Robin Jackman diagnosed with cancer

Former England cricketer and famous commentator Robin Jackman has become the latest person from the cricketing fraternity to be diagnosed with cancer. He will undergo seven weeks of radiotherapy following two operations to remove malignant tumours from his vocal cords.

"It's not the prettiest, but I got it early and I'm confident I'll be fine," Jackman was quoted as saying in the South African media.

"I won't be in Australia, but I sure will be rooting for the Proteas," he added.

His treatment will be followed by four weeks of rest, and the former player hopes to be back in the commentary box by next year.

Jackman played four Tests and 15 ODIs for England, and was involved with Surrey for 16 seasons starting from 1966. He took more than 1400 first-class wickets and scored 5681 runs.

Jackman maintained close ties with South Africa, coaching and representing Rhodesia and Western Province over 11 seasons.

The news comes less than a month after former England cricketer - Tony Greig - was diagnosed with the disease.

Fine sours comeback for Jesse Ryder

Troubled New Zealand batsman Jesse Ryder was fined for using offensive language on Friday, taking the gloss off a dazzling return to first-class cricket as he strives to revive his international career.

Ryder, a raw talent whose record has been marred by a string of disciplinary lapses, announced he was taking a break from cricket earlier this year to work on "personal issues" after being dropped from the Black Caps.

He made a confident return to the crease in his comeback match for Wellington against Central Districts last week, scoring 117 in the first innings and 174 in the second.

But New Zealand Cricket said Friday that he had been fined NZ$750 ($610) for using offensive and insulting language during the match. It did not detail the offence, which reports said arose from frustration at an lbw decision.

Ryder has been consulting a psychologist as he seeks to get his career back on track and New Zealand officials have said the door remains open for an international return if he can improve his behaviour.

After his latest citing, Ryder's manager Aaron Klee told the Dominion Post newspaper that the batsman was "an emotional individual" who needed to be cut some slack.

"People have to accept Jesse isn't going to be a saint," Klee said.

"He is doing a lot of good things. You are going to get brilliant performances and you are going to get road bumps."

IPL franchises release 107 players ahead of trading window

A total of 107 international and Indian players have been released by the nine IPL franchises from their squads ahead of the players’ auction next week. The deadline for franchises to submit a list of players they wish to retain ahead of the IPL trading window and player auction was October 31 and each of the franchises has met that cutoff. A total of 179 players - 120 Indian and 59 overseas - have been retained on the same financial terms. Among the notable players whose contracts were not included are George Bailey, Joginder Sharma, Scott Styris, Abhinav Mukund, Suraj Randiv, Doug Bollinger (Chennai Super Kings); Darren Bravo, Daniel Christian, Manpreet Gony, Daniel Harris (Deccan Chargers); Glenn Maxwell, Venugopal Rao, Travis Birt, Colin Ingram, Aaron Finch, Doug Bracewell, Robin Bist (Delhi Daredevils); James Faulkner, Romesh Powar, Stuart Broad, Abhishek Nayar (Kings XI Punjab); Jaydev Unadkat (Kolkata Knight Riders); Clint McKay, Thissara Perera, Dwayne Smith, Richard Levi, Davy Jacobs (Mumbai Indians); Michael Clarke, Callum Ferguson, Nathan McCullum, Jesse Ryder, Steve Smith, James Hopes, Tamim Iqbal, Graeme Smith (Pune Warriors India); Johan Botha, Paul Collingwood, Owais Shah, Dinesh Chandimal(Rajsthan Royals); Dirk Nannes, Luke Pomersbach, Mohammad Kaif (Royal Challengers Bangalore) Of the players whose contracts were not extended, there were also 52 uncapped Indian players.

The salary cap for each of the IPL franchises in 2013 is $12.5 million and each squad can contain a maximum of 33 players, inclusive of 11 overseas players. The IPL trading window opens November 19 at which time franchises can purchase uncapped Indian players. From November 1 franchises can re-acquire those players signed on as temporary replacements in IPL 5. 

Current squads with retained players:

Chennai Super Kings - cost of squad $9.3m, salary cap remaining $3.2m

Overseas players: Albie Morkel, Ben Hilfenhaus, Dwayne Bravo, Faff du Plessis, Michael Hussey, Nuwan Kulasekara.

Indian players: MS Dhoni (capt), Murali Vijay, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shadab Jakati, Anirudha Srikkanth, S Badrinath, Suresh Raina, Wriddhiman Saha (wk).

