Domestic Limited-over Cricket Reduced to 40 Overs, As Ecb Announces Schedule

England will play two Test series against Bangladesh and Pakistan next season alongside five One Day International matches against Australia in July, the ECB have confirmed.

The two-match series against Bangladesh will be followed by three ODIs between 27 May and 17 June. The four-match series against Pakistan will feature five ODIs and two Twenty20 matches, to be held between 5 and 21 September.

Australia will also play Pakistan in two Twenty20 matches at the end of June and the beginning of July.

The England Lions Team will compete in a series of ODIs against New Zealand A and India A in July while a one-day series against Pakistan in Dubai and Abu Dhabi is yet to be finalized.

Meanwhile, in domestic limited overs cricket, games will be reduced to 40 overs, rather than 50, after consultation with the first class counties. Games will be held on Sundays with the same restrictions on power plays and fielding as in international cricket.

The teams will be divided into three pools of seven teams, with sides playing six home and six away games each, before progressing to a semi-final and then a final in September.

The two-division County Championship has been given priority in the fixture program, while an enhanced Twenty20 competition will be divided into two pools of nine teams, split on a north v south basis. The top four teams from each will qualify for a knock-out quarter final before progressing to a semi-final, then a final.

The chairman of the ECB, Giles Clarke, said: "Directors of cricket and coaches reported through their county votes, that the leading one day team in world cricket - South Africa - do not mirror 50 overs at domestic level and that, provided power plays and fielding restrictions were the same as the international format, the skills required were very similar .

"The Board acknowledged that the Members of the International Cricket Council will themselves be reviewing the future of 50 over cricket after the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup and felt that an increased program of England Lions matches should be developed in parallel to the first class counties decision about the domestic structure."

England and England Lions will continue to play 50 over cricket internationally until the ICC review is complete.

Does Size Matter for Major Cricket Grounds?

Lord's was a 28,000 sell-out for the first four days of the second Test and more than three-quarters full for Monday's play, which finished before lunch. Being there was a privilege, though, that cost the cricket lover an eye-watering £100, a price the England and Wales Cricket Board felt able to charge because of unanswerable demand.

The ECB say that a minimum of 50,000 tickets could have been sold for each of the opening three days at Lord's, Cardiff's Swalec Stadium for the first Test, or Edgbaston, Headingley and The Oval, the five grounds where the 2009 Ashes will be decided. But the ECB are unable to satisfy demand because English Test grounds are too small. While Lord's is the largest international ground in this country, it will still be only the 16th largest regular Test venue in the world even when its proposed redevelopment is completed.

Wembley and Twickenham, the national football and rugby stadiums, are the wrong dimensions to convert into temporary grounds – unlike, say, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where 100,000 spectators can be packed in for cricket or Australian rules football. The MCG stages nearly 50 matches a year.

In 1953, 549,650 watched England win a five-match Ashes series 1-0, a record for the contest. Five years earlier, 158,000 saw Don Bradman's Invincibles defeat England at Headingley, the largest number for a single Test match in this country. Yet 10 years ago an estimated 100,000 crammed into Kolkata's cavernous Eden Gardens to watch a single day's play between India and Pakistan, while the highest officially recorded attendance was at the MCG, where 90,800 witnessed Australia play West Indies in 1961.

Crowds, though, for the longest form of the game are waning – except in England. "Test match attendances around the world have dropped," says Rahul Dravid, the great Indian batsman who is also a member of the MCC World Cricket Committee, which hopes to boost five-day cricket by experimenting with day/night Tests and a pink ball. "You want to be playing in front of crowds. Apart from in England, attendances are down."

Yet despite the appetite for Tests here and the continuing success of Twenty20 cricket, the ECB say they have no desire to build a purpose-built 50- or 60,000-seat cricket stadium, pointing to tradition and commercial viability as the prevailing factors for their stance. Nor have they expressed interest in the possibility of staging matches at the 2012 Olympic Stadium, whose future remains uncertain but could offer a multi-sport option of the kind seen elsewhere in the world.

"What delights me is the number of varied cricket grounds around the country, and they have to be of an economic sustainability for their respective counties," Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, says. "If you were looking at building a 50 or 60 thousand stadium it would have to be a national stadium to make it economically viable, in the same way all England rugby and soccer internationals are at Twickenham and Wembley.

