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Tatenda Taibu’s return to the Zimbabwe cricket team is almost complete after he was included in a select side for two four-day matches against India A at home.Cricinfo revealed last month that Taibu’s comeback was imminent, although he was recently quoted saying his lawyers were still in negotiation with Zimbabwe Cricket, possibly over outstanding payments still owed to him by the board.The former captain however will now play under the current leader, Prosper Utseya.Wicketkeeper Brendan Taylor was also named in the side although he is yet to return from the Netherlands and may miss the first four-dayer at Harare Sports Club. Sean Williams, who is recovering from an injury which kept him out of training for six weeks, was also included.Allrounder Keith Dabengwa meanwhile misses out on selection, but will captain the A side on a tour of South Africa at the same time the Select will be facing India A. The batsmen Chamu Chibhabha has also been relegated to the A side, where the only other senior players are the pace bowler, Blessing Mahwire, and the former Zimbabwe A captain, Alester Maregwede.Zimbabwe Select Prosper Utseya (capt) Terry Duffin, Tatenda Taibu, Vusi Sibanda, Brendan Taylor (wk), Hamilton Masakadza, Sean Williams, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Tino Mawoyo, Elton Chigumbura, Graeme Cremer, Ed Rainsford, Chris Mpofu, Gary Brent, Trevor Garwe, Tawanda Mupariwa.Zimbabwe A Keith Dabengwa (cpat) Chamu Chibhabha, Eric Chauluka, Tafadzwa Kamungozi, Bornaparte Mujuru, Forster Mutizwa, Alester Maregwede, Regis Chakabva, Alois Tichana, Taurai Muzarabani, Prosper Tsvanhu, Timycen Maruma, Admire Manyumwa, Tendai Chisoro, Blessing Mahwire, Patient Charumbira.

The 2006 Standard Bank National Academy squad will face Australia’s Commonwealth Bank Centre of Excellence squad in two limited-overs matches before playing the tourists in a four-day match at the High Performance Centre (HPC), University of Pretoria next week.Anton Ferreira, CSA’s coaching manager, said: “It is an ideal opportunity for our young academy candidates to test their skills and gauge their individual strengths and weaknesses against quality opposition. These games will also provide a chance for the three coaches [Barney Mohamed, Corrie van Zyl and Richard Pybus], who have been responsible for the development of the players during their stay at the HPC, to asses how much improvement has taken place under their guidance”.The limited-overs matches will be played on Sunday 20 and Monday 21 August with the four-day match scheduled to take place from August 24 and all matches will be played at the University of Pretoria.Standard Bank National Academy squad:
Keagan Africa (KwaZulu Natal), Craig Alexander (Western Province), Farhaan Behardien (Western Province), Werner Coetsee (North West), Riell de Kock (Captain for limited-overs matches) (Free State), Dean Elgar (Free State), Robert Frylinck (KwaZulu Natal), Heino Kuhn (Northerns), Corne Linde (Free State), Said Mhlongo (KwaZulu Natal), Hillroy Paulse (Boland), Abdul Hack Razak (Kwazulu Natal), Pepler Sandri (Boland), Blake Snijman (Captain for four-day match) (Gauteng), Abongile Sodumo (Border), Dominic Telo (Western Province),Coach: Barney Mohamed (Western Province).Commonwealth Bank Centre of Excellence (CBCE) Australian squad
Shaun Marsh, Adam Voges, Ben Hilfenhaus, Brett Dorey, Tim Paine, Daniel Doran, Cullen Bailey, Ben Edmondson, George Bailey, Callum Ferguson, Aaron Finch, Grant Sullivan, Brendan Drew, Adam Crosthwaite, Tim Nielsen (Head Coach), Brian McFadyen (Coach).

