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Pakistan coach Waqar Younis has told the ICC Code of Conduct Commission that Mohammad Amir’s infamous no-ball during the Lord’s Test had surprised him “greatly” because it was very different from his normal delivery stride. He said he’d taken up the issue with the bowler, only for the then captain, Salman Butt, to intervene before Amir could reply.Waqar’s statements, published in , formed part of his testimony to the commission investigating the spot-fixing case, which will hear testimony from the three players suspended by the ICC – Amir, Butt and Mohammad Asif – from January 6-11 in Doha. All three have denied their involvement in any spot-fixing.Waqar said he’d been “greatly” surprised by Amir’s no-ball during the Lord’s Test. “This was because Amir’s front foot stepped over the line by a great distance whereas usually, if anything, Amir tends to bowl from well behind the front-foot line.”I was so surprised by the delivery that when we went back into the dressing room at the end of that morning session I said to Amir in Punjabi, ‘What the hell was that?’. But before Amir had the chance to answer my question, Salman interrupted from across the dressing room, saying: ‘I told him to do it because the batsman was coming on the front foot. I told him to come forward and bowl him a bouncer’.”Following the exposé in the , Scotland Yard raided the Pakistan team’s hotel in London and questioned the trio as well as a fourth player Wahab Riaz, who was not suspended.The team’s security manager, Khawaja Najam, told the commission of vast sums of money being confiscated from the room of one of the players. “During the Scotland Yard search of the players’ rooms at the team hotel, two police officers found cash in a bag and a small suitcase which they seized. Most of the cash was in the suitcase,” quoted Najam as saying. “I asked the police officers to put on record the amount of money they had confiscated and they did so immediately.”I have retained that note and attached a copy of it which reads as follows: Room No. 714 – 24,300 UAE Dirhams, 29,787 pound sterling, 12,617 US dollars, 10 Australian dollars, 26,015 Pakistani rupees, 350 Canadian dollars and 440 South African rand.”While we were there, the police officers asked Salman why he had so much cash in his room and Salman stated: ‘It’s for my two sisters, they are getting married, it’s for their dowry’.”From Amir’s room, Najam said, the police found “a Tag Heuer mobile phone and possibly other mobile phones, 5,000 pounds in cash, a few hundred US dollars and a white envelope with 2,500 pounds.”Speaking to two weeks ago, Butt explained in detail the money found in his room. Part of the money [11,000 pounds], he said, came from his daily tour allowance; another 4,500 pounds was from his extra entertainment allowance as team captain, while 2,500 pounds was for the opening of an ice-cream parlour in south London. The rest of the money, he said, was advanced payment for bat stickers which he was under contract for.

Don’t hassle the Hoff
First he became famous for owning a car with a bigger brain than him. Then he moved on to making red budgie smugglers into the 1990s fashion accessory of choice. In between whiles he single-handedly ended the Cold War. But today, when David Hasselhoff played a lofted cover drive off Shane Warne, while batting in the shadow of the Bradman Stand no less, he attained more greatness in a single sentence than in much of the rest of his career. Nevertheless, the Hoff stole the show on the second day at the SCG. His tenuous interest in cricket was telegraphed this week with a cameo appearance in Graeme Swann’s latest video diary, and in the ten minutes before tea, there were as many people watching his antics with a plastic bat as were glued on England’s serene acceleration against the new ball. The fact that, prior to the series, Warne had accused Swann of strutting around as if he himself was the Hoff added an extra frisson to their confrontation.Don’t hassle the Hilf
