CRICKET WORLD

Delhi Daredevils captain Gautam Gambhir praised the contribution of David Warner and Paul Collingwood to his team's comprehensive 40-run victory over the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Feroz Shah Kotla.

Warner smashed an unbeaten 107 off 69 deliveries and Collingwood, playing his first Indian Premier League game this season, contributed a nicely-paced 53 to a 128-run fourth wicket stand as the Daredevils reached 177 for four after losing three early wickets.

The Knight Riders too suffered early blows, but never recovered and were restricted to 137 for nine as the Daredevils cantered to their fourth win in seven games.

"Warner set this game up for us," Gambhir said.

"He played some incredible shots, he kept the momentum going despite the loss of those early wickets and he gave Collingwood all the time to craft his innings.

"Collingwood is the kind of player that we needed. He contributes with the bat and with the ball and he's a terrific fielder as well.

"In this format you would want a player who can contribute in all three aspects and that's exactly what he did.

"He built a partnership with Warner and we finished with a very good total on this track."

Gambhir also revealed he had expected his bowlers to shine in home conditions.

"We are pretty familiar with this track and we know just how to mix things up on this surface," he said.

"For a visiting team, it is hard to adjust to this kind of a track.

"It is always useful when your bowlers know the conditions and they really did the best today."

Collingwood, who finished the game with a wicket in his only over, also paid tribute to Warner.

"It was a very slow wicket and it offered decent grip for the spinners as well," said the Englishman.

"It was really about trying to build a partnership after those early wickets and trying to get to the 15th over.

"It was fantastic batting with Warner, he takes the pressure of you because he is a strong hitter of the ball and gets plenty of boundaries.

"He played a gem of an innings on a wicket that was pretty difficult to score on."

Pakistan's Twenty20 captain Shahid Afridi admits that Sachin Tendulkar's refusal to come out of international T20 retirement for India is a boost for everyone else at the World Twenty20.

Tendulkar only played one T20 international - against South Africa in 2006 - before calling it quits in the shortest form of the game ahead of the World Twenty20 in 2007.

Despite showing excellent form for the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League, scoring 303 runs in the first six matches this season, the 36-year-old has refused to reconsider his position.

"The way he has blossomed in the last few years, he is only getting better and better as a batsman," said Afridi, who will lead Pakistan in the Caribbean next month.

"If he is not playing for India in the Twenty20 World Cup, it is certainly a big advantage for other teams. If Tendulkar had played in this World Cup, I am sure he would made big impact for India."

Tendulkar has shown superb form in all three formats of the game in recent years, regularly recording Test centuries and registering the first double century in the history of one-day cricket.

Afridi pointed out that age does not seem to have blunted Tendulkar's game, but also that his technique has been easily transferred to the Twenty20 arena.

"With every match he seems to be growing as a batsman and getting better. He is playing like a teenager. There is no sign of age affecting his game at all," Afridi said.

"The biggest thing that he still enjoys playing the sport and he is hunger for runs has not died at all.

"I think even in Twenty20 cricket you need to bat properly and at times even playing out 20 overs is a big challenge for a team. You need to play orthodox cricket."

Pakistani star Shoaib Malik and India's top female tennis player Sania Mirza plan to wed in a unique union bridging the two nations' bitter sporting and political divide.

"My wedding is going to be the biggest day of my life," Mirza said in a statement on Monday from her hometown of Hyderabad, where she is recovering from a wrist injury that has seen her ranking slip from 27 in 2007 to 92.

The sporting marriage, seemingly unprecedented in the perennial rivalry between the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals, comes two months after Mirza broke off her engagement to a childhood friend.

"I have been in the constant glare for too long and would appreciate the privacy at this very personal moment in my life," said the 23-year-old starlet, whose short skirts have drawn the ire of Islamist groups in India.

Mirza and Malik, 28, who are both Muslim, will marry in April and live in Dubai, members of the two families told local media.

Malik, a former national captain who is currently serving a year-long ban by the Pakistan Cricket Board due to indiscipline, confirmed the imminent nuptials.

"The news of me marrying Sania is true," the all-rounder was quoted by the Hindustan Times as saying.

"Inshallah (God willing) we will get married in April.

"I fully understand what it takes to be an international sportsperson and I will support Sania in her career as long as she wishes to play."

