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“There’s been a lot of talk about it,” says Jade Dernbach, England’s newest squad member, of his slower deliveries. He joined the team last night, all tattooed, and armed with the slower balls, reverse-swing and an “expressive” character that could well bring the freshness a team that has been on the road for six months needs.The first thing that strikes you about Dernbach, though, is not the tattoos (more than Mitchell Johnson), not his first name (he knows only females named Jade) or his South African origin, but the confidence he is carrying after his performances with the Lions in the West Indies – where he took 19 wickets at 15.63 from five games – and a couple of good years with Surrey.”There’s been a lot of talk about it, you know, it’s worked for me,” he says. “It took a lot of time, a lot of practice getting it right, but now it is one of my weapons. One of many, I’d like to think. You know it’s just one of those things that I have developed over the years, and I am happy to have in my armoury.” Like spinners talking about mystery balls, he leaves the nature of the slower balls suitably under wraps. Ask him if he bowls it out of the front of the hand or back, and Dernbach says, “I’ve got a few. Depends on which one you are referring to. You have to have those nowadays the way one-day cricket is going. You have to have that sort of variety. Can’t be just a one-trick pony anymore.”Dernbach likes to talk about reverse-swing too, which on slow and low tracks in this World Cup can be a big asset. “That I’d like to think is one of my biggest strengths,” he says. “Obviously I had the opportunity to utilise that in the West Indies. It’s been great to have been out there for the last seven weeks or so, then getting a call out here, and hopefully I can show my skills if I get an opportunity.”Dernbach was born in Johannesburg, studied a bit in Durban before his family moved to England when he was 14. He doesn’t owe his cricketing career, he says, to South Africa at all. “South Africa’s not my home at all,” he says. “I don’t owe anything to South Africa. I was just born there, did a bit of schooling there, my whole cricket career has been based in the UK, and UK is my home. I want to give everything I can to England cricket, that’s the country I love and that’s the country that has given me everything I have now.” If you want to read into it, while saying this, his hand went and tapped the three-lion crest on his shirt.Dernbach wasn’t a serious cricketer until two or three years after he moved to England. “When I came over to the UK, that was when I really started playing cricket. I was more of a rugby player, to be honest, before that. Sort of happened by chance, cricket. Played for a local side, and then ended up getting a chance for Surrey. Started with Under-15s, then made my way up through the age groups. It was all a bit of fun for me to being with. It was not until my second year in Under-17s that I realised there was a really good opportunity to make this a career. So yeah, happened by chance really.”It’s the lighter side of the things that an over-worked side will not mind at all. He says he is an expressive character, “and hopefully I can add to that [the team atmosphere], bring my energy and stuff I am coming with”. One of the ways he expresses himself is the body ink. Almost whole of his right arm is tattooed, a bit of left, and “I have got a couple under wraps”.”It’s something I am interested in. Quite an expressive sort of character. Just an extension of my personality, I’d like to think. There is a lot going on here [the arms]. There is a bit of everything. I have got some Chinese writing, which is my name, with strength and power. I have got some more. I have got my birth fish. Good luck as well. Bit of everything. ‘What counts is not the years in your life, but the life in your years.'”He is asked to compare his body art with Mitchell Johnson’s. “I had one before his,” he says. “So I’d say he was copying me, but I don’t think he knows who I am.”You get a sense he to play in this tournament, not just hopes to do so. “I can’t think of anything better, to be honest,” he says of a possible debut in a pressure game. “My first Twenty20 for Surrey was the semi-final at the Oval. Packed house. Thoroughly enjoyed that. Any opportunity you get to play for your country, you grab with both hands. If I get the nod to play on Saturday, I’ll give it my all. Fingers crossed, I do get picked.”Does he think he will be picked? “I have got as good a chance as any as long as I prepare properly. The most important thing is that we win. That’s whether I play or not. To me that’s the most important thing.”

