Sahid Afridi is unhappy with ICC One-day Ranking System

Karachi: Pakistan's limited overs captain Shahid Afridi on Thursday said that he is not satisfied with the One-day rankings system, presently applied by the ICC. Afridi’s unhappiness comes from the recent announcement by the ICC that even if Pakistan, which lead the five-match ODI series 2-0 against the West Indies, manages to whitewash the series, it will not earn them a single rating point and they will still be placed at its current ranked sixth position. "I can't understand this system. There should be some advantage for the visiting sides as winning a series is never easy for them no matter who they're playing against," Afridi said. Afridi questioned the system that offers little reward against lower-ranked opponents.  

Former Indian Cricketer is arrested in human trafficking case

New Delhi: Former Indian cricketer Jacob Martin was arrested by the Delhi Police on Wednesday from Babarpur area of East Delhi in connection with a human trafficking case. Martin, who has represented India in ten ODIs, was wanted in a 2004 case in which he was accused of sending a person named Nimesh Kumar abroad on a fake passport, Delhi Police Deputy Commissioner RA Sanjeev said. Nimesh was arrested in his bid to travel abroad and spilled the beans during interrogation. Police has been on Martin’s trail ever since.Police have taken Martin on eight-day remand for further interrogation. Sanjeev informed that Martin was working along with his agents Rajendra Bhai Patel and Janak Lal Bhogi Raj Pancholi.

Ishant Sharma's excellent bowling against Kochi Tuskors.

If you needed a punctuation mark to describe this game, you'd choose a big, bold exclamation mark and colour it a deep crimson red. Kochi Tuskers Kerala's scorecard was stunningly woeful at the end of four sensational overs: 0 , 4 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 were the scores of the batsmen sucker- punched by Ishant Sharma, who harassed them with seam and bounce. And Kochi never recovered from that soul-crushing spell. His hair bobbed up and down in characteristic fashion as Ishant ran in, fingers behind the seam and wrists snapping at the release, and the length was nearly always full. The first has been an ever- present theme with him in good and bad times, the second image hasn't always been consistently repeated, and the third was a pleasant surprise. Ishant entered the scene after Dale Steyn took out Brendon McCullum in the first over with a delivery that jagged away to take the outside edge. It was the beginning of Kochi's nightmare as Ishant stunned them with a triple strike. Parthiv Patel stabbed at a delivery that bounced and seamed away from him to the keeper, Raiphi Gomez (what was he doing at No. 4 ?) was taken out for a first-ball duck by a sharp incutter, and Brad Hodge combusted off the fifth delivery. He played a loose and ambitious off drive, wafting outside the line of the full delivery that cut in to rearrange the furniture. Kochi were 2 for 4 then and all their hopes rested on their opener and captain Mahela Jayawardene, who was a forlorn figure in the middle, watching the destruction unfold in front of him. Ishant wasn't done yet; he reserved his best for Jayawardene. After trapping Kedar Jadhav in front with a sharp incutter in the fourth over, he produced a brute of a delivery to knock out Jayawardene, and Kochi, in the same over. It screamed up from back of a good length, held its line and kissed the edge of the defensive prod en route to the delighted Kumar Sangakkara. Jayawardene gave an inquisitive, and accusing, look at the pitch before he turned and departed the crime scene. Ishant's figures read an incredible 5 for 6 and Kochi were 11 for 6 from four overs, and though there were a couple of face-saving contributions from Ravindra Jadeja and Thisara Perera, they were rapidly heading along a cul-de-sac. In retrospect, the middle-over massacre led by Sangakkara - Deccan recovered from the depths of 37 for 3 after 10 overs to reach 105 for 3 in 16 - lulled one into a false perception about the nature of the track. In hindsight, Kochi will be ruing a no-ball from Sreesanth that allowed Sangakkara to break free. Sangakkara was on 5 when Sreesanth produced a jaffa - it bent back in from the off stump line to knock out the middle stump - but the third umpire confirmed the on-field umpire's suspicion that it was a no-ball. It was the 11 th over, bowled by Perera, that changed the landscape. Both Sangakkara and Cameron White, who was on 6 from 17 balls, pulled two short deliveries to the boundary to take 11 runs in that over. It wasn't your massive "big over" that the IPL throws up on a daily basis but it was the spark that ignited Deccan, and Sangakkara in particular. In the 12 th over, he dragged Vinay Kumar for two leg- side boundaries and threw in the conventional and the upper cut to collect two more fours in the 14 th over, off Perera. He continued to slash and heave and even unfurled a paddle-swept boundary off Sreesanth but the next over over from Vinay brought Kochi back. Vinay had White holing out to deep midwicket off the fifth delivery and induced Sangakkara to edge a slower one off the next. The lower order couldn't produce anything substantial and the question lingered at the end of their innings: Was 129 going to be enough? Ishant answered it in some style.

