Patel pulls away of IPL mart

Nottinghamshire all-rounder Samit Patel has withdrawn from the Indian Premier League Dutch auction in an effort to further his claim for a place in England's Test side.

Patel's legislatures have held talks with several franchises but he has elected to announce himself engaged ahead of Wednesday's midnight time limit to enter the auction.

"My biggest goal is to play Test cricket and I require scoring a high volume of runs in the Championship to push my case," said Patel.

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MCA: No action alongside Ajit Agarkar

The Mumbai Cricket Association will not take any action next to Ajit Agarkar for returning home in a huff after being drop from the Mumbai team next to Orissa in the Ranji Trophy Elite match in Cuttack.

"No action is being contemplate against Agarkar who sought my permission to return home on Tuesday and I, in turn, asked Mumbai selection panel chairman (Milind Rege). Rege felt Ajit did not feel comfortable sitting in the reserves and can be permitted," MCA joint secretary Nitin Dalal said.

Agarkar, who had return to the Mumbai squad for the previous game next to Karnataka after missing the first two ties due to injury, was left out after the team management decisive to include Avishkar Salvi and Dhawal Kulkarni as the support seamers for Zaheer Khan who is testing his match fitness in front of the tour to Australia.

"Agarkar was feeling dishonored after he was dropped for the match by the team management. He was an India player and we feel it would be better if he is allowable to return home as a substitute of staying back with the team," Dalal added.

Dalal also said the MCA officials will ask the team management and Agarkar to sit jointly with them and batter out the differences after the squad returns.

"We would sit with them and talk about the issue. He is existing for selection for the next match (against Saurashtra at Rajkot from December 6-9)," Dalal added.

Mumbai selection panel chairman Rege said the board will meet on Saturday to pick the team for the clash against Saurashtra.

The former Mumbai captain and off-spinner also sounded upset about the comments allegedly made by Zaheer Khan that he and team coach Sulakshan Kulkarni were "bringing down Mumbai cricket."

Asked for his comments, Rege said, "It's for the MCA to ask Zaheer Khan what he meant by that statement that I am bringing down Mumbai cricket. I am doing my job as a selector. I don't want to respond further."

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Kochi Tuskers Kerala players to be re-auctioned?

With the IPL governing council meeting scheduled for next month, there might be some ray of hope for the players allied with the sacked IPL franchise, Kochi Tuskers Kerala.

According to the media reports, Kochi players can be put on auction once again and the IPL governing council is deliberating various ideas to allow the other franchises to spend some extra bucks on them in the IPL-5 auctions.

The players are yet to receive a small part of their payments from the terminated Kerala franchise.

However, its learned that the BCCI is likely to provide the players with an opportunity to earn their price in the next IPL auctions.

The likes of Mahela Jayawardene, VVS Laxman, Muttiah Muralitharan, Sreesanth, RP Singh, Brendon McCullum and Parthiv Patel could all now be free to sign for one of the remaining nine IPL sides after representing Kochi last season.

Earlier this year, the BCCI confirmed that Kochi Tuskers have had their Indian Premier League license revoked.

The Kerala-based franchise was one of two new sides added to the competition for the 2011 season alongside Pune Warriors and was sold to a consortium called Rendezvous Sports World in an auction for US$ 333.33million.

Both Kochi and Pune had appealed for their initial bids to be reduced after the originally scheduled 18 matches per season was lowered to 14 for each side, but their case was rejected.

Reports suggested that Kochi's current problems are related to defaults on their payments, but while BCCI president N Srinivasan confirmed they would no longer be part of the lucrative Twenty20 league he did not expand on the reasons.

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Andy Flower named Best coach of the year

England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive David Collier has praised the work of England team director Andy Flower after he claimed two awards last night at the 2011 UK Coaching Awards.

Flower won the prize of UK Coach of the Year and High Performance Coach of the Year at a ceremony in London, having led England to their first Ashes triumph in Australia since the winter of 1986-87 at the start of this year and then taking the team to number one spot in the world Test rankings with a 4-0 whitewash of India.

Collier said: "Andy has been an outstanding coach to the England cricket team and I am delighted that his dedication, knowledge and all-round leadership skills have been recognised within the wider sporting world.

"The last 12 months have been momentous ones for the England cricket team and this is in no small part due to Andy's personal drive and determination to bring the best out of his players and ensure that our preparation and performance are second to none."

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