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Group B

RP Singh scored 47 and then took two quick wickets for Uttar Pradesh against Himachal Pradesh•Getty Images

Rains across the country meant that little or no play was possible in five out of the seven Super League matches on Wednesday. Karnataka would have been happy that weather didn’t interrupt their match against Orissa at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, as they managed to bowl the visitors out for 191 on the first day. Orissa ended the day on a positive note, taking two Karnataka wickets for 18 runs before stumps. Sunil Joshi, the former India spinner who completed the double of 5000 runs and 500 wickets in first-class cricket in Karnataka’s last match, took 5 for 35 as Karnataka struck at regular intervals after putting Orissa in to bat. Niranjan Behera was left stranded on 83 not out after facing 235 balls and watching nine wickets fall at the other end. Adithya Sagar gave Karnataka two early breakthroughs, removing both Orissa openers within the first three overs of the morning and then Joshi ripped through Orissa’s middle-order. Karnataka and Orissa are separated by just two points in the Group B table, having played two games each.Himachal Pradesh surprised table-toppers Uttar Pradesh, bowling them out for 197 on the first day at Green Park in Kanpur, but what could have been a perfect day for them was ruined in the last over, when they lost two wickets to finish at 9 for 2. Himachal seamer Rishi Dhawan, playing in only his fourth first-class match, picked up his maiden five-for as UP lost wickets at regular intervals. RP Singh, the left-arm seamer who has played 13 Tests for India, was UP’s surprise top-scorer with 47, while their leading run-getter this season Parvinder Singh missed out on a half-century, falling for 46. Singh then gave UP an opening back in to the game, taking two wickets in his last over of the day.Only 48 overs were bowled at the Moti Bagh Stadium in Vadodara, where Baroda crawled to 94 for 1 against Punjab. Baroda, who will be trying to get over the horrific collapse that saw them lose to UP in the last round, were put in to bat and their openers Connor Williams and Jaykishan Kolsawala made steady progress before Kolsawala edged one behind off Manpreet Gony, the Chennai Super Kings fast bowler. Yusuf Pathan and Ambiti Rayudu are not playing for Baroda and have been replaced with Jyot Chhaya and Utkarsh Patel.

Group A

Railways could fit only eight overs in after play began at 4.30pm in their match against Tamil Nadu at the IIT Chemplast Ground in Chennai. Tamil Nadu were put in to bat and Abhinav Mukund hit three boundaries taking the hosts to 26 for 1 at stumps. Railways are currently languishing at second from bottom in the Group A table, while Tamil Nadu are second, having one won game and drawn two others.There was no play in any of the other Group A matches scheduled to start on Wednesday. At the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai, Amol Muzumdar will have to wait for his return to Mumbai to face his old team as Assam take on table-toppers Mumbai. Saurashtra are at the foot of the table and will welcome back Cheteshwar Pujara from India duty for their match against Delhi at the Khandheri Cricket Stadium in Rajkot. Laxmi Shukla, the Bengal allrounder fresh from his double-century in the last round, will have to wait till Thursday to see some action, as the first day of Bengal’s match against Gujarat at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad was washed out.

Shakib Al Hasan, the Bangladesh allrounder, has been retained as captain of the national team for 2011. Opening batsman Tamim Iqbal has been named his deputy, and both will face their first major assignment in the new year in the World Cup.The Bangladesh captaincy has shuffled between Mashrafe Mortaza and Shakib since the tour of West Indies in 2009 but Mortaza’s knee injury has affected his prospects for the next year. Tamim, who returned to the line-up after a hand injury in Bangladesh’s last ODI series against Zimbabwe, takes over from wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim as vice-captain.The year 2010 was a mixed one for Bangladesh as they lost each of their seven Tests, but bounced back from a poor start in the ODIs to beat New Zealand 4-0 at home in October. They then followed that up with a 3-1 series win over Zimbabwe to end the year on a satisfactory note.

