Vettori for Oram's inclusion in second Test

HAMILTON: New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori has pitched in for all-rounder Jacob Oram's inclusion in the squad for the second Test against India following the host team's dismal batting and bowling performance in the first Test which they lost by 10 wickets on Saturday.New Zealand batsmen could manage 279 in both their innings while the bowlers failed to contain the Indian batsmen, who piled up 520 in their first essay."You could consider him (Oram) just as a batsman," Vettori was quoted as saying by 'New Zealand Herald'."If he's got form under his belt, that'd be good enough for me. Also, 10-12 overs, with Jesse Ryder as well, the two of them could come together quite nicely as a fifth bowler," he added.If Oram comes back to the side he could replace either James Franklin or Kyle Mills.Oram, who returned to the New Zealand team after spending some time out due to injury, was left out of the squad for the first Test since selectors felt he was still not fit for the five-day game. Vettori, who was critical of the team's performance Saturday, feels Oram has a lot to offer to the side."Jacob, he brings so much to the table," Vettori said."He's got five Test centuries. Nobody else can say that going around New Zealand domestic cricket at the moment. He's also a very good bowler..." said the skipper whose team is down 0-1 in the three-match series.But with the hosts desperate to stage a recovery in the Napier Test starting March 26, the Kiwi selection committee might have to give in to the captain's demand, the report said.

Zaheer fears for future of Asian cricket

KARACHI: Pakistan cricket legend Zaheer Abbas says he has fears for the future of Asia cricket after India decided on Sunday to move the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) abroad because of security fears.Zaheer told 'The News' that the switching of IPL is a bad omen for Asian cricket, adding that it will increase doubt's about the region's ability to host the 2012 World Cup."It is bad new for Asian cricket," he said. "I mean, the shifting of the IPL outside India will send wrong signals to the rest of the world that this region is not safe to host international cricket," he stressed.Zaheer said that the Asian cricket-playing nations will have to sit down together and devise a joint strategy to overcome the security issue that is now beginning to haunt them after dealing major setbacks to Pakistan."Pakistan is the biggest victim of this problem," said Zaheer referring to the fact that the cricket in this country has been hit hard because of security-related problems in recent years."But now India has also been affected. Unless we come out with concrete steps, things will get worse for us and there is a big possibility that we might also lose the hosting rights for the next World Cup."The 2012 World Cup is to be co-hosted by Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. However, following an attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore earlier this year, doubts have been raised about Pakistan's status as one of the World Cup's co-hosts.

Security problem forces India to shift IPL abroad

MUMBAI: Cricket's lucrative Indian Premier League will be held abroad this year, organisers said on Sunday, blaming the government for being unable to provide security for the showpiece tournament.An IPL source said South Africa and England were being considered as the new venue for the six-week tournament, whose high-paying contracts have attracted some of the most celebrated players in the game.Safety has been a major worry after the attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai in November and an attack targeting the Sri Lankan cricket side in Pakistan this month that left eight people dead and eight people from the team wounded.But the Indian government said it could not lay on additional security because of deployments for national elections being held at almost exactly the same time as the April 10-May 24 tournament."Due to the attitude of the government that it cannot provide security for the tournament, we are forced to take a decision to move the IPL out of India," the country's cricket chief Shashank Manohar told reporters."A final decision on the venue will be announced in two to three days."The tournament, which pits star-studded teams against each other in the short-form Twenty20 format of the game, was eagerly awaited by millions of fans in India after its inaugural event last year proved a huge success.IPL commissioner Lalit Modi said the 59 matches in the event would be scheduled so that they still fell at 4pm and 8pm in India, prime time for the massive cricket audience in this nation of more than one billion people.Manohar said he wanted to "apologise to the people of India for moving the tournament," but stressed India's cricket board was not left with any other option."The tournament generated a lot of interest last year and we wanted the same to happen this year. It will still be popular, whether it is watched at the ground or on television," he said.Indian authorities declined to release security forces needed to guard the tournament due to the five-phase parliamentary elections that will take place from April 16 to May 13.Federal Home Minister P Chidambaram said last week that the elections were "unquestionably" first priority for the government."I can't exempt any state government from giving to the election commission the forces they have promised," Chidambaram said. "I have also made it clear that I cannot spare any central paramilitary forces (for the IPL)."At stake was a tournament that has generated more than 900 million dollars in television rights, and tens of millions of dollars in advertising, players' fees, merchandising and tickets.As the government's position became clear, advertisers and sponsors had expressed concern over the prospect of losing their big chance of the year to reach fervent cricket fans in India and around the world.Coca-Cola and Vodafone are among the IPL's major sponsors, keen to associate themselves with India's adored players such as Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar as well as international stars such as Kevin Pietersen.The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said the sport's tour calendar made it impossible to reschedule, and the decision to move abroad was made after several meetings with the government.South Africa's cricket authorities confirmed they had been approached by the BCCI for exploratory talks about hosting the tournament.The England and Wales Cricket Board also confirmed on Sunday that they are looking into the feasibility of staging the event."The ECB have confirmed that, at the request of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)/Indian Premier League (IPL) ECB is examining the feasiblity of hosting the 2009 IPL in England and Wales," a statement read."The IPL is scheduled to be played between April 10 and May 24, 2009 and officials from both Boards have held exploratory discussions to relocate the tournament to England and Wales. Further meetings will be held during the forthcoming week.