"One of the great charms and attractions of Test match cricket is that it goes around the country. At Cardiff earlier this month there were tracts of the crowd who'd never had the chance of watching Test cricket before. If you had a national stadium of that size, could you have a business model which would allow you to take cricket on the road?"

Yet some stakeholders in the game believe investment in current Test venues is restricting the ECB's options. "They've needed a bigger stadium for years and years," says Matthew Engel, a former editor of Wisden. "But the problem the ECB have is that because they will have nine Test grounds competing with each other, if you bring in a 10th one it becomes impossible."

Others answer the issue of financial viability by arguing that the commercial success of Twenty20, which has driven up attendances and profits, could be harnessed to sustain a new super-stadium, which would have short-form cricket as its commercial motor while also being multi-purpose to avoid it becoming a white elephant.

"People like the format of T20, that's important," says Lalit Modi, the commissioner of the Indian Premier League. "Another issue is timing. Cricket has traditionally been a day sport. With T20, its starting to become an evening sport. If you do an analysis of major sporting events around the world, the majority of rugby, football or tennis matches are played late afternoon or evenings. It's to do with disposable time. In this paradigm one needs to go out and capture the fans. I think that's the most important thing right now."

Modi is confident that England will soon need a bigger stadium. "I'm sure that will happen over the years – larger capacities will be required. The growth will continue, we need to keep going forward and build on that. Even for an exhibition match between Rajasthan Royals and Middlesex, we pretty much filled the ground without any marketing support at Lord's," he added of the 20,000 plus who watched the inaugural British Asian Challenge earlier this month.

The chief executive of Hampshire, Stuart Robertson, who played a key role in the development of the Twenty20 Cup when he was the ECB's marketing manager, believes the 2012 Olympic Stadium in east London – currently destined to be an athletics track following the Games – could fit the profile of a multi-purpose, super-stadium employed for short-form cricket.

"Economically there has to be other things going on – like an outdoor version of the O2 in London," Robertson says. "Then you would have somewhere like Lord's, a 30,000 to 40,000 stadium in the middle of London for traditional cricket. And somewhere else not hidebound by local authority planning issues on floodlights, sound and music," he said of restrictions the Marylebone Cricket Club, proprietors of Lord's, are currently working with as they draw up redevelopment plans.

"If the new ground was going to become the short-form, T20 stadium then we need to really see T20 go to the next level, to the kind of entertainment and razzmatazz of the Indian Premier League."

Hugh Robertson, the shadow sports minister, says: "Given that the public purse has paid half a billion pounds for the Olympic Stadium, it makes perfect sense to examine every possible sporting use [of it] in legacy mode alongside the athletics." The ECB describe using the Stratford venue as "a hypothetical situation which hasn't been presented to us", but it is one they may face should the Conservatives win a general election before the Games.

Despite a new venue being a potential competitor to Lord's, Keith Bradshaw, the MCC's chief executive, is open-minded regarding the issue of a new stadium, and expresses surprise that one has not yet been built.

"Really from the day I arrived here three years ago I've always wondered when that was going to happen. What Stuart says about it being multi-purpose – that's definitely something to look at. I think it would definitely have an impact on all the grounds, without a doubt. Especially if the stadium had a roof. If you look at the commerciality, to be absolutely certain a match will be staged on a particular day and time in terms of your corporate sponsors, and the public – that they would get their three hours of Twenty20, or whatever it is – this has to be a huge strategic advantage."

Bradshaw believes a new stadium would provide healthy competition, and help strengthen Lord's' status as cricket's spiritual home. "We look at it differently as we're the home of cricket, the hallowed turf, the tradition and history. So we would need to work a lot harder."

He says it will probably be 2012 before the planned expansion of Lord's will be ready. "We're in a residential area so there's only certain capacities we can go to. We think for us it's 37-38,000, which is more a function of the footprint of the ground. We could accommodate – for an Ashes Test, when India play England, or for Twenty20 – significantly more than 37,000."

Bradshaw also echoes Robertson and Modi when describing Twenty20's impact on the MCC's plans. "Because of the nature of Twenty20, how you service people in the ground changes. When we redevelop it'll be more akin to serving them in their seats because if you go to get a pie during T20 and miss five overs that's a fair part of the match.