Gloucestershire have signed David Wade, an active Lance Corporal with Royal Signal Corps in the British Army, on a two-year contract after he impressed during training and trials.Wade, 27, was due to return to Afghanistan in January and will remain in the Army but will train with the county during the rest of the winter and be available for the whole of 2011 season having come to an agreement with the Army. Wade, who was part of Hampshire’s youth set-up until he was 17, caught the eye of Gloucestershire coaches while playing for Westbury in the West of England Premier League.”I have been in the Army for six years,” Wade said. “I spent seven months in Afghanistan between September 2007 and April 2008 and was due to go back out there in January for a six-month tour of duty. Gloucestershire’s offer came out of the blue, but I have always played club cricket at a very competitive level.”I have been here since the players reported back in November, but everything had to be right with the Army and it took a little time to get everything sorted out. They have been very helpful.”The soldiers going out to Kabul this time have got a hard job and my troop will be going out in an infantry role. There is a pang of regret about not going with them because I did all the build-up training and I was ready to go.”But my fellow soldiers are right behind me in the decision I have made and wish me well. It’s a last roll of the dice for me as far as playing professional sport is concerned and I will be giving it all I’ve got.”John Bracewell, Gloucestershire’s director of cricket, said: “Like Gemaal Hussain, David is a relative late comer to the professional game and like his predecessor was discovered through our scouting programme. He trialled with us early last year and impressed us with his pace bounce and outswing. With his proven discipline and obvious courage through the army’s forces he has shown throughout the winter months a dedication to training and coaching. We are confident that David will be a real contributor to our campaign this season.”

Australia’s run of injuries has continued with Xavier Doherty ruled out of the final ODI against England in Perth due to a back problem. The left-arm spinner Doherty was called in to the squad after Nathan Hauritz suffered a serious shoulder injury and was viewed as the likely World Cup replacement should Hauritz fail to regain his fitness for that trip.However, Doherty played only two games before back soreness ruled him out of the Brisbane match, and Steven Smith has taken the lead spin role with some success. Australia’s selectors have not decided whether to replace Doherty for Sunday’s series finale at the WACA, where the fast men are likely to play more of a role.”Xavier Doherty developed some back pain during the one-day game in Adelaide on Australia Day and did not train in Brisbane which allowed his symptoms to improve,” the physio Alex Kountouris said. “He attempted some light training yesterday in Sydney and his back was again painful. As such he is unavailable for the remaining two games of this series. His return to cricket will be determined by monitoring his recovery over the next week.”Australia have had a growing injury list during the one-day series, with Ricky Ponting (finger), Michael Hussey (hamstring), Shaun Marsh (hamstring), and Hauritz (shoulder) all unavailable. Hussey and Hauritz are waiting on their World Cup hopes, while Ponting is expected to lead Australia in their title defence, after he batted in the nets at the SCG over the past two days.”Ricky Ponting had his first training session yesterday since having finger surgery after the Melbourne Test match,” Kountouris said. “As part of his recovery this was a restricted session and he is expected to increase his training intensity in the lead up to the ICC Cricket World Cup. He has had no adverse effect from yesterday’s session and has trained again today during Australia’s batting innings.”

These are desperate times for New Zealand. On better days, a game against Kenya should not be a thing to be fussed about and they would actually be worrying how not to get complacent ahead of the contest. Instead, they feel the pressure of a “must-win game”. “Intensity will be even bigger because this is a must win game for us,” Daniel Vettori said. “We will be strong and play well.”For the past few months, New Zealand have been psyching themselves to look to the future. The recent past has been dispiriting: a whitewash in Bangladesh, losses in India, defeats against Pakistan at home, and a soul-crushing pasting against India in the warm-up game. Gloom shadowed them everywhere. Harsh criticism floated up first: “We batted like dicks,” was the frank assessment of the then coach Mark Greatbach. Saner post-mortem followed with the inclusion of John Wright as the new coach. The losses continued, meanwhile.Brendon McCullum recently agreed to the assessment that they had forgotten how to win. Will tomorrow’s game against Kenya be the first step out of the sordid mess or a further slide into the abyss? Daniel Vettori, the captain, tried to sound positive in the pre-game conference. “We are sure to up our confidence levels after our match tomorrow. It is quite a fluid concept when we play bigger teams but our guys have the abilities to bounce back. But I prefer to look at that rather than dwelling on the past.”The past though couldn’t be shoved under the carpet. “We acknowledge the comments [about New Zealand being low on confidence] since we lost a lot of games in recent times and they were disappointing performances, particularly in the sub-continent, but hope we can look at the World Cup as a fresh start.”The first game against Kenya shouldn’t be difficult to win but Vettori, understandably, chose to be cautious. “The hardest thing about playing a qualifier is that you do not see much of them. Some of their players will be a bit of a surprise. You prepare may be after seeing them on television. In a way it is a challenge but it does not matter as we got to turn up and play tomorrow.” It’s something they haven’t done well in the recent past.Things could kickstart if the batsmen start performing. A line-up that reads Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor, an in-form Martin Guptill, Scott Styris and Jacob Oram should make the Kenyans sweat. Even in the defeat against India in the warm-up game, the way Brendon and Guptill batted against the seamers would have given a lot of heart to New Zealand fans. It’s their batting against spin that has let them down. And their bowling.The bowlers, especially the seamers, have been so lacklustre that Vettori was prompted to say that their bowling coach Allan Donald “is even now bowling better than all fast bowlers”. It was meant to be a compliment to Donald but it didn’t seem way off the mark. “We have fixed too much on batting and that does not give us enough in bowling,” Vettori said. “Allan has been an exciting addition to the team because he is bringing obviously his own personal skills and his own confidence. Ever since he came on board, he speaks with a position of authority to our players and the guys listen when he says what it takes to succeed in the sub-continent and other parts of the world.”New Zealand have a selection worry ahead of the game as Nathan McCullum is a doubtful starter after running high temperature yesterday and being kept under observation in an hospital. He returned for a light training session this morning but it’s unlikely they will take a risk by playing him against Kenya. “As of now, we plan to play three pacers and two spinners. It depends on Nathan’s fitness. We will play two spinners and look at the possibilities in balancing if the third one is coming in. I think there is plenty of runs on the track, if you bowl well, you can restrict the batting side. Generally, it is a batting wicket. It is incredibly difficult for the fast bowlers on these kinds of wickets to make their presence felt.” For New Zealand’s sake, they must.

