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The series against England in the UAE is shaping as the last for Pakistan Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq. Although he had initially hoped to continue until next year’s tour of England, the forthcoming contest is looking increasingly likely to be the final chapter of an international career which began in 2001.”I have come to a certain stage of my career where I have started considering [retirement],” Misbah, 41, told ESPNcricinfo. “I was thinking that the upcoming India series would be the point when I will decide what to do. But since I don’t see the India series happening so the next one-and-half months will be important. I am giving second thoughts whether I can extend my career until the 2016 England series.”The series against India, scheduled to take place in the UAE at the end of the year, now appears unlikely to happen due to the tense political landscape which would mean an eight-month gap before the series against England next July. Since Misbah has already retired from ODI and T20 cricket he will have little chance for competitive cricket after the Pakistan domestic season concludes in February.”I have been considering so many factors as it’s a very hard decision, in fact one of the toughest ones to take,” Misbah said. “So in the next one-and-half months I will be analysing myself as to how far I can go. I will see how much I can contribute in for the team, I will see if my passion remains the same or I start losing interest in the game. Sometimes it’s not about fitness, it’s about how much interest you have in the game and I don’t want to be a liability. So whatever the decision you will know soon.”For the upcoming series, starting with the first Test in Abu Dhabi on October 13, Misbah said he will be guarding against the team being over confident after they whitewashed England in 2012. Misbah, along with Azhar Ali, Younis Khan and Asad Shafiq, will form the same middle order which featured in that series. He, along with several other Test players, are currently having a conditioning camp at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, while the one-day side is in Zimbabwe, before leaving for the UAE on October 4.”Within our mind we are confident,” Misbah said. “But at the same time creating a perception about our past victory against them by 3-0 doesn’t make any difference. This is fresh series. England are a much-improved side and are coming after playing their best cricket back home. They are a far better side in terms of playing spin and this is the reason I stand guarded against us being over confident.Misbah-ul-Haq is well aware of the different class of spinner England are bring on this tour compared to 2012•Gareth Copley/Getty Images

“Having won 3-0 previously doesn’t mean that they are still a soft target and we can wrap them up easily. No, it’s not that simple. We have to understand that setting the expectation level based on the previous series isn’t a fair call. We simply have to work very hard and play at our full potential to win. I don’t think that previous series victory is going to help us and we don’t need to put undue pressure on us with it. It’s not that we can’t win, but I just want to insist that you can’t ride on the past to make your future.”In 2012, England arrived in the UAE following a lengthy lay-off from Test cricket having not played a match in five months after beating India, at The Oval, in August 2011 to go to No. 1 in the world. But this time they have flown in having won the Ashes less than two months ago, although they only have two two-day warm-up matches before the first Test which Alastair Cook has admitted is not much preparation.While Misbah reiterated his belief that England now play spin better than when they previously faced Pakistan, it did not escape him that their spin bowling resources are significantly ‘weaker’ than in 2012 having lost both Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar.”They are in good form, so are we, but we have to play good cricket,” Misbah said. “There is a difference in their squad as many of their players have started to play the spin very well. They have changed their game, as we have seen they are using their feet and sweeping all over so we have to be on our toes to get their wickets.”Their fast bowling is the same but their spinners are weaker this time in the absence of Swann and Panesar. We have answers to their experienced fast bowlers, we understand we have to work hard to negotiate the new ball and later the reverse swing. Their bowling never gave us the chance to score big runs in 2012, but we have plans this time and in the UAE it’s all about scoring big runs.”In the UAE conditions runs on the board are very important and then the spinners play the vital role. When Australia came we had answers so is it’s the same this time. Australia had Nathan Lyon, England have Moeen but what is important is who is going to bat well in these conditions.”England played their cricket very aggressively against Australia, with none of the five Ashes Test going into the fifth day, but Misbah suggested it will very different in this series.”You can’t just go all out aggressively like the cricket England have been playing back home. It’s different in the UAE. You can’t just be defensive either, though. As I said, you need to have big runs on board and that requires patience as pitches here change their behaviour on a daily basis especially on the fourth and fifth day. So there are a lot of factors that mean you need to have a balanced approach. And that is the key.”

