Windies 160-1 in reply to England’s 318 on 2nd day

KINGSTON, Jamaica: West Indies' second wicket pair of Chris Gayle and his former deputy Ramnaresh Sarwan batted England into the ground with a hundred-run partnership in the opening Test at Sabina Park on Thursday.England's bowlers lacked penetration, as Sarwan, undefeated on 74, and Gayle, 71 not out, carried West Indies to 160 for one, replying to England's first innings total of 318, when stumps were drawn on the second day. Monty Panesar, whose left-arm spin was expected to trouble the West Indies batsmen, failed to make an impact, and Gayle slapped him through square cover for three to reach his 50 from 70 balls.Steve Harmison, who has fond memories of the ground, following his best bowling in Tests of seven wickets for 12 runs, also looked way below his best, and Sarwan nursed him behind square for two to reach his 50 from 111 balls.England's only success came prior to tea, when they claimed the scalp of Devon Smith for six, when he was adjudged lbw, after he completely missed the flight path of a delivery from Flintoff, and was struck on his left boot. The first of the two confirmed that Sarwan was clearly not-out, when Flintoff appealed for an lbw verdict for a delivery that was clearly heading down the leg-side.The second saved Sarwan from being dismissed, when he was struck playing back to an off-cutter from Harmison, and Hill adjudged him lbw. But England's bowlers were not as consistent as they would have liked, and the two West Indies batsmen reeled off an array of exciting strokes. England's first innings was terminated about 20 minutes after lunch, when Harmison and Panesar fell lbw with both batsmen unsuccessfully challenging their dismissals.Sulieman Benn was West Indies' most successful bowler with four wickets for 77 runs from 44.2 overs, Jerome Taylor took three for 74 from 20 overs, and Daren Powell grabed two for 54 from 20 overs.Before lunch, Matt Prior completed a purposeful half-century that helped England reach 311 for eight at the interval.England suffered an early setback, after they continued from their overnight total of 236 for five, when Flintoff was caught at backward point for 43 off Powell chasing a short, wide, rising ball.The visitors then stumbled to 256 for seven, when Broad was caught at gully for four slicing a drive off Taylor.For the next 45 minutes, Prior and Ryan Sidebottom stemmed the fall of wickets with a stand of 32 for the eighth wicket.Prior reached his 50, when he edged a big drive at a delivery from Powell and the ball flew just wide of the second slip fielder Smith on its way to the third man boundary for the fifth of his seven fours.But Prior paid for his petulance, when he tried to launch an attack on beanpole left-arm spin bowler Benn and was caught and bowled about 45 minutes before the interval to fully expose the England tail

Pak, Australia ODI series from April 24 in Dubai: Ijaz Butt

LAHORE: Pak-Australia one day international cricket series will be played in Dubai between April 24 to May 7.This was announced by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ijaz Butt here on Friday. PCB chairman said the test series between two countries would be held in England if the Australians could not make it to Pakistan. Ijaz said that two ODIs will be played in Dubai, three ODIs in Abu Dhabi while one Twenty20 match will be held in Dubai

PM directs departments, banks to establish sports divisions

LAHORE: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, who is also patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), taking serious notice has issued orders for departments and banks to establish their sports divisions.President PHF Qasim Zia after meeting with the prime minister in Lahore on Saturday told reporters that the patron-in-chief had issued orders some times ago for establishing sports divisions but nothing was done in this regard.Qasim Zia said that on diverting the attention in the meeting towards this negligence, the prime minister has taken serious notice and directed departments and banks to immediately establish their sports divisions and provide permanent jobs to players

Polo is played on cycle in Faisalabad

FAISALABAD: Polo is usually played while riding horses but poor boys in Faisalabad are playing it by riding on cycle.Polo on horses is a historical game which is played while riding speedy horses and this sport though expensive but is very interesting for spectators.However, poor boys of Faisalabad have found a substitute solution for playing this game and are using cycles rather then expensive horses

Players in IPL to be auctioned today

GOA: The auction for the second season of the Indian Premier League will take place today in the morning in Goa. At Thursday's press conference, IPL commissioner Lalit Modi explained some of the finer details of the auction process.He said, there are five pools namely A, B, C, D and E. Pool A has the top five players in terms of minimum price, such as Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff.Each player is numbered one to five. There are five balls numbered one to five, which go into a pack. Somebody is asked to pick one ball from the pack and the corresponding player is the first player up for auction.The IPL decides the pool the players belong to. The players are drawn in the pools based on their minimum reserve price. The pools do not have the same number of players. In the first auction last year, the IPL negotiated the reserve price and also took the risk to guarantee the player the reserve price even if he was not bought at the auction.This year, to everybody's surprise, we had 115 entries. Some of the players were even willing to play free of cost. So this time, the IPL took no risk on setting the reserve price of the players. The players themselves decided on their reserve price. So if the players are lucky to be bought, it's fine for them, but if not, then they are out.A player who has signed up for the IPL cannot make himself unavailable unless he is injured or he has an existing Future Tours Programme commitment.In the case of the Pakistani players, the IPL have been informed by the Pakistan Cricket Board the Pakistani government had refused to send their players because of the tension between the two countries.So the IPL has given the club owners the option to terminate the contract and let the players be a free agent to come back through an auction, or to suspend their contracts.If they suspend the player's contract, then that slot is not available for the franchise in the auction. If they terminate the contract, the team owner will have that slot open. If they terminate the contract, and the player in question is a talented one, they would possibly have to pay a much higher price for the player the next time around.That is probably why the Royal Challengers, Bangalore have decided not to terminate their contract with Misbah-ul Haq, the Rajasthan Royals have not terminated the contracts with Sohail Tanvir and Kamran Akmal and Kolkata Knight Riders have only suspended their contract with Umar Gul.Contracts with the rest of the Pakistan players, including Shoaib Akhtar's contract with the Knight Riders, have been terminated

ICC Champs dropped due to security threats: Ijaz Butt

LAHORE: Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Ijaz Butt said Thursday, three test playing nations have denied to tour to Pakistan excusing on security threats so ICC Champions trophy cannot be held here.He said this while talking to media at Lahore Airport after coming back from Dubai where he attended ICC’s Executive Council meeting.He informed media; Australian government did not seem agreed to release its players for Pak-Aussies series scheduled in April-May however, he said, Australian team signaled determination to tour Pakistan.“Australian government said to Pakistan officials, their troops are engaged in Afghanistan against militants so their played could be attacked”, he added.Responding to a question regarding Minadad’s resignation he said, “I cannot assert any thing unless I meet him

England player Richards arrested

The 20-year-old England international was questioned by Greater Manchester Police over a reported attack on a man in Hale. He was later released on bail.
Police said the man was attacked on Christmas Eve.
Mr Richards joined Manchester City from Oldham Athletic as a 14-year-old and signed a new contract with the club in February last year.
A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: "A 20-year-old man has been arrested after an assault outside a Hale nightclub, at about 0030 GMT on 24 December 2008.
"The man was arrested on suspicion of section 47 assault by appointment on Wednesday 4 February.
"He has been bailed until 8 April pending further inquiries."
Meanwhile, Manchester City manager Mark Hughes said the club were "very supportive" of their player.
Hughes added: "He went to the police station in a pre-arranged appointment.
"It is an ongoing situation, we are aware of that and we are supportive of him."
Hughes also said the footballer was in "the right frame of mind" to feature in the club's home game against Middlesbrough on Saturday