To call Cameron White a reluctant bowler would be to greatly understate his position. For the past 57 matches of his international career White has been allowed to exist solely as a batsman, having not delivered a ball for Australia since the three he sent down against Scotland in August 2009. But all that changed on Thursday when he delivered four tidy overs against a Bangladesh Cricket Board XI at Fatullah. New captain Michael Clarke has stated his intention to revive White’s flat legspin irrespective of the latter’s noticeable lack of commitment to the art.Xavier Doherty (nine overs, 1 for 45) and Steve Smith (seven overs, none for 49) fared poorly against their modest opposition, leaving Clarke to toy with White, and the brief audition prompted the captain to call White an allrounder. White, though, has always preferred the sobriquet of batsman.”I would love to [get him bowling again], I think he’s got plenty of talent, not only with the bat but with the ball as well [though] he hasn’t bowled much of late for Australia,” Clarke said.”He bowled [four overs] yesterday and bowled really well, so I think his bowling can play a big part going forward in Australia in the shorter form of the game, and I thought yesterday was a good opportunity to get a few overs under his belt.”Addressing White’s reluctance to bowl, never more evident than when leading the Bushrangers, Clarke made a sound case for belief.”I think giving him an opportunity is probably a good start [to building his confidence],” he said. “He’s certainly got the talent, now it’s about getting some overs under his belt so he gradually builds that confidence back in his bowling.”Whitey is an allrounder, he is a batsman who can certainly bowl for us; it’s just about now giving him the opportunity.”That opportunity coincides with an extended run of poor batting form, for it is now 17 matches since White passed 50, or since he managed to clobber the ball with his customary power. Pressed for his spot by David Hussey during the World Cup, he may now be duelling with Smith and Doherty on this tour. Clarke said he expected more from his two specialist slow bowlers.”They’re both two very good bowlers but haven’t played too much in these conditions either, so yesterday was about adjusting to the conditions, he said. “The wicket was quite slow yesterday and had inconsistent turn. Playing in the subcontinent a big part of having success is not only how you face spin but how you bowl spin as well.”I do believe we’ve got talent there with Xavier and young Smithy, White as well; so we’ve got some spin bowling options, hopefully we’ll learn a bit from yesterday and bowl better tomorrow.”

Match facts

These two men are now team-mates. It happens only in the IPL!•Getty Images

Sunday, April 10
Start time 1600 (1030 GMT)

