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Mohammad Asif, the Pakistan fast bowler, has been fined 10 percent of his match fee for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct during his country’s third one-dayer against India.Asif pleaded guilty to excessive appealing after he failed to direct his appeal to the umpire. The hearing was conducted by ICC match referee Chris Broad in Multan on Wednesday.”Asif is new to the international arena and is trying very hard to change the way he appeals but he must learn to respect the umpire and turn to ask if the batsman is out for all dismissals,” Broad said.All Level One breaches carry a minimum penalty of an official reprimand and a maximum penalty of 50 percent of a player’s match fee. The charge was brought by 3rd Umpire Zamir Haider and on-field umpires Simon Taufel and Asad Rauf.

Jason Holder, the West Indies captain, said his team would take heart from the efforts of Darren Bravo, Kraigg Brathwaite and also James Pattinson in trying to regather from a humiliating defeat to Australia in the first Test in Hobart.Bravo and Brathwaite excelled with a pair of fine innings that stood in stark contrast to the horrid returns of the rest of the batting order, and Holder said their example had to be the starting point for his side’s preparation for the second Test in Melbourne from Boxing Day.”I think you need to look at inspiring performances, like how Darren Bravo played,” Holder said. “He just showed that once he applied himself and spent some time in the middle that runs could be made out there.””The way Kraigg Brathwaite played in the second innings [was impressive], a real fighting innings. He pushed for a hundred but unfortunately didn’t get it. We just need to look at those inspiring performances, and probably look back to performances where we’ve done well in the past, and just try to relive those moments and bring it into this Test series.”Holder was also disappointed with their work at the start of the Hobart Test, when they conceded 438 runs for only three wickets in 89 overs.”Obviously we weren’t good enough on the first day, plain and simple. We didn’t bowl well, we didn’t string enough good balls in pretty good areas long enough, and as a result they were scoring pretty rapidly from the get go. We obviously need to highlight that area and work on it before the second Test match.”But there are ways to recover from a bad first impression, as Pattinson did. Returning from injury and with a reworked action, he was unable to take any wickets in the first innings. But second time around, he fired out five West Indian batsmen.”Pattinson showed you can come back in the second innings and produce those kinds of spells,” Holder said. “That’s what good bowlers show, the ability to bounce back after not having the best start. We can take a page from his book and start to turn things around.”The results haven’t gone my way and it’s been tough times. But I can think back, that for a number of years West Indies cricket has been like this. I’m not making any excuses for anybody, but at the end of the day it’s a situation most of us have found ourselves in [before].”We need to find a way to pick ourselves up and turn things around. The only way we can turn it around is by performances.”

Three South African players will attempt to play in the inaugural Masters Champions League without signed NOCs from their national body, Cricket South Africa. Richard Levi, Rory Kleinveldt and Robin Peterson have all been denied NOCs because the MCL clashes with South African domestic fixtures. A fourth player, Alviro Petersen, also did not receive an NOC, and will not be traveling to the UAE because he is contractually bound to play for Highveld Lions, his South African franchise.Petersen tweeted his situation on Monday. “Its with regret that I announce that @HighveldLions CEO & Board denied me an NOC to play in @MCL2020UAE . My team mate Mc Kenzie got his NOC.”Petersen retired from international cricket in January 2015 but remains contracted to the Lions franchise, for whom he scored a double-hundred in the most recent round of first-class matches. For any player to receive an NOC, their franchise has to agree and then apply to CSA for a final signature. The Lions’ CEO Greg Fredericks told ESPNcricinfo that they chose not to do this after discussions with the coach and selectors in which they decided the franchise needs Petersen for upcoming fixtures.McKenzie has a different and smaller agreement with Lions, which will expire at the end of the 2015-16 summer. He only played in the List A competition this season after retiring from first-class cricket at the end of last season. Although that tournament is yet to conclude, the Lions have deemed him surplus to requirements, paving way for his NOC.The situation with the Levi, Kleinveldt and Peterson is different. None of them have publicly announced their retirement from international cricket but an insider told ESPNcricinfo that all of them have written to CSA to state that it is not their intention to play international cricket anymore.Their franchise, the Cobras, applied to CSA for their NOCs but CSA has refused to grant them because they felt the players are needed in the domestic competition.Levi is a Kolpak player who has a contract with the Cobras under which he is bound to play for them in the T20 competition and the play-offs of the one-day cup. His contract also contains a clause that he will be released for one T20 league, should an opportunity arise. He chose the MCL ahead of the PSL. While the T20 competition is already over in South Africa, the playoffs for the one-day cup take place at the end of February and do not clash with the MCL.Kleinveldt and Peterson, who last played for South Africa in 2013 and 2014 respectively, are also contracted to the Cobras and have been playing across all formats for the franchise. A source revealed that CSA refused to release them because, “it’s important that the strength of the domestic game is looked after.” While Peterson and Levi are already in the UAE, Kleinveldt is expected to travel on Tuesday.The MCL may still refuse to allow these players to take part in the tournament without a signed NOC from CSA.