"We're looking at American models like baseball where there's a lot more hawking in the stands. You can even go to the premium-price tickets where you say: 'I want this. At the 10-over mark I'd like a pint and a pie,' and it gets delivered."

The MCG's model of using drop-in pitches is also being examined. "We're experimenting at the moment – on the Nursery [where club matches take place], not the main ground. Drop-in pitches will allow more days of cricket. Instead of having to keep the ground free for days to prepare it, you can actually prepare the pitch on the Nursery and drop it in on the day, or you can develop it off site in a greenhouse and drop it in. I don't think we'd ever see it for a Test match but certainly for one-dayers and Twenty20 matches.

"We are also looking for a raised or lower platform which would actually give us two lanes around the ground as it can get very congested at the moment even now with 28,000."

How might the cricket fan feel about a new super-sized stadium that would allow greater numbers to watch at far better value than a £100 seat at Lord's?

"In Australia they have five massive stadiums which turn over a huge profit," says Katy Cooke, general manager of the Barmy Army, who follow England all over the world. "So the ECB would be much better placed to have three or four massive stadiums in the country. If Old Trafford is being redeveloped, make it huge, use the Olympic Stadium as the one in London and have one in the middle. Then they could increase the number of people who could watch."

But staging a match at an 80,000-capacity venue would be a very different experience for fans. Cooke adds: "From a Barmy Army, supporters-on-the-terrace point of view, we like the little grounds." This seems English cricket's great dichotomy. Big versus small, traditional versus modern, Lord's or the MCG. Yet might there be accommodation for an old-fashioned English compromise?

While Lord Morris, chairman of the ECB's major match group who oversee venues, offers a view that ostensibly resembles Clarke's, it can also be read as a template for a similar cricket-watching experience to that suggested by Robertson, Modi and Bradshaw. "My starting point is that while the size of stadiums is of critical importance, the first priority should be the spectator experience. People want access to the ground, proper public transport, amenities, and we want to encourage a family constituency, not just dad with a pint and pork pie. I see no reason why at a future stadium we shouldn't have a crèche and play area for the young fans of the next 15 years. So we need to change the whole atmosphere and perception of what a cricket ground should be providing."

Test match tickets have become a luxury item. To match the vision of Lord Morris with that of the need to allow more fans to see games at more affordable prices, either a purpose-built stadium or a share in London's Olympic legacy could yet offer the solution.

Once a Cricket-mad Kid, Ravi Bopara's Defining Moment Has Arrived

There is a physical education teacher in London, Philip Dawes, for whom the extraordinary deeds of Ravi Bopara are not the stuff of excited chatter. Dawes, who taught Bopara for four years at Brampton Manor School, receives breathless bulletins concerning England's No3 batsman with wisdom's slow smile.

"He was a different shape then, round and chubby with puppy fat," he recalls. "But he was a lovely lad, never a problem, and not too much has changed. Even at 13 he was very impressive, very unusual. He had these leadership qualities. He was always helping out younger boys. He was obviously well brought up, confident and very honest but respectful, not cocky.

"By the time he was 15 he was incredible. This is not a cricket school. It has a big football history. But he won the 40-over Essex Cup almost single-handedly, captaining the side and scoring a big hundred to beat Graham Gooch's old school, Norlington, in the final."

Brampton Manor did not even have a cricket team when Bopara arrived. The player recalls: "I asked if we could play cricket and the answer was yes, if I could get some guys together. So we organized our own school team.

"We didn't go out and train or anything. We didn't have the facilities. We just rocked up on the day and went out and enjoyed ourselves. I had some good talented players around me. We had a community that loved cricket. We went on to win that cup which meant a lot to some of those guys and the teacher as well."

The teacher admits he didn't have much to do with it. "Ravi ran the whole show, picking the team, settling on the batting order, leading from the front, everything," Dawes says. "I was there to umpire and help out but Ravi did it all. I have never seen a schoolboy field as well as he did. He bowled medium pace and spin and as a batsman he was exceptional. He had all the power and technique to take bad bowling apart. But what really impressed me for such a young lad was his shot selection."

Sir Robin Wales, the mayor of the borough of Newham, where most of the 2012 Olympic Games will take place, said yesterday: "From an early age at Brampton Manor it was always obvious that Ravi was destined for great things."

