Andrew Symonds’ sparkling 54 gave Deccan a defendable total, which they protected with an inspired fielding performance led by Rohit Sharma and disciplined bowling

The Bulletin by Sriram Veera18-Apr-2010
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Deccan Chargers won five games in a row to qualify for the knockout stage•Indian Premier League

They were the IPL’s nomads, they needed to win five games in a row to reach the semi-finals, and things looked heavily loaded against them. But Deccan Chargers, the defending champions, made it. On a slow pitch at Feroz Shah Kotla, Andrew Symonds’ sparkling 54 gave Deccan a defendable total, which they protected with an inspired fielding performance led by Rohit Sharma and disciplined bowling. Paul Collingwood kept Delhi in the chase until the end but he lacked the firepower, and support, to pull off a victory.It boiled down to Delhi needing 17 runs in the final over and Chaminda Vaas bowled exceptionally, mixing his slower ones with near-perfect yorkers. Deccan had earlier wobbled at the start before the Symonds show and slowed to a crawl post his fall to reach 145 for 7. It was a slow pitch, better than the previous tracks in Delhi though, and the chase was unlikely to be a stroll for the hosts. And it wasn’t.Rohit, who contributed only 11 the bat, took a couple of breathtaking catches to tilt the game Deccan’s way. He flew low to his right at first slip, grabbing a one-hand catch to remove Virender Sehwag. In the seventh over, he flung himself to his left at short midwicket to get rid of Gautam Gambhir. Both his catches, however, were created by clever bowling. Vaas, who replaced Ryan Harris, had deceived Virender Sehwag with a slower off cutter and Pragyan Ojha had beaten Gambhir in flight, forcing him to drag the ball squarer than intended. Between those wickets, Tillakaratne Dilshan had fallen while trying to paddle scoop. The slower one from Harmeet Singh trapped him in front as he moved across.The loss of three quick wickets had derailed the chase and, considering Paul Collingwood’s recent struggles against spin, Delhi depended heavily on Dinesh Karthik. When Mithun Manhas was run out after a mix-up with Collingwood, Delhi needed 78 off 49 deliveries. Karthik entered the fray but didn’t last long. The delivery from Ojha landed on middle and off stump and turned just enough to go past Karthik’s bat and hit off. Collingwood hung around for a while and was even dropped couple of times by, of all the people, Rohit and Symonds but couldn’t finish it off.It was an inspired bowling performance from Deccan but if it wasn’t for a superbly-crafted knock from Symonds, the bowlers would not have had much to defend. The story of their innings was summarised after the first time-out in the tenth over. Amit Mishra bowled with a slip and a silly point to the new batsman Mitchell Marsh, but when Symonds came on strike most fielders were back patrolling the boundary. Delhi were on the attack and knew only one man posed a threat. Marsh preserved his wicket and allowed Symonds to play a fine knock.Symonds initially reserved his aggression for Amit Mishra. The legspinner troubled Symonds with his googlies, which he picked only off the pitch, but he would time and again counterattack with a muscled hit. He moved down the track to lift a legbreak over long off, followed it by biffing a googly into the same stand and slugged a flighted delivery from outside off over long-on. In between, he edged a legbreak between the keeper and first slip and just when Mishra was seemingly on the ascent, Symonds would break free. Symonds crashed Tillakaratne Dilshan’s offbreaks for two sixes and even played a delicate late cut against Paul Collingwood to collect a boundary.Deccan had reached 116 for 4 in the 15th over and things were set for a final assault when Symonds fell. Mishra had just switched to bowling from round the stumps to Symonds and had his man chipping straight to long off. Delhi applied the squeeze from then on, just as they had done in the first half of the game, but the total proved beyond their reach.

