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If only they could all bow out in a blaze of glory, instead of occasionally going down in flames.By now you should be aware if Inzamam-ul-Haq has had the sort of grand farewell that often proves elusive for some of sport’s greatest champions.Almost 16 years after making his senior debut for Pakistan in a one-day international against the visiting West Indies, Inzamam was expected to play his final innings for his country today in Lahore with the home team facing the prospect of a whitewash in the two-Test series against South Africa.Inevitably, the result at the Gadaffi Stadium is almost secondary to Inzamam’s farewell, especially as he needed just seven more runs on the last day of his career to surpass Javed Miandad as Pakistan’s most prolific run-scorer in Test cricket. Yet the very best of plans don’t always work out for even the very greatest of sporting superstars, as Brian Lara found out in his last match for West Indies at the World Cup earlier this year.I wonder what would be the reaction in Pakistan, even on the eve of the significant Muslim occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr, to Inzamam being left stranded at the non-striker’s end in the same manner in which Marlon Samuels contributed to the demise of Lara against England in front of a packed Kensington Oval six months ago? Such experiences should therefore make us even more grateful when great champions depart in circumstances befitting their status.What could possibly be better than signing off an outstanding career by scoring the winning goal on home soil in the most watched event on the planet? That’s what Gerd Muller, the scorer of an astonishing 68 goals in just 62 full internationals for West Germany, did in 1974. His close-range effort clinched a 2-1 victory for the Germans over favourites Holland in the World Cup football final in Munich, after which he promptly announced his retirement from national duty.Just 28 years old at the time, he resisted the temptation to keep on going, especially in the midst of all that glory and celebration, displaying the same clinical, decisive manner that he showed in front of goal on the way to a record that none of the strikers in the global game have managed to challenge in the 33 years since Muller departed the scene.A close second in the list of grand farewells would have to be Pete Sampras’ final match as a professional tennis player. Having been the dominant force in the sport for more than a decade, Sampras overcame the considerable challenge of fellow-American Andre Agassi in four sets in the final of the 2002 US Open to lift his record tally of men’s singles Grand Slam titles to 14.Though he didn’t announce his retirement immediately, the 31-year-old Sampras, whose first Grand Slam triumph had come 12 years earlier at the same event, eventually decided that he had had enough and that the victory over old rival Agassi was the perfect exclamation point to a record-breaking career.When it comes to more than one sporting hero going out in style simultaneously, it will take something remarkable to match the final Test of Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh. This trio, who were the fulcrum of Australian cricket throughout the 1970s, made their swansong, the 1984 New Year’s Test against Pakistan in Sydney, something really special.In his final innings, Chappell compiled 182 to lift his Test run tally past the Australian record of 6,996 by Sir Donald Bradman, Lillee claimed eight wickets in the match, dismissing Sarfraz Nawaz with his final delivery in Test cricket, while Marsh snared six catches behind the stumps as Australia defeated the Pakistanis by ten wickets.He didn’t finish on the winning side, but mention has to be made of Seymour Nurse’s performance in his final Test innings. The 35-year-old Barbadian amassed 258 in his only knock of the drawn final Test against New Zealand in Christchurch in 1969, improving his tally to 558 runs (average 111.60) in the three-Test series, and then decided that was that as far as his career as a West Indies player was concerned.Compare those glittering send-offs with the demise of the incomparable Bradman. Needing just four runs to complete 7,000 runs and lift his Test average to 100, the “Don” was bowled for a second-ball duck by a googly from Eric Hollies in his final innings of the 1948 Ashes series against England at The Oval in London. It is said that there were tears in his eyes from the rousing ovation by fans and opponents alike as he strode to the middle in a Test for the last time.There were also tears in the eyes of boxing fans as they watched 41-year-old Muhammad Ali, a mere shadow of his incomparable best, finally leave the sport he had so invigorated and redefined in being pummeled for 12 rounds by Trevor Berbick in the Bahamian capital, Nassau, in 1981. For the man who had floated like a butterfly, stung like a bee and challenged the status quo on the way to becoming the most recognisable face on earth, it just did not seem right that the three-time former heavyweight champion should go out that way.But sport is not a scripted spectacle, even with so many corrupt individuals around, and no-one is guaranteed the farewell that we mere mortals may deem worthy of such greatness.

