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With India and Pakistan set to face-off in a bilateral series for the first time in five years, Pakistan coach Dav Whatmore is excited. On the opening day of Pakistan’s preparatory camp in Lahore, he said he is ‘very keen to play the series’ and take on the challenge of playing India in India.”India v Pakistan in India is not going to be an easy one, particularly with the added interest of the neighbours playing each other [for the first time in a while],” Whatmore said at the Gaddafi Stadium. “But it’s fantastic. I can tell you players from both sides respect each other, we are fellow professionals. We understand the pressures that exist but sadly there are a number other people who build it up as something different … But that’s the way it is. We are very keen to play our neighbours and we are looking forward to it very much.”The series, which begins with a Twenty20 in Bangalore on December 25, will be the first bilateral series between the two sides since Pakistan toured India in late 2007. They have since met in multinational tournaments, but bilateral ties between the two were put on hold following the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai. India had withdrawn from their planned tour of Pakistan in 2009 and, after the attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore that stalled international cricket in Pakistan, have not agreed to play a series at a neutral venue as has been the case with all Pakistan’s ‘home’ series.”It’s a privilege to be involved in series like this,” Whatmore said. “I’ve been involved in the odd match at ICC events and Asian Cricket Council events, but this will be first time we’ll play more that two or three times in a small series.”It will be an experience, particularly playing in India, where the fans are also very keen to come out and have a look and support their team.”Saeed Ajmal will be Pakistan’s trump card, Whatmore said. “We will pick our group of bowlers depending on the conditions. You can’t do that until you’ve had a look [at the conditions]. We feel we’ve enough boys in the group to satisfy the requirements of any conditions. But Saeed Ajmal will always remain a trump card for us, he will always remain a threat [for the opposition].”Despite India’s struggles during the ongoing England Test series, Whatmore refused to be complacent. “England are playing very well at the moment and India have a big job to square the series. But one Test series [results] doesn’t necessarily mean that they are weak, we all know how good they have been over many years. I wouldn’t read much into that.”Fifteen players of the 22 who will travel to India for the two* Twenty20s and three ODIs attended the inaugural day of the camp; Shahid Afridi, Younis Khan, Anwar Ali, Mohammad Hafeez and Misbah-ul-Haq were absent due to various reasons.*02.13GMT, December 15: The article had said ‘three Twenty20s’. This has been corrected.

ScorecardHampshire went to the top of Clydesdale Bank 40 Group B after Neil McKenzie produced a brilliant innings in their 107-run win over the Welsh Dragons in Cardiff.McKenzie’s 88 from 89 balls helped Hampshire, who lost the toss, towards 226 all out, and in reply Chris Wood recorded career-best figures of five wickets for 22 runs and Danny Briggs took 4 for 32 as Glamorgan were completely outclassed. The hosts were dismissed with 7.1 overs remaining, ending their realistic hopes of reaching the semi-finals.Hampshire had reached 27 for 0 in four overs but were pegged back by Glamorgan with the wickets of Jimmy Adams and Simon Katich. James Vince looked certain to go to his 50 but was run out by wicketkeeper Mark Wallace two runs short of the target, a dismissal which was initially given as stumped. It left the visitors 78 for 3 in the 14th over.The exit of Vince and some good bowling especially from Jim Allenby slowed the run rate as Hampshire reached the halfway stage at 102 for 3. That became 108 for 4 in the next over when Sean Ervine was brilliantly stumped by Wallace, and 109 for five when Allenby trapped Liam Dawson leg before wicket.Allenby, who finished with 1 for 21, had an assist when Michael Bates was run out in a mix-up with McKenzie attempting a third run. South African McKenzie reached his half-century from 59 balls, out of 132 for 6 and, although Hamza Riazuddin holed out to mid-on, Chris Wood helped McKenzie to take 15 off an over from John Glover.Wood was well caught by Marcus North one-handed at midwicket but Danny Briggs struck Graham Wagg for two sixes in between losing McKenzie, who holed out off the expensive Simon Jones seven balls from the end of the innings.The Dragons were not helped by being penalised six runs for not bowling their overs in the time allotted and they were soon on the back foot in their reply, reduced to 21 for 3 in six overs by Wood. Wallace was caught mistiming a pull, Chris Cooke was well caught at short midwicket and Gareth Rees was bowled.Allenby and North did their best to get the hosts back on course but David Griffiths had North caught behind attempting to drive. It did not get better for the home side as Allenby was well caught by Vince on the long-on boundary off Briggs, leaving them 58 for 5 in the 18th over.Wagg and Stewart Walters took the batting Powerplay with Glamorgan needing 135 off the final 14 overs, before Briggs bowled Wagg, Ben Wright and Glover. And Wood returned to bowl Cosker and Jones with consecutive balls as Glamorgan subsided.