Today's Upcoming Matches

International:
     West Indies v Pakistan (09 :30 local | 13 :30 GMT | 19 :00 IST)

Indian Premier League:-      Delhi v Kolkata (20 :00 local | 14 :30 GMT)

DUNCAN FLETCHER NAMED INDIAN CRICKET TEAM COACH

Duncan Fletcher , the former England coach and Zimbabwe captain, has been appointed India' s coach, ending weeks of speculation over who would succeed Gary Kirsten. The BCCI announced the decision to give Fletcher a two-year contract after a Working Committee meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday. Eric Simons' tenure as the team's bowling coach was also extended. Fletcher, though, is unlikely to join India for the tour of the West Indies in June. "The contract with Fletcher is for two years," N Srinivasan, the BCCI secretary, said. "He may not join the team in the West Indies as he has some prior commitments. "After a lot of thought and consultation, the BCCI president and BCCI secretary placed Fletcher's name before the Working Committee, which the Committee ratified," Rajiv Shukla, the BCCI vice-president, said, adding that the terms and conditions of Fletcher's appointment would be the same as that of Kirsten's. It has been reliably learnt that Kirsten played an important hand in recommending Fletcher for the job. Also the board consulted some of the senior India players, including captain MS Dhoni, before finalising Fletcher's appointment. Fletcher, 62 , was in charge of England when they beat Australia in 2005 to regain the Ashes for the first time since 1986-87 , and was credited with turning around England's fortunes in Tests during his eight-year stint, first with Nasser Hussain and then with Michael Vaughan. He was England's first foreign coach and took over in 1999. He oversaw Test series wins in Sri Lanka and Pakistan , though Australia thrashed England 4-1 in the Ashes in 2001. Later, with Vaughan, he helped England win their first Test series in South Africa post apartheid and the pair played a critical role in moulding a team that was to win the Ashes in 2005. England won 42 and lost 30 Tests with Fletcher in charge but their ODI form wasn't as good - winning 75 and losing 82. His tenure reached its lowest ebb during a 0- 5 Ashes drubbing in Australia in 2006-07 and a disappointing World Cup campaign, after which he stepped down. One of Fletcher's problems during his England reign was a tetchy relationship with the media, something which Vaughan felt could be a hindrance in his India job as well. "Duncan will work well with all the talent," Vaughan said on Twitter. "His biggest challenge will come from the media ... he has never really understood how it works." After giving up the England job, Fletcher took up several short- term international assignments. He joined South Africa as a batting consultant in 2008 , a role he returned to for the 2011 World Cup, and was in a similar position with New Zealand on their tour of India last year. England were officially ranked the worst Test team when he took over as their coach, and he will now take charge of a team that won the World Cup earlier this month and is currently top of the Test rankings. One of the first coaching jobs Fletcher took up was at the University of Cape Town, where Kirsten was part of the team. The pair once again were together at Western Province. In 1994 , Fletcher applied for his first high-profile job - the head coach of South Africa. He was one of the three candidates interviewed. His competitors were Eddie Barlow and Bob Woolmer. Eventually the three-man panel comprising Peter Pollock, Raymond White and Ali Bacher agreed on Woolmer, who stayed in the job till 1999. Fletcher, meanwhile, operated as South Africa A coach for a while before taking up the England assignment. According to Bacher, Fletcher's style of coaching draws a lot from his playing days."Hardworking, disciplined, very professionally driven and played to his utmost potential even if he was not blessed with extraordinary talent, " Bacher said. "He brings the same characteristics to his coaching." Fletcher has also been known to work on an individual basis with Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis.