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Inzamam-ul-Haq believes that Jonty Rhodes’ brief stint as Pakistan’s fielding consultant is going to show positive results in coming months.”I am not going to say that we will become very good fielders within three or four days but there is going to be an improvement in a few months once we start implementing drills being taught to us by Jonty,” Inzamam said.Rhodes, counted among the best fielders of his era, began his short coaching stint with Pakistan earlier this week with an eye on raising the standard of their fielding ahead of this summer’s tour of England.Inzamam said that he was very pleased with the initiative taken by the PCB saying that he and fellow teammates are looking forward to benefit from the tips given by the former South African Test cricketer and from the fielding drills being carried out by him at the training camp for the England series.”Jonty knows what he is talking about,” he said. “He has been a great fielder and we can learn a lot from him,” said Inzamam, who is counted among one of the poorer fielders in the Pakistani squad.But he made it clear that nobody should expect overnight results. “We are going to include the drills being taught by him in our training schedule and it would be after three or four months that the results will become clear.”Inzamam said that he wants the Pakistan team to improve in all areas of the game, especially fielding, in the lead up to next year’s World Cup.”There is always room for more improvement and I can assure you that all my boys are striving to get better with more and more hard work and commitment,” he remarked.

Daryl Tuffey, the New Zealand fast bowler, has been linked to the Indian Cricket League (ICL) and is ready to sign on the dotted line for an “attractive offer”. The ICL is expected to start next month and Tuffey hoped it would not stop him from playing first-class cricket for Auckland later this season.”I’m leaning towards [signing]. It’s the money and a bit of security,” Tuffey told the . “Nothing’s guaranteed with New Zealand Cricket, even the money you get playing domestic cricket back home. You’ve got to start looking after No. 1 at some point.”Tuffey, 29, isn’t contracted by NZC and last week turned down a provincial deal with Auckland. Tuffey said he spoke to Auckland coach Mark O’Donnell, who indicated there would be a place for him when his ICL commitments finish at the end of November. “Not signing with Auckland has just made me a free agent. I’m can play for match fees if Auckland choose to do that. It’s a bit more relaxed for me now,” Tuffey said. “I’m pretty keen to come back and play for Auckland and see what happens from there, if I’m bowling well.”If he does join the ICL Tuffey will join former New Zealand team-mates Chris Cairns, Nathan Astle, Chris Harris and Hamish Marshall. It is believed Craig McMillan will hold talks with Justin Vaughan, the NZC chief executive, over his potential involvement.Tuffey has played 22 Test and 80 ODIs and has taken eight wickets at 15.25 in the opening three rounds for Sutherland in Sydney grade cricket, where he is playing for six weeks. Tuffey said the side, which plays under the former New Zealand coach Steve Rixon, was keen for him to return later in the season if he wasn’t required by Auckland.Tuffey, who played one match in this year’s World Cup before returning home, believed he had “four or five” good cricketing years left. “Who knows what happens if I go to India, but if the chance arose again that would be great,” he said. “But I’m not putting all my eggs in one basket and hoping to play for New Zealand any more. I’ve had a great time playing international cricket but there’s other opportunities outside of cricket that I’m putting first at the moment.”

Umpire Gerard Abood became the first on-field official to wear head protection in an Australian fixture during Melbourne Renegades’ Big Bash League fixture against Perth Scorchers on Wednesday.Abood said he had been weighing up protection for some time due to the increased power in the modern game. “I’ve had close shaves in the past, a couple have been real tight and they weigh on your mind,” Abood told the Cricket Australia website. “I thought, ‘What needs to happen before we do put one on?’ I’d rather put one on just before I get hit than just after.”The T20 game has evolved to the stage where guys are practising specifically whacking balls as hard as they can and it’s just coming off faster and faster. As far as I’m concerned, it has just reached the point where it makes sense on every level, we’re only 24 yards from the bat and if it’s coming back at us pretty quickly there’s not a hell of lot of time to move.”Abood wore a black Masuri batting helmet, but Cricket Australia, the ECB and ICC are working together to design umpire-specific protective gear.Abood’s move comes after his compatriot John Ward was struck on the head during a Ranji Trophy fixture between Punjab and Tamil Nadu on December 1. Pashchim Pathak, the Indian umpire who was stood at square leg when Ward – who is still recovering from concussion – was struck, had also recently worn head protection. In November 2014, Israeli umpire Hillel Awasker died after being hit by a ball during a match in Ashdod.