Shakib Al Hasan, the Bangladesh captain, has said it is not difficult for his team to qualify for the World Cup quarter-finals and they could even go further. “We have been playing good cricket for the last 15 months, and if we qualify for the second round, why not think of something big,” Shakib said. “We have to win at least four matches to win a place in the second round. It is not difficult. I think we are capable of booking a place in the second round.”Bangladesh will go in to the World Cup ranked among the top eight teams in ODIs, and have the advantage of playing all their group games at home. Their No. 8 ICC ranking is justification of their recent form; they won two home series in 2010, beating Zimbabwe 3-1 and New Zealand 4-0, and pushed England close in an away series, losing 2-1.While Bangladesh have been giant-killers in past World Cups, beating India and South Africa in 2007, and Pakistan in 1999, their most experienced player, Mohammad Ashraful, says this time the side is firmly aiming at reaching the quarter-finals rather than looking for a few upsets.”Things are now very different to what it was in 2007,” Ashraful, who will take part in his third World Cup in the 2011 tournament, said. “In that World Cup, we were hoping for an upset or two, but this time around we are firmly aiming for the quarter-finals. There is a significant change in the mentality.”Shakib, though, said there has not been any drastic change in the way his side sees themselves. “I don’t feel that there is anything special in terms of attitude,” he said. “Ever since I started playing cricket, I have been playing to win, and I play with the same mentality now, whoever the opposition.”Three victories may be enough for Bangladesh to go past the group stage, since four out of seven teams qualify from each group. Two of their matches will be against Associate teams Ireland and Netherlands, in which they will be favourites. They will also be eyeing fixtures against West Indies, who have slipped below them in the ODI rankings, at Mirpur, and England in Chittagong, while upsets against India and South Africa are not off the cards.Bangladesh have done enough to have lost the underdog tag, but with that, and the fact that they are joint hosts for the tournament, comes added pressure. Shahriar Nafees, who will be playing his second World Cup, said the team was confident of dealing with it. “People handle pressure in different ways; some thrive under it, some play their best when they don’t have it,” he said. “But there is a stern belief within this side because we are finally winning. We know that at home we are considerably tough opposition.”While Bangladesh’s surprise success in the 2006-07 World Cup gave cricket a boost in the country, it was not until the last two years that the results improved. In the period between the last World Cup and the end of 2008, they won just five out of 34 ODIs. Since the start of 2009, though, they have maintained a win/loss ratio of 1.00 in 46 matches.Ashraful points to a victory over Sri Lanka in January 2009, in a tri-nation tournament, as the turning point in Bangladesh’s fortunes. After fast bowlers Mashrafe Mortaza and Rubel Hossain had skittled out Sri Lanka for 147, Ashraful and Shakib had put together a century partnership to help Bangladesh recover from 11 for 3, the latter making an unbeaten 92.”During that game, I had a feeling things were changing,” says Ashraful. “Previously we were happy just competing with the big teams, but that day there was a feeling prevalent that we will be able to beat the big teams if we played to our true potential.” Ashraful’s own form has been on a downward spiral since that series and, after averaging just 14.66 in the first half of 2010, he found himself dropped for the series against New Zealand and given just one match in the one against Zimbabwe. He was quick to acknowledge the recent success of the team has been built on their younger players, saying “there are other match-winners coming through.”Nafees is another player who, like Ashraful, has struggled to live up to his early promise, and, after signing with the ICL kept him out of international cricket for a year, has only played four ODIs in the last two years. He said the development of Bangladesh cricket is an on-going process and previous captains have added to it as well. “It is like a relay race,” Nafees said. “[Habibul] Bashar and his team had bought the team to a certain level and Shakib is now carrying it on. We are moving forward, that is unquestionable.”Bangladesh will kick off the World Cup with a home fixture against India on February 19.

Callum Ferguson has been added to Australia’s squad for the remaining two one-day games against England after Shaun Marsh became the latest casualty in Australia’s batting line-up. The hosts began the series without Ricky Ponting (finger) and Michael Hussey (hamstring) and Marsh joined the injury list during the series-clinching win on Sunday when he hurt his right hamstring.Marsh entered Sunday’s game with a question-mark over his hamstring and he has been ruled out of the rest of the series after scans showed a low-grade injury, although it is still unclear how long he will be sidelined. Marsh is not part of the World Cup squad, but was viewed as the most likely candidate to be included if Hussey’s recovery did not allow him to make the trip.The problems have allowed a late-season call-up for Ferguson, who missed a year due to a serious knee injury and did not bat in his only appearance for Australia since his return, in a game against Sri Lanka in Brisbane in November. Ferguson had been gearing up to be part of South Australia’s side for Saturday’s Big Bash final, but will instead be pushing for a place in the Australia team.”Callum has an excellent record in one-day internationals for Australia and is in good form this season,” the chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said. “We are sure Callum will seize the opportunity that comes following the unfortunate hamstring injury suffered by Shaun Marsh.”The series against England concludes with matches in Sydney on Wednesday and in Perth on Sunday, and the players have virtually no break before heading to the World Cup for their title defence. That means a call will need to be made on Hussey, who has had surgery on a serious hamstring injury he suffered during the opening ODI against England.”At the moment it’s only sort of two weeks since the surgery and basically in those two weeks I’ve been able to hit every target that we’ve set so far,” Hussey told the ABC on Monday. “So that’s a good start but I don’t want to get too carried away. I just want to keep keep hitting my target.”I’ve certainly got exercises I’ve got to be doing two or three times a day, physio probably three or four times a week. The first sort of week-and-a-half I was struggling a fair bit to get around but just the last four or five days it’s been a lot easier to get around. I’ve seen some improvement everyday which has given me a lot of hope.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Queenstown is the place for adrenaline-junkies but there was little excitement on Wednesday as persistent rain allowed only 4.2 overs of play in the second one-dayer between Pakistan and New Zealand.There were showers early in the morning, but it cleared up before start of play, raising hopes of the fans who had gathered. The rains returned, however, soon after Daniel Vettori chose to field, as every international captain has done after winning the toss in Queenstown.New Zealand stuck with their plan of giving James Franklin the new ball, ahead of the much quicker Hamish Bennett, and it didn’t work as 19-year-old Ahmed Shehzad took 16 off his two overs. Shehzad, playing his first one-dayer in 20 months, showed no signs of rustiness as he smashed the third ball of the match over square leg for six. He also slapped Tim Southee for a couple of fours before the rains came back, and stayed through the day to cause the match to be abandoned.The third one-dayer of the series is in Christchurch on Saturday, and the bad news is that rain is predicted during that game as well.

