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Waqar Younis, Pakistan’s bowling coach, is being lined up to join New South Wales after the World Cup according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.Dave Gilbert, NSW’s chief executive, has already said that he wants Waqar to replace Anthony Stewart, who recently left to take charge of Wellington in New Zealand.”It would be great to work full-time in NSW,” Waqar said. “I am very much interested in the job. When I finish my contract with Pakistan I will speak to David [Gilbert].”

Deep Dasgupta, the former India wicketkeeper, feels that Bengal’s cricketers do not get their recognition and that was a main reason why seven from the state, himself included, signed on with the Indian Cricket League (ICL).”Our Bengal team has talent but are the players getting justice? Take the India A team that is currently in Kenya; it has no players from Bengal, despite the fact that Bengal have been in the Ranji Trophy final two years running,” Dasgupta wrote in his column for , a Kolkata-based daily. “Nor does the squad for the Twenty20 World Championship. So what do the likes of Abhishek Jhunjhunwala and Subhojit Paul hold on to, how do they remain hopeful? I came to Mumbai and saw Under-19 players had also signed up with the ICL. Money can’t be the only factor for them; the opportunity to play and compete in different environments also plays a part.”Dasgupta, Jhunjhunwala, Paul, Subhomoy Das, and Shibsagar Singh were among the players who signed up with the ICL, leaving the Bengal side depleted. It is widely believed that the Indian board (BCCI) will slap bans on players who have joined.”The Bengal team may find replacements for us; cricket doesn’t stop for individuals,” said Dasgupta. “But some questions need to be asked. Do we give cricketers their due respect? Once he retires he’s thrown on the rubbish-heap, so what’s the harm if he settles his dues before that?”Dasgupta, who said he joined the recently-floated league because he has “always liked a challenge” and also for financial reasons, did not feel the ICL was in conflict with domestic cricket. “Even after coming to Mumbai and signing up with the ICL, I still consider myself a Bengal player. Whatever I’ve got in cricket I’ve got because I played for Bengal.”But once we took this huge decision, it seems a huge gap has opened up. A gap that could have been had both sides wanted it. A problem can be solved only if there is dialogue. There should be charges, counter-charges, the feelings should come out in the open. Where there is no discussion how can there be any chance of a solution?”

The England team after putting the Sri Lankan team into bat on a rainaffected first day of the second under-19’s Test match at Northamptonfailed to press home the advantage.Sri Lanka, one down in the series, were at one stage 79 for 3 butrallied to make 223 for 5 at the end of day thanks to a stand of 98between Thilina Kandamby (58) and Jehan Mubarak (46) in 34 overs. Theopeners Ian Daniels (38) and Nimesh Perera (27) put on 51 runs in 12overs when the latter was out to Tim Murtagh. Malintha Gajanayake wasthe next to go, dismissed by Justin Biship for 1. Then Daniels left at79. The fourth wicket stand between Kandamby and Mubarak initiated arecovery before left arm spinner Monty Panesar bowled Mubarak for 46.Finally Kandamby succumbed to Bishop.Kaushalya Weeraratne and Muthumudalige Pushpakumara played out tillthe end of the day.

Cricket Scotland have announced that former England bowling coach Bob Cottam will be joining their coaching staff in the lead-up to the all important ICC Trophy competition to be held in Ireland in July 2005.Cottam has been in Edinburgh this week working with the Scotland’s players and it has been confirmed that he will spend a further 30 days with the squad both before and during the tournament which will decide qualification for the 2007 Cricket World Cup.In a 13-year first-class career Cottam took over 1000 wickets for Hampshire and Northants and played four Tests taking 14 wickets at an average of 23.35. After retiring he coached Warwickshire and Somerset before becoming England’s bowling coach from 1998 to 2001.Scotland coach Andy Moles said he was delighted at the prospect of teaming up with a former mentor from his days at Warwickshire. "I have personal experience of working with Bob from my playing days, and having spoken to some bowlers with whom he has worked it is clear he will be a valuable asset to the Scotland coaching staff,” he explained. “He has worked with many world class cricketers, and his appointment is further proof that Cricket Scotland is doing everything it can to ensure success in the forthcoming World Cup qualifying tournament".For his part, Cottam was “delighted to be renewing acquaintance with Andy and I have already been extremely impressed with the attitude of the players here in the short time I have spent with them. I am looking forward to helping the team meet their objectives over the coming season".

