Sehwag, Gambhir back in full-strength Test squad

Virender Sehwag, who is yet to fully recover after undergoing surgery on his shoulder, has made it to 17-man India squad for the Test series in England, but will miss the first two weeks of the tour to give him time to recuperate further.

Sachin Tendulkar returned to the squad after skipping the West Indies tour to rest, while Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth made comebacks from injury breaks. Yuvraj Singh, who missed the West Indies tour with a chest infection, also forced his way back into the Test plans following his excellent performance in the World Cup. M Vijay and Virat Kohli, who have so far failed to impress in the West Indies Tests, were dropped, while Suresh Raina's strong show in the same series helped him retain his place.

Abhinav Mukund, who made a dogged 48 in Barbados on Friday, will travel to England as the reserve opener. Wriddhiman Saha was included as the back-up wicketkeeper, edging out Parthiv Patel. Cheteshwar Pujara is yet to recover from the knee injury he picked up in the IPL, and misses out once again.

Munaf Patel made the squad despite missing the first two West Indies Tests with fitness issues. Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar, who have been among the wickets in the Caribbean, round off the pace attack, while Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra make up the spin department.

The tour begins with a three-day warm-up match on July 15, with the first Test starting on July 21 at Lord's.

The squad: MS Dhoni (capt/wk), Gautam Gambhir (vice-capt), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Abhinav Mukund, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar

West Indies hang on for a grim draw

India 201 (Laxman 85, Raina 53, Rampaul 3-38, Bishoo 3-46, Edwards 3-56) and 269 for 6 decl. (Laxman 87, Dravid 55, Edwards 5-76) drew with West Indies 190 (Samuels 78*, Ishant 6-55) and 202 for 7 (Bravo 73, Baugh 46*, Ishant 4-53)
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

	Darren Bravo and Carlton Baugh denied India© Associated Press Enlarge
Related Links Matches: West Indies v India at Bridgetown Series/Tournaments: India tour of West Indies Teams: India | West Indies

Close to 128 overs of play lost to the elements, Barbados still managed to produce a dramatic draw. On the final day, India made a bold declaration to bring the Test to life, and Darren Bravo sucked the life right out of it with an innings of application and resolve. India set West Indies 281 to get in 83 overs, Ishant Sharma helped them take early wickets, but Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Carlton Baugh thwarted India for 322 deliveries between them.

There were two twists in the final session. An ordinary lbw call against Chanderpaul, followed by Marlon Samuels' wicket, would surely have sparked controversy had West Indies lost the match. With a maximum of 36 overs remaining, Bravo and Baugh put up further resistance. Baugh attacked too. At one point the target came down to 102 off 19.3 overs, and he kept India honest with the odd blow after that. Rain intervened, India came back with two quick wickets to turn the equation to three wickets required in 10.4 overs, but quite fittingly bad light brought the match to a premature end.

There was a rain break just before the start of the mandatory overs, prior to which Baugh had hit Abhimanyu Mithun for three back-to-back boundaries. The rain break was a bit instructive as to where the teams stood with regards to the result. Even as the Indian players hung about, hoping that it would just be a passing shower, Bravo and Baugh wasted little time in getting back to the dressing room.

It was huge credit to the quality of the pitch that we came this close to a result. Some of the credit has to go to MS Dhoni, too, for making the declaration 67 minutes into the day. It was a huge departure from the usual for Dhoni. His previous third-innings declarationshave left sides chasing 516, 403 and 617 respectively.

Credit also has to go Ishant, who became only the seventh Indian pace bowler to claim a Test 10-wicket haul. He backed up Dhoni's declaration with aggressive bowling at the start, in the middle, and also in the end. The quality of the pitch and the opposition would have played a big role in the declaration, but West Indies showed character in saving the game. Especially pleasing would be that following Marlon Samuels in the first innings, another flamboyant batsman, Bravo, played with restraint for the larger cause.

