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Dwayne Bravo, the West Indies allrounder, will be joining the Mumbai Indians squad to replace the injured Sri Lankan fast bowler Lasith Malinga.Lalchand Rajput, Mumbai’s coach, confirmed that Bravo was the unanimous choice of the “few” names discussed by the team think-tank. “The decision to pick Bravo was a collective decision,” he told Cricinfo.Malinga, recovering from a knee injury that he picked during the CB Series in Australia, and, had to miss the Caribbean tour but was confident last week he would be fit to join the Mumbai squad. But Rajput said “we got a report that his recovery might take a further two to three weeks. So we decided to have a back-up”.Charl Langeveldt, the South African pace bowler was amongst the names discussed but Bravo nosed ahead by virtue of being an allrounder. “We wanted an allrounder and not another regular bowler”, Rajput said of the outcome of the team meeting that took place on Thursday. Bravo will be the fourth West Indies player to feature in the IPL joining Shivnaraine Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan.Bravo would only be available for short period before he returns home for the Australia series but the Mumbai team management felt they could extract the most out of him before he heads back. Bravo will also miss Mumbai’s opening game against the Bangalore Royal Challengers at home as he arrives only on Sunday but will get to be part of seven of their 14 league matches before he heads back home on May 14. “We know he would be returning on May 15 but by then we would have played most of our games.”While confirming the signing, Reliance, owners of the Mumbai team, did not disclose the price they had offered him. A sum in the range of US $200-250,000 wouldn’t be amiss considering his international record. Bravo may not have a good Twenty20 record – he averages 11 in seven Twenty20 games and has just two wickets at 55 – but he could light up the show like he did in the first game of the ODI series against Sri Lanka recently, grabbing four wickets and playing a handy cameo as an opener.Bravo’s late call-up means that he misses out on Trinidad & Tobago’s Carib Beer Challenge match against Jamaica, starting on April 24. The development was confirmed by Trinidad’s manager, Colin Borde, who said the experience of playing in the IPL would be beneficial for Bravo.”I think everybody is excited for him going up to the IPL and playing with Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, [and] Shaun Pollock,” Borde told CCN TV6, a television station based in Port-of-Spain. “I think it’s good for him and as a Trinidadian you must feel proud … he’s the first guy to get in the IPL.”

Mark who? That was the response from outside Adelaide when South Australia appointed their new coach last month. The man in question was Mark Sorell, and if replacing John Buchanan was considered the plum job in world coaching this year, Sorell surely has one of the least enviable.His mission is to rebuild the Redbacks into a Pura Cup force. On the downside, the team finished last in 2006-07, with one win. Their batsmen made only three centuries between them for the whole year. They lost to Western Australia in two days. On the upside, well, things can only get better.Sorell comes to South Australia from a winning culture. For two years from 2005, he coached the Australia women’s team and in that time they won 17 of their 21 ODIs. But his challenge there was different; they were already strong and had won 16 of their last 20 ODIs before he took over. He does, however, intend to use the same principle with the Redbacks that he employed in his last job: get the basics right.Sorell has now spent two weeks at the helm of South Australia and has begun by making no outlandish promises and conceding there is no “quick-fix”. He believes there are many contenders to replace Darren Lehmann as captain, and has thrown the position up for grabs for whoever impresses most in the off-season. It will be a busy winter for Sorell, who has already identified a few problem areas.The team’s batting is the major worry. Lehmann, Mark Cosgrove and Shane Deitz were the only first-class century-makers in 2006-07. In their 20 Pura Cup innings, the Redbacks did not pass 400 once, and five times they were dismissed for less than 150. Matthew Elliott, Cameron Borgas, Daniel Harris and Callum Ferguson all averaged less than 27. “There appeared to be times that the guys made some bad decisions,” Sorell told Cricinfo. “No coach can make the decisions for them. I’m not saying there’s any quick-fix for that but we’re certainly going to work on that in the off-season.”Although South Australia’s bowling looks more promising, they have been let down too often by dropped catches and misfields. “One of the areas we’ve really got to work on is improving our fielding,” Sorell said. “We were definitely down last year and if we can support our bowlers better with our fielding we should get better results.”

