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Paul Sheldon opens the Seenigama Oval along with Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan © Cricinfo Ltd

Fifteen months after the Southern coastal village of Seenigama was hit by the tsunami which took away 125 lives, a cricket ground has been opened there to help empower disadvantaged and displaced rural youth.The grand opening of the Seenigama Oval, the latest project undertaken by Foundation of Goodness, a Sri Lankan NGO, was highlighted by a twenty-over match between the Seenigama Village XI and the Sri Lanka Cricketers’ Association. Both sides fielded former and current Sri Lankan cricketers, including Hashan Tillakaratne and Muttiah Muralitharan.The match turned out to be a high-scoring affair with a record 483 runs being scored off just 37.1 overs. The Cricket Association XI scored 241 for 5 with Chandika Hathurusingha, the former opener, contributing 81 off 42 balls and Nishantha Ranatunga 42 off 15 balls.In reply, Tillakaratne, a former Sri Lankan captain, made the most of the run scoring opportunities to hit an unbeaten 139 from 58 balls in a six-wicket victory, while Muralitharan contributed a breezy 40 off just 10 balls.A proud moment for the village team was the performance of local boy Isuru Sampath, who took 3 for 20 in three overs with his left-arm pace and bagged the Best Bowler award. His victims were Hathurusingha, Ruwan Kalpage and Champaka Ramanayake. Another local lad Kasun Sarathchandra was the Best Fielder, Tillakaratne was awarded the man-of-the-match and Hathurusingha, the Best Batsman.Paul Sheldon, CEO of English county side Surrey, the major sponsor of this project, said that it was a dream come true for both his club and the people of Seenigama. “I am humbled by all this. I am honoured to have played a small part in helping the communities recover from the tsunami by creating these new grounds. It is the first project of its kind anywhere in the world. It has brought ties between Sri Lanka and England closer.”Surrey were responsible for building the entire ground, including the club house, indoor nets, gym and sports office at a cost of ₤100,000. Sheldon added that a Surrey Cricket Village, complete with 50 houses and a cricket ground, would be opened in Kalutara in association with the Sri Lankan board.

