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Salman Butt, the former Pakistan captain who was convicted of spot-fixing, has returned home after serving seven months in prison

Umar Farooq22-Jun-2012Salman Butt, the former Pakistan captain who was convicted of spot-fixing, has returned home after serving seven months in prison. He arrived in Lahore at around 2.30 on Friday morning, exited from the airport lobby and spoke to reporters. He said he was not involved in any spot-fixing but claimed his mistake was not to report to the ICC when an offer was made.Butt, wearing a green polo shirt and jeans, was surrounded by a crowd as he made his way out of the airport after being cleared by Pakistan’s immigration authorities, and had to shout for walking space. “I have no links with spot-fixing nor I have never entertained any offer, nothing ever practically happened in a match that was linked to any offer,” he told reporters. “Of spot-fixing or any fixing, I never asked anyone to do anything or bowl any no-balls, I am not associated with it.”I apologised to the ICC for this, I did not report the events (in advance) between these two to three months because I knew the person. To the people of Pakistan, all the cricketers, those who support us and make us stars, I apologise – but for failure to report.”Butt was jailed in November for his part in the delivery of deliberate no-balls in a Test match at Lord’s in 2010. Originally sentenced for 30 months, he was released seven months into his sentence under the UK government’s early-release scheme for foreign nationals. However, it means he has been formally deported from the UK and cannot return to the country for 10 years.”I am happy and relieved,” Butt said upon his arrival. “No place like Pakistan. I want two to three days with my family and once I [have] that, I will hold a detailed press conference to answer all questions to clear my name from spot-fixing.”I am thankful to all those who helped me in difficult times and I hope my tough days are over. I am desperate to see my second son, whom I’ve not seen since his birth.” Butt’s second son was born on November 3, the day he was sentenced.Fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were also found guilty of corruption and accepting corrupt payments. Asif was released in May after serving six months of his 12-month prison term but he is still in the UK, planning his appeal against a seven-year ban from cricket. Amir served three months in the young offenders’ institute and is currently undergoing rehabilitation with a psychologist in Lahore.While Amir has decided not to appeal against the ICC ban, Butt said he was planning to. “I am consulting my legal advisers and will decide on when to appeal against the ICC ban.” When asked what he wanted to do next, Butt said he wanted to make a comeback as a “good person, a good Pakistani and a good cricketer.”Mazhar Majeed, the agent who was accused of setting up the deal that was uncovered by a sting operation, was imprisoned for 32 months. He is the only one among the conspirators still in prison.

Kevin Pietersen has opened the door for an England comeback in limited-overs international cricket, admitting he would “love to play for another three or four years in all forms of cricket”

George Dobell13-Jul-2012Kevin Pietersen has sensationally opened the door for an England comeback in limited-overs international cricket, admitting he would “love to play for another three or four years in all forms of cricket.”It is understood that Pietersen’s representative privately met ECB officials to discuss a return on Thursday night. Pietersen is also thought to have met Hugh Morris, the managing director of England cricket, earlier in the week.Asked whether negotiations into his England return in all three forms of the game were ongoing, Pietersen replied: “I think so.”Pietersen did not disguise his discontent with the way he has been managed by England, matters that would surely have to be resolved if he was to make a smooth return into the England side.He complained that he had “never been looked after” by the England management and insisted that his schedule would have to be eased before he consented to a return.Pietersen, speaking moments after he finished the third day of Surrey’s Championship match at Guildford unbeaten on 234, reiterated his desire to be included in England’s World Twenty20 squad in Sri Lanka in September.The selectors meet this weekend to pick a 30-man preliminary squad for the tournament and must submit it to the ICC on July 18. England enter the tournament as defending champions.Pietersen retired from limited-overs international cricket at the end of May. While he wanted only to retire from the 50-over game and to continue to play T20 cricket, the terms of England central contracts state that for a player to be considered for either format of limited-overs cricket, they must be available for both.”I’ve always said I want to play in the T20,” Pietersen said. “But I needed to get away from the schedule. I cannot keep playing every single day’s cricket. I’ve never been looked after. I cannot keep playing every warm-up game, I cannot keep practising every single day. There comes a time when I know what I need to do to be successful. I’ve got a young family and I cannot be on the treadmill all day every day.”I’ve said before that, if the schedule was right, if they could sort my schedule out, I would love to play for another three or four years in all forms of cricket. But the schedule at the moment is a nightmare.”Morris was an influential figure when Pietersen lost his job as England captain more than three years ago after a breakdown in his relationship with England’s coach at the time, Peter Moores, broke down. Moores was also sacked.England’s unease will be all the greater because Andy Flower, England’s director of cricket, has referred to similar tensions in balancing his professional and personal life because of the proliferation of international cricket.

