Champions League T20

The IPL franchises have emerged as clear winners when it comes to players deciding between playing for them or their home sides in the upcoming Champions League Twenty20. Eight players were originally nominated for two squads and were given 48 hours to decide which team they would play for before the final squads were announced today.

Brad Haddin, Doug Bollinger and Brett Lee have all chosen to play for their respective IPL franchise over New South Wales; Warriors have lost Jacques Kallis and Davy Jacobs to IPL teams; Trinidad & Tobago will be without the services of Dwayne Bravo, who will play for Chennai Super Kings, and Kieron Pollard, who is in the Mumbai Indians squad; and Aiden Blizzard has chosen Mumbai over the South Australia Redbacks. 

Eleven of the thirteen teams have now announced their squads for the tournament, with the English counties who reach the Friends life t20 final to confirm their squads on August 27. The qualifying round for the Champions League begins on September 19, with the main tournament scheduled for September 23-October 9.

All the franchises have announced full-strength squads, which means there will be no rest for the India players, who only finish their tour of England on September 16.

Gautam Gambhir, who suffered a concussion during the ongoing Oval Test, is in the Kolkata Knight Riders' squad while MS Dhoni will lead Chennai Super Kings and Sachin Tendulkar will lead Mumbai Indians. Munaf Patel and Suresh Raina are the other players in the current India Test squad who will be involved in the Champions League. Mumbai have also included Harbhajan Singh, who pulled out of the England tour after the second Test with an abdominal muscle strain.

One big-name player missing from the squads was Andrew Symonds who was not named in Mumbai's XV. New South Wales chose to leave out the upcoming Pakistan-born batsman Usman Khawaja, who was granted a visa to India after initially being denied it.

Cape Cobras: JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Justin Kemp, Rory Kleinveldt, Charl Langeveldt, Richard Levi, Johann Louw, Justin Ontong, Robin Peterson, Vernon Philander, Andrew Puttick, Michael Rippon, Owais Shah, Dale Steyn, Dane Vilas

Warriors: Johan Botha, Nicky Boje, Mark Boucher, Andrew Birch, Colin Ingram, Justin Kreusch, Lyall Meyer, Makhaya Ntini, Wayne Parnell, Ashwell Prince, Jon-Jon Smuts, Kelly Smuts, Rusty Theron, Craig Thyssen, Lonwabo Tsotsobe

Mumbai Indians: Aiden Blizzard, Yuzvendra Chahal, James Franklin, Davy Jacobs, Dhawal Kulkarni, Suryakumar Yadav, Lasith Malinga, Ali Murtaza, Munaf Patel, Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, T Suman, Sachin Tendulkar

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Mayank Agarwal, S Aravind, Raju Bhatkal, AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chris Gayle, Arun Karthik, Virat Kohli, Mohammad Kaif, Abhimanyu Mithun, J Syed Mohammed, Dirk Nannes, Asad Pathan, Saurabh Tiwary Daniel Vettori

Chennai Super Kings: R Ashwin, S Badrinath, Doug Bollinger, Dwayne Bravo, MS Dhoni, Michael Hussey, Shadab Jakati, Albie Morkel, Suresh Raina, Suraj Randiv, Wriddhiman Saha, S Anirudha, Tim Southee, Scott Styris, M Vijay

Kolkata Knight Riders: Iqbal Abdulla, Shakib Al Hasan, L Balaji, Rajat Bhatia, Manvinder Bisla, Gautam Gambhir, Brad Haddin, Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, Eoin Morgan, Yusuf Pathan, Shami Ahmed, Ryan ten Doeschate, Manoj Tiwary, Jaidev Unadkat

New South Wales Blues: Stuart Clark, Patrick Cummins, Nathan Hauritz, Josh Hazelwood, Moises Henriques, Phillip Hughes, Simon Katich, Nic Maddinson, Steve O'Keefe, Ben Rohrer, Daniel Smith, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner, Shane Watson

South Australia Redbacks: Cameron Borgas, Daniel Christian, Tom Cooper, Callum Ferguson, Daniel Harris, Michael Klinger, Nathan Lyon, Tim Ludeman, Aaron O'Brien, Gary Putland, Adil Rashid, Kane Richardson, Chadd Sayers, James Smith, Shaun Tait

Auckland : Andre Adams, James Adams, Michael Bates, Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Roneel Hira, Gareth Hopkins, Anaru Kitchen, Bruce Martin, Chris Martin, Kyle Mills, Colin Munro, Daryl Tuffey, Rob Quiney, Lou Vincent

Trinidad & Tobago: Samuel Badree, Adrian Barath, Darren Bravo, Kevon Cooper, Rayad Emrit, Daren Ganga, Sherwin Ganga, Shannon Gabriel, Jason Mohammed, Dave Mohammed, Sunil Narine, William Perkins, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Lendl Simmons

Ruhuna: Mahela Udawatte, Dinesh Chandimal, Sanath Jayasuriya, Janaka Gunaratne, Milinda Siriwardana, TM Sampath, Yashodha Lanka, Shihan Kamileen, Amal Athulathmudali, Arosh Janoda, Shalika Karunanayake, Omesh Wijesiriwardene, Alankara Asanka Silva, Chinthaka Perera, Bhanuka Rajapaksa 

Sehwag likely to miss limited-overs leg

It is more than likely that Virender Sehwag has played his last innings on the England tour. It is understood that Sehwag has not completely recovered from the shoulder surgery he underwent immediately after the IPL in May. Sehwag, who struggled to make any impact in the two Tests matches he played, had a quiet word with the two on-tour national selectors - Narendra Hirwani and Surendra Bhave - and the team management, and the decision was then conveyed to the BCCI top brass. In the end Sehwag got the permission. 

