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Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi is set to return to Pakistan tonight in a bid to resolve his ongoing dispute with the PCB

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Jun-2011Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi is set to return to Pakistan tonight in a bid to resolve his ongoing dispute with the PCB. Afridi, who is currently in London, is scheduled to appear before a three-man disciplinary committee formed by the board on June 8 in Lahore, to face charges that he has breached two clauses of the code of conduct with his retirement announcement and subsequent criticism of the board.Mandviwalla and Zafar Associates, the legal firm representing Afridi, had sent a letter to the PCB on June 3 in a bid to resolve the on-going dispute between the two parties. At the time, Afridi’s management told ESPNcricinfo that he would appear before the committee. However, some reports suggest that Afridi and his legal team may not attend the hearing as the allrounder is reportedly uncomfortable with an in-camera hearing that the PCB want, though this has not yet been confirmed.Over the last couple of days, Afridi is reported to have met and spoken to a number of Pakistani political figures in London and Pakistan, including, apparently, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari (the son of the Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari) and former prime minister and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif. He has already appealed directly to the president to look into the matter, and the country’s interior minister Rehman Malik has also got involved.A measure of his popularity – or influence – emerged over the weekend as several areas of Karachi saw banners and signs appear supporting Afridi. There is the likelihood of his arrival attracting a fair crowd to the airport and there are reports that a rally will be organised in support once he arrives.

Warwickshire, tipped as relegation candidates by most bookies, left Trent Bridge with a fourth win in six games and as the top of the table side

George Dobell at Trent Bridge20-May-2011
Scorecard
The last time Warwickshire left Trent Bridge – last August – they did so having been bowled out twice in a day and as victims of an innings defeat. It was an embarrassing performance.What a difference a few months makes. This time, Warwickshire left with a fourth win in six games and as the top of the table side. That’s not a bad record for a team who were tipped as relegation candidates by most bookies.So, should Warwickshire now be considered as genuine championship contenders? Wins over Nottinghamshire and Somerset – pre-season favourites for the Championship – bode well, but winning the title may prove a bridge too far. For all their improvement this season – and they do look a stronger squad – the real tests lie ahead.The depth of their squad will be sorely tested in the coming weeks. For a start, Warwickshire are unlikely to see any more of Ian Bell or Jonathan Trott, who now depart on England duty. William Porterfield and Boyd Rankin will play the first two days of next week’s Championship game against Durham before leaving to represent Ireland (substitutes will be allowed).Jim Troughton should be fit to return next week but, with the likes of Neil Carter, Chris Woakes and Ant Botha unlikely to return from injury until the start of the T20 season, the depth of Warwickshire’s squad will be tested. Even in this game, Darren Maddy, 37 on Monday, was forced to bowl the most overs in one innings he has managed in his career. New Zealand offspinner, Jeetan Patel, has been signed as an overseas player for the T20.”That was a very good performance,” Ashley Giles, Warwickshire’s director of cricket said afterwards. “All I told the guys was to remember the feeling we had when we left here last year. Bell played a class innings and we won the game with our first innings bowling: we went at them hard and it shocked them a bit.”We’re still improving. But, if you can go to Taunton and Trent Bridge and win, then you’re doing something right. It doesn’t make much difference who is top of the table at the end of May. But if we’re top at the end of July then I do think we can challenge, as we tend to finish the season strongly.”Nottinghamshire’s chances of retaining the title have clearly taken a heavy blow over the last couple of weeks . In due course, however, they will welcome back the likes of Samit Patel, Alex Hales, Neil Edwards, Darren Pattinson, Luke Fletcher, Andy Carter and Graeme White, and have proved mightily adept at bouncing back from adversity in recent seasons. It would be unwise to write them off just yet.At least Nottinghamshire made Warwickshire fight on the third day. Adam Voges and Paul Franks stretched their overnight stand to 174 – the club’s highest fifth-wicket stand against Warwickshire – with Franks registering his highest first-class score for six years. With a series of pleasing square drives and pulls, Franks looked set for his first century since 2005 until he edged one angled across him. Voges fell to an outstanding slip catch by Varun Chopra, diving full stretch to his right.A merry ninth-wicket stand of 54 between Andre Adams and Stuart Broad diverted the embarrassment of an innings defeat. Adams, racing to his third half-century in three games from just 29 balls, thrashed Naqaash Tahir for 16 in three balls at one stage, with a pulled six landing on the roof of the Fox Road Stand.In truth, however, such partnerships only served to highlight the lack of resistance the previous day and delay the inevitable. Nottinghamshire’s lamentable batting on the second day – and Bell’s excellence in Warwickshire’s first innings – had given away too much ground to make up. Set just 60 to win, Warwickshire cantered to victory in just eight overs. Bell, again timing the ball quite beautifully, underlined the impression that he is in wonderful touch. At one stage he took poor Charlie Shreck for four successive boundaries.Afterwards, Notts’ director of cricket, Mick Newell, declined to highlight his side’s batting frailties. “Our squad has been exposed a little,” he admitted, “but the difference was that we were out-bowled throughout the game. Rankin bowled a quick, aggressive spell; Maddy swung it and we weren’t able to cope.”But Newell and Giles admitted that Broad looked a little short of cricket going into the Test series against Sri Lanka. In the two Championship games he played last year, Broad claimed 19 wickets. This year, he’s managed just five and they’re coming at a cost of 44 apiece. “He’s not played any serious cricket since mid-December, so he’s still looking for his rhythm and form,” Newell said. “The Championship is there to get him back for England, but he’s definitely been a bit under-done and the two games he played have looked like extended nets.”Giles agreed. “He’s bound to be a bit under-done,” he said. “Trott, Swann and Broad are probably not quite there yet, but there’s another week until the Test starts, so they should be fine by then.”It was telling, however, that as spectators left Trent Bridge, Swann returned to the middle for some more bowling.