Ricky Ponting has said he is motivated every day by the memories of losing the past two Ashes series in England and he hopes to retain his place long enough to have another chance to win the urn away from home

Brydon Coverdale13-Aug-2012Ricky Ponting has said he is motivated every day by the memories of losing the past two Ashes series in England and he hopes to retain his place long enough to have another chance to win the urn away from home. Ponting will be 38 when Australia tour England next year and having had his ODI career ended by the national selectors earlier this year, he knows that he will not make the trip unless his form over the coming 12 months justifies it.As a Test-only player, Ponting now has plenty of down-time to ponder his goals, and while his colleagues fly out for a limited-overs tour of the UAE this month he will remain at home, working on his game. And visions of Michael Vaughan, Andrew Strauss and their team-mates raising the urn in triumph at The Oval will not disappear.”It’s one of the biggest motivators I have right now. Every morning I get up and go to the gym and I’m pounding away on the bike or the treadmill, it’s with some of the memories of The Oval still in my mind from the last couple of tours,” Ponting told ABC Radio on Monday. “They’re things that don’t go away quickly.”We’ve been very close over there on the last couple of tours, haven’t quite been good enough and we were nowhere good enough when England were in Australia last time. I think all Australian Test players have a point to prove to England and probably more of a point to prove in England.”But while thoughts of an Ashes redemption are in Ponting’s mind, he knows that he cannot afford to overlook the many contests looming before that trip. His next engagement for Australia will be the Test series against South Africa starting in early November, before three Tests against Sri Lanka, and then a tour of India before the Ashes.There is also the prospect of playing in two more Ashes battles, for back-to-back series have been scheduled for next year, with England to tour Australia barely six months after the series in England. By then Ponting will be 39, and while reaching that point while remaining in the baggy green might seem like a best-case scenario for him, it is not a goal he thinks is out of reach.”It might be easier to sustain now that I’m only playing one form of the game,” Ponting said of the desire to keep playing. “The amount of cricket that I’ve played over the last 15 years is pretty immense, 160-odd Tests and 370 one-dayers… that’s a lot of cricket. Now that I’m not playing that one-day side of things I’m playing a few [Sheffield] Shield games this year, a few Ryobi Cup games, I’ll get a few more Hurricanes games this year, but as far as where do I end, that all depends on how my hunger is and how I’m playing and how my form is.”We’ve got 18 months of some of the most competitive Test cricket that we’ve had in a long time: South Africa in Australia, India in India and then the Ashes, back-to-back series pretty much. It doesn’t get any bigger or better than that for an Australian cricketer. If I can make it through to the end of that, that would be great. If I can play well enough to have an impact on some wins through that period that would be great as well. Really for me all I can focus on now is being right for the start of November.”In Ponting’s favour is the fact that few middle-order batsmen are knocking the door down at domestic level. The national selector John Inverarity has spoken of George Bailey, Peter Forrest and David Hussey potentially being the next men in line for Test cricket but none have dominated in the Shield over the past few years to the extent that their case is irresistible. Ponting said he would accept it if he lost his place to someone more deserving.”If there’s someone out there better than me that is breathing down my neck and pushing me out the side, that’s international sport,” he said. “If there’s someone better than Michael Hussey or David Warner that’s the way it is. You have to be picking the best team to win every game you play. I honestly think if we play the way these guys can play and we just do things that little bit better … they’ll find it hard to beat us – I don’t care who we play.”