Bravo came in to bat in the seventh over, after both Lendl Simmons and Ramnaresh Sarwan had fallen chasing wide deliveries. Adrian Barath hung around for 64 deliveries, but he was worked over by Ishant. An inswinger was followed by one that left him, after which Ishant produced one that got big on Barath and took the shoulder of the bat.

Smart stats Ishant Sharma's haul of 10 for 108 is the fourth-best figures for an Indian bowler in an away Test. There have been 11 ten-wicket hauls by Indians in away Tests and Ishant's is the first in the West Indies. VVS Laxman became the fourth Indian batsman to score two half-centuries in a Test on three occasions in the West Indies. The other batsmen to do so three times are Sunil Gavaskar, Mohinder Amarnath and Polly Umrigar. The 69-run stand between Darren Bravo and Carlton Baugh is the seventh fifty-plus stand for the sixth wicketfor West Indies against India in Tests in Barbados. Bravo, who has had a very good start to his Test career, has scored five half-centuries in 12 innings at an average of 41.27. This is the second draw in India-West Indies Tests inBarbados. West Indies have won seven and lost none.

At that point 65 overs still remained. Ishant and Praveen Kumar worked hard for the next seven overs, but Chanderpaul and Bravo looked solid for the most part. If this situation was right up Chanderpaul's alley, it was a less familiar experience for Bravo. That showed in how he felt the need to score every now and then. To play the release shot every once in a while. Defending for long durations can get pretty tense, with close-in fielders ready to pounce on any edge. Bravo released that tension at the first sighting of Mithun, driving and glancing him for two boundaries in his first over.

Chanderpaul at the other end batted like he was born to do just this: save Test matches for West Indies, batting aggressors into submission. He kept leaving balls even marginally outside off. When he did play he did so with soft hands. He spent 16 balls on 5, and 23 on 9, but India couldn't draw a false stroke out of him. Bravo, who stayed impressive when defending, kept playing the odd shot in between, including a slog sweep off Harbhajan Singh through midwicket.

Soon after tea, though, Chanderpaul was given lbw off an offbreak hitting him outside off, and heading further away. Ishant followed that up with Samuels' wicket off an inswinger. While Bravo remained solid as ever, India sensed an opportunity with Baugh, who despite a superb series behind the wicket is considered under pressure for the want of runs.

Harbhajan Singh, who had got Baugh three times previously in the series, attacked him with men all around the bat. An edge appeared off the fifth ball, but Dhoni dropped it. Baugh had by then realised he might not have the defensive technique suitable for the task, and began to attack in order to get the fielders out of his face. It worked. After slog-sweeping Harbhajan for a six, Baugh went after Mithun, and with the target not impossible, India took a step back.

Towards the end, though, Bravo finally lost concentration, following a wide delivery from Mithun, ending what has to be best Test innings so far. Ishant swooped in again, making Sammy his 10th victim, with a yorker, but in fading light that's all we had time for.

Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

Test in balance after gripping first day

West Indies survived a daylight robbery by Harbahajan Singh and Suresh Raina to end the first day of the series in slight ascendance, if at all. A damp pitch with uneven bounce, early wickets, a counterattack, a collapse, a spectacular catch, watchful anxious end, the first day had it all.

The tone was set when India took the gamble of batting first on a moist pitch to allow their two spinners best use of a surface likely to break. Ravi Rampaul removed the openers in an unbroken eight-over spell in the heat and humidity of Kingston, getting at least one early wicket for a fourth time in his last five innings. Rahul Dravid looked as solid during his 40 as he had during his two match-winning fifties five years ago at the same venue. Devendra Bishoo, playing his third Test, then intervened to remove VVS Laxman, Dravid and MS Dhoni - close to 23,000 runs between them - in the space of 20 deliveries.

