DUBAI — The effects of Twenty20 on the game and how best to promote and protect Test cricket will form one of the key discussions at the two day ICC Cricket Committee in Dubai. The committee is chaired by former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar and packed with respected figures within the world of cricket, including ICC cricket GM; David Richardson, Mark Taylor, former Australian captain, Pakistan’s former captain Majid Khan and former West Indies fast bowler Michael Holding. It also includes ICC chief match referee, umpire of the year Simon Taufel, former Sri Lankan captain Ranjan Madugalle, Kenya’s Captain Steve Tikolo, SA’s national coach Mickey Arthur and Tim May, former Australian Test off spinner and now the CEO of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations.

Due to the changes in cricket landscape after the explosion of Twenty20 cricket, the committee will be discussing the international cricket as the pinnacle of the game, the promotion and protection of Test cricket, the effects of Twenty20 cricket on other formats of the game and the effects of domestic leagues on the international game. The committee will also finalize the playing conditions to be adopted for the proposed trial of an umpire decision review system. Broadly speaking, players will be able to ask an on-field umpire to review his own decision with the consultation of the television umpire. The committee will consider the specific conditions planned for next year’s ICC World Twenty20 championship and ICC Champions Trophy. As part of this, it will consider the idea of letting the batting team choose when to take one of three powerplays. The committee will consider progress made in research relating to volume of cricket and bad light. The remit of the ICC cricket committee is to talk about and consult on cricket-playing matters and formulate certain recommendations to the CEC and the ICC Board for approval. The next meetings of those committees are to be held in Dubai, from June 29 to July 4, 2008

UNITED KINGDOM - They are the cricket stars of future, fighting their way to the top. Now the pupils from Morley Victoria Primary School in Leeds are one step closer to playing in front of a match day crowd in Headingley. The under-nines at the Victoria Road School have won the first “cluster festival” of the Drax Cup 2008. They could now secure a place in the competition’s final that will be played before the Yorkshire County cricket match on June 26th. The first round of mini-tournament was held at the Morley Cricket Club on Scatcherd Lane and which involved 50 boys and girls playing in mixed teams. Newlands Primary was runner-up.

Morley Victoria the head teacher, Richard Elstub said: “They thoroughly enjoyed it. For many of them, it was the first time they had played on a real cricket field, although they had lots of practice in the school field. It was also the first time that many of these children had played a game against other schools. They’ve got a real thirst for it now; they can’t wait until the next round.” The good part about this competition is that everybody gets a chance to bat, everybody bowls and everybody fields.”

Morley Victoria will now play in a district final of the Drax Cup; and if they win that, they will go through to the area final, bringing them a step closer to the Grand Final next month. The first Drax Cup was held last year and attracted 86 teams, with four teams from North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and East Yorkshire battling it out at Headingley. The competition is organized by The Yorkshire County Cricket Club, in conjunction with The Yorkshire Schools’ Cricket Association and The Yorkshire Cricket Board. Dorothy Thompson, chief executive of Drax, said: “It’s great to see the growing popularity of the Drax Cup.”

With the arrival of Twenty20 cricket, which is a five day game seems to have become an unappealing proposition for cricket boards. A strong hint would be the BCCI shortening their forthcoming home Test series against England from three matches to two, in order to accommodate more limited overs games.

Will this send Test cricket down a slow path to extinction? Would the oldest, the toughest variety of this brilliant sport be forgotten forever? Or is this just a passing phase of struggle?

Like Sachin Tendulkar said on Sunday, the most common grumble he gets from foreigners is that not just Test cricket, even the one day game is too long. They wish to have a game which lasts no more than three hours. True, Twenty20 may help globalize cricket, but does it mean that, for the sake of globalization, we do away with the five day game.

Cricket South Africa’s new transformation policy has once again started casting shadow over the national team with the reports emerging that Andre Nel is considering the thought of leaving international cricket after being dropped out of the India-bound Test squad.

“Andre has not yet made any decision on his future yet,” Michael-Owen Smith, the South African media manager, told. He added saying “He’s a contracted player till April. We have not been notified about anything”. Earlier Nel was replaced by Charl Langeveldt as per CSA’s transformation policy according to which there need be at least 7 players of color in a 15-man national squad.

Nel was reported to be so devastated upon hearing of his omission, and that the team management considered leaving him out of the 2nd ODI against Bangladesh in Mirpur. “He did not refuse to play as it is being wrongly reported,” Smith said.

“He was chosen in the playing XI last evening before the squad announcement was made following it. He was obviously feeling low on hearing the news. The Team left it to him to take a final call and after consideration, he accepted to play. Andre is a very responsible player and showed what it means to him today.”

