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Former West Indian allrounder Norman Marshall, who was in the unusual company of cricketers who have represented two regional teams and played just one Test, died suddenly at his residence in Hastings, Christ Church on Saturday.Marshall was 83 and led an active life, deep-sea fishing and playing tennis regularly through to his last days.He was a miserly offspinner and an attacking middle-order batsman, who scored 1337 runs at an average of 30.38 with two hundreds, and claimed 90 wickets at 31.72 runs in 33 first-class matches between 1941 and 1956. Of those, 27 were for his native Barbados and four for Trinidad in 1954 and 1955, while working there.He played his only Test against Australia at Guyana in 1955 at the age of 31, three months after his previous first-class match. Notification of his selection came after he returned from a fishing trip and, in a low-scoring match won by Australia; he was dismissed for 0 and 8. But his figures – 46.3-22-62-2 – were indicative of his tight bowling.His elder brother Roy, who died in 1992, was a dashing opening batsman who toured England in 1950 and Australia and New Zealand in 1951-52, appearing in four Tests, before joining Hampshire for whom he scored over 30,000 runs in 18 seasons before he retired in 1972.Norman joined Wanderers Club in 1939 on leaving Foundation School and subsequently played a lot of cricket in Peru and Venezuela. On his return to Barbados, he turned out for Wanderers in the Intermediate division into his mid-50s.

‘It’s my rhythm that concerns me most and I was pleased that it felt good’ – Shoaib Akhtar is back, but for how long? © Getty Images

Shoaib Akhtar is happy to be back in international cricket and hopes that he will be able to stay fit and reach his peak at the Champions Trophy to be played in India in October and November.”I know I can get better and faster,” Shoaib told ABC Sport. “It’s my rhythm that concerns me most and I was pleased that it felt good. The fact my speeds were getting up towards the middle 90s on some deliveries shows that I haven’t lost the ability to bowl fast while I’ve been out. As any fast bowler knows, the better your rhythm, the quicker you bowl.”Shoaib has been out of serious cricket since India’s tour to Pakistan in January this year. On his return he played Pakistan’s first-ever Twenty20 match at Bristol against England. He then played the rain-shortened one-day game at Cardiff where he picked up three wickets for 45 in his ten overs.”The Cardiff match was a nice comeback but it’s only the start. The team is playing some really good one-day cricket and I think the only way we will lose this series is if we become complacent.”If we all stay focused and play to our ability we will take some beating because we have a lethal combination. I don’t mean any disrespect to England – they have some dangerous players also – but I just think we have the advantage with experience and ability.”Pakistan have four more one-day matches against England, the next one on September 2 at Lord’s.

Sachin Tendulkar’s return from elbow surgery has been delayed © AFP

Sachin Tendulkar has been ruled out of the Super Series after his tennis elbow injury failed to heal in time for the ICC’s deadline. Tendulkar, a crucial figure for the World XI, was given an extension by the ICC to confirm his availability but Dr Anant Joshi, a sports specialist appointed by the BCCI, said Tendulkar needed to play a domestic match before being passed fit for international cricket.Meanwhile, whether he plays or not Brand Sachin seems to be growing by the day. Percept D’Mark , the celebrity management firm who are agents for Sourav Ganguly, Kapil Dev, L Balaji and Yuvraj Singh among others, is apparently negotiating a long-term deal with Tendulkar. His five-year deal with WorldTel, amounting to Rs.100 crore, draws to a close coming December.The new deal is expected to fetch him a sum substantially higher than this and could also involve him in merchandising activities, fan clubs, world-class academies and even some businesses, according to Shailendra Singh, Percept’s managing director.”We are not trying to buy him out of his existing relationship. We are instead trying to partner with him for his future. It makes sense to partner with a large organisation like ours. There is no other integrated company like ours. Our strengths and network will allow us to build a business model for Sachin beyond 2007,” Singh told the newspaper.On Tendulkar’s injury, R S Shetty, the BCCI’s executive secretary in-charge, said in Mumbai that Dr Joshi had been supervising Tendulkar’s rehabilitation program. “He has advised that Sachin should participate in at least one domestic game to evaluate his recovery before participating in competitive cricket,” reported. “Therefore Tendulkar has opted out of the Super Series.”Tendulkar joins Herschelle Gibbs on the injured list for the Super Series, which starts with the first of three one-day matches in Melbourne on October 5.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India may be in for a four-fold increase in revenues. It has announced that bids for the television rights of India’s home matches for the next three years will be accepted till August 14.The bid includes rights for bilateral one-day and Test series played at home and tournaments approved by the International Cricket Council, and runs from September 2004 to August 2007, reports Press Trust of India. This will include the rights for domestic matches conducted by the BCCI, but excludes special events like the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.Prasar Bharati was the successful bidder last time around, and they paid Rs230 crore for the privilege. This time, the figure is likely to go up significantly, a fact which was confirmed by Jagmohan Dalmiya, the board president. “We expect substantial jump over the existing cricket telecasting right,” he told The Times of India. “This time the figure should be close to Rs1000 crore (approx US$217million).”The BCCI made it clear that the bidding will be restricted to broadcasters who have their own existing in-house production, telecasting units and channel network, and have successfully telecast live and delayed international cricket events of international standard for at least two years (not as a licensee). The BCCI also drew attention to a clause that reads, “BCCI reserves the right in its discretion to cancel or amend the entire bidding process at any stage and to reject any or all bids without assigning any reason.”The forthcoming season has a spate of high-profile matches, starting with visits by Australia and South Africa in 2004, and followed by Pakistan in 2005.