Allrounder Dwayne Bravo and wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin will join the Trinidad and Tobago side as they tackle Jamaica in their second match of the 2006 Carib Beer Series at the UWI ground at the St Augustine campus beginning Friday. But former West Indies fast bowler Mervyn Dillon has been omitted from the national line-up.Both Bravo and Ramdin had good performances on the West Indies tour to Australia, as Bravo impressed with bat and ball, recording his second Test century, while Ramdin shone with the bat and behind the stumps as well. The Ganga-led T&T squad also includes West Indies Under-19 vice-captain Jason Mohammed, who stroked a confident 117 against the Ganga XI last weekend, as well as allrounder Richard Kelly, who had a strong bowling performance in the same trial match.The regional fixture was originally scheduled for the Wilson Road Recreation Ground in Penal, but due to bad weather, the ground preparations will not be completed in time and the match has been shifted to St Augustine.Wavell Hinds, Marlon Samuels and Jermaine Lawson have been predictably included in Jamaica’s 13-man squad, named on Friday for the match. The 29-year-old Hinds will resume leadership of the team, replacing Tamar Lambert who led the unit for the first two matches of the Carib Beer Series while Hinds was away on West Indies duty.All three players, however, will suit up for the January 6-9 game with some question marks over their form.Hinds enters the match short of form after scoring just 17 in the three-day practice game that concluded Friday. In his only Test on the tour Down Under, Hinds recorded scores of 10 and 15.Samuels, who returned early from the tour of Australia through injury, will also enter Friday’s match in Trinidad with dodgy form after scoring 32 and 1 in the practice game. His four innings in Australia also yielded paltry returns, with 56 runs in just four Test innings, despite amassing 257 against Queensland in the opening tour match. Lawson also struggled on the Australian tour and was dropped after the first Test in Brisbane, where his 20 overs cost 120 runs with just one wicket to show for his efforts. West Indies opener Chris Gayle, who underwent surgery in Australia during the West Indies tour to correct a long-standing heart defect, was not considered.Barbados recalled Tino Best and Dwayne Smith to the team for the upcoming Carib Beer four-day match against the Windward Islands starting Friday at the Tanteen Cricket Ground.Chairman of selectors Joel Garner said the duo would replace left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn and right-arm pacer Antonio Thomas who were in the team for the first match against Guyana.”We have kept what we believe is strong team,” said Garner, who will accompany the side to Grenada. “The two West Indies players are back and we hope they will do well and add strength to the side.”The Barbados team has been on a break since the end of November, after taking first innings points from their drawn opening match against Guyana at the Everest Cricket Ground. They were slated to play against Trinidad and Tobago in early December but that match was put back until February by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). Since the Christmas break, the team has been training at the 3Ws Oval and the Carlton Cricket Club. Wendell Coppin, the WICB’s development officer, along with former West Indies players Vasbert Drakes and Ottis Gibson, has conducted the operations.West Indies captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul and his deputy Ramnaresh Sarwan will boost the Guyana team for their Carib Beer Series match against the Leeward Islands starting on January 13. Chanderpaul will take over the captaincy from stand-in skipper Reon King who led the squad in the first match against Barbados. Both Chanderpaul and Sarwan missed the first round game because of international commitments with the West Indies team in Australia.Batsman Sewnarine Chattergoon has also returned to the team after injury while fast bowler Rayon Griffith has been recalled after being overlooked for the first match. Steven Jacobs, Damodar Daesrath and former West Indies Under-19 captain Andre Percival have been omitted from the travelling 13-man party to Philipsburg, St Maarten. The team will play a four-day practice match against a Rest Team, skippered by Percival, from January 5-8 at the Enmore Community Centre ground.Jamaica squad Wavell Hinds, Marlon Samuels, Xavier Marshall, Shawn Findlay, Tamar Lambert, Brenton Parchment, David Bernard Jr, Carlton Baugh Jr, Gareth Breese, Nikita Miller, Jermaine Lawson, Andrew Richardson, Jerome Taylor.Barbados squad Ryan Hinds (capt), Ian Bradshaw, Dale Richards, Wayne Blackman, Alcindo Holder, Patrick Browne, Kurt Wilkinson, Floyd Reifer, Ryan Nurse, Ryan Austin, Jason Bennett, Tino Best, Dwayne Smith.Guyana squad Shivnarine Chanderpaul (captain), Ramnaresh Sarwan, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Krishna Arjune, Narsingh Deonarine, Travis Dowlin, Derwin Christian, Mahendra Nagamootoo, Neil McGarrell, Reon King, Esaun Crandon, Rayon Griffith, Imran Jafarally.Trinidad & Tobago squad Daren Ganga (capt), Tishan Maraj, Gregory Mahabir, Denesh Ramdin, Rayad Emrit, Sanjeev Gooljar, Imran Khan, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Bravo, Jason Mohammed, Richard Kelly, Dave Mohammed, Amit Jaggernauth, Sherwin Ganga.

South Africa 441 (Smith 74, Kallis 149, Boje 76, Flintoff 4-79) and 222 for 8 dec (Kallis 66) beat England 163 (Ntini 4-50, Langeveldt 5-46) and 304 (Pollock 4-65, Boje 4-71) by 196 runs, to level series at 1-1
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