Sorell also has the challenge of keeping his troops in line when on the road. Last season there were persistent reports of partying behaviour when the squad was interstate and several players and officials aired their dirty laundry in the media. In December, reported that Rod Marsh, the Redbacks’ high-performance director, was unhappy with the players’ off-field conduct and leadership. Marsh said Sorell, 41, a former grade cricketer in Adelaide who never quite broke into the state side, would be an ideal fit for the young squad.Sorell would not comment on what happened in 2006-07 but he will make sure all the players know what is expected of them from now on. “As a group we’ll talk a lot about how we go about things, how we conduct ourselves,” he said. “There’ll be an ongoing program that will be done through our leadership group.”While it might have been tempting to have a clean-out of players after such a disappointing season, Sorell believes he can extract the best from the current batch. Greg Blewett, who retired, and Trent Kelly, who moved to Perth, were the only players from last year’s squad not re-signed for 2007-08. Six of next year’s group have represented Australia in Tests or ODIs: Lehmann, Cosgrove, Elliott, Jason Gillespie, Shaun Tait and Dan Cullen.Gillespie, Tait, Cullen and Cullen Bailey all have current Cricket Australia contracts and might therefore be missing at times next season. Sorell believes Paul Rofe can easily step back in to shoulder some of the fast-bowling load if Tait receives higher honours. “I hope in my heart of hearts Shaun plays a hell of a lot of cricket for Australia,” he said. “We’ve got other players who can perform at the first-class level.”

A call-up for Bailey or Cullen would be a blessing, as the state selectors had trouble fitting them both in last year. “I suppose it depends on the makeup of our bowling around our pace attack,” Sorell said. “The advantage is they are obviously two different spinners so at different times there’s certainly a role they both could play.”To be fair, the bowling was not the only bright spot in South Australia’s dull summer. Jason Borgas, who came into the side in January to boost the struggling and injury-troubled top order, impressed with his determination and the value he put on his wicket. He made four half-centuries from five Pura Cup games, averaging 40.8 and earning himself a contract for 2007-08. “Jason had really good grade form and didn’t let anyone down when he got the chance,” Sorell said. “He’s got a really solid game and we hope our boys can bat around people like that.”Another standout was Deitz, who began the summer as a batsman but soon stole Graham Manou’s wicketkeeping duties as well. Deitz’s 665 first-class runs came at 41.56, making him arguably the side’s most consistent contributor. Manou was retained in the limited-overs format and Sorell expects the shared responsibilities to continue.But to take significant steps the Redbacks need more than consistency, they need occasional bursts of brilliance from individual players. They have not won the Pura Cup since 1995-96 and after their horrendous 2006-07, the new coach has set realistic goals. “We’re really just trying to do everything right,” he said. “If we keep working hard and do what we need to do to get better, I’m sure we’ll compete well. Hopefully as we go down the track we’ll start winning more games than we lose.”That seems a sensible aim for every state coach, but few are facing the uphill battle that awaits Sorell.

As I crossed the street to enter the little used Cheapside Market, I saw my old friend Rufus coming in the opposite direction. It was unusual to see him looking so tired and crestfallen as he did that afternoon.Naturally I had to find out if he was having more serious problems than when he realised that watching the World Cup next year was going to present him with real challenges.”Skipper,” he began, “I just come from down Pelican by the ticket office and I really can’t understand why if I want a ticket for the big final, I can’t arrange to buy one. This thing about a package don’t make sense.”It is like the old days when the hawkers in this market used to tell you that if you wanted to get potatoes, you had to buy yams. We should have freedom of choice. I tell you already that this World Cup like it for certain people from over in away. But let me tell you something, I won’t be surprised if come next year, they don’t be butting ’bout trying to get people to buy tickets at the last minute, and listen, the tickets ain’t cheap.”I could understand Rufus’ concerns. One would have expected a much more straightforward system that the old-time cricket fans could deal with. Why should one have to pay up front and still not be sure that one’s application will succeed?Rufus was unhappy about the delayed start of the local season. He felt it was about time we kept matters like these out of Coleridge Street. “Boss,” he went on, “the boys from Bristol got a good case and you know nowadays everybody demanding their pound of meat like the man in the Shakespeare play.””But, Rufus,” I interjected, “now that you mention meat, I remember a story about the two neighbours who had an altercation over the action of a cat. Apparently, Neighbour A had just bought two pounds of beef and placed it on the kitchen counter. The cat climbed through an open window and quickly disposed of the beef.Neighbour A was furious, so in an effort to keep the peace, Neighbour B called his cat and weighed it. The cat weighed exactly two pounds. Neighbour B then exclaimed, “All right, skipper, now that is your beef, now where is my cat?”We both laughed and concluded that relative to the promotion issue, it seems as if people are willing to look after the boys up the hill because from time to time something “honorary” blows in the wind. Things do get hilarious at times.Rufus was pleased that for a change, West Indies had won a series. “It’s a good thing that Mugabe boys did weak. But I feel that a good intermediate team in the 60s would run all over them. The real test is against India who got some men that ain’t scared to put bat to ball.”I asked Rufus what he felt about Lara’s reappointment as captain. He was not surprised since Trinidad now seemed to be the dominant power in the regional game.”Boss,” he added, “Trinidad got the president, the chairman of selectors, the captain, The WIPA president, everybody. And you know, they got money, fish and half of Barbados. You got to wait and see if the headquarters don’t get moved to Port-of-Spain just now.”I asked Rufus if he had seen the advertisement promoting the upcoming Twenty-20 tournament. Like the rest of us, he had heard much of the warranted criticism on the call-in programmes.”Boss,” uttered Rufus, “one of them ads nearly give me a heart attack.”You can imagine them take big men, some with Sir in front their name and make them look like elementary schoolboys. These is men with dignity, men who refused apartheid dollars and this is what they reducing them to? I hear they get good money but money ain’t everything. We got to let this money man know he can’t do this to we heroes.”The authorities better understand that they got to keep certain people far from West Indies cricket. We got to wake up and understand that we must look after we game without looking like beggars.”It was the first time I had seen Rufus so angry but I could understand the reasons. It won’t be long now before he loses all interest in the game that was very much a part of his life.