Delhi Daredevils - cost of squad $10.8m, Salary cap remaining $1.7m

Overseas players: Andre Russell, David Warner, Kevin Pietersen, Mahela Jayawardene, Morne Morkel, Roelof van der Merwe, Ross Taylor.

Indian players: Ajit Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Manpreet Juneja, Naman Ojha, Pawan Negi, Shahbaz Nadeem, Umesh Yadav, Unmukt Chand, Varun Aaron, Virender Sehwag, Yogesh Nagar.

Kings XI Punjab - cost of squad $5.3m, Salary cap remaining $7.2m

Overseas players: Adam Gilchrist, Azhar Mahmood, David Hussey, David Miller, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Shaun Marsh.

Indian players: Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, Gurkeerat Singh, Harmeet Singh, Mandeeo Singh, Nitin Saini, Parwinder Awana, Paul Valthaty, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, R Sathish, Siddharth Chitnis, Sunny Singh (Indian).

Kolkata Knight Riders - cost of squad $10.4m, Salary cap remaining $2.1m

Overseas players: Brad Haddin, Brendon McCullum, Brett Lee, Eoin Morgan, Jacques Kallis, James Pattinson, Marchant de Lange, Ryan ten Doeschate, Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine.

Indian players: Debabrata Das, Gautam Gambhir, Iqbal Abdulla, L Balaji, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manoj Tiwary, Manvinder Bisla, Pradeep Sangwan, Rajat Bhatia, Sarabjit Ladda, Shami Ahmed, Yusuf Pathan.

Mumbai Indians - cost of squad $10.7m, Salary cap remaining $1.8m

Overseas players: Aiden Blizzard, Herschelle Gibbs, James Franklin, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Mitchell Johnson, Robin Peterson.

Indian players: Abu Nechin, Aditya Tare, Ambati Rayudu, Amitoze Singh, Apoorv Wankhade, Dhawal Kulkarni, Dinesh Karthik, Harbhajan Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Munaf Patel, Pawan Suyal, Pragyan Ojha, Rahul Shukla, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Suryakumar Yadav, Sushant Marathe, T Suman, Yuzvendra Chahal.

Pune Warriors India - cost of squad $8.5m, Salary cap remaining $4m

Overseas players: Alfonso Thomas, Angelo Mathews, Luke Wright, Marlon Samuels, Mitchell Marsh, Wayne Parnell.

Indian players: Ali Murtuza, Anustup Majumdar, Ashish Nehra, Ashok Dinda, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Dheeraj Jadhav, Eklavya Dwivedi, Harpreet Singh, Krishnakant Upadhyay, Mahesh Rawat, Manish Pandey, Mithun Manhas, Murali Kartik, Rahul Sharma, Raiphi Gomez, Robin Uthappa, Shrikant Wagh, Yuvraj Singh.

Rajasthan Royals - cost of squad $4.1m, Salary cap remaining $8.4m

Overseas players: Brad Hodge, Brad Hogg, Kevon Cooper, Shane Watson, Shaun Tait.

Indian players: Ajinkya Rahane, Ajit Chandila, Ankeet Chavan, Ashok Menaria, Rahul Dravid, Sreesanth, Shreevats Goswami, Siddharth Trivedi, Stuart Binny.

Royal Challengers Bangalore - cost of squad $9.7m, Salary cap remaining $2.8m

Overseas players: AB de Villiers, Andrew McDonald, Chris Gayle, Daniel Vettori, Muttiah Muralitharan, Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Indian players: Abhimanyu Mithun, Arun Karthik, Cheteshwar Pujara, Harshal Patel, KP Appanna, Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal, R Vinay Kumar, Sreenath Aravind, Saurabh Tiwary, J Syed Mohammed, Vijay Zol, Virat Kohli, Zaheer Khan.

Team Hyderabad - cost of squad $5.5m, Salary cap remaining $7m

Overseas players: Cameron White, Chris Lynn, Dale Steyn, JP Duminy, Rusty Theron, Kumar Sangakkara.

Indian players: Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Akash Bhandari, Akshath Reddy, Amit Mishra, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma, Ashish Reddy, Bharat Chipli, Biplab Samantray, Ravi Teja, Ishant Sharma, Parthiv Patel, Shikhar Dhawan, Veer Pratap Singh.