Bopara, however, had fixed his mind on cricket many years before he attended Brampton Manor. From the age of seven or eight he would rush home from school at three in the afternoon, change in a hurry and dash out, climbing over gates to play tapeball cricket in a small local playground.

That is the sort of intensity of desire Australia's bowlers will be up against in Cardiff next week. But they already know a little about him, for he hit 135 against them, with 17 fours and two sixes, while playing for Essex, just before the crucial Oval Test of 2005. Bopara put on 270 with Alastair Cook, who was also 20 at the time, in a match that ended in a draw.

In the same year Essex sent him to Paul Terry's academy in Perth. For Terry, Bopara's "nice sort of arrogance" and his determination to test himself against the best bowlers available made him the stand-out talent from England in seven or eight years.

Bopara became an Essex player in 2002. Even Gooch, the old workaholic, had to remind him that he was practising too hard on occasions. Bopara remembers: "I had the keys to this indoor school in Ilford, so I could go there any time. Sometimes I would go at one in the morning, along with my mate Zoheb Sharif, who was also on the Essex staff at the time.

"The only time I could find a time to myself was really late. I didn't want to get up in the morning. I'm not really a morning person. It was a case of making use of my day and training at night. It became routine. Zoheb and I used to roll out the carpet and use the bowling machine. Graham [Gooch] said it was a bit silly going at that time but I told him that was the only time when I was wide awake!"

It was in the indoor nets at Chelmsford that Bopara, at 16, had first impressed Gooch. "I just knew, even then, that I was watching a very special player," said the former England captain. "There were a lot of rough edges in those days but I just knew ... the way he carried himself, his balance, the time he had to play his shots, the way he moved, generally, in a smooth and silky way. I just knew that this was something special."

Bopara's wristy play reminded John Childs, the Essex academy director who once played for Gloucestershire, of Zaheer Abbas. "That gives you so many more scoring options," he says. "Ravi always had a natural gift. You just had this gut feeling that you were watching somebody with something more special than other people. And, of course, he's always had this immense hunger to learn."

The England management were sufficiently beguiled by his qualities to fast-track him into the England side in Sri Lanka just over 18 months ago, ahead of the more deserving Owais Shah. Bopara finished the series with three ducks in a row. But this year, against West Indies in the Caribbean and in England, he has balanced out that embarrassment by scoring three successive centuries.

"I'm glad some of this stuff has happened," he says. "I've been through a real low with the three noughts against Sri Lanka and now I've been through quite a high as well with the three hundreds. I'm glad it's happened this way. In my career it's been two extremes and I think you learn a lot from the extremes. A great deal has happened in those six matches.

"After the three noughts, immediately, within a few months, I knew I had become a better player. Just by experiencing the hurt. You take time and it hurts you for a while and then you go back into the nets and work out how you want to play. You realize you want to go out and enjoy it. I didn't enjoy those three noughts.

"They happened so quickly. I don't think I was playing badly. It's not as if I was scratching around to get to 10 or 20 or 30 and then getting out. It just went bang, bang, bang, three noughts. I didn't even get a chance to get in.

"Now I go out to enjoy myself. But I give myself the best opportunity to perform. I prepare well. I do everything I can to make sure I perform on the day and if it's my day I will perform, and if it's not it's not."

According to Bopara's England team-mate Paul Collingwood, he returned from the recent Indian Premier League tournament in South Africa, where he played for Kings XI Punjab, a different player. "Ravi came back a new man," the Durham batsman said. "Looking at the way he's holding himself at the moment, he's very calm. He just knows his game so well."

Now, as he prepares for a defining moment in his career, it is surprising to learn that this cricket-obsessed individual was oblivious to the unique importance of the Ashes until 2005.

"Before 2005 I didn't see the Ashes as such a massive series. It only hit me when we won it. Everything that came along with it was unbelievable and I thought, Jesus, this really is a big series, it really does mean a lot to everybody."

As the owner of two Rottweilers, Bopara should be able to muzzle the sledgers in the Australian side in the coming series. His ability to get away from the game – especially when you remember that he is such an obsessive about it – is impressive. He loves music too. And friends who don't know too much about cricket.

"Some of them might know I've scored a hundred but they won't really know who it's against. That works out well for me."

Ravi Bopara might soon discover that he has many more friends.

