Senior players were rested as India on Sunday named a second-string squad with Suresh Raina as the captain and Virat Kohli his deputy for the low-profile Zimbabwe tour starting later this month.

Regular captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and senior players Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir and Ashish Nehra were rested as the BCCI senior selection committee, which met here on Sunday, named a young 15-member squad with new faces galore.

Dinesh Karthik has been named the specialist wicketkeeper for the tour which begins with a tri-series – also involving Sri Lanka – on May 28 while Madhya Pradesh batsman-stumper Naman Ojha is also part of the squad.

Once the tri-series is over on June 9, leg-spinner Piyush Chawla will join the squad for India’s subsequent two Twenty20 Internationals against Zimbabwe on June 12 and 13.

Apart from Karthik and Naman Ojha, the side includes specialist batsmen Murali Vijay, Raina, Kohli and Rohit Sharma, besides all-rounders in Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja.

Leg-spinner Amit Mishra, left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha and offie Ravichandran Ashwin will spearhead the slow bowling department in the tri-series, while the largely inexperienced pace attack will comprise Umesh Yadav (Vidarbha), R Vinay Kumar (Karnataka), Ashok Dinda (Bengal) and Pankaj Singh (Rajasthan).

The selectors also announced a 16-member India ‘A’ squad for a tri-series in England, naming Cheteshwar Pujara as its captain and Wriddhiman Saha his deputy.

Zimbabwe Tri-series squad: Suresh Raina (Captain), Virat Kohli (Vice-captain), Murali Vijay, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Pankaj Singh, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Naman Ojha.

T20 squad: Suresh Raina (Captain), Virat Kohli (Vice-captain), Murali Vijay, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Pankaj Singh, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Naman Ojha and Piyush Chawla.

India ‘A’ team: Cheteshwar Pujara (Captain), Wriddiman Saha (wk), Abhinav Mukund, Shikar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Sourav Tiwary, Iqbal Abdulla, Sudeep Tyagi, Dhaval Kulkarni, Abhimanyu Mithun, Kedar Jadhav, Manoj Tiwary, Jaskaran Singh, Bipul Sharma and Jayadev Unadkad.

The One-day game, once cricket’s mainstay, is losing ground alarmingly to Twenty20 in terms of sponsor interest and revenue generation. If comparative valuation figures are any indication, the raging debate over the 50-over format’s future may be entirely justified.

Just a few years ago, an ODI match involving India was worth at least $6 million (in terms of revenue from broadcast, title and on-ground sponsorship). But in the post-T20 era, that’s down to less than one million for a bilateral One-day game.

In contrast, an Indian Premier League (IPL) game is worth $8 million and an ICC World T20 tie is valued at $5 million, industry sources revealed.

In the clearest warning yet of waning interest in the One-day game, official broadcasters paid just $5 million in March for telecast rights to the entire five-match ODI series between India and Sri Lanka. The series also included one T20 game.

The upcoming Champions Trophy in South Africa, starting later this month, will be the acid test for the One-day format.

But BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla, defends the validity of ODIs in the age of T20. “Valuation is not everything,” Shukla told TOI. Broadcasters also advised caution with one senior executive saying T20 was doing well in India because it is an “action-packed thriller”.

Valuation figures suggest ODIs are no more the financial engine drivers of cricket, but the upcoming Champions Trophy in South Africa offers hope.

With only the top eight teams in the fray, each game could be worth close to $3 million, still less than an IPL game but much more than the valuation of bilateral ODIs.

“BCCI has accepted the T20 format and so have spectators. It’s good for the game. But you can’t mix the two (ODIs and T20). Both have their charm and T20 and ODIs are both here to stay,” said BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla.

Broadcasters also suggested caution before jumping to conclusions. A senior broadcast executive said, “Anything which is new in India generally does well and T20 is not an exception. A T20 game is like an action-packed thriller. We wonder how long the spectators can sustain their interest before reverting back to ODIs. We are confident the trend will change.”