Sandeep Patil, the former Indian batsman and one of the four candidates shortlisted by the Indian cricket board for the position of India’s next coach, has opted out of the fray citing existing commitments with the Oman cricket team, according to a report in Mid-Day, a Mumbai based newspaper. Though Patil refused to either “confirm or deny” the report, it is learnt that Patil has communicated his unavailability through a written reply to the board’s invitation for an interview scheduled.Patil will be travelling to Ireland next month with the Oman team for their World Cup qualifiers. He is also involved in conducting the Complan coaching scheme to unearth cricketing talent from schools.Patil had earlier coached India in 1996, when he took over from Ajit Wadekar, but his tenure was a forgettable one and was replaced within six months. In the next few years, though, Patil guided the Kenyan national team and helped them enter the World Cup semi-finals in 2003, after overcoming Test-playing countries like Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. He then returned to take charge of the India A side, guided them to a very satisfactory tour of England before winning the tri-series in Kenya, in a tournament also involving Pakistan A. He quit the post as he felt he was being treated “shabbily” by the Indian board and took over the responsibilities of coaching Oman.

Roshan Mahanama and Jeff Crowe are among the four new inductees in ICC’s Elite Panel of Referees, while Wasim Raja’s contract has not being renewed. The panel of four match referees has been expanded to eight, with Chris Broad and Alan Hurst being the other new inductees. Ranjan Madugalle retains his position as the chief of the panel, and Gundappa Viswanath, Clive Lloyd and Mike Procter get an extension.Malcolm Speed, ICC’s chief executive, explained why the expansion was necessary. "The ICC Match Referee plays a critical role in ensuring that international cricket is played both within the rules and within the spirit of the game," he said. "Expanding the Panel to eight gives us a deeper pool of former international players with a strong feel for the game who will be able to apply their knowledge when making judgments about on-field events. Moving to eight referees also provides the ICC with the flexibility needed to meet the international schedule over the coming 12 months."Speed said that there were many applicants for the new posts. "”It was very pleasing to speak to a number of very well qualified applicants for these positions from around the cricketing world. In the end we had many more applicants than positions available and for the ICC this is a strong position to be in. Unfortunately, for some people the strength of the field meant that they missed out on contracts on this occasion. Despite the individual disappointment, it means that the ICC has been able to pick the best available candidates to take on this critical role for international cricket."

• Jacques Kallis (RSA) needs 98 runs to complete 6,000 ODI runs
• Jonty Rhodes (RSA) needs 67 runs to complete 6,000 ODI runs
• Mervyn Dillon (WI) needs one wicket to join the 100 ODI-wicket club
• Carl Hooper (WI) needs 10 wickets to join the 200 ODI-wickets club
• Jacques Kallis (RSA) needs 125 runs to complete his 500 World Cup runs
• Jonty Rhodes (RSA) needs 148 runs to complete his 500 World Cup runs
• Herschelle Gibbs (RSA) needs 159 runs to complete his 500 World Cup runs
• Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI) needs 155 runs to complete his 500 World Cup runs
• Carl Hooper (WI) needs 10 wickets to join the 25 World Cup wicket-club
• Lance Klusener (RSA) needs 8 wickets to join the 25 World Cup wicket-club
• Shane Pollock (RSA) needs 10 wickets to join the 25 World Cup wicket-club
• Allan Donald (37) is six wickets behind leading World Cup wicket-taker Wasim Akram (43)