An issue has erupted between Arthur and CSA President Norman over the Test team originally selected to tour Bangladesh. The naming of the squad was then delayed, but despite CSA’s confirmation of its new transformation policy, the finally chosen squad failed to meet the required targets. Nel is yet to tour India and he has taken 8 wickets in his previous 4 Tests he managed to be picked in the subcontinent.

Sachin out for 7 might have been the song to sing for the Aussies. But the star batsmen capitalizing on the let off by ‘Punter’ Ponting finally makes the people sing, only difference was, it was the massive Indian supporters who sang in rejoicing the jubilant performance by Team India.

India writing off the history with style and dominance over the reigning authority of the Australian cricket team. Nine runs, was all it took to differentiate the Champion India to the losing Australian Cricket team at Brisbane. A batting havoc was on the cards for the day, the experts predicted it right but on the wrong team. India continued their dream-run in Australia, finishing the long run, and the long spoken tournament.

The Man of the Match ‘Praveen’ with figures of 4/46 ended the career of Adam Gilchrist with a failure with bat. Strong resilience in the form of Hopes, Hayden, Hussey & Symonds, just meant that the final went on to the final over, with India wrapping up the day with 2 balls to spare, with Pathan’s effort of 2/54. Both his wickets were taken in the 50th over.

Earlier in the day it was Sachin’s brilliance which sparked up the day for India, with Yuvraj and Dhoni chipping in with useful contributions of 38 & 36 respectively. New found Hero of the 1st final Sharma failed on the day, just scoring 2 runs and India was restricted to less than 250, by some brilliant bowling performance at the death by the Aussie pacers. Sachin dropped by Ponting earlier in the day just meant India is on the fighting course. And team India marching out victorious in the battle.

Zimbabwe’s women cricket team which represents Zimbabwe at the international women’s cricket has distinguished itself in its first qualifying match for the International Cricket Council’s Women’s World Cup, qualifying series under way in Stellenbosch, in South Africa, which defeated the Scotland’s women by 75 runs this Monday.

Zimbabwe, Scotland, Ireland and Pakistan are in Group B in the qualifying round, and the winner of the pool will play in the World Cup next year in Australia.

The Australian team seems to be undecided about the make up of their bowlers for the fourth and final test match against India starting on Thursday, at the Adelaide Oval.

The Australian captain Ricky Ponting said that he was stuck between retaining the same all-pace attack that lost last week’s third test in Perth or ditching express fast bowler Shaun Tait for spinner Brad Hogg.

During a news conference, Ponting said “We’ve got a few things we want to run through our heads about our makeup and about that wicket. And the wicket is normally pretty good to bat on here, it looks like it will be that way it’s actually quite dry at the moment.”

“We’ve just got to toss up in our head whether a spin option is the way to go or if we try to use pace with variable bounce later in the game.” The Adelaide oval is considered to be one of the Australia’s most-spin friendly pitches, but Ricky Ponting said that did not necessarily favour Hogg.

Australia - India and Australia have begun the third Test in Perth despite the umpiring controversy and racism row which threatened to disrupt the cricket tour. The previous Test match ended in bitterness when the Indian bowler Harbhajan Singh was banned initially for using bad language at an Australian player. However the bower Singh denied the charge. The third match in four-test series began this Wednesday at Perth holding a 2-0 series lead. On winning the toss, India batted first with a score of 177 for a loss of two wickets. Both Indian and Australian teams have abandoned their agreement of trusting the word of fielders on disputed low catches. Both the teams have agreed to trust the fielder’s integrity rather than refer the decision to the third umpire at the start of the series.

Shane Bond, New Zealand’s fast bowler has set to join Indian Cricket League, which will bring him about 600,000 New Zealand Dollars (US$ 450,000). However the fast bowler who is now 32 has not yet conformed this, but New Zealand’s Cricket Chief executive, Vaughan has mentioned this in a Wellington newspaper. India’s official cricket authority hasn’t authorized Shane Bond’s involvement with the Indian Cricket League. Shane Bond is known to be New Zealand’s best and fastest bowler since Richard Hadlee. In 17 tests, Bond has taken 79 wickets at an average of 22.39 and 125 wickets in limited-overs matches at 19.32.

According to Cricket Australia, the former Australian test wicket recorder Shane Warne will take the development role with the Australian spin bowlers. Warne who retired from the test cricket in January with a record of 708 wickets will be joining the Cricket Australia’s playing conditions committee, which will make recommendations about the development of the game to the International Cricket Council. Now Shane Warne will spend his time working with the Australia’s men and women national squads and with the Australian state captains at the Centre of Excellence. Warne said that he is really excited to work with Cricket Australia and give back to the game of cricket.