to cricket. In 1983 he became an Honorary Life Member of MCC.

India have left themselves a mountain to climb to win this series; down 0-2 and with four games to play, they will have to raise their game significantly, knowing Australia need only a half-chance to shut out the opposition in the fourth one-day international at the Sector 16 Stadium in Chandigarh.India have, however, responded well to such extreme pressure in the recent past. Trailing 3-1 in the NatWest Series in England, they were out for the count but managed to stretch the series till the final game at Lord’s. At the World Twenty20, India were faced with three must-win games against Pakistan, England and South Africa and won all three to make the semi-finals – and the two knockout games as well.The trend in the series has been for Australia to bat first and score 300, putting the Indian batsmen under immense pressure against an incisive new-ball attack. India’s openers haven’t coped well – 1, 11 and 10 in three innings – and the lack of partnerships at the top has crippled their run-chases.Monday may just be different because, for the first time in this series, India have the option of opening with Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, who has recovered fully from his hamstring strain. Both of them went in first during the net sessions and had lengthy stints.There was confusion in Hyderabad over why Ganguly was left out: was it because he didn’t fit into the team combination, as the BCCI secretary, Niranjan Shah, said, or that he hadn’t recovered enough from his injury? The decision to play him in Chandigarh might be made easier with news that Gautam Gambhir strained his groin during a net session and hobbled back to the dressing room. He was sent for an MRI and will be assessed by John Gloster, the physio.

The failures of the top order have left the rest with too much to do and Robin Uthappa said the batsmen had to “take responsibility” for they had “let the team down”. Uthappa and Mahendra Singh Dhoni played cameos at Kochi and Yuvraj Singh scored a century in Hyderabad, but to beat Australia they must fire at the same time.Another worry is Rahul Dravid’s form – 31 at Kochi and 0 at Hyderabad – given his vital steadying role at No. 5, which allows Yuvraj and Dhoni to bat aggressively. Dravid’s last substantial contributions came in England where he scored 92 at Bristol and 56 at Edgbaston. Since then he has struggled and, not coincidentally, India slipped to defeat in England and started the series against Australia poorly.Equally under the scanner will be India’s bowlers, who have conceded 307, 306 and 290 in the matches so far. India played five bowlers at Bangalore and Kochi and four at Hyderabad and Uthappa said they were likely to play five bowlers again. That means Murali Kartik, the left-arm spinner who replaced Ramesh Powar in the squad, forming a two-pronged spin attack with Harbhajan Singh. His inclusion could be at the expense of Rohit Sharma in the middle order.Harbhajan bowled an economical spell in Hyderabad – 0 for 38 – but Andrew Symonds and Michael Clarke were able to see him off because there wasn’t enough pressure from the other end. Kartik’s left-arm spin, in tandem with Harbhajan’s offspin, could build pressure during the middle overs where Australia have dictated the pace and built the platform for their assault in the death overs.

They’ll have their task cut out though, for Australia’s batsmen have been in such form that Ponting virtually ruled out a change to their batting line-up. Brad Hodge hasn’t contributed much in the series – 0, 3, 3 – while Brad Haddin was dropped in Hyderabad after scoring consecutive half-centuries. Ponting, however, said that they would stick with Hodge.”Our batting’s pretty settled at the moment,” Ponting said. “We had a tough decision to make, leaving Haddin out in the first place and leave Hodge in the side. But Hodge has a record that has stood up well over a two-year period. He has trained really well today so if he gets an opportunity tomorrow I think he’ll get runs.”One change Australia are likely to make is in their bowling department. Nathan Bracken, the left-arm medium-pacer, didn’t play at Hyderabad but Ponting indicated he had a strong chance of making the XI.”Bracken is one of the top ranked one-day bowlers in the world. If the rest of the guys pull up okay, we’ll have to make a tough decision and leave one of the guys who have been playing out and bring Bracken back in.” Bracken’s ability to swing the ball, his precision and clever changes of pace will add an extra dimension to the Australian attack and make life harder for an Indian batting line-up that is struggling to put in a collective performance.Monday’s game is the first ODI being played at the picturesque Sector 16 Stadium in nearly 15 years and Ponting felt the pitch was dry and would get drier and slower as the day progressed. He did not hesitate in saying that he would bat first if he won the toss. If that is the case, the first half of this match could go the way of the previous three games with Australia scoring 300. Whether the Indian batsmen pull together could determine how the match and the series is decided.Teams
India (likely) 1 Sachin Tendulkar, 2 Sourav Ganguly, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Rahul Dravid, 6 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), 7 Irfan Pathan, 8 Murali Kartik, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Sreesanth.Australia (likely) 1 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 2 Matthew Hayden, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Andrew Symonds, 6 Brad Hodge, 7 Brad Hogg, 8 Brett Lee, 9 Mitchell Johnson, 10 Nathan Bracken, 11 Stuart Clark.