It’s uncanny how some people can steal all the limelight even when they’re trying their best not to. While Sri Lanka and West Indies went through their paces at the main stadium in Motera, the spotlight turned slowly but surely to the B ground adjoining the main area, where the Indians had arrived to practice. And it was practice with a difference – not just the routine throwdowns and fielding – as they added some Gujarat Cricket Association cricketers to the mix and split into a couple of teams to play a 25-overs-a-side match.If the batsmen thought they had an easy chance to boost the sagging confidence – India lost as many as six wickets chasing a low England score at Jaipur – they had another thing coming for them. Wickets were falling aplenty as there was just a little juice in the pitch, and the fast bowlers extracted some lateral movement. Of course, this did not stop Mahendra Singh Dhoni from clobbering 38, the highest for Team A, as they made 111, batting first. Virender Sehwag, Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh all batted twice each, and one of these was good enough to admit he should have been out a third time, had it not been for some umpiring largesse.The highlight of that innings, though, was not the batting. Sachin Tendulkar rolled his arm over, sending down three overs, conceding eight runs without picking up a wicket. Interestingly, he was bowling seam-up, rather than his usual mix of offbreaks and legbreaks. “He has been bowling in the nets off and on,” a team member told Cricinfo. “The doctors had advised him to take it a bit easy, so he has just been easing himself back into bowling. Who knows. If all goes well he might even be in a position to have a bowl by the time the final of this tournament comes around. The main thing is that we’d all like it if he was able to bowl during the World Cup.” But this isn’t the first time he is bowling since he suffered his shoulder injury during the home series against England early this year. He was ruled out of the squad during the final Test against England at Mumbai which India lost, and the series was squared 1-1. When turning out for Lashings in England he did send down the odd over.When it was Tendulkar’s team’s turn to bat, though, there was certainly no sign of any injury or discomfort. Tendulkar led the scoring with an unbeaten 43 and retired to the tiny dressingroom having just hit Yuvraj for a six. Rahul Dravid was among the runs as well, making 42 before retiring. Team B cantered along to 137 for 1 in 25 overs and as dusk settled on Ahmedabad, the team was shepherded into the bus to be taken back to their hotel, leaving the groundsman to give the pitch a watering. The B ground of the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium had never received so much attention.Brief scores Team A 111 in 25 overs (Dhoni 38, Agarkar 26*, Munaf 3-18, Harbhajan 2-23, Raina 2-18) v Team B 137 for 1 in 25 overs (Dravid 42 retd., Tendulkar 43 retd., Mongia 29)

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have said that the selection committee may have to take a decision on Sourav Ganguly’s future if he failed to come out of his prolonged run of poor form.”You should give some time to the selection committee and the players, particularly Sourav himself. If, in the coming days, the performance does not improve, the selection committee will keep in mind the feelings of crores of cricket fans and take an appropriate decision,” Ranbir Singh Mahendra, the board president, was quoted as saying by a BBC Hindi Programme.When asked whether Ganguly should continue as captain, Mahendra said that it was for the selection committee to decide and that the board would not interfere. He also dismissed suggestions that the board was turning a blind eye to Ganguly’s poor form: “See what you are saying could also be the feeling of many other cricket fans in the country. But let us all not forget that recently Ganguly has scored a Test hundred in Zimbabwe. Ganguly also might be seriously thinking about his form. So to say that we are not concerned or bothered is not right, we very much are.”Mahendra added that it would not be prudent to pass hasty judgment on Greg Chappell, the Indian coach, and his preference for doing away with the zonal system of appointing selectors. “An opinion should not be formed about an individual in haste. We would be doing grave injustice to him by passing such a judgment so soon. We would have to give reasonable time to Greg and then I think such an opinion would not remain. At times, when the team performance