He said he would be "the proudest husband" if Mirza won a medal at the 2012 Olympics, while the tennis player said she was targeting a return to fitness for the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games late this year.

Mirza broke off her engagement to childhood friend Sohrab Mirza in January, saying "we were friends for years but found ourselves incompatible as fiances".

The tennis player became an instant nationwide celebrity as an 18-year-old when she became the first female Indian to win a WTA Tour title in 2005.

Malik, who hails from Sialkot in Pakistan's Punjab province, has played 29 Tests, 190 ODIs and 30 Twenty20 Internationals since his debut in 2001.

In a bizarre twist in 2002, he was accused by the family of another Hyderabad girl, Ayesha Siddiqui, of marrying her over the telephone. The cricketer denied it, but did admit to being engaged.

Ayesha's father threatened to sue Malik for leaving the girl without awarding her a divorce.

Matthew Hayden is convinced the new 'Mongoose' bat has an "enormous" future in all forms of cricket.

Australia Test and one-day international great Hayden has been using the new bat, to significant effect, for the Chennai Super Kings in this year's Indian Premier League.

But he believes the innovative blade, designed to aid power hitting, is by no means a mere curiosity with Twenty20 limitations.

"I think the future of it is enormous, and the potential enormous," said Hayden, who showed what the Mongoose can do when he hit five fours and seven sixes from only 34 balls for the Super Kings at the start of IPL 2010.

"I see it as an outright attacking weapon - that's how it needs to be used - in circumstances where you are not looking to defend at all, just out-and-out attack."

Hayden, who made more than 6,000 runs in his 161 ODIs for Australia, would love to have had the Mongoose at his disposal during his international career.

He can envisage situations, even in Test as well as ODI cricket, where the Mongoose - his version has a 43% longer handle and 33% shorter blade, compared to a conventional bat - may be a huge asset to an attack-minded player.

The premise is that the long, flexible handle and shorter blade maximise bat speed and power.

Hayden added: "You could even seize the opportunity, for example just before lunch in a Test match, thinking 'the opposition are looking vulnerable, and I am going to go all-out attack'.

"There are possibilities in one-day international scenarios and Test matches."

Matthew Hayden insists 50-over cricket is a "great game" and a supreme test of talent which must be treasured at all costs.

The former Australia opener and dual World Cup-winner is one of the stars of the Indian Premier League, and a fan of Twenty20 cricket too.

But he does not subscribe to a perceived consensus that 50-over cricket may be or should be an endangered species, as the Twenty20 revolution gathers a relentless pace.

Hayden, who also warns against allowing the mooted innovation of day-night Test cricket to undermine traditions more precious than many realise, believes the only danger to 50-over cricket is a lack of good sense from schedulers.

"I think there is room within the cricket calendar for all three products," said the 38-year-old, who played 273 times for his country across all formats.

"Fifty-over cricket is a great game.

"The only trouble with 50-over cricket is sometimes having too much of it - seven matches in a series against one opposition, as sometimes happens, is just unacceptable.

"We have to understand that more is not better - because unless we do that, we will discourage people from watching a great form of cricket."

Hayden, disagreeing with views voiced by several of his peers and most recently New Zealand wicketkeeper-batsman Brendon McCullum, has no common ground either with those who complain about the boredom in the 'middle overs' of one-day international and List A cricket.

"I think it is during that time that you actually test the talent," he said.

"An average athlete can sometimes get away with it in Twenty20, even Test cricket. But in 50-over cricket, if you are not on the ball completely throughout all those overs you will be found out - and so will your team.

"Those overs are not always going to be everyone's cup of tea - but they are intriguing and fascinating."

As for Test matches, espoused by the International Cricket Council as the pinnacle of the sport, Hayden is wary of an agenda apparently intent on introducing floodlights and pink balls.

His doubts are not about the feasibility of the format - as voiced last week by former England captain Michael Vaughan, who is unconvinced a pink ball will be visible enough under lights - but in the wisdom of a concept he thinks may take away more than it adds.

"I would always try to ensure Test cricket is a brand that represents tradition and age-old customs," he said.

"I am not looking for innovation with that brand.

"To that end, I would protect what we have; be careful about the venues where it is played; keep it special.

"Innovations in cricket are important. But that is why you have one-day and Twenty20 cricket."

Hayden is well aware of the commercial potential of floodlit Tests but, on balance, believes there is something even more valuable in what already exists.

