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India’s Supreme Court has stayed the conviction of Navjot Singh Sidhu, the former opener. Sidhu was convicted last month of a charge similar to manslaughter and sentenced to three years in prison, but was released on temporary bail. The charges related to an incident in 1988 when he dragged an elderly man out of his car and showered him with blows after a road accident.The unprecedented decision has opened a Pandora’s Box of sorts because it is the first time in 57 years that a conviction of this nature has been stayed by the highest court in the land.Sidhu had argued in his petition that under the People’s Representation Act only a stay on his conviction would allow him to contest the forthcoming by-election for the Amristar parliamentary seat.

James Ormond has signed a one-year contract with Surrey after proving his fitness to the county.Ormond, who has been dogged by injuries and questions over his general fitness, was out of contract at the end of 2007 but the county agreed he could return for pre-season on the understanding that if he proved his fitness in the early matches, he would be offered a new deal.”I am very pleased that Jimmy has worked so hard to turn his career around,” said Alan Butcher, the Surrey coach. “He is looking like the bowler he was three years ago before his injury problems, which is great news for the club.””I am obviously really pleased to get a contract after putting in a lot of hard work during the winter,” Ormond said. “I’d also like to thank our backroom staff for their efforts in getting me fit and ready for another season.”Ormond, 31, played twice for England in 2001 but he looked far from fit when he reported for duty at the start of the 2001-02 tour of New Zealand and that in effect seemed to finish his international chances. His county career appeared to be heading the same way after he played only 11 first-class games in 2006 and 2007, taking 18 wickets,His fitness problems were well documented but when he is on form he can still be one of the most penetrative bowlers on the county circuit.

Points table
Scorecard
Debutant offspinner Mohnish Parmar took five second-innings wickets to help Gujarat to a thumping 248-run victory over Assam. Resuming on 15 for 2, Nishanta Bordoloi and wicketkeeper Rajdeep Das defied the Gujarat bowling for nearly 20 over but once Das was caught behind off Timil Patel, Assam’s resistance was broken. There were not too many meaningful contributions and Assam could manage only two more double-digit partnerships. Sridharan Sharath, the captain, hung around for his 27 and was last man out, falling to medium-pacer Siddharth Trivedi. Gujarat got five points for their efforts while Assam took home none.
ScorecardHaving skittled out Jharkhand for 139 on day three, Madhya Pradesh went one up on day four, bowling them out for 117 to win by 170 runs at Jamshedpur. Rahul Bakshi followed his first-innings 56 with an unbeaten 66 in MP’s 203 for 5 declared before the bowlers turned it on. Jatin Saxena, who scored 125 in MP’s first innings, and Asif Ali spun out 4 for 54 and 4 for 35 respectively, with their brand of legbreaks. No batsman got going and MP needed just 49.4 overs to bowl Jharkhand out. MP took a full five points from their outright win, placing them equal with Goa in the Group P table.
ScorecardHaving conceded a first-innings lead to Goa, Haryana failed in their bid to chase down 241 with nine wickets on day four at Margao. Instead, the hosts dismissed Haryana for 220, 26 runs short of their target, and took five points from an outright win. Slow left-arm spinner Shabab Jakati backed his first-innings 6 for 52 with 4 for 94 and Robin D’Souza fetched 4 for 59 with his medium-pace. Goa began the day 30 for 3 but made it to 221 courtesy opener Sagun Kamat’s 92-ball 60 and wicketkeeper-batsman Ajay Ratra’s 86 from 117 balls. Only Sachin Rana (67) crossed fifty in Haryana’s attempted chase.
ScorecardTripura escaped with a battling last-wicket draw against Services at Agartala, finishing on 202 for 9 in their attempt to chase down 226. Hari Prasad, Services’ opening bowler, took 4 for 50 and the other bowlers chipped in with wickets but Services failed to take that last wicket. Vineet Jain, with an unbeaten 3 from 36 balls, and Jayanta Debnath, with 13 from 37, added 25 valuable runs in 11.2 overs for the final wicket to stave off defeat. From an overnight 308 for 7, Services managed 321 with Yashpal Singh getting to his tenth first-class hundred. Tushar Saha picked finished with 4 for 89 with his slow left-arm spin. Tripura got with three points and Services one.