Despite a number of trials and experimentation, a specialist openingpair in Tests has eluded India for a long time now and is a majorworry in an otherwise formidable batting line-up.With Shiv Sunder Das performing consistently, half of that problemseems to be over. But the other half remains. And that is the mainworry for the Indians ahead of a long season.The reluctance to continue with Sadagoppan Ramesh, the only specialistopener apart from Das, was evident when his state mate Hemang Badaniwas tried in the three-day match against CFX Academy.Badani, who showed promise in that match, had to wait for the secondTest when a stiff back and lack of faith by the team management sawRamesh sitting out. But the experiment with him lasted just oneinnings and six balls. Badani was out for two in the first innings ofthe match.On Sunday, wicket-keeper Samir Dighe was asked to open the secondinnings and he too failed, prolonging India’s agony in this vitaldepartment.With coach John Wright and manager Chetan Chauhan being accomplishedopeners of their time with a combined experience of 122 Tests, theirony only gets magnified.Former greats feel the slot needs to be filled by specialists only andmakeshift openers are no solution.”Opening the innings is quite different,” says Sunil Gavaskar, one ofthe greatest openers of all time. “You never get a night watchman atan opener’s slot, do you? Even if it is only 10 minutes of the day’splay left and a team is starting its innings, the regular openers arethe ones who come out to bat,” he said.With no outstanding talent available on the domestic front, there is afeeling within the management that a partner for Das has to beselected from within the current team.One of the choices before the management is vice-captain Rahul Dravidwho has the right technique and enough experience to face the new ballbowlers on fast and bouncy pitches outside the sub-continent. Dravidhas opened the innings on a few occasions with mixed success.”I will bat at whatever position my team asks me to,” Dravid had saidafter his unbeaten 68 in the second innings of the first Test inBulawayo. But the stylish right-hander from Karnataka, who by instinctis a number three batsman and has played many a brilliant knock inthat position could not give a satisfactory answer on Sunday.”Sorry, I can’t answer this question,” Dravid said when asked whetherhe was ready to come as an opener. “There are quite a few things wediscuss in the dressing room and we can’t share it all with themedia.”With VVS Laxman having virtually sealed the No 3 spot, he too cannotbe sent as an opener now.Wright said the experiments will continue for more time. “The thingabout this game is flexibility. We did so in Kolkata (second Testagainst Australia) when we were following on exchanging the numberthree and six slots,” he said.For the Indian team it seems it would be a case of experiment,experiment, experiment till an opener is discovered.

