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Galle will host the first Test between Sri Lanka and India in July, while the next two matches will be held in Colombo, at the SSC and the P Sara Oval

Sa'adi Thawfeeq18-Jun-2010Galle will host the first Test between Sri Lanka and India in July, while the next two matches will be held in Colombo, at the SSC and the P Sara Oval. India will return home following the completion of the Asia Cup but will go back to Sri Lanka on July 9 for the Test series, followed by a triangular tournament also involving New Zealand.The third Test was originally scheduled for Dambulla but Sri Lanka Cricket secretary Nishantha Ranatunga said the venues had to be switched because the floodlights at the SSC would not be ready in time for the one-day competition. Instead Dambulla will now host the tri-series from August 10 to 29 while SSC will stage a Test.The first Test is between July 18 and 22 at Galle. The second and third are between July 26 and 30, and August 3 and 7 respectively. The tri-series begins on August 10 and each team will play the other twice before the top two play the final. There will be a reserve day for each match of the tri-series including the final.

Bas Zuiderent has been named as Netherlands’ captain for the limited-overs leg of Zimbabwe’s upcoming visit

Cricinfo staff17-Jul-2010Bas Zuiderent has been named Netherlands captain for the limited-overs leg of Zimbabwe’s upcoming visit, with regular skipper Peter Borren unavailable for selection. Nick Statham will then take up the reins for the Intercontinental Cup game which follows the one-day match on July 25.Medium-pacer Maurits Jonkman returns to the side after missing the World Cricket League Division One tournament due to injury, while his twin brother Mark is out of the squad after being reported for a suspect action after that competition.Steven de Bruin, who made his first-class debut in Netherlands’ keenly-contested Intercontinental Cup game against Scotland in June, will take up the wicketkeeping gloves from Atse Buurman for the fixtures after Buurman injured his hand during Netherlands’ loss to Ireland at the Division One tournament. The opportunity is also being taken to give chances to several younger players such as Bradley Kruger, Berend Westdijk, Wilfred Diepeveen and Tom Heggelman.Limited-overs squad Bas Zuiderent (capt), Adeel Raja, Wesley Barresi, Mudassar Bukhari, Tom Cooper, Steven de Bruin (wk), Tom de Grooth, Maurits Jonkman, Bradley Kruger, Ruud Nijman, Pieter Seelaar, Nick Statham, Eric SzwarczynskiIntercontinental Cup squad Nick Statham (capt), Adeel Raja, Wesley Barresi, Steven de Bruin (wk), Tom de Grooth, Wilfred Diepeveen, Tom Heggelman, Maurits Jonkman, Ruud Nijman, Pieter Seelaar, Eric Szwarczynski, Berend Westdijk

Plays of the Day from the first day of the second Test between Pakistan and Australia at Headingley

Nagraj Gollapudi and Brydon Coverdale at Headingley21-Jul-2010Chalo Chalo Headingley chalo …
…read one of the advertising boards. It was a good slogan, written in the green and white Pakistan colours, urging the fans to fill Headingley. It was fitting, too, considering the Pakistani domination on the first day. Sadly the ground remained 75% empty despite the heroics of Pakistan’s fast bowling pack in the morning. Perhaps that had something to do with the tickets selling for a prohibitive 30 quid, a big deterrent for devoted fans across England.Hilf, the hat-trick halter
When Ben Hilfenhaus strode to the crease to face the hat-trick ball from Mohammad Aamer, it was a familiar feeling. Hilfenhaus is in only his 11th Test but he had already needed to negotiate a hat-trick delivery, at The Oval last year when Steve Harmison was aiming to regain the Ashes with three wickets in three balls. On that occasion, Hilfenhaus blocked the ball solidly away and he also survived this time around, though with a little less conviction. Aamer had just knocked back the stumps of Steven Smith and Mitchell Johnson with the first two balls after lunch, and another delivery on line would have given him a great chance of the hat-trick. But Aamer angled it across Hilfenhaus, who played and missed.Smart move
Salman Butt took a leaf out of Ricky Ponting’s book of captaincy when he introduced Umar Amin, part-time medium pacer, five overs before lunch. It did seem a little strange considering Umar Gul’s short spell lasted just five overs and Danish Kaneria was yet to bowl. But just like Marcus North had struck on the stroke of lunch at Lord’s, Amin got the crucial breakthrough in the penultimate over before the end of the first session when he drew North forward and induced a thick edge off a neat outswinger which was snapped brilliantly by the steadily improving Kamran Akmal.Gul’s bunny
When it comes to long vigils, Michael Hussey has shown on several occasions that he has the mental fortitude necessary to cling, limpet-like, to the crease in a tough situation. But Umar Gul has managed to breach Hussey’s supreme powers of concentration more than anyone else in the past year. Today Hussey was the victim of a rare bad decision by Rudi Koertzen after HawkEye predicted Gul’s inswinging delivery, which hit Hussey flush on the front pad, would miss the leg stump. But in the past 12 months Gul has got the better of Hussey on five occasions across three formats and can proudly hold the Australian as one of his bunnies.