A jubilant Nicky Boje celebrates his spinning success© Getty Images

If 2004 was England’s annus mirabilis, they have come down to earth with a bump in ’05, losing that unbeaten record at the earliest possible opportunity. South Africa wrapped up a convincing series-levelling victory halfway between lunch and tea on the final day at Newlands, bowling England out for 304 to win by 196 runs. Nicky Boje and Shaun Pollock finished up with four wickets apiece.Considering England were only a fingertip away from going 2-0 up at Durban, this will be a shattering psychological blow, and they will need every minute of the six precious days coming up before the fourth Test starts at Johannesburg next Thursday. They will be fervently hoping that it isn’t a case of 1998 in reverse – seven years ago South Africa were inches away from going two up, but England somehow scraped a draw at Old Trafford and ended up winning that series 2-1.South Africa, though, will rightly be cock-a-hoop after a thoroughly deserved triumph. Apart from a couple of spells of turgid batting, which might have caused problems if the Cape Town weather had not been so relentlessly bright and sunny, they dominated this match almost from the start. Apart from the batting stumbling-block that is Jacques Kallis (who picked up his second Man of the Match award in a row), the bowlers were the main difference. Pollock was menacing throughout, Charl Langeveldt swung his way through England’s first innings despite a broken left hand, while Boje – who was treated with disdain at Durban – bounced back here with some testing flight and spin.There will be much soul-searching in the England dressing-room, where a supposedly strong batting sides has been bundled out for successive feeble first-innings totals of 139 and 163. And the fact that their No. 11 Steve Harmison top-scored in the second innings here will embarrass the early order even more. There were some signs of a last-ditch fight today, but the departure of Graham Thorpe early on, and the dismissals of Ashley Giles and Geraint Jones late in the morning session, meant that South Africa went in to lunch just two wickets short.England’s slim hopes of a draw had been firmly based on Thorpe surviving the day. But he perished for a two-hour 26 in Pollock’s second over with the new ball, nibbling a pinpoint awayswinger through to AB de Villiers (158 for 6).Jones dropped anchor, and was almost strokeless in the first hour, during which he collected only three runs. But the drinks interval perked him up – some of the beer from the nearby brewery, perhaps – and he twice clobbered Kallis for successive boundaries, two of them superb cover-drives. Jones and Giles settled in for a sensible stand of 62, and idle thoughts were just starting to turn to the Test century which Duncan Fletcher feels is within Giles’s grasp when he edged Boje to slip, where Kallis took a good low catch (220 for 7). Giles’s 25 had occupied 83 minutes and 65 balls.

Graham Thorpe trudges off, as England stare down the barrel of defeat at Cape Town© Getty Images

The killer blow came just before lunch. Jones advanced down the pitch and spanked Boje back over his head for four, but next ball attempted something similar and edged it low to the right of Kallis, who took an even better catch in his outstretched right hand as he dived (225 for 8).The fast bowlers delayed the inevitable with some airy swishes. While Matthew Hoggard concentrated on defence – he dead-batted to 7 from 64 balls in the end – Simon Jones chanced his arm, belting Boje for two fours on his way to 19 before the return of Pollock set up another slip catch for Kallis (253 for 9). And then Harmison, not as his best with the ball so far in this series, threw the bat cheerfully, clubbing 18 off one over from the unamused Pollock, and also mowing a six off Boje on the way to his highest Test score.The last pair slapped on 51. But it couldn’t last, and eventually Harmison poked one out low to the gully, where Boeta Dippenaar clutched the catch that wrapped up the match.About the only good news for England on a dispiriting day was the injuries to Hoggard’s heel and Andrew Flintoff’s side are not serious and should not affect their chances of playing in the rest of the series. Fears that Flintoff had twanged an intercostal muscle were allayed by a scan that showed only a slight tear in an abdominal muscle on his left side.

Wisden Asia Cricket“Even if you give your best, you can always do better.”

Jacques Rudolph © Getty 2003

“When I finally made my official Test debut against Bangladesh I was not nervous at all. Past incidents had taught me that international cricket is harsh and patience is a useful bedfellow. It was a great privilege to represent my country – and then to top that by registering the highest score by a South African batsman on debut, with 222 not out.”Cricket came naturally from age three, owing largely to my father, who played club cricket. Growing up next to a cricket field helped hone my skills. I always dreamed of playing for South Africa, but it was frustrating to have to come as far as Chittagong to do so. I was disappointed when the match against India at Centurion in 2001 was stripped of Test status because of the Mike Denness affair. In my mind I regarded it as a Test, but when I got the double against Bangladesh, I realised I couldn’t have had a better debut.”Centurion was followed by another disappointment, in Sydney a few months later. As a youngster one always thinks of playing against the best and I would have loved to have made my debut at the MCG or the SCG. It was very difficult when things beyond my power took that opportunity away from me [Justin Ontong replaced Rudolph when the United Cricket Board intervened at the last minute to include a coloured person in the team]. It was not a great experience, but you learn from things like this and they build your character.”I have learned that you have got to be more patient, and that shot selection needs to be much better at this level. I am a great believer in the power of the mind. Even if you give your best, you can always do better.”