From the summit of playing South Africa at one of world’s finest cricket grounds Afghanistan now step back to the Associate level which they are beginning to dominate

Andrew McGlashan at Kensington Oval06-May-2010Eliminated but far from embarrassed. Afghanistan need feel no shame at all as they depart the World Twenty20. Getting here was one of the sporting stories of all time and they certainly haven’t disgraced themselves against India and South Africa. Now their coach, Kabir Khan, wants the cricketing world to embrace Afghanistan and help them sustain their development by inviting the team for one-day and Twenty20 matches.Afghanistan can’t play matches at home – and it will be years until they can – and facilities are limited to one grass pitch so it will need wholehearted philanthropy from the global game to help. They currently have ODI status and Khan called on the top nations to give his side a chance in limited-overs matches to ensure the players’ growth can continue.”They have to play a lot more than a game or two. We’ve got ODI status and we can play Twenty20 internationals against any country in the world so the teams need to invite us,” Khan said. “They could invite players for training camps, they could invite them into the domestic games as professional or semi-professional, we don’t mind, but they should play cricket.”We want all the big cricket countries to help us in that. We’ve got talent, the boys are quite ready. They are quick learners and we expect that all the cricket nations watching us will help in that regard.”Khan hopes that being on television in front of millions will have been the ideal shop window for a number of his players and that they might attract interest from overseas. “It was good to see them on the television and they have been exposed,” he said.”As a coach that’s what I’m happy about because we want them to play tough professional cricket in other countries with a contract in South Africa, Australia, England or India. The main aim is to play for their country, but to get professional cricket they have to play the top countries. If you want to get used to facing the likes of [Dale] Steyn or [Morne] Morkel, or anyone on top of the world, they have to play against them in domestic cricket.”When the Afghanistan chase crashed to 32 for 8 against the type of pace bowling they’d never seen before it appeared they would leave with the unwanted record of the lowest Twenty20 international score. However, spirit and fight oozes through the line-up and gutsy innings from Mirwais Ashraf and Hamid Hassan, who earlier bowled superbly to take 3 for 21, hauled them above Kenya’s 67.”They were really quick, bowling at 90mph and there was swing as well so it was very difficult for our batsmen to face them,” captain Nowroz Mangal said. “They got early wickets and took the game from us.”And there was some style about the lower-order display, too, as the ninth-wicket pair hit four sixes between them, including one by Ashraf, off Albie Morkel, that cleared the Garry Sobers Pavilion and bounced into the net area. That followed a highly accomplished bowling display where South Africa were made to work hard for each of their 139 runs with Jacques Kallis’ 34 the top score as Mangal led from the front with three fine catches.Hassan lived up to his billing as the team’s poster boy with a display of death bowling as good as anything in the tournament so far. He, along with allrounder Mohammad Nabi, are two Afghanistan players who have had a taste of cricket overseas after they both were part of the MCC Young Cricketers scheme, while Nabi also plays domestically in Pakistan.”As a coach I am quite satisfied with their performance against the two top nations in the world – cricket wise and facilities wise – and they performed well,” Khan said. “Against India there was all sorts of pressure on them; there was television, there were the big stars, there was the crowd and they coped with it very well. Today, to restrict a batting line-up like South Africa to 139 is a big achievement so there are all sorts of pluses for them.”The key is they need to be exposed to that pressure again and again and then they’ll get used to it. On a bowling machine you can put it to 90mph but you can’t have Dale Steyn bowling at you and swinging the ball. So you have to face those bowlers to get the experience. Because my team are quick learners when they play against South Africa or India again they will do much better.”From the summit of playing South Africa at one of world’s finest cricket grounds Afghanistan now step back to the Associate level which they are beginning to dominate, but this experience will have left with them with a lifetime of memories. Now they want some help to make sure they come back again.

It is tempting to look at these matches – two Twenty20 internationals between Sri Lanka and New Zealand, being played in the USA – as precisely the reason why tournaments like IPL prosper

The Preview by Sidharth Monga21-May-2010

Match Facts

Saturday, May 22, Start time 1530 (1930 GMT)
Sunday, May 23, Start time 1200 (1600 GMT)
Can Mahela Jayawardene win new fans with his methods that are far removed from what the USA expects from its baseball hitters?•AFP