Two of Victoria’s star Twenty20 batsmen, Brad Hodge and David Hussey, are expected to line up against each other during the Big Bash League this summer

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Jul-2011Two of Victoria’s star Twenty20 batsmen, Brad Hodge and David Hussey, are expected to line up against each other during the Big Bash League this summer. Hussey confirmed he has decided to join Melbourne Stars, based at the MCG, while Hodge is expected to line-up for Stars’ cross-town rivals, Melbourne Renegades, who will play at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne’s Docklands.There were no major signings confirmed on Monday, although the former Tasmania batsman Travis Birt, who recently switched to Western Australia, will head back to Hobart for the Twenty20 tournament to play with Hobart Hurricanes. He will be joined by the Western Australia fast bowler Michael Hogan, while Brisbane Heat signed the Queensland fast man Ben Cutting. Sydney Sixers locked in the New South Wales batsman Ben Rohrer.Cameron White is expected to captain Stars, while the West Indies allrounder Dwayne Bravo, who has played for Victoria in the Big Bash, is in talks with one of the Melbourne sides. Neither Melbourne team has officially named any recruits yet, but Hussey said he would play with Stars under coach Greg Shipperd.”There is something attractive about playing at home,” Hussey said in the . “I want to see Australia have a successful competition and I still believe that on the domestic front our cricket is the benchmark in world cricket.”The reason I chose Stars was I made a pact with a group of players to play in the team and hopefully have a successful year and go on to play in the Champions League, where we will reap the rewards in prize money. It is a different model to where you see two or three superstars who take all the money.”

Only 49.2 overs were possible on the first day of the 2000th Test, but Zaheer Khan found time enough to strike two big blows for India and one against them