"I understand the thinking behind playing Test cricket day-night, and the interest that would be likely to generate with broadcasters - with matches live in prime time.

"But I think the tradition is more important to the brand."

He wa a good cricketer ..

Bangalore captain Anil Kumble admits he faces a selection headache ahead of their IPL match against the Chennai Super Kings.

The Royal Challengers are sitting pretty in second place on the IPL table after winning four of their six matches so far. However, after losing their game against the Delhi Daredevils on Thursday, they will be keen to get back on track against Chennai.

Luckily for them their bid will be boosted by Kevin Pietersen and Cameron White who are now available for selection.

Captain Kumble says it's tough to fit all the international stars into the starting XI.

"It's not easy, given that we have only 11 spots available and a maximum of four for foreign players," he wrote in his column in the Hindustan Times.

"The fact that we're playing a day game in hot, humid Chennai will be taken into account - whoever's out there, will be battling the elements as well as the opposition.

"Cameron White was already here, but KP (Kevin Pietersen) joined us on Monday and Ross Taylor joins us soon. Which means once he's there, we'll have a full house. This is where planning and strategising come in. But our final team, however, depends on the pitch. We'll take a look at the conditions and then assess matters. For instance, if you believe, say, that both White and KP are required, you fit them in. If you believe that only one out of the four fits in, you bring in one player.

"It's tough to leave out people, but only 11 can play. A spinner might play ahead of a fast bowler, if the conditions suit spinners. Similarly, a batsman might have to go ahead and keep wickets, if you have to leave out a keeper to make room for that extra spot."

Coach Ray Jennings has already confirmed that White is up against Eoin Morgan for a place in the starting XI.

"Whitey's been in fantastic form over the last season and he and Morgan essentially compete for one spot," he told the official Bangalore website. "We had some practice games but the combination will be decided before the match and after inspecting the wicket."

At least a year of scientific research could be needed before a ball suitable for day/night Test cricket can be produced, according to International Cricket Council general manager Dave Richardson.

Former South Africa wicketkeeper Richardson is in Abu Dhabi to assess the high-profile trial of the pink ball in the ongoing match between Durham and MCC.

Hopes are high that a strong performance under the floodlights of the Sheikh Zayed Stadium will bring the era of day/night Tests - and improved crowds to go with them - ever closer.

But Richardson believes it is important to tally the anecdotal evidence of players with firm empirical data before such a step is considered.

He even suggested that despite the relatively advanced progress of the pink Kookaburra, an orange alternative has not yet been ruled out.

"Ball manufacturers are saying to us 'you tell us what you need and we'll develop it for you'," said Richardson.

"But the thing is we don't know what we need. We don't know if we want an orange ball against a black background or a pink ball against a white background.

"That is going to be the first step - the scientific approach, to go to these research guys or universities and get them to tell us what we should be asking for.

"The data collected so far is all very much on a hearsay kind of basis - what did the wicketkeeper think, what did the fielders think, what did the TV guys think.

"Before we even start looking at those kind of projects we need to establish from a scientific point of view what makes sense, whether it's pink or orange.

"There's a danger in relying on ad-hoc, hearsay-type evidence. It's good to have and it's positive progress but it needs to be backed up by scientific evidence."

Given those constraints, Richardson said the introduction of five-day cricket under night skies would not be possible as early as once mooted.

The Lord's Test between England and Bangladesh in May was pinpointed as a potential day/night fixture but Richardson now feels next summer is a more realistic target.

"It's a bit early to say but I think 12 months is a realistic timeframe to get anything reasonable (off the ground).

"We were hoping to get something as soon as this summer but I don't think that's going to happen.

"England versus Bangladesh would have been too early. The balls that have been developed so far are still a long way off being able to last 80 overs, in the same way a white ball wouldn't last 80 overs. They just get too dirty and you can't see them as well."

Players from both Durham and MCC have been mostly positive about the visibility of the pink ball - even after 90 overs - over the first two days in Abu Dhabi, with a minor gripe about the darkness of the seam the only real bone of contention.

And despite his own caution about the speed of implementation, Richardson accepts that day/night Tests are all-but a certainty in the near future.

"Down the line I think there are going to be some markets that do want to come and watch in the evening and if we can schedule some matches in that time we must do it," he conceded.

"I'd be surprised if we couldn't find a ball that worked and I think there will be a solution if there is a will for day/night cricket."