ScorecardSam Billings hit the highest ever one-day total by a Kent player at Canterbury and Darren Stevens snared five wickets in 19 balls to ease the Spitfires to an emphatic 111-run win over Derbyshire.In front of their second best crowd of the summer, Kent wrapped up their 161st Canterbury Week with their fourth win of the Group C campaign secured with 56 balls to spare. Billings’ innings of 143 helped the hosts on their way to a score of 248 for 6, before Stevens took centre stage with the ball to help bowl out Derbyshire for 137.Batting first after losing the toss, Kent suffered two early blows on possibly the hottest day of the season at the St Lawrence ground. Home skipper Rob Key fell for a five-ball duck when he pushed tentatively at a Tim Groenewald leg-cutter to snick one low to Wes Durston at slip.Then, having faced only three balls, Sam Northeast also went without scoring when he departed leg before after playing across a full-length ball from Mark Turner that made it 16 for two.The situation might have worsened had keeper Tom Poynton held on to a diving, one-glove chance to his left from Steven’s first-ball glance, but Poynton could only parry the chance for four to allow the Kent right-hander to get off the mark.Stevens helped steady the Kentish ship with Billings in a third-wicket stand of 85 in 15.3 overs that ended when Stevens dragged one on to leg stump against Chesney Hughes to go for 40 and spark a secondary mini-collapse.Azhar Mahmood hit 8 before he holed out against Peter Burgoyne then Alex Blake, with three to his name, nicked a drive to the keeper off the same bowler to leave Kent in trouble at 123 for 5.That was the cue for 21-year-old Billings to move into top gear. He eased to his 50 from 46 balls then cut loose with an array of shots, the majority of which were orthodox, yet some were impish and improvised in the fashion of another wiry Kent gloveman, the legendary Alan Knott.Sweeping wristily, driving on the up and chipping the ball to all parts, Billings reached his first century for Kent, off a misfield to backward point, from 97 balls and with 11 fours.He really cut loose when in tandem with Geraint Jones as the two wicketkeepers added 117 in 14.1 overs. Billings was so dominant that his senior partner Jones contributed only 38 to their hundred stand.With 143 to his name come the final over of the innings, Billings went all guns blazing for his 150 but missed out with an attempted Dilscoop over fine leg to be bowled. He left to a standing ovation after 113 balls and with 17 fours and a six.Needing 6.22 an over for an unlikely win, Derbyshire were already up against it after a tight opening spell from Mark Davies of 3 for 25.Any lingering hopes were completely blown away when Darren Stevens replaced Davies at the Nackington Road End to bag 5 for 36 – including a 19-ball purple patch of 5 for 7 that eased Kent to victory.

Former Australia fast bowler Dennis Lillee has decided to end to his association with the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai, citing his desire to “not travel anymore”. He will oversee two more training camps, before ending his 25-year association with the fast-bowling academy.”It wasn’t an easy call. But then, one of the main reasons behind this decision is that I don’t want to travel anymore,” Lillee was quoted as saying in the . “I have decided not to stay away from my family for lengthy periods.”During his time with the academy, Lillee had worked with several India players. “Zaheer [Khan], Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad would top the list,” Lillee said, talking about the bowlers who trained with him. “Munaf Patel, to me, has been a disappointment. He had the natural gift of speed but someone has obviously misguided him to drop pace. S Sreesanth, too, is a big let down, for the talent he showcased …”Lillee said he would have liked to work with the BCCI in some capacity. “Yes, I was a bit disappointed,” he said. “I like to do things my way and sometimes that frightens people.”

Quetta wicketkeeper Bismillah Khan has had his appeal against a one-year disciplinary ban turned down by a PCB judicial commissioner, Sheikh Abdul Rashid, in Lahore. This means Bismillah will not receive a central contract from the Pakistan board.Bismillah, who was handed a 12-month ban for fighting in a grade-two match at Jinnah Stadium in Gujranwala on April 21, had been named in the stipend category of the PCB’s 2012 contracts.Following the contracts announcement, Intikhab Alam, the PCB’s director of international cricket operations, said that Bismillah would not be excluded from the list unless the commissioner ruled against him. “His contact currently is on hold, we will wait for the outcome of his appeal,” Alam had said. “The contract will be withdrawn if the commissioner upholds his ban.”In all, 21 Pakistan players had been given full-fledged contracts in May, while 21 players have been placed in the stipend category. Players in the stipend category will receive a retainer of 62,500 Pakistan rupees (US$660 approx) for the calendar year 2012 from the PCB.