The way Harbhajan and Raina ran away with the initiative in a 146-run stand from 85 for 6, only bandanas and eye patches were missing. Even they couldn't see Fidel Edwards, though, who came back with a spell of seriously quick bowling to help West Indies take the last four wickets for 15 runs. A spell of attrition followed, but it was just as tense, and Ishant Sharma came away with Lendl Simmons' wicket.

In between there were unremarkable maiden Test innings for Abhinav Mukund and Virat Kohli. The first to fall in the morning, which now seems days ago, was M Vijay, who might as well have been wearing his IPL kit when he slapped a full and wide delivery straight to point. Abhinav, his state-mate and prolific run-getter in domestic cricket, came close to edging thrice before he played one on for 11.

Dravid and Laxman, batting together for the first time since the Boxing Day Test in Durban last year, handled the misbehaving pitch - length balls reared towards the bat handle, short ones hardly reached the keeper, and the spinners extracted appreciable turn - well during their 34-run stand. Bishoo then came on with immediate impact. He began with a perfect legbreak, just short of driving length, on off, and produced the outside edge from Laxman 17 minutes before lunch. After the interval Dravid hit Bishoo for two boundaries before the bowler got his own back with an edge off a full legbreak. Dhoni played a premeditated forward-defensive, and the extra bounce again took the shoulder of the bat. Not only was the bowling good until then, the captaincy too had been positive.

Harbhajan, though, played havoc with West Indies' minds. After watching Raina avoid an over full of hostile bouncers from Edwards, Harbhajan tore into Bishoo. What made it even better, and perhaps rattled West Indies more, was that it all featured little slogging. He hit his fourth, fifth and sixth deliveries for fours: over the bowler's head, a late-cut, and over midwicket. In the next over he cut Edwards for another four.

Raina, perhaps relieved at making it to the other end, pulled out two beautiful extra-cover drives off Bishoo's next over. Darren Sammy called back Rampaul, who tried to bowl fast and into Harbhajan's ribs. Harbhajan got inside the line twice and glanced him fine for fours before smacking another through extra cover. A clueless Bishoo served a full toss and a long hop in the next over, both of which Raina hit for fours. With barely a risk taken, the partnership now read 56 in 6.2 overs. Bishoo's figures had gone from 3.2-2-11-3 to 7-2-44-3. Harbhajan was 36 off 22, Raina 25 off 28.

It was sensational stuff, and West Indies were blown away. Rampaul and Sammy brought some sanity back to proceedings, but by then Harbhajan and Raina had their eyes set on big innings. While Harbhajan still kept hitting the boundaries, Raina dropped anchor, and followed Harbhajan to a half-century with two lovely push-driven straight fours off Sammy.

	... But Fidel Edwards brought West Indies right back with fiery pace © Associated Press Enlarge

Lest it be thought that the pitch had become a featherbed, Rampaul produced two nasty ones to beat Raina even with the partnership about 70 runs old. Again the ball kicked from a length, and beat the outside edge. The batsmen, though, chose the last over before tea, bowled by Bishoo, to make a statement, slogging the hell out of him for 17 runs. That made it 150 runs for the second session, but Bishoo hadn't been entirely negated.

With Edwards breathing fire after tea, Bishoo ran in from deep backwards square, and to his left, and then flew further to his left to claim a top-edged hook from Harbhajan. There was more where that sharp bouncer came from. Edwards was searing quick. He operated at two lengths, either full and swinging in or aimed at the throat. Praveen Kumar fell to the full one, Amit Mishra to the bouncer. Raina, stranded at the other end, could have chosen to either trust the doughty Ishant Sharma or go for the big ones. He went for the latter, and found Bishoo again at deep backward square leg to fall for a second score in the 80s in his nine-Test career.

In reply West Indies were austere, India accurate. For one hour they went without a boundary, Praveen Kumar and Ishant were a bit mindful of not conceding too many runs too. There was an interrogation on, but it didn't quite reach a level where it could break the likes of Colonel Nathan R Jessep down. The truth, it seemed, lay in balls turning square and bouncing up and down. Who can, and who cannot, handle it?