The Report by Sidharth Monga21-Jul-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were outZaheer Khan’s injury was a decisive moment in the second session•Getty ImagesOnly 49.2 overs were possible on the first day of the 2000th Test, but Zaheer Khan found time enough to strike two big blows for India and one against them. He hobbled off with what looked like hamstring trouble, having bowled 13.3 exquisite overs for 18 runs and the wickets of the dangerous England openers. He should have had the big wicket of Jonathan Trott to his credit minutes before he pulled up sore, but England’s No. 3 was reprieved behind the wicket for a second time. Those chances shouldn’t take much away from how well Trott batted, whipping and cutting gloriously in his unbeaten 58, while all others kept playing and missing.India made a much better start than they are used to on first days of big series, but they will still feel disappointed with just two wickets after nearly two sessions of bowling under overcast skies with the ball nipping around appreciably on a track freshened up by early showers. Most of the blame would have to be apportioned to their fielding.Three chances went unclaimed. Ishant Sharma missed Andrew Strauss’s run-out when he was on 2. Rahul Dravid dropped Trott on 8 off Harbhajan Singh’s first ball, 10 minutes before lunch. Twenty-four Trott runs later, Zaheer bowled him a beauty from round the stumps, leaving him against the angle, taking the edge, but also swinging after passing the stumps. MS Dhoni went for the catch but pulled out once he saw the swing, Dravid – not completely blind-sighted – failed to go for it, and Zaheer was left agonising. Those were the first runs conceded by him in 34 deliveries.Zaheer’s agony increased in his next over when he walked off with England at 107 for 2 in the 42nd over. Andrew Flintoff, no stranger to injuries himself, tweeted immediately: “If Zaheer doesn’t come back on there goes the number 1 spot!”It wasn’t all about Zaheer, though. To start off, after the half-hour delay, MS Dhoni began a second straight away series with success at the toss. Answering their captain’s call to bowl first, both Zaheer and Praveen Kumar asked persistent questions with movement either-way.The start lived up to the hype. The England openers – a prolific combination – played out three maidens, taking time to get used to the Indians’ tricks. The ball swung big, and Strauss and Alastair Cook played as late as possible. There were regular plays and misses, especially when Praveen bowled to Strauss. In a first spell that read 9-4-18-0, he beat Strauss’s edge six times, and three times the edges didn’t go to hand.It was an interesting choice of ends for Zaheer and Praveen: Zaheer took the Nursery End, which could hamper his swing, and the Pavilion End helped Praveen’s inswingers, not his more comfortable suit. That England open with two left-hand batsmen might have had a part to play in the decision, and it worked too. Zaheer got Cook with movement in, the first time Cook was dismissed for less than 55 since last December. it reduced England to 19 for 1 after 11 overs.Having survived the run-out opportunity early, Strauss defended grimly, but fell to a left-arm quick for the 12th time since December 2009. It was only the second short ball tried by Zaheer in 8.4 overs. The first took a bottom edge, and this one a top edge to long leg. Zaheer to Strauss: 11 innings, six wickets.Trott, though, had put behind him the reprieve from Dravid, and looked comfortable. He played into the on side from in front of stumps, whipped off his hips for fours, and when Dhoni employed a defensive on-side field, cut through the off side. His alertness showed in how he handled Praveen’s swing in the afternoon session. In the 39th over of the innings, after a spell full of outswingers from the Nursery End, Praveen bowled a big inswinger. Lesser batsmen have fallen to that, but Trott’s bat came down just in time, and also placed it wide of mid-on. That shot said a lot more about his effort than the eight boundaries.Kevin Pietersen batted like he had ants in his pants, moving around in his crease trying to counter the swing, edging and missing in all ways possible. Once he came down the track and lofted Harbhajan over mid-on, though, it seemed he had turned a corner, and so had India. Pietersen didn’t face Harbhajan with the mid-on up after that, and kept picking easy singles.Zaheer had walked off by then, and things looked bright for England as the partnership flourished to an unbeaten 65 off 24.4 overs. Lord’s, though, turned gloomy and wet. One would venture that India were the happier side when rain meant there was no play after 3.50pm.

Zimbabwe seamer Keegan Meth has suffered a laceration to the lower lip and lost three upper row teeth following a ghastly incident at the end of the Bangladesh innings in the final ODI in Bulawayo

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Aug-2011Zimbabwe seamer Keegan Meth has suffered a laceration to the lower lip and lost four upper row teeth following a ghastly incident at the end of the Bangladesh innings in the final ODI in Bulawayo.Meth, who bowled the final over of the Bangladesh innings, was hit in the mouth by Nasir Hossain’s full-blooded straight shot off the last ball. He went down immediately in pain, and had to be stretchered off the field with a bloodied face. Meth played no further part in the game as Zimbabwe lost by 93 runs, conceding Bangladesh a second consolation win after having sealed the series with three straight victories.Meth was treated by the doctor on call at the ground, before he had his lower lip sutured at a nearby hospital. He was able to join his team-mates during the chase and also took part in the celebrations following the series win. The extent of damage to his jaws and mouth can only be ascertained following the dentist’s report and an X-ray examination.”Due to the extent of the injury we had to rush him [Meth] to the hospital,” the team physio Amato Machikicho said. “He will have to go for X-rays tomorrow to establish the nature of the dental injury. He will require some orthodentistry for the four teeth and any other possible injuries that might have ensued from the impact.”