Stuart Law, the outgoing Bangladesh coach, has said the future of Bangladesh cricket is bright with young players such as Nasir Hossain in the national team and exciting talent waiting in the wings. However, he pointed out that the youngsters would need to be handled properly.Law, who resigned recently after being in-charge of the Bangladesh team for nine months, was particularly pleased with Anamul Haque, the top-order batsman who was part of the Asia Cup squad but didn’t make his international debut. “Young [Anamul Haque] Bijoy is a quality player,” he said, “Especially during the BPL, he looked like he was born to perform.”The 19-year-old Khulna batsman has scored heavily in domestic cricket this season, topping the first-class batting charts with 816 runs, apart from five centuries in all formats. Anamul’s form won him a place in the Asia Cup squad in March but he couldn’t find a place in the eleven. During one of those days, something that Anamul said stuck with Law.”The one thing he said to me which I will never forget. We were sitting in the dugout during one of the Asia Cup matches and I asked him, ‘Where would you like to bat?’ He said, ‘I want to be No. 3, I want to be the best player in the world.’ And I said, if that comes across, good on you.”Law also praised two other youngsters. “I have been trying to see Mominul Haque get into the team. He’s scored runs in the A team tours. We’ve been discussing him at lengths in selection meetings. He looked like a quality young player. [Abul Hasan] Raju, I love him. Bowls quick, 140-plus, has the slower ball and will get better as he plays more.”The growth of the youngsters was the underlying theme of Law’s reign as the head coach as he wanted a few more performers within the team apart from Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal. Nasir made his international debut against Zimbabwe in August in Law’s first series in charge and since then he has scored a Test fifty, made an ODI hundred and seen Bangladesh through to a win against Sri Lanka.”You look for the standout players and those two [Shakib and Tamim] have been carrying Bangladesh for a while. I told the rest of the team that it is not about two players. It’s about other people sticking their hand up and doing well. Guys like Nasir [have] come through, he’s basically up there with Shakib and Tamim.”But Law made it clear that he wasn’t looking to alienate the big performers who had to do well day in day out. He especially had gracious words for the world’s No. 1 allrounder though he reminded Shakib to take care of his fitness.”He’s professional on the field but off the field he’s different. I don’t mean this in a bad way, but he could be fitter. He’s admitted that he can work a bit harder on those aspects.”But when he gets out on the cricket field, he creates something out of nothing. He’s a beautiful player to watch when he’s going great with the bat. I was probably in that boat as well, so I can understand. I didn’t like training, I liked playing.”The reason for Law leaving in May rather than the end of June was Bangladesh’s lack of international cricket. In fact, Bangladesh won’t be seeing Test match action till November, which will be eleven months since their last Test in December 2011.Law believes this would hurt the team and requested the Bangladesh Cricket Board to plan well ahead of time. “What they need to do is to play more. Let’s target West Indies, New Zealand and teams like Ireland and Scotland. Let’s oblige to the Associate countries and play four-dayers with them, whenever we get time between international commitments.”Law, who leaves the country on Sunday, said that for providing ample opportunities to cricketers, Bangladesh’s domestic cricket needs restructuring.”The domestic cricket here is a structure of which there’s no blueprint anywhere else in the world. It stops, it starts. It would be nice to see these games taking place in these days, rather than two teams have a fall-out and the whole tournament is suspended. That’s not good for cricket in this country.”I know it’s a different culture but as an outsider looking in, it can’t be good for cricket. We are all trying to say that domestic cricket is where we want our cricketers to learn, they’re learning by sitting back. That’s not helping them at all.”Edited by Devashish Fuloria

