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Simon Katich's  contentious removal from the 25-man list of Cricket Australia contracts has moved the federal defence minister,  Stephen Smith , to make his own unbridled attack on the national selectors. Unlike on the subcontinent where the crossover between the sporting and legislative realms is frequent and often fevered, Australian cricket and politics seldom collide. But Smith had no hesitation in making his feelings known when questioned about the decision on the Insiders  program on Australian television. Like Katich a West Australian by birth, Smith said the decision ranked with any of the poorest calls made by selectors in Australian cricket history. "Well historically of course there have been a series of atrocities committed by the Australian Cricket Board or Cricket Australia or the Australian selectors against Western Australian cricketers but this one is extraordinary. This one is very high at the top of the list," Smith said. "I mean this is a bloke w

New Zealand's top 20 cricketers have been asked for their views on the leadership capabilities of Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor, as well as the culture within the national side, as part of their end-of-season reviews. The interviews are taking place at the same time as New Zealand Cricket considers whether to appoint Taylor or McCullum as the team's next captain. John Buchanan , New Zealand's director of cricket, confirmed on Saturday that the subject of captaincy had been broached with the players, but said there was no question of the players picking the man for the job. Buchanan, national selection manager Mark Greatbatch and coach John Wright are all currently interviewing players. "One of the areas they needed to comment on was leadership," Buchanan told the  Sunday Star-Times , "the culture of leadership and what their views and thoughts are of it within and around the Black Caps. We asked their views and thoughts on the captains they have played un

James Anderson  is set to lead England's attack in the third and final Test against Sri Lanka at the Rose Bowl on Thursday, after being named in a 12-man squad at the expense of Surrey's Jade Dernbach. Anderson missed the second Test at Lord's after suffering a side strain during the first innings of the Cardiff Test, but he was optimistic of a quick return and will be officially passed fit provided he successfully negotiates Lancashire's Friends Life Twenty20 match against Worcestershire on Sunday. Anderson comes into the squad for Dernbach, who came close to making his Test debut at Lord's before the selectors decided to go with the extra height of Steven Finn. As it turns out, the lack of variety in England's attack was exposed at Lord's, with Tillakaratne Dilshan leading the way for Sri Lanka with an excellent 193. England National Selector, Geoff Miller, said: "Jimmy Anderson is the leader of our bowling attack so clearly he will be a significant

England fast bowler  James Anderson  has said that having another stint as national captain would not be the "best thing" for  Kevin Pietersen . Pietersen was named England captain in August 2008 but his stint ended in acrimony barely five months later after a much-publicised falling-out with then-coach Peter Moores. Andrew Strauss took up the role ahead of England's tour of the Caribbean in February 2009, and soon formed a formidable partnership with the new coach Andy Flower, another man about whom Pietersen had expressed reservations. Though Pietersen had expressed his  desire  to captain England again after rumours emerged that Strauss would give up the limited-overs post earlier this year, he was passed over for the position, as the ECB  chose to go  with Alastair Cook as ODI captain. In his column in the  Mail on Sunday  Anderson wrote: "Having seen him before, during and after he did the job, I believe he is actually much better suited to having a smaller but

Zimbabwe's proposed tour of New Zealand in the summer of 2012 will not be opposed by the New Zealand government, the country's Sports and Foreign minister has said. With New Zealand due to visit Zimbabwe in October this year - it would be their first tour of the African nation since 2005 - it is expected that Zimbabwe will tour New Zealand for a reciprocal series next year. Complicating the issue, however, is the New Zealand government's travel sanction on sporting tours from Zimbabwe that was instituted to protest the political situation under president Robert Mugabe's government. But Sports and Foreign minister Murray McCully told the  Sunday Star Times  on Saturday that a waiver would be given for the tour to go ahead despite the travel embargo. "New Zealand Cricket has advised us of their intention to travel to Zimbabwe which, I think, is in October," McCully said. "They have asked us whether we have any concerns about that and, of course, made the p

At the start of his cricket career, captaincy may have "definitely not been" one of  AB de Villiers ' goals, but now that he has been appointed South Africa's limited-overs captain, de Villiers is "prepared to give up everything to make it work". de Villiers  takes over  from Graeme Smith, who stepped down as the ODI and Twenty20 captain after the World Cup, and will be Smith's deputy in Tests. In an interview with  Reuters , de Villiers confessed that while he didn't enjoy his previous stint as captain when he was at school, those misgivings were now behind him. "I captained my team at school (Afrikaans High School, Pretoria) for a few games but I didn't enjoy it so much," De Villiers said. "I was more focussed on my batting then and playing other sports like rugby." So what was it that brought about a change of heart? "Captaining South Africa was definitely not one of my goals," de Villiers said, "but I starte

