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Mark Wagh, the Nottinghamshire batsman, has signed a three-year contract extension which will keep him at the club until the end of the 2012 season.Wagh, 32, was the only Nottinghamshire player to pass 1000 runs in the Championship last year and is expected to make a full recovery from shoulder surgery in time for the new campaign in April.”I enjoy playing for the club and I’ve got a good relationship with the management so it’s pleasing to have secured a new deal,” Wagh said. “I’m making good progress with my recovery and I’m looking forward to playing for Nottinghamshire for at least four more years.”Nottinghamshire director of cricket, Mick Newell, added: “Mark made a significant contribution last season and we’ll be looking for more of the same in 2009. As a consistent, English-qualified batsmen, he is a player who would be in high demand and both parties were keen on the extension.”Newell is hoping to add one more new signing to his squad before the start of the new season.

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Group A

Gujarat v Punjab in Ahmedabad
Gujarat, equal on 12 points with Saurashtra but third in the table, would be wary of slipping up against Punjab, who have seven points from four games. With the Mumbai-Hyderabad match postponed due to the terrorist strikes in Mumbai, Gujarat could move up a place or two with a win or a first-innings lead. They began their season with a big win followed by a loss, but have since collected six points by virtue of the first-innings lead in draws against Hyderabad and Delhi. Punjab have had a disappointing run so far. Five of their seven points came from a win against bottom-placed Rajasthan, and they lost and conceded the first-innings lead in the other two.Saurashtra v Rajasthan in Rajkot
There have been been centuries galore so far at the Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Ground, where Saurashtra’s Cheteshwar Pujara has piled up 675 runs in five innings. Saurashtra would be frustrated after failing to beat leaders Mumbai, who hung on for a draw on the final day, in their last game. Currently in second place, Saurashtra are expected to force a win against Rajasthan. Under a new captain, Venugopal Rao, Rajasthan have been unable to match up to the other teams. However, if the pitch favours the batsmen, Rajasthan could fancy their chances of boosting their point tally – they have two – by winning the toss and scoring a big total; if that happens, they will also increase their chances of moving out of the relegation zone.

Group B

Andhra v Tamil Nadu in Vijayawada
Tamil Nadu are the in-form team in the group, with one big win and two first-innings leads in three games so far. The bowlers and batsmen performed in unison in their previous game and the result was an innings-and-238-run win against Uttar Pradesh, last year’s finalists. Coach WV Raman would be hoping his team continues to remain focused after a short break – they did not play the last round of matches. They take on neighbours Andhra, who come into the game on the back of two losses. They are last in the group, with two points from four games, and another poor batting display could jolt their chances of staving off relegation.Baroda v Maharashtra in Vadodara
Both Baroda and Maharashtra are two points above Andhra but have a game in hand. A win for either will put them back in the reckoning for a quarter-final place. Baroda battled to avoid defeat in their previous game in Bangalore, but a rejuvenated Karnataka ensured the visitors did not go home with any points, completing a ten-wicket win on the final day. Baroda’s four points so far have come against teams placed currently above them. Their opponents, Maharashtra, conceded first-innings points against Tamil Nadu, lost to Uttar Pradesh, and gained two against Andhra. Both teams would look to score more points in the second half of their league matches.

Match facts

Nov 10, 2008
Start time 7.30pm (1400 GMT)

The Big Picture

After Sunday’s thrilling encounter, the two teams meet yet again in the first semi-final. Chennai Superstars’ dominance in the tournament has somewhat faded with two defeats heading into the semi-final, and it’s Lahore Badshahs who enter this contest as the favourites.With big crowds – on Sunday it was in excess of 50,000 – egging them on, Lahore seem to enjoy the atmosphere in Ahmedabad. They returned for the final leg here still unsure of their semi-final spot, unlike Chennai, but finished the league phase in second place, edging out their opponents on Monday by a few decimal points. Three straight wins, nearly all must-win encounters, puts them in good stead for the crunch clash. Add to that their record in Ahmedabad: played four, won four.Chennai’s experience in Ahmedabad is not as impressive, winning only one out of three games. But it’s not a team you can write off just yet. Almost their entire line-up has been instrumental in winning matches for them this season, and one out-of-the-box performance could well put the contest out of Lahore’s reach.