Ganguly opts out of IPL 2013

Former India captain, Sourav Ganguly has said that he has no intentions of playing in the upcoming Indian Premier League despite holding a contract with the Sahara Pune Warriors for one more season. Ganguly has revealed that he has told his bosses at Pune that he wished to end his playing time and would not be available for selection during the 2013 season of the mega tournament.

"I had a wonderful time playing in the IPL for five seasons. It gave me a chance to keep playing top-class cricket even after quitting international cricket. But I can't go on forever, and I have requested the franchise owners not to consider me for IPL 6," Sourav told TOI on Sunday.

Ganguly played the first three seasons of the Indian Premier League for the Kolkata Knight Riders. He led the team as an icon player in the first edition. A poor show meant that 'Dada' as he is fondly called was stripped of his captaincy during a disastrous second edition in South Africa. Ganguly did return to the helm in the subsequent season but failed to take his team to the semi-finals.

He then had to bear the humiliation of not being considered good enough by any of the 10 franchises during the 2011 auctions but later made a late entry into the Pune team following an injury to Ashish Nehra. He took over as the captain in the fifth edition and led his franchise to a last place finish.

They were rumors floating along that Ganguly would not be a part of the Pune management's plans for the 6th edition of the tournament and instead would be offered a role in the team as a 'mentor'.

Sourav Ganguly has also decided to opt out of the Ranji Trophy Team for Bengal for the upcoming season. Ganguly had retired from international cricket in 2008 but had continued to be a part of the domestic set-up.

In Ganguly's absence, Manoj Tiwary has been named the captain. There were indications given by a senior official in the Bengal Board that 'Dada' could return later in the season. "He would not play the first two matches, but depending on our team's position we may get his services later on," Sujan Mukherjee, the secretary of the Bengal board said. "It's a youthful side but we have players with international experience, looking forward to a positive season," he added.

Squad: Manoj Tiwary (capt), Parthasarathi Bhattacharjee, Rohan Banerjee, Jayojit Basu, Writam Porel, Anustup Majumdar, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Iresh Saxena, Ashok Dinda, Sourav Sarkar, Arnab Nandy, Veer Pratap Singh, Subhomoy Das and Aritra Chatterjee

Ashwin awarded top BCCI contract

Offspinner Harbhajan Singh and seamer Ishant Sharma have been demoted from Grade A to B in the BCCI's list of annually contracted players, while offspinner R Ashwin, who has established himself as the leading spinner for India across all three formats, has been promoted from Grade B to A.

This means that the duo of Harbhajan and Ishant will draw a fixed income of Rs 50 lakh (approx $93,000) each from October 2012 to September 2013, instead of the Rs 1 crore (approx $186,000) that players with the top grade of contracts will get. Both bowlers seem to have been penalised for their lacklustre performance in the first half of the contract cycle.

With the BCCI's central contracts committee - consisting of president N Srinivasan, secretary Sanjay Jagdale and Sandeep Patil, the chairman of the all-India selection panel - having shrunk Grade A from 12 players to nine, Ashwin has been the biggest beneficiary, replacing Harbhajan as the only spinner in the top grade. There have been no replacements for Ishant, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman in the top category, with the latter duo having retired from international cricket during the course of the year.

The committee has also promoted Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane from Grade C, which fetches Rs 25 lakh (around $46,500) annually, to B. Both Rahane and Pujara have been billed as leading contenders to fill spots over the long-term in the Test line-up. Umesh Yadav, who has impressed with the ball, and allrounder Irfan Pathan, who is back in national contention after a stint on the sidelines, have been elevated from Grade C to B.

Besides Harbhajan and Ishant, others who have been demoted include Praveen Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja, both of whom have been moved from Grade B to C.

Bowlers S Sreesanth and Jaydev Unadkat are omitted from last year's list of 37 players (the same number as this year). Seamer L Balaji and allrounder Yusuf Pathan return to the list, with Grade C contracts, while fast bowler Ashok Dinda is on the list for the first time.

 

Grade A: Rs 1 crore each (approx $186,000) Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin

 

Grade B: Rs 50 lakh each (approx $93,000) Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Irfan Pathan, Umesh Yadav

 

Grade C: Rs 25 lakh each (around $46,500) Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra, R Vinay Kumar, Munaf Patel, Abhimanyu Mithun, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Wriddhiman Saha, Parthiv Patel, Manoj Tiwary, S Badrinath, Piyush Chawla, Dinesh Karthik, Rahul Sharma, Varun Aaron, Abhinav Mukund, Ashok Dinda, Yusuf Pathan, Praveen Kumar, L Balaji

Vaas to assist NZ bowlers during SL Tests

New Zealand has taken on Chaminda Vaas as their assistant bowling coach for the two-match Test series in Sri Lanka. He will assist Shane Bond, who was appointed bowling coach last week, for the last part of their five-week tour, which begins with the one-off Twenty20 international on October 30.

