Symonds left out of Australia's Ashes squad

Controversial all-rounder Andrew Symonds was a notable omission from Australia's squad for this year's Ashes cricket tour to England when it was announced on Wednesday.

Selectors named a 16-man squad with three all-rounders -- Shane Watson, Andrew McDonald and Marcus North -- but there was no room for the 34-year-old Symonds.

Symonds has had a chequered 26-Test career and has not played for Australia since last year's Boxing Day Test against South Africa in Melbourne following a season of injury, poor form and off-field personal problems.

"Selectors have a tough job picking any team and it's obviously hard picking an Ashes squad and unfortunately for Andrew this time there hasn't been room in the 16-man squad for him," skipper Ricky Ponting said at the team announcement.

"He made a reasonable comeback in the one-day team (against Pakistan) in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the last few weeks and unfortunately he missed out on this selection.

"But I know he'll keep working hard and he'll give himself every opportunity to make his way back into the team in the future."

Chairman of selectors, Andrew Hilditch, said the selection of injury-prone Watson was subject to his recovery from a groin injury.

"I suppose Andrew Symonds and Shane Watson were competing for the same spot, I would class them both as batters who give us quality overs at their best, but on this occasion Shane has been preferred because in the selectors' view he adds great balance to the team," Hilditch said.

"Shane was in extremely good form before his minor injury and in addition he gives us quality pace bowling and he's capable of batting anywhere in the top six, so we think he's a very good selection for the Ashes tour."

Watson said he expected to be bowling in the nets next week after recovering from his latest setback and to be fit and ready by the time the team arrives in England.

Opening batsman Phillip Hughes is the youngster of the tourists at 20, and comes into the Ashes series on the back of scoring four centuries during a recent six-week English county guest stint with Middlesex.

"Phil Hughes has been setting the world on fire over there which is great for him and the team when we all arrive and get under way," Ponting said.

"We have a great balance of youth and experience, so hopefully when the big moments come around it will be all of us who stick our hands up and get the job done.

"Ponting's touring party will have a six-strong pace attack, headed by 310-Test wicket-taker Brett Lee and left-armer Mitchell Johnson. They will be backed up by Stuart Clark, Peter Siddle, Ben Hilfenhaus and Watson. Off spinner Nathan Hauritz was handed the specialist spinner's role, supported by Marcus North and left-armer Michael Clarke.

South Australian Graham Manou was named as a back-up wicketkeeper to Brad Haddin. The five-Test series starts with the First Test in Cardiff from July 8 and finishes with the Fifth Test at The Oval in late August.

Australia hold the Ashes after whitewashing England 5-0 in the last 2006-07 series at home after losing the famous urn in a titanic 2-1 defeat in England in 2005.

Highest Runs Scorer and Highest Wicket Tacker in IPL 2009

Orange Cap (Highest-Run Getter)

Player	Mat	Runs	HS	Ave	SR	100	50	4s	6s
ML Hayden	11	546	89	54.60	145.21	0	5	58	21
AB de Villiers	12	405	105*	67.50	135.45	1	3	35	10
AC Gilchrist	13	395	71	30.38	146.84	0	2	42	24
JP Duminy	12	363	62	45.37	113.79	0	5	24	11
SK Raina	11	342	98	31.09	147.41	0	1	31	17
Yuvraj Singh	13	334	58*	30.36	121.45	0	2	25	16
TM Dilshan	12	329	67*	41.12	119.20	0	3	33	10
KC Sangakkara	13	325	60	32.50	103.17	0	2	29	5
RG Sharma	13	321	52	29.18	119.33	0	1	20	17
SR Tendulkar	12	318	68	31.80	121.37	0	2	31	10

Purple Cap (Highest Wicket Taking Bowler)