India have a chance to regroup and reorganise over the next four days in the sleepy seaside town of East London where the tourists meet a South African A team at Buffalo Park.It’s probably the ideal venue for a team that needs a little soul-searching if it is to establish exactly what went wrong in Bloemfontein earlier in the week. To put in bluntly, there’s not an awful lot to do in Bloemfontein, as past touring sides have discovered.Two years ago when England were in East London, the man from the Daily Telegraph likened the town to an open prison. This, perhaps, was a little harsh (after all, locals claims with some pride that the ratio of women to men in this part of the country is nine to one), but the point is that not a lot, barring elderly couples out strolling along the promenade, seems to happen here.So if the Indians wanted some sea air and a chance to rethink their approach, then they could scarcely have asked for better surrounds, always providing that the band of rain currently sweeping across South Africa stays away from this part of the Eastern Cape.The opposition facing the Indians this weekend should test the tourists. Although the South African A team has suffered a spate of injuries, some would argue that the call-ups of Daryll Cullinan and the diminutive Northerns Titans wicketkeeper Kruger van Wyk have actually strengthened the team.From a South African point of view, the performances of Cullinan along with Jacques Rudolph, Paul Adams and Charl Langeveldt will all be closely watched. Cullinan is in the frame possibly for the third Test and the subsequent tour of Australia as is Rudolph, while Adams is desperately trying to prove that he has recovered some of the spark that brought him 96 wickets in 34 TestsLangeveldt, meanwhile, was in the squad for the first Test before being abruptly discarded. Exactly where he fits into the selectors’ thinking is something of a puzzle, but, clearly, he’s in there somewhere.For the Indians, though, the match provides an opportunity to sort out one or two vexing problems, most particularly an opening partner for Shiv Das. Rahul Dravid was used there, without success, in Bloemfontein and it is hard to believe that the tourists will again sacrifice one of their senior batsmen again in Port Elizabeth.Connor Williams should get a game in East London – it will be his first bat in the middle on South African soil – and the other option for the Indians, of course, is to try out Virender Sehwag at the top of the order. The argument against using Sehwag as an opener is that he had just scored a century at number six, so why change him. At the same time, Sehwag must be brimming with confidence and, in scoring his hundred in Bloemfontein, he demonstrated that he has the stomach to take on the South African seamers.Harbhajan Singh will get an outing in East London after sitting out the Test match with his unfortunate affliction and while India might want to give their left-arm seamers another run, they surely will also let Ajit Agarkar loose once again. Indian coach John Wright as much as admitted that it had been a mistake to leave Agarkar out of the first Test and now that he’s had two weeks off, he surely needs a run out in the middle.

Noel Whelan has become the latest pundit to react to an injury update on Celtic midfielder David Turnbull, Football Insider report.

The Lowdown: Postecoglou’s comments

Turnbull is yet to feature in green and white in 2022 due to a hamstring injury he picked up against Hibernian in the Scottish League Cup final in December.

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The 22-year-old was a regular prior to the injury, making 34 appearances in all competitions under Ange Postecoglou.

The Celtic boss confirmed last week that the plan was for the attacking midfielder to return to full training this week and even refused to rule Turnbull out of the game with Ross County on Saturday.

The Latest: Whelan reacts

Whelan, formerly a pundit on BBC Radio Leeds, was talking to FI regarding Turnbull and his return to training. He labelled it as ‘like having a new signing’ and said it was ‘really exciting news’ for the Hoops.

“He really hit the ground running at Celtic but has been out for quite some time now.

“Turnbull was their shining light through a really bad period at the start of the season. But now, he’s coming back into the fold at exactly the right time.

“Postecoglou will need these players and these numbers in his ranks if Celtic are chasing a goal. It’s like having a new signing, it’s really exciting news.

“The run-in will be so difficult but to have that quality change of personnel could be the difference.

“He’s someone that the Celtic fans are really excited about, and I can see why. He’s a brilliant young player for them.”

The Verdict: Ange to be cautious?

We are entering the crunch stage of the campaign, with the Hoops still on course for a domestic treble in Postecoglou’s first season.

It is obviously brilliant news knowing that Turnbull was due to join in training at Lennoxtown this week, however, it may make sense for the manager to ease him back into action.