"We wanted someone with experience in the subcontinent to work with our young bowlers. [Chaminda] Vaas will work alongside bowling coach Shane Bond during the Tests," New Zealand coach Mike Hesson told reporters in Colombo on Friday. "Vaas' extensive playing experience in local conditions will provide valuable input, as we plan and prepare for the Test series. An important part of his brief will be to provide tactical advice to the bowling unit, especially our contingent of left-arm seamers.

"In terms of professional development, it's a great opportunity for Shane Bond to work alongside a different style of coach and I'm sure he'll benefit from the experience."

Vaas, Sri Lanka's second-highest wicket-taker in Tests and ODIs, said he was eager to work with the likes of Doug Bracewell, Chris Martin and Tim Southee, and the left-arm trio - Trent Boult, James Franklin and Neil Wagner.

"I am pleased to have the chance to work with an international team, particularly a side like New Zealand [which has] such a large number of talented young fast bowlers," he said. "I feel my recent experience as a player and understanding of conditions in the subcontinent will benefit the team."

Ahead of their last full tour of Sri Lanka in 2009, New Zealand hired former Pakistan off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq as a consultant, to help their spin bowlers as well as advise the batsmen on how to play spin in the subcontinent, a trend that Hesson, the new man in charge, has followed.

"When we tour a number of countries, we try to access specialists," Hesson said. "When we play in the subcontinent the conditions are very foreign, so we need to learn. We try to take every opportunity that we can. We are very open to get people on short term basis and hopefully it will work." 

Following the one-off T20 and the five-match ODI series, the Test series begins in Galle on November 17.

Turning tracks for England Tests not unfair - Kohli

In wake of the criticism leveled at India over the absence of spinners in the A-Team Squad that will play England in a warm-up game, batsman Virat Kohli has said there would be nothing unfair with making England play on spinner-friendly pitches in the Tests. On India's tour to England and Australia last year, he said, the conditions during the warm-up games and those in the Test matches were vastly different, which was not 'fair' to India.

"Why not [turning pitches]? We were given flattest of tracks during practice matches in England and Australia and then suddenly presented with a green-top during the Tests," Kohli told PTI. "During practice matches, we would face those 120kmph bowlers … If they [England and Australia] wanted to be fair to us, they could have provided us with same kind of tracks for practice matches, like what were used in Tests.

Especially, when they knew that visiting teams get very less time to practice. Now they would be playing on turning tracks and definitely would know where they stand."

The tour of India marks the return of Kevin Peterson to the England side, after a 10-week stand-off with the team. Kohli said he will be under a lot of pressure to perform, especially taking into account England's traditional struggles against spin.

"There will be huge pressure on KP as he has been playing in India for quite some time and considered to be a good batsman against spin.

"You may say that the senior England cricketers have an understanding of these conditions but let me tell you, it's not that easy. You might feel they would like to hit spinners but end up doing exactly opposite."

He pointed to England's tour of the UAE, where they were whitewashed 3-0 by Pakistan in the Tests, as an example of England's continuing issues with spin. "That particular series, there wasn't much turn on offer but England couldn't negotiate one quality spinner [Saeed Ajmal]; they lost the battle in their heads."

Kohli also defended his team-mates, saying the talk about them being poor against short-pitched bowling did not make sense. "I have never really understood this theory. Are people like Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag poor players of short-pitched bowling? Show me how many Indian players were out to short-pitched deliveries in Australia?

"No batsman in world cricket is comfortable against a good bouncer. If you get a good bouncer, give credit to the bowler rather than finding chinks in batsman's armoury."

Similarly, he backed MS Dhoni and Duncan Fletcher saying any criticism directed at them for India's recent poor overseas form was unfounded. "Under him [Dhoni], we have won the World Cup, been No. 1 in Tests ... He has also encouraged the juniors."

"Duncan is also a thorough professional. He would quietly stand in one corner and observe. If he needs to say something, he would come up and give a suggestion. He believes international cricketers know their jobs. If we have lost eight Test matches, blame us and not the coach."