Form guide (last five matches, most recent first)

Chennai – LLWWW
Lahore – WWWLW

Stats

• With 14 wickets in the tournament, Naved-ul-Hasan is the joint-highest wicket-taker. He jolted Chennai’s chase on Sunday by taking two wickets apiece in back-to-back overs. Another four-wicket haul on Monday, and his team could well be in the final.
• Chennai’s Pakistan fast bowler, Shabbir Ahmed, sat out Sunday’s game. He will come up against some of his former Pakistan team-mates in the semi-final, making for an interesting battle. With 11 wickets in six games, he’s Chennai highest wicket-taker in the tournament, and some fresh legs is what the side needs in a must-win game.
• Four hundred and nine runs were scored in Sunday’s game, the highest match aggregate in the ICL. A similar aggregate will surely make it entertaining for the spectators flocking to the Sardar Patel Stadium.

Players to watch

With 31 on Sunday, his top score so far in the tournament, Inzamam-ul-Haq, the Lahore captain, showed signs that he is peaking at the right time. The intensity was visible – he even pushed hard for the singles – and if the top order fails to fire in the semi-final, expect him to take charge along with Mohammad Yousuf.R Sathish made a blistering 38-ball 76 but he failed to get support from the lower order as Lahore clinched victory. His team will want him to fire again, and hope this time it results in victory.Shahid Nazir took some stick on Sunday – he conceded 43 in four overs, but he picked up three vital wickets. He has been a steady performer in the tournament. He may average only a wicket per game, but his economy-rate of 6.71 makes him an asset.Four sixes, and five fours, came off Ian Harvey‘s bat in a 29-ball 54 on Sunday. It was the first half-century in the tournament for one of the ICL’s most successful players, and another such performance at the top of the order is what his team will need in the knockout stages. Harvey will also aim to do keep the runs down while bowling – his economy-rate in the tournament is a not-so-impressive 8.12.

Geoff Lawson, the Pakistan coach, has said he has no plans of stepping down from his post before his two-year term finishes next year. Lawson was responding to reports from Pakistan that the newly-appointed PCB chairman, Ijaz Butt, was unhappy with his performance.”Why should I quit as coach?” Lawson said in King City during the Canada four-nation Twenty20 tournament. “I am enjoying my job and am looking forward to completing my two-year term.”I am a professional coach and I have nothing to do with the changes in the board. I will brief the chairman on what I have done when the time comes.”Butt said Lawson had to share the blame for Pakistan’s inconsistent performances. “There is a need of improvement in the performance of the Pakistan team and Lawson has so far not succeeded,” Butt was quoted as saying in the Urdu language section of the BBC website. “The previous (PCB) management could better tell what they expected from Lawson, but in my opinion he has not shown any notable performances.”Former Pakistan players felt a homegrown coach would have helped the team better. Aamer Sohail, the former captain, felt a communication barrier was hindering Lawson, an Australian.”When you can’t put your point across what’s the point?” Sohail told . “I personally believe that you have to give your own former players an opportunity to coach the national team.”Zaheer Abbas felt the PCB would do better to hire foreign coaches to help youngsters first before fast-tracking them to take charge of the senior team.Lawson took over last August before the ICC World Twenty and has had mixed results as a coach. After the highs of reaching the final of the World Twenty20, Pakistan went on to lose Test and ODI series to South Africa and India. Pakistan beat India in the final of the Kitply Cup in Dhaka earlier this year but failed to make the finals of the Asia Cup in front of their home crowd.In between, Lawson also had run-ins on several occasions with the selection committee and with the media as well. During the Asia Cup, journalists stormed out of a heated a press conference after he asked a senior journalist to “improve his English” and told another reporter “if you are rude I’ll have to leave.”

Four players have signed new contracts with Worcestershire, while another, Mehraj Ahmed, is considering a one-year deal for 2009.Daryl Mitchell has signed a three-year deal which will keep him at New Road until the end of the 2011 season, Gareth Andrew a two-year contract while Josh Knappett and Chris Whelan have agreed one-year deals.Richard Jones will work with the county during the winter before a decision is made regarding a playing contract for 2009.

Ganapathi Vignesh’s 46-ball 54 helped the Chennai Superstars overhaul the Ahmedabad Rockets’ total of 116 with three balls to spare in Hyderabad. Vignesh followed up his 49 from the previous day with a skilled innings, holding the Chennai innings together until the 18th over, after which the lower order scraped home. Chennai’s decision to field was backed up by a disciplined bowling performance. Each of the five bowlers used took at least one wicket – new-ball bowler Rajamani Jesuraj took two to leave Ahmedabad 2 for 5 – and the top score was opener Anshu Jain’s 33. Apart from Vignesh there was little support when chasing, and he had to handle most of the scoring.Chandigarh Lions completed an easy eight-wicket win against Hyderabad Heroes in Hyderabad. The hosts opted to bat first but could only manage 126, thanks largely to handy knocks from Syed Sahabuddin (39) and Pagadala Niranjan (30) down the order. In reply TP Singh (43 not out) and captain Dinesh Mongia (43 not out) added 68 to take Chandigarh home.