Ben Hilfenhoff, to give him his new (and presumably short-lived) nickname, has improved markedly as a batsman since he started his Test career with two ducks in three innings against South Africa in 2009. At Lord’s in July, he transformed Australia’s fortunes in the first Test against Pakistan with his maiden half-century, and today, he and Mitchell Johnson set about producing another rescue job in a free-wheeling 76-run stand for the ninth wicket, which had several nostalgic England fans daydreaming about Darren Gough and Devon Malcolm’s anarchic onslaught on this very ground 16 years ago. The best moment of the stand was Hilfenhaus’s dismissive drive over long-on for six off Tim Bresnan, a blow of such authority that Johnson felt obliged to follow up with a four and a six of his own off Graeme Swann’s very next deliveries. In truth it was all too clean-cut to truly bear comparison with that mayhem of yesteryear. But tailend runs are always fun to watch.Trott sinks
Prior to this innings, Jonathan Trott’s average against Australia was an extraordinary 100.83, and comprised of three hundreds in five Tests, including his brilliant 168 not out to put the Melbourne Test out of reach last week. In the blink of an eye today, however, he had a full 14 points lopped off that average, as Mitchell Johnson lured him into an unbalanced drive, and bowled him off the inside-edge for a six-ball duck. What is more, it was the very first 0 of Trott’s Test career. In 29 previous innings he had only failed to reach double-figures on four occasions, with his lowest score of 3 coming against Bangladesh at Old Trafford in June.Not six of the best
Brad Haddin was Australia’s third No.6 of the series but he didn’t provide anything useful and was the first wicket of the day. It was Michael Clarke’s idea to promote Haddin above Steven Smith, who was rated a specialist batsman in Perth and Melbourne. Haddin managed 6 before he wafted outside off and was caught behind in the day’s fourth over. His contribution took Australia’s No.6 tally to 142 in eight innings, with Smith’s 38 at the WACA the best so far.Hussey uncovered
Michael Hussey was looking dangerous by the time he reached his 30s and seemed extremely comfortable targeting Paul Collingwood’s medium pace. In Collingwood’s fourth over Hussey pulled him for two from the first ball, and then cover drove him four balls in a row. The field was immaculately set and the men were never beaten, but their hands were sore. Hussey felt ready to break free but the final ball of the over was fuller, straighter and swung in, clipping the batsman’s inside edge on the way to the stumps.Sydney likes Beer
Australia’s debutants have received strong welcomes over the first two days. On the opening afternoon it was Usman Khawaja who received the praise and today it was Michael Beer’s turn. Beer, the left-arm spinner, walked out to a loud cheer and was applauded when he defended a ball, and then glanced his first Test runs. The biggest roar came when he came on to bowl late in the day and had Alastair Cook caught at mid-off, but it was followed by a raucous boo. Billy Bowden wanted to check if there had been a no-ball. There was, so Cook stayed. Beer’s mood improved slightly when he took the catch of Kevin Pietersen at fine leg.

Robin Singh will be getting a fresh taste of cricket in the USA when he arrives this weekend to coach the USA Under-19 team at the ICC Americas U-19 Division One tournament in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The former Indian fielding coach is hoping to apply his expertise to help raise the country’s standard of cricket, beginning at the junior level.”I’m really excited to get involved with US cricket,” Singh said when reached by telephone in India. “I used to work at doing a lot of development and coaching in Hong Kong and even though the USA is much bigger, I’m familiar with the challenges faced by an Associate country.”Singh was approached by USACA for the position, and while he is only contracted through this tournament, there is the possibility that both sides may work out a deal to keep him involved long term which may also mean taking over the senior team coaching duties as well. One of the major things that Singh hopes to focus on is improving the fitness of the players. However, he acknowledges that he’ll need more time in the future to work with the players in order to get the best results.”I don’t really know too much about the team yet,” he said. “There aren’t too many stats available, but I’ve gotten some information and am hoping to get to know the players as much as possible during the week to get the best out of them.”USA participated in the 2010 U-19 World Cup and will be hoping to make it back for the 2012 edition. Four players in the current squad were part of the team that went to New Zealand for last year’s main event including Salman Ahmad, Hammad Shahid, vice-captain Steven Taylor and captain Abhijit Joshi. USA begins tournament play on February 7 against Argentina.