The post-match pitch invasion at Old Trafford at the end of the first NatWest Challenge game is likely to prompt the England & Wales Cricket Board to call on the government to pass special legislation to combat the problem.Several hundred spectators ran onto the ground at the end of the game waving flags and banners, with the stewards left as helpless bystanders.”We’ll be looking at the legal situation with the Home Office in the very near future,” confirmed David Clark, the Corporate Communications and Events Manager at the England and Wales Cricket Board. “Two years ago they told us to use the legislation which covered aggravated trespass, which they believed would do the job, but there is clearly confusion with every Police Authority we work with. There’s also confusion among the Crown Prosecution Service as to whether that legislation is appropriate. It’s clear from the experience we’ve had so far that it’s not appropriate.”The government has so far refused to introduce legislation designed to prevent invasions of this kind, leaving ground authorities and the police only able to invoke minor sanctions against offenders.Clark was, however, keen to stress that the invasion at the end of the game should not hide the progress that has been made with crowd control. “We’ve not had any problems for two years, we’ve successfully changed the culture and people have stayed in their seats and stayed off the outfield.” But he added: “This was a real test for cricket to see how far it had come in two years and it’s a huge disappointment that we haven’t been successful here in enabling the game to finish in an orderly way with the players and match officials leaving the field in a safe and secure manner.”Jim Cumbes, Lancashire’s chief executive, was disappointed at the scenes, especially as he had arranged extra security aimed at preventing any invasion. “If they have a will to get on, you just can’t stop them,” he admitted. “It was high spirits, but you always get concerned that there’s someone among them who acts with malice. We would have had to have had literally hundreds of stewards or the police to keep them off.”

When the Asian Cricket Council was created in 1983, its objectives were to ensure co-operation, harmony and other gooey stuff between Asian cricket-playing nations. The founders decided that the Asia Cup would be an ideal vehicle for this goodwill, and it would be hosted by a different council member every two years. Anticlimactically, the first edition was held in Sharjah, where the council’s offices were based, “so foreign exchange problems would not arise there,” according to a prominent member of the organisation. Since then, the tournament has been scrapped, resurrected, affected by politically motivated decisions … and has generally been a barometer of the deep-running emotions in South Asia, for when it comes to the Asia Cup, not all games are played on the field.1984
On Friday, April 6, 1984, Mohsin Khan strapped on his pads and strode out to a large green ground where cricket had been played before – but never on this scale. Saadat Ali was beside him, and both took guard after Duleep Mendis asked Pakistan to bat at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. The weather had influenced Mendis’s decision, for the rains that had hit Sharjah were the city’s first in four years; Dickie Bird, who stood at the bowler’s end, had woken up one morning to the soothing sound of a rising water level in his hotel room.Mohsin and Saadat handled the bowling well while they lasted, but after a 59-run partnership, barring Zaheer Abbas, Pakistan simply collapsed. Sri Lanka, riding on Roy Dias’s half-century, chased down the teeny target with overs to spare. They had won their first game in the Asia Cup, but the celebrations wouldn’t last long. Two days later, they were stifled by Manoj Prabhakar and Madan Lal, and survived 41 overs to score just 96. India didn’t break a sweat on their way to the target.The following Friday, in the last match of the tournament, Pakistan and India met each other. While the match was played in good spirit, the animosity between rival crowds – which became a hallmark of most India-Pakistan matches in Sharjah – created an unpleasant atmosphere. India’s NKP Salve, then the president of the ACC, who had worked to build understanding between India and Pakistan, watched as the spectators bickered. “At one stage,” he said, “I thought it was creating unnecessary bitterness between the Pakistanis and the Indians.” India got off to a sure start, before Sandeep Patil and Sunil Gavaskar took India to 188, a run more than Sri Lanka conceded to Pakistan. Mohsin provided a rock-solid foundation to the run-chase, but Ravi Shastri and Roger Binny – and four run-outs – ended Pakistan’s innings at 134. India had won the first Asia Cup, and it would be four years till they played their next one.1986