Cric Updates

India in West Indies Test Series, 2011

MS Dhoni captain Age: 29 years 324 days Playing role: Wicketkeeper batsman Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Right-arm medium	VVS Laxman vice-captain Age: 36 years 207 days Playing role: Top-order batsman Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Right-arm offbreak
Subramaniam Badrinath Age: 30 years 270 days Playing role: Middle-order batsman Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Right-arm offbreak	Rahul Dravid Age: 38 years 136 days Playing role: Top-order batsman Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Right-arm offbreak
Harbhajan Singh Age: 30 years 328 days Playing role: Bowler Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Right-arm offbreak	Zaheer Khan Age: 32 years 232 days Playing role: Bowler Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Left-arm fast-medium
Virat Kohli Age: 22 years 203 days Playing role: Middle-order batsman Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Right-arm medium	Amit Mishra Age: 28 years 184 days Playing role: Bowler Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Legbreak
Abhinav Mukund Age: 21 years 141 days Playing role: Top-order batsman Batting: Left-hand bat Bowling: Legbreak googly	Pragyan Ojha Age: 24 years 264 days Playing role: Bowler Batting: Left-hand bat Bowling: Slow left-arm orthodox
Munaf Patel Age: 27 years 319 days Playing role: Bowler Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Right-arm medium-fast	Parthiv Patel wicketkeeper Age: 26 years 79 days Playing role: Wicketkeeper batsman Batting: Left-hand bat
Suresh Raina Age: 24 years 181 days Playing role: Batsman Batting: Left-hand bat Bowling: Right-arm offbreak	Ishant Sharma Age: 22 years 267 days Playing role: Bowler Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Right-arm fast-medium
Sreesanth Age: 28 years 110 days Playing role: Bowler Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Right-arm fast-medium	Murali Vijay Age: 27 years 56 days Playing role: Opening batsman Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Right-arm offbreak

India win tour opener despite early wobble

During a five-over spell of poor discipline, West Indies lost the tour opener, the only Twenty20 international in Port of Spain. Led by Darren Sammy's four-wicket haul, the hosts bossed India for 15 overs on a spinners' paradise, but then they dropped a catch, took a wicket off a no-ball, bowled a lot of length, and the 72 runs they conceded in the last five overs proved to be the deciding factor. With two specialists spinners handcuffing the chase, the West Indies batsmen never really threatened India's total, although they lost only two wickets in the first 15.3 overs.

West Indies had been much more clinical for the majority of the first half of the game. Two reprieved men, though, - Rohit Sharma, dropped on 8, and S Badrinath, caught off a no-ball on 25 and not given stumped on 36 - played crucial parts in those five overs that went for 72. India's first 72 had taken more than 12 overs on a Queen's Park Oval pitch that had been under covers for most of the week because of rain. It misbehaved profusely: a few deliveries took the top surface with them, and the spinners managed disconcerting turn even without giving the ball much air. To make it worse for India, it drizzled for about the first 12 overs of the innings, but not hard enough to send the players off. There were two massive boundary-less periods: 19 balls at the start and 32 in the middle.

The way the ball turned justified India's call to play two specialist spinners, in Harbhajan Singh and R Aswhin, but West Indies inflicted damage even before spin was introduced. Their captain Sammy exploited the conditions with slower offcutters, slicing a chunk out of India's batting during an unbroken four-over spell, even as Chris Gayle watched from the stands, dressed in flashy party wear and a cap that said "captain".

Sammy's first wicket, though, was with a bouncer that cramped the debutant Shikhar Dhawan, and kissed the side of the bat on its way through to Andre Fletcher. Virat Kohli got a massive leading edge to a slower delivery, Parthiv Patel lobbed another offcutter to point, and Suresh Raina heaved to mid-on. Following that, Nurse and Bishoo stifled India, but the turning points came in the 14th and 16th overs.