Tim Southee, the New Zealand and Chennai Super Kings seamer, will miss the Champions League Twenty20 after suffering a knee injury

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Sep-2011Tim Southee, the New Zealand and Chennai Super Kings seamer, will miss the Champions League Twenty20 after injuring his knee. He was supposed to join the Chennai team this week but will remain in New Zealand to undergo treatment.”Tim has suffered some cartilage damage to his left knee while preparing for the Champions League.,” John Buchanan, the New Zealand director of cricket, said. “He requires further assessment to determine the seriousness of the injury but initial signs indicate that he is unlikely to require surgery.”He will undergo a period of intense rehabilitation and attempt to return to training shortly.” Whether or not he will be available for New Zealand’s tour of Zimbabwe next month will be made known later, Buchanan said.Southee won the ICC Twenty20 Performance of the Year award for his spell of 5 for 18 against Pakistan in Auckland. He has picked up 74 wickets in 59 Twenty20 matches at 23.05 but has been expensive, conceding 8.07 runs an over. He’d been in good form of late in Twenty20 cricket and took 6 for 16, including a hat-trick, for Essex against Glamorgan in the Friends Life T20 in July.Chennai, the defending champions, play their first Champions League game on September 24.

ESPNcricinfo’s preview of the third Test between Sri Lanka and Australia in Colombo