National League Division One
TableGloucestershire 199 for 3 beat Glamorgan by seven wickets at Cheltenham
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Gloucestershire moved to the top of Division One with an emphatic seven-wicket victory over Glamorgan. James Averis and Mark Hardinges claimed three wickets apiece as Glamorgan collapsed to 197 all out, and Gloucestershire eased to victory with seven balls to spare. Each of the batsmen made a contribution – Alex Gidman continued his fine form with 49, before Matt Windows wrapped things up with an unbeaten 54.Worcestershire 219 for 6 beat Surrey 140 by 79 runs at Guildford
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An understrength Surrey team surrendered their top spot in Division One with a 79-run defeat against Worcestershire at Guildford. Ben Smith produced a captain’s innings of 93 not out, with 10 fours, to ensure a decent total of 219 for 6, after James Ormond had grabbed two early wickets. Smith found good support from Andrew Hall, who added 87 for the fourth wicket, before Kabir Ali’s impressive return of 4 for 30 devastated Surrey’s reply. Matt Mason also picked up four wickets, with the only resistance coming from Adam Hollioake’s 33. Essex 203 for 6 beat Leicestershire 166 by 37 runs at Southend
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Will Jefferson’s 61 made the difference as Essex overcame Leicestershire in a low-scoring match at Southend. Jefferson cracked eight fours in his innings, and added 101 for the second wicket with Ronnie Irani, who threw in a robust 36. Jeremy Snape was the pick of the Leicestershire bowlers, and his 3 for 14 from nine overs might have made the difference. But Antonio Palladino, Graham Napier and Joseph Grant each claimed two wickets, and only Paul Nixon’s 40 provided any meaningful resistance. Yorkshire 197 for 8 beat Kent 179 by 18 runs at Scarborough
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Muttiah Muralitharan picked up two wickets on his Kent debut, but he was unable to prevent Yorkshire from recording their second win of the season. Craig White top-scored for Yorkshire with a watchful 47 off 82 balls, before Tim Bresnan and Chris Silverwood added vital runs at the bottom of the order. Ed Smith and Robert Key replied with an opening stand of 57, and David Fulton made 48, but Craven claimed 4 for 22 to secure victory.National League Division Two
Latest tableMiddlesex 238 for 5 beat Northamptonshire 234 for 8 by five wickets at Northampton
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Owais Shah’s 83 knocked the stuffing out of Northamptonshire, as Middlesex successfully pursued 235 for victory. Shah hit two sixes and six fours in 86 balls, after Andrew Strauss had launched the chase with a handy 40. Northamptonshire’s opener Tim Roberts had earlier made 64, his highest one-day score, and David Sales chipped in with 56. But Simon Cook took three wickets and prevented a handy total turning into an unassailable one.