First Nurse passed a maiden international wicket by failing to hold onto a simple return catch from Rohit. Then Rampaul seemed to have got rid of Badrinath, but the replays showed his front foot had landed on the line. The resultant free hit went for four, which should actually have been six because Nurse caught the ball on the full and dived on the boundary rope, and that opened the floodgates.

Rohit hit Rampaul for a six down the ground, and Badrinath hit two fours off Bishoo's next over. In between those boundaries, Badrinath was stumped, but the umpire Peter Nero refused to even refer it to the third umpire. The 18th over, bowled by Christopher Barnwell, was a disaster for West Indies even though he managed Rohit's wicket. He began with five wides and was hit for two sixes, one each by Rohit and Yusuf Pathan, in a 20-run over. Bishoo did some damage control in the 19th, but Rampaul came back to bowl length in the 20th, and was smacked for a six and a four by Harbhajan Singh.

Expectedly India wasted little time in unleashing spin after Praveen Kumar opened the defence with a maiden over. Ashwin and Harbhajan proved to be too good at the start, and Ashwin - albeit fortuitously - removed Lendl Simmons early. The man to blame was Nero again, who ruled Simmons caught behind off the thigh, and also off the wicketkeeper's helmet.

What followed involved no luck. Marlon Samuels and Darren Bravo managed to not lose their wickets but struggled to stay in touch with the asking-rate. As the ball turned and bounced, surely they would have wondered why their home pitches should test their weakness, and not the opposition's. That didn't explain lack of urgency in running between the wickets. No Indian fielder felt under pressure to charge at the ball as West Indies were not looking to convert ones into twos.

The asking-rate touched 17 for the last five overs, and the first big risks taken by the pair resulted in wickets to Harbhajan. Barnwell displayed his big-hitting capabilities in a 16-ball 34, but he was left with too much to do to prevent West Indies' first T20 defeat to India

Moving season for the IPL

Since its inception, the IPL has never been sold or bought in half-measures. Its approach has always been full-throttle, top-volume. Appropriately, then, an assessment of season four must avoid waffling around the half-empty or half-full. Is 2011 to be remembered for the fireworks on the final night at the Yellow Sea of Chepauk? Or the acreage of empty stands at the Wankhede three nights in a row, representative of the general spectator turnout of six weeks? The dazzle of Chris Gayle? Or the Shane Warne-Sanjay Dixit skirmish? Or even more, the dramatic drop in TV ratings from last season? Or should it be the clues sent out to the world by the BCCI and Indian players over next month's tour of the West Indies?

Regardless of what its own "stakeholders" choose as the flavour of their season - sagacity or smugness - 2011 will be regarded as the IPL's "Moving Season". If "moving day" in cricket and golf are about momentum swings and the emergence of contenders, IPL's Moving Season will dictate the future course of the event.

They can, of course, opt for the old "if it ain't broke...", and there's much about the IPL that ain't broke. It still remains cricket's golden goose, with generous salary packets for over 200 overseas and Indian players. The IPL's largest financial deals, starting with franchise ownerships and TV revenues, are tied in for another six years. It features the involvement of some of India's largest corporate houses, men and women with deep pockets and both a love of the limelight and a nose for profit. The IPL can still produce several moments of eye-catching cricket - individual blinders, crafty bowling plans, impossible catches, delicious UltraMotion replays of on-field action.

The IPL also spawned several copycat Twenty20 leagues in Indian state cricket (Karnataka, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Orissa, to name a few). Its effect is also being felt overseas: Sri Lanka Cricket will launch its own Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) to take place this July-August, controlled entirely by its board. Australia's remodelled Big Bash League will feature an expansion of its field, from six to eight, adding two privately owned teams, one each in Sydney and Melbourne.