Scorecard
File photo: Ashok Menaria’s 84 led Rajasthan to their best batting effort of the season so far•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Jaipur crowds are known for their colourful heckling. RP Singh always draws a crowd here because there is an on-going feud with one particular fan who brings a group of people with him. Samad Fallah, the Maharashtra bowler who is known for his ability to bowl long, controlled spells, was cut to size when the crowd, all 10 of them, shouted, ” [Hey bowler, increase your pace].” They don’t spare their own either. Ashok Menaria, their captain who has plateaued over the last couple of years after a bright start as an Under-19 player, is called Malaria here. There were no such calls on the first day of Rajasthan’s match against Maharashtra as Menaria led the home team’s best effort with the bat of the season with 84.Rajasthan’s problem this season has been their batting, to counter which they have employed the experience and solidity of Rajat Bhatia. The pitch still was the usual green Sawai Mansingh Stadium one. And when Menaria lost the toss, Kedar Jadhav had no second thoughts asking them to bat first. There would have been concern around, but the pitch didn’t misbehave too much and the batsmen batted with the maturity that has been missing so far this season. All of the batsmen made starts, but Menaria and Bhatia – making a new start on his 36th birthday – went past 50 to take Rajasthan to 258 for 5.Suryaprakash Suwalka, playing in only his third first-class match, made an ideal opening pair with the resolute Vineet Saxena. The two added 46 for the first wicket before the pitch played its first decisive trick. There had been some movement earlier, but this time medium-pacer Shrikant Mundhe got one to seam in from outside off. Suwalka had shouldered arms, and had his off stump pegged back. Ten runs later, one of those things that happen in domestic cricket happened. Saxena went to pull Fallah, bowling round the wicket. There was an appeal for a catch at the wicket down the leg side. The umpire didn’t make a decision immediately, Saxena strolled towards square leg and when he was about to reach his stance, with the appeal still going on, the umpire raised his finger.Vaibhav Deshpande and Menaria then thwarted Maharashtra’s momentum. Deshpande was decisive at leaving outside off, and Menaria looked to keep using scoring opportunities. It was an innings of spurts. Just after lunch the Maharashtra bowlers began to bring pressure by drying up the runs. Finally Menaria got a leg-side half-volley, which heralded three boundaries in three balls to ease the pressure. One of them was a thick edge between slip and gully, but that was how the innings was: two-thirds punchy shots, one-third streakiness.Menaria enjoyed some luck when a diving Ankit Bawne dropped him at cover off Fallah. Deshpande didn’t enjoy such luck as an offbreak from Chirag Khurana – in his second over – didn’t turn and bowled him for 37. Bhatia came out at 136 for 3, and announced his arrival by dancing down seventh ball and hitting Khurana for a six over long-on. The field went back, and the two got down to accumulating runs, 86 of them for the fourth wicket.The pitch was slow, which showed in how Menaria cut three boundaries in front of square, and even pulled spinner Khurana through mid-on for four. His progress towards a hundred was brought to a stop through miscommunication with Bhatia. He steered behind square and set off for a run, which Bhatia thought called for waiting for the ball to pass backward point. Khurana made a diving stop there, Menaria was stranded, but he didn’t make any effort to go back, which gave Khurana time to aim. He hit direct, and set off on a celebratory run.Bhatia and Puneet Yadav then nearly saw Rajasthan through to stumps with a 36-run partnership, but with what turned out to be the last ball of the day, Fallah brought Maharashtra back into the contest by drawing an edge from Bhatia. And he didn’t need to his pace for that. His accuracy did it for him.Fallah reckoned that last wicket put Maharashtra slightly ahead in the contest. He said the pitch looked like it would healp seam bowlers, but it didn’t. It also turned out to be slow. Menaria was disappointed he and Bhatia couldn’t convert their half-centuries into a big century. He said that had been the story of the last two seasons where they narrowly missed making it to the knockouts.

Darrell Hair has admitted he can be “stand-offish” and has vowed to improve his communication skills after being reinstated as a Test and one-day international umpire. Hair is back after being demoted following his role in the forfeited Pakistan-England Test in 2006, but he believes it is time to “move on”.”Well it caused me a lot of stress, I suppose it caused a lot of people some stress along the way,” Hair told Sydney radio . “The laws now have been changed to take those decisions out of the hands of the umpires and I fully support the way that that’s going to happen in future. So, it’s time to move on.The ICC ruled Hair’s “rehabilitation”, which included a course at Sydney University, has been completed and he remains contracted for another 12 months. “Every day in life you like to pick up something and move forward,” he said. “So I won’t say my whole attitude to umpiring has changed but I think I have picked up a few things that are going to be very helpful to me in the future.”Probably just … having a broader understanding of what everybody else is thinking and the old communication issue of making sure that what you say and what you want is understood by the other people. I’ve always been a little bit … stand-offish in that I’ve always preferred to let them play the game themselves and only get involved when things go overboard but maybe there’s a case to be made for a little bit more work in that area.”The ICC will keep Hair away from games involving Pakistan, who are upset with the official’s elevation. “I’ve got no comment on anyone else’s reaction really,” he said. “I’m just going to look after my own patch and go out there and umpire the matches that I’m appointed to and do that to the best of my ability, which is what I’ve always done.”

Northamptonshire have signed Davey Jacobs, the South African batsman, as a temporary replacement for Chris Rogers, one of their overseas players. Rogers is out for at least a month after breaking his left thumb in the Friends Provident Trophy match against Nottinghamshire last week.Jacobs, 24, is a team-mate of Johan van der Wath with the Eagles, who are based in Blomfontein. In 44 first-class matches to date he has scored 3,229 runs at 41.39 including a career-best 218 in 2005. In 2006 he toured Australia with South Africa’s Emerging Players team.”We looked at a lot of options and now we’re very pleased to have Davey with us until Chris is fit again,” said David Capel, Northants’ head coach. “I’m sure he can do a job for us, and at the same time it’s a good showcasefor him in county cricket.”Jacobs is expected to make his Championship debut this Tuesday, in the home match against Somerset.