The Preview by Brydon Coverdale15-Sep-2011Match factsPeter Siddle is back in Australia’s Test team•AFPSeptember 16-20, Colombo (SSC)
Start time 10:00 (04:30 GMT, 14:30 EST)Big PictureSri Lanka have been outplayed during this series but they could still escape with honours even, if they find a way to win at the SSC. Australia’s 1-0 lead would likely have become 2-0 had rain and bad light not intervened in Pallekele. Instead, Michael Clarke and his men now find themselves needing to draw or win in Colombo to take the series. It won’t be as easy as it appears. The SSC has been renowned for flat, batsman-friendly pitches in recent years, but draws haven’t been the only result on offer. Of the past 17 SSC Tests, only four have been drawn and Sri Lanka have been beaten just once. The triumphant team? Ricky Ponting’s Australians in 2004.Ponting will be back in Australia’s side at No.3, having missed the Pallekele Test for the birth of his child. Usman Khawaja has been confirmed as the unlucky batsman who will make way for Ponting. Khawaja had good form behind him, having made a century in the tour match, but Shaun Marsh’s debut hundred made him an irresistible prospect. There will also be a change in the attack, with Ryan Harris left out due to his hamstring problem, and Peter Siddle included. One thing that won’t change is Australia’s attitude: they will not be playing for a draw. “Our mindset must be the same,” Clarke wrote in his column on Thursday. “Not one of us is in a position to take our foot off the pedal or start taking things for granted because the team has had a couple of good games.”Sri Lanka’s strong record at the SSC should not be under-estimated, regardless of their recent form, and there will be extra incentive for the hosts to lift this time around. Kumar Sangakkara, not only one of the finest batsmen in the world but also one of cricket’s greatest ambassadors, is playing his 100th Test. Four Sri Lankans have reached that mark before Sangakkara and Sri Lanka won every one of those milestone matches. The hosts will regain Rangana Herath, but most importantly they need some big runs from their top order.Form guide(Most recent first)
Sri Lanka DLDDL
Australia DWLLWIn the spotlightAngelo Mathews hasn’t been bowling during this series, so being included as a specialist batsman at No.7 meant he simply had to make runs. He has done just that. His 95 in the first Test, in a big partnership with Mahela Jayawardene, almost gave Sri Lanka a sniff of victory, and another half-century in Pallekele helped Sri Lanka avoid an even more embarrassing first innings. The kind of player who makes runs when it matters, Mathews does, however, lose patience occasionally and gives the fielding side opportunities. All the same, he has been the best player in Sri Lanka’s lower middle order this series.Shane Watson has now gone five innings without a Test half-century, his longest such streak since he started opening during the 2009 Ashes. He’ll be keen to make the most of what is likely to be a batsman-friendly pitch at the SSC in Colombo, as he continues to work on his new opening partnership with Phillip Hughes. Watson has certainly been contributing with the ball, as arguably the team’s best exponent of reverse swing, and despite his extra workload in the field, Michael Clarke is not considering shifting Watson down the batting order just yet. “It is something I’ll continue to think about,” Clarke told the . “I see Watto’s bowling as very important for the team so in time, if it’s best for the team, he might move down the order. But the priority is whatever’s best for the team and right now I think that’s Shane opening the batting.”Team newsSri Lanka should regain the most experienced spinner in their squad, Rangana Herath, who missed the second Test due to a finger injury. However, the news was not so good for Ajantha Mendis, who did not play the first two matches and has been ruled out of the third due to a back complaint. Herath should replace the legspinner Seekkuge Prasanna, who made his debut in Pallekele and didn’t pick up a wicket.Sri Lanka (possible) 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan (capt), 2 Tharanga Paranavitana, 3 Kumar Sangakkara, 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Thilan Samaraweera, 6 Prasanna Jayawardene (wk), 7 Angelo Mathews, 8 Suraj Randiv, 9 Rangana Herath, 10 Suranga Lakmal, 11 Chanaka Welegedara.Ponting and Siddle have been named in the starting XI for Khawaja and the injured Harris. Ponting will slot back in at No.3, with Marsh to slip down the order to No.6. The selectors decided against blooding the uncapped fast bowler James Pattinson.Australia 1 Shane Watson, 2 Phillip Hughes, 3 Ricky Ponting, 4 Michael Clarke (capt), 5 Michael Hussey, 6 Shaun Marsh, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Peter Siddle, 10 Trent Copeland, 11 Nathan Lyon.Pitch and conditions”We’re preparing for a long haul on a traditionally flat SSC pitch,” Clarke said two days before the match. The SSC surface tends to produce hefty first-innings scores – at least in the past few years – and the team that wins the toss will certainly be batting.Stats and trivia Sangakkara will become the fifth Sri Lankan to have played 100 Tests, after Muttiah Muralitharan, Mahela Jayawardene, Chaminda Vaas and Sanath Jayasuriya Tillakaratne Dilshan has captained four Tests without a win; the last Sri Lankan to have such a lean run at the start of his captaincy career was Hashan Tillakaratne Had Shaun Marsh been dropped for Ricky Ponting he would have been the first Australian to score a century on Test debut and be left out of the next Test since Dirk WellhamQuotes”It has been suggested that we only need a draw in Colombo to win the series but that’s not in our thinking. That’s not the way we play.”

Australia’s captain Michael Clarke will set many of the parameters for the selection of the national team’s new head coach

