Volatile Sreesanth fails to enter South Zone team

Kerala pacer S Sreesanth and TN batsmen S Badrinath and Abhinav Mukund are some of the notable absentees from the South Zone squad picked for the Deodhar Trophy tournament to be held later this month.
Dinesh Karthik has been named captain of the team, which will be officially announced on Saturday. It is learnt that the South Zone selection committee members were unhappy with Sreesanth's behaviour during the South Zone one-day tournament.Sreesanth had a tiff with Karthik during the tournament in Goa and was handed a two-match suspension by match officials. "Some members of the committee had concerns about Sreesanth's behaviour. So he was not considered," South Zone selector, said.
Bedi blasts BCCI over doctored pitches: Former Indian spinner Bishan Singh Bedi has lambasted the BCCI for preparing doctored pitches to suit their spin bowlers. Obviously referring to the first Test in Chennai where India's spinners claimed 20 wickets, Bedi said in Australia wickets are not doctored. "Every wicket Down Under has a character to it and those characters are never destroyed. It's the same in England," the Age quoted him.
Lee not surprised by Chennai track: Former Australian speedster Brett Lee said he was not surprised by the Chennai pitch and backed his country to bounce back. "I am not surprised by the conditions over here. The ball does turn square in India but we all know that as foreign players coming over here we have to deal with the conditions here... because when you are playing in India, it's all about how do we deal with the spin and we know that that's what is going to happen," 36-year-old Lee said at a promotional event.
England stretch lead, top order woes remain: England's top order blew a second chance to spend some quality time in the middle but the tourists still went on to cement their lead on the penultimate day of their four-day match against New Zealand XI in Queenstown. Captain Alastair Cook (24) was run out, leaving it to Matt Prior (68) and Graeme Swann (41 not out) down the order to power the visitors to 256 for nine for an overall lead of 333 runs by third day's play.
Brief scores: England XI 426 and 256-9 (Prior 68, Swann 41 n.o.; Gillespie 4-87) vs New Zealand XI 349 for 7 decl (H Rutherford 90, D Brownlie 63, B Watling not out 66, C Anderson 67)
‘India's NZ tour to be trimmed': India's full tour of New Zealand early next year could be trimmed to two Tests, two ODIs and two T20 Internationals to accommodate the Asia Cup cricket tournament, according to a Mumbai Mirror report. The ICC's FTP has India scheduled to play three Tests, five ODIs and a single T20 International in February-March, but the BCCI wanted to trim down the tour to host the Asia Cup around that time. The new schedule will have a maximum of 14 days of international cricket against the 21 originally planned in the FTP, though no formal agreement has been reached between the two Boards yet.