Marcus Trescothick, a key component of the England side that won the Ashes in 2005, believes that the prospect of next summer’s rematch with the Aussies is a major factor in the recent upsurge in England’s fortunes.Since losing the Test series against South Africa at the beginning of August, England have since won a dead-rubber contest at The Oval followed by four completed ODIs in a row. Vital players such as Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison have returned to form at just the right time, and with Kevin Pietersen’s captaincy exceeding all expectations, Trescothick believes that England’s Ashes prospects are looking rosier than anyone could have predicted at the start of the year.”It’s inevitable [that they are thinking about the Ashes],” said Trescothick, who was speaking at the launch of his autobiography in Central London. “You can see it, can’t you? The way that KP’s taken it on, the way the one-day side has played over the last few weeks. I think you can see the momentum building, but there are still a lot of challenges between now and then.”The first of those challenges is Allen Stanford’s US$20 million winner-takes-all contest in Antigua, then it’s off to India for two Tests and seven one-dayers before a Caribbean campaign in the spring, but Trescothick senses a togetherness in the England camp that has not been present since the team that Michael Vaughan and Duncan Fletcher built began to unravel in 2005-06.With that in mind, Trescothick is pretty confident that Stanford’s riches will not cause divisions and resentment among England’s squad members. “I hope not, “he said. “We’re all professional enough to know that if you’re selected for a side then it’s fantastic, but even if you’ve played all the ten games leading up to it, it’s just bad luck if you’re not.”Professional sport works like that,” he said. “You’d be disappointed if you lost one of your guys from saying: ‘I’m not happy with the selection here’. You could play the next week or you could get left out, and it wouldn’t make any difference, so why should it make a difference for this game?”The money is one thing, but as far as the glory goes, there’s no question where England’s priorities should lie. “Looking back to 2005, we planned for 12 months before the Ashes even started,” said Trescothick. “If they are doing that now, and getting things in place at the moment, they’ve got a real good chance next summer if they can keep the same team together. They are looking energised and the key influence is KP – he seems to have inspired a few of the guys – but with Fred playing like he is, it’s inevitable they are going to do well. He’s a massive part of it.”

Had Pietersen’s success as captain been limited to extracting the best from Harmison and Flintoff, his first month would still have been considered a success, but Trescothick admitted he had been completely taken by surprise by the extent to which he had taken to the role. “I never thought he had any aspirations to be a captain,” he said. “He always struck me as a guy who was really happy going about his own business, and trying to become the best player he could, and the best player in the world.”He is very driven, but I didn’t think he could expand that much to become the team person he needed to be as captain. But we’ve all been proven wrong a little bit. He’s showing that to people at the moment, and the reports coming out of the team are they really like him as a captain.”Pietersen’s professional career has not been without its confrontations – his relationship with Graeme Smith came under particular scrutiny during the summer series against South Africa – but Trescothick believed that his singlemindedness was an asset as a leader. “Falling out with people doesn’t mean you’re going to make a bad captain,” he said. “You might ruffle a few [feathers] along the way, but if it gets people playing well, or gets them out of the team for others to come in, then that’s perfect.”Trescothick speaks from experience, because his first England captain, Nasser Hussain, was not afraid to rub people up the wrong way for the greater good of his team. “I don’t think KP will be as loud as Nasser,” he said. “Nasser was quite vocal, a heart-on-sleeve sort of guy who told it as it was. KP will be a cross between Michael [Vaughan] and Nasser. Sometimes he’ll tell you it straight, but at the same time he’s always been calm about his own cricket. All the reports say he’s doing a good job.”With the excitement mounting ahead of the 2009 Ashes, the question remains: could Trescothick, who is currently the third highest run-scorer in county cricket this season, be persuaded out of retirement to take part next summer in a one-off capacity? “Let’s see how I’m playing at the time. We’ll see how many sausages I’ve eaten over the winter,” he said, half-jokingly.Realistically, however, after aborted tours to India and Australia, and a withdrawal from Somerset’s pre-season tournament in Dubai, there’s no way that Trescothick will go back on his international retirement. “I’m 32, and in a few years’ time I won’t be up to the standard,” he said. “I’ve got no aspirations to make it back. I’ve had my time and I’m enjoying my moment where I am now. I just want to continue to move on and do different things.”All the same, Pietersen hasn’t quite given up on persuading his old team-mate out of retirement. “We keep in contact by text,” said Trescothick, “and he dropped into conversation, ‘what’s the situation about coming back to play?’ I told him as it was. Much as I’d love to do it, it would be too much of a hard job to make it back. It’s good for the ego, but realistically it’s not going to happen.”