Roger Mosey, the BBC’s director of sport, has revealed that their World Cup highlights programme attracted more than 17m people, compared to 6.6m who tuned into BSkyB’s live coverage.In a wide-ranging speech at the Professional Cricketers’ Association Business Summit on Thursday, Mosey spoke of the BBC’s flagship Test Match Special, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this summer, and the importance of balancing traditional programming with modern techniques in what is increasingly an advertisers’ market.Yet, while the BBC have continued to dominate cricket broadcasting over the radio waves – for half a century – the world of television is more fickle. The BBC’s rights to cover live cricket ended in 1999 when it was sold to Channel 4. Subsequently, in 2005, the ECB’s decision to sell the rights to BSkyB was met with admonishment by many, including several MPs, and Mosey is insistent that pay-per-view television has cut off a large section of the British population”The issue isn’t about Sky: it’s about pay television compared with free-to-air,” he said. “It’s exactly the reason why audiences for English Test cricket have fallen significantly since it moved to pay TV.”Being on terrestrial TV and being free-to-air is vital if you want to attract large audiences to sport. Don’t believe the line that after analogue switch-off and when we’re all digital it will be a level playing field among all broadcasters,” he said. “Forking out an extra £35 a month or whatever for pay TV with sports channels is a rather key differentiator between channels.”Sky won the rights in 2005, ending Channel 4’s coverage which, in their brief but successful six-year span, had attracted many new supporters to the game. Innovations such as Hawk Eye, their weekly cricket road-shows and high-profile commentators such as Richie Benaud and Tony Greig all helped rejuvenate a product which, in the hands of the BBC, had become stale.”Personally, I would never argue that cricket shouldn’t take some of its money from pay TV: it should be absolutely at liberty to do that,” Mosey said. “But, I have a problem with the notion of the whole of the live content of a particular sport being on one platform – especially when it’s a sport with as many hours as cricket.”We do not believe it’s essential or healthy that 100% of any live sport is with one operator. We do believe it’s possible to arrange future contracts so that they give mass audiences the opportunity to see some matches live.”The BBC will have to wait, though, as the current contracts are not up for renewal until 2009.

2013

October 8
News – Supreme Court appoints Mudgal Committee to investigate the case
November 2
News – IPL probe panel to meet Mumbai policeNovember 8
News – IPL probe panel meets SreesanthDecember 19
News – IPL probe panel meets Srinivasan, Gurunath

2014

January 19
News – Mudgal committee meets Ganguly, DalmiyaFebruary 10
News – Charges against Gurunath proved – IPL probe report
News – The rules Gurunath violated
Mudgal committee report – Full text
News – Many allegations of sporting fraud, says committee
News – Vet player agents properly – Mudgal report
Video – Do CSK have an escape route?
Features – Six astonishing lines from the Mudgal report
February 11
News – Mudgal Report not likely to hurt Srinivasan yet
March 27
News – ‘All players should not suffer’ – Justice Mudgal
April 9
News – BCCI seeks Dhoni’s deposition before Mudgal committee
April 22
News – Supreme Court asks Mudgal to continue probe
Video – Ugra: Mudgal makes BCCI uncomfortable
April 29
Video – ‘BCCI unwilling to play ball with Mudgal commission’
May 16
News – Mudgal to head investigation of IPL ‘sealed envelope’
June 8
News – Sourav Ganguly to join Mudgal probe panel
August 29
News – Mugdal panel submits interim reportSeptember 1
News – Mudgal Committee gets two-month extension for final report
November 3
News – Mudgal panel submits final report in IPL corruption case
November 14
News – Srinivasan named in Mudgal report
November 15
News – Mudgal committee clears three players named in Court
November 17
News – Srinivasan ignored player’s code of conduct violation, says Mudgal report
News – Investigations into Kundra ‘stopped abruptly’
News – BCCI could seek explanation from Sundar Raman
Profile – Who is Sundar Raman?
Video – Ugra: Srinivasan not in the clear yet

2015

January 22
News – New panel to take call on Kundra, MeiyappanApril 13
News – Board panel has 82 questions for BCCI bossesJuly 11
News – Lodha panel to announce punishment for Kundra, Meiyappan