Shahid Afridi has expressed relief after playing a key role with both bat and ball in Pakistan’s win against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup final. Afridi scored a critical 32 runs when Pakistan were in trouble and then bowled his 10 overs for just 28 runs to stifle Bangladesh’s batsmen.”It lifted a lot of pressure off my shoulders but more importantly it helped Pakistan win the title,” Afridi told Pakistani daily the .Before the final, Afridi had only managed two wickets in the Asia Cup, against Bangladesh, having failed to make an impression against India and Sri Lanka. He had similar problems against England in the UAE where he took three wickets in four ODIs. His poor batting form has not helped either, with only one score above 50 in his previous 11 innings. Consequently, he has attracted criticism. Prior to the present slump, Afridi had picked up 23 scalps in nine games against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.”To my critics, I will say just one thing: haven’t you heard of players going through a lean patch?” Afridi said. “It happens to even the greatest sportsmen then why is that I cannot be spared during my bad patch?”Questions have been asked about his fitness in the media. However, Afridi refuted such doubts by saying that he has been fortunate to be injury-free for most of his playing career. “I’m fully fit at the moment and plan to continue working hard to make sure that I give my 100% for Pakistan each time I represent the country.”He said he would quit one-day internationals the day he was not able to give his best to the national side and concentrate on Twenty20 cricket. This season, Afridi has played Twenty20 matches for local franchises in Australia and in Bangladesh. However, he has opted out of the ongoing Faysal Bank Super Eight Twenty20 Cup in which he represented Karachi Dolphins for the past six seasons.Edited by Devashish Fuloria

Australia’s cricketers are satisfied with the new performance-based components of their forthcoming pay deal and expect the MOU to be signed by Cricket Australia and the players’ union within the next two weeks, Michael Hussey has said.While Paul Marsh, the chief executive of the Australian Cricketers’ Association and the players’ chief negotiator, was more guarded in his assessment of talks, Hussey indicated confidence that the potentially tricky bargaining between the players and CA, represented by the team performance manager Pat Howard, would soon be at an end.”I think they’ve agreed on most things, they’re just trying to nut out a couple of issues that are left. I believe by the middle of this month they’re expecting everything to be negotiated and completed and the MOU finished,” Hussey said. “I spoke to Pat Howard during the practice game and he said he and Paul Marsh were really happy with how negotiations were going on both sides.”Ever since the publication of the Argus review into the performance of the national side, the players’ major concern about its findings has surrounded the addition of greater performance weighting to the central contract system. The review was critical of the landscape created by the current system, suggesting Australian cricket had lapsed into a “county cricket mentality” where simply doing enough to earn another annual retainer was enough.”The panel has real concerns, shared by many stakeholders, that the MOU is not fully aligned with the current needs of Australian Cricket,” the review said. “In particular it rewards relative performance among CA-contracted players, but not absolute performance of the team and its players against international peers.The result is that today’s players are being paid substantially more in real terms than their counterparts in the dominant teams of recent times, despite far inferior results. A number of stakeholders have suggested that this is negatively affecting the culture of Australian Cricket, in that players can make a very comfortable living without necessarily achieving excellence.”Both parties quickly agreed that the number of CA contracts should be reduced, and will likely be pared down from 25 to 18. However the issue of performance-based contracts took time to be smoothed over, leaving Marsh and Howard to discuss the matter in great detail after the players responded coolly to CA’s first offer, explained to a general meeting of the team on the day of the Allan Border Medal towards the end of the home summer.”From what I hear I think both sides are going to get what they want out of it,” Hussey said. “I know through the Argus review there was a strong performance-based component of that. How much was I think what the discussion was about. Players are open to the performance-based part of the ACR. That’s fine, it’s just about how much.”That’s where the negotiation was from that particular point. I believe that they’re pretty much there on that particular point. There’s a couple of other issues that are taking more discussion than that particular one. I think the players are comfortable with the way things are going.”Marsh said his talks with Howard had reached a key point, with a meeting to follow later this month at which the MOU had the potential to be resolved. “We have an important meeting in the week after next,” Marsh told ESPNcricinfo. “We have made some good progress but there are still some key issues to resolve. At this stage we can’t predict when or if the issues will be resolved but we believe negotiations are heading in a positive direction.”In February, the CA chief executive James Sutherland pointed out that Australia’s players would have been paid the same amount if they had lost 4-0 at home to India, rather than winning by the same margin as they did. “No one likes change but we’re really confident we’ve got a proposition that’s in the interests of the Australian players and the players who do the work and win the games,” he said. “Players get paid the same amount if we win four-nil against India or we lose four-nil. Does that make sense to all of us?”