“If I bat in the top order, I will get more chances to score runs and more chances to face balls,” Shakib Al Hasan has said

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Sep-2012Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal have long been mainstays of Bangladesh’s batting, but Tamim has usually been in charge of providing the momentum at the top with Shakib finishing things from No. 5.In the T20s, though, with Shakib having been bumped up to No. 3, the pair will be in charge of providing a good start. While the move potentially gives two of Bangladesh’s best batsmen more time in the middle, the team will have plenty to worry about if they are both dismissed early. That, though, has happened only once in seven matches in the last three months – against Ireland.Shakib has so far batted at his new position in six T20Is and once during the unofficial matches in Port-of-Spain, and said on Friday that he’s comfortable in the new role. “If I bat in the top order, I will get more chances to score runs and more chances to face balls. I am looking forward to batting at No. 3,” he said in Colombo.Though his average is 17.71 in the seven innings batting at No. 3, he has just about done the job expected of him in several of those games – either by batting past the halfway stage to leave the team in a decent position or by staying till the end in chases.Shakib said one of the keys to Bangladesh’s success will be temperament. “There’ll be some tough situations but we know how to handle it,” he said. “The boys have been playing cricket constantly for a year so they’ll understand how to handle the pressure and if we can do this, we’ll win the matches.”Bangladesh have a mediocre record in World Twenty20s so far, but will be boosted by Tamim’s resurgence as a Twenty20 opener, which has come about after he began properly understanding what his role is. A good run of recent form has seen him make his three highest Twenty20 scores in his previous four innings.”I have been playing quite a few T20s recently, around 15-20 in the last month or so,” Tamim said. “I think I am in very good shape, I understand the game better than before. I hope I can carry it into the World T20 and perform well.”Earlier I was struggling to pace my innings. I used to attack from ball one. Now I think I am batting more cleverly – attacking as well as picking up the singles. That’s how you should bat in T20s.”Bangladesh step up their preparations with a practice match against Zimbabwe on Saturday and are expected to play their best XI leading up to their first match in the tournament proper against New Zealand on September 21.

Pakistan began their warm-up for the ICC World Twenty20 with a comprehensive win over Australia in Dubai, where their spinners flummoxed Australia’s long batting line-up

The Report by Brydon Coverdale05-Sep-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Raza Hasan picked up two wickets on debut•AFP

Pakistan began their warm-up for the ICC World Twenty20 with a comprehensive win over Australia in Dubai, where their spinners flummoxed Australia’s long batting line-up. Not since the second T20 international ever played had Australia scored as few in an innings as the 89 for which they were dismissed in this match, and although Pakistan lost three wickets in the chase they were never in danger of losing. They cruised to the target with 31 balls to spare.Statistics don’t always mean much in T20 but the story of this match could be summed up with a few numbers. It was the first time since another loss to Pakistan in Dubai in May 2009 that Australia failed to hit a six in a T20 innings. They struck only three fours in the 19.3 overs they faced; Pakistan had that many within four overs. The only time Australia scored fewer in a completed T20 innings was 79 against England in Southampton in 2005, back when the IPL was not even a glimmer in Lalit Modi’s eye. Never before had a team beaten Australia with so many balls to spare.But the figures don’t tell how Pakistan managed such a one-sided result. Sohail Tanvir finished with 3 for 13 but it was the work of the spinners, Mohammad Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal and the debutant Raza Hasan that kept Australia from posting a competitive score. They picked up two wickets each and the regular breakthroughs and large boundaries starved the Australians.Again they found Ajmal difficult to pick, while Hasan’s clever variations showed that he can be a force at international level, while Hafeez was typically tidy. Pakistan also held their catches, which they had not always done during the ODIs, and only three Australians reached double figures, making it irrelevant that they had entered the game with eight batsmen.David Warner top scored with 22 from 25 balls, an innings that at the time looked scratchy but was solid when compared with the rest of the performances. Warner was the third man to fall when he pushed a catch back to the bowler Hafeez, after the innings had started shakily when Shane Watson was trapped in front by Umar Gul for 8.