Brett Lee, the Australian fast bowler, feels pitches around the world are getting harder for fast bowlers and wants tracks to have more assistance.”The wickets these days are getting hard to bowl on,” Lee told . “I say it tongue in cheek about there being no pitches in the world conducive to fast bowling. But there are hardly any pitches in the world which are green and juicy and encourage fast bowlers.”I am not asking for a pitch that moves the ball three or four feet both ways but I am talking about giving the bowler a bit of assistance and encouraging young lads to bowl fast.”Lee, who has taken 289 wickets in Tests and 303 in ODIs, was in red-hot form in Australia’s recent series. He took 53 wickets in his last eight Tests, and was Player of the Series in the Tests against Sri Lanka and India.Recently, Viv Richards rated him as good as the fast bowling greats of the 1980s and the early 90s. “It was a great feeling … to be praised by somebody like him is certainly special. Those were lovely comments that Viv made and I felt humbled.”Lee also took part in the Indian Premier League and was pleased with his stint for the Kings XI Punjab. “The thing that impressed me most was playing in a team made up of a whole lot of cultures,” he said. “I think we will have to wait and see what happens on that. However, IPL has been brilliant and I am looking forward to the next season.”Test cricket is my favourite but I like playing Twenty20. It’s fast and brings different kinds of people to the game.”The Test series between Sri Lanka and India has the umpire review system but Lee said it took away a bit of the game’s charm. “I still like the human element there,” he said. “I like an umpire’s presence, I think it’s important to cricket.”It’s good for stumping and run outs but I believe the human element should always be there. For leg before decisions, I like the [on-field] umpire to take the call and I think most times they do get it right.”

A sample taken from random testing at the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League has tested positive, IPL commissioner Lalit Modi has confirmed to Cricinfo. This is the first step of the verification process, Modi said, and there are several stages before a player is deemed to have failed the test.The tests were carried out by IDTM, a Sweden-based independent agency, in accordance with World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) standards after the IPL adopted the ICC’s anti-doping code. The samples were forwarded to a WADA-approved laboratory in Switzerland for testing. “Two days ago the IPL received a letter from the Swiss lab, mandated by WADA, which said one sample had tested positive,” Modi said. “The IPL will follow set procedures from now on.”The first step, he said, is to match the identity of the player with the sample. Next, the player’s form, filled out before the match, will be scrutinised for any pre-declared or prescribed drug by the IPL medical committee, consisting of an IDTM representative and Dr Anant Joshi; if that matches the drug found in the sample, the matter ends there and the player’s name won’t be revealed.If the medical committee investigation reveals the player had not applied or been granted an exemption for using the drug found in the sample, the player, the concerned IPL franchise and national board will be informed in writing of the positive test that violates the anti-doping code. The player has the right to request that his ‘B’ sample [supplied at the same time as the one that tested positive] be sent for analysis, which he and his representative can attend along with an IPL representative.If that too is positive, the matter will be taken up by the IPL’s drugs tribunal, comprising of Sunil Gavaskar, Dr Ravi Bapat (ex-Vice Chancellor of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences) and lawyer Shirish Gupte. The tribunal will study the issue and take a decision in accordance with the code. “This is just the procedure,” Modi said, “as of now we are at the first stage where one sample has tested positive. The issue is now with the IPL’s medical committee. The identity of the player will matter only after we check on the pre-declared drugs.”The ICC, in a release, said it had been informed of the “adverse analytical finding” and that it was the responsibility of the ICC member, in this case the BCCI, to deal with the process. The ICC stated it will “be closely monitoring the situation to ensure the correct action is taken by the BCCI”, and “retains a right of appeal if any penalty that may be imposed is inconsistent with the WADA code”.

The European Commission is poised to close the Kolpak loophole and allow the ECB to limit the number of non-European players taking part in county cricket.At present, several countries, most notably South Africa and some in the Caribbean, are signatories to the Cotonou treaty with the European Union, which was agreed in 2000. This has, until now, been interpreted as allowing freedom of labour for people from those countries inside the EU, and that has led to an explosion in the number of Kolpak players in county cricket. At present, there are approximately 64 on contract.At a conference this week, Michal Krejza, the head of the commission’s sports unit, said: “It is the decision of individual member states to admit Cotonou players, not the European Union.”This will give an opening for the ECB to take action and it may well be that it will now dip a toe in the water and start refusing Kolpak registrations, although it will not invalidate any existing contracts.”The Kolpak issue is an interesting one; our players are all on contracts that take them to at least 2010 so any change in the ruling I guess would have to be phased in,” David Smith, Leicestershire’s chief executive, told Cricinfo. “But it would have an impact on all sports in the longer term. I believe Kolpaks have added value to the county game.”