Rs 250 billion development projects slashed due to crunch

ISLAMABAD: Severe financial crunch being faced by the country has forced the government to remove development projects worth Rs250 billion from the list of Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) in order to slash down growing throw forward, it was learnt reliably.The government is also seeking permission from Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani through a summary to scale down allocation for the PSDP by Rs141 billion for the current fiscal year 2008-09.Two separate summaries were moved before the prime minister out of which one already approved by the premier was related to scaling down the throw forward by Rs250 billion, enabling the authorities to cut down throw forward from Rs1.8 trillion to Rs1.550 trillion for around 1,700 development projects. The second summary tabled before the premier was aimed at reducing the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) allocations by Rs141 billion for the current fiscal year 2008-09.In order to meet a condition of the World Bank for decreasing throw forward for obtaining $500 million loan within the ongoing month, Gilani has approved a summary to scale down throw forward by Rs250 billion by deleting 70 to 80 projects from the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) list.The major development projects, which were removed from the PSDP list, are construction of universities with an estimated cost of Rs174 billion in various cities, Chashma Right Bank Canal (CRBC) (Rs60 billion), construction of Munda dam, commercialisation of tea project, Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway project with an estimated cost of Rs2.5 billion and some other projects.The throw forward means that the total cost of projects is increased because sufficient resources were not allocated while more new projects were included in the PSDP list, resulting in cost overrun as well as delays in completion of the projects.The throw forward had touched Rs1.8 trillion for almost 1,800 development projects. By removing 70 to 80 projects from the PSDP list, throw forward stood at Rs1,550 billion.Out of total removed projects, some of them have been shifted to the public-private partnership (PPP) on BOT basis such as Munda dam, commercialisation of tea project and Karachi-Hyderabad motorway.When Planning Commission Secretary Ashraf M Hayat was contacted for seeking his comments, he said the financial constraints put pressure on the economy and options were considered to rationalise the development projects. The development projects will be staggered in such a way that fiscal resources will be utilised only for crucial and most important projects. He said it was the view of the planning commission that all kinds of development was essential for this country but there was need to look at the reality of the available resource.“It is our priority that there should be no cut in the PSDP allocations,” he said and added the rationalisation exercise was initiated keeping in view the existing financial crunch being faced by the country. He said the exercise of reducing throw forward was done before assuming charge by him. However, rationalisation of current fiscal year allocation was recommended to the premier by listening views of all ministries/divisions, he added.