Kim Hughes, the former Australian captain, has said lack of match practice against world-class bowling is one of the main reasons for Australia’s batting problems on the current Ashes tour. Hughes felt the Australian batsmen had fattened their averages thanks to some ordinary bowling on the international scene and their tecniques were exposed when confronted with a quality attack.”Once you get to 32 or 33, the only time you’re exposed is against pace,” Hughes said in . “Our blokes could go back and play the rest of the Test countries over the next two or three years and still average 55, and they’d do that standing on their head, because there is no other decent attack. They [England] have exposed a lack of footwork and technique. The rest of the series will be a real test for them.”Hughes, who captained Australia in 28 Tests, said the pace of Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff, who consistently bowled at speeds of 150 kmh, highlighted an ageing Australian side with only three players below 30 – Michael Clarke (24), Lee (28) and Simon Katich (29). “Our batting has looked very, very ordinary,” he said. “Spear-headed by Harmison and Flintoff they’re a good attack but you certainly wouldn’t say they’re the West Indies of 20 years ago – far from it.”Hughes also pointed out that the general standard of world bowling over the past decade or so was “pathetic”. “Honestly, the standard of world cricket has been very, very ordinary for a number of years,” Hughes said. “As a former player you never want to say that because it always looks like sour grapes.”The West Indies are pathetic, Pakistan had half a bowler last season. The two sides out here last season [New Zealand and Pakistan] wouldn’t have won our Sheffield Shield.” Both New Zealand and Pakistan suffered humiliating whitewashes at the hands of the Australians last season and New Zealand received another thrashing in the home series that followed.The Australians have a one-day match against Scotland on Thursday and a two-day game against Northamptonshire beginning on Saturday before the fourth Test at Trent Bridge.

Heath Streak, the former Zimbabwe Test player, is set to stay at Warwickshire for another two years.Streak, 30, made an impressive debut in the County Championship, taking 13 wickets in Warwickshire’s win against Northants at Edgbaston. Although he is currently out of action with a torn stomach muscle, Streak is keen to sign a new contract.Ray Warner, Streak’s agent, told BBC Sport that: “Heath hopes to commit his long-term future to Warwickshire in the next couple of weeks,” adding, “he is very happy at Warwickshire, the players and supporters have been first-class and he has been made to feel welcome by everyone.”Streak has also been coveted by New South Wales, who tried to secure his services this winter. However, Streak was forced to decline their offer on the grounds that his wife is expecting their third child.