Notwithstanding the late surrender of its first two second innings wickets,Northamptonshire has continued to defy its underdog status on day two of anabsorbing County Championship match against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.Buoyed by an inspired display of off spin bowling from Jason Brown andGraeme Swann, the visitors had forged their way to an overall lead of 126by the time that stumps were drawn.It was Brown and Swann’s effort in snaring nine Warwickshire wicketsbetween them – around an innings of steely resolve from Dominic Ostler -which was the main story of another day of fluctuating fortunes. On a drypitch, the spin twins initiated a mid-afternoon collapse which saw theiropponents lose their last seven wickets for a mere sixty-eight runs andplunge to an eighty-two run first innings deficit in the process. Brownclaimed 5/88 in what is only his fifth game since returning to the teamlast month while Swann added lustre to what has already become another fineall-round game for him with a return of 4/74. Both gained appreciable turnfrom the wicket and neither was especially afraid to flight the ball.Only Ostler’s fine 88 held the innings together in retrospect. The youngopener, whose 818 runs make him easily Warwickshire’s most productive firstclass scorer to this stage of the season, had enjoyed himself yesterday byholding four catches at slip to help Ashley Giles on his way to a haul of6/118. But he must have pushed the boundaries of his delight even furthertoday with his enterprising innings. He indulged himself early on withsome beautifully timed drives through the off side before raising the tempoeven further with some punishing attacking shots through the middle stagesof his 192-ball stay. It was a measure of his centrality to his team’scause that its innings subsided almost completely once he once he wascaught by Adrian Rollins at short-leg off Brown with the score at 188.On its return to the crease, Northamptonshire purposefully set aboutextending the lead with openers Rollins (8) and skipper Matthew Hayden(35*) taking the score swiftly to 43. But that was before the ball showedsigns of turning sharply again. In this latter sense, it was not asurprising development that Rollins and night-watchman Paul Taylor (0) fellin quick succession as Giles (whose seven wickets already in the match mustsurely provide more food for thought for England’s selectors) and NeilSmith sent the match hurtling back toward a position of parity once more.

A couple of fine performances by Services playerscould not prevent their team going down to a 29-run defeat at the hands of Jammu & Kashmir in theNorth Zone Ranji Trophy one day encounter at theHarbax Singh stadium in New Delhi on Thursday.Put in to bat, J & K were restricted to 175 fornine in 50 overs. Wickets fell at regularintervals with SV Ghag (3 for 30) and Arun Sharma(3 for 31) doing most of the damage. But perhapsthe most impressive performance came fromwicketkeeper Sarabjit Singh who brought off twocatches and two stumpings.Services too found runs hard to come by and theywere ultimately bowled out for 146 in 46.1 overs.The only batsman to put up a semblance of a fightwas SD Nadkarni. Going in at 40 for one in the15th over, Nadkarni scored a valiant 51 before hewas ninth out at 133 in the 44th over. Nadkarnifaced 80 balls and hit just one boundary. But hereceived very little support and the result wasthat J & K were able to pull off a creditablevictory.

Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan Thursday demanded the InternationalCricket Council (ICC) to impose sanctions on India after they withdrewfrom the Asian Test Championship.”The ICC should penalize India for not honouring the commitment,” thelegendary Khan said from Islamabad.The Asiad was left in a spin by India when it withdrew two weeksbefore the commencement of the championship citing security fears andpolitical hassles. However, the event manager decided to go ahead withthe tournament.”Had they not confirmed participation, it would have been a differentissue. But withdrawing two weeks back is a serious crime and it shouldnot go unnoticed. The ICC should impose penalty on India for breakingthe commitment,” Imran, who led Pakistan to the World Cup glory atMelbourne in 1992, said.The all-rounder said India had dented Pakistan’s kitty late last yearand did the same to the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) while Pakistanhelped them earn revenues worth million when they toured India in1999. He demanded reciprocity and urged the Pakistan cricketadministrators to think seriously about its relations with India.India cancelled a scheduled tour to Pakistan early this year whichresulted in an estimated $15million loss to the Pakistan Cricket Board(PCB). On the contrary, India is expected to have earned $50millionwhen Pakistan played two Tests and then the tri-nation series in 1999.”I am perplexed as India has no problems playing Pakistan in any othersport except cricket. I am sure there is some other reason behind,” hesaid with reference to India’s acceptance to send a 350-athletecontingent for October’s SAF Games in Islamabad.The cricketer-turned-politician said Indian Prime Minister Atal BehariVajpayee was interested in talks with Pakistan and ease out tensionbetween the two countries but he was not being allowed to meet withthe demands of the public by the right wing extremists.Commenting on Bangladesh’s early days in the exclusive Test club andbeing thrashed mercilessly by Pakistan here, Imran was of the viewthat they needed time to settle down and get used to the demands ofthe standards at the highest level.”Once a country is awarded Test status, the improvement comes inquantum. If you go back, Pakistan and India were also called ‘B’ teamswhen they started cricket. I think the Test nation comes underpressure when they are new but they are bound to improve,” he said.