The fact remains, though, that advertisers are willing to pay more money for a 10-minute slot during a T20 match than for a One-dayer or a Test, both of which offer greater opportunity for extended brand exposure since they go on longer.

During the IPL, advertisers were paying more than Rs 4 lakh for a 10-minute slot. In the World T20, slots were sold at an average rate of Rs 3 lakh but after India failed to qualify for the semis, advertising rates dropped.

For the Champions Trophy, the projected rate is Rs 3 lakh for every 10 seconds. If India win, rates could increase for upcoming India-Australia home ODI series.

The last statement Daniel Vettori made after New Zealand snapped their winless streak on tour with a tense victory on Wednesday was that there was still a game to go to clinch the short series. Vettori knows how much confidence his side can take from anything they win on tour.

It was refreshing to see his face light up as he ran towards hat-trick hero Jacob Oram when New Zealand beat Sri Lanka by three runs. It has been a difficult tour for a side inexperienced in subcontinental conditions but the change in personnel for the Twenty20s seems to have infused life.

There is no ignoring the key role Vettori himself played, slowing his pace and teasing with his loop to take 2 for 11 in four overs in a Man-of-the-Match effort, but this was a victory fashioned by more than one or two individuals and that gave Vettori the most pleasure. The batting was shaky but the fielding exceptional, proving decisive in the outcome. A series win beckons, if New Zealand can keep their cool again.

For Sri Lanka, this was their third straight loss in this format, starting from the ICC World Twenty20 final. In all three defeats the batting has been a worry, especially the lack of contributions from the middle and lower-middle order. Kumar Sangakkara was left to rue another batting collapse after Tillakaratne Dilshan’s amazing attack on New Zealand’s bowlers set them on the way to victory. Dilshan aside, Sri Lanka had enough batting firepower but fell to a flurry of loose shots and were not able to forge partnerships. Sangakkara has put the pressure on his batsmen and demanded they evaluate themselves before the final game.

Twenty20 cricket was branded as “fun” when it was launched as a professional sport in England six years ago. 

But as the blame game started over who was responsible for the decision to call-off Tuesday’s Twenty20 international between England and Australia without a ball being bowled, one thing was clear: top players are not prepared to take any chances with conditions just to entertain a capacity crowd.

Twenty20 cricket has gone from ‘hit and giggle’ to a lucrative business thanks to the advent of the Indian Premier League and the World Twenty20.

Tuesday’s match was abandoned primarily because a two-metre square area damp patch on the line of the bowlers’ run-ups at the Brian Statham End was ruled unsafe by the umpires.

Former Australia fast bowler Jeff Thomson labelled the players “soft”.

But with Australia’s attack set to have featured Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Dirk Nannes, all of whom can bowl at over 90mph, captain Michael Clarke was in no mood to take risks.

“I’m 75 kilos and for me to put my foot on that was very unstable so I can’t imagine (England’s Ryan) Sidebottom, Lee and Johnson – bigger boys than me – running into bowl on that,” he said.

“There’s no game I play for Australia that I’m willing to just go out and bowl some full-tosses so the crowd get a great spectacle,” Clarke added.

After the match the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced they would hold an inquiry, with Lancashire facing questions as to why an international match was abandoned because a small area of the outfield was wet.

Although 600,000 pounds was spent on a new drainage system in the pre-season, it did not cover the run-up area as the square at Old Trafford is to be turned next year, when the new drains in that section of the ground will be installed.

Angry Lancashire chief executive Jim Cumbes insisted inadequate covering and drainage were not behind the abandonment, which came after Sunday’s first Twenty20, also at Old Trafford, was also washed out.

“I’m perfectly aware of the safety of players, I played the game for 20 years myself,” former Lancashire seamer Cumbes said.

“But there are times when you’ve got to think about the people who’ve paid 50 quid (pounds).

“Sometimes I think we’d rather play in front of empty stadiums,” he added after the crowd reacted with impressive restraint to the lack of cricket.

Tuesday’s was the third embarrassing abandonment England have been involved in this year.

Three months ago a One-Day International (ODI) against the West Indies at Headingley was abandoned in bright sunshine without a ball bowled because a new drainage system couldn’t cope with a downpour.