Ricky Ponting hopes Australia’s decision to leave Michael Hussey at home due to doubts over his hamstring injury won’t cost them dearly later in the World Cup. The national selectors nearly faced an embarrassing situation after Hussey trained so well in Perth that Western Australia wanted to pick him for their Sheffield Shield match, which started on Monday.That was the same day Australia kicked off their World Cup campaign, and while the batsmen did enough to help set up a victory over Zimbabwe, Hussey’s quick scoring in the middle order could have been very useful. In the end, Hussey reportedly called the Western Australia coach Mickey Arthur and decided against playing at the WACA.But it was a close call, and it would not looked good had Australia’s highest-ranked ODI batsman been playing Sheffield Shield cricket instead of the World Cup opener. And the selector Greg Chappell confirmed on Monday that under the ICC rules, Hussey would not be allowed to rejoin the squad, even if another player was injured later in the competition.”Hopefully it won’t come back and hurt us at all,” Ponting said after the win over Zimbabwe. “We’ve got what we’ve got now, with the squad. We understand that Mike was disappointed not to be in this squad in the first place and we’re disappointed for him as well.”But all we can do now is move forward and move on with the squad of players that we’ve got and do the best that we can to try to get ourselves into the semi-final stage of this event. We hope that Mike does make a speedy recovery and he is back playing cricket again soon. The medicos and our selectors felt he wasn’t fit enough to come away on the tour.”Hussey had surgery five weeks ago to reattach a hamstring tendon that tore off the bone during the opening ODI against England, and the selectors did not want to risk taking an unfit player to the World Cup. But at training in Perth on Sunday, he impressed the Western Australian staff so much that he was named to play against Tasmania, before the decision was changed.Adding to the drama were reports that Chappell had told Hussey that he should consider retirement rather than trying to force his way back into the Australian team. Australia generally base their selections on Ashes and World Cup cycles, and it’s unlikely Hussey, who is now 35, will be part of the next battle for the urn or the next World Cup campaign, but Chappell denied the reports.”That’s untrue,” Chappell told reporters in Melbourne. “In the nets [on Sunday] he was pretty excited by the way he pulled up, but in discussions between Cricket Australia medical staff and West Australian medical staff, they decided it was probably imprudent to try and rush it. They decided to stick to the original plan – try and play some club cricket on the weekend and resume on March 3. They jointly agreed to stick to that plan.”Hussey is the only Australian ranked in the ICC’s top ten ODI batsmen, sitting in fourth position behind Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli. If Australia need a replacement batsman during the rest of the World Cup, they will probably look to Shaun Marsh, although he is still struggling with a hamstring injury of his own, while another option would be Adam Voges.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Mohnish Mishra’s charge on Muttiah Muralitharan led Pune to victory•Associated Press

A fluctuating game between the two new teams in the tournament ended with Pune Warriors at the top of the table and Kochi Tuskers Kerala near the other end. The unheralded Paul Valthaty had played a blinder to win the first game of the day for Kings XI Punjab, and it was another low-profile player, Mohnish Mishra, who sealed the game for Pune with an unruffled 37 in a close finish at the DY Patil Stadium.For the second game in a row, Mahela Jayawardene was let down by the bowling in the death. Raiphi Gomez had been taken for three sixes by AB de Villiers in the 18th over of Kochi’s opening match to win it for Bangalore; today, with Pune’s main batsmen dismissed and 20 needed off 13 balls, Ravindra Jadeja was hammered for a straight six by Rahul Sharma, before Mishra clubbed Muttiah Muralitharan for a four and two sixes over the leg side in five deliveries to grab victory.Pune had been galloping to victory when Robin Uthappa played a typically powerful cameo. Uthappa had started with an assured reverse-sweep off Murali first ball, and looked in great touch, sprinting to 30 off 11 deliveries, including a monster hit over wide long-on off Murali that was perhaps the biggest six of the tournament. His cavalier