Kenya 8 for 1 trail Canada 263 (Dhaniram 78, Bhatti 57, Kamande 4-56) by 255 runs
Scorecard

Clichéd it might be, but the opening day of Kenya’s Intercontinental Cup tie against Canada at Nairobi Gymkhana was a see-saw affair. After a wretched middle-order collapse which left them 121 for 6, Canada recovered magnificently to close right back in the match.That Kenya were not in complete control was thanks to a seventh-wicket stand of 99 between Sunil Dhaniram and Umar Bhatti. Neither are slouches with the bat, but with Dhaniram attacking and Bhatti more cautious, they checked the Kenyans and then staged a solid recovery.On an overcast morning and with some dampness from overnight rain, Canada batted and made a good start, Abdul Jabbar breezily racing to 49 on his debut with some sumptuous drives in an opening stand of 68. Inexperience then got the better of him, and he perished trying to bring up his fifty by hitting offspinner Jimmy Kamnade over long-off.What followed was a complete collapse as Kamnade took 4 for 0 in ten balls. David Obuya held two catches close in front of the bat, while Mohammad Iqbal, who had been Jabbar’s subdued partner, drove tamely to mid-on. Kamande then ran out Ashif Mulla for good measure. This was all the more remarkable as Kamande was recovering from a head injury sustained when he was attacked by carjackers on Thursday night.At the other end, Hiren Varaiya was struggling, Qaiser Ali hitting him for three fours in eight balls, but Ali then opened up once too often and snicked high to point. to leave Canada on 121 for 6. Dhaniram had already started the counter-attack, picking Kamande off through the leg side. Bhatti had moments of luck, edging Thomas Odoyo perilously close to second slip and then top-edging Alfred Luseno over the keeper, but he also played some cracking square cuts.Kenya persevered with spin, strangling the partnership, and the pressure finally told when Dhaniram pulled Varaiya to mid-on. The slow men kept things tight – eight runs came from ten overs – but it was the return of the quicks that polished off the tail, the last three wickets falling in 14 balls.Kenya faced a tough 25 minutes and lost Maurice Ouma to the first ball. Ouma was criticised for his performances with the bat in South Africa, and his error of judgement here will hardly have mollified the selectors. But Canada’s pace attack missed a trick, opting to bombard nightwatchman Varaiya with bouncers rather than aim at his stumps. He ducked a few, took one in the ribs, and survived until the close.The last time they were here Canada struggled to acclimatise to the conditions and took several games to find their feet. Today, they found them inside two sessions.

Scott Styris will join Durham as an overseas player this week, bringing to three the number of New Zealand squad members in county cricket this season. Styris will be hoping for a less dramatic trip than last year, when he injured his back while playing for Middlesex.He aggravated the problem at the Champions Trophy and ended up missing the home series against Sri Lanka and the start of the CB Series. However, Lindsay Crocker, the New Zealand team manager, said he had no issue with Styris returning to England as he would be with Durham for only two months from June 1.”This year he goes away with a pretty good bill of health and we have no concerns,” Crocker said. “He’ll still have about six weeks off before our next competition which is the Twenty20 World Cup, so it’s a nice length of break for him.”Styris joins his former New Zealand team-mate Paul Wiseman at Durham, and he will be the county’s second overseas player alongside Australia’s Michael Di Venuto. Durham, who are second on the points table, will be hoping Styris brings with him the form that made him New Zealand’s leading run-scorer at the World Cup.”He took his cricket to a different level in the World Cup and he’s learned a lot, things like batting into the later stages of a match,” Crocker said. “He wants to keep that momentum going and keep putting the things he learned into practice.”Three New Zealanders are now listed as overseas players in the county competition. The others are Stephen Fleming, who is the captain of Nottinghamshire, and Hamish Marshall, who is at Gloucestershire.

Shoaib Akhtar has appealed against the Rs 300,000 (US$5,000) fine handed to him by the Pakistan board last week for leaving the Karachi training camp early and failing to appear at the subsequent disciplinary hearing.”I have appealed against the fine because I think I was not given the chance to give my version of events,” Shoaib told . The fine was imposed last Wednesday after Shoaib failed to turn up for a hearing the day before. Shoaib maintains he was made aware of the hearing two days it had taken place.Shafqat Naghmi, PCB’s chief operating officer, held a meeting with Shoaib today to discuss the events of last week. On Friday, Shoaib reportedly clashed with board officials over the fine at Gaddafi Stadium. Naghmi told , “There appears to have been some miscommunication which was probably the cause of this incident. An appellate committee will be set up to look into his stance now.”Naghmi added that Shoaib had assured the board he was fit and looking forward to playing for Pakistan in the Twenty20 World Championship, dismissing some reports which said he had threatened to pull out of the tournament.