is not up to the mark, and it is passing through a critical phase, such thoughts do come to mind. But my view is that jumping to conclusion so soon about the coach would not be fair.”While admitting that the image of Indian cricket had taken a beating during the Ganguly-Chappell furore, Mahendra said that remedial measures were being taken to ensure that such events did not happen again. “We have ordered a probe into the leaking of coach Chappell’s e-mail to the board … At the same time we have taken corrective measures to ensure that such things do not happen in the future. Many players have also said that they feel whatever happened in the dressing room should not have come out in the open. From here, all of us have realized that we need to avoid such situations, and work for the betterment of the game and its fans.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Robert Key and Andrew Flintoff sealed England’s sixth consecutive Test victory of the summer, and the ninth in their last ten matches, as a spirited West Indian side was overwhelmed in the final session at Old Trafford. Despite grabbing two early wickets and holding the upper hand for much of the day, West Indies were left to rue their untimely collapse on Sunday afternoon – a target of 231 never seemed likely to trouble this confident England team, even in the absence of their pacemaker-in-chief, Graham Thorpe.Thorpe, whose finger was broken by Fidel Edwards during his heroic first-innings 114, was only ever likely to bat in an emergency. But at 27 for 2 with both openers back in the pavilion, and then again at 111 for 3, that emergency seemed just around the corner. But Key and Flintoff ended all such notions, first with some thoughtful resistance against a fiery spell from Fidel Edwards, and then with a glorious finale, in which Flintoff the home hero reached his fifty – his seventh in consecutive Tests – with a vast straight six, before tickling the winning runs to third man.Though Flintoff stole the limelight, it was Key who took the bulk of the plaudits. His place in the side had been under scrutiny after a couple of loose dismissals at Edgbaston, but with neither Thorpe nor Mark Butcher available for Thursday’s fourth Test, he was this time able to relax and play his natural game. And for that, his team-mates were extremely grateful.Key’s confrontational approach had impressed many observers during his debut series in Australia two winters ago, and it was to the fore once again today, especially during his running duel with Edwards, which involved several skiddy 90mph bouncers and a considerable amount of mid-pitch banter and eyeballing. Key took it all in his stride, and as his innings progressed the West Indians wilted. The final nail in their coffin came in the very first over after tea, when Sylvester Joseph dropped Key on 58, a catchable chance to his left at second slip. After that, it was England all the way.Such a comprehensive victory had seemed an eternity away earlier in the day. Although Steve Harmison had needed just six balls in the morning to wrap up the West Indian second innings for 165, England in reply lost both openers in a jittery pre-lunch session. Marcus Trescothick was bowled through the gate by a beauty from Collymore that clipped the top of off, while Andrew Strauss played an uncharacteristically rash pull against Pedro Collins, that skidded low to Shivnarine Chanderpaul at midwicket for 12.

Collymore nearly cleaned up Key with another jaffa that curled round his outside edge and over the top of off stump, and without Thorpe to steady the run-chase, England were decidedly edgy. Much was resting on Michael Vaughan, and it showed in an innings of untypical nerviness. He had a huge letoff on 1, when he top-edged an Edwards bouncer just out of Carlton Baugh’s reach as he sprinted towards square leg, and he later inside-edged Collymore for four past his leg stump. Though he showed glimmers of his best form with a selection of those dreamy cover-drives, Vaughan was very much playing from memory.In the end, it was Chris Gayle’s offspin that made the break. His very first delivery exploded off a length and took the shoulder of the bat on the way to Brian Lara at slip, and Vaughan trudged off for 33 hard-earned runs. The cheer that greeted Flintoff’s arrival could have been heard back up in his old watering holes in Preston, but it was as nothing to the one that awaited him later in the day, as the crowd’s anxiety gave way to a carnival atmosphere.Even so, it would be a while before Flintoff or his adoring fans could