That in turn followed the abandonment of this year’s Antigua Test on England’s Caribbean tour because of an unfit outfield.

On Friday, England and Australia are set to play the first of seven ODIs at the Oval, where in 1977 they took part in an extraordinary limited-overs match.

Back then, play continued despite rain and then hail lashing the ground and Australia captain Greg Chappell saw his side to a two-wicket victory with a superb 125 not out.

Although there was a reserve day, that clashed with a public holiday for the celebration of the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, monarch of both Britain and Australia.

And that meant there would be no television coverage if the game went into a second day.

“I realised the best chance of winning was to get off and start again the next day,” Chappell said. “But I played on for the sponsors’ sake.”

David Frith, writing in the Cricketer magazine, said: “As for the bemused spectators, they were left to reflect that in the days ahead first-class cricketers, far from splashing about willingly, would not be prepared to emerge if there was the smallest spot of rain in the air.”

More often than not, it seems, they still aren’t.

New Zealand’s pace spearhead Shane Bond makes a comeback to official cricket after two years when he plays in a Twenty20 international against Sri Lanka on Wednesday.

Bond, 34, regarded as the best New Zealand fast bowler since Richard Hadlee, was delighted to be playing again for his country after snapping links with the unauthorized Indian Cricket League (ICL).

“It’s been a long time coming and it’s something I never thought would happen again,” he said. “It feels like I am starting all over again.”

Bond, who last played for New Zealand in November 2007, hoped he could meet the expectations from team-mates and fans alike on his highly-anticipated return.

“I think I set myself pretty high standards and it is up to me to meet those,” he said. “I always strive to be the best bowler in the world, nothing’s changed there.”

Bond’s fiery pace fetched him 79 wickets in 17 Tests, 125 from 67 One-Day Internationals and 12 in nine Twenty20 matches till he was banished for his ICL connections.

He was not picked for the preceding Test series which Sri Lanka swept 2-0, and warmed up instead by playing for New Zealand’s ‘A’ team in India last month.

Black Caps captain Daniel Vettori warned against expecting the premier fast bowler to deliver immediate results.

“I can see the pressure building from a distance,” said Vettori.

“People are viewing him as a sort of saviour to some recent woes, but I think we need to let Shane relax and build his way back into the team.”

Vettori was confident his team would perform better in the two Twenty20 internationals on Wednesday and Friday, and the limited-overs tri-series also featuring India from September 8.

“I think the guys have a real belief in their own ability in the shorter forms of the game,” he said. “I hope we will see a turnaround in our performances.”

Sri Lanka, meanwhile, will be without star spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who suffered a groin injury during the second Test last week and is being rested ahead of the tri-series.

The hosts, World Twenty20 finalists this year, have picked veteran opener Sanath Jayasuriya and fast bowler Lasith Malinga for the two matches.

New Zealand (from): Daniel Vettori (capt), Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder, Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Jacob Oram, Neil Broom, Grant Elliott, Nathan McCullum, Peter McGlashan, Ian Butler, Shane Bond, Kyle Mills, Jeetan Patel.

Sri Lanka (from): Kumar Sangakkara (capt), Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Mahela Udawatte, Chamara Kapugedara, Gihan Rupasinghe, Angelo Mathews, Isuru Udana, Thilan Thushara, Nuwan Kulasekera, Lasith Malinga, Ajantha Mendis, Kaushal Lokuarachchi.

Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi reckons reviving Test cricket‘s popularity is the next challenge ahead of the administrators, while Sachin Tendulkar believes the first step in that direction could be throwing open the gates for school and college students.

“One of the suggestions I gave to the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) was to make Test cricket day/night affair to allow people to come and watch it after their duty hours,” said Modi, hailed for making Twenty20 in general and IPL in particular a massive success, during a panel discussion on Tuesday.

The discussion followed the release “Out of the Box – Watching the Game We Love”, a book by commentator Harsha Bhogle whose first copy was presented to Tendulkar.