Jimmy Anderson Arrives With a Cloudburst As a Cricketer of Substance

Some cricketers saunter on stage with a drum-roll of anticipation and announce themselves with a starburst of activity. Jimmy Anderson arrived with more of a cloudburst here today.

But between the showers and the mopping-up exercises, the frustrations of delay and the quiet hum of genteel hedonism that makes Lord's a great social as well as cricket occasion, there was a growing awareness that a cricketer of substance had arrived.

It would be wrong to describe Anderson as an overnight success since many nights have passed since he first played for Lancashire back in 2002, and he has been a Test cricketer for six years now.

But gradually, with enough patience to have impressed Samuel Beckett's Estragon, and with the help of coaches and psychologists (he has not talked about the latter but the help here has been crucial) an important player has slow-burned into life and is now at the center of England's activities.

He has shuffled, a little shyly, between the twin pillars that are Andrew Fintoff and Steve Harmison, pillars that look slightly crumbly and even a little defaced with graffiti, so that he is in front of them now as the nation's champion fast bowler, the leader of the pack.

We are not simply talking about a bowler here. His batting with Monty Panesar to save the first Test at Cardiff is already the stuff of fresh-minted legend.

Today we saw a different batsman, one who counter-attacked with Graham Onions so that the last pair spoiled the early successes of the Australian bowlers and at the same time warmed themselves up for their own offensive; there were five fours in his 25-ball 29.

He has also become one of the most relevant fielders in the England side. Already the best all-round athlete in the team, he now has a safe pair of hands too, good enough to stand at gully where his friend Alastair Cook only fitfully looked the part.

There have not been many England fast bowlers good enough to field close to the bat. Fred Trueman, of course, was famously brilliant and in fresher memory Mike Hendrick, Chris Old and Bob Willis also looked the part. But fast bowlers, traditionally, have been put out to graze at third man or long leg. John Snow comes to mind, with arms akimbo and his poet's nose thrown high as if to scent a passing sonnet.

Ok, we're not talking Garry Sobers here, the greatest of all all-rounders (the greatest of all cricketers, some would say, because unlike Don Bradman he demonstrated his genius across the globe and with more varied skills).

But Anderson is no longer one-dimensional. He is growing into a substantial cricketer. He is a father now. He has a new agent too. His smile is more relaxed and less nervous than it once was.

There is a depth to him that was not always there. There is a resilience now so that when he is attacked his confidence does not collapse as it once appeared to. Last year Allan Donald helped him to think of himself as the most important bowler in the team. But it is Anderson himself who must take most credit for the cricketer we see before us today.

Andrew Flintoff Has Refused an Incremental Deal From the Ecb and Can Now Play One-day Cricket Where and When He Chooses

Andrew Flintoff shook international cricket last night by rejecting the offer of an England contract and committing himself to a future as a cricketing freelance, able to travel worldwide in search of the riches on offer in the Twenty20 game.

The 31-year-old all-rounder says that he still wants to play one-day cricket for England, as far ahead as the 2013 World Cup, but his determination to play when and where he pleases could endanger his international future as the England and Wales Cricket Board debates the implications of an unprecedented situation.

Flintoff, who is undergoing long-term rehab in Dubai after a sixth major operation, another on the knee that caused him to retire from Test cricket, was last week offered a lower-tier "incremental contract" by the ECB — a top-up to other payments — to play one-day cricket for England.

He did not just refuse, he did so in a manner that firmly asserted his rights to make his own decisions on where to play his cricket. "I was flattered to receive the offer of an incremental contract from the ECB, which I wasn't really expecting," he said, "but at this stage of my career I don't think I need to be told when to play and when to rest."

The ECB has no immediate reason to believe that other highly sought England players — such as Kevin Pietersen — are also about to reject central contracts, which give England considerable control over their careers, specifically when they play and when they rest.

Nevertheless, Professional Cricketers' Association officials were privately affirming last night that Flintoff's decision could only encourage leading players to consider a freelance career, picking and choosing the most lucrative series and playing for England on a match-fee basis.

An incremental contract, however, gives England lesser powers, which has left the ECB dismayed about Flintoff's course of action. A spokesman responded: "We have read Andrew Flintoff's statement this evening and clearly there is a lot to digest. We will make no further comment until we have had a chance to consider it."