The tournament moved on to Sri Lanka, but the spark of hosting their first multi-nation series was missing. The previous year, India had toured Sri Lanka at a time when political tensions overshadowed the cricket, and inevitably, the problems spilled onto the field. Sri Lanka ended up winning their first Test in a match which was marred by umpiring controversy. The Indians left in a huff, but not before a frustrated Kapil Dev indignantly declared, “Sri Lanka will never win a Test match abroad.” So with political and sporting relations not too cheery, India pulled out of the second Asia Cup. New Zealand were brought in at the last minute, and an alternative tournament was hastily arranged to accommodate them. So, in April 1986, you had the spectacle of Sri Lanka starting one tournament on the 5th, and playing the final of another on the 6th.In the middle of this logistical nightmare, Sri Lanka ran all over Pakistan in the Asia Cup final, as Aravinda de Silva and Arjuna Ranatunga scored fifties after a nervous start to their run-chase. They reached the target of 192 with five wickets and three overs remaining. It was a disappointing end for Pakistan, who were firm tournament favourites a week before. In their opening match they scored only 197, but still managed to beat Sri Lanka by 81 runs, as five of the top six scored next to nothing.Shrugging off the fatigue, Wasim Akram went on the rampage the next morning, and Bangladesh lasted only 35 overs on their first outing in international cricket. Almost needlessly, Pakistan made heavy weather getting to 98. Bangladesh survived for the full 45 overs in their next game, putting up a respectable score. Sri Lanka eventually overwhelmed them by seven wickets and, at a time when batsmen were given match awards for scoring forties, Asanka Gurusinha was named Man of the Match. As for the tournament involving New Zealand, Pakistan won it on run rate.1988
Pakistan and India were smarting from their defeats in the previous year’s World Cup, but had done enough since then – you could argue that Sri Lanka and Bangladesh hadn’t done much at all – to become favourites for the final of the third Asia Cup. Bangladesh, the hosts, had last played in 1986, while Sri Lanka came into the series with seven straight losses. Ultimately though, India did reach the finals, but they weren’t the favourites. Far from it. Led by Ranjan Madugalle, Sri Lanka swept through the preliminary round, inflicting heavy defeats on Pakistan and Bangladesh, and coming up trumps against India after scoring 271 in 45 overs, an innings where de Silva and Ranatunga flung their bats at everything Narendra Hirwani and Mohinder Amarnath tossed up. India’s rapid start was frittered away, and they lost only narrowly. The supreme manner in which Sri Lanka stormed through the series revealed a growing realisation of their own ability.Elsewhere that day, Pakistan ransacked Bangladesh. Boosted by Ijaz Ahmed’s unbeaten century – at a strike rate of 142 – Pakistan ran up a massive score. As good as out of the tournament by now, Bangladesh pottered around for their entire innings, and lost by 173 runs. They lost their last match, against Sri Lanka, by the same margin as their first: nine wickets. It all meant that Pakistan had to play India for a place in the final.When Pakistan put on 62 for the first wicket, India’s decision to field first seemed unwise. Then, out of nowhere, Arshad Ayub struck with five wickets to send Pakistan tumbling. But restricting the score, as India soon found out, was a job only half done. With 70-odd runs on the board, they were certain favourites to overhaul Pakistan’s 142. Just then, Abdul Qadir claimed Srikkanth and Dilip Vengsarkar, and later added Kapil Dev to his hit list. Wasim grabbed two and, suddenly, India were 116 with six wickets down. Amarnath killed the suspense with a storm-weathering 74.Boosted by the victory, a more resolved India turned up in the final. Sri Lanka stuttered and sputtered to 176, and Navjot Sidhu (76) and a round 50 by Vengsarkar took India to 180, and their second cup victory in three tournaments.1990-91
As the fourth edition of the Asia Cup kicked off in India, the sombre mood prevalent had yet to dissolve. Once again, sectarian violence and differences disrupted the tournament and this time it was Pakistan who were not playing. But while India, as a country, was affected outside the ground, their performance against Bangladesh followed a familiar trend: bowl first, restrict score, knock off runs. India waltzed past the paltry target. Sri Lanka, though, were a different matter. Minor contributions from the top five, climaxing with Ranatunga’s fifty, meant India had to chase a smallish target of 215. They never got there, for the bowlers achieved constant breakthroughs and allowed no-one to settle; the assuredness of the previous game deserted them, and they fell behind by 36 runs.Yet again, Sri Lanka had the upper hand going into the final. But there was the small matter of getting past Bangladesh first. It was indeed a small matter, as Bangladesh lost by yet another large margin after de Silva – at his bloodthirsty best – crunched 89 off 60 balls.However, Sri Lanka’s traumatic run in finals against India continued at Eden Gardens after they scored 204, with Kapil running through the lower-middle order. India chased another small Sri Lankan total, but with success this time, as Sanjay Manjrekar, Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Azharuddin led the charge to victory. India’s hold over the Asia Cup continued.1995