As Australia’s cricketers lament the imminent demise of the WACA Ground as a major international venue, a paltry crowd for the second Test against New Zealand is expected to underline why this is so.A gathering of around 10,000 spectators is in prospect for day one of the match, with attendances depreciating further from there. Searing temperatures will not help to sell the experience, and some of the ground’s temporary seating has not even been put in place for this week – raised concrete terraces next to the Prindiville Stand will radiate heat rather than noise.There are other factors apart from the unforgiving nature of the ground itself. Promotion of the Test series does not appear to have stuck in the minds of prospective ticket-buyers. Meanwhile the WACA’s odd tradition of not suspending local club cricket on the Saturday of the Test has continued in spite of a yearning by many a local player to attend Steven Smith’s first Perth match as captain.All this is viewed with considerable pain by the likes of Mitchell Johnson and Adam Voges, two players steeped in the story of the WACA Ground who have also enjoyed great personal success in the middle. Johnson’s increasingly world-weary visage was writ large across his thoughts about the looming move of most major fixtures to the Burswood Stadium, potentially as early as the next Ashes summer in 2017-18.”It’s sad, I think it is a great ground to play at,” Johnson said. “Most teams would say the same thing, it’s a great place to play cricket. It will be sad for it to go, there’s not much we can do as players about it except go out there and try to enjoy the games that we do have out there. It’s disappointing but at the same time there’s a new stadium that’s being built and that is going to hopefully bring more people to the games.”It’s a difficult one because it’s a ground that I have had success at, probably my most success at. I remember playing my first shield game here in the early 2000s playing against Joey Angel and Brad Williams and remembering how quick and bouncy it was then and the cracks and how that played, and you just aren’t going to get that anywhere else.”Everyone’s different, I do like that you get a bit of a breeze here with the openings, you’ve got the grassed area, but I think all sports around the world are played in bigger stadiums generally. That’s just the way it is. They are built for getting spectators in and watching us play and perform and I guess to try and excite the crowds. There’s two ways to look at it, but I prefer it like this.”Voges accepted that the WACA quirks loved by the players also contributed to the discomfort of the fans, from the motley assortment of seating arrangements to amenities like toilets, bars and food outlets – none of which are the sorts of issues immediately evident from the cloisters of the players’ dressing rooms and viewing area. He has also spoken to the WACA curator Matthew Page about the ground staff’s ambitions to find a way of preparing fast and bouncy drop-in pitches at the new stadium.”It’s exciting for Western Australia to have a brand new facility,” he said. “It just means that Test cricket here is – not coming to an end, but we’re not going to see as much Test cricket here at the WACA. A little part of me is saddened by that, but obviously it’s a very exciting future as well.”We play on a lot of drop-in wickets now and soon enough we’re going to be playing on another one. It is what it is. We understand that we need that in order for the future of the game to continue and that’s the most important thing. Pagey’s working his guts out to prepare a drop-in that has similar characteristics to the WACA. Whether that’s possible, we’ll wait and see,” Voges said.Page spoke unabashedly this week about trying to replicate “the olden days” at the ground, and it is in a fast and bouncy track that Australia’s players find most of their love for playing here. Value for shots but also value for bowlers, and value for the home side, too. “I really enjoy playing here at the WACA, we generally get a good crowd here and good support,” Smith said. “Hopefully they roll out this week and really back us up to get us over the line in this series.”As for the future move across the Swan River to Burswood, it will be up to the players of Smith’s generation and younger to adjust to whatever vagaries it throws up. For the likes of Johnson and Voges, the prospect of losing the WACA will hurt, but that of spectating at a swish new stadium sits rather better. “I see myself,” Voges said, “watching a bit of cricket there.”