Yet 2011 will still be Moving Season because it also put under direct light the IPL's own flaws: that the existence of 10 teams has sucked out the talent pool to a level close to shallow. Even the trimmed number of games - 74, down from a gluttonous dream of 94 - are far too many. It has all led to too few close games, a certain distancing even by India's TV audience from its beloved "cricketainment", and most damningly, empty stands during the playoffs. Even Ravi Shastri found himself all hyped-out when, before the Mumbai-Bangalore qualifier game, he asked one of the captains at the toss, "Your last game was a good, tight one against ... whom did you beat?"

It's not his fault. So much had happened during the 2011 IPL: helicopters landed in Osama Bin Laden's backyard, Indian parliamentarians and corporate honchos went to prison, and most European nations decided it was time their football seasons actually ended.

What happened inside the IPL, though, as Sanjay Manjrekar wrote on Sunday, was the arrival of Indian cricket's saturation point. We now know that, after a season of 11 Tests and 25 ODIs, including a euphoric World Cup, even the Indian cricket fan's seemingly inexhaustible appetite cannot swallow 74 Twenty20 matches. Reducing the number of matches or altering the format will infuriate franchises, who were promised 14 games each every season. To not do so, though, is to risk inviting a tipping point. The IPL's governors may well believe that the World Cup victory is the excuse for the 2011 IPL's flat line, but the businessmen are bound to start getting tetchy anyway. This fourth season of the IPL was to be the year the original eight teams had always believed they would at last begin making profits.

Whatever the post-season numbers indicate for the IPL's investors, the full impact of this season on Indian cricket itself will also begin to reveal itself within a month's time, at the ICC's annual conference in Hong Kong. The BCCI will formally show its hand in the post-IPL era at this meeting, because it is where the next round of the Future Tours Programme (FTP) will be decided.

	Whatever the post-season numbers indicate for the IPL's investors, the full impact of this season on Indian cricket itself will also begin to reveal itself within a month's time, at the ICC's annual conference in Hong Kong

In an ideal world, the BCCI could draw up the IPL calendar according to the Indian team's itinerary. It could formulate a carefully balanced schedule, keeping in mind important international events and physical demands on the players. In the real world, though, already the BCCI has demonstrated that it is the IPL's calendar around which the Indian team will play. So the first tour of the new world champions and the world's No. 1 Test team sees the side go in without the majority of their ODI first XI, most of whom are either injured or fatigued. Not so much by the World Cup but surely by what followed it. The Test team will compete without Sachin Tendulkar.

Moving Season will also mark the direction the rest of world cricket must take with regard to the IPL. Already there is unrest between the West Indian board and its IPL-magnet players, which has enraged the team's fans. Ravi Bopara and Eoin Morgan have indicated that England's players actually have the power to keep all their options open. If English county circuit was once considered the world's best first-class cricket school, the IPL has now become the game's most lucrative freelance assignment. To players from the smaller cricketing nations, like the West Indies, Sri Lanka and New Zealand, the IPL has made club v country nothing but a debating society argument. Lasith Malinga has answered many questions. Yet the ten-team 2011 IPL has proved that the tournament needs its overseas players as much as those players believe they need IPL contracts.

The IPL, though, is not all that concerned about that whole "future of cricket" argument. It was built around bling and bottomline. Part of that bling comes from Bollywood stars, the other from its packed stands and manic fans. By season three, escalating ticket sales had turned grounds into heaving party venues, adding to returns off television, the oxygen tent of the event. All that bellowing on TV is actually the medium sending out a message: See! Movie stars! Cricket stars! Thousands! All packed in! Fours! Sixes! Dancing! This is where it's at! Keep watching! It's like being there!

Shah Rukh Khan waving at Eden Gardens' empty stands doesn't send out that message. Nor does a live band or cheerleaders in a studio do that. Doubling the price of tickets, as was done for the better part at the Wankhede Stadium during playoffs, most certainly won't.