Cricket: India Win 100th Test

It was a splendid all-round performance by the Indians, who went on to beat Sri Lanka by an innings and 144 runs in the 2nd test match played at Kanpur. Today was just the 4th day of the match and so the Indians achieved the victory with well over a day and a half to spare. Looks like they have earned themselves a Sunday on which they can just enjoy and relax.

The win was set up with a splendid opening stand of 233 runs between Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag on day one itself. India eventually went on to post a mammoth total of 642. Sreesanth was declared Man of the Match for his 6 wicket haul, and in fact this was his comeback match. Now this victory came with a few milestones and records along the way. To name a few… This was India's 100th test win in all, their first being way back in 1952 against England. India now moves up to the number 1 spot in the world as far as test cricket rankings are concerned. Dhoni keeps his no-loss record as captain intact with this win, which is the 9th in a row without losing a single match yet. This is India's biggest victory ever against Sri Lanka in terms of number of runs, the previous best one being a victory by an innings and 119 runs in the year 1994.

Coach Garry Kirsten must be a happy man, and why not! He has done well in motivating a bunch of experienced, young and talented cricketers, and has got the perfect combination to play for India. The next match will be played in Mumbai, starting December 2, 2009.

Spirit of Cricket is Ground Into Dust By Ricky Ponting and Andrew Strauss

A lingering smell of enmity hangs over the Ashes now, the likes of which we haven't had since ... well, 2005.

It is an enduring myth – perpetrated by the famous picture of Andrew Flintoff crouching down to console Brett Lee after victory at Edgbaston – that the series four years ago was bathed in 24-hour-a-day mutual goodwill.

The bookend to that memory was the one of Ricky Ponting scowling up at a grinning Duncan Fletcher on the Trent Bridge players' balcony after being run out by the substitute fielder Gary Pratt. There were a host of other confrontations, as there always were and always will be.

No Australian team – especially one that contains such combative characters as Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer and Glenn McGrath – comes to England for a garden party. It would be daft to expect it. This series, though, is being soured by two men we were led to believe had it in their gift to ensure the old enemies might at least reach an acceptable level of maturity for once: Ponting and Andrew Strauss.

Ponting (perhaps grinding his teeth at the time) brought with him in his back pocket another Spirit of Cricket manifesto, promising no more sledging, no more questioning of the umpires' decisions and a determination to play hard but fair. To say it might make useful toilet paper would not be much of an exaggeration.

England's Minister for Niceness was to be Strauss, an ex-public schoolboy of calm demeanor and, seemingly, a man with no known enemies inside or outside the game. Captaincy, however, seems to have revealed another side to him, and Ponting has been quick to identify in Strauss someone with whom he can have a decent argument.

After contretemps at Cardiff and the catch at Lord's that maybe wasn't, they ought to be ashamed of themselves for acting like a pair of kids. But they won't be.

The grass-level finger scoop by Strauss in the slips on the fourth morning of the second Test and which did for Phillip Hughes as Australia contemplated the awful prospect of losing their first game at Lord's since 1934, was more than a foreshortened TV replay illusion. It looked to be – in super slo-mo – the temporary corruption under pressure of one man's better instincts, which in turn induced his counterpart's hot-wired surrender to temper.

Hughes was the only player in the drama to emerge with credit. A country boy new to the big time, he nicked and walked; Ponting, once a country boy but gnarled after years on the frontline, called him back and checked with Strauss. The England captain, ex-Radley, said he caught it. The Australian captain huffily had to believe him – regretting, no doubt, passing up the opportunity offered before the start of the tour to refer such incidents to trial by replay.

Hughes kept walking, and the moment passed without further incident, save the agonising of the commentariat. Here's some more.

Anyone who has played the game and taken a catch such as this knows the sensation of the turf easing the force of the ball in the hand. It is spookily feather-like, considerably softer than a full-on smack of leather on bone.

If Strauss was certain he caught it, there should be no row and Ponting should accept his word. If there was the slightest doubt in Strauss's mind about the legitimacy of the catch, he owed it to his team, the opposition and the game to say so. We are all now left in the position of believing him, even though the technology suggests he was wrong, and that leaves an unfortunate taste in the mouth.