Hampshire’s Academy side are off the mark in the ECB Southern Electric Premier League with a tense one-wicket victory at Liphook & Ripsley – the winning runs coming courtesy of four byes!The Young Hawks had lost nine wickets and left last pair Charlie van der Gucht and Tony Middleton to chisel out the 11 runs needed to squeeze past Liphook’s rain reduced 130-run target off 34 overs.And they did it, thanks to several lusty leg-side blows from the Hampshire left-arm spinner … and four byes off South African Alistair Gray, which shot past wicketkeeper Jez Bulled and sped over the boundary.There was great relief in the Academy ranks – but heartbreak for Liphook, who have now lost three times already this season."I honestly didn’t think they’d beat the 190-9 we scored off 50 overs," lamented Liphook skipper Bulled. "Especially when they were 58-5 and then 119-9."Liphook’s total was built around Gray (56) and Duncan Berry (49), with Morgan Rushbrook (3-31) and Kevin Latouf (3-33) bowling the county youngsters back into contention.Latouf (26) became the first of three victims of spinner Alan Crawford (3-25), who had the Academy struggling at 58-5 before Mitchel Stokes (29) and Tom Burrows (21) pulled things round.Burrows held firm while later wickets tumbled, but when he was caught at 119-9, the Academy looked set for a second consecutive defeat. But van der Gucht and those four byes changed all that!Havant emerged 16-run winners over Calmore Sports, whose prospects of pulling off a surprise win gradually diminished in the last 15 overs.Chasing Havant’s 214-6 (Dominic Carson 48), Calmore came out of the traps at speed with Clive Surry (50) leading the charge. "Their tactics really caught us by surprise," admitted Havant skipper Paul Gover."With the fielding restrictions, you can hardly defend at all in the initial 15 overs and the Calmore top order batters took advantage."Surry remained until Calmore reached 121-4 and then watched Tom Pegler (30) and David Rouse (32) apply further pressure on the champions.But as the scoring rate increased, four batsmen were run out and Calmore finished 16 runs adrift at 198 all out after a gallant effort.Gover reckoned that the pre-tea onslaught by his own fifth-wicket pair Bev Moynhan (36) and Shane Ferguson influenced the outcome."They put on about 80 in ten overs, including a 14 run blitz at the end – and that was a major factor," he added.Havant fear that their unbeaten start could come to grief at Lower Bemerton next Saturday when they play South Wilts, who nailed Portsmouth by eight wickets at St Helen’s, Southsea.Portsmouth, furious that Lawrie Prittipaul had been pulled out of their starting line-up to carry out Hampshire’s second innings 12th man duties against Somerset at the Rose Bowl, caved in against some top class pace bowling.Hampshire’s James Tomlinson (1-32) and Combined Services pacebowler Andy Senneck (1-18) had Portsmouth scrimping and scraping for every run."The overs were keeping pace with the runs at one stage," reflected South Wilts skipper Rob Wade.But it was Adie Holewell (3-18) who did the damage, as Portsmouth slipped to 47-5 before Neil Randall (41) and James Manning (39 not out) led the recovery and they reached 147-9.Paul Draper and Russell Rowe fell cheaply for South Wilts, who would have lost Jason Laney – but for a spilled return catch.The former Hampshire man cashed in with 75 not out, including three big sixes off Lee Savident, and with Wade (48 not out) alongside, swept South Wilts home.Bournemouth made it two wins out of two after a cloudburst left Andover marooned in the rain at Chapel Gate.They beat the North Hampshire side by virtue of a faster overall run rate to secure a second consecutive Division 1 win in four rain-ravaged weeks.Once Bournemouth had posted 227-5, they were always favourites to beat weakened Andover.But it was only due to the fact that they bowled their overs quickly after tea that they snared the crucial win points."We’d bowled 26 overs – one more than the regulation number you need to send down in order to get a result – when it poured down with rain," said vice-captain Martin Miller."Five minutes later, Chapel Gate was underwater and a haven for seagulls."Bournemouth’s success was built around former Hampshire all-rounder Richard Scott and Kingston Lacey teenager Nick Park, who shared a prolific 153-run opening partnership.Park, whose elder brother Chris cut his teeth at the Sports Club two seasons ago before joining the Northants Academy, belied his tender years with a splendid 62.Scott, striking two 6s and ten boundaries, hit 99 before being stumped by young Cille van der Merwe off Hampshire Under-19 spinner Matt Hooper."It would have been my first ton since 1997," Scott said afterwards. "And, of all things, I go and get myself stumped."Nonetheless, the pair set the tone for Western Australia’s Adam Voges to spank 41 and lift Bournemouth to 227-5 in 50 overs.Andover, fielding a much weakened side, lurched to 13-2 against the miserly David Kinder and Joe Wilson who, conscious of the pending rain storm, whipped through their overs.Left-arm spin duo Voges and Sean Wallbridge hurried through their overs to leave Andover marooned at 52-2 after 26 overs when the rains came.Skipper Roger Miller, with little back-up batting to follow, was 29 not out.It all went horribly wrong for Bashley (Rydal) at BAT Sports, who avenged a recent ECB Club Championship defeat with a 22-run victory at Southern Gardens."We bowled very poorly to start with and batted without much application," groaned skipper Matt King.Kiwi Neil Parlane (40) and Richard Kenway (40) feasted on Bashley’s off-line bowling and were comfortably scoring at six runs an over.BAT pushed on to 100-1, with Dave Banks (44) piloting the mid-innings while wickets fell to Matt King (4-29) and Kevin Nash (3-53).Rain delays left Bashley chasing 170 off 42 overs – BAT had reached 202-8 in their full 50-over allocation – but the Tobacco men need not have worried.Bashley’s batting folded against the second string attack of Mark Page (3-16) and Chris Thomason (2-14), who had the visitors reeling at 30-5 and later 47-7.Kevin Nash (52), with a swashbuckling maiden SPL half-century, and Neil Taylor (29) launched late resistance, but Bashley could only manage 148 all out.