contemplate partying. At 111 for 3 and with Edwards in full flight, survival was the primary objective. Even with two men back for the hook, Flintoff was sorely tempted, but for the most part he resisted, taking one blow to the shoulder and another firm rap on the gloves. Key, meanwhile, continued to wind Edwards up with a running commentary, and together they carried England to tea at 146 for 3 – still 85 runs adrift but, one sensed, with the bulk of the job done.Key drilled Collymore’s first ball after the break for four, but when that catch went down in the same over, the fight went out of the West Indian attack. Ramnaresh Sarwan was belatedly introduced to tempt Flintoff into self-destruction – which, after a couple of wild swings, led to the improbable sound of a Lancashire crowd cheering a Flintoff defensive shot. A couple of huge sixes later, however, and it was all business as usual. England’s bandwagon just keeps on rolling.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) today announced that Michael Vaughan had been appointed England’s new One-Day captain.The 28-year-old Yorkshire batsman succeeds Nasser Hussain who stepped down as captain of the One-Day side following England’s World Cup exit.Vaughan, who has captained England A and England Under 19s, will lead England for the first time in the forthcoming NatWest Challenge series against Pakistan and in the NatWest Series against South Africa and Zimbabwe.Chairman of Selectors, David Graveney, said: “As well as being a world class batsman, Michael is a strong character with a sound cricketing brain. Whilst he does not have extensive captaincy experience at County level, the selectors firmly believe he has the personal attributes required to handle the pressures of the England One-Day captaincy both on and off the field.”We have no qualms about splitting the Test and One-Day captaincy in this way. Other countries have operated this policy successfully and we see this as a terrific opportunity for Michael to demonstrate his undoubted leadership qualities.”Michael Vaughan said: “It’s a great honour to captain your country and I had no hesitation in accepting when the selectors offered me the job. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do and I intend to enjoy it.”Nasser is an inspirational leader and he will be a tough act to follow as One-Day captain. But every captain has his own style of leadership and I want to do the job in my own way.”I’m under no illusions. Whether it’s Test or One-Day cricket, the England captain’s decisions are always under the microscope. That doesn’t bother me. I’m a big believer in the team ethic and if England are to improve at One-Day level, we need eleven `captains’ out there, not just one.”It has been decided that the England Test and One-Day captains will no longer sit on the four-strong selection panel. This decision will ensure continuity in selection although both Test and One-Day captains will continue to be closely consulted as part of the selection process.The International Teams Management Group (ITMG) has appointed the ECB National Academy Director, Rod Marsh, as a new selector and he will join David Graveney, Duncan Fletcher and Geoff Miller on the existing selection panel.Commenting on his appointment, Rod Marsh said: “This is a natural extension of my current role as Academy Director and I’m looking forward to it. There is plenty of talent within County cricket and I see my job as helping to spot and develop those players who have the potential to take the step up into international cricket.”They don’t necessarily have to be players who have been through the Academy. I’ll be coming into the job with a completely open mind and a real desire to try and help England progress as a side.”

Twenty year old all rounder Pete Trego scored an unbeaten 175 as Somerset drew their final Second Eleven Championship match of the season against Leicestershire at Hinkley.In reply to Leicestershire’s 378 for 6 declared Somerset amassed 578 for 6, which featured centuries from Mark Lathwell (118) triallist David Roberts (105) and Trego’s 175.The Weston Super Mare youngster goes to the top of the Somerset averages as a result of his innings which lasted 166 balls.Batting for a second time Leicestershire had reached 273 for 6 by close of play.A feature of their second innings was a fine bowling spell from former Millfield pupil Arul Suppiah who had figures of 18 overs, 6 maidens, 3 wickets for 62.The Seconds play their one day final against Surrey at the County ground on September 10th starting at 10.30am.