Player	Mat	Overs	Runs	Wkts	BBI	Ave	Econ	SR
RP Singh	13	47.4	321	19	4/22	16.89	6.73	15.0
SL Malinga	12	45.3	274	17	3/11	16.11	6.02	16.0
A Nehra	11	43.0	287	17	3/27	16.88	6.67	15.1
IK Pathan	13	46.2	358	15	3/35	23.86	7.72	18.5
MM Patel	10	30.5	227	14	2/14	16.21	7.36	13.2
YA Abdulla	9	28.0	241	14	4/31	17.21	8.60	12.0
SK Warne	12	46.0	341	14	3/24	24.35	7.41	19.7
L Balaji	10	30.2	246	13	4/21	18.92	8.10	14.0
A Kumble	12	43.1	254	13	5/5	19.53	5.88	19.9

Afridi's record knock made with Sachin's bat

While it is common knowledge that Pakistan's Shahid Afridi holds the record for a 37-ball one-day century, not many know that it came off the blade of Sachin Tendulkar's bat.

Speaking exclusively to Gulf News yesterday, Afridi said that his 37-ball hundred against Sri Lanka in Nairobi, in his very first one-day innings, came off the bat of the modern day's greatest batsman.

"I had just got into the Pakistan team and during nets in Nairobi 'Wicky Bhai' [Waqar Younis] gave me a bat and said, play with this and see. It is Sachin's bat," said the charismatic Pakistan all-rounder, here playing the Chapal Cup series against Australia.

"I tried it out it; it felt good and played with it in my first ever one-dayer. I scored that innings of 100 in 37 balls with the same bat," said Afridi, who was 16 years and 217 days when he entered the record books on October 4, 1996. Afridi, who is one of the most popular players among the Pakistani stars, had belted 11 sixes and six fours in that 37-ball innings which is still the world record for being the fastest ODI century.

Afridi went on to explain how Sachin's bat had landed with Younis.

"It was a great honour for me to play with Sachin's bat for he was a great player. Sachin had given the bat to 'Wicky Bhai' and had asked him to get a similar bat made in Sialkot for him [Sachin]," Afridi said.

"Of course I have also got out on zero with that bat. Now it is with me and sometime back people told me to auction it but I still have kept it with me," said Afridi.

"It will always be one of my treasured possessions as I used it in my very first one-day match playing for my country and also for hitting a world record," said Afridi, feared by bowlers all over the world for his big hitting.

Pak may reject playing WC games in India

The 2011 World Cup, scheduled in the sub-continent, ran into fresh trouble with a senior cricket board official here indicating that Pakistan might decline to play its matches in India.

Saleem Altaf, chief operating officer of the Pakistan Cricket Board, said PCB would take its time before deciding where it would play its 2011 World Cup matches.

"It is our right to decide where we play our World Cup matches now that the games have been relocated from Pakistan," he said.

PCB officials and former players remain upset after the International Cricket Council decided on Friday to shift the World Cup matches from Pakistan due to security reasons.

Pakistan was due to host 14 games, including one semi-final, and the home side was supposed to play all its matches in front of home crowds.

But the ICC now has to reschedule and allocate new venues for these 14 matches with India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the joint hosts of the tournament, vying to get those games.

Tendulkar vindicated by Dhoni's success

Instrumental in Mahendra Singh Dhoni's elevation to captaincy of the Indian team, Sachin Tendulkar says India's rich success under the stewardship of the star stumper from Jharkhand vindicated his faith in him.

After Rahul Dravid decided to step down from the captain's job soon after India's England tour last year, Tendulkar suggested Dhoni's name to then BCCI president Sharad Pawar.

Under Dhoni, India won, among others, the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa, tri-series in Australia, Test series against Australia at home before recording their first ODI series win in New Zealand and first Test series there in 41 years.

Refusing to disclose much about his suggestion to Pawar to appoint Dhoni as the captain, Tendulkar said, "I spoke to the BCCI president but I would not want to discuss everything publicly. As I said earlier, it's my principle that whatever happens inside dressing room should stay there."

Tendulkar, however, did not hide his satisfaction after Dhoni lived up to his expectation. "Talking about his captaincy, I'm extremely happy and delighted the way he has conducted himself," Tendulkar said.