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It’s the clash between the two biggest cities in India, and arguably the biggest cricketing centres in the country. Given the deep pockets of their respective IPL franchises, and the compelling talent at their disposal, it is surprising that neither side has managed to win the IPL yet. Mumbai endured a forgettable first two seasons before sparking into life last year. Yet, they were pipped at the final hurdle by a Chennai side with better big-match temperament. Delhi muscled their way to the semi-finals in 2008 and 2009 before choking in the knockouts. Last year was even worse, as they stuttered at the end of the league stage and missed out on the semi-finals.If anything, Delhi will find the going even tougher this year. The addition of two new franchises and the churn at the auctions have resulted in a massive drain of talent from their side. AB de Villiers, Daniel Vettori, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Dirk Nannes and Paul Collingwood have all moved away – names big enough to form a new IPL team, may be the Delhi Exodus Eleven?Yet, Delhi have managed to retain their biggest player. Virender Sehwag plays Test cricket at one-day pace and ODIs at Twenty20 pace. It leaves him in a quandary while playing the shortest form of the game – there’s no higher gear left for him to find in Twenty20s, and he succumbs attempting outrageous shots. This year, he will want to temper his aggression, given that he has David Warner and Aaron Finch in his side, two of the most exciting Australian Twenty20 talents. Morne Morkel is an impressive addition to the bowling attack, but unless Irfan Pathan steps up, Delhi will struggle to contain good batting line-ups.Mumbai once again look great on paper. They lost Zaheer Khan and Saurabh Tiwary in the auction, but have held on to their remaining game-breakers. In addition, they have pulled in Rohit Sharma, who walks on water every IPL season before inexplicably slipping into laziness for the rest of the year. Sachin Tendulkar, as always, holds the key, but all eyes will be on old buddies Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds. On the international stage, they could barely stand each other’s presence, but the beauty of franchise cricket is that it has managed to bring them together and might even spark off an interesting friendship. Mumbai will hope Munaf Patel can plug at least a part of the Zaheer-shaped void in the side.

Team talk

Kieron Pollard and Lasith Malinga are automatic overseas picks for Mumbai, barring injury worries. Davy Jacobs and Dilhara Fernando will hope to take the other two spots, unless Mumbai choose to go the Kolkata way and go in with fewer than four foreign players. Aditya Tare is a specialist wicketkeeper, but Ambati Rayudu was preferred last year. Jacobs is also capable of doing the job behind the stumps.Delhi’s fate will hinge on how quickly Irfan Pathan can rediscover his swing. And on whether Ajit Agarkar can, at long last, find a way to bowl economically. Given the absence of big names, this could be their season for team efforts. Warner is expected to open, while Andrew McDonald and Morkel are shoo-ins for the starting XI. Naman Ojha may be pushed down the order, though he is likely to keep wicket if he plays.

In the spotlight

Davy Jacobs took over leadership of the floundering Warriors franchise, and turned things around with his inspiring presence, guiding them to the final of the 2010 Champions League. Though Mumbai did not play Warriors in that tournament, Tendulkar would have noted Jacobs’ exploits at the top. Jacobs’ batting technique is founded upon an ability to jump back deep in the crease and plunder anything marginally outside off stump, with a powerful uncocking of the wrists. Will Tendulkar nominate Jacobs as his opening partner?The portly, bespectacled, gum-popping Aaron Finch was the other batting hero of the Champions League. He has the ability to pace an innings perfectly, and murder spinners when they err in length. R Ashwin found this out the hard way when Chennai lost to Victoria in a group game in the Champions League. Will Harbhajan Singh have better plans in place?

Prime numbers

Match facts

Barring Virat Kohli, the Bangalore side is unrecognisable from last year•AFP

Saturday, April 9
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)

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Surprise, surprise! After being in the news for all the wrong reasons for the best part of a year, Kochi is finally going to play a game of cricket. It all started off with a seemingly harmless tweet from Lalit Modi. From there, the Kochi controversy morphed into an unstoppable avalanche that knocked Shashi Tharoor out of the Indian cabinet of ministers, and Modi off his pedestal as the IPL commissioner. If the franchise’s off-field giant-slaying abilities are anything to go by, their on-field opponents better watch out.The Kochi consortium might be tangled in an unintelligible ownership mess, much like a batsman who can’t read Muttiah Muralitharan’s doosra, but the team is filled with players known to take ownership of the sides they play for. Captain Mahela Jayawardene and Murali will still be smarting from Sri Lanka’s loss in the World Cup final. Brad Hodge will have a point to prove to the selectors of the Australian team. VVS Laxman will have a point to prove to himself, that he can flourish in Twenty20 with the finesse he brings to the purest form of the game. And then, there is Sreesanth who, when he sets his mind to it, can produce deliveries that force batsmen of Jacques Kallis’ calibre into performing back flips at the crease.Kochi’s IPL debut will be against a Bangalore outfit that is virtually unrecognisable from last year, barring Virat Kohli. Among the new names is Tillakaratne Dilshan, who gave Kohli the most vociferous of send-offs after dismissing him in the World Cup final. The team also brings Daniel Vettori and AB de Villiers together, just over a week after they confronted each other in a charged-up World Cup quarter-final. Dale Steyn has been lost in the auction, but Zaheer Khan and Dirk Nannes have come in. Bangalore have picked a strong bunch of foreign players, but seem a trifle short on quality local batsmen. After two very good seasons that ended in heartbreak, will Bangalore finally find a path to IPL glory?