Ricky Ponting, the former Australia captain, has called upon Cricket Australia to use English Dukes balls in Sheffield Shield matches as a way of helping young batsmen to cope better with the swinging, seaming ball than they could manage in a humiliating Ashes defeat to England.At Cardiff, Edgbaston and Trent Bridge, Australia’s batsmen were repeatedly undone by the moving ball, which messed with their Antipodean techniques and then their minds. The only success in the series occurred at Lord’s on a surface that did not offer too much seam movement, while swing was also less prevalent than at the other grounds.Based on his own recent experiences of domestic cricket but also the scenes he witnessed in this series, Ponting believes that the Dukes ball needs to be used down under, for it permits greater swing than the Kookaburra, which has for years been the ball of choice for CA. He told ESPNcricinfo that batsmen needed to be faced with questions relevant to the international experience.”One thing I am going to recommend as soon as I get home is that we actually change the balls we use in Australia,” Ponting said. “I think we should be using Dukes balls in Australia now. I think it’s been highlighted enough times that we struggle when the ball swings and seams. You go back two, three years ago when I was playing Shield cricket, Hobart got heavily criticised for doing too much but I batted there, but you could still make runs.”Ed Cowan’s making runs almost every time he batted on that wicket. You just have to change your game and work out how you’re going to get runs in those conditions. The Gabba’s been the same for as long as I can remember in Shield cricket and that’s why Matthew Hayden [in the past] and Usman Khawaja now, who’s opening the batting up there, someone like Joe Burns bats up there as well as a top-order batsman.”Their techniques will stand up in these conditions because they’re used to playing in these conditions but we have to look at these conditions I think because it just looks like this generation of Australian players just haven’t got the technique to survive the best quality bowling in difficult conditions.”Domestic pitches have been a matter for conjecture for some time. Result-oriented pitches were thought to have stopped batsmen from having the chance to build their innings, leaving CA to encourage drier surfaces. However, Ponting said batsmen needed to experience the sorts of surfaces that would test their techniques, and wanted to see a greater contrast in the sorts of pitches prepared for the Sheffield Shield.”There’s got to be a fine balance there obviously,” he said. “We went one way completely with the greener wickets and because of the greener wickets as well, there were more results in those venues which wasn’t good for the competition. But it might have been good for the players that were playing in that competition. It might have been Hobart and Brisbane only, you might have had only the two wickets for that year that you had to find ways to score runs and then you go to Adelaide where it was flat and Melbourne was pretty flat.”It’s been one of the great things I think in Australian cricket history the differing conditions we have all around the country. I think just changing the ball will be a good start because even when the wicket hasn’t seamed here the ball’s still swung and it’s been swing I think as much as anything that’s got our players out. So if we can find a ball in Australia that’s going to swing for longer, then surely that’s going to help the batsmen and it’ll teach the bowlers how to bowl with it as well.”Among emerging batsmen in Australia, Ponting nominated Khawaja, Cameron Bancroft, Travis Head and Peter Handscomb among those who should be granted an opportunity at international level over the next 12 months. “I’d start with Usman Khawaja,” he said of the Australia A captain on the concurrent tour of India. “I think he’ll get an opportunity somewhere at the top of the order for Australia and pretty soon, I think.”He started last Sheffield Shield season in probably career-best form. He had a bad injury that put an end to his season last year. He’s in India at the moment as captain of the Australia A team and is scoring runs over there so I think he’s someone they’ll definitely look at. There are a few other younger guys, Cameron Bancroft in WA made a big impression last year I know on Shield cricket. Justin Langer speaks really highly of him and Justin doesn’t give too much praise unless it’s needed.”Guys like Travis Head and Peter Handscomb, young guys like that I think. You know I think the time might just be right to take a punt on a couple of these young guys and give them a chance and thinking that the next Ashes is a couple of years away it’d be nice to get some experience into these younger guys and see if we can just start to regenerate things a little bit.”

Jos Buttler is facing a tricky decision over his future as he decides whether to fight for his Test place or appear in this year’s IPL season.Buttler was dropped from England’s Test team during the tour of the UAE, having averaged 13 with the bat in the seven matches in which he played from the start of the Ashes. While he retained a place in the squad for the tour of South Africa, he has had to watch as his replacement, Jonny Bairstow, scored a maiden Test century in Cape Town to cement his role for the rest of the series.But Buttler’s limited-overs form has remained impressive. He smashed the quickest century in England’s limited-overs history in November – it took just 46 balls – and it is understood by ESPNcricinfo that Kolkata Knight Riders, the club which Trevor Bayliss coached before joining England, are particularly keen to secure his services this year.Initially Buttler was keen to return to Lancashire and attempt to win back his England place