South Africa wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock has been fined 75% of his match fee after pleading guilty to his involvement in a shoulder-barging incident with Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal on the second day of the ongoing Chittagong Test.The incident occurred at the stroke of lunch, after Tamim played out the last ball of the 30th over bowled by Simon Harmer. When he turned to head to the dressing room, Tamim got involved in a conversation with de Kock and there was some shoulder-barging before South Africa’s captain Hashim Amla intervened.South Africa bowling coach Charl Langeveldt said he did not see the incident, while Mahmudullah declined to comment on the matter during the press conference after the day’s play.”As the over before lunch came to an end, Quinton de Kock walked in front of the stumps to confront Tamim Iqbal,” match referee Chris Broad said. “In doing so de Kock deliberately brushed Tamim Iqbal’s shoulder and rib area. This resulted in a heated exchange between the two, initiated by the contact made by de Kock. This type of incident has no place on a cricket field.”The ICC Code of Conduct’s Article 2.2.7 relates to, “inappropriate and deliberate physical contact with a player, player support personnel, umpire, match referee or any other Person (including a spectator) in the course of play during an International Match”. It also says, “without limitation, players will breach this regulation if they deliberately walk or run into or shoulder another player”.Tamim was involved in a similar incident in the second ODI against South Africa. Rilee Rossouw, while walking to celebrate Tamim’s dismissal, shouldered the batsman in full view of the umpires. He was fined 50% of his match fee.

In the end, Ryan Harris’ right knee was in such a bad way that he broke his leg trying to bowl on it. An emotional Harris revealed that scans showed a cracked tibia, the result of his right leg crunching down on to the turf on a knee that had long since lost the sort of cartilage and other tissue meant to cushion the impact.The serious nature of the injury and its implications finally compelled Harris to draw the curtain on his career, after a day of conversations with the Australia’s long-time physio Alex Kountouris – also on his last tour – and the doctor Peter Brukner. Together with Harris’ surgeon David Young, they gently ushered Harris towards a decision to give up the game that was every bit as painful as trying to bowl with a broken leg.”There’s a crack in the tibia, I’ve got a little part in the top of the shin that’s worn a hole at the top of the tibia that’s caused the crack, from the bone on bone wearing away,” Harris said. “I’ve had pain in this area before, and when I stood in front of the press in Kent last week I was playing five Tests. It was the next day that it jagged, I felt something one of the balls and there was a clicking.”It’s obviously knocked something and it’s come to this and the pain I’ve had in it, partly in that game and before I tried to bowl out here was terrible. I knew something wasn’t right but that’s the reason why. I need surgery to fix it, I need a bone graft to get some bone in there and fix that and I’ve been told – I’ve never had that done before – it’s a slow process that pointed me to this decision.”My surgeon David Young, he didn’t say in as many words that I should retire but he said it was going to be very hard. It wasn’t great after that phone call. But sitting and talking to Dr Brukner and Alex, they gave me some pretty good advice and the word retire was used. It was a word I didn’t want to hear but deep down I think I knew it was coming.”For all that pain, for all that discomfort and for all the lonely gym sessions a rehabilitation would have asked him to endure, Harris still thought seriously about trying again, even though he would have been 36 by the time the process was complete, with no guarantee it would allow him to bowl at his best. There were also concerns about whether Harris could do himself permanent damage that would haunt him in retirement.”I nearly blew my head up yesterday thinking there’s got to be a way I can get past this again, I’ve done it before,” he said. “But the other side of my head was saying last time was a struggle … potentially it was four to five months minimum before I could probably run again and I’d be 36 by then. It was just going to be too hard for me and by then getting back into this side was, I think, going to be impossible as well, with the guys we’ve got here.”Mentally I just don’t think I could … after speaking to my wife, she saw what I went through, what I’ve just finished and she said you can’t get through that again. The way it was with the bone and everything it made me think, and that was in my thoughts last night, about wanting to run around with my son Carter and hopefully a couple more we may want to have. Walking around the golf course is very important as well, I want to do that, otherwise I’m going to turn into a very large person.”Harris’ desire to keep playing was driven largely by his sheer love of spending time around the Australia dressing room, a yearning that is often referred to by players in their latter days but never with more feeling than the 35-year-old fast bowler used here. It was why he found it almost unbearably hard to break the news to the team, despite plenty of time to run his words through his head.”I thought I had it covered, to be honest, when I got there,” he said. “We had a 50-minute bus trip on the way here and I played out in my mind what I was going to say and none of it went to plan, I barely could talk. That would be one of the hardest things I’ve had to do when it comes to my career, that sort of stuff. Obviously the playing part is to me very important but what most people would say when you get to this stage, the part you miss most are the guys you played with.”And I tried to say to the guys this morning obviously that’s part of the reason why you play the game. You know when you go out on the field you have blokes behind you and you know when you come in the rooms the guys that aren’t playing they’re behind you, the coaching staff are behind you and I think that’s the part I’m going to miss the most.”The hard thing for me was getting through the last four months but I knew that at the end was this carrot to play in the Ashes and that’s what kept me going. We all bowl in pain, I’ve just had a problem with my knee – it was sore. Anyone who has sat in this position has probably said it many times but you want to do it for the rest of your life. It’s just not possible. As I’ve said a number of times it’s the best job in the world.”The captain Michael Clarke had little trouble quantifying what Australia will miss with Harris. One statistic that stands out about Harris is the one that Australia will now have to surmount without him in England. Australia won 16 of the 27 Test matches Harris played between 2010 and 2015, the ratio of a great team. Of the 29 matches he missed, they won only 11.”He is my No. 1 picked bowler, in any team I’ve played with,” Clarke said. “Any time I’ve asked him to do a job he’s done it. If I asked him to run through a brick wall for this team, I think he’d have a crack at it. He’s always worn his heart on his sleeve and he’s always given his best not just to Australian cricket but Queensland and South Australia, every team he’s played with.”He loves winning as much as I do and that’s a great trait to have. There is no doubt we will miss him but as I said to ‘Rhino’ this morning, I think it’s really important for us to celebrate what has been an amazing career. He says 27 Tests, to me it’s felt like 100. I don’t remember playing a Test match without him. That’s how fond my memories are of how great a bowler he’s been. His statistics speak for themselves. He’s as good as anyone to play for Australia.”As good, and as brave.