Another kind of message was sent to fans at that ground on playoffs nights: that a Rs 4000 ticket in the North Stand comes with a free constant drizzle of mud, dirt and cement pebbles from the tier. One spectator was clunked on the head with large, heavy chunks of cement not once but twice. In the US, he could have sued the stadium, the event, the franchise. In India, he will vote with his feet and not show up again.

The IPL will have to reinvent its vibrancy in season five and start with aiming to fill the stands up again. Franchise loyalty is still in its infancy. Two new teams have just got going, not very successfully. Spectator loyalty is what the fifth season of the IPL will have to generate afresh, with no half-measures. If the Indian spectator finally gets his due through the IPL, then enduring Navjot Sidhu on TV for 51 days would be worth it.

Shahid Afridi 'quits' international cricket

Shahid Afridi, Pakistan's recently axed one-day captain, has announced his "conditional" retirement from the international game, as a mark of protest against the way he has been "humiliated" by the PCB. However, Afridi said he was ready to reverse his decision if and when a new board came into power.

"There is nothing bigger than a man's respect, and the way the board has treated me, there is a limit to everything," Afridi was quoted as saying by Geo TV in Pakistan and by the Jang newspaper. "I will not play under this board. If a different board comes in, I will definitely return but I cannot play under this board. When you have been humiliated like this, by dishonourable people, what is the point in playing on?

"The way I've been treated ... the future doesn't look too good. I can't play under a board that doesn't respect its players. Because of this, under protest, this is a conditional retirement.

"I wasn't told anything when I was made captain, I wasn't given a tenure, I wasn't told what my squad would be, nothing. I took a broken team along with me. Maybe I have become a thorn in their throats. Its better that I step aside for now as I have respect for myself."

The retirement follows on the heels of Afridi's sacking as ODI captain despite Pakistan's 3-2 success against West Indies. Though the board did not give official reasons for the removal, it was believed to be the result of growing differences Afridi had with coach Waqar Younis, in particular over matters of selection.

"We had very solid reasons to remove Afridi and I will reveal them when the time is right," PCB chairman Ijaz Butt had said. "We haven't taken this action without any reasons."

On his return from the Caribbean, Afridi referred to the situation with Waqar, saying, "Although the differences in team management are not such which could not be solved, I feel everyone should do his job and need not interfere in other's work". That led to the board issuing him a showcause notice to explain his remarks, and presumably formed part of the reasons for his removal. Subsequently Afridi decided to pull outof the two ODIs against Ireland; speculation was that he was unhappy over his ouster, though he said he had decided to miss the series due to his father's ill-health. Pakistan have since gone on to win that series 2-0, though they were stretched in the second match.

Afridi is not new to retirement. He first announced a temporary sabbatical from Test cricket in April 2006, in a bid to concentrate only on ODIs in the lead-up to the 2007 World Cup. But he then said that he would reconsider his 'retirement' after the World Cup. He later returned to the side, and even led Pakistan's Test side at the start of their tumultuous tour of England last summer. He, however, once again retired from the longest format, as soon as Pakistan lost the first Test against Australia at Lord's. Afridi was one of the culprits in Pakistan's spineless second-innings effort, holing out against part-timer Marcus North who ran through the line-up.

"With my temperament I can't play Test cricket," Afridi said then. "I wasn't interested in playing Test cricket but the board asked me to go and take a look as they didn't have a choice. But I wasn't really enjoying Test cricket but I tried. I wasn't good enough. A captain should lead by example which I did not."

Afridi was replaced by the then vice-captain Salman Butt, who held the reins until he was ousted following the spot-fixing scandal, at which stage Misbah took charge of the Test side. Afridi remained at the helm in the shorter versions, and led from the front as Pakistan outperformed in the lead-up to, and during, the 2011 World Cup.

Afridi is currently in England and is set to play for Hampshire in the Friends Provident t20. He will also be available for the inaugural edition of the Sri Lankan Premier League, and will participate in domestic cricket in Pakistan.