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You’d expect there is a better chance of a full return to competitive action against Rangers following the international break, but it looks as if Celtic’s main creative star will play a key part in the final months of the season, and who knows, Kyogo Furuhashi may not be far behind.

In other news: Sky Sports man drops fresh Celtic takeover claim regarding £150m man. 

Karachi Blues, who are battling for survival in the Grade-I, let some of the initiative slipped away on the first day of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy match against Sargodha at the UBL Sports Complex here on Monday.Sargodha recovered to reach 180 in their first innings after being reduced to 67 for seven an hour into the afternoon session.Karachi Blues, in reply, survived two overs to close on two without loss. But Suleman Huda might have perished LBW to pacer Umair Hasan had umpire Sajjad Asghar not declared a no ball.After electing to bat first on a slow track, Sargodha lost the top five batsmen for only 26 runs on the board. Stand-in skipper Naved Latif, who amassed 394 against Gujranwala barely eight weeks ago, fell to left-arm paceman Imranullah for a first-ball duck. Imranullah bowled a fine opening spell to claim three wickets which left Sargodha taking lunch at 46 for five.When wicket-keeper Shahid Mahmood was bowled by left-arm spinner Salman Fazal for 14, Sargodha slumped to 67 for seven. However, dogged batting, engineered by left-handed Ashraf Bashir, by the lower order brought respectability to the score.Ashraf and Faisal Khan Afridi, a burly right-hander, shared an eighth wicket stand of 51 in 40 minutes. Afridi used the long handle effectively to make 31 off 32 balls with five fours. He also lifted Salman Fazal over long-off to the top railing of the stand for massive six.Ashraf finally departed when he holed out to Karachi Blues captain Farhan Adil at cover off part-time off-spinner Nomanullah after making 39 of 130 deliveries in two hours and 10 minutes. He put on 38 for the ninth wicket with Tariq Munir.Tariq slammed six boundaries on his way to a top-score of 44 in 87 minutes off 75 balls before he was caught behind by Rashid Latif shortly after the second new ball was taken by Mohammad Javed.Imranullah and Salman Fazal claimed three wickets apiece for 26 and 74 runs respectively while Javed chipped in with two for 31.

Lalchand Rajput, the manager of the Indian team, has been appointed assistant coach for the tour of Australia which begins in December.”Gary Kirsten will confirm [his willingness to take up the job of coach] in seven days,” Rajeev Shukla, the Indian board vice-president, said. “Kirsten, if he takes up the job, will be with the team in parts during the Australia tour and hence Rajput will be with the team.”India have been without a coach since Greg Chappell stepped down in April after the World Cup. For the tours that followed, cricket managers were appointed to take charge of the side. Ravi Shastri managed the team in Bangladesh in May and Chandu Borde was in charge in England. Rajput took over from Borde for India’s victorious ICC World Twenty20 campaign and continued to manage the side for the recent home series against Australia and Pakistan.He will now travel with the team to Australia for four Tests and a triangular one-day series.

West Indies will have a lot to worry about if Sarwan and Chanderpaul are not fully fit before the World Cup © Getty Images

West Indies’ third most-capped player, and the second in line to the captaincy, has expressed one opinion on the team’s final preparations for the World Cup, now only two months away. Last week, the selectors gave another.Following December’s one-day series in Pakistan, for which he was entrusted with the vice-captaincy, Chris Gayle wrote that it was “about time” the West Indies had “a steady World Cup squad”. “There is no time to experiment now,” was his logical conclusion.That would have meant choosing the World Cup 14, all to the injured Ramnaresh Sarwan, for the ODI series in India, starting next weekend.The four matches are the last prior to the World Cup that gets underway with the West Indies meeting Pakistan at Sabina Park on March 13. The one-day games present a timely opportunity for the team to sharpen their edge in some tough contests and for the coach Bennett King and captain Brian Lara to determine the best combinations.Above all, to have decided on the World Cup lineup at this early stage would have given peace of mind to those unsure of their places.When the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) finally got around to officially naming the team on January 12, several days after it was disclosed on various media outlets, convenor of selectors Gordon Greenidge outlined a somewhat different scenario.”This is our last chance to look at a few players and they have been included because you do know what might happen in the next few weeks,” he explained. “We have a few injuries, and we want to have a look at a few players at international level to see what they have to offer.”The “few players” Greenidge and his colleagues want to have a final look at are Devon Smith, Darren Sammy and Reyad Emrit who replace Daren Ganga, Dwayne Smith and Corey Collymore from the Pakistan series.Dwayne Bravo (on compassionate grounds) and Sarwan (injury) both missed the Pakistan ODIs. But while Bravo is back Sarwan has still not recovered from his fractured left foot, crushed by Umar Gul’s yorker in the final Test in Pakistan on December 1.Their absence was a severe setback in Pakistan and Sarwan’s long recovery remains a genuine cause for concern. For all his problems last year, culminating in his dropping from the Test team in Pakistan, he remains an essential component in a potentially strong, but inherently inconsistent batting team. His average of 44 in 115 ODIs compares with the best of the day.