attempt at another reverse-sweep, though, ended with him being bowled, and Wayne Parnell’s run-out an over later evened the match as Pune slumped to 118 for 6.That was one of the many twists the game took. Kochi began badly as, for the third match in a row, there was a wicket off the first ball: Alfonso Thomas dismissed Brendon McCullum with a swinging delivery that was nicked to the wicketkeeper. Wayne Parnell then nailed two experienced batsmen, VVS Laxman and Mahela Jayawardene, and left Kochi hobbling at 24 for 4.Kochi, however, showed the depth in their batting with Jadeja and Hodge launching a fightback. Jadeja came out swinging, hitting three boundaries in his first over, while Hodge was more circumspect. Jadeja swung a couple of sixes over midwicket off the spinners to bring up the 50 partnership, after which Hodge also played his shots.With the boundaries flowing, Kochi galloped to 111 for 4 after 15 overs, before Pune hit back. Murali Kartik plucked a low catch falling forward at long-on to send back Hodge for 39, and Jadeja mishit an attempted slog to mid-off in the next over. The double-blow choked the runs – instead of a big flourish, only nine came in three overs. Kochi were headed for an underwhelming score but Raiphi Gomes helped plunder 28 off the final two overs to lift them to 148.Kochi had a bit of fortune in removing the Pune openers. The chase started with some cover-driven boundaries from Jesse Ryder and Graeme Smith before Vinay Kumar’s reflex attempt to catch a mishit from Ryder bounced off his arms on to his chest before he completed a juggling catch. Smith seemed to be hitting form with some muscular boundaries but his innings was cut short when he swiped a full toss to the fielder at deep midwicket.Hodge turned the ball and produced two quick breakthroughs that kept Kochi in the hunt. Mithun Manhas holed out to long-on and Yuvraj Singh walked after edging to the wicketkeeper to leave Pune in a bit of trouble at 72 for 4. Uthappa’s power-hitting and the cool head of Mishra, though, confirmed the win after some more anxious moments.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Paul Valthaty pulled off a coup•AFP

The IPL’s northernmost franchise found a hero with roots in the south, as Paul Valthaty stunned Chennai Super Kings to clinch a maiden win for Kings XI Punjab this season after a disappointing performance in their opening game. Valthaty was a surprise promotion to the opening slot, instead of the regular Shaun Marsh, and he answered the call with a blistering start, keeping his team on par with the required-rate in the middle overs and surging again at the death to complete victory after achieving a spectacular century.At 27, with just one List A game and 13 Twenty20 matches, Valthaty had been on the sidelines of the Mumbai team on India’s domestic circuit. His previous highest in the IPL was 6, but whatever he must have done at the practice sessions ahead of this game sparked a potentially career-changing turn of events. Punjab had been deflated at the end of the Chennai innings, after they had squandered the perfect start of two wickets off the first two balls to concede 188. The sight of an unfamiliar face walking out with Adam Gilchrist raised eyebrows, but it didn’t take too long for Valthaty to justify his promotion.In what was overall a descent into mediocrity for both teams with the ball, the only signs of promise were visible in the first few overs in either innings. As Tim Southee found some swing and R Ashwin accuracy in the early phase of the chase, Valthaty did as asked, combating the bowling with brute force as his usually belligerent partner ceded floor. Ashwin was swept over square leg and hit over mid-on, Southee was punished for providing width with a bludgeon through point and Albie Morkel was welcomed with a ferocious pull for six followed by a disdainful slash to the point boundary.Valthaty had smashed 45 of the 65 that came in the Powerplay, the wicket of Gilchrist proving a minor distraction. The focus turned to keeping the momentum with Punjab and he showed his adeptness at picking the gaps, backing up the strength in his forearms with a wonderful use of the wrists. The second ball after the Powerplay was delicately late-cut past point, and the singles were picked up with ease amid excellent support from Sunny Singh at the other end who struck a few useful blows of his own.Valthaty hammered Jakati and Randiv through the off side and lofted Styris for a straight six, ensuring the chase was on track despite the loss of Sunny and Abhishek Nayar in quick