Sreesanth to miss first two ODIs against Sri Lanka

Mohali, Dec 12 (ANI): Indian pacer Sreesanth, who was down with swine flu, has been ruled out of the first two One-Day Internationals against Sri Lanka, starting from December 15 in Rajkot.

Sreesanth, who was admitted to the Fortis Hospital late on Thursday night with symptoms of H1N1, tested positive for the disease. He will be discharged from hospital tomorrow.

Indian team manager Mayank Parikh has also been admitted to the hospital with flu-like symptoms. His reports are still awaited.

Both Sreesanth and Parikh will not travel with the team.

With mercury dipping, Chandigarh in the past ten days has seen a sharp increase in number of swine flu cases and has already registered ten deaths. (ANI)

India beats Sri Lanka to level T20 series

Yuvraj Singh smashed an unbeaten 60 off 25 balls after taking three wickets Saturday to lead India to a six-wicket victory over Sri Lanka and level the two-match Twenty20 International series.

Yuvraj claimed 3-23 from three overs as Sri Lanka was restricted to 206-7 at Punjab Cricket Association Stadium.

He then scored his fifth Twenty20 half-century to help India reach 211-4 with five balls remaining. Virender Sehwag hit 64 from 36 balls and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni made 46 off 28 deliveries.

For Sri Lanka, captain Kumar Sangakkara made 59, Chinthaka Jayasinghe 38 and Sanath Jayasuriya 31.

Sri Lanka won the first match by 29 runs at Nagpur on Wednesday

Sehwag, Taylor, Gayle, Asif and Danish on the charge

India opener Virender Sehwag has stormed into the top five of the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen after scoring a superlative double-century against Sri Lanka in the third Test in Mumbai.

Sehwag's 293, which turned out to be the cornerstone of his side's victory that ultimately gave India the number-one position in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship table for the first time, has rocketed him 14 places to fifth position which he now shares with Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousuf.

It is the first time since October 2006 that Sehwag has returned to the top five. From the Mumbai Test alone, the 31-year-old from New Delhi has gained 91 points which makes him one of the six batsmen above the 800-point mark.

It has been an outstanding and memorable series for Sehwag who not only scored 491 runs in four innings but also gained 16 places in the batting table after starting the series in 21st position.

Also on the charge in the latest player rankings released on Tuesday are New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor and the West Indies captain Chris Gayle.

Taylor, who scored 30 and 97 in a losing cause to Pakistan in the Wellington Test earlier this week, has vaulted eight places to achieve a career-best ninth position while Gayle, who scored 26 and 165 not out, has jumped six places to share 22nd spot with Sri Lanka's Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Also moving in the right direction are the India pair of Rahul Dravid, 16th (up by two places), and VVS Laxman, 19th (up by one place) while Australia's vice-captain Michael Clarke, who scored 71 and 61 not out, has also climbed one position to fourth spot.

However, the news is not very good for Australia captain Ricky Ponting who has dropped out of the top 10 for the first time since October 2002. Ponting, who started in ninth position, has slipped three places to 12th spot after scores of 36 and 20 in Adelaide.

India maestro Sachin Tendulkar has also conceded two spots and now sits in 18th position after scoring 53 in his only outing on his home ground.

Other notable batsmen outside the top 20 to make upward movements are Mahendra Singh Dhoni 30th (up by two places), Dwayne Bravo, 40th (up by five places), Umar Akmal 43rd (up by nine places), Brendan Nash 51st (up by 12 places), and Shane Watson 58th (up by 12 places).

Gautam Gambhir of India leads the batting table with Sri Lanka duo of Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara second and third.

In the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers, Pakistan pace and spin combination of Mohammad Asif and Danish Kaneria are on the charge.

Asif, who rattled New Zealand in Wellington with match figures of 9-107, has jumped five places to achieve a career-best fourth ranking to date while Danish has lifted six places to 15th after figures of 6-80.

India fast bowler Zaheer Khan, who took match figures of 6-142 in the Mumbai Test, has also gained a valuable place which has now put him inside the top 10 while Peter Siddle, who was the ICC Emerging Player of the Year 2009, has slipped seven places to 23rd after claiming just one wicket in Adelaide.

Also on the slide are Rangana Herath 30th (down by three places) and Nathan Hauritz 49th (down by 10 places).

The list is still headed by South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn with Australia's Mitchell Johnson second and Muttiah Muralidaran of Sri Lanka third.

There is no change in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders with South Africa's Jacques Kallis leading the field by a comfortable margin.

Meanwhile, Australia needs to beat the West Indies in the third and final Test starting in Perth from 16 December if it wants to end 2009 in third position.

Having started the year in number-one spot, Australia will slip behind Sri Lanka in fourth position if it loses the Test or the West Indies holds it to another draw. If the series ends in a 1-1 draw, Australia will drop to 112 ratings points (three behind Sri Lanka) while a 1-0 series result will leave Ponting's side on 114 ratings points (one behind Sri Lanka).

Pak players get India visa but not Modi's IPL nod

Four Pakistan players with existing Indian Premier League (IPL) contracts were granted visas by the Indian government on Thursday but the League's commissioner Lalit Modi said they could still not play in the tournament's third season next March because they had missed the December 7 deadline to submit documents.