India’s Asia Cup squad

MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Virat Kohli (vice-capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Manoj Tiwary, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Rahul Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Ashok Dinda
Out : Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Umesh Yadav, Parthiv Patel
In: Yusuf Pathan, Ashok Dinda

Virender Sehwag has been rested from India’s one-day squad for next month’s Asia Cup, with Virat Kohli taking over as vice-captain. Sachin Tendulkar has been picked for the tournament, while allrounder Yusuf Pathan and Bengal fast bowler Ashok Dinda make comebacks. Fast bowlers Zaheer Khan and Umesh Yadav have been rested.Kohli’s elevation to vice-captaincy comes after his sustained run of success in one-day cricket. He was the highest run-getter in the format in 2011, is the leading run-scorer in the ongoing Commonwealth Bank series and has been one of India’s few bright spots on the dismal tour of Australia. “The selection committee and board feels that Virat Kohli could be good future captaincy material,” Kris Srikkanth, the chairman of selectors, told reporters in Mumbai.Over the past few days, there had been intense media speculation about whether Sehwag and Tendulkar would be selected for the Asia Cup. Sehwag has had a poor run in the ongoing CB series in Australia, averaging 13 in five one-day innings.Srikkanth stressed that Sehwag had not been axed. “Unfortunately Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan have been asked to take rest by the physiotherapist. It is purely on injury grounds both have been rested,” he said. “I can assure you that nobody has been dropped.”Tendulkar has been selective about the ODI series he plays over the past couple of years. The CB series, in which he’s made 143 runs in seven innings, was his first limited-overs engagement for India since last year’s World Cup.The CB series is also the only ODI series the injury-prone Zaheer has been involved in since the World Cup. The decision to rest him and Yadav opened the doors for Dinda, who last represented India in the previous edition of the Asia Cup, in 2010. His selection comes on the back of a successful Ranji Trophy, in which he was the second-highest wicket-taker with 37 in six matches. Several other contenders for a fast bowling slot, including Varun Aaron and Sreesanth, are still recovering from injuries.Allrounder Yusuf has recovered from a knee injury which cut short his Ranji season, and will resume his battle for the No. 7 allrounder’s slot with Ravindra Jadeja. Yusuf has been out of the Indian side since a listless tour of West Indies soon after being part of the World Cup-winning squad. Jadeja cornered that spot with some impressive performances against England and West Indies last year, but has not been at his best in the CB series. In the league phase, he took three wickets at an average of 109, and scored 101 runs in seven innings.Among the fringe players, India have retained batsman Manoj Tiwary and legspinner Rahul Sharma, but have axed backup wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel.India are defending champions of the Asia Cup, which will be held in Mirpur from March 11 to 22 and also features Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Rendezvous Sports World Pvt Ltd, one of the co-owners of the terminated Kochi Tuskers Kerala IPL franchise, is planning to go to court next week in a late bid to revive the team. The Kochi franchise was annulled by the BCCI in September 2011 for their failure to provide a fresh bank guarantee to the board.”Monday or Tuesday we will file a case in court,” Prashanth Mishra, a Rendezvous official, told ESPNcricinfo. “We want to be a part of IPL season 5.”However, since the termination the BCCI has not only cashed the existing bank guarantee, worth approximately $30.39 million, but has also included a number of former Tuskers players in Saturday’s player auction. That means even if the court were to grant a stay on Kochi’s termination, they would still be without players.When asked why the company had waited so long before deciding to file a case, Mishra said their intention had always been to try and get the team reinstated, but that it took them longer than expected to get a new bank guarantee in place. “We wanted to make sure we have no problems in terms of funds, so that we can run the franchise for many years to come.” He also said it would be inappropriate to discuss their plans on how they would sign players at this stage, but did say the owners were resigned to losing some of their key players from last year.The company is banking on the court following the precedents set in the cases involving the Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab, which were both terminated by the BCCI in 2010. The franchises’ respective owners went to court fairly soon after, with the Bombay High Court granting a stay on their termination and allowing them to play in the 2011 tournament while their cases were referred to arbitration. Rendezvous had wanted to file a petition before the auction, in order to prevent their players from being sold to other franchises, but Mishra said they were unable to get it done in time.Should Rendezvous go to court as planned, it will be the latest in a list of cases filed against the BCCI over the IPL, following the Royals and Kings XI Punjab and the former IPL chairman, Lalit Modi, who went to court repeatedly in a bid to halt the board’s disciplinary procedures against him, although unsuccessfully.In order to bolster their efforts, representatives from Rendezvous have met the chief minister and sports minister of Kerala to ask for support in their efforts to save the franchise. They have also approached the Kerala Cricket Association for their support. “[Rendezvous] is confident that it will be successful in getting the team to play this season,” the company said in a statement, “and we would like to promise the state of Kerala that we will take any possible steps to keep the team alive.”