Daniel Brettig18-Oct-2011Australia’s captain Michael Clarke will set many of the parameters for the selection of the national team’s new head coach. The coach will be selected through a global search that will use the framework that brought the current Australian Football League premiership-winning coach to his job.While Cricket Australia trumpeted the use of Crank Sports, the Melbourne-based management consultants that have redefined the parameters by which Australian Rules coaches are chosen, it will be Clarke who has an enormous say in the choosing of the successful applicant.James Sutherland, the CA chief executive, said the relationship between the captain and the coach was arguably the most important professional bond in the game.”My personal views are the relationship between captain and coach are as important as any relationship in cricket,” Sutherland told ESPNcricinfo. “They need to be clear on their roles and responsibilities, and they need to have a real bond.”It will vary from team to team and personality to personality, in terms of how that relationship works, but in a successful cricket team there’s a strong bond between the captain and the coach and therefore Michael will be an important person as we look to set the framework and plan what the ideal characteristics and attributes are that we want from the coach.”This may well be a sign of great promise for Steve Rixon, currently Australia’s fielding coach, long-time mentor of Clarke’s, and formerly coach of New South Wales and New Zealand.Rixon’s time with New Zealand was particularly significant as he oversaw the growth of Stephen Fleming’s captaincy in a side that ultimately played well above its limited means.Two themes of the search for a coach will be the need for a candidate who can start swiftly, given that he is likely to be pitched into the job in mid-summer, but also someone with the vision required of the role.Under the recommendations of the Argus review, the head coach will devote much of his time to building a unified coaching vision in concert with the states, while also delegating the coaching of the national team to his assistants at times, namely for various ODI series.This part of the role grants the coach responsibilities in line with those of a coaching or technical director, far more than the national-team-specific commission of past coaches. Technical expertise will also be pivotal given that the new manager of team performance, Pat Howard, comes from a background rich in rugby but almost devoid of cricket.Steve Rixon is one of the candidates to be Australia’s next coach•Getty Images”We will be looking for someone who can evolve in this role,” Sutherland said. “Clearly, whoever comes in will need to hit the ground running as we go straight into a competitive phase, with a summer of six Test matches and the tri-series ahead.”Ultimately we want whoever comes in to be able to step up into that role as head coach, as is contemplated under the team performance review, so we’re looking for someone who can be more than just a coach of a cricket team.”The employment of Crank Sports has been arranged partly to speed up the selection process, given that Howard is yet to make a formal start to his tenure. However it was also done out of interest in the way the firm’s framework for appointments had formalised and structured a previously ad-hoc selection process for AFL coaches.Its merits were seen in the fortunes of the Geelong football club in 2011, when they shrugged off the loss of the long-term coach Mark Thompson and the most high-profile player in Gary Ablett to claim a third premiership in five years under the coaching of Chris Scott.”One of the things that attracted us to what Craig Mitchell is doing at Crank Sports in other sports, particularly AFL, is to really set a strong framework that gets you to objectively assess the individual candidates against that framework,” Sutherland said. “Inevitably there is a degree of subjectivity about it, but in the first instance we make sure we assess each candidate on a level playing field.”

Kurtis Patterson became the youngest batsman to score a century in Sheffield Shield as New South Wales took an overwhelming lead of 291 against Western Australia at the SCG.

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Nov-2011
ScorecardKurtis Patterson became the youngest batsman to score a century in Sheffield Shield as New South Wales took an overwhelming lead of 291 against Western Australia at the SCG. Patterson smashed 157 and had the experienced Simon Katich for company as NSW ended the day at 4 for 441.At 18 years and 206 days, Patterson broke the earlier record set by Barry Shepherd, the former Australian Test batsman, who made a century on debut for Western Australia aged 18 years and 241 days in 1955-56. The left-hander came to the crease after NSW lost Ben Rohrer. Patterson and Katich battered the Western Australia bowlers to add 221 for the fifth wicket.Patterson survived two close calls before getting off the mark. He reached his century with his 16th boundary shortly before tea. He accelerated after tea, hitting his last 55 runs off just 25 balls, before getting out caught at backward point by Mitchell Marsh. Katich was lbw to Nathan Rimmington, hitting ten fours in his 125 before Rohrer declared.In reply, Western Australia lost Marcus Harris early.

To follow a year of swings and roundabouts, Australia have chosen to begin 2012 on a note of recently uncommon stability