During Sunday’s Norwich Union League match at Trent Bridge against the Surrey Lions Paul Johnson became the county’s highest ever run scorer in the history of the NCL/Sunday League.Beginning the day on 7,060 runs Johnson entered the record books when he reached 3, passing Derek Randall’s previous highest aggregate of 7062.Johnson made his county debut in the competition in June 1982 against Leicestershire at Trent Bridge and 19 seasons later, in his 257th game, he passed his former team-mate reaching the milestone in five games fewer then the former England player.Randall’s career had spanned the period 1971 to 1993 during which he played in 262 matches, finishing with an average of 33.46, a fraction higher than Johnson’s current average of 33.14.Johnson’s record-breaking innings ended on 14 in a farcical run-out when both he and Kevin Pietersen found themselves at the same end.

Kerala ended the second day of their South Zone Ranji Trophy matchagainst Karnataka, trailing by 68 runs with seven wickets in hand inthe first innings at the Nehru stadium in Kochi on Thursday. Replyingto Karnataka’s first innings total of 236, Kerala were 168 for three.Resuming at 231 for seven, Karnataka were dismissed for the additionof only five runs. Medium pacer Tinu Yohannan bagged three wickets for61 whereas Sunil Oasis and Suresh Kumar picked up two each.Kerala scored at about two runs an over in making a confident replybefore play was called off an hour early due to bad light. PrashanthMenon was the top scorer with a steady 63. He faced 123 balls and hitseven fours and a six. Dodda Ganesh picked up two of the threewickets. Sunil Oasis (30), having been dropped twice, had Ajay Kudua(17) batting at the crease when play was halted.

Scorecard

The day before England name their squad for the first Test against New Zealand the batsmen with the most realistic prospects of a call-up in the near future failed to make the most of their second innings for the Lions at The Rose Bowl. On a sleepy Saturday, Robert Key and Owais Shah fell when well set while Ravi Bopara failed for the second time in the match.The one man to make the most of ideal batting conditions was Michael Carberry – a long way from an England call-up despite his presence in this team – with a 183-ball century. However, his innings ended almost immediately when he pulled up with what appeared to be a hamstring strain after his celebrations and was carried off on a stretcher. At one stage the groundsman’s truck was also on the ground in case Carberry needed a lift off, although an ECB spokesman said it was “a severe case of cramp.”It was an unfortunate way for his innings to end after he’d pressed the accelerator during his second fifty, which took 56 balls compared to 127 for the first. He was the stand-out batsman on the Lions tour of India in January and February where they took part in the Duleep Trophy and received some positive reviews.But for Carberry the prospect of an England cap is a long-term aim needing another impressive summer’s work for Hampshire. Other members of the top order are much closer, and one could be called into the Test squad on Sunday if cover is needed for Paul Collingwood after he required an injection in his right shoulder yesterday.Key would be an unlikely option given that he is an opening batsman and wasn’t involved with England during the winter. For the second time in two days he fell when well set, trapped lbw by Jacob Oram for 30. For a long while as Carberry and Shah pottered along it wasn’t clear what the Lions were trying to achieve form the match, but there were plenty of personal agendas at stake.Shah travelled around all winter without a look-in at the Test side. After a typically nervous start, he expanded his strokeplay against Jeetan Patel, lofting him for six over deep midwicket and another down the ground. But just as he was beginning to flow Chris Martin returned to trapped him lbw playing across the line.However, England would likely want to cover for Collingwood’s bowling should he miss out. That, therefore, opens the door for Ravi Bopara – although he was only given a single over by Key in the first innings. Bopara failed in the first innings here, dragging Tim Southee into his stumps, trying to leave and couldn’t cash in second time around when he top-edged a hook which looped to second slip.Matt Prior provided some welcome impetus during the final session with a confident 47 until he fell sweeping at Patel, a first wicket for the offspinner who has bowled better than his figures suggest. The Lions’ lead grew at increasing speed – Wright swinging his arms before being trapped by Southee – setting up the prospect of a declaration at some stage during the morning of the final day if they are serious about trying to win the match.The New Zealanders will look upon this as another useful workout ahead of the Tests, but while their seamers were economical they lacked bite. They were without Iain O’Brien with a sore calf but he is hopeful of being able to bowl on the last day. Daniel Vettori has had his stitches removed from the finger injury on his left hand he picked up at Chelmsford and can now start assessing how bowling feels. Aaron Redmond, who was the last man out in New Zealand’s innings for 146, was given an extended run with his legspin, but he’ll be hoping there isn’t too much work for him at Lord’s.