Team talk

Barring fitness concerns, Bangalore’s overseas picks are automatic selections. Captain Vettori will surely play the in-form Dilshan and de Villiers, while Nannes should relish sharing the new ball with Zaheer. There is a question mark over who Dilshan’s opening partner will be, and the toss-up could be between Mayank Agarwal and Jonathan Vandiar, though the latter’s inclusion would mean having to leave one of the other foreign players on the bench. Abhimanyu Mithun and Mohammad Kaif are likely to get a game.Brendon McCullum and Jayawardene should form an interesting contrast at the top for Kochi. Murali, if fit, should walk into the XI, while Thisara Perera could get a game in the lower-middle order, giving the side a distinct Sri Lankan flavour. RP Singh and Ramesh Powar are expected to complete the bowling line-up.

In the spotlight

Saurabh Tiwary and Cheteshwar Pujara represent two sides of the same coin. Tiwary stands back in the crease and thumps the ball with fierce arms, looking for midwicket with the assiduity of a left-handed MS Dhoni. Pujara, on the other hand, invokes Rahul Dravid in his temperament and technique, keeping his drives down, and finishing with his leading elbow high and showing the full face of the bat. Both met with success in the previous IPL, for different teams, and earned call-ups to the senior team, in different formats. This year, they could form crucial additions to the middle order of the top-heavy Bangalore line-up.Ravindra Jadeja has it all to do, once again. He was branded a ‘superstar’ by Shane Warne at the end of IPL 2008, and went on to earn a permanent spot in the Indian one-day line-up. Things have fallen apart for him since, starting with being banned for the 2010 IPL season after trying to negotiate a contract by himself. He has fallen out of the radar of the India selectors now, and a solid performance here will go a long way in re-establishing his oft-questioned credentials as an allrounder.

Prime numbers

Shivnarine Chanderpaul has launched a wide-ranging attack on the West Indies management, claiming it interfered with his batting during matches and subjected him to unreasonable questioning. He also compared the present regime unfavourably to those of previous coaches John Dyson and Bennett King, under whom Chanderpaul felt this same West Indies squad had far better results.Relations between Chanderpaul and the West Indies management have been strained since he was dropped from the ODI squad for the series against Pakistan, which the visitors won 3-2 (he is in line for a Test recall). Chanderpaul had demanded an explanation from WICB chief executive Ernest Hilaire, who had made general comments about the attitude of West Indian players over the past 15 years, following wholesale changes to the squad.When asked whether he was happy with his form over the past year before he was dropped, Chanderpaul – speaking to local radio station – said he could have done better had he not been hampered by batting at different positions and dealing with external pressure during his innings.”I think, given the opportunity, I might have got bigger scores. Every time I settled in and started to get runs, messages would come telling what to do and what not to do, how to bat and how not to bat,” Chanderpaul said. “I’ve been doing it for 17 years. When John Dyson was coach he never said anything to me. When Bennett King was coach he said, ‘You go and do your job, we don’t have to tell you what to do.’ I had no problem then.Shivnarine Chanderpaul claims people have been telling him how to bat during his innings•Associated Press