succession. Thirty-eight were needed off 24 when Morkel was brought back, a decision MS Dhoni was made to regret. Morkel had dropped Valthaty twice, among the many fielding lapses from Chennai, and hurt his team’s chances even further in an over that fetched 17. He gifted a full toss on the pads, then produced a streaky edge that brought up a 52-ball ton for Valthaty, who followed up with superbly timed steer past point to make it 21 off three overs. Even the otherwise impressive Southee faltered against Valthaty in his final over to be slashes for two fours, before Dinesh Karthik slog-swept Jakati to seal a morale-boosting win.That performance undermined a Chennai recovery led by Badrinath and Vijay, one seeking to constantly improvise and the other relying on powerplay, in a 124-run stand to set the foundation for a total that would test the opposition even on a flat pitch. Some inept bowling from Piyush Chawla and Bhargav Bhatt provided them the release to open up after the early tough phase, while Nayar’s failed variations in pace and Praveen’s poor return at the death, in the 18th over where Dhoni blasted 22, appeared to have put it beyond Punjab. Who would have bet on Valthaty to pull off a coup?

Kevin O’Brien, the Ireland allrounder who struck a record-breaking century to set up a historic win over England at the World Cup, has scored two domestic contracts that will keep him busy this summer.O’Brien, 27, has been signed by Gloucestershire for the remainder of the English domestic season, barring approximately 18 days he will spend playing in the inaugural Sri Lanka Premier League Tournament between late July and early August.”I am very excited to have the opportunity to play for Gloucestershire, and work under one of the most successful coaches in domestic one day history,” said O’Brien. “I am looking forward to getting over there and hopefully helping the team to achieve its goals in all forms of the game, but especially Twenty20 and one-day cricket.”Hopefully I can have a great season, help Gloucestershire win trophies and improve my game even further. It is going to be an honour to play with Murali, and hopefully I can learn from guys who have performed so consistently in domestic cricket for many years.””We are delighted to have signed Kevin O’Brien to our squad with particular reference to his one day skills,” added John Bracewell, Gloucestershire’s Director of Cricket. “Given his heroics in the World Cup the Gladiators have a genuine lion slayer in their midst.”O’Brien will join Gloucestershire’s squad the squad later this week and should be available for the match against Glamorgan on Sunday May 15. There remains some uncertainty over who he will be playing for in Sri Lanka, where the seven teams taking part will be drawn from Basnahira, Kandurata, Nagenahira, Ruhuna, Uthura, Uva and Wayamba, but O’Brien has some clues as to who his team-mates will be.”I’m still not 100% who I’ll be playing for in Sri Lanka, although I have been told that Sanath Jayasuria will be the team’s captain, and that Darren Bravo and lonwabo Tsotosbe will also be on the team,” he said.”The opportunity actually came through Phil Simmons, who forwarded me an e-mail a while back, and subsequently Somerset Entertainment Ventures approached me. It’s going to be a magnificent experience, and hopefully I’ll acquit myself well in what’s sure to be a terrific tournament.”All the games in that competition will be played the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo and the winner of the tournament will qualify for the Champions League Twenty20. The league will be run by the Singapore-based Somerset Entertainment, which has bought the rights for five years.O’Brien, who normally spends his summers playing for Railway Union Cricket Club in Ireland, made his one-day international debut in 2006 in Ireland’s inaugural ODI, and his international Twenty20 debut followed in 2008. He played for Nottinghamshire in 2009, and in 2010 was awarded a contract with Cricket Ireland, making him one of six players with a full-time contract with the board.He has scored 1534 runs in 58 ODIs to date at an average of 34.86 and has also taken 47 wickets, putting him near the top of Ireland’s record lists for both batting and bowling in ODIs.Kevin’s brother Niall is a regular for Northamptonshire, and although the two won’t have a chance to compete during Northamptonshire’s trip to Bristol from May 11 to 14, they could well meet as opponents in Northants’ final four-day game of the season in mid-September, or in the latter stages of one of the limited-overs competitions.