England lift World Cup in Sydney

SYDNEY: Caroline Atkins top-scored with 40 runs and late replacement Nicky Shaw took four wickets for 34 as England beat New Zealand by four wickets on Sunday to claim the Women's World Cup.It was England's third World Cup win and came after the side dismissed New Zealand for 166 in the 47th over at North Sydney Oval after the Kiwis won the toss and chose to bat.England scored 167-6 and surpassed New Zealand's total with 23 balls remaining.Fast medium bowler Shaw received a call-up just a few minutes before the team list was submitted after Jenny Gunn aggravated a calf strain during her team's warm up. Shaw's figures of 4-34 from 8.2 overs were her best One-day International totals of her career.Shaw (17) was at the crease when Holly Colvin (5) hit the winning runs for England.Earlier, New Zealand slumped to 101-7 after 29 overs and at one stage went scoreless for 23 balls.An eighth-wicket partnership of 63 off 99 balls between Lucy Doolan (48) and Nicola Browne (25) added some much needed respectability to the Kiwi total.England captain Charlotte Edwards said the win was a big relief after having dropped Shaw from the side only to recall her when Gunn suffered her injury."It's a really special moment and I'll treasure it for the rest of my life," said Edwards. "We were up against a very good New Zealand team and they never gave up."New Zealand captain Haidee Tiffen said her side might have been caught up in the emotion of the day."Maybe there were some nerves in amongst the camp," Tiffen said. "We didn't hype it up to be anything more than another day at the office. Unfortunately it was a bad day at the office."On Saturday, India beat Australia by three wickets in the match for third place, ensuring the hosts posted their worst performance at any Women's World Cup. It was the first time in nine tournaments Australia have finished lower than third and the first time they had lost three times in the one tournament.At Bankstown Oval in Sydney, India clinched the win with 13 balls to spare in a match that was reduced to 46 overs after a 104-minutemorning rain delay. Australia were dismissed for 142, with veteran skipper Karen Rolton top-scoring with 52 in possibly her final World Cup innings.Player of the match Rumeli Dhar (24 not out; 2-21) and captain Jhulan Goswami (18 not out), who was playing her 100th One-day International, also combined at the end in a decisive unbroken stand of 41 off 51 balls to guide India to a winning total of 145-7.Score board New Zealan won tossNew Zealand WomenK L Pulford c Taylor b Guha 8*H M Tiffen c Taylor b Shaw 30S W Bates c Atkins b Shaw 2A E Satterthwaite c Taylor b Shaw 0S J McGlashan c Greenway b Colvin 21A L Mason b Marsh 13N J Browne lbw b Shaw 25S J Tsukigawa c Taylor b Brunt 2L R Doolan st Taylor b Marsh 48S F M Devine lbw b Edwards 0†R H Priest not out 0Extras (lb 2, w 15) 17Total (all out, 47.2 overs) 166Fall: 1-26, 2-49, 3-49, 4-62, 5-74, 6-92, 7-101, 8-164, 9-166Bowling: Brunt 10-3-33-1 (6w); Guha 5-0-24-1 (3w); Shaw 8.2-0-34-4; Colvin 10-1-26-1; Marsh 10-3-34-2 (1w); Edwards 4-1-13-1 (1w)England Women†S J Taylor c Tiffen b Doolan 39C M G Atkins c Devine b Doolan 40S C Taylor b Mason 21*C M Edwards c Priest b Doolan 10L S Greenway c Satterthwaite b Mason 8B L Morgan run out (Pulford/Priest/Tsukigawa) 9N J Shaw not out 17H L Colvin not out 5Extras (lb1, w17) 18Total (6 wickets, 46.1 overs) 167Did not bat: L A Marsh, K H Brunt, I T GuhaFall: 1-74, 2-109, 3-111, 4-121, 5-139, 6-149Bowling: Devine 9-0-30-0 (1w); Pulford 3-0-17-0 (6w); Browne 7-1-24-0 (1w); Bates 4.1-0-21-0 (1w); Doolan 10-4-23-3 (1w); Tsukigawa 4-1-23-0; Mason 9-0-28-2 (6w)Series: England Women won the 2008/09 ICC Women's World CupPlayer of the match: Nicki Shaw (England)Player of the series: Claire Taylor (England)Umpires: S J Davis and B G Jerling (South Africa). TV umpire: T H Wijewardene (Sri Lanka). Match referee: B L Aldridge (New Zealand)