The Editors Guild of India has said the revised guidelines issued by the Indian Premier League on Tuesday are still harsh and will affect the freedom of newspapers.In a press release circulated to all its members and other media bodies, including the Indian Newspaper Society, and the Sport Journalists’ Federation of India, Guild secretary KS Sachidananda Murthy said the final terms of media accreditation for the IPL’s first season were unacceptable. He said the conditions would seriously influence the independence of editors, especially when it comes to the selection and use of photographs.Although the IPL formally withdrew some of the original contentious clauses, it maintained its hardline stand on websites – their representatives will not be allowed into the venue during matches and they will not have access to photographs.Murthy said the IPL’s demand that newspapers and news agencies must provide free of charge the photographs requested by the IPL for use and reproduction was unacceptable. While the Guild noted that there was some relaxation in the originally proposed terms and conditions, the blanket prohibition on the use of photographs taken by a newspaper or news agency, which are their exclusive property, for online use or syndication is unacceptable.The Guild felt the IPL should not be putting a quantitative limit on the number of photographs a newspaper or news agencies can uphold to its website, as it was clearly the domain of the editor to decide. In its new guidelines, the IPL allowed newspapers with their own web publication to upload six different pictures on their online photo galleries in addition to the pictures published in print.The original guidelines, published last week, had provoked widespread outrage, with the Editors Guild criticising the “prohibitive conditions”, which it said were “unprecedented and unacceptable to the Indian media.”

Match facts

Sunday, April 20, 2008
Start time 20:00 local, (14:30 GMT)

The Big Picture

This could well be a game where both guests and hosts are likely to play the more traditional cricket than the hard-hitting stuff that has been evident so far. The Mumbai Indians and the Bangalore Royal Challengers both have batsmen who prefer finesse to powerplay. Mumbai not only represent the IPL’s richest franchise but also possess two batsmen – Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya – who have between them played more than 800 ODIs and piled up 28671 runs. However, Mumbai’s middle and lower order, apart from Shaun Pollock, comprise local and untried international talent. They will also miss the pace of Lasith Malinga, absent due to injury, and will have to rely on Dilhara Fernando and Pollock.

Watch out for …

Tendulkar who, if he recovers from his groin injury – indications are that he will – can inspire his team to take the fight to the opposition. As he showed during the two back-to-back finals in the CB Series, he can still make bowlers bow. Then there is the ferocity of the aging, but still dangerous, Jayasuriya, who could just provide the impetus in which this short format.

Team news

Tendulkar’s groin injury remains a concern and the final decision will be taken by the physio on Sunday morning. A squad of 27 was pruned to 17 but Mumbai will have to wait till the second game for the services of Dwayne Bravo, who arrives on Sunday. Fernando might partner Pollock with the new ball with a support cast of Abhishek Nayar and fast bowler Dhaval Kulkarni or the allrounder Musaveer Khote. But Harbhajan might prove to the thorn for Bangalore with his experience in playing the restrictive hand in ODIs as well as Twenty20 games in the past.Mumbai (likely) 1 Sachin Tendulkar (capt), 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 Robin Uthappa, 5 Saurabh Tiwary, 6 Luke Ronchi (wk), 7 Shaun Pollock, 8 Abhishek Nayar, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Dilhara Fernando, 11 Dhaval Kulkarni/Musaveer KhoteAfter a classic faux pas in the opening game Bangalore are likely to open with Shivnarine Chanderpaul instead of Dravid and Wasim Jaffer, a pairing more suitable for the longer form of the game. Dravid confirmed Anil Kumble wouldn’t be available for the match, as he is still recovering from his groin injury. Ashley Noffke, the Australian fast bowler, will miss out after suffering a groin injury in the first game where he had figures of 1 for 40. That might allow B Akhil to hold on to his spot .Bangalore (likely) 1 Rahul Dravid (capt), 2 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 3 Wasim Jaffer, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 Virat Kohli, 6 Cameron White, 7 Mark Boucher (wk), 8 Praveen Kumar, 9 B Akhil, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Sunil Joshi

Stats and trivia