Taking part in the discussion, albeit as part of the packed audience, Tendulkar once again repeated his idea to the Cricket Board that it should allow free entry to the students to convert them into fans of the traditional form of the game.

“I have already suggested this to the BCCI. Going to watch the India vs West Indies Test match in 1983 at the Wankhede Stadium as a seven-year-old is etched in my memory. The BCCI should open the gates on weekends to top school and college children to savour Test cricket live. If at least 10 per cent of them become Test fans, the purpose would be served,” he said.

Tendulkar’s former India team-mate and now a television expert, Sanjay Manjrekar, felt that the problem with Test cricket is that though the fans loved seeing three bouncers directed at a batsman by a bowler or catches taken in the slips, it was too spread-out.

“This action is spread out over seven hours which is too long. When you tweak that, Test cricket can be enjoyable,” said Manjrekar.

Modi said with so many other forms of entertainment readily available to the consumers these days, they need to be attracted to the game.

“There are other sports for the consumer to turn to. There are 100 or 150 TV channels too. One way forward is to play day-night Tests. Also we need to schedule more Tests into the FTP which can be done for the 2012-2020 programme,” he suggested.

Manjrekar, supporting Australian great Shane Warne who has said 50-over cricket has lost its shelf life, said there was too much mediocrity in the more traditional limited-overs format.

“What I want is excellence but I feel there’s too much mediocrity in 50-over games. Take for example the recent series between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, where 80 per cent of the runs were scored through ones and two’s and not through boundary hits,” he pointed out.

There are trends developing in world cricket that are of concern to the future of the game, including in India, Indian coach Gary Kirsten said.

“Team India has to decide its priorities in terms of Test cricket and other forms of the game, like T20″, he said.

“It’s quite interesting that we’ve got a Twenty20 World Cup in April next year in the West Indies and Team India don’t play one T20 game until that tournament starts.

“What should be happening is that we should be going on tour and playing six T20 games and one or two 50 over games. I think that’s going to happen – it’s just a matter of time.

Kirsten said he believed that 50-over games were “here to stay”.

On Test cricket, Kirsten said: “The worrying side that I’m seeing is that a guy like Andrew Flintoff as a high profile cricketer has now made the decision to leave Test cricket because he feels that he can get more longevity out of his body and earn a much more money by moving away from Test cricket and playing One-day and T20 cricket.

“He’s perfectly right in his decision. Why not?

“The one area that is concerning me about where Test cricket is going is that if you are going to be paying playing substantially more to play IPL as opposed to playing a Test match for their country, it’s a natural progression that the guys are then going to say ‘I’m not interested in bowling 25 overs in a day when I can bowl four over a six-day period and earn three times as much.’”

Kirsten said the “bottom line” was that every country needed to look at Test cricket and say how important it was to them.

“Team India plays six Tests this year. Is that sufficient or are there other priorities? I don’t know.”

“We do need to look at the economics, but if we are going to keep Test cricket going like we wanted to, we need to sort out the priorities of Test cricket and (whether it) stands above anything else (like) T20 cricket.”

The new Mongoose bat that is supposed to revolutionise cricket has found its way into the home of Indian cricket. 

And its maker is fittingly from M Ashraf Bros, the humble bat-maker who has been operating from a bylane opposite Metro cinema since the 1920s. The bat, tailor-made for T20 has been approved officially and was used by Aussie Stuart Law in English county cricket T20 games in May.

Aslam Chaudhry, who has attempted to create the Indian version, is the son of Mehtabuddin, the skilled bat-maker whose Mehtab Special bats were used by the great Mumbai batsmen of yore. After his father’s death, Aslam quit his job as a photographer in London to come back and take over the bat making.

Said Aslam, “I read about the bat in the papers. I surfed the net for details there weren’t many specifications and I worked only on percentages.” Asked about the speciality of the bat, Aslam said, “The sweet spot area is the full bat where as in normal bats, it would be 9-10 inches above the bottom.”