Daniel Brettig in Sydney02-Jan-2012To follow a year of swings and roundabouts, Australia have chosen to begin 2012 on a note of recently uncommon stability. The same team that swarmed on India in Melbourne has been asked to repeat the trick in Sydney, on a ground the visitors have always found to be friendly to their batsmen, even if the centuries of Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman have not been enough to deliver a victory.Australia’s captain Michael Clarke followed his announcement that Ryan Harris would carry the drinks, leaving Nathan Lyon to weave his web around spin conversant batsmen, with a note of caution about consistency. He had delivered similar words in the aftermath of the MCG victory, and as a captain yet to win more than one Test in a series, the message is a vital one.”Consistency is obviously very important for us and I’ve said before this series that we’ve played some really positive cricket at times and some cricket we’d like to forget,” Clarke said. “I guess this is another test of our character to be able to back up after such an impressive win in Melbourne. It’s important our preparation has been just as good, which is a big part for our team improving our consistency – making sure we’re doing the hard work whether we have success on the field or not.”I’ve been really happy with the way the guys have trained over the last two days so our preparation has been spot on. Now it’s about the same commitment, the same determination and the same execution, we have to be able to execute our skills again like we did in Melbourne to beat this Indian team.”Sporting pitches have played some part in Australia’s fluctuating performances. Having raised their games admirably to defeat Sri Lanka on a tinder-dry Galle pitch, the Australians then slipped up badly in Cape Town, and were similarly confounded in Hobart against New Zealand. Clarke pointed to these surfaces as reasons, though not excuses.”I think it’s a mixture of things, I think conditions have played a big part,” Clarke said. “There’s no coincidence in Cape Town, South Africa were 9 for 47 we were all out for 47, Hobart not many runs were scored from both teams, throughout the Melbourne Test we rolled India for 150-odd in the second innings. So there’s been seam and swing consistently in the last half a dozen Test matches we’ve played – it’s not an excuse but it’s a reality, it’s there.”I think we’re learning from it, I think our techniques we’re working on our techniques at training, we’re working on our techniques at training we’re working on batting in tough conditions at training, as you guys see all the bowlers are using either brand new balls or reverse swinging balls and it’s a real challenge at training. When you’ve played, like a lot of guys have, so much cricket over such a long period of time it’s hard to change your technique, you can certainly improve little parts of it but it’s hard to really change, so it’s just about trying to do your best in fighting conditions I guess.”Such conditions may again be glimpsed on day one in Sydney, on the same pitch used for last year’s Ashes match. The first day had the ball swinging and seaming alarmingly at times, Clarke winning the toss as the then stand-in for Ricky Ponting and battling for traction against England’s crack bowling quartet.”I think there’s going to be enough in the wicket,” Clarke said. “There’s a tinge of green there, it’s a little bit tacky at the moment I think it’s going to be quite tough to bat on day one but the sun shine yesterday, today and tomorrow’s forecast obviously helps, but I think it’s going to be quite a similar wicket to what we faced against England last year. I think there’s going to be a bit of sideways movement early and I think it’s going to turn out to be a really good batting wicket.”James Pattinson, Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus formed a powerful fast bowling union in Melbourne, using intelligence and aggression in equal measure to keep the Indians uncomfortable. Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag were chief contributors to India’s ascent to No. 1 in the world, and have been equally important to the subsequent decline, their returns petering out in 2011.”Hopefully they continue not scoring too many runs, they’re two very good players,” Clarke said. “It’s the game, your time comes around, you score runs, you don’t score runs, good form, bad form it’s just the game, they’re two class players and we’d love for them to continue not scoring too many runs in this series, but if they do they’re class players and it won’t surprise anybody if they do.”We have plans to every Indian batsman and we will continue to look at footage of them and improve those plans but I think we stuck to our guns well in Melbourne and that worked well for us so hopefully it won’t be any different in this Test match.”Pattinson has the capacity and the desire to be Australia’s speed spearhead for some years to come, possessing the sort of confident, prickly visage that his forebears used so well to torment opposing batsmen between the ears as well as the wickets. Clarke expressed quiet hope that Pattinson would go on from his imposing start, but also spoke of the depth of bowling that would help him.”I hope so, again I think Patto’s only just starting, he’s a wonderful talent, don’t get me wrong, I’d hate to see us put extra pressure on him, he’s got a good crew around him as well, let’s not forget that,” Clarke said. “Patto’s got the results over the last few Test matches, but with the way Sids has been bowling, Ryan Harris over the last couple of years, Hilfy the other day even Pat Cummins when he came in in South Africa I think we’re building a good crew of fast bowlers.”They’re all as vital as each other, I don’t think there’s one in my opinion who is above the rest, they’ve all got a lot of talent and we’re going to need every single one of them to continue to perform for us to continue to go forward in Test cricket.”At the other end of the scale from Pattinson is Ponting, who played two valuable innings in Melbourne though again falling short of three figures. Amid all the hubbub about Sachin Tendulkar, it has not been forgotten by Clarke and his team that a Ponting century would be met with similar enthusiasm.”I think the way Punter is batting at the moment is he’s not far away from a big one, that’s for sure,” Clarke said. “One thing I know about him is if he gets to 100 he won’t be stopping there, so he’s got a very good record at the SCG, I know he loves playing here at this wicket so it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he walked out and made a hundred in this Test match.”Like an unchanged and settled team, a Ponting century was almost unheard of in 2011. Australia have every right to expect more in 2012.