The Big Picture

It is tempting to look at these matches – two Twenty20 internationals between Sri Lanka and New Zealand, being played in the USA – as precisely the reason why tournaments like IPL prosper. Twenty20 is the best vehicle for the globalisation of the game, which somehow – rightly or wrongly – seems to be a big concern for the administrators. The ICC sees the USA, with a team full of Asians and a country boasting enough immigrants to constitute a crowd for a match, as a prospective market. Since the two teams had been to the Caribbean, why not have them stop over on their way back.Yet, on another level, there is much to suggest that this series is yet another example of the ICC sanctioning an ill-timed series, one without context. It hasn’t been even a week since the end of the World Twenty20, and the fatigue, even for the slam-bang format, was evident among the audience during the bilateral series earlier this week between West Indies and South Africa. It would have been foolish to expect anything but in the first place: there is only so much Twenty20 people can take.In any event, it is going to be a huge weekend for cricket in the USA, especially as a venue. Already the series has been cut short because of poor floodlighting. It is the first time two Test teams are playing in America, and how the matches go from an organisational point of view will have a bearing on the future of international cricket in the USA.There has also been concern over whether New Zealand and Sri Lanka, small countries with small diaspora, will be able to attract enough supporters, leave alone taking the game to the natives, which should be the real aim. The onus will be on the teams to play attractive cricket; it is not easy to make a pitching-obsessed nation fall in love with bowling. They can’t turn up jaded, like West Indies and South Africa did, three days after the World Twenty20 final.

Form guide (most recent first)

New Zealand LWLWW

Sri Lanka LWLWW

Watch out for…

Mahela Jayawardene and Daniel Vettori are the complete antitheses of hitters and pitchers from baseball. If they are both at their best, who knows the Americans might just see the light.
The pitch and conditions are a complete unknown. “There’s a New Zealand groundsman here looking after it [the pitch] and preparing it,” said Ross Taylor. “To be honest, we don’t really know what to expect.” Isolated thunderstorms are also forecast for the weekend.

Team news

Between the World Twenty20 and now, New Zealand have lost Jesse Ryder to another injury, and Shane Bond for good. Gareth Hopkins has a knee injury so Brendon McCullum is likely to keep wicket, while offspinning allrounder Rob Nicol is set to make his debut.New Zealand (possible): 1 Brendon McCullum (wk), 2 Aaron Redmond, 3 Martin Guptill, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Scott Styris, 6 Jacob Oram, 7 Daniel Vettori (capt.), 8 Rob Nicol , 9 Kyle Mills, 10 Ian Butler, 11 Andy McKay.Sri Lanka should retain their combination from the World Twenty20 before Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Sanath Jayasuriya take a break.
Sri Lanka (possible): 1 Mahela Jayawardene 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt. & wk), 4 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 5 Chamara Kapugedera, 6 Angelo Mathews, 7 Chinthaka Jayasinghe, 8 Thissara Perera, 9 Suraj Randiv, 10 Thilan Thushara, 11 Lasith Malinga.

Stats and trivia

• Brendon McCullum, at 1081, is the highest run-getter in T20Is. Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, with 743 and 711 runs, are numbers four and five on the list.
• New Zealand have won four out of their seven games against Sri Lanka, including their latest victory in the World Twenty20.
  

  Quotes

  “Miami is a new place for all of us. Most of the guys haven’t been to the States. We’ve had a look around, went to a baseball game. It’s something different, going out of your routine of playing against top nations in venues you’re quite familiar with. It will be good fun.”
  
  
  “We’ve been waiting a long time for this. This is part of what we’ve been calling Destination USA. We took, with the board’s help, a view to try and bring in the best teams in the world and show that the United States is open for business as far as cricket is concerned.”

Australia have arrived in Ireland for the opening match of their tour of the British Isles, but they will have to shake off some rust ahead of the ODIs against England

Cricinfo staff15-Jun-2010Australia have arrived in Ireland for the opening match of their tour of the British Isles, but they will have to shake off some rust ahead of the ODIs against England. They begin with a one-off one-day international against Ireland on Thursday and Cameron White conceded the Australians might be out of practice, having had a month off since the World Twenty20.”There probably will be a little bit [of rustiness], no doubt against Ireland,” White told AAP. “The important thing is by the time were down to Southampton we should be up and going and ready to go. The three or four weeks that everyone has had since the World Cup will be good and hopefully we can hit the ground running.”The five-match series against England begins at the Rose Bowl next Tuesday, before the Australians move on to two Twenty20s and two Tests against Pakistan. The Ireland game will be an especially useful warm-up for the six members of the squad who were not in the World Twenty20 group, including the captain Ricky Ponting.The pitch in Dublin is likely to be slow and low, which could help Ireland become more competitive. The Ireland veteran Trent Johnston said his colleagues were aiming to give the visitors as tough an introduction as possible on their six-week tour.”When we get out there and execute our plans the way we want to we can be a pretty dangerous team,” Johnston said. “The last thing they’ll want to do is play England after being beaten by Ireland.”We’re not going to kid ourselves, the 11 guys will have to play the games of their lives to be close to Australia. People didn’t give us much chance of beating England last August and we should have beaten them, we lost by three runs; that was quite disappointing. We’re going to get out there and give it a go, that’s all we can do.”