Devon Smith, in as a cover for injured Ramnaresh Sarwan for the one-dayers against India, last played an ODI in July 2004 © Getty Images

Without him in Pakistan, West Indies turned to Lendl Simmons, a talented player but still an apprentice, and have now brought back Devon Smith as cover, two and a half years after he was seen as unsuited to the abbreviated game and dropped.Such juggling accentuates Sarwan’s significance. As it is, he has not had an innings since December 1 and, since he misses the Indian series, he will be short of match practice when the World Cup comes around.There are also injury doubts over Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Simmons, neither of whom has yet appeared in the current domestic season although both are included in the squad for India. Chanderpaul has found a new lease of life since his reinstatement as Gayle’s partner in an opening pairing that is the most prolific on ODI record. His value is enhanced at the top of the order and his fitness, to be assessed before he is passed for India, is as essential as Sarwan’s.Dwayne Smith has been left out of the team for India so that Greenidge’s panel can assess Sammy and Emrit, both useful allrounders, at a level higher than the ‘A’ team to which they have been confined.They appear to be contesting one place in the final 14, mainly as medium-pace bowlers who can score handy lower-order runs.Perhaps Dwayne Smith’s exclusion is down to the selectors’ frustration over his failure to produce more with the bat but it is inconceivable that he won’t be the World Cup team.For all his inconsistency, he remains capable of the kind of match-winning innings Collis King, a similarly explosive hitter, produced in the 1979 World Cup final. He bowls effective medium-pace and, above all, is a fielder on par with any in the contemporary game.The value of fielding, more especially in the limited-overs game, cannot be overstated. Viv Richards’ run outs of the Chappell brothers and Alan Turner were as crucial in the victory in the inaugural World Cup in 1975 as Clive Lloyd’s violent hundred.Lara’s three close-in catches and a run out and Bravo’s sharp run out of Andrew Strauss were mainly responsible for restricting England’s score in the victorious ICC Champions Trophy final in 2004.Roger Harper and Jonty Rhodes commanded places in their teams as much on the strength of their fielding as on their other, somewhat lesser virtues. Herschelle Gibbs and Andrew Symonds have offset lean patches with the bat by their value in the field.If the top four in the batting – Gayle, Chanderpaul, Sarwan and Lara – are consistently at their best and build challenging totals and if the fielders support their bowlers and energise the team into limiting, or defending, totals then West Indies has a chance of winning the World Cup. Every one must play his part, one of the many aspects of their cricket that sets Australia apart.

West Indies will need more athletic fielders like Dwayne Bravo to have a successful World Cup campaign © Getty Images

The West Indies carry one or two slow coaches with weak arms but Smith and Bravo are two of the sharpest around in patrolling opposite side of the semi-circles during the early and mid-overs and then protecting the boundaries with their speed and power-throwing in the hectic closing stages.If Smith has been left at home for no other reason than for the selectors “to have a look at a few players at international level to see what they have to offer”, longer term inferences can be made for some who did not make the cut in the initial World Cup squad of 30.Merv Dillon can certainly take it that his stated ambition to return to international cricket is over, as can Reon King. So, as far as the one-day version is concerned, can Pedro Collins and Tino Best. Apart from Best, they are all cricketers on the wrong side of 30 who have had their moments and are in the twilight of their careers.Richard Kelly is at the start of his career and has been left to reflect, as so many others before him, what a fickle game it is. A regular in the ‘A’ team in four successive series as an energetic allrounder and seen as a strong contender for promotion as recently as a few months ago, he suddenly finds himself excluded from the top 30.He is simply the latest West Indian to follow such an undulating path recently. Remember Donovan Pagon, Dave Bernard, Xavier Marshall? It is better he remember a few Australians who also disappeared from the selectors’ radar after early recognition. Their names are Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden and Damien Martyn.