Daniel Vettori has been handed the New Zealand Test captaincy but Stephen Fleming will continue as a Test player, ending speculation that he would join the Indian Cricket League (ICL). Fleming announced he is retiring from one-day cricket and hinted that the approaching New Zealand summer would be his last as a Test player.Vettori will take over the captaincy immediately, meaning he will be in charge for New Zealand’s two-Test tour of South Africa in November. Fleming quit the ODI leadership after New Zealand’s World Cup semi-final exit and Vettori was placed in control for the ICC World Twenty20. Fleming said he remained fully committed to New Zealand Cricket (NZC) but realised the time had come to depart from the ODI scene.”While I would have wished to remain captain of the Test team, I can also understand why the selectors prefer to have a single captain for the Test, one-day and Twenty20 teams,” Fleming said. “I hold Daniel Vettori in high regard and will support him fully in his transition as Test captain.”The tour to South Africa will be a real challenge. No New Zealand team has ever won a Test series there and I am looking forward to the tour. I shall continue playing Tests as long as I have the desire and skills required to contribute. However, it is likely that the coming New Zealand summer will be my last home series.”Justin Vaughan, NZC’s chief executive, said Fleming’s decision to graciously hand the reins to Vettori after a decade in charge was a measure of his character. “True leadership is more than just the title of captain,” Vaughan said.”Stephen is a true professional. He cares about the team and I am sure he will be a big help to Daniel and remain a leader within the Black Caps. It is likely that this will be Stephen’s last home season [in the Test team] and we will ensure that it is memorable and befits our greatest ever captain.”

Fleming, 34, has spent the New Zealand off-season playing county cricket for Nottinghamshire, where he had kept his silence amid rumours he would quit international cricket to captain a team in the ICL. His refusal to rule out such a move added to the speculation, but NZC said it would not release him or any other players from their central contracts to join the Indian group. His suggestion that 2007-08 could be his last season as a Test player leaves the door open for Fleming to join the ICL next year, if the league’s first tournament is a success.Fleming captained New Zealand in a record 80 Tests, which was streets ahead of their second longest-serving leader John Reid (34 Tests). Only Allan Border, with 93 matches in charge, led his country in more Tests than Fleming. His winning ratio of 35% put him marginally behind only Geoff Howarth at 36.66% as New Zealand’s most successful Test captain.He is also the only man to play 100 Tests for New Zealand and should add to his tally of 104 in South Africa later this year, at home against Bangladesh and England from January to March, and then on what could be a farewell tour of England next May and June. Fleming has not played a Test without the leadership since taking over from Lee Germon in February 1997.Initially Germon was out injured, allowing Fleming to become the youngest New Zealand Test captain, at 23 years and 319 days, but the incumbent never played another Test and Fleming’s ten-year reign had begun. At first he was criticised for being too laid-back in his decision-making, but eventually Fleming became respected as one of the best tacticians in the game.He led New Zealand on their memorable 1999 tour of England when they upset the hosts to win the Test series 2-1, and he also guided his side to a series win in the West Indies and respectable draws on tours of Australia and India.

Mark Thompson, the director general of the BBC, has said the corporation is considering bidding for the television rights when they next come up for tender in 2009. Last year, the ECB sold the rights to BSkyB who, from this year, hold an all-encompassing exclusive deal for the next four years.Thompson, who was appointed director general in 2004, believes the BBC “should look very closely at cricket again,” while refuelling the debate that the ECB’s asking price was too high.”I thought that the last round the amount the English cricket board were asking for the rights was very high [sic],” he told BBC Radio Five Live. “It’s a more specialist audience – it’s not as big, for example, for live Premiership football.”We have to think about value. If you buy one thing, you can’t buy another so what you’re trying to do when you’re thinking about the portfolio of rights is what’s your priority.”The decision to sell the rights to BSkyB caused an uproar among supporters and even in government. John Grogan, a Labour MP, tabled an early-day motion in the House of Commons calling for home Test matches to be returned to free-to-air TV. And lobbyists, notably Keep Cricket Free, campaigned for the decision to be overturned.Last November it was revealed that the BBC did attempt to reach a deal with the ECB by pushing for a “dip in dip out” basis; their proposal was to show shortened portions of the day’s play allowing Sky to retain their ball-by-ball live coverage. However, as Thompson concedes, the limiting factor was the money involved.”It depends not just on the choice of the sport, he said, “but also on how much it’s going to cost.”

