Azharuddin's son still critical

Former Indian captain Mohammed Azharuddin's son Mohammed Ayazuddin continued to battle for life on Monday, a day after he met with a road accident.
Azharuddin, who flew in here from London early Monday, rushed to the hospital after consoling his sister, whose 16-year-old son Ajmal-ur-Rahman died in the same accident.

According to doctors at Apollo Hospital, Ayazuddin, 19, was still on ventilator. They were continuing medication to maintain his blood pressure.

Mahesh Joshi, head, emergency medicines at Apollo Hospital, said the youngster sustained grievous injuries in the chest and kidneys. A surgery was performed on him late Sunday to stop bleeding from the chest.

A multi-speciality team of doctors is closely monitoring his condition. Ayazuddin, an upcoming cricketer, was driving a high-power sports bike with his cousin riding pillion when he lost control and they fell down near Poppalaguda on the Outer Ring Road.

Ayaz is the youngest of the two sons of Azharuddin from his first wife Naureen, whom the former cricketer divorced to marry actress Sangeeta Bijlani.

Both Naureen and Bijlani, along with other relatives, are camping at the hospital. Azharuddin, who played 99 Tests and 334 One-Day Internationals for India, was banned for life in 2000 following allegations of his involvement in match fixing.

The former cricketer joined Congress before 2009 elections and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh.

Ajmal-ur-Rahman was buried in a graveyard in Shantinagar Sunday night. He was the son of Congress leader Khaleeq-ur-Rahman and grandson of former MP Khaleel-ur-Rahman.

Cricket's biggest award for top performers to be presented

The LG International Cricket Council (ICC) awards for the outstanding performers in world cricket during last year (between 11 August 2010 and 3 August 2011) will be given away at a colourful function to be held today (September 12) at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane in London.

The Garfield Sobers Trophy for the ICC Cricketer of the Year is being closely contested this year with England's Alastair Cook, and Jonathan Trott along with India's Sachin Tendulkar and Hashim Amla emerging as the four strong contenders.

Reacting to intense contest for all the awards which includes the best Test player of the year, One-day cricketer of the year, emerging player of the year, associate and affiliate player of the year, former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd, who chaired the panel of experts and independent voting academy, said: "It was an extremely close run contest this year in all the categories as everyone performed well over the period."

Trott, who has been short-listed in three categories such as Cricketer of the Year, ODI Cricketer of the Year and even the People's Choice Award said: "It is not something you think about when you are playing. But what nomination brings with it some good and fond memories. I think the nominations show plenty of England players in all categories. It shows how we have been successful as a side over the past year and how everyone has contributed to it."

The other three short listed for the Test player of the year are his teammates Cook and James Anderson along with South Africa's Jacques Kallis. Before the start of the awards, ICC will announce the One-day team of the year.

The ODI player of the year will be decided from among Amla, Gautam Gambhir, Kumar Sangakkara and Shane Watson. Commenting on his chances, Watson said: I'm very excited. It's always a great honour to be nominated in a couple of categories, let alone being short-listed. I'm not sure how bright my chances are but I'm thrilled to be in the category with three extremely talented players in Hashim Amla, Kumar Sangakkara and Gautam Gambhir, all of whom have had fantastic years."

Another prestigious category is the emerging player of the year award. The four players short listed are Pakistan's Azhar Ali and Wahab Riaz, West Indies Davendra Bishoo and Darren Bravo. Bishoo expressing his surprise at being nominated said: "It was a huge surprise to be announced as one of the players. I'm really quite nervous about being on the short-list."

The trophy for the best umpire has been named after the late umpire David Shephered. Umpires Aleem Dar, Steve Davis, Ian Gould and Simon Taufel are the contenders.

PCB agrees to tour Bangladesh

The Pakistan Cricket Board seems to be working hard to improve the strained relationship with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) as it agreed to tour Bangladesh for a full series in December this year.

A source in the Board said that the PCB had recently approved a tentative itinerary sent by the Bangladesh board for the series that will include two Tests, three one-day internationals and a T20 match in December.

The itinerary for the series has been tentatively agreed upon by both the boards.

"Pakistan has not played Bangladesh in a bilateral series since early 2008 as it believed that the Bangladesh board had let it down on many occasions, especially by not supporting Pakistan when the World Cup matches were moved out of the country. But now things seem to have settled down," the source said.

Stating that the tension between Pakistan and Bangladesh first surfaced in 2009, the source explained, "Pakistan board has not been very happy with BCB since 2009 when it cancelled a bilateral one-day series between the two nations to be held in Bangladesh, immediately after the militants attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore.

"Pakistan team was to tour Bangladesh for the ODI series but after the attack took place, the BCB cancelled the series on security grounds, saying its government had not given clearance for the Pakistan team to play in Bangladesh."

The source said that the relations further soured between the two boards when against all expectations the Bangladesh board supported a resolution in the International cricket Council (ICC) to move the 2011 World Cup matches out of Pakistan on security grounds.

"The PCB chief Ijaz Butt was really upset and angry with his Bangladesh counterpart and even had a heated exchange with him after the ICC meeting in 2009 in which the World Cup matches were moved from Pakistan," the source revealed.

He said since then the relations had remained tense and even recently when the Bangladesh board didn't fulfill its commitment of sending its under-19 team to Pakistan two months back, the PCB got very upset.

"The PCB officials were not satisfied with the reasons given by the Bangladesh board for not sending its team to Pakistan and asking for the series to be postponed to next year," the source said.

He also informed that since 2010, even Bangladesh has been requesting the PCB to send its team to Bangladesh to play an ODI series, which was cancelled in 2009 but the PCB kept on refusing.

"But now both boards appear to have taken steps to improve their relations and the PCB recently approved the itinerary sent for the Test series by Bangladesh," the source said.

For how long PCB can gag somebody for giving opinion

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said on Sunday that how long the board can gag somebody as it is always noticed that a show cause notice is issued to the person who tries to give opinion on cricket publicly.Reliable sources in the PCB told APP that Pakistan former limited-overs skipper Shahid Afridi was issued a show cause notice when he appeared on media criticising PCB and then followed by former great and currently the director general of PCB Javed Miandad as he was issued a show cause notice also for giving comments in a daily newspaper.The source said that it is time the PCB give the players and the officials some space.

“The PCB should meet the players and the management regularly and should abreast of the problems, if any, going on that may hamper their performance. Stripping the captains, officials from the leadership role should only be done after carefully analysing the situation on ground,” the source said adding that opinions of players and officials should also be taken.
The source further said that the players and officials come on the media and speak when they think that they are not been given proper time or they are not being consulted where it is needed.
“Why to make this an issue. The PCB should give a chance to everybody to speak otherwise the game of cricket would fade in the country,” the source said adding that every person has the right of opinion and by issuing notices like these it can worsen the situation more.
The source further said, “I am not saying that the PCB is wrong all the time but it should let others speak as well. By this, the game can get better in the country.”
“People ask the players and officials of their views which some of them give and some not, so there should be some leniency shown to them by the PCB,” the source concluded.