by performing well in the County Championship. But with Bairstow now assured of a prolonged run in the side and the ECB keen to see their players gain more experience of playing in overseas T20 tournaments such as the IPL or Big Bash, Buttler is rethinking that view.While it is possible that Buttler and Bairstow could feature in the same Test side – for all his excellence with the bat, Bairstow has yet to totally convince with the gloves and at some stage could be picked as a specialist batsman – it seems unlikely in the short term.The ECB are happy to leave the decision over whether to appear in the IPL to Buttler. Andrew Strauss, the ECB’s director of England cricket, has suggested on several occasions that he believes that England players can benefit from exposure to such events and there are those who believe that Buttler may benefit from pursuing a future as a white-ball specialist.But Butter, aged 25, retains Test ambitions and is reluctant to be typecast so early in his career. He also knows that, if he misses the first two months of the county season, there is no guarantee that he will displace the highly-rated Alex Davies, aged 21, as the Lancashire keeper.It leaves Buttler at a crossroads: he can work on his red-ball batting in the relatively unglamorous world of early-season county cricket in the hope it leads to a Test recall, or take the riches on offer in the IPL. It may seem, at first glance, like a simple decision. But Buttler knows that, once he slips out of the Test reckoning, it may prove hard to work his way back. With the ECB increasingly aware of the benefits of players specialising between red- and white-ball cricket, his decision could define the future direction of his career.The 2016 IPL season starts on April 9, a week after the final of the World Twenty20 in Kolkata, and ends on May 29, with players expected to report – subject to international duty – a week before the start. Players required for Test duty by England will be required to return to the UK by noon on May 6, with most non-Test players required to return by noon on May 17 to ensure their availability in the opening round of T20 Blast matches on May 20. Buttler could well be given special dispensation to remain in India for the entire tournament – as Kolkata Knight Riders are believed to have requested – at the discretion of the ECB.The ECB, who are currently involved in a budget review which has required several employees to reapply for their jobs, no longer operate a system by which they return to players the portion of their salaries forfeited for their release from county or central contracts – as they did up to the 2015 IPL season. However, it is understood they are considering topping up payments should a low reserve price result in England players making a net loss on their involvement. In previous years, players have priced themselves out of the market by demanding a higher reserve price to ensure they did not lose out financially.

Jhulan Goswami has become the first player from India to take the ICC Women’s Player of the Year award. She was presented with the trophy at the ICC Awards ceremony in Johannesburg, South Africa.Goswami was also India’s only representative in the individual player awards, with no representation from the men in the shortlist. She edged out Australia’s Lisa Sthalekar and England’s Claire Taylor.”It’s a dream come true for me,” she said on accepting the award from Mahendra Singh Dhoni, fresh from the Lord’s ODI on Saturday. “I am very excited to win this award. It is very unexpected because the other candidates are great players. It is very special for me”.The title was just reward for her bowling average of 12.40 in Tests and 21.80 in ODIs and, since Australia’s Cathryn Fitzpatrick retired earlier this year, Goswami has also become the fastest female bowler in the world. She may have pace, but she has the accuracy to match, with an economy rate of 2.10 in Tests and 3.17 in ODIs.England certainly know a thing or two about her pace, after they succumbed to her in the second Test last year; she took ten wickets to take India to their first Test series win on English soil. She also put on her highest score of 69 in the first Test.It’s been a good year for India women’s cricket in terms of recognition. Last month Anjum Chopra won the coveted Arjuna award – a rare honour for a female player. Now Goswami joins her in being feted.”This award does a lot for women’s cricket,” said Goswami. “I think women’s cricket is growing, slowly. We are getting more and more coverage now in the media and that can only be a good thing for game as it encourages more girls to take up the game and improves the overall levels of performance.”Goswami is the second winner of the award after Karen Rolton won the prize last year.

Cricket Australia have announced that Ford Australia will be the new partner for the domestic one-day competition for the 2006-07 season. The tournament, formerly called the ING Cup, will be named The Ford Ranger One Day Cup.”Ford has been a category partner of Cricket Australia since 2002-03 and we’re thrilled they will be the naming rights sponsor of our prestigious domestic one-day competition,” said James Sutherland, the chief executive of Cricket Australia. “We are about to embark on one of the most hotly anticipated periods in Australian cricket history and the Ford Ranger Cup and Pura Cup will provide the future stars of Australian cricket a chance shine.”The one-day tournament kicks off on October 11 and Fox Sports will televise the first of 27 matches when Queensland take on Tasmania at the Gabba. Fox Sports will also telecast some of the KFC Twenty20 games as well as the Pura Cup Final.Cricket Australia also confirmed that Pura would continue their eight year association with the domestic first-class tournament which starts on October 13.