Younis Khan has revealed he would have taken up Pakistan’s captaincy had it not been for the sudden death of Bob Woolmer, the former South Africa and Pakistan coach. Woolmer died during the World Cup in the West Indies last year, and Younis said he would have enjoyed the captaincy with Woolmer as coach.Younis was offered the captaincy following Inzamam-ul-Haq’s resignation, but turned it down citing the mental strain brought about by Woolmer’s death, the subsequent trauma and the failed World Cup campaign. Younis, who had been Inzamam’s vice-captain for two years, was widely tipped as his successor.”Woolmer was a great human being and a good coach. I liked working with him. If he had remained coach I would have taken up the captaincy when the board made me the offer after Inzamam’s resignation,” Younis told . “Being captain is a big responsibility and I would have only felt comfortable if a coach like Bob was there.”With Younis not willing, the Pakistan board appointed Shoaib Malik as captain. Malik has been criticised throughout his tenure, but Younis felt he should be given time. “Malik is not a bad captain and he needs to be given more exposure and opportunities,” he said. “The board must be patient with him.”Younis suggested the new PCB chairman should be appointed after considerable thought. “I believe the chairman should be a professional who knows cricket closely and can communicate with the players,” he said. The position was left vacant when Nasim Ashraf stepped down soon after president Pervez Musharraf’s resignation.

After weeks or will-they, won’t-they, a weakened New Zealand team finally arrived in Lahore for the start of their short tour of Pakistan.The trip, scheduled as compensation following the abandonment of New Zealand’s 2001 tour after a bomb blast in Karachi, gets underway with back-to-back day-night matches at Lahore on Sunday and Monday, with five games in all. Faisalabad hosts the third match on December 3 before the series ends at Rawaplindi on December 5 and 7.There were several high-profile absences in the squad, with four players – Ian Butler, Craig McMillan, Scot Styris and Lou Vincent – withdrawing after receiving anonymous email threats a fortnight ago. Stephen Fleming pulled out after failing to recover from an abdominal injury.The arrival was low-key with the tour party quickly ushered through the airport and onto their hotel, all the time accompanied by a large number of police and army commandos.”We will provide the New Zealand team with full-fledged security,” insisted Adnan Bokhari, the sub-inspector of the Lahore police. “They are our distinguished guests and the security is just like that we usually give to any head of state.” Bokhari added that 2000 police and 150 commandos had been allocated to provide security for the New Zealanders.

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