Ponting, as a visiting long-time villain, is an obvious target for the British media especially after his first indiscretion, at Cardiff. It was forgotten in the concluding drama of Monty's Drift, but Ponting's bogus silly point shout for a bat-pad catch off Paul Collingwood that wasn't plainly contradicted the S of C, and was compounded by his "spit the dummy" tantrum that followed.

Let's not revisit the England time-wasting fiasco, but that didn't cool matters either. The volume had been turned up, and it remains stuck on 10. These are men behaving like boys – but not the boys they once were.Old dogs Lyle and Monty just can't stop barking

While we're on cheating (or not), the most entertaining by-play at Turnberry the past week or so has been that between Sandy Lyle and Colin Montgomerie, two Scots who couldn't sound more like Wentworth green keepers if they lived on the course.

Lyle dredged up allegations about Monty's moved ball in Jakarta and thereafter couldn't put a sock in it. This, naturally, got up Monty's nose. He said it put him off his game, a claim clearly sustained by his dreadful golf.

The tiff briefly amused golf writers whose lot it is to tip-toe around the egos of these and other players, knowing that the sensitive issue of cheating is the game's dark secret, but who could hardly ignore the issue when Sandy and Monty kept rushing to the nearest microphone.

Curtis Strange once told a young Tiger Woods: "Golf doesn't shout, it whispers."

Right.

Hatton hanging on for one final payday

It is not the shock of the week that Ricky Hatton hasn't decided yet whether to stick or twist with what is left of his boxing career, but the question needs asking: what's taking him so long? It's been a couple of months now since Manny Pacquiao rattled his teeth in Las Vegas. Perhaps Amir Khan's win over Andreas Kotelnik on Saturday clinched it. Expect an end-of-year all-British mega showdown for Amir's world light-welterweight title. Khan is out of contract with Frank Warren. Hatton fell out with Warren. Draw the picture.

No one likes the Bambi killer. And why should we?

Spare a thought for Stewart Cink. He is the Open champion nobody wanted, the man who killed Bambi, albeit an old one. It is hard to recall a winner who more completely spoilt the party in a major sporting event than Cink did when he beat Tom Watson in the play-off.

Should we feel sorry for him, this redeemed battler who pick-pocketed the biggest prize in golf from Major Tom?

Anyone who uses his acceptance speech to thank his wife for introducing him to the Almighty so fits the stereotype of boring American God-bothering Republican-supporting lime-green-hat-and-shirt and cream-trouser wearing golfer he deserves all the indifference he gets.

Ashes Fever Lifts Tv Ratings As Cricket Fans Tune in to See England v Australia

Sky Sports 1 and Channel Five enjoyed good ratings over the weekend as cricket fans tuned in to the England v Australia Ashes Test from Lords.

Live coverage of the match made Sky Sports 1 the most watched multichannel service for much of Saturday and Sunday, while Channel Five's evening cricket highlights programs were the network's most watched show on both days as England took themselves to the brink of winning a Lord's Test against Australia for the first time since 1934.

Sky Sports 1 averaged 687,000 viewers and a 6.5% multichannel share for its cricket coverage between 10am and 7pm yesterday, Sunday 19 July, as England set out to bowl Australia out in their second innings and win the match.

The Sky cricket audience peaked at 993,000 viewers in the quarter hour from 12.45pm yesterday, according to unofficial overnights.

Sky Sports 1 had a slightly bigger audience on Saturday, 18 July, with an average of 698,000 viewers and an 8% multichannel share over nine hours from 10am.

Viewing on Sky Sports 1 on Saturday peaked at 1.22 million viewers between 5.45pm and 6pm. The channel averaged 1.18 million for an hour from 5.30pm.

On Friday, 17 July, Sky Sports 1 averaged 458,000 viewers - a 5.3% multichannel share - for its coverage from Lords between 10am and 7pm. The Friday cricket audience peaked at 903,000 viewers in the quarter-hour from 6pm.

Five, which has been broadcasting highlights of England's home Tests since 2006, enjoyed its biggest audience on Friday, with 1.4 million viewers between 7.15pm and 8pm, a 7% share.

Yesterday Cricket on Five: the Ashes attracted 1.1 million viewers and a 5% share in the same slot; while on Saturday the highlights from Lords had 1.3 million and a 7% share.