A request by the PCB to have an observer present at the spot-fixing hearing currently underway in Doha, Qatar, was turned down by two of the three players defending themselves against the ICC’s charges, reaffirming the distance that has grown between the players and their former employers.The code of conduct under which the ICC hearing is held allows for such a provision but leaves the final choice to the discretion of the tribunal. The relevant portion of article 5.1.8 of the ICC Anti-Corruption Code states, “At the discretion of the Anti-corruption tribunal, a representative of the Player’s or Player’s support personnel’s relevant National Cricket Federation may also attend any such hearing (but strictly as an observer only and with no right to be heard).”ESPNcricinfo understands the request was made ahead of the hearing that began on Thursday. The request was considered by Michael Beloff QC, the chairman of the tribunal and the ICC’s code of conduct commissioner, and discussed with other members of the tribunal as well as the players and their lawyers. Though the final decision remains with the tribunal, in this case it appears that the players’ objections have been heeded. Had it been accepted, the PCB would have sent a legal representative.The reason behind the PCB’s request appears to have been nothing more than wanting a representative present at such a significant trial involving players who have been such an important part of the national team until recently.”When the request was made for Shahid Afridi and Waqar Younis [who will appear as witnesses for the ICC] we felt there should be a board man there too because they are our players in that sense and to keep an eye on the proceedings to ensure justice is done,” a board source told ESPNcricinfo.The refusal might not ultimately be a bad thing, as one source pointed out. “Whoever went would be under a bit of tension in the sense of whether they should support the players or the system so in that sense it isn’t a bad development ultimately.”When the scandal first broke in England last summer, the PCB as well as the Pakistani High Commission in London assumed broadly supportive stances. The board did not suspend the players until the ICC officially charged and suspended them, even offering initial legal representation in their interactions with Scotland Yard.But since then, at the insistence of an ICC concerned that its members might be seen as supporting players potentially facing spot-fixing charges, the board has stepped back. The players’ central contracts have been suspended, they have not been allowed to practice at board facilities and no legal or financial assistance has been offered. On at least a couple of occasions, Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir have indicated public bewilderment at how the board has left them to fend for themselves.Given that one player is believed to have not raised an objection the move also points to a growing individuality in the players’ approach to their defence. The trio have been staying separately in Doha and arrived and left separately on the first day of the hearing.