Medium-pacer Maurits Jonkman has been ruled out of the ICC World Cricket League Division One due to injury, and has been replaced by Bernard Loots

Cricinfo staff08-Jul-2010Medium-pacer Maurits Jonkman has been ruled out of the ICC World Cricket League Division One due to injury, and has been replaced by Bernard Loots. Netherlands have won and lost two of their four games thus far in the competition and face Ireland in a crucial encounter in Amstelveen on Friday.

Yorkshire have been left needing to slash their spending after poor crowds for the neutral Test between Pakistan and Australia led to a significant short fall in revenue of up to £750,000

Cricinfo staff27-Jul-2010Yorkshire have been left needing to slash their spending after poor crowds for the neutral Test between Pakistan and Australia led to a significant short fall in revenue of up to £750,000 ($1.16 million).It had been expected that the local Pakistani community would support the match but crowds failed to materialise as only a few thousand watched the action each day at a venue capable of holding 18,000 spectators. This was despite Pakistan’s strong performance where they skittled Australia for 88 on the opening day and won the Test by three wickets on the fourth morning.Although advanced sales for the match were poor it was hoped that walk-up fans on each day would swell the crowds – and Yorkshire’s finances – but the Test failed to capture the imagination of the locals.While Yorkshire have conceded the returns for the game were a major blow to the club they have insisted there won’t be any panic measures and that the county’s playing budget for coach Martyn Moxon will remain untouched.”We don’t see swingeing cuts at all – there is no alarmism here,” Colin Graves, the Yorkshire chairman, told BBC television’s Look North programme on Monday. We had a board meeting last Thursday while the Test match was going on, anticipating what was going to happen.”And Graves admitted being surprised by the lack of last-minute support for Pakistan. “I think we expected them to be using credit cards in January, February, March,” he said. “Unfortunately, they didn’t. But they also didn’t turn up on the day – which was a surprising thing, from our point of view.”Tickets for a full day’s play cost £30 and, although prices were cut after tea on each day, Graves believes the pricing structure was fair. “Yes, we could have reduced the prices – that can be levelled at us – but we think 30 pounds was fair value for a good day’s cricket.”Stewart Regan, the Yorkshire chief executive, put a figure on the losses the club will face as more than half a million pounds. “The match has cost us several hundred thousand pounds in terms of lost ticket revenue,” he told the . “I would say we’re in the region of 500,000-750,000 pounds short of what we were expecting, which is a big disappointment.”

Leicestershire’s James Taylor posted his third century in four matches against Middlesex to leave this County Championship clash at Lord’s intriguingly poised