Wasim Bari played a straight bat when asked about Imran Farhat’s chances of a recall © Getty Images

An impressive hundred for Pakistan A against India by Imran Farhat has left Pakistan’s selectors with a tough conundrum as they prepare to select their squad for the series against India on Monday. Farhat was dropped after the Melbourne Test against Australia just over a year ago and despite a shortage of opening options – Pakistan picked only one specialist opener in the series against England – he has faded away from national reckoning since.Pakistan recalled Yasir Hameed, another opener dropped in recent time, for their training camp but he has since fallen ill with typhoid and is unlikely to participate in the first Test. With Shoaib Malik failing to entirely convince as an opener in three Tests against England, Farhat’s reminder to the selectors of his presence could not have been timed any better. Of Farhat’s two Test centuries, one came against India in Lahore two years ago. On the back of an impressive year, that restrained and matchwinning hundred seemingly sealed his place in the side. But a loss of form, culminating in a poor series against Australia left him on the sidelines, since when he has been left to impress at domestic level. Less than a month ago, against a PIA attack including Umar Gul, Fazl-e-Akbar and Najaf Shah, Farhat compiled a mammoth 242 and is averaging just over 80 after four matches in the Patrons Trophy.Wasim Bari, chief selector, admitted his panel had been impressed by the innings but refused to divulge whether he would be called up in light of Hameed’s likely absence. “We will discuss it when making the selection,” Bari told Cricinfo. “We all watched him bat today and it was a good innings but I don’t really want to say anymore on his chances right now. All players in this match are under consideration.”Bari did point out, revealingly perhaps, that captain, coach and selectors are reluctant to tinker too much with a winning team. It suggests, as Inzamam-ul-Haq has also hinted, that Malik may be persevered with as opener for a little longer. “We’re keen on sticking with a winning combination and Malik does also bring balance to our team with his bowling. But it will depend also on what sort of balance the captain wants in his team.”Pakistan has struggled to find a settled opening pair for some time now; some might argue since the left-handed days of Aamir Sohail and Saeed Anwar. In their last thirteen Tests alone Pakistan have tried ten different opening combinations and the emergence of Salman Butt – and that too only recently – has been their only success.Lower down, at number six, lies a more pleasant problem. Primarily, the dilemma is one of intent. In Abdul Razzaq, Shahid Afridi and Asim Kamal Pakistan have three options and endless possibilities. Afridi and Razzaq not only provide robustness to the bowling, their batting allows Pakistan opportunities to attack. Bari said, “The form Afridi and Razzaq have been in means it is very difficult to drop them from the line-up,” which suggests that Kamal’s stodginess in the lower-order may not warrant a starting place. With eight fifties in twelve Tests in his career thus far, Kamal’s plight highlights the current depth in Pakistan’s squad.Earlier in the day, while speaking to the press, Bari said Shoaib Akhtar was bowling as well as he had ever seen him bowl. Bari, along with team management didn’t select Shoaib against India and the West Indies last year. “Not just my view but that of the committee as well that he wasn’t fit when the tour of India was on. It is important for every cricketer to be fit. You can see he is fit, and I haven’t seen him bowl as well as he did against England. He was a complete team man and played brilliantly. He played in all the Tests and took crucial, important wickets for the team. He is now a total team man.”Bari also said he was expecting a keen contest between India and Pakistan. “They are two very good teams. Both are very balanced. No expert can say who is going to win the series. It depends on who plays better on the day. But both have their srengths. India have a formidable batting and very good seam bowlers. Pakistan has the edge in one of the fastest bowlers in Shoaib. If he bowls as well as he did against England, run-getting will be very difficult.”