CRICKET - Oh brother, Indian politics a lamentable part of game

Northern Knights captain James Marshall has described the Indian cricket team's decision to withdraw two of their players from Friday night's Masters cricket match as a storm in a teacup.
The decision to not allow Sachin Tendulkar and Dinesh Karthik to play in the exhibition match, which acted as a curtain-raiser for the second Twenty20 international - because Marshall's twin brother Hamish was playing - saddened but didn't surprise him.
"The whole thing is just down to the bickering between the Indian Cricket Board and the ICL Twenty20 League," Marshall said.
"It was just unfortunate that Hamish was just the ICL player involved in the game but it was nothing to do with the fact that it was Hamish, it was just because the Indian board aren't big fans of the ICL."
Talks between the BCCI and the ICL, aimed at reducing the international disruption now being caused by the rival competitions, broke down in India last week.
It is ironic that Hamish Marshall, back in New Zealand this summer to play as the Knights overseas player, has already completed his contract in the ICL and will not take any further part in the competition.
"He's concentrating on playing in the county competition in England this year and that's his focus after he leaves here," Marshall said.
The Knights' captain has his own challenges to face this week. He is in a race to be fit for this week's State Championship match against Auckland at Whangarei's Cobham Oval.
Marshall missed the majority of the Twenty20 series when he broke the big toe of his left foot trying something out of the ordinary in the match against the Wellington Firebirds three weeks ago.
"I was playing one of those funky Twenty20 shots, reverse sweeping one of the quick bowlers and just missed and it hit me flush on the toe," he recalls.
The injury saw him with a crutch and a "moonboot" for the rest of the Twenty20 competition.
"It wasn't great timing in terms of the season, inconvenient is probably the best word," he said.
Marshall is moving around a lot more freely since discarding the moonboot late last week and is looking forward to trying a training run in the next day or two.
"I still think I'll play, I may be a little bit uncomfortable but I'd be around 95 percent fit and just play with a little bit of pain now and then," he said.
The Kaipara Flats batsman has been stuck on the sidelines trying to take positives from what has been a dismal competition with the Knights failing to win a game in Twenty20 competition.
"I feel as though we were probably nit-picking too much to try and find out why we weren't going too well, we were having a meeting after each game to try and work out where we could improve and I think in the end we should've just looked to really front up and perform on the park," he said.
Marshall is hoping the four-day match against Auckland will be another turning point in the team's up and down season.
"We want to get back to finding a winning culture in the side and I've asked the boys to find the inspiration to push for a place in the final, from the time we have left in the last four games."
"We've got a lot of work ahead but there are some sides in the competition that I believe play attacking cricket and will want to chase outright wins, and so that gives us more of a chance to get outright wins ourselves," Marshall says.