11-Aug-2010

ScorecardLeicestershire’s James Taylor posted his third century in four matches against Middlesex to leave this County Championship clash at Lord’s intriguingly poised going into the final day.
The 20-year-old right-hander occupied the crease in NW8 for a shade over six hours in reaching an unbeaten 106 with only eight fours to help his side reach 282 all out, a useful first-innings lead of 63.Batting again by 2pm, Middlesex made a good start with an enterprising opening stand worth 119 in 33 overs either side of tea between Scott Newman and John Simpson. Former Surrey left-hander Newman counter attacked with 11 fours in his 110-ball half-century, but was first to go soon after tea for 70 when his top-edged cut to a turning, lifting ball from Claude Henderson looped to Jacques du Toit at slip.Left-arm spinner Henderson struck again in his next over when Simpson (44) walked across his stumps aiming to work through the leg-side only to fall lbw. Attacking with spin at both ends, Leicestershire struck again through Jigar Naik when he tossed one up from the Pavilion End to draw Dawid Malan into an ill-advised drive that he edged to slip.Three overs from the close, home skipper Neil Dexter (18) was trapped on the crease by a Nadeem Malik offcutter to go leg before but nightwatchman Toby Roland-Jones (one) and Owais Shah (25) survived until stumps to reach 168 for 4, a lead of 105 to take into the fourth and final day.The third day of this fluctuating tussle had started with Leicestershire on 186 for 5, still trailing by 33 runs after a rain-ruined Tuesday. Unbeaten on 65 overnight, Taylor soon lost sixth-wicket partner Naik (36) when he played back to the sixth ball of the game by occasional legspinner Malan to go leg before to a quicker delivery.In tandem with Henderson, Taylor added 57 for the sixth wicket and ground his way to a fifth career hundred and his second off the Middlesex attack this summer. His unbeaten 106 here followed his 206 not out against them at Grace Road in May.In the past three seasons the former England Under-19 batsman has amassed 483 runs against Middlesex at an amazing average of 161. The Leicestershire innings then tailed off badly when Roland-Jones made good use of the second new ball to claim three wickets for two runs from 26 balls either side of the lunch interval.He got Henderson to edge behind on 31 before trapping Nathan Buck (one) lbw and having Matthew Hoggard (four) caught by Shaun Udal. He finished with 4 for 52 and Pedro Collins 4 for 72, yet neither of them could dislodge the obdurate Taylor who marched off with a smile after his
230-ball study in concentration.

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has backed the decision of its selection committee not to offer central retainer or developmental contracts to Ramnaresh Sarwan, Jerome Taylor or Narsingh Deonarine

Cricinfo staff02-Sep-2010The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has backed the decision of its selection committee not to offer central retainer or developmental contracts to Ramnaresh Sarwan, Jerome Taylor or Narsingh Deonarine. When these three, along with Denesh Ramdin and Travis Dowlin, were cut from the contracts list it was suggested that the fitness of Sarwan, a former captain, and Deonarine was “deemed unsatisfactory”.Taylor, the fast bowler, was not helped by his limited availability and alleged questionable approach to his rehabilitation following a back injury when the WICB contracts for the period from October 1 were announced.”The team management, selection committee and the WICB are concerned about Sarwan’s extremely indifferent attitude and sporadic approach towards fitness, particularly in recent years,” read a statement released by the board.”It is the considered view of the selection committee, following consultations with the specialists in the team management, that Ramnaresh’s less-than-satisfactory and fluctuating fitness levels have directly contributed to multiple injuries thereby causing him to be unavailable for selection to the West Indies team.”Sarwan, who was most recently affected by a hamstring problem, has not played a Test since 2009 although he appeared in four ODIs and seven Twenty20s this year. He has a top score of 100 not out against Ireland but was less effective when facing the better teams. Taylor was sent home from the tour of Australia late last year with back stress fractures and has made only nine limited-overs appearances since then.”The WICB is disappointed with Taylor’s lack of commitment to his own rehabilitation following injuries sustained in Australia in 2009 and in the ICC World Twenty20 2010,” continued the statement. “Jerome, despite being under retainer contract, has not shown the expected attendance and commitment to pursue the required assessment and consequent rehabilitative programmes that would be required.”Further it has been explained to Jerome that his physical make-up requires a specific programme of fitness and exercise to ensure his availability to play cricket at the highest level and avoid frequent breakdowns. There has not been a demonstrated commitment to achieve that level of fitness and ensure that he can perform consistently at the highest level.”The statement also made particular mention of Deonarine as a player whose attitude towards fitness and training continued to be unsatisfactory “despite the official notice”.”Deonarine’s level of fitness is regrettably, unacceptable for an international cricketer,” read the statement in a hard-hitting indictment of the player’s physical condition. “His results are below par in the majority of fitness tests conducted by the team management specialists. Narsingh, despite numerous opportunities, continues to show gross disregard for his fitness. Team management has pleaded with, beseeched and cajoled Narsingh to improve his overall fitness but to no avail.”

