Siddons blasts 'ridiculous' batting

Ireland comfortably overhauled Bangladesh's 137-8 by six wickets with 10 balls to spare to end the beaten side's brief participation in the tournament.

Siddons pulled no punches when it came to who he held responsible for the defeat.

"We didn't make anywhere near enough runs," said Siddons. "The par score there [Trent Bridge] against any attack was 170 on that flat wicket. Fast outfield, short boundary one side and there were just some stupid mental errors by our batsmen. It was ridiculous batting."

The Australian was happy to name names as he reeled off a list of experienced batsmen who he felt should have learnt by their previous mistakes by now, including captain Mohammad Ashraful who sat alongside him at the press conference.

"Right from the top, the opening batsmen had to be aggressive but we knew they [Ireland] bowled good slower balls early in the innings, and it just went right the way through - the run out of Tamim Iqbal, who has got out like that about four times on this tour, Shakib Al Hasan has got out that way about five times on this tour, same area, same shot [holing out on the long-on/midwicket boundary].

"They are just mental errors because their skill levels are as good as anyone. I'm borderline disappointed and angry - I'm not sure which way to treat them when I speak to them in a minute. There's nothing we can do if they keep making mental errors like that and the same mistakes over and over. We train it, we talk about it, we do everything we possibly can. Even Ash [Mohammad Ashraful] made the same mistake when he hit the bloke to the same fielder as he'd done [Kevin O'Brien at slip] in the over before, went out and did it again and said catch me this time . It just goes down the list, five or six, maybe seven, batsmen got out with ridiculous shots."

Bangladesh thus head off to lick their wounds and with plenty to think about ahead of the next ICC World Twenty20 in the West Indies next year.

http://cricket.yahoo.com/cricket/news/article?id=item/2.0/-/cricket.yahoonews.com/994820a4616e4b776c62de9a4e6194f3/

Now, KKR target Bangladesh

NEW DELHI: After bagging Bangladesh pacer Mashrafe Mortaza for a whopping $600,000 at the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction in Goa, Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders are hoping to build on their increasing popularity across the eastern border by staging some practice-cum-exhibition matches in Dhaka next month.

The matches will be staged before actual IPL action kicks off on April 10.

According to IPL sources, the KKR team management and the Bangladesh cricket board are in talks to organise these matches, with the dates to be confirmed in due course. ‘‘KKR is yet to confirm the dates, but they are certainly planning to visit Bangladesh for three to four days to play some practice games,’’ an IPL source told TOI on Sunday.

Will KKR also cash on the team’s merchandising prospects in Bangladesh? Source say KKR got a call from the Bangladesh cricket board a couple of days ago and King Khan’s men were told about the team’s popularity in that part of the world.

‘‘We know that Bangladesh loves it’s cricket. If the Kolkata team featuring a local player like Mortaza plays a match against Bangladesh, cricket fans are going to enjoy every bit of it,’’ a source said.

Prior to these proposed exhibition cum practice matches, KKR will also have a conditioning camp in Kolkata to select a preliminary squad of 22 from 50-odd players. The camp is tentatively scheduled from March 16.

http://ipl.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4096375.cms

Yusuf Pathan, Ojha new faces in ODI squad

All-rounder Yusuf Pathan and young left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha were on Friday rewarded for their good showing in the Indian Premier as the selectors announced a young 15-member squad for the forthcoming tri-series in Bangladesh and the Asia Cup in Pakistan.

Apart from the two new faces, the selection panel, headed by Dilip Vengsarkar, recalled seamer R P Singh, who replaces Munaf Patel, a member of the squad that won the tri-series in Australia earlier this year.

Besides Patel, the selectors dropped Manoj Tiwary and Dinesh and ignored former captains Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid again.

Sachin Tendulkar made himself unavailable for the two assignments as he has not recovered fully from a prolonged groin injury.

Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, the other senior member of the side, also missed out on a berth as he has been banned for five one-dayers after being found guilty of slapping national teammate S Sreesanth during an IPL match last month.

Source: http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2008/may/30team.htm

Injury puts Tendulkar out of Bangladesh series

Sachin Tendulkar is ruled out of the upcoming cricket tri-series in Bangladesh, and subsequent Asia Cup, because of a niggling groin injury.

Tendulkar, who missed the first seven matches of the Indian Premier because of the injury, was declared unfit by Mumbai Indians' physiotherapist, Nitin Patel, for the June 8 to 14 tri-series, also involving Pakistan.

"Tendulkar is not available for the tri-series as well as the Asia Cup on the advice of Mumbai Indians physiotherapist Nitin Patel. He has not recovered sufficiently from his groin injury," BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah informed in Mumbai on Thursday.

Tendulkar will also skip the Asia Cup, to be held in Pakistan from June 24 to July 6, he added.

Source: http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2008/may/29ten.htm