Michael Kasprowicz, the former Test bowler, has replaced Darren Lehmann as the Australian Cricketers’ Association president, taking on the role which includes juggling the game’s expansion through Twenty20. Kasprowicz was voted in at the organisation’s AGM in Brisbane on Friday after being nominated by Lehmann, who held the honorary post for four years.”I’ve played 19 years for Queensland and been part of the process, seeing the game evolve from non-professional to where we are today,” Kasprowicz told ESPNcricinfo. “There are some very exciting things happening and exciting challenges and opportunities for both players and the game.”Kasprowicz took 113 wickets in 38 Tests for Australia between 1996 and 2006, but since he’s retired the sport has zoomed off in a new direction. The domestic Twenty20 competition will expand to eight teams next year in the Big Bash League and the explosion of overseas competitions means players will face battles of allegiance between their franchises and countries.Managing the newest format will be one of the key areas under Kasprowicz’s watch. “That’s something pretty exciting in Australian cricket,” he said. “It’s a great thing that we can take the game further, certainly at domestic level. What [the Big Bash League] provides for all the players is more opportunities to get noticed with eight teams in place. There are so many good outcomes that I think everything is looking forward.”The domestic players have lost some ground this year, with the introduction of the split-innings one-day format overlooking the concerns of 78% of ACA members who rejected the idea. Issues are also expected between Cricket Australia and the ACA over how the players will be distributed to the eight Big Bash League teams.”Historically the Australian Cricketers’ Association has always been a voice from the players,” Kasprowicz said. “So in the past our relationship with Cricket Australia has always been good, and I certainly want to be part of that.” The initial meetings could be interesting after Cricket Australia refused to deal with Kasprowicz while he was signed to the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League.Kasprowicz has been a board member of the Queensland Cricketers’ Club for the past two years and his new role will be his first official post with the ACA. He is keen to be involved in the body’s hardship fund, which assists players with health or financial difficulties, and has been a regular member of the ACA Masters teams as they take the game to the country’s regional areas. “One of the things I really want to do is provide benefit for all the members right across the board,” he said.Lehmann said it had been a rewarding four years in the role. “It has given me the chance to stay involved with the game in a new and challenging position outside of being a player,” he said. “I hope my commitment has in some way allowed me to give something back to the game of cricket which has given me so much in life.”

ITV are understood to be close to signing a deal with Cricket Australia to show daily highlights of England’s Ashes campaign, as they aim to build on a successful first foray into the cricket market following their exclusive UK coverage of this year’s Indian Premier League.According to The Guardian, no deal has yet been signed, although talks are believed to be at an advanced stage with IMG (who handle the Australian board’s TV rights) for a 60-minute highlights package on ITV4 at 10pm on each day of the five-Test series, which gets underway at Brisbane on November 25.The ITV digital channel, which is available on Freeview in the UK, has never yet broadcast Test cricket. However, it did attract audiences of more than 500,000 for some matches of this year’s IPL. In addition, the channel would show highlights of England’s seven one-day and two Twenty20 internationals against Australia in January and February.Sky Sports has exclusive UK live TV rights to all matches of England’s tour of Australia, and if the deal goes ahead, the ITV4 highlights would be broadcast shortly before Sky’s live coverage of the following day’s play gets underway. ITV has so far declined to comment.

Pakistan’s limited-overs captain Shahid Afridi and coach Waqar Younis have welcomed the ICC’s decision to give a clean chit to last month’s ODI against England at The Oval. The ICC had launched an investigation into the match after receiving information from the newspaper before the game began alleging that bookies were aware of certain scoring patterns during the game. On Wednesday, they said their investigation was complete and “there was no compelling evidence to suspect individual players or support staff” of wrongdoing.”I am very happy after hearing the news,” Afridi, who led Pakistan to victory in that match, told AFP. “I had and will always have full confidence in my team that they will not do anything like that. I have told the players to always remain focused on cricket and forget anything else, and that’s what they were doing in the one-day series in England.”Afridi’s views were echoed by Waqar, who also hoped for a quick end to the controversies surrounding the England tour. Prior to the the ODI series, a expose had alleged that three players from the Pakistan side – Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif – were involved in spot-fixing during the Lord’s Test. The trio has been suspended by the ICC pending investigations.”It’s [the ruling on The Oval ODI] very good news for Pakistan cricket,” Waqar told AFP. “I sincerely hope that all spot-fixing cases are solved soon because they have tarnished Pakistan’s reputation.”Taffazul Rizvi, legal adviser to the Pakistan Cricket Board, also welcomed the ruling, and added that any decision on following legal recourse against the British newspapers would wait for the outcome of the spot-fixing inquiry.