Without a win in the Standard Bank Series and without their captain, Kenya lit up St George’s Park on Wednesday night with a quite astonishing 70-run victory over India.It was, without doubt, one of the three greatest moments in the history of Kenyan cricket, following the 1996 World Cup upset of the West Indies and the 69-run win against India in Gwalior in 1998.It was a victory achieved against all expectations and, although one hesitates to use the term in the match-fixing era, against all the odds. The Kenyans played out of their skins, none more so than Joseph Angara who took the new ball, did not concede a run off his first four overs and fitted in the most prized wicket in cricket, that of Sachin Tendulkar for 3, during his opening spell.Angara was to come back into the attack later to snaffle Jacob Martin and Reetinder Singh Sodhi and effectively snuff out India’s last remaining hopes and he finished with three for 30 to claim the man of the match award. But it was much more than a one-man show with most of the Kenyans contributing in one way or another.Last Friday Kenya had been bowled out by India for just 90 as they lost to India by 10 wickets in a match which failed to stretch to half of the game’s allotted 100 overs. On Sunday their batting improved against South Africa, but they still lost by nine wickets and they had to go into Wednesday’s game sans captain Maurice Odumbe, banned for two matches for remarks made about umpire Dave Orchard.The Kenyans were perilously close to losing all credibility, but they batted well to reach 246 for six with Kennedy Otieno (64), Ravindu Shah (50) and Thomas Odoyo (51) all reaching the half-century mark.The Indians were loose in the field, giving the impression that they thought all they had to do to win was to get to St George’s Park on time. Still, few would have betted against their dazzling top order failing to reach the target, but the innings simply did not get going.Tendulkar was out in the sixth over, Sourav Ganguly (24) and Martin (36) both looked to have played themselves in before getting out, but as often as India tried to get up, Kenya kept on knocking them down again.Tony Suji accounted for Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh with successive balls and there was a quite magnificent catch from Collins Otieno, diving, one-handed low to his right at point, to get rid of Sodhi and although the Kenyans contrived to drop no fewer than four catches as the ball swirled in the air late in the innings, they had still had enough to spare to win quite comfortably.In point of fact, Kenya’s fielding went to pieces a little in the last 10 overs as they seemed to panic as the prospect of victory loomed. They also had more cause for complaint about Orchard who once again failed to call for a television replay which would have shown him that Harbhajan Singh had been run out by a direct hit.As well Kenya played overall, though, it cannot be stressed enough how poor were India. They rested three players – Virender Sehwag, Javagal Srinath and Ajit Agarkar, but, more importantly, they seemed to have left their competitive spirit back in the team hotel.Kenya’s win will have done wonders for their cricket. It has also brought a Summer Spice Series, which was starting to verge too close to predictability for comfort, back to life. Certainly, when Kenya play again in Cape Town against South Africa on Monday, this win should assure a crowd somewhere near close to capacity.Ganguly was at a loss to explain what went wrong afterwards. “It’s difficult to find reasons for losing,” he said, adding a little later that he hoped “it’s a kick in the backside for us”.”We played poor cricket for 100 overs,” said Ganguly. “All credit to them. They batted well and fielded brilliantly apart from a few missed catches.”Steve Tikolo, the acting captain, was “over the moon. This is right up there with the West Indies win in the World Cup.”The Kenyans had done it, he said, for their missing captain and manager Mehmood Quraishy who is in hospital awaiting heart surgery.

Former India fast bowler Ajit Agarkar has called for the selectors to scrutinise MS Dhoni’s role in the Indian team, and not merely as captain. Agarkar felt the selectors should look at Virat Kohli’s performance as the Test captain by comparison, and make a call on Dhoni’s role in the limited-overs format after the ongoing South Africa series.

‘Dhoni way too practical at times’

Ahead of the five-match ODI series against South Africa, Agarkar said he was “delighted” that India’s squad was boosted by the genuine pace of Umesh Yadav, something he felt was lacking in the T20Is.
“MS Dhoni keeps saying you don’t need to be a fast bowler, you need to be a good bowler, but it has been shown in T20s, you need bowlers with quality. They [ fast bowlers] can and will have bad days in the shorter format. And that’s where I think the selectors need to almost put their foot down at times with MS Dhoni. He is, at times, way too practical, which doesn’t work for the team anymore.
“You would rather have someone [like Umesh] who can make a difference with those one or two wickets which can change the game rather than someone who is going to bowl line and length all day.”
India’s medium-pace trio of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohit Sharma and S Aravind collectively managed just the one wicket in the two T20Is played, while conceding over eight, nine and 12 an over respectively.

Speaking to ESPNcricinfo ahead of India’s ODI series against South Africa, Agarkar said “the selectors need to have a closer look at what MS Dhoni is doing, not just as captain, but as a player as well”.Agarkar was especially concerned by Dhoni’s declining individual form. “He has been a great player for India, but you don’t want him to become a liability for the team. And he needs to perform a lot better than he has [been]. Just because he has done it over the years, doesn’t mean it’s okay for him to fail.”Agarkar was also highly critical of Dhoni’s decision to bat at No.4 in the one-day format, insisting that such a move would be “unfair” on somebody like Ajinkya Rahane and “would not work for the team.”‘I’m not convinced he should bat at four,” Agarkar said. “Just after a World Cup, you’re now trying to develop your team for the next World Cup. Four years is a long time, but for Dhoni, towards the end of his career, to put himself up, I’m not sure about it. You can understand if there are batsmen who can’t bat 3 and 4. But there is Ajinkya Rahane, who has been one of your best players in Test cricket and I don’t think he can bat lower than four in ODIs yet, unless he changes his game over his career.”Dhoni seems to have lost that ability of going out there and smashing it from ball one. He obviously takes his time. But he batted up the order in Bangladesh, and India still lost the series. All his career when people wanted him to bat up because he is so good and has that destructive ability, he has always maintained that he wants and needs to bat at No.6, where he can handle the pressure.”It’s a hard job batting at 5, 6 and 7. I’ve seen Yuvraj and MS himself do it for so long, but that doesn’t mean that it changes at this stage in his career. You’ve got to have guys who are good at certain numbers. And at the moment MS by promoting himself, is getting a Rahane or anyone else who bats there, into trouble. I would still have Raina and Dhoni at 5 and 6, so contrary to what a lot of people have said, I don’t think Dhoni should be batting at four at this stage in his career.”Agarkar believed the selectors might have some big decisions to take at the end of the ODI series against South Africa, on the future of the Indian team in ODIs and T20Is.”Looking at the results, India have generally been good in ODIs, but you’ve lost the World Cup semi-final, then you’ve lost in Bangladesh where Dhoni was captain twice, and you’ve now lost a T20 series. Yes, the T20s can go either way very quickly so you don’t want to judge someone, but for Dhoni this is a big series,” he said.”The selectors maybe need to look at where the Indian team is heading because Virat Kohli has done well as captain in Test cricket so maybe the selectors need to make that call after this series.’