Colonel Cottari Kanakaiya Nayudu
C K Nayudu was India’s first superstar cricketer. Tall and well proportioned, Nayudu was especially strong in driving, bowled accurately at slow-medium pace and was a fine fielder. He also shone at hockey and association football. He led from the front in the inaugural Test when, despite a painful hand injury received when fielding, he top-scored with 40, in the first innings. With six centuries, the highest of which was 162 against Warwickshire, he headed the batting averages for all matches with 37.59 and took 79 wickets. He also played in three Tests against England in 1933-34 and three in the tour of 1936, when he again exceeded 1,000 runs and dismissed 51 batsmen in first-class fixtures. While still at Hislop Collegiate High School, Nagpur, he captained both the school team and Modi Club. In 1926-27 at Bombay, he gained prominence by hitting 153 (including 11 sixes and 13 fours) out of 187 in just over a hundred minutes for Hindus against AER Gilligan’s MCC team. Though never on the winning side in a Test match, he helped Vizianagram defeat DR Jardine’s powerful MCC side in 1933-34 – their only loss of the tour – by 14 runs, taking four wickets for 21 in the second innings. He died at Indore in 1967, aged 72.

Mohammed Nissar
Mohammed Nissar was India’s first pace bowler, possible one of the fastest they have ever produced, and one of the best too. A bull of a man, Nissar could swing and cut the ball with verve, but it was his express speed that marked him out from his peers. Of his 25 Test victims, 13 were bowled or leg-before, testimony enough to his sheer pace. Nissar’s partnership upfront with Amar Singh was as legendary as it was successful. In India’s maiden Test at Lord’s in 1932, he plunged the England innings into disarray by knocking over the stumps of Holmes and Sutcliffe, who only ten days earlier had added 555 for the first wicket for Yorkshire, and ended with 5 for 93. On that trip, he grabbed 71 wickets at 18.09 to head the averages. The MCC tour in 1933-34 provided the setting for more heroics as he took another innings bag of five in the inaugural Test in India at the Brabourne Stadium. The only defeat that was inflicted upon the visitors on that tour was also courtesy of Nissar, whose match figures of 9 for 117 helped Vizzy XI to a 14-run victory at Benares.Another compelling demonstration of his hostility came against Jack Ryder’s Australians on their tour of India in the winter of 1935. Thirty two wickets in four ‘Tests’ at 13 runs apiece spoke volumes for the damage he unleashed. On his final tour of England, Nissar departed the Test scene with a devastating spell that yielded four wickets in five overs to send England hurtling from 422 for 3 to 463 for 7. He continued to entertain domestic audiences for a while longer and helped Southern Punjab to the Ranji Trophy final in 1938-39 taking 17 wickets at 11.94, including a tour de force of 6 for 17 against Sind in the semis that sent them packing for 23.