Nottinghamshire have been fined £600 by the ECB’s Cricket Discipline Commission after playing David Hussey as an unregistered player in a Friends Life t20 match earlier this month.After investigation, it was accepted that the failure to register Hussey was an administrative oversight on the part of the county and that the player – now registered – was at all relevant times eligible to play having obtained the necessary No Objection Certificate from Cricket Australia.According to the ECB, Nottinghamshire apologised for their error, accepted the financial penalty and have put in place measures to ensure that such an error is not repeated in the future.

Chennai Super Kings, the IPL champions, and Mumbai Indians will be part of the same group in the Champions League Twenty20 starting September this year. The tournament, which runs from September 23 to October 9, will be preceded by a qualifier phase from which three teams will progress to the main round to compete with seven others. The qualifiers will be held in Hyderabad between September 19 and 21, while the main tournament will be spread across three cities – Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata.The ten teams in the tournament proper will be divided into two groups of five, with Chennai, Mumbai, New South Wales Blues, Cape Cobras and one team from the qualifier phase comprising Group A. Group B includes Royal Challengers Bangalore, Warriors, South Australia Redbacks and two teams (ranked 1 and 3) from the qualifier round. Bangalore take on Warriors in the tournament opener at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. The top two teams from each group advance to the semi-finals (in Bangalore and Chennai), and the winners play the final in Chennai.The teams in the qualifiers are divided into two groups of three. Kolkata Knight Riders, a team from England and Auckland, champions of the HRV Cup, form Group A. The Caribbean T20 champions Trinidad and Tobago, another team from England and one team from Sri Lanka make up Group B. The top teams in each pool followed by the next highest ranked team will progress to the Champions League.The new Future Tours Programme (FTP) includes an official window for the Champions League, enabling international stars to participate in the competition, jointly organised by the boards of India, South Africa and Australia.

Alastair Cook’s marathon 294, that helped England dethrone India from the No. 1 spot in Tests, has catapulted him to a career-best third spot in the ICC rankings for Test batsmen. Cook, who had endured poor form in the first two Tests, came into his own at Edgbaston to pick up 92 points and move to a rating of 836, just two shy of Kumar Sangakkara at No. 2. Jacques Kallis (883) stayed firmly on top of the table, while Sachin Tendulkar (808), still looking for his 100th international century, was pushed to fourth.Cook joined his colleagues Jonathan Trott (5th) and Ian Bell (7th) in the top ten, while Kevin Pietersen’s 63 at Edgbaston pushed him up two spots to 13th. Andrew Strauss (34th) and Eoin Morgan (52nd) also moved up thanks to their contributions to the win.It was a forgettable match for India’s batsmen, who were unable to reach 250 in either innings at Edgbaston, continuing their woeful returns as a team through the series. Virender Sehwag, who bagged a king pair after making a much-hyped return to the side, dropped seven places to 17th, while VVS Laxman slipped out of the top ten, to 12th. Rahul Dravid (14th), who hit centuries in the first two Tests of the series, also suffered a demotion by three spots, and Gautam Gambhir fell to 30th. MS Dhoni was the only Indian batsman to move up, with his twin 70s taking him to 36th.England’s bowlers also prospered, with James Anderson reaching a career-high rating of 803, cementing his No. 2 spot, separating the South African new-ball pair – Dale Steyn (899) and Morne Morkel (751). Tim Bresnan moved up nine places to the 16th spot, while Stuart Broad surged to joint fifth alongside Graeme Swann, who has had a quiet series. Broad’s impressive showing in the series also pitchforked him to second in the allrounders list, three points ahead of Daniel Vettori (364). Kallis remained on top of that list as well, with 451 points.Click here for the full table.