Decision to fall Harbhajan right

Former India captain Kapil Dev has backed the selectors' judgment to drop Harbhajan Singh from the squad for the first two ODIs against England next month.

"From the point of view of country's interest, nothing is amazing. If they have dropped him, it must be for the betterment of the team," the famous all-rounder said at the Dilip Sardesai Memorial lecture.

"You do get hurt if a spinner of the calibre of Harbhajan is dropped. But if his exclusion is helpful for the team, then I'm happy. I'm not going to say anything against the selectors."

Kapil also supported the move to include young leg- spinner Rahul Sharma in the side on the basis of his performance in the fourth season of the IPL.

"IPL is also a part of the country's cricket. Why think of it any other way? IPL/ICL is the way through which we get our cricketers. Without IPL, we wouldn't have got players like the Pathans (Yusuf and Irfan)," he added.

To a query, he said there was nothing like "senior players" and only performances should be taken into account while selecting a team.

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Jones, Reeve in organization for PCB job

Former Australian batsman Dean Jones and ex-England all-rounder Dermot Reeve are said to be in the list of five candidates, short-list by the PCB for the coaching job.

Former Pakistan captain Intikhab Alam refuse to reveal the names of the short-listed candidates but sources exposed that Jones and Reeve were on the list.

"I can't give you the names of the people on the select we have made of five candidates. But we conventional a total of 37 application for the post of Pakistan coach against the ad the Pakistan Board put out for the position. These applications built-in 12 foreigners and 25 locals," Alam said at a press conference.

The PCB had formed a special board, headed by Alam, as well as former players Zaheer Abbas, Colonel Naushad Ali and Rameez Raja to help the Board find a new coach for the national team.

The committee, Alam said, has short-listed five candidates whose names would be given to the PCB chairman Ijaz Butt when he proceeds from abroad on October 1.

"Butt has the authority to choose one person from the short-list or even directly move toward someone else from outside the list for negotiations if he is not pleased with the list," the former Test captain said.

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Kallis and Gambhir stay Knight Riders alive

Kolkata Knight Riders 171 for 1 (Kallis 64*, Gambhir 55*) strike Royal Challengers Bangalore 169 for 9 (Vettori 44, Bhatkal 25) by nine wickets

Kolkata Knight Riders hit Royal Challengers Bangalore by nine wickets in Bangalore, thanks to a winning second-wicket stand by Jacques Kallis and Gautam Gambhir.

South African Kallis ablaze 64 from 47 balls, ably assist by Gambhir who scored an winning 55 from just 31 delivery, as they chase down Bangalore's total of 169 with two and a half overs to spare.

Australian opening batsman Brad Haddin helped KKR to a flying start with a knock of 42 before he was fixed by Virat Kohli off the bowling of Daniel Vettori.

Earlier, New Zealand's Vettori top-scored for Bangalore with 44 in the middle of their innings after KKR won the toss and put them in to bat.

Bangalore lost two early wickets when Kallis bowled Chris Gayle for 25 before Virat Kohli was out for a duck when Gambhir wedged him off the bowling of Brett Lee.

Raajoo Bhatkal put up some fight with Vettori with a seventh-wicket stand of 61 but Bangalore's total never looked to be sufficient.

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Injured de Villiers to Miss Aus series

South Africa's ODI and T20 captain AB de Villiers will miss the forthcoming series with Australia after being ruled out for up to six weeks with a broken hand.

De Villiers broke his finger while training with the Royal Challengers Bangalore this week and will undertake surgery on Friday.

"The hand expert found that AB (de Villiers) fractured the hand bone (metacarpal) of his middle finger," said Proteas team manager Dr Mohammed Moosajee.

"He advised that instant surgery be done to fixate the fracture and to allow the treatment process to begin as soon as possible."

South Africa meets Australia in two T20 internationals and three ODIs in October.

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Harbhajan place to captain India Green

Harbhajan Singh has been named captain of the India Green team for the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy to be detained in Nagpur from October 10 to 13.

The new BCCI secretary, Sanjay Jagdale, announce the 14-member squads of India Blue, India Green and India Red teams for the 50-over-a-side tournament after a meeting of the national selection board in Chennai on Thursday.

Opener Gautam Gambhir, who miss the ODI series in England because of a head injury, not only return to the national fold but has also been handed the blame of leading the India Red side, while Tamil Nadu middle-order batsman, S Badrinath, has been name captain of the India Blue team.

Apart from Harbhajan, Yusuf Pathan (India Red), left-arm pacer R P Singh (India Red), Amit Mishra (India Blue), Pragyan Ojha (India Blue) and Piyush Chawla (India Red), who all have been ignored for the first two ODIs against England; will also have a chance to stake their claims for a comeback to the national team.

India Blue: S Badrinath (capt, TNCA), Murali Vijay (TNCA), Paul Valthaty (HPCA), Manish Pandey (KSCA), Dinesh Karthik (TNCA), Mandeep Singh (Punjab CA), Saurabh Tiwary (JSCA), Irfan Pathan (Baroda CA), Amit Mishra (Haryana CA), Pragyan Ojha (Hyderabad CA), Y V Krishanarty (JSCA), Prashant Parameshwaran (Kerala CA), Pradeep Sangwan (DDCA), Tanmay Srivastava (UPCA).

India Green: Harbhajan Singh (capt, Punjab CA), Robin Uthappa (KSCA), S Anirudha (TNCA), T Suman (Hyderabad CA), Mohnish Mishra (MPCA), Ishank Jaggi (JSCA), Mohd Kaif (UPCA), C M Gautham (KSCA), S Ladda (Punjab CA), Iqbal Abdullah (Mumbai CA), Abhimanyu Mithun (KSCA), Samad Fallah (Maharashtra CA), Ishwar Choudhary (Gujarat CA), S Narwal (DDCA).

India Red: Gautam Gambhir (capt, DDCA), Shikhar Dhawan (DDCA), Abhinav Mukund (TNCA), Ambati Rayudu (Baroda CA), Ashok Menaria (Rajasthan CA), Wriddhiman Saha (CAB), Jalaj Saxena (MPCA), Piyush Chawla (UPCA), Bhargava Bhatt (Baroda CA), Pankaj Singh (Rajasthan CA), Jaydev Unadkat (Saurashtra CA), T Sudhendra (MPCA), Yusuf Pathan (Baroda CA), R P Singh (UPCA).

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