David Hussey , the Australia batsman, has said not playing Test cricket has been "a source of massive frustration" for him and believes too much Twenty20 cricket is being played around the world. Hussey is the leading run-scorer in Twenty20 history, having recently gone past Brad Hodge, but has not won a single Test cap, despite a first-class average of 55.57 that is higher than his brother Michael's. "It has been a source of massive frustration," he said. "Test cricket is the ultimate for me, and when I'm 45 or 50 years of age I'd like to look back and know that I have played half-a-dozen Tests - even just one - for my country. There have still only been 400 or so who have had that honour. "When I was doing well, the Australian team was doing well. I started out trying to emulate players of the calibre of Ricky Ponting, Mark Waugh, Damien Martyn. It has been a fantastic time to be an Australian cricketer and I don't feel aggrieved. But yo

These screenshots posted on Twitter by @ChronicWire uncovered Nuance settings in the latest internal iOS build. This confirms that speech recognition is on the way, possibly as soon as iOS 5 this fall. This is great news for anyone that is currently texting while driving. We are definitely in favor of making the iPhone better, and making the roads safer. Lots of rumors about a Nuance- Apple partnership were flying around before WWDC, but nothing was mentioned during the keynote. It seems that Apple and Nuance had been working on a deal for quite some time, it just wasn’t ready in time for the WWDC. These screenshots are all we have to go on at the moment, but a picture is worth a thousand words. Speech recognition technology has been around for years, but it has also been fraught with problems every step of the way. Anyone that has tried speech recognition software has probably experienced a wide range of results while using it, everything from the occasional humorous typo, to the

Anyone who recently purchased a MacBook Air may soon be kicking themselves as the next generation of Macbook Airs with Sandy Bridge processors could launch as early as July. A note obtained by AppleInsider from Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo indicated that Apple has placed an order for about 400,000 of these next generation MacBook Airs. They are also expected to include Apple’s relatively new Thunderbolt data transfer ports. The new models will include the option for the Core i5 or Core i7 chips. About 55 percent of the new units will be the 11.6 inch model, and the remainder of the them will be the 13.3 inch version. Kuo also reported that Apple has scaled back production of its current McBook Air models. A final run of 80,000 of the old units is scheduled for this month. With all the talk at Apple’s WWDC about iCloud, and OS X Lion, it is clear that Apple is focused on mobility. The move to switch to the Sandy Bridge processor will undoubtedly strengthen the position of

Allrounder Andre Russell has said West Indies' failure to apply pressure when Harbhajan Singh came out to bat when India were 92 for 6, still needing 134 runs for victory, cost them the game. "When Harbhajan came to the wicket, we didn't really apply much pressure," Russell said. "We allowed him to score freely. That's the thing we have to tighten up next time. We had to bowl at right areas against him early on to make him uncomfortable. We didn't do that today. All of these things we can take as a learning experience." There were hardly any people in for the game in the morning and those who had come were stunned by the West Indian top-order collapse as they crumbled from 65 for 1 to 96 for 7. It was Russell, who with his violent, unbeaten 92 and some clean hitting, lifted West Indies out of the hole. He started his innings slowly, ensuring he settled in before he unfurled the bigger shots. One ball flew over the midwicket boundary and landed in th

"He is a lot more disciplined now," was what Suresh Raina had to say after  Rohit Sharma  played one of the most matured knocks of his international career to help India win the third one-dayer against West Indies in Antigua. It wasn't the pitch, or the attack that Rohit conquered today - there wasn't much venom in either. Instead it was an on-going inner battle with himself that he finally won. For some time now the battle has been: Rohit v Rohit. He has always given the impression of man who gets bored easily. He will lace a couple of pretty drives, play a big shot, make it all look easy before suddenly and, inexplicably, throw his wicket away. Perhaps the game came too easily for him. He usually starts his innings a touch edgily but he flowed from the start on Saturday. The intent was still the same; he usually goes for couple of big hits early in his knock and he did so again. In the past, those attempts have threatened to derail him. Even in the second ODI, ther

Wahab Riaz, debuting for Kent, and Sam Northeast shared an unbeaten fifth-wicket stand of 66 in 26 balls to help Kent win their first Friends Life t20 victory with a six-wicket win over Glamorgan. After being put in to bat, Glamorgan appeared in control of the contest after posting a more than competitive 154 for five in their 20 overs on a slow Cardiff pitch. Kent looked in some difficulty at 59 for two at the halfway stage, which left them needing 96 off the final 10 overs. But Riaz (32), the Pakistan seamer, and Northeast (33) held their nerve to win the game with two balls to spare. Glamorgan had got off to a rattling start with skipper Alviro Petersen, who was awarded his Glamorgan cap in the interval, and Mark Cosgrove scoring 56 from the opening six overs. Cosgrove looked in prime form as he struck Azhar Mahmood for 15 off the third over of the innings including a six over long-off. Cosgrove followed that up by stroking a straight six off Charl Langeveldt before hitting Riaz fo