Amar Singh
“There is no better bowler in the world today than Amar Singh,” said Len Hutton in an informal chat with pressmen at Madras in 1970. It was 34 years since the legendary England opening batsman had faced the Indian medium pace bowler while playing for Yorkshire. And it is the perfect tribute to Amar Singh that Hutton still remembered the hard time that the Indian, then a member of the 1936 Indian team, gave him. Another England great Wally Hammond described Amar Singh’s bowling as “he came off the pitch like the crack of doom”. Indeed, Amar Singh, along with Mohammad Nissar was the first great Indian bowler renowned for his accuracy, stamina and ability to make the ball move alarmingly off the air or cut it devastatingly off the pitch. He played in all the seven Tests before the war. In the first Test in 1932 he took four wickets and hit an attacking 51, coming in at No 9. Against England in 1933-34, he was the country’s best bowler taking 4 for 106 off 54.5 overs in the second Test at Calcutta. In the final Test at Madras, in the absence of Nissar, he had to work overtime and rose to the occasion with a bag of 7 for 86 off 44.4 overs in the first innings. Going in at No. 4, he scored a hard hitting 48. In 1932, he took 111 wickets (20.78) and made 641 runs (22.89) in the first-class matches.By 1936 he was a popular Lancashire League professional and was released only for a few games for the Indian touring team. In the first Test, he took 6 for 35 in the first innings. In the second Test he again displayed his batting prowess by hitting an unbeaten 48 to help India draw the game. In the final Test at the Oval he scored a valuable 44 going in at No. 4 thus proving beyond doubt that he could be classified as an allrounder. At home, he was at his best against Lord Tennyson’s team in 1937-38 when he bagged 36 wickets (16.66) in the five unofficial Tests. In a short but brilliant Ranji Trophy career for Western India and Nawanagar he took 105 wickets at 15.56 apiece.He died in 1940 at the age of 29 after a fever contracted after a long swim developed into typhoid.Janardhan Navle
India’s first Test wicketkeeper, JG Navle, put in a courtly display on the 1932 tour of England, Cardus being impressed by his “polished, quicksilver” work. According to Christopher Martin-Jenkins’ Who’s Who of Test Cricketers, Jack Hobbs rated Navle in the same league as George Duckworth and Bert Oldfield, which is high praise indeed. Forty-one dismissals came his way on that trip, only one of them (Douglas Jardine) in the one-off Test at Lord’s. He also doubled up as opening batsman, and faced the historic first delivery of India’s first Test innings from Bill Bowes.Navle’s only other Test appearance was at Bombay in 1933-34 after which he was dropped at the age of 31 to accommodate a younger man. Making his first-class debut in the Quadrangular at the age of 16, Navle kept wickets for Hindus for 16 straight years. He also played unofficial Tests against Arthur Gilligan’s team in 1926-27 and Jack Ryder’s team nine years later. However, he died a pauper, in 1979, after working as a watchman in a sugar mill in Pune.

Naoomal Jaoomal
The man who opened the batting for India, Jeoomal Naoomal was a cautious batsman – although he once drove the first ball of a Ranji Trophy match from Mohammad Nissar for six – making 33 and 25 in the Lord’s Test. When the All-India side returned there to play Middlesex, he batted for 6 1/4 hours for an unbeaten 164. Naoomal also scored a century against Derbyshire. He played in two more Test matches against England in 1933-34, making 2 and 43 at Calcutta but had a disastrous match at Madras, where a deep cut over the left eye forced him to retire for five and to miss the second innings. Besides his respectable total of 1297 runs (30.88) on the tour of England, Naoomal made his mark on Indian cricket with several centuries for Sind, 203 not out against Nawanagar in 1938 being the highest in a season when he averaged 104.50. He also made a century against Ceylon at Lahore in 1932-33. In the late 1950s he became Pakistan’s coach, and passed on the fruits of his experience to such players as Hanif, Nasim and Saeed. He died in Bombay on July 18 1980, aged 76.Syed Wazir Ali
Elder brother of S Nazir Ali, another Test player, Wazir Ali appeared in seven Test matches, all against England. He toured England in 1932 and 1936 and played against England in India in 1933. A fine batsman with a keen eye and a wide range of powerful strokes, Wazir Ali hit six hundreds during the 1932 tour and scored 1,725 in all matches. On his second visit to England he was handicapped by a finger injury. He missed a month’s cricket, but although unable to do himself justice he hit the highest score for the Indians during the tour – 155 not out against an England XI at Folkestone. He led the Indian team which won matches against visiting Australian sides in 1935 and 1936. He died in Karachi in 1950, aged 46, after an operation for appendicitis.Sorabji Colah
An attacking batsman, Colah was one of the automatic choices for the first tour of England in 1932. He did fairly well in the first-class matches but made 22 and 4 in this Test. A brilliant fielder, he picked up two catches. He also played against England at Bombay, India’s next Test and the first to be played on Indian soil. Coming in late in the order, he made 31 and 12 and that remained the extent of his Test career. Colah remained a pillar for Western India, Nawanagar and Bombay during a first-class career that stretched from 1922 to 1942, making 3578 runs at an average of almost 29.08 including six centuries.Nazir Ali
He did not enjoy much success, which was baffling, for he was a gifted attacking batsman. Besides, he was a medium-pace bowler, good enough to take 4 for 83 in the England second innings at Madras in the final Test of the 1933-34 series, and a splendid fielder. Nazir Ali first came into prominence with his allround efforts against Arthur Gilligan’s team which visited India in 1926-27. Gilligan in fact was so impressed that he suggested that Nazir Ali should qualify for Sussex. Subsequently, he represented the county once, besides playing much cricket in England, an experience that stood him in good stead during the 1932 tour, when he made 1020 runs (average 31.87) and took 23 wickets (average 21.78). A stalwart for many years for Southern Punjab, Nazir Ali in a first-class career that stretched for 25 years, scored almost 3500 runs at an average of a little over 30. He also took more than 150 wickets. The younger brother of Wazir Ali, Nazir Ali in later years was fairly prominent in the administration of the game in Pakistan. Phiroze Palia
Phiroze Edulji Palia played twice for India, each time at Lord’s, in 1932 and 1936. Having pulled a hamstring in the field in the 1932 match, he batted at number eleven in the second innings in a vain attempt to save the match for India. Palia was a left-hand batsman, wristy and attractive, and a useful bowler of the orthodox slow left-arm type. More was expected of him in England, certainly as a batsman, than he achieved. Despite batting high in the order, in 37 first-class innings his top score was 63 against Oxford University in 1936. His highest first-class score, 216, was in the Ranji Trophy for United Provinces against Maharashtra in 1939-40. After his retirement he kept in touch with the game as a Test selector and radio commentator. He died in Bangalore on September 9, 1981, aged 71,Lall Singh
Lall Singh’s chief claim to fame is that he was the first outstanding Indian fieldsman. On the tour of England in 1932 he stood out in a team in which the fielding was below average with some spectacular work in the field. An extraordinarily quick mover, it was said that “he glided over the ground like a snake”. In his only Test at Lord’s he scored 15 and 29 and held one catch. It was his brilliant anticipation, pick up and throw which ran out Frank Woolley in the first innings. In the second innings, with the game virtually lost, he and Amar Singh, in a thrilling counter attack, added 74 runs in 40 minutes for the eighth wicket. Singh had a short first-class career and then moved to Kuala Lumpur where he did much to foster talent and encourage the game.