“Now we have people here, who are telling me how to bat. And when the game is over, I have to answer questions. I have to answer those questions and when I do, and it’s not suitable, then I have to agree with whatever answers they want before the meeting is over.”Been called into meetings everyday, or every other day, spending hours answering questions. You never leave a meeting until they get whatever answer they want. That is what I’ve been going through. When you batting there are messages coming to you telling you how to bat, it happens until you get out, you know.”Chanderpaul had objected to Hilaire’s comment that the management needed to put a new system in place because no individual was bigger than the team and no one was a “superstar”. When asked if he knew any player who fitted that description, Chanderpaul said: “None of us did that. We’ve been doing what we’ve been told to do. The CEO and the executive members of the board made a decision to get rid of the senior players. They will have passed on that information to the chairman of selectors and the coach and let them pressure us in every way they can, which they did.”I see Christopher Gayle in the gym working, Sarwan doing extra work. All of us doing extra work and yet we’ve been cast aside just like that.”A criticism of the present West Indies team has been its poor results against top sides – the victory against Pakistan in the fourth ODI was their first against a Full Member other than Bangladesh since June 2009. Chanderpaul, however, said the team had been “doing pretty OK.””I’ve been hearing a lot of things recently, about how this team hasn’t been doing anything, haven’t been winning against a top team. The same team, the same team, when John Dyson was coach, we were winning against England, winning against Sri Lanka, winning against South Africa, winning against top teams around the world.”Chanderpaul also reiterated that he was asked to retire but refused, which had left the management unhappy. “They called me into a meeting and asked me to retire. I said I’m not retiring and when I left the meeting they were all pretty upset about it. You telling me I haven’t done anything the last 12 months and I’ve been ranked among the top ten batsmen around the world. Just because I have been batting all over the place, I haven’t had an opportunity to do anything much …”

At the outset of last summer, numerous voices were heard to chant for Mark Cameron’s inclusion in the Australian Test team for the Ashes. While not always sharply-informed – they tended to belong to media identities like Alan Jones and former players like Ian Healy rather than anyone particularly close to the domestic scene – these voices demonstrated that 30-year-old Cameron had something about him.Across eight years in the New South Wales squad he has always looked a man most likely, only to splutter and stall with injury after a brief but striking stint in the team. A first-class ledger of 68 wickets at 24.63 with a strike rate of 45.10 bears this out. It was Cameron’s potential for great days, rather than for convalescence, that caught Mickey Arthur’s eye in Western Australia, and he now has the chance to play a more consistent role with the Warriors.”The top of his performance level is very high and his career says that,” Arthur told ESPNcricinfo. “The trick is keeping him on the park and that’s going to be our challenge. Before we signed him we got him over for a full medical, and our medical staff are of the opinion they can tailor a program for him to make sure he gets through.”That tailored program may feature a limited schedule of Sheffield Shield matches, as Western Australia seek to have Cameron breathing fire at the WACA ground and on the trip to the perennially sporting Gabba. But he is far less likely to make other interstate visits, the better to keep him fit across the summer.”We will be very clever the way we use him,” Arthur said. “I’m immediately thinking that we certainly want him to play five Shield games at the WACA and one at the Gabba. Whether we play him in Adelaide or Melbourne remains to be seen. We’ll rotate him and be very clever with the way we use him and hopefully that’ll keep him on the park for a little bit longer.”Cameron arrives in the West accompanied by Travis Birt and Nathan Rimmington, two other players of experience and impact. Some years ago Ricky Ponting rated Birt the most talented batsman in Tasmania, but his first-class place was forfeited by one too many chancy shots.”Travis is the first to acknowledge that his appeal is in one-day cricket at the moment,” Arthur said. “In saying that I certainly want to resurrect his four-day cricket and give him the opportunity; but there are no promises for anybody, the guys playing the best are the guys who are going to play, and that’s what you need in a squad. At WA we haven’t had it for ages – it’s been a very mediocre culture.”What I was really looking for was to get another really experienced batter into our squad. What it does is the competition now for those six places, for one to six, is going to be pretty intense. I wanted a squad where there is a lot of good, solid competition for places because guys are pushing to reach higher levels all the time.”We’ve got some very good young players, and I’m excited by our young talent, but it needs to be played around experienced players, and when you’ve got Marcus North, Adam Voges, Travis Birt, Wes Robinson. I didn’t even mention Shaun Marsh because I’m not sure we’re going to have a lot of him this year to be honest, but we now have a core of players who’ve been around for a while and will be able to bat with our young players and take them to greater heights.”Rimmington is perhaps the least known of the trio, but he may yet be the most valuable in financial terms, as a potentially important member of the Perth Scorchers Twenty20 side – provided he signs for the Western Australia-based team.”We’ve been very selective, we’ve looked at character and we’ve also looked at the guys that can fill those holes in the squad,” said Arthur. “The season before last our death bowling in T20 cricket wasn’t very good at all, so we signed someone like Mick Lewis who could do that for us. Now we’ve got Nathan Rimmington, a renowned guy with a good track record at bowling at the death.”I look at our squad now, we lost nine players at the end of last summer. We’ve only replaced those nine players with three, and the three really add and bring certain roles to the squad that we were deficient in.”