Kevin Pietersen was dismissed for 30 as Surrey crashed to a 46-run defeat against bottom-of-the-table Gloucestershire in the Friends Life t20. Pietersen survived two big lbw shouts and hit just two boundaries before falling to a brilliant catch by Man of the Match Ian Cockbain diving full length at deep midwicket. Cockbain, making only his second appearance in the competition, smashed a superb 78 off 46 balls, with five sixes and six fours, to boost Gloucestershire's total to 168 for six after they had lost the toss. Surrey never looked likely to reach their target after Pietersen's dismissal - which left them 75 for four - and they were bowled out for a meagre 122 in the final over. It was the Gloucestershire's first T20 win of the season and ended a seven-match losing streak stretching back to last season's competition. Muttiah Muralitharan claimed two for 28, but left-arm seamer David Payne was the pick of the bowlers with three for 20 while part-time offspinner Kan

Alex Hales and Samit Patel staked their claim for England one-day selection as Nottinghamshire extended their unbeaten start to the Friends Life t20 with a ten-run victory over Warwickshire at Trent Bridge. Opener Hales struck 11 fours in an innings of 67 from 40 balls, while Patel hit a quick-fire 37 not out before excelling with the ball, conceding just 18 runs from his four overs and claiming one wicket. Nottinghamshire totalled 173 for 6 after batting first, with Adam Voges contributing 39, and the their disciplined bowling held back the visitors as three wickets fell inside the first four overs. Powerful blows from England seamer Chris Woakes gave Warwickshire a degree of hope but needing 21 off the final over bowled by Darren Pattinson, they could only manage 10, Woakes finishing on 44 not out. After Riki Wessels was caught at mid-off in the second over, Hales and Voges put on 83 for the second wicket in nine overs, capitalising on loose bowling to push the hosts to 96 at halfway

The Sri Lankans collapsed first, and then Essex wobbled. Ryan ten Doeschate rallied with a century, Tom Westley missed his by one run, and Suraj Randiv took a hat-trick. At the end of an eventful day at Chelmsford, the home side had secured a slender first-innings lead, and taken one Sri Lankan wicket without the advantage being erased. When the second day began, Sri Lanka had the comfort of 324 runs with six wickets in hand, and Kumar Sangakkara was batting on a century. It all went wrong rather quickly, though, as fast bowler Reece Topley struck repeatedly. Having gone wicketless on the opening day, Topley made amends by picking up the first three to fall on day two. He dismissed Prasanna Jayawardene, Suraj Randiv and Sangakkara to reduce Sri Lanka to 336 for 7. Maurice Chambers accounted for Thisara Perera, and when Topley bowled Ajantha Mendis to pick up his fourth wicket, the Sri Lankans declared on 337 for 9. The visitors then reduced Essex to 24 for 3 in quick time, Farveez Mah

At the E3 gaming expo this week, Sony took the wraps off a new PlayStation-branded 3D television that, while a little small, could very well become one of my favorite purchases this year. The 24-inch television is designed to bring more people in on the 3D craze. And in order to achieve that, Sony is pricing the television at $499. For that price, consumers are actually getting quite a bit. Aside from the set, Sony is bundling a six-foot HDMI cable, a pair of 3D glasses, which will retail separately for $70, and a copy of Resistance 3. As far as I’m concerned, that value alone is enough for me to want to buy the television bundle. Though I’m not always impressed by it, I do believe that 3D gaming is very much the future of this industry. And in many cases, 3D makes the experience of playing a title far more appealing. But as we know all too well, getting a 3D set is just one piece of the pie. After getting a television, you then need to get a game and glasses to finally experience 3D

Death, when it struck, snatched away plans of a very prestigious project that the iconic M.F Hussain planned to direct. And it was Madhuri Dixit, his "original" Bollywood muse, and not her successors (Tabu, Amrita Rao, Vidya Balan, Anushka Sharma) that Hussain wanted for this ambitious project encapsuling the entire history of Indian cinema. Speaking from Denver Madhuri admits, "Yes, Hussain Saab had called about a month-and-a-half back to discuss a project on 100 Years Of Indian cinema. As usual he was very excited about this latest brainchild. His zest for life and his ideas always made me feel older than him." Taking a deep breath, Madhuri sighs, "It's very difficult to believe Hussain Saab is gone. It' is like losing someone very near to you. If as you say I was some part of his huge legacy then I am very very proud of being part of what Hussain Saab created. He is certainly someone who made a difference to my life." At Mad

As always, you will come across directors who promise and don't deliver. Ritesh Sinha is an exception. Why? Because he is going to prove you wrong with his film Promise Dad that premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival this year. After meeting him twice, I've come to know that he has an unrivalled gift for insightful cinema that very few have or the many lack. From the talks I shared with Ritesh, his unreleased film work has been characterised by an unfashionable seriousness, but in person he is a breezy fellow. And he probably deserves his lightness of mood, after the days, months and years he spent to write quality cinema and finally seeing it come true at this year's TIFF. He may not occasionally laugh with you but he does have a good sense of humour. It's hard to gauge Ritesh Sinha's impact on Indian culture, because it's vast and still ongoing. Then after spending a good three hours in his company over wine and dine, you find o