"He is a balanced guy, is always on his toes all the time. Before he was made the captain, standing in the slips I interacted with him and picked a lot of things which clearly indicated that he has a sharp brain, his approach was pretty clear and not complicated," Tendulkar said. "I think he is doing a fantastic job."

Incidentally, Tendulkar himself struggled whenever he was saddled with captaincy.

Asked if he would love to have another go at it, the Mumbai run-machine was almost indignant. "Now what kind of question is it?" he asked.

"The team is doing so well (under Dhoni) and you should be proud of it," he admonished the person posing the query.

Tendulkar said he was rather happy playing mentor's role to younger players.

"To players like Harbhajan Singh or Yuvraj Singh, I'm like their elder brother. I share information not just with them but also with other members of the side. It's a terrific atmosphere in the dressing room and it's not just a one-way traffic," he said.

"We learn from each other and if someone has some issues, there is the coach. Generally it's a great atmosphere and I enjoy being part of this side," he added.

Dhoni, Harbhajan skip prestigious awards

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh find themselves embroiled in an unexpected controversy. Dhoni and Harbhajan missed the Padma awards ceremony in Delhi on Tuesday despite being in the country.

Harbhajan explained why he couldn't attend the ceremony in the Capital. He said he had pressing family commitments in his home town Jalandhar.

"I wanted to attend the award ceremony," Harbhajan said here on Wednesday. "I had some family commitments that's why I couldn't attend the awards. I have not done any mistake. If anybody thinks that I have committed a mistake, then I will come two days in advance."

Rubbishing reports that he was in the Capital for an ad shoot, Harbhajan said if this "charge" is proved he would quit cricket.

"The allegation that I was in New Delhi or was shooting for an advertisement instead of attending the Padma award ceremony is completely false," Harbhajan said. "If anyone says that I was in Delhi and proves it, I will stop playing cricket."

However, there was no word from Dhoni over him giving the awards a miss. Reports claim Dhoni missed the function because he had commercial commitments to meet.

Dhoni left for South Africa on Tuesday night to play in the IPL, but despite being in Mumbai all day failed to turn up for the ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

India's Minister of Home Affairs P Chidambaram, however, played down the duo's absence, saying there are two or three absentees from the awards often.

"Both are in South Africa," he said. "They had told us they are playing matches there and won't be available. That happens every year, one or two people don't turn because they have other things to do."

Tendulkar first time Man of the Match in IPL

Sachin Tendulkar was adjudged the Man of the Match for the first time in the Indian Premier League (IPL) after he led Mumbai Indians to a victory against last year's finalists Chennai Super Kings here Saturday.

Tendulkar scored his second fifty in the competition, remaining unbeaten with 59, his first fifty plus score coming May last year when he made 65 against Kings XI at the Wankhede Stadium.

The other statistical highlights of the opening match in the second edition of the IPL:

· Mumbai Indians posted their eighth victory in 15 IPL games. They have now won two out of three contested against Chennai Super Kings.

· Mumbai Indians have won two games in succession against Chennai. They had defeated Chennai by nine wickets at Wankhede Stadium on May 14, 2008 in their previous meeting.

· Lasith Malinga (3/15) has produced his career-best bowling figures in Twenty20. His figures are the best for Mumbai Indians against Chennai Super Kings, bettering the 3 for 33 by Dhawal Kulkarni at the Wankhede Stadium on May 14, 2008.

· Manpreet Gony is the leading bowler for Chennai in the IPL. His 19 wickets at an average of 25.00 in 17 matches obliterated Albie Morkel's tally of 17 at 23.47 runs apiece in 13 matches.

· Mumbai (166/7) posted their second highest total against Chennai, next only to their 202 for seven at Chennai on April 23, 2008.

· Jayasuriya has taken his run-aggregate in the IPL to 540 at an average of 41.53, surpassing Gautam Gambhir's tally of 534 in 14 innings at an average of 41.07.

· Parthiv Patel's second-ball duck is his second in the IPL. In the first edition of the IPL, he had posted a first-ball duck against Rajasthan Royals at Jaipur.