Shoaib Malik’s initiation in to the captaincy has been a mixed one. He begansmoothly in May last year with an ODI series-win over Sri Lanka, and led ayoung side to the final of the ICC World Twenty20 in September.Since then, the going has been rougher, with four consecutive series losses (ODI and Test) to South Africa and India cranking up the pressure on him. Talk of newcaptains hasn’t been far away, despite the Pakistan board appointing him captainuntil December 2008.But as he prepares to lead Pakistan in their first assignment of 2008, againstZimbabwe, he is hoping a new year might bring new results. “I am more confident nowas captain,” he told reporters days before the first ODI in Karachi.”The senior players are supporting me and I’m happy the board has placed itsconfidence in me. I don’t worry about how much time I have. I admit mistakes weremade in the last seven months, but this year there will be no repeat.”Poor results bring their own pressure, often putting personal performances out ofcontext. Malik’s ODI numbers since taking over as captain aren’t bad – from 13matches he averages four runs more than his career average of 34 – yet he was stillasked about a dip in form.”I don’t think my recent record is that bad if you look at it. In my last match inJaipur, I was player of the match [for an all-round performance]. I just want to makesure that the consistency is there,” he said.Malik also asked for more time to be given to Geoff Lawson, who took over as Pakistan’s coach last August, stressing that this was his first international assignmentin that role. Though not overtly criticised, Lawson’s impact has been repeatedlyquestioned and some officials have been privately underwhelmed by his contributionso far.”Bob Woolmer had his own skills, Geoff has his own,” Malik countered. “Bob came with a lot of top experience with South Africa and Warwickshire while this is Geoff’s first international role. It takes time to settle in to that and we should give him that.”There was doubt over Malik’s participation in the run-up to the Zimbabwe series dueto an ankle injury sustained in India, but he believes he has now fully recovered.”I am fit. I came through my rehabilitation, passed a fitness test and am doingeverything the others were at the camp.”With Australia scheduled to arrive soon – to provide the sternest test yet to hisleadership – Zimbabwe offers Malik the perfect platform to chalk up somemorale-boosting wins, ideally on the back of some impressive personal contributions.”This is a good opportunity to try out some young talent and to work out plans aheadof the Australia series. You can’t underestimate Zimbabwe, but we will put all ourefforts in to it.”

Victoria’s coach Greg Shipperd could join his Western Australia counterpart Tom Moody in taking charge of an Indian Premier League (IPL) team after he was approached by the Delhi franchise. Moody has already signed with the Mohali side and Shipperd is keen to be involved provided Cricket Victoria has no objection.The appointments will create an interesting situation should either Mohali or Delhi reach the Champions League, which is to feature the top two domestic Twenty20 sides from India, Australia, England and South Africa. Western Australia and Victoria have already qualified but Shipperd and Moody have both said that if the conflict occurs they will guide their Australian state rather than their IPL team.”Clearly, my first priority is with Cricket Victoria as my employer,” Shipperd told the Age. “In the event of coaching both teams to a final, I would be looking after the Victorians and have a process behind the scenes in place to deal with the other side, which they are comfortable with.”Shipperd said he was surprised at the interest from Delhi, however his Twenty20 coaching record is unparalleled. In three years of the Australian domestic competition Victoria have won all three titles and have only lost one match. He is looking forward to the chance to test his management skills with a different group of players.”It would be a wonderful coaching opportunity to be involved with, to have four or five different international players in the team playing what is the red-hot form of the game at the moment,” Shipperd said. “It’s on-the-job training and hopefully bringing some positive spin-off to Victorian cricket down the track.”John Buchanan is also strongly tipped to coach the Kolkata franchise, although the only definite Australian signing at the moment is Moody as Shipperd’s appointment is not confirmed. Moody says surrounding himself with the world’s leading players will be a terrific experience.”Having to mould a team with stars from around the world into a competitive unit against other extremely talented teams will be a great challenge and one that I am very much looking forward to,” Moody said. “In addition to this, I will be exposed to the marketing and promotional expertise that will go into staging a world-class event.”

Surindra Shinde’s sedate 97 helped the Karnataka Under-25 team toscore a 4 wicket win on the third and final day’s play over Andhra inthe KSCA Coca Cola Under-25 Tournament at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium inBangalore on Saturday.Set to score 238 for a win, Karnataka lost opener Shyam Ponnappa (6)in the fourth over of the innings when he was caught behind by TSPrasad off Anil Kumar. Then the new batsman AR Mahesh (12) in thecompany of the other opener V Pramod (23) took the score onto 39 whenMahesh found himself struggling to reach his crease in the ninth over.Then nine balls later Pramod departed, giving a catch to BB Krishnaoff the bowling of Anil Kumar.Surindra Shinde (97) and S Rajashekar (40) put the Karnataka inningsback in the right track with a 95-run fourth wicket stand in 24.5overs. Rajashekar departed after offering a catch to Arjun Kumar offVVB Reddy. Amith Kumar (51) now joined Shinde to forge a 82-run fifthwicket partnership to ensure Karnataka of sealing a well deserved win.Shinde lost his defences to K Laxman and the very next ball M Vinod(0) was caught behind. But Amith Kumar and Sunil Kumar (5) sawKarnataka through.Earlier, play started late due to rain and resuming at the overnightscore of 169 for 9, Andhra added just 15 runs before their secondinnings folded up. Top scorer S Arun Kumar (65) was the last man to bedismissed when he offered a catch to S Rajashekar off Sunil Kumar.