Shahid Afridi, Pakistan’s one-day captain, says his team is looking forward to getting back to cricket after four days of being in the headlines for the wrong reasons

Cricinfo staff01-Sep-2010Shahid Afridi, Pakistan’s one-day captain, says his team is looking forward to getting back to cricket after four days of being in the headlines for the wrong reasons. Pakistan play Somerset in Taunton on Thursday in their first game since the spot-fixing controversy broke.”We had a very good practice session yesterday [Tuesday],” he said at Somerset’s County Ground. “What has happened has gone. We are here to play good cricket. It’s a big challenge for me personally, playing in English conditions is always difficult.”Myself and the coach [Waqar Younis] are trying to keep morale high. It’s always very difficult in these conditions against a good team but they are all really focused.”Three members of the squad – Test captain Salman Butt, and fast bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif – have left for London, where they are due to meet top administrative and diplomatic officials on Thursday.Afridi, who resigned the Test captaincy after Pakistan’s 150-run loss against Australia in July, joined the squad after the Lord’s Test, which ended in controversy a day after the broke its spot-fixing story.
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The rest of the tour – a mix of Twenty20s and ODIs – is in some doubt but Afridi insisted his players would be able to put the furore to one side and concentrate on the task at hand when they faced Somerset. “We are all looking forward to it. It has been really difficult but we can forget everything, get out, play the cricket and entertain the people.”There were protests outside Pakistan’s hotel in London but there were none at their Taunton hotel and the Somerset chief executive Richard Gould was confident Thursday’s match would pass off without spectator unrest.”We are not anticipating anything of that order,” Gould told reporters. “We’ve got a really good family atmosphere generally in the ground and I think that’s going to be all-pervading tomorrow (Thursday).”I suspect there might be a little bit of humour thrown in, with a few comments, but we won’t let anything go beyond light-hearted banter.”

The long-running battle between Younis Khan and the PCB has finally been resolved, after a meeting between the former Pakistan captain and the chairman of the board Ijaz Butt

Osman Samiuddin20-Oct-2010The long-running battle between Younis Khan and the Pakistan board has finally been resolved, after a meeting between the former captain and Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman. Younis, a former Pakistan captain, was cleared for selection almost immediately and picked in the limited-overs squad for the series against South Africa in the UAE later this month.The meeting took place early on Wednesday and board officials familiar with the meeting told ESPNcricinfo that all outstanding issues were resolved amicably. A resolution had been on the cards since the board sent a letter to Younis asking him to meet the chairman. Younis responded positively, telling reporters in Lahore he was keen to meet and play again for Pakistan.At a press conference later in the day in Karachi Mohsin Khan, chief selector, announced that Younis had joined the training camp in Lahore. “The chairman [PCB] has given clearance this afternoon to Younis Khan and that is good news,” Mohsin told reporters. “I discussed with the selection committee and we picked him straight away. He is fit, playing top-class cricket.”There was some confusion, however, over whether Younis had also been inducted into the Test squad. “For now he is in the limited-overs squad,” Mohsin said. “We will see his progress over the ODIs and then make a decision for the Tests after that.” Over in Lahore though, at almost the same time, Intikhab Alam, the team manager, indicated to reporters that Younis was back in the Test side as well.Younis’ return has also been hastened by the pullout from the ODI squad of Mohammad Yousuf. Yousuf has not been training over the last two days at the camp at Gaddafi Stadium and has a grade 2 abductor muscle tear. Mohsin said he is likely to be out for 2-3 weeks, though added that Younis would have been selected even if Yousuf was available.Younis was one of four players the board either banned or decided would not be selected for an indefinite period in the aftermath of a disastrous tour of Australia in 2009-10. Three others were fined heavily.Alongside five others, Younis appealed against the punishment to a one-man appelate tribunal. Shoaib Malik, the Akmal brothers and Shahid Afridi had their fines reduced and bans lifted soon after, while Rana Naved ul Hasan had his one-year ban lifted recently. Yousuf didn’t appeal, announcing his retirement instead, though he was asked by the board to return for the England tour, his punishment apparently waived away.Younis’ case, however, had stalled. The tribunal “set aside his order” and referred it back to the board, as it did with the others. The other players then apologised to the board and accepted their mistakes, clearing the way for their return. Younis refused to do so, insisting through his lawyer that he had done nothing to apologise for and had instead maintained that he wanted to clear his name fully of the charges laid against him.The board released a statement with few details, referring only to the meeting and that the matter now “stands closed.”Over the last few weeks the board and chairman in particular had come under severe pressure from a clutch of former cricketers as well as the national assembly’s standing committee on sports to bring Younis back into the fold.