The Zimbabwe cricket board has backed Sharad Pawar’s nomination for the post of ICC president. Pawar, the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, had filed his nomination on Friday after the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) met in Singapore and agreed on his nomination.Pawar now has the backing of five member boards, including the Asian bloc of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The last date for filing nominations is January 1, and the BCCI was hopeful of getting the support of the West Indies board as well. The ICC will send the nominations received from Pawar and David Morgan, Chairman of the England Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to AC Muthiah, Chairman of the ICC Nomination Committee.The ICC will announce its successor to Percy Sonn in its annual meeting in London in July for a term of two years beginning 2008.

Jason Gillespie is on track to force his way back into the national side, according to South Australia’s coach Wayne Phillips, but he admitted that next month’s Test series against South Africa might come too soon. Gillespie grabbed 7 for 35 against Victoria at the weekend to give the selectors a timely reminder that he is not finished despite being written off by many after a dreadful Ashes series.Nathan Bracken is expected to claim the third quick-bowling berth at the WACA, but Gillespie’s nine-wicket haul in the match put him back in the frame along with Michael Kasprowicz. “Bracken probably has the inside running and that is probably fair enough, but what Gillespie brings is different, but pretty exciting too,” Phillips told AAP. “I never thought the national selectors had written him off at all, but they do need him if he continues to provide the selectors and team management with these sorts of performances, there is no reason why he can’t force his way back.””I don’t expect to get any call up to the Australian side anytime soon,” Gillespie admitted. “I think the selectors have shown their cards and basically put me at the back of the queue, I know that, I acknowledge that and I have no problem with that.”I am not seen as one of the best seven or eight fast bowlers in the country at the moment because there is a team going to New Zealand today and they have rested Glenn McGrath from that trip and picked four fast bowlers and I am not among them.”But there was encouragement from Ricky Ponting. “Dizzy’s done nothing wrong since he’s been back,” he said. “It’s great to see him back bowling well and taking the wickets, and being the sort of bowler that we know he can be.”

Andrew Flintoff was content with his return to first-class cricket but insisted that his fragile left ankle will require constant supervision for the rest of his career.Flintoff’s ankle was operated on over the winter and he made his comeback for Lancashire in their drawn match against Surrey at The Oval over the past four days. He only made 23 with the bat but returned the encouraging figures of 1 for 72 from 28 steady overs in Surrey’s mammoth 537 for 5 declared.”From a fitness point of view I thought I kept my pace up all the way through my spells, maybe there is a little bit more in there but not a great deal,” Flintoff said at The Oval, when the fourth and final day was washed out. “It was quite a placid pitch and it was about focusing on getting it in the right areas given the players they’ve got in their team.”I have always been confident coming back but when you’ve had four operations you have a bit more knowledge about your ankle. I just turned up here to play a game of cricket under no concern about how my fitness was going to be.”I just turned up here to play a game of cricket under no concern about how my fitness was going to be.”In the past, Flintoff has rushed his comeback from ankle surgery. Combined with his heavy workload this has caused a recurrence of the injury but, this time round, he hopes it might be fourth time lucky.”Coming out of the operation, hopefully it is cured clinically but then probably from a workload point of view – I have come back from the previous operations and played for a period of time – maybe if I played for a period of time, for 10 or 12 months, and break the cycle of bowling 150 overs, 200 overs and breaking down I will be happy,” he said. “But I am going to have to keep working on my ankle, my left leg and calf in particular.”So I will probably be on some sort of rehab programme now for the rest of my career.”With the first Test against New Zealand only a month away, Flintoff admitted his keenness to be selected but remained cautious about his chances.”I would love to be involved on May 15, there is obviously no change there, but I know I have to perform,” he said. “It’s nice to get 28 overs under my belt and bowl quite nicely but I have to score some runs as well, which I am working hard to do and fully aware of.”

The row between Clive Lloyd and Michael Holding over the reasons for Holding’s resignation from the West Indies board’s cricket committee shows no sign of letting up.On Wednesday, Lloyd, who is chairman of the committee, issued at statement in which he said he had no issues with his former team-mate and that he saw “nothing to be gained by continuing this matter”. He added: “I believe we should now focus on what each of us can do individually to take West Indies cricket forward.”Holding, however, told Cricinfo that his resignation had nothing to do with the cancellation of the Stanford Super Star match, as has been implied. “My resignation letter was dated August 26 and it’s on record that the match was cancelled some time after this date. All one has to do is go back and read my resignation letter and they will find the reason.””It’s unfortunate that Mr Lloyd can’t remember my reason. It seems he continues to have memory lapses, since the letter was written to him and he surely must still have a copy.”His statement says he wishes to move on,” Holding continued. “Well, that is easy for him to say, but since he contributed to Ken Gordon and the WICB’s first press release with his erroneous quote that he never resigned from the original cricket committee, as it was never accepted by the WICB directors, and only I resigned, he needs to correct his utterings first. If the committee members were never accepted by the WICB directors, why was it necessary for me to resign?”Those are your words Clive, not mine. Be man enough to admit you were wrong or mistaken or forgot the incident, whichever you choose, and then we can move on. Don’t be afraid to offend anyone with your admission. If anyone is offended by the truth, then we know where they stand.”