The Asia Cup was back on familiar territory. Sharjah’s stadium had been revamped considerably since 1984, but the jingoism remained. In the first two matches of the tournament, Bangladesh were beaten by India and Sri Lanka, and the stands, otherwise almost empty, spilled over on the Friday when Pakistan took on India.Since Miandad’s famous last-ball six at Sharjah in 1986, Pakistan had enjoyed the edge in their meetings, but Indian supporters believed that things would be different this time. Why? Well, this time they had Tendulkar, and he was in the form of his life. In the previous game, Tendulkar had scored an imperious 48 before boredom – officially an inside edge – did him in. Here, chasing Pakistan’s large score of 266, he was knocked on the helmet by Wasim Akram, to the delight of many in the crowd. “Make a cushion out of shorty,” a voice – Pakistani, naturally – in the stands screamed. Barely an over later, Tendulkar’s propensity to attack had him edging Aaqib Javed behind. Many heads rose and many others slumped as they realised the effect his dismissal would have on the team. Pakistan’s score, raised on the back of powerful knocks by Inzamam-ul-Haq and Wasim, now looked truly impregnable. Aaqib, who dismissed both openers, ran through the middle order and ended with five. The next day, Bangladesh were swept aside by six wickets, and Pakistan were all but through to the final. But in the finals, six days later, not a single green flag waved in the stands.What happened was this: India routed Sri Lanka in the preliminary round, overhauling a target of 206 within 34 overs. Tendulkar’s fast-paced century boosted India’s overall run rate. And when Pakistan lost to Sri Lanka, all three teams ended on equal points. Cruelly, Pakistan had the lowest run rate of the three.Sri Lanka and India met in a final yet again, and Gurusinha led the charge with 85. But on a wicket where 250 was barely safe, Sri Lanka’s 230 was clearly not enough. Even as the day went by, the pitch flattened, and after Tendulkar’s mandatory manic burst at the start, Sidhu and Azharuddin clinched the final with plenty to spare. However, Sri Lanka’s bad run in finals wouldn’t last much longer.1997
As the sixth Asia Cup began, the healthy respect Sri Lanka had enjoyed in previous years turned into outright fear. The same batsmen, maddeningly inconsistent earlier, had galvanised themselves in Australia before taking the ’96 World Cup by storm. At the top of the order, Sanath Jayasuriya, a butcher in his own right, punished the ball no matter where you put it: and if he got out, the next four batsmen didn’t let up. It was a golden period for Sri Lanka, and the Asia Cup was in the middle of it.Sri Lanka warmed up with a narrow victory over Pakistan. Jayasuriya’s fine all-round effort prevented Pakistan from reaching a target of 240 on the slow Premadasa wicket. But against Bangladesh a little later, Pakistan found redemption in the form of a 109-run victory.Like Pakistan, India’s start against Sri Lanka wasn’t joyful. The bowlers and fielders dried up runs, restricting India to a total not challenging enough for the confident Sri Lankan batting order. There was a glimmer of hope for India when Jayasuriya was dismissed off the first ball, but Ranatunga went on the attack with an unbeaten century. However, in their next game, India had Pakistan on the mat at 30 for 5 when rains caused the game to be abandoned. It left Pakistan at India’s mercy, for if India beat Bangladesh convincingly, they, not Pakistan, would enter the finals. Meanwhile, Jayasuriya went on the rampage against Bangladesh with an 83-ball 108. Sri Lanka completely ravaged them, and soon after, India had a go as well.On the morning of the final, Tendulkar won the toss and opted to bat, believing the pitch would disintegrate later on. Even more surprisingly, India entered the game with only three front-line bowlers. It played right into Ranatunga’s hands – he preferred chasing in finals. India were never allowed to get away, and their score of 239 was surpassed with laughable ease after Jayasuriya and Atapattu put on 137 before a wicket fell. After five unsuccessful tries, Sri Lanka had finally broken the jinx.2000
Twelve years before, in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka had romped through the league stages before losing the finals. In this edition, it was Pakistan’s turn to run riot, but they didn’t falter at the last hurdle. In the space of six days, Pakistan were done and dusted with the tournament as first Bangladesh, then India, followed by Sri Lanka (twice), were brushed aside without mercy. Bangladesh were hammered by 233 runs, India by 44, and Sri Lanka by seven wickets and then 39 runs. Pakistan’s batsmen regularly ran up large totals, and then let the bowlers take over. Abdul Razzaq picked up eight wickets in three games, and only three times in the tournament did a Pakistan bowler concede more than 50 runs in a spell. They were disciplined and efficient, and they played to their potential consistently. Frightening stuff.Bangladesh were clobbered in every game they played, while Sri Lanka did enough to get into the finals, exposing India’s tendency to freeze when the going got tough, with a 71-run victory. And it was tough going indeed, as Jayasuriya struck another century in Sri Lanka’s 276. Tendulkar’s 93 was the only real resistance, for the others crumpled in a heap. After the Asia Cup, Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja and a few others were suspended after a match-fixing inquiry, and cricket would take a good hard look at itself. South Asia, in particular, would come under severe scrutiny, and the next Asia Cup will almost certainly be monitored closely for anything remotely shady.But with the 2000 edition, the founders of the ACC were finally seeing results: with three different winners in the last three tournaments, the Asia Cup was now changing hands every two years.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

