Cricket- Exciting cricket news from around the globe

The Afghan Appeal Fund XI team was whisked from airport to NCA with a Punjab Police escort, and arrived at the Gaddafi Stadium ? a great coliseum of Pakistani cricket © AFP

Our curry diet is three weeks old, seam marks fester on the upper thigh and we are playing more than we miss. Careful planning came to fruition this week as we arrived in Lahore for the first cricket tour of Pakistan by a foreign team, apart from Afghanistan, since the 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka team. We are the Afghan Appeal Fund XI (AAF) ? a charity team captained by Kamal Alam and comprised of MCC, Durham and Oxford University players ? and are here to play four matches, to promote the AAF and also, crucially, to help the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in their bid to bring international cricket back to the country.

We are not the MCC, though we have several playing members and we are not the British Universities, though we are all from British universities. It is a charity tour. The AAF, patronised by General Sir David Richards with Lady Richards as president, is a UK-registered charity set up by British servicemen's wives to build schools and further education in Afghanistan.

The last purpose of the tour ? to support the PCB in their bid to bring international cricket back to Pakistan ? means we have their full support, red carpet et al. With cricket akin to oxygen in these parts, the dearth of international action has had an enormous impact domestically. While the quality of our play may not, in truth, merit our staying at the prestigious National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Lahore, 24-hour access to a bowling machine and breakfast coaching tips from national coach Dav Whatmore are more than welcome. The NCA is also a convenient and secure base. And it is this latter issue, which is of course the key one.

The victories for Bangladesh have sparked impromptu street parties © Bangladesh Cricket Board

Most one-day tournaments get a bad rap. Even the ICC?s global tournaments come in for flak, with the structure and duration of several World Cups questioned, and the Champions Trophy is deemed an irrelevance.

The Asia Cup is no different. While it is finally managing to carve out a space as a regular biennial event over the past few years, the crowds stayed away when it was played in the oppressive heat of June and July in Pakistan four years ago. The previous edition in Dambulla also had little buzz, hardly becoming the focus of attention even in that tiny town.

This time, though, it has been completely different. Dhaka?s massive appetite for cricket has transformed the tournament. The stadium was only half-full for the opening match of the competition, between Bangladesh and Pakistan, but then news filtered in that the city had been crippled by a public transport shutdown, and the fans had still managed to find a way to get to the game.

Even the recent CB Series in Australia, which featured a series of cracking matches, had thin crowds, and by the time of the finals, attention had switched from cricket to Aussie rules football. The league games of the Asia Cup, though, have been played in a cacophonous atmosphere of crowd chants, horns and the odd drum. The victories for Bangladesh have sparked impromptu street parties, an event which is likely in other parts of the subcontinent only in the case of wins in the latter stages of the World Cup.

With the final coming up, the excitement is palpable. ?It?s dangerous to pick up the phone these days,? a Bangladesh board official joked on Wednesday. ?Every call I get is someone asking for tickets.? The board?s acting CEO has had to get a new phone number as his listed one was deluged with demands for tickets. Some schools in Dhaka are closing at noon to allow students the chance to watch the entire match. The evening before the final, the usually chaotic traffic around the stadium was brought to a standstill as a group of fans jubilantly paraded, carrying a giant flag of Bangladesh, roaring their support for the team. The government has also pledged that there will be no load shedding during the live telecast of the match.

The Asia Cup is typically a low-key, quickly forgotten tournament. Not this time.

Al Haj Mahammad Zahirul Haq, around 80, was determined to capture Sachin Tendulkar reaching his 100th ton © Getty Images

As dozens of reporters watched Sachin Tendulkar wend his way towards the 100th, from the terrace of the media centre, a chair was brought out and placed near the safety railing so that it provided an almost perfect straight-on view of the action. Soon after, a doctor and two assistants helped an elderly bald man with a lush white beard sit in the chair. He was clearly ill and his health was regularly monitored by the doctor. He even threw up, but stayed in the chair watching the game. A camera was placed in his hand, and the man peered through it at the action.

He was Al Haj Mahammad Zahirul Haq, a veteran photojournalist for the Bangla daily Aaj Kaal, and had been the official photographer of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first president of Bangladesh. Around 80 years old, Zahirul Haq is diabetic and hypertensive, and was feeling unwell on the day; but being a huge fan of Sachin Tendulkar, he wanted to be at the stadium to capture the moment when the landmark was achieved. Despite struggling to keep the camera in place, he managed to fulfil his dream of photographing the landmark. Immediately after, he was rushed off to the hospital for more thorough checks on his health. Talk about dedication.

'The Zoo' sits behind one set of goalposts at the Forsyth Barr rugby stadium © ESPNcricinfo Ltd

?Rugby is to New Zealand what cricket is to India,? Nathan McCullum said, when talking about the difference in following between the two sports in the country. He didn?t add it?s also probably what football is to South America, but he didn?t have to. The point had been made.

Having watched cricket in India and football in South America, I had to complete the triangle and the circumstances combined to make sure I did. The Forsyth Barr Stadium is right next to University Oval, which means one can spend 12 hours ? from a 9.30 am arrival at the cricket through to a 9.30pm finish at the rugby ? immersed in sport.