Jahangir Khan
The man who bowled the ball that killed a sparrow at Lord’s, Dr Mohammad Jahangir Khan, 78, was a tall, fast-medium bowler and a useful right-hand batsman, Jahangir was born in Jullundur in 1910, and made his first-class debut in India for the Moslems in 1928-29. He was selected for India’s first Test tour of England, in 1932, taking 4 for 60 in the second innings of the only Test, at Lord’s, his distinguished victims being Holmes, Woolley, Hammond and Paynter. In all, he returned the respectable figures of 448 runs (19.47) and 53 wickets (29.05) on the tour, the highlight with the bat coming at Liverpool, where he scored 68 in adding 125 in 80 minutes for the ninth wicket with Amar Singh. He played in the three Tests of India’s 1936 tour of England, but failed to take another wicket, ending his four-Test career with 39 runs (5.57) and four wickets (63.75).From 1933 to 1936 he was up at Cambridge, winning Blues in all four years and taking 11 wickets in the 1933 match against Yorkshire. The famous ‘sparrow’ incident came in 1936 when he was playing for the university against MCC on July 3. Jahangir bowled to TN Pearce, and the ball struck and killed an unfortunate sparrow, which was stuffed and now occupies a display case in the Lord’s museum. He continued to play first-class cricket until 1955-56, captaining Northern India in 1940-41 and 1941-42 (in which season he scored 125 not out v NWFP at Lahore). He died in Lahore on July 23.

Jimmy Anderson is set to return to action in club cricket when he turns out for his club side in Burnley on Saturday, but will only play as a batsman. He has been out with a stress fracture of the back since the end of the tour of India, but has slowly been stepping up his recovery by bowling in the nets with England.Anderson spent six weeks in back brace during his recovery and both England and Lancashire have been very careful not to rush his return. However, the medical teams now believe he is ready to take his first steps back to playing, although a return to first-class action is still unlikely before the end of the season and he isn’t ready to bowl in a match.Mike Watkinson, Lancashire’s cricket manager, said: “It is simply to get some cricket miles in his legs, have a bat and spend some time in the field, and hopefully to relieve his boredom as well.”Anderson has been named in England’s 30-man squad for the Champions Trophy, and will still have one eye on the Ashes tour, although he will have had very little cricket.