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Australia Beat India after Chewing Off All Their Nail Stubs

What more does it take to win a match, I keep wondering. Making a game out of a 350-run herculean chase, while keeping the asking rate under control all throughout the game, apparently does not do it. What matters is finishing off, something India will rue till the day they forget this match (translates to never...).

It all started with a 93 (89 balls) from Shane Watson and a 112 (112 balls) from Shaun Marsh. With most batsmen contributing good, solid double figures and giving the Indian bowlers a hammering of a lifetime, Australia had made a huge pile of runs for India to chase, 350 to be exact.

Chasing 351 to win, I and many like me had given up on the match that India was expected to chase in. I and many like me (being Indians) were still glued to our television sets, just for the sake of curiosity (and because we cannot by a rule watch anything else when an India match is going on), to know by how much will India lose by. Yet, India is capable of miracles both this way and that. They can be all out at the world's smallest score and also chase down huge ones with ease (well, maybe not quite like South Africa. I still remember how the whacked the Aussies in their 400 plus run chase).

Sehwag, as always, came up with a good blistering though short knock of a 30 ball 38. While wickets kept falling on the one end post-Sehwag, there was still one thing standing between Australia and victory.

A man named Sachin Tendulkar. He crossed 17000 ODI runs in this match but everyone was soon to forget this tiny detail. Tiny, for what me and many others like me will remember instead is the face of one man. Ricky Ponting. As each ball sailed over the boundary rope, some yellow shoulders drooped some more. With each sound of leather and willow, certain blue hopes rose some more. He made 175 in 141 balls and fell to the most terrible, un-Sachin-like shot ever. What followed is what we have all seen before. His carefully laid foundation crumpled like a castle of playing cards. There was no one to hold the scepter post-Sachin and India lost by a meager 4 runs.

While Gambhir, Yuvraj and Dhoni fell for just 8, 9 and 6 runs respectively, it was Suresh Raina (59) and Ravindra Jadeja (23) that supported Sachin's brave innings. Praveen Kumar tried his best in the end to salvage what Sachin had left incomplete, but even his efforts fell short.

There is nothing noteworthy to say about the bowling on both sides as a game that saw 600 plus runs being scored would certainly not have left any bowler clean and un-clobbered. What I will remember in this match, more than a certain Mr. Tendulkar is Mr. Praveen Kumar. The guy laid out his heart for the match and it was very clearly visible from the way he was batting. When he got run out in the end, it was he I had tears for, not India nor Sachin (that came later, much later during the presentation ceremony). Every ball the last wicket Munaf Patel was facing, saw me pale faced (white as a ghost), glued to the set with my heart in my mouth, praying fervently that 'just once God, please let his bat touch the ball and he still be not out, just once'. In trying to keep Munaf away from facing more balls, Praveen lost his wicket. After my one 'first second' reaction of swearing, blaming and cursing a blue streak (in the very same order), I returned back to sanity. I could only imagine the pressure on Pravin for after Sachin it is not easy, never easy.. What went down was a Chennai repeat.

The match left me with tonnes of ifs and buts - Why did Sachin play such a stupid shot? Why did Harbhajan not see us through? etc. etc. Adrenaline gets to everyone and if at all we should remember this match, it is not for the loss but for the fact that a match was made out of it. Wasn't having Ricky Ponting have heart palpitations fun? Then let us not play the blame game (though we are all fickle with our opinions and over-passionate about the game). Let us leave them all alone tonight and every other such night. They can't be feeling any worse, especially Sachin.

What we can do however, is analyze why no one can hold the innings together post a good knock from Sachin. It is like some kind of conspiracy from God, for everyone normally does a fine job of it, just not after a good knock of Sachin. It seems Sachin must bear the cross, of never being there to make India cross the finish line, yet again. I wonder how many more innings will he have to play till someone, anyone, steps up to the challenge.

Sachin, if someone's blaming you for losing your wicket at the crux of the match, don't despair. No one's harsher on you than yourself. Me and many like me still stand by you today, just like every other day, minute, second and breath.

One last thing before I sign off. Here's something for you to ask yourself. When (and of course if) Ponting surpasses Sachin in runs, in any format of the game, there will still be a difference between the two of them. Sachin will be great because he is humble and Ponting will be well, Australian (translated to 'arrogant'). Which great would you prefer, I wonder.