"The shoulder injury has not completely healed. He will return after the Test series," a BCCI source told ESPNcricinfo. In addition to the shoulder injury, Sehwag has also been suffering from hearing problems in his left ear, after being exposed to a loud sound on July 24, according to the note sent by the National Cricket Academy physiotherapist Nitin Patel to the tour physio Ashish Kaushik when the opener joined the squad for the tour match in Northampton. "Sehwag has some visual and balancing problems, which persist," the source added.

Interestingly, after the first day's play at The Oval, Anirudh Chaudhary, Indian manager for the Test leg, categorically denied the rumours that Sehwag had asked the team management if he could head back home.

It would be difficult to surmise if the injury played a role in Sehwag's poor tour which began with a king pair at Edgbaston. He followed that up by lasting just five deliveries in the first innings of the final Test before being bowled through the gate by a Graeme Swann offbreak in the second innings. He made 41 runs in four innings.

Embarrassingly for the BCCI, this is the second case of a half-fit Indian player being rushed in for this important tour. Earlier Zaheer Khan, India's strike bowler, was ruled out of the series at the halfway stage, due to a "recurring hamstring injury and right-ankle impingement" according to the statement issued on August 7 by the team manager. Zaheer had originally picked up the ankle injury during the IPL and, both he and Sehwag had been rested for the subsequent Caribbean tour.

When the selectors named the squad for the Test leg of the England tour in early July, they announced a 17-member party, stating that Sehwag would join the tour a fortnight later as he was been given extra time to recover completely from the shoulder surgery. Unfortunately for the BCCI, Sehwag did not recover as expected and someone would have to answer some tough questions.

Meanwhile the selectors have not yet name Sehwag's replacement and are likely to make the announcement early next week.

Sourav Gangully's Feedback

The former Indian Captain Sourav Gangully made some remarks about the former England Captain Micahel Vaughan after he made some critics about the team India's performance in the last three test matches.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxwyjpgNxFk

Triumphant England must retain Determination

England's coronation as the world's best Test team was accompanied by a pageantry that was atypical at best. As the inevitability of victory took its hold on the ever-lively Eric Hollies Stand, seven Mr Blobbys went skipping down the aisle, shortly before a troupe of thirty monkeys pursued an overgrown banana in a skit that might have been devised for Benny Hill.

Out in the middle, India's batsmen shared in the sense of the absurd, shedding six wickets before lunch to crush any prospect of a rearguard. But all throughout the process, England themselves remained deadly serious, as they closed in on a goal that has focussed the squad's mentality for the best part of two years.

In the end, the scenes were not dissimilar to those at the end of the Ashes, with 11 jubilant cricketers forming a bundle at the point where the decisive wicket had fallen, while two crestfallen batsmen slunk out of the picture stage-right, stunned by the magnitude of the defeat they'd just endured. But aside from confirming what we all already knew, that the Pataudi Trophy was returning to English hands for the first time since 1996, there was nothing especially remarkable about the moment itself. When victory becomes commonplace, as it truly has done for this team, you know you have got a special outfit on your hands.

"It's different," Andrew Strauss admitted, when asked to put into words what it means to be the best. "With an Ashes series there's so much emotion and rivalry between the countries, but this series is very much about measuring ourselves against the best in the world, and hopefully having the opportunity to overtake them. We're very proud of the way we've performed in the last three games - we've been very close to our best, so we are very satisfied with what we've achieved and delighted to have gone to No. 1 ourselves."

There's only so much that can be read into the achievement, however. As India have just demonstrated in a spectacular collapse of resolve, the descent from the summit can be quick and humiliating if you allow your standards to waver. With away series against Pakistan and Sri Lanka looming early next year, followed by a tasty home tussle against the impressive South Africa, England's credentials will soon be tested in no uncertain terms. "It can go away as quickly as it arrives," Strauss said. "You've got to keep looking forward, that's the nature of international sport."

Nevertheless, the speed of England's march to the summit of the world game has been remarkable, especially when you consider what a shambles they had been as recently as the spring of 2009. When Strauss and Andy Flower were pitched together as captain and coach in the wake of the Pietersen-Moores fiasco, their first match in charge resulted in the 51-all-out collapse at Sabina Park, a contest so calamitous it couldn't help but harden the resolve of a buffeted squad. Ian Bell was sent away to box on the beaches and toughen up his act; Steve Harmison and, in phases, Andrew Flintoff were stripped of their influence within a divided dressing-room. On a series of flat decks, the series proved to be unsalvageable, but the only way from that nadir has been up.