Coach Vidya Paradkar, who makes his pupils use Ashraf bats, said, “The problem was getting a long enough cane for the handle which is six inches longer. Luckily, Aslam found a Sarawak cane from his father’s time in the attic and used it. There was no problem with the blade which is half the normal length of 22 inches. The overall length is the usual 33 inches and the weight about 2.2 pounds.”

Aslam’s bats are used by Rohit Sharma, among others. He once made a bat for Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar, who brought a sample Newberry bat to be replicated. “Sachin can judge the curve of a good bat from a mile,” said Aslam, who is sought after for bat alterations by many big players.

Aslam said while he took one and a half day to make a regular bat, it took him three days to make the Mongoose bat. And what’s the difference in the willows?

“In the normal bat, the splice of the cane handle is fit into the blade. In the Mongoose bat, the splice of the blade goes into the handle. The handle of the Mongoose bat is two piece with a rubber lining for cushioning. In normal bats there are nine pieces of cane.”

The fixing of the splice is the most skilled part of bat-making which was the hallmark of Mehtab bats in the 60s. The bats won’t be on sale for a while, but Aslam said an English willow could easily cost upwards of Rs 10,000 and a Kashmir willow bat about Rs 4,000.

The Mongoose bat is aimed at T20 cricket where the need for aggression is paramount and one doesn’t need the shoulders/splice area of the bat, which are entirely defensive. The blade has been shortened and the handle lengthened, and the meat of the bat is constructed to ensure maximum hitting power.

Specifications (in inches)

Mongoose Usual
Blade 15 22
Handle 17.5 11.5
Blade thickness 1.25 .75
Length 33 33

Test cricket faces an uncertain future and the sport’s ruling body has done a good job of devaluing the traditional form of the game, former Australia skipper Ian Chappell said.

Concerns have been raised over the classical five-day game as it struggles to counter the rapid rise in popularity of the Twenty20 format, especially with the launch of the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) last year.

Chappell, now a television commentator, blamed the packed international calendar for the situation, dubbing it a “jigsaw puzzle with many missing pieces.”

“Ever since T20 burst onto the international scene, there have been rumblings about the death of Test cricket,” he wrote in a column in the Hindustan Times on Monday.

“The main barriers to improving the image of Test cricket have been erected by the ICC (International Cricket Council) itself,” he said. “It has done the most to devalue Test cricket.”

He attacked the scheduling of back-to-back Tests, due to a busy calendar. “Those competing in all forms not only face an increased risk of injury but also have to prioritise their exertion levels.

“The latter could be a clue to the lack of genuine fast bowlers in the game.”

Last year, the ICC raised concerns over poor crowd figures during Australia’s Test tour of India, while president David Morgan has said the body is considering four-day Tests as part of innovations to keep the form of the game exciting to fans.

“Diminishing crowds at Tests in all countries barring England and Australia is a worry,” Chappell said.

“Adding to those concerns, West Indies are in disarray and Pakistan is a no-go area.”

In a cricket coup of sorts, prolific Sri Lankan batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan has been roped in by Northern Districts (ND) for New Zealand’s domestic T20 championship.

Dilshan, the man of the tournament at the Twenty20 World Cup in England, will spend a season with the club.

The Sri Lankan was the highest run-scorer at the Twenty20 World Cup, notching up 317 runs at an average of 52 with a strike rate of 144. In the IPL in South Africa, playing for Delhi Daredevils, he was the fifth-highest run scorer, averaging 42 with an impressive strike rate of 122.

“Dilshan is arguably the best Twenty20 batsman going in world cricket at the moment,” ND Cricket chief executive David Cooper said.

“It is a significant move for us to sign him and have him coming out to New Zealand.

“We believe that his presence will assist our team and our players in much the same way Andrew Strauss did in early 2008. I have no doubt New Zealand crowds will enjoy watching him, too,” he added.

A veteran of 53 Tests, the 32-year-old right-hand batsman averages 34.26 in Twenty20 Internationals and can also keep wickets and bowl right-arm offspin.

New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori will be Dilshan’s teammate in the domestic Twenty20 competition, planned for late December which will continue till late January next year.