Club captain Adam Lallana says he could stay at Southampton for the rest of his career after signing a new long-term contract.

The 24-year-old put pen-to-paper on a new five-and-a-half year deal on Thursday evening, tying him to the south coast outfit until 2018.

It is more good news for the Saints following new deals for Kelvin Davies, Rickie Lambert, Morgan Schneiderlin and Jason Puncheon in recent weeks.

With the club quickly adapting to life under new boss Mauricio Pochettino and all but assured of Premier League safety, things are looking up for a side that was in League One just two years ago.

Lallana, who joined the Saints as a schoolboy, is excited about the future and can see himself staying at the club for the rest of his playing days.

“I’m absolutely delighted,” he told the club’s official website. “To commit my future to the club for the next five years is something I’m really happy about.

“I can’t wait to work with the new management team and the lads to continue our progress in the Premier League. It was an easy decision for me with the direction the club is going in.

“I’ve been at the club since I was 12 and – being honest – I can only see my future lying with Southampton Football Club.

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“If someone was to say that I’d end my career playing for Southampton in the Premier League then I’d snap your hand off for it.”

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Dwayne Bravo lamented the sorry state of West Indies cricket, saying “too much politics” was killing the game in the Caribbean, and that the administrators needed to take a hard look at themselves.Bravo, who was asked about the team’s innings-and-212-run loss to Australia in the first Test in Hobart, said it was painful to see West Indies slip to one big loss after another despite having the personnel to compete. He pointed the gradual decline to a host of factors, including external interference and lack of infrastructure.”We’ve got the players to be up there with the best in the world, but there are a lot of things going on,” said Bravo, who is in Australia to play for the Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League. “We don’t have proper grounds, proper nets or a proper academy. All these things are a part of our downfall.”The relationship between players, board members and management staff needs to get stronger and tighter. They need to have a lot more honesty. There are a lot of dishonest people in charge at the moment.”Bravo did not mince words when he said it was time administrators stopped talking up a glorious past and started looking ahead. His remarks follow those of Michael Holding who said the WICB was “dysfunctional, untrustworthy and not liked by the employees,” while Brian Lara squarely laid the blame on the administrators for “bad governance.””It’s painful to see this is the stage our cricket has reached, [given] at one point in time we were the best team in the world,” Bravo said. “If those in charge keep harping on about the past and not trying to do anything for the present then we’ll always have these type of interviews, we’ll have back and forth with ex-players saying this and current players saying that. The rest of the world will go on and we’ll always be backwards.”Bravo, who was West Indies captain until the tour of India in October 2014, was sacked after the team abandoned the tour midway over a payment dispute with the WICB and the West Indies players’ association. He was also subsequently left out of the World Cup squad and has not played an ODI since October 2014. He announced his Test retirement in January and said that he took the decision after not getting a chance to play the longer format after 2010.”Until earlier this year, I was still interested to play Test cricket, but I have yet to hear anything from any selector, what their plans are for me, what my position is,” said Bravo. “I just decided it’s time to move on with my life and try to channel my energy in different places. I would have loved the opportunity to play Test cricket again but since being dropped back in 2010, I never got the chance and I just decided to call it a day.”Despite being in the mix only for the T20s, Bravo said he had not given up hope on playing ODIs again. “I’m not shutting down my opportunities to represent West Indies, I still 100% want to play for West Indies in one-day internationals and T20s.”

Rob Key and Andrew Hall laid the foundations for Kent’s victory in what was the first match of the Pro40, following last night’s washout.The pair put on an opening stand of 62 which proved the turning point at Grace Road after they had dismissed Leicestershire for 175.Hall made 31, while Key reached 63. It was then left to Darren Stevens to knock off the runs; he made an unbeaten 42 as Kent cruised home with 37 balls to spare.