How does a team like Australia go from 136 for no loss to 235 all out in the space of fewer than 40 overs? Anil Kumble’s scything spell – 17.3-4-48-7 – had much to do with it, as did a first-day Chennai pitch with bounce in it, and the tendency of Australia’s batsmen to defend forward with hard hands. India pulled off a stunning turnaround after Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer got off to a fine start, and only the fall of Yuvraj Singh before trhe close spoiled a perfect day for the home side.The pitch at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore came in for a lot of criticism before the start of the first Test: John Buchannan, Australia’s coach, went as far as calling it “terrible”. But as Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh showed as late as the fifth day, it was fine for batting: Dean Jones called it a “lamb in wolf’s clothing”. The Chennai pitch was exactly the opposite.The ball came onto the bat nicely in the first session, and in the absence of movement in the air and off the pitch, the old firm of Hayden and Langer took full toll. Irfan Pathan relied heavily on swing, and did his best to keep a tight line and length, but was not able to break through. Zaheer Khan also rapped the pad more than once, but was never close enough to convince the umpires.When Hayden lifted Harbhajan Singh over the long-on fence to bring up his fifty and the team hundred, in less than 23 overs, it seemed to be one of days for India. The scoreboard galloped along and Langer, scratchy at first, found his feet and reached a half-century of his own. Job well done, they walked off for lunch with 111 for 0.In the period after lunch, the balance between bat and ball began to shift. There were the first hints of reverse-swing, and Harbhajan began to get the ball to bounce sharply when he gave it a rip and tossed it up. In the first three balls of the 34th over, he sent the openers packing. Hayden (58) holed out to long-off, after Ganguly choked the run-flow, and Langer (71) edged to slip. All of a sudden, 136 for 0 was 136 for 2, and the Indians were pumped up.Harbhajan’s performance gave the team the lift it so desperately needed, and then Kumble got stuck in. Spearing in those fizzing legbreaks, googlies and top-spinners, Kumble made the batsmen play, and prised out Damien Martyn (26), who lunged forward and presented short leg with a catch (189 for 3). Simon Katich and Martyn had put on 63 for the third wicket.From then on, it was Kumble all the way as Australia’s batsmen failed to come to terms with the extra bounce in this pitch. Katich plugged away, nudging and deflecting the ball around for safe runs. At the other end, though, Kumble did not give anyone a chance to settle down. None of the last seven batsmen managed more than 5, and Kumble had found the success of old.

Darren Lehmann, a canny if unorthodox player of spin, chopped hard at a short one before he’d scored, and feathered a nick to Parthiv Patel, who had had a horrid day behind the stumps till that point, fluffing simple collections (191 for 4). Michael Clarke, fresh from a cracking 151 in the first Test, was trapped in front by a pacy Kumble slider that would have knocked the leg stump over (204 for 5).Adam Gilchrist (3) then became the first of three Australians to walk without waiting for the umpire’s decision, after he popped a catch to short leg (210 for 6). Shane Warne lobbed a simple return catch (216 for 7) and Kumble, with five wickets, had gone past Curtly Ambrose’s tally of 406 Test wickets. But he was not quite done for the day.Jason Gillespie was caught by Mohammad Kaif at short leg via bat and pad and was quick to shuffle off the pitch and back to the dressing-room. Then came a hairy moment for David Shepherd, the umpire standing at the Wallajah Road end, the one from which all wickets fell in the innings. Michael Kasprowicz edged Kumble to silly mid-off, but Shepherd turned the appeal down, only to see the batsman walking off (228 for 9). Glenn McGrath, rarely a batsman to hold up the opposition, ran himself out, leaving Australia all out for 235 and Katich stranded on 36 not out.Kumble’s incisive spell, in which he picked up 7 for 25 from 10 overs, ensured that India were right on top. And the luck was still with them when they started batting: Yuvraj, opening the batting for the first time in Tests, edged the sixth ball he faced, off McGrath, to Clarke at second slip, and watched in surprise as the catch was floored. But he did not capitalise on the let-off, and inside-edged Warne through to Gilchrist when he attempted a booming drive. Warne, jumping for joy, had caught up with Muttiah Muralitharan as the world’s highest Test wicket-taker, with 532 scalps.Nevertheless Virender Sehwag, who racked up 2000 runs in Tests, and the nightwatchman Pathan took India through to the close at 28 for 1, 207 runs behind Australia.