Bangalore Provident (Rural) eased to a seven-wicket win against Belagavi Panthers at the Chinnaswamy Stadium to book their place in the KPL semi-final. The Panthers, asked to bat, could only muster 113 as left-arm spinner Arjun Shetty grabbed four wickets to make Provident’s task easier. Wicketkeeper Vinayak Uthappa made a run-a-ball 27 and offspinner Akshay chipped in with 20 but their effort was inadequate. Provident, in their reply, lost a couple of early wickets but Amit Verma (34) and Sunil Kumar Jain (51*) steadied the ship in a 82-run stand and victory was achieved with 3.2 overs to spare.Bangalore Brigadiers (Urban) earned a consolation win against Bijapur Bulls at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, beating them by 49 runs. Openers Syed Ibrez and Deepak Chougule added 91 for the first wicket in just 10.3 overs, laying a strong platform. Nikhil Kashyap then stepped up at the death, smashing 34 off 14 balls to propel Brigadiers to 184. The Bulls faltered at the start of their chase, losing their openers early. Stuart Binny tried hard to keep them in the hunt with a quickfire 44 which included four fours and three sixes. But once he fell in the 13th over with the score on 120, the innings fell apart. The Bulls were bowled out for 135. Left-arm medium-pacer TK Ananth and left-arm spinner Narayanan Vinu Prasad grabbed three wickets each.Shamanoor Davangere Diamonds topped the KPL table with a six-wicket win over Mysore Maharajas at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Chethan William, the Mysore captain, top scored with 37 but was short of support from the rest. The Diamonds bowlers, in a collective effort, managed to restrict Mysore to 122. In their reply, the Diamonds were boosted by a strong start by the openers. Mayank Agarwal made 27 in a first-wicket stand of 49 and Pavan Deshpande anchored the chase with a run-a-bal 51 to see his team through with eight balls to spare.

Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan has said he is concerned about the long-term repercussions the match-fixing crisis could have on the country’s cricketing establishment but feels it is a chance for the authorities to act in a manner that would discourage future cricketers from considering such activities.”If they are proved, not just in terms of the best players in the team being implicated but from the public point of view, they would not understand the finer points of the game and each time they lose they will think it’s a fixed match,” Imran told Britain’s channel.”Why should Pakistan cricket suffer if some players have indulged in a crime? Why should Pakistani supporters suffer because of that? The people who are found guilty should be removed from the team and replaced and should be punished as an example for future generations to realise that crime does not pay.”Reactions to the issue have come in thick and fast, especially from former cricketers. Matthew Hayden, the former Australia opener, said it was “not in Australia’s DNA to accept any kind of skullduggery”, and felt the scandal highlighted the different cultures that exist in the game. “You have a look at Pakistan which has been wiped out by the recent floods and you put yourself in the position that maybe you can try and get what’s left of your family and salvage the situation,” Hayden told . “We wouldn’t ever dare get involved in corruption but that’s in our country.”Hayden’s one-time Australia team-mate Ian Healy, felt that players involved in fixing did not care enough for their country, and was pleased that they may have been caught in the act. “We’d be stupid to think this is new,” he said. “How long has this lurk been going on? It’s a long time I’m sure, but it’s been caught which is awesome,” said Healy, who also recalled a dodgy victory against Pakistan in the 90s which later came under the match-fixing scanner.”This game in Sri Lanka we thought we were heroes – we were high-fiving fools. It came out a year later that that game was brought into question,” Healy said.Healy, however, said that he felt Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal did not deliberately drop catches during the Sydney Test, which Mahzar Majeed, the man at the centre of the spot-fixing controversy, claimed was also fixed to . Healy said Akmal came to him for advice because he was struggling with his keeping.”He was stiff as a board and extremely tense. You couldn’t drop those on purpose they way he was doing it,” Healy told the . “His technique had gone off, which he told me about two weeks before – the ball wasn’t going into his glove that well for the spinners. I said to him, ‘look, we’ll work on that in Hobart’. I wasn’t going to the Sydney Test. And then he did that. It didn’t look to me as if they were on purpose at all.”Michael Hussey, the Australian batsman who was let off by Akmal in Sydney, also said he felt the mistakes were genuine. “It all happens in a split second,” he said. “Especially the catches off me … they were all up to the stumps. With those sort of catches they either go in or they don’t. I don’t think you can try to drop those.”Former ICC chief Malcolm Speed said there was a “fairly compelling case” for suspending Pakistan from the ICC. “It looks as though it is endemic that several of the team members are involved and have been for some time,” Speed told . “So perhaps they need a rest.”Speed echoed Healy’s views that the unearthing of the scandal was a step forward for the game. “[It’s] great that they’ve been caught in England where there is a very sophisticated legal system that deals with conspiracy and specifically with cheating in sport. So I see that as a major positive,” he said. “I would have liked it to have happened when I was involved with ICC but it didn’t happen at that time.”Ehsan Mani, a former ICC president, called for the PCB to act swiftly. “The allegations have painted Pakistan cricket in a bad light and we need to take swift action to clear the situation, but I don’t think there’s any fear that teams will boycott us [Pakistan],” Mani told AFP. “Lack of action or any cover up will damage Pakistan cricket badly. Match-fixing allegations have been hurting Pakistan cricket and the latest saga is a poor reflection on the board, which has failed to deal with the matter as they have failed to control the players.”