The players in question are Sohail Tanvir and Kamran Akmal of Rajasthan Royals, Umar Gul of Kolkata Knight Riders and Misbah-ul-Haq of Bangalore Royal Challengers. Gul, Misbah and Akmal were granted visas by the Indian High Commission in New Zealand, where they are currently doing Test duty, and Tanvir by the Indian mission in Islamabad. The status of Abdul Razzaq, who had reportedly signed with the Kolkata franchise, is still unclear.

"A deadline is a deadline whether it is by a couple of hours or couple of days," Modi said. "Our trading finalisation window closed two days ago, and yesterday all the teams were required to submit their replacement strategy for players who weren't part of IPL III," he said, not budging from the stand he had taken two days ago when he announced that no Pakistan player would be part of the next event.

Slim chance

While chances of the participation of these four players with existing contracts remained slim, a few other players from across the border stand a better chance to play in the event via the IPL's annual auction if any of the eight franchises show interest in them.

"Currently, these four players cannot be allowed even for the auction. I don't know where they fall in terms of replacement strategy, I will need to check the rules. But there are a number of Pakistan players who want to participate, like Shahid Afridi for example. If these players get their visas and other papers sorted by January 1, they can enter the auction pool. I have spoken to Minister Shashi Tharoor and he has assured me that the Pakistan players will get visas," Modi said.

Asked if the move to bar the four players was unfair to them, Modi said he was looking at the bigger picture. "We have a system in place and we can't abuse it. Everybody was given a fair chance to go out there and present their NOCs and visas. Since these players missed the deadline, the replacements have signed new contracts. Now we are bound by contractual obligations," he said.

Modi said Bangalore Royal Challengers had replaced Misbah with Roelof van der Merwe, Kolkata Knight Riders had brought in Charl Langeveldt for Gul, while Rajasthan Royals, who played Akmal and Tanvir in the first IPL, had signed up Johan Botha. These replacements had all played in IPL II in South Africa.

India's No.1 ranking must be seen with sense of history

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1. NZ vs PAK, 10th Dec 2009

India have not set foot on the summit by stepping off a helicopter, they have got there after establishing several base camps and making steady, sometimes hazardous, progress. India's ascent is not a point, it is the current status of a curve; it is not a moment in time but part of a phase. Any attempt to think otherwise would be unfair and shortsighted.

And so while India must celebrate, it must be with a sense of history. This lot of players have put the ribbon on the box but the cake was baked by many; they have scored a goal but you cannot do so unless someone has passed the ball to you. And that is why the only aspect of this moment that disturbs me is the cash award to this team. I am not a huge fan of cash awards to professional players, they are presumably paid to win anyway, but this announcement ignores the fact that various others set it up over the last five years.

In particular, India have been served by three very fine captains before the hugely impressive current incumbent. Very few good teams win with inadequate leaders anyway. Under Sourav Ganguly, India realised that winning overseas was an option and India have much to thank a player the world found very convenient to misunderstand. Rahul Dravid was the perfect captain to follow with his strong commitment to the team and to the cause. It is easily forgotten that under him India won in the West Indies for the first time in thirty five years and in England for the first time in twenty one. And Anil Kumble was leader at a decisive moment in Indian cricket; in Australia in 2008 where the Test win in Perth must rank as significant as the win at Kolkata in 2001.

Don't forget too that Mahendra Singh Dhoni's current record reads played 10, won seven, lost zero. Included in that is a series win against Australia, an away win in New Zealand and now against Sri Lanka. There are no freebies there. Something is right in Indian cricket.

Indeed India's current position is good for world cricket, as indeed South Africa's little reign at the top was. Three teams competing for number one is always better for the sport than a giant blocking everyone's path. But I am a little concerned at the state of denial in some parts of the world, with the difficulty in acknowledging this, with the continued devaluation of India winning in India not accompanied by a similar status to Australia winning at home or for that matter South Africa or England. India's winning streak has not been due to financial jugglery, which is a convenient myth in itself, but due to good cricket. To assign other reasons, and what a pity that is being attempted, is to undermine players of extraordinary pedigree.

And these are not just batsmen. True, Sehwag, Gambhir, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Ganguly, Yuvraj, Dhoni (even Jaffer and Karthik at key moments) are extraordinary players and they have set up many victories but to focus on them would be unfair to those who take twenty wickets. Against England, home and away, Zaheer Khan was player of the series, against Australia it was the very impressive Ishant Sharma who will soon be leading India's attack again. Amit Mishra and Sreesanth have had their moments in the sun and Harbhajan has taken more wickets than many of us think he has.

But as with all success, India must celebrate the moment and move on. Australia and South Africa are fine teams and Sri Lanka have just the man to drive their transition. And as business leaders will tell you it is more difficult to stay on top than to get there. India need to groom batting replacements and there are only two on the horizon, the scarcely tested Murali Vijay and the untested Cheteshwar Pujara. Harbhajan Singh desperately needs competition to take him to another level but more important, India will have to find a way to ensure that players of serious ability like Rohit Sharma, Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma and RP Singh don't lose their way. And it will call for people with vision at the top. They exist but they are in a bit of a melee at the moment with others of various hues and political colour.

Isn't it ironic though that for a country accused of devaluing the game, India are struggling in T20 cricket but are atop the summit of the most traditional form of the game. Maybe there is a story there.