Marcus Trescothick has declared himself unavailable for September’s Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa as well as England’s winter tours of Sri Lanka and New Zealand.Trescothick hasn’t played for England since pulling out of the Ashes tour of Australia last November with a recurrence of the stress-related illness which dogged him throughout last year. And although he said two weeks ago was “delighted to be named in the [Twenty20] squad”, he insists he has not yet sufficiently recovered to give England his all – in South Africa for the Twenty20 World Championship, or for England’s other two tours.”Whilst I have been enjoying my cricket for Somerset this summer and feel that I am making good progress, I need to ensure that I am completely ready for a return to international cricket before making myself available for selection,” Trescothick said. “I recently informed the selectors that I was happy to be included in the 30-man squad for the Twenty20 World Cup to leave all options open but I am now clear that I should take more time to complete my recovery. I still have ambitions to play for England.”The Twenty20 World Championship had appeared to be the perfect halfway house for Trescothick’s comeback. Such a short tournament it would, as Trescothick himself admitted two weeks ago, have acted “as a way of testing myself in an international environment abroad”. And though disappointed, the England chairman of selectors, David Graveney, insists that Trescothick has made the right decision.”The selectors have been acutely conscious that it would be counter-productive to try to rush Marcus back into international action before he was ready,” Graveney said. “We appreciate the fact that Marcus has alerted us at the earliest opportunity of his decision which will avoid there being any disruption to the team’s one-day planning processes.”Marcus has proved himself to be a very special talent on the international stage and we look forward to his making himself available again for England when the time is right and to his pushing his case for selection through his performances for Somerset.”

Michael Clarke has vowed not to look too far ahead after his short-term Test future was sealed with Damien Martyn’s sudden retirement. A century at Adelaide not only showed Clarke was ready for an extended stint in the side, but it also led to Martyn walking away from the game mid-series.The men are close friends and have exchanged text messages since Martyn’s decision, a move Clarke believed opened a spot for him during the third Test at Perth from Thursday. “If Watto [Shane Watson] was fit for this game, I still would’ve assumed I would’ve been the one to go,” Clarke said in the . “Marto’s performances have been outstanding over a long period of time. A player of that class is always going to come good.”With Marto retiring, I guess there are spots there. But I’ve got to focus on continuing to score runs. I feel like I’m batting pretty well and my goal is just to focus on that – one ball at a time, not look too far ahead – because as I’ve seen before it can all be taken away from you very quickly.”Clarke fell away after two brilliant centuries in his first month in the Test arena in 2004 and had to fight his way back. He has batted at No. 6 in the opening two games of the current series and does not expect a move to No. 4, where he sat for a couple of games when Martyn was dropped after the previous Ashes.”I haven’t spoken to anyone but I’d assume I wouldn’t go back [to No. 4],” he said. “I don’t even really want to think about it. In my opinion, Huss [Michael Hussey] is batting that well it makes sense for him to go to No. 4. I’m rapt just to be in the team at the moment given that a few games ago I was playing for New South Wales. It’s slow and steady for me now.”Clarke said he hoped “it’s not my fault” Martyn retired. “Marto made that decision because he did what he thought was best,” Clarke said in . “Now this gives us the chance to continue our friendship outside cricket, I guess.”He’s a great mate of mine and I’m not going to get the chance to play international cricket with him anymore. I’m the first guy to congratulate Marto on every single thing that he has achieved. He’s helped me a lot. He’s a very close mate.”

Gloucestershire have admitted they are interested in bringing New Zealand’s batsman Hamish Marshall to the county next season.Marshall has recently established himself in the Kiwis side and averages 48.58 in Tests. “He’s someone we’re interested in,” Tom Richardson, Gloucestershire’s chief executive, told Cricinfo. “We wanted to bring him in last season as an overseas replacement and he was very keen but it didn’t quite fit his schedule with New Zealand.”Gloucestershire were relegated from the top tier of the County Championship last year, and they are keen to add strength to their batting as they look to bounce straight back. “We’re looking for a top-order batsmen who can bring real quality to the county,” said Richardson. “We believe someone like Marshall would be a huge benefit on and off the field and is the kind of man who can enthuse our younger players.”