Saturday?s night?s fixture was a trans-Tasman clash between the Highlanders and the Waratahs, described by one of the local reporters as a ?great chance for New Zealanders to enjoy some success over Australians.? This stadium has only been in operation since last year?s World Cup and replaces the Carisbrook Stadium, aka the ?House of Pain?, as the only rugby venue in the city. It?s also only the second indoor rugby venue, after Cardiff?s Millennium Stadium, and the roof is much needed. The wind, rain and cold combined to into an uncomfortable cocktail, one appreciably negated by the covering.

The Chappell brothers? has to be the ideal childhood, one every lover of cricket would commit heinous crimes to enjoy. They grew up in Adelaide where, Greg Chappell says, the weather was so good, they could play outdoors from daybreak until dark. Their father, Martin, turned their backyard into a cricket pitch, gave them proper cricket balls and bats, and they played proper simulated Test matches. Chappell says he learned reacting to various situations in actual Test cricket because of the fiercely competitive Test matches he played with elder brother Ian in the backyard, ?more battleground than playground?. He got his trademark flick off the hip from backyard cricket.

Ian is four-and-a-half years older. Greg says Ian began to acknowledge his existence only when he turned nine. Until then, Ian wanted to play with mates his own age, and when he finally began playing with Greg there was no allowance for the age gap. Test matches, like many of us did as kids, were elaborately played. Being younger, Greg always represented England, and Ian Australia. Each brother batted 10 times, and at the fall of every wicket had to walk into the laundry, write the score, and come back as a new batsman. The only way it probably differed from other kids? childhood Tests was that other kids also tried to simulate the style of the batsman they represented. The kind of batsman Greg turned out to be bears no resemblance to the style of the Englishmen he represented.

Ian was good at hitting a ridge on the pitch, and bouncing Greg. Greg says the days and days spent playing such cricket helped him with actual Test cricket significantly. He says the atmosphere was not protective, as it is in today?s coaching world. If he couldn?t play the cut, he says, he didn?t shelve it, he tried to get better at it. He hated getting out, but it was not ?terminal? as it is in nets and games kids play nowadays.

The most endearing story about Greg?s childhood has to be the genesis of the flick off the hip, and also the on drive. He realised only when Mike Brearley once asked him about the shot, and how Brearley thought it was a unique shot. Greg then thought about it, and realised he acquired it in the backyard. Martin Chappell had been careful to protect the windows of the house, and those of the neighbours. He was also an amateur gardener, and loved his fruit trees. There were fences around those areas too.

All that really didn?t leave him many scoring areas in the on side. If he had to score runs on the on side, Greg would have to score wide of a tree at mid-on, or between two behind square, ?between the apricot tree and the almond tree?.

Apart from their father, grandpa Vic Richardson is a part of the story of the Chappell boys. When they played for their school, they could see Richardson?s car outside but never see him. Only once in a while the head of the grandfather would bob out from behind a tree. This is reminiscent of how Mohammad Azharuddin?s grandfather used to watch him play without letting him know he did. On days that they played well, Richardson would then call his daughter, ask the phone be handed over to them, and say, ?Well played, and hang up.?

Chappell related these anecdotes at Adelaide Writers? Week, where he was promoting his new book, Fierce Focus, which has many more insights into his life as a cricketer, coach and selector.

Australian cricketer Luke Pomersbach has been arrested on molestation and assault charges, a senior Delhi Police official said on Friday.

Stuart Broad put himself in elite company as one of just seven men in the history of Test cricket with a five-wicket haul and a century at Lord's on their CV.

Major U.S. wireless carriers will go live this month with an emergency disaster alert system broadcasting free text messages warning of tornadoes, flash floods, earthquakes and other emergencies.

A small Welsh town where English King Henry V was born is about to make history again by becoming the world's first "Wikipedia town." Visitors from Saturday will be able to use smartphones to scan barcodes at points of interest in Monmouth in Wales' southeast, instantly bringing up a Wikipedia page about the landmark on their phones, in whatever ... (more)

Adam Gilchrist hit an unbeaten half-century to guide Kings XI Punjab to a six-wicket victory over Chennai Super Kings and remain in contention for the Indian Premier League playoffs.

Stuart Broad needed just one delivery at Lord's this morning to consign West Indies number 11 Shannon Gabriel to a golden duck, and claim new career-best figures.

Such are the fortunes of the fast bowler. Jimmy Anderson produced the more accomplished performance, but Stuart Broad did the damage, claiming six West Indies wickets to become only the fifth England player to finish on the Lord's honours board for both batting and bowling.

With the passing years, the shoulders, never exactly ramrod straight, have begun to slope. This may be partly the ageing process, partly because Shivnarine Chanderpaul has had to carry the West Indian batting for so long.

Lancashire's woeful start to the season shows little sign of improving. Unable to mount a meaningful fightback after Warwickshire's dominance of the opening day, they ended the second day already facing a damage-limitation exercise as Warwickshire's enthusiastic bowling attack, bolstered by the return of Chris Woakes, scented blood.

If Surrey are the Manchester United of cricket, perhaps Chris Adams is modelling himself on Sir Alex Ferguson. Or maybe Phil Brown.