Jonty Rhodes has stepped down as president of the South African Cricketes’ Association. The announcement follows his retirement from playing earlier in the year.”I am leaving an association which has the backing of virtually every professional cricketer in the country,” said Rhodes. “I am proud to have been part of SACA’s formation. It is an extremely important part of the future of professional cricket in South Africa.”He will be replaced by Mark Boucher, the current South African vice-captain. “I am happy and honoured to be elected by the players as president of our own Association,” said Boucher. “I believe that we have chosen an exco [executive committee] that is experienced, determined and respected by players. These are very important times for all of us and we intend to ensure that all players are treated fairly.”We are committed, and look forward, to our involvement in constructive work with the board and the provinces in dealing as thoroughly as possible with all aspects of the new structure relating to players and making the professional game as strong as it can be.”

The England & Wales Cricket Board are hopeful that the forthcoming NatWest Challenge matches at Lord’s and The Oval will not be affected by Thursday’s terrorist attacks on London.”We are certainly not complacent about the threat from terrorism,” said an ECB spokesman during England’s nine-wicket win at Headingley. “We are expecting the NatWest Challenge to proceed as planned, but we shall be guided by police advice.”The four bomb blasts, which crippled London’s tube network during the morning rush-hour on Thursday, are sure to have spill-over effects into the weekend. The entire system was closed for the remainder of the day, and with full houses expected to descend on Lord’s on Sunday and The Oval on Tuesday, access to the grounds may prove tricky.Michael Vaughan admitted after the Headingley match that it had been hard to focus on the game at hand, given the distractions in the capital. “It’s difficult,” he said. “It certainly puts cricket and sport into perspective.”Yesterday we were celebrating London getting the Olympics and then you put the telly on this morning and you see those kinds of things – it just puts sport and life into perspective. If our win today can go any way towards making a few people happy, that’s fantastic.”

Richard Caborn, the sports minister, is under pressure to call for a meeting with BSkyB officials to discuss the small audience being attracted to Sky Sports’ coverage of international cricket.This comes after it was revealed that viewing figures for the Tests against Sri Lanka were under a third for those on Channel 4 this time a year ago. The average audience for the Sri Lanka Tests was 200,000 while the comparative figures for the Bangladesh series in 2005 were around 700,000. Critics of the BSkyB deal also point out that Bangladesh were also a less appealing opposition.The Department of Culture, Media and Sport also indicated that the BBC had expressed a desire to hold “serious discussions” with BSkyB to try to negotiate the return of limited coverage to terrestrial TV. The Keep Cricket Free campaign said that the audience figures were proof that the deal with BSkyB had been “misguided”.John Grogan, the MP for Selby, a vociferous advocate of cricket being available for free, said that it was “absolutely unprecedented” for a minister to call in broadcasters to discuss a commercial contract such as this. “This reflects the fact that the viewing figures on Sky have been truly appalling,” he told the Yorkshire Post. “There is still hope that if James Murdoch, head of BSkyB, agrees to negotiate, some of the England-Pakistan series could be on free-to-air television.”A media insider said that the BBC’s move was slightly surprising given that it had not been interested in putting forward any bid when the contract was up for review in 2004. He also questioned whether the BBC would be able to devote the hours needed for the coverage of matches on its main channels, or even if it would be prepared to pay a commercial rate for such coverage.Caborn confirmed in parliament yesterday that he had written to all broadcasters asking them to major broadcasters last month offering to hold a summit, providing they “are willing to negotiate with BSkyB”.