Speculation over the possibility that Bob Woolmer, the late Pakistan coach, was poisoned has increased following a report in a Jamaican paper, apparently quoting the toxicology report, to that effect. says samples taken from Woolmer’s blood, stomach and urine have shown the presence of a foreign substance and has quoted an unnamed government official as saying that the substance could have been poison.This seems to tie in with the theory that Woolmer may have been poisoned before being strangled.The also says that Scotland Yard has been called on to analyse the results of the report.Mark Shields, the Jamaican Deputy Commissioner of Police, has decided not to comment on the report till all investigations are over. “We have some results from toxicology now, but they will require further investigation and analysis, and therefore it would be totally inappropriate for me to elaborate any further on that,” Shields was quoted as saying in the newspaper.Woolmer was found unconscious in his hotel room in Jamaica on March 18, just a day after Pakistan’s sudden exit from the World Cup, and was pronounced dead after being rushed to hospital. The post mortem, conducted by a government pathologist, stated that the death occurred due to asphyxia from manual strangulation. The histology tests will establish the time of death, while the toxicology tests are expected to reveal whether Woolmer was poisoned before being attacked.There is speculation that he may have been poisoned with aconite, a poison that causes the body’s organs to stop functioning and leads to death through asphyxiation within 30 minutes.

Offspinner Mark Craig has been called into New Zealand’s squad for the opening Test against Australia in Wellington, which begins on Friday. New Zealand Cricket selectors named Craig as a replacement for Mitchell Santner, was ruled out with a foot injury.Santner experienced soreness in his right foot following the second ODI against Australia. A subsequent scan revealed a bone bruise and the decision was made to have Santner sit out. A decision about Santner’s availability for the second Test will be made later.”It’s unfortunate for Mitch as he has been a key player for us so far this summer,” New Zealand coach Mike Hesson said. “The positive news is that we picked it up early and hopefully Mitch can make a quick recovery.”Craig was part of the New Zealand squad for the two-Test series against Sri Lanka in December but was not selected to play. His last Test match came against Australia in the inaugural day-night Test, in Adelaide, where he finished with match figures of 2 for 75 in a three-wicket defeat.Squad for the Wellington Test: Brendon McCullum (capt), Corey Anderson, Doug Bracewell, Trent Boult, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls, Mark Craig, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, BJ Watling (wk)*, Kane Williamson*

England’s players could face contractual gagging orders in the aftermath of Duncan Flecther’s warts-and-all autobiography.A number of other sports impose such conditions in contracts of international players and coaches, although, as shown by Mike Catt’s recent comments about the England rugby management, those are only effective while the player is still contracted.Speaking to Wales on Sunday, Hugh Morris, the ECB’s managing director, said that it was an issue he would be reviewing. “Part of my new remit is to look at all issues, weigh up both sides of the argument and come up with an agreement that is suitable to both the organisation and the player. Gagging orders raise all kinds of issues with freedom of speech.”Censorship is not on our agenda, but we don’t want players or members of the coaching staff, for that matter, fearing that anything they say or do in the sacred confines of the dressing room is revealed in a book months later.”While any gagging clauses would prevent current players and coaches from speaking out, they would make no difference to someone like Fletcher who was no longer bound by any contract when he released his book.Asked if he had read Fletcher’s observations, Morris said: “I’ve not read the book so I can’t comment on its contents.”

Chris Gayle, the West Indies captain, has been docked 70% of his match fee after his side failed to meet the minimum over-rate requirements during the second Test against Sri Lanka in Trinidad.Gayle, after a hearing with match referee Chris Broad, was fined on the basis of having breached Level 2.11 of the ICC’s Code of Conduct regulation relating to the “failure by a captain to ensure that his team meets the minimum over-rate requirements.”The rest of Gayle’s team-mates were each fined 35% of their match fee for the same offence, as West Indies were found to have bowled six overs short of the required over-rate.”During the hearing, neither the captain, coach nor manager was able to persuade me that the shortfall in overs was beyond their control or that the allowances permitted to teams by the match officials were not appropriate,” Broad said.”I saw very little evidence that the West Indies team, after learning of their slow over-rate predicament, actually tried to speed things up. Therefore, they left me with little option but to enact this penalty,” he said.Gayle has the right to contest the verdict, and must do within 24 hours of receiving the same by lodging an appeal in writing with the ICC’s legal counsel.