Matthew Mott will have to choose between coaching New South Wales or Kochi if he gets a job with the new IPL franchise

Cricinfo staff26-Aug-2010Matthew Mott will have to choose between coaching New South Wales or Kochi if he gets a job with the new IPL franchise. Mott went to India “five or six weeks ago” but said he was still waiting to hear back from the organisation.”It’s just wait and see,” he said in the Sydney Morning Herald. “But it’s getting close to the season [starting in Australia] and you have to draw the line somewhere.”Mott spent two seasons as an assistant to John Buchanan at Kolkata, but the demands of the IPL sides have changed and he has been told by New South Wales he won’t be able to juggle both roles. The Australian domestic campaign starts in October and the Blues are already deep into pre-season training.”Motty has indicated to me that he wants to go through the interview process with Kochi,” David Gilbert, New South Wales’ chief executive, said. “I respect that. But if he is offered the job and decides to accept it, then he would have to resign from the role here. Motty realises that something has to give. This is a full-time job here at Cricket NSW.”Mott has one year remaining on his deal with the Blues, who he has coached for three years. He was interviewed for the New Zealand job last year but stayed in Sydney.

New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan believes next year’s Champions League Twenty20 will have a representative from New Zealand

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Sep-2010Justin Vaughan, the New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chief executive, believes that the country’s domestic Twenty20 winners will be invited to next year’s Champions League Twenty20, despite their struggle to compete in the first two editions of the event.”I would be confident that a New Zealand team is still a very cemented part of the Champions League,” Vaughan told the . “Obviously the tournament organisers have the ability to review that, but my understanding is that the number of teams would remain the same, if not expand.”Central Districts Stags, the current New Zealand Twenty20 champions, failed to win a single game from four matches in the ongoing Champions League in South Africa, crashing to a 74-run defeat to Sri Lanka’s Wayamba in their last group encounter. Otago lost both their games in the inaugural edition of the tournament last year.Central Districts were competitive in two of their matches though, against Victoria and South Africa’s Warriors, taking both games to the final over. “Obviously, the final match was disappointing, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that they were pretty competitive in a couple of their games,” Vaughan said. “I don’t think you can draw conclusions on the basis of one poor performance by the Stags.”There were some mitigating factors as well. Central Districts lost Ross Taylor to IPL side Royal Challengers Bangalore, and were missing the injured duo of Graham Napier and Jacob Oram.NZC has decided to allow two overseas players per team in the domestic Twenty20 event, the HRV Cup, which will be played in December, and Vaughan said the decision could brighten New Zealand’s chances next year, depending on whether the overseas players were available to play for the New Zealand franchise that qualifies.Central Districts did benefit gain financially from the event though. The team took home US$400,000 – US$200,000 as their share of the prize money and another US$200,000 as compensation from Bangalore for the right to have Ross Taylor play for them. Under the NZC agreement, Central Districts gets two-sevenths of the money, with the rest divided equally among the other five major associations.

Australia have rested the senior trio of Ricky Ponting, Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson for the one-dayers against India later this month

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Oct-2010Australia have rested the senior trio of Ricky Ponting, Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson for the one-dayers against India later this month. In Ponting’s absence, Michael Clarke will lead a side that includes South Australia batsman Callum Ferguson, who has made a comeback after a year on the sidelines due to a knee injury.Injuries to Shaun Tait and Ryan Harris mean Doug Bollinger will spearhead an inexperienced fast bowling unit that includes Clint McKay (12 matches), and the uncapped pair of Mitchell Starc and James Pattinson.Queensland’s James Hopes and New South Wales’ Steve Smith will vie for the allrounder’s spot, and big-hitting opening batsman David Warner makes a return to the one-day squad. There was no place for either wicketkeeper Brad Haddin or fast bowler Peter Siddle, both of whom are recovering from injuries and the selectors felt it was too premature to risk them in international cricket.”Ricky faces a very demanding domestic summer on his return to Australia,” Andrew Hilditch, Australia’s chief selector, said, “and will have no other opportunity for a break from the start of the domestic season until after the much-awaited World Cup.”Hilditch gave similar explanations for leaving out Watson and Johnson. “It is essential to the balance of our side that Shane can open the batting and play the all-round role. we have decided the best way of ensuring he can play this role is for him to miss the one-day component of this series,” he said. “Mitchell is now the leader of our bowling attack, and with numerous injuries to our fast bowling stocks at present, it is essential we manage his workload so he can get through the domestic summer and the ICC Cricket World Cup.”The three-ODI series is from October 17-24.Squad: Michael Clarke (capt), Cameron White, Doug Bollinger, Callum Ferguson, Nathan Hauritz, James Hopes, Mike Hussey, Shaun Marsh, Clint McKay, Tim Paine (wk), James Pattinson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner

South Africa weathered a difficult start to dominate the day

Firdose Moonda12-Nov-2010The desert is supposed to be a parched, arid place but runs flowed freely as water for South Africa on first day of the first Test against Pakistan in Dubai. Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen put on their first century opening partnership, Smith became the highest run scorer as a Test captain, Hashim Amla fell 20 short of an 11th Test century and Jacques Kallis is unbeaten on 53 going into the second day.The scorecard doesn’t reflect it, but the going was tough for the South African batsmen early on. Both Smith and Petersen survived early chances, with Petersen edging twice in two overs. He admitted that batting was difficult early one. “The wicket was quite slow upfront. Graeme and I had to graft hard for our runs,” Petersen told ESPNCricinfo. The openers added 101 before lunch, with only 36 of those runs coming in boundaries. “We capitalised a lot on the singles and manipulating their field placements and slowly accumulated the runs.”It’s the method of acquiring runs that pleased Smith most. “What we did well throughout today was taking a lot of singles. I think we rotated the strike well, so we managed to maintain a good rate,” Smith said. South Africa scored 114 singles in their first day total of 311 for 3.Smith himself started out tentatively. He had hit just one four in his half-century but loosened up after lunch to smack another seven before reaching his hundred. It was his 22nd Test century, during which he became the leading run-scorer as Test captain. He now has 6664 Test runs as captain, 41 more than previous record holder Allan Border managed while leading Australia. “It wasn’t something I thought about before but it’s an honour to be among the greats. I am proud of the record,” Smith said. Border has also moved down a place to sixth on the all-time Test run scorers list, after Kallis moved past his tally of 11,174.With South Africa’s run-machine rolling steadily on, it vindicated the preparation they had done ahead of the series. “We’ve executed our game plan well,” Smith said. “I think from a batting perspective our top six have been very good at that over the past three years.”

A round-up of the third week of matches in the MTN40

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Nov-2010The Lions became the first team to qualify for the MTN40 semi-finals, after winning their fourth consecutive match in the competition. It’s a remarkable turnaround from a franchise who, for the past three seasons, have been underachievers in every format. That tag seems to have been transferred to the Cobras, who have lost five out of five matches in the tournament.On Wednesday, they went down to the Knights by three wickets in Kimberley. The Cobras batted first and posted a solid 235 for 6. Andrew Puttick (71 off 76 balls) and Stiaan van Zyl (39 off 42 balls) shared a first-wicket partnership of 74, setting their side up well. Owais Shah (83 off 78 balls) was the other big contributor but received little support from the rest of the middle order. Con de Lange (0 for 27) and Dillon du Preez (2 for 39) did a good containing job for the Knights.The Free Staters’ chase went according to plan and they appeared well on track throughout their innings. Reeza Hendricks (56 off 68 balls) and Rilee Rossouw (46 off 26 balls) laid the foundation for the win. Ryan McLaren (55* off 51 balls) marshalled the middle and lower order to a victory with 10 balls to spare.Matters got worse for the men from the Cape on Friday. They lost to the Titans by two wickets in a low-scoring encounter in Centurion. It was a disastrous batting performance which saw them all out for 135. There was just one score over 20. That came from Puttick (46 off 74 balls). Ethy Mbhalati’s (3 for 21) sensational season continued and Albie Morkel (2 for 41), Roelof van der Merwe (2 for 23) and Mario Olivier (2 for 13) each picked up two scalps.The Titans made hard work of their reply. They slipped to 58 for 4 in the 14th over. Charl Langeveldt (4 for 34) kept the Cobras in the hunt but 30s from Jacques Rudolph (39 off 42 balls), Faf du Plessis (32 off 84 balls) and Farhaan Berhardien (33 off 40 balls) took the Titans to 136 for 8 after 35 overs.In Johannesburg, the Lions beat the Dolphins by five wickets to secure a place in the final four. An inspired bowling performance by the Lions reduced the Dolphins 35 for 4 in the 11th over. Loots Bosman (12 off 19 balls) was forced to retire hurt after getting hit on the hand by Friedel de Wet (2 for 25). David Miller (42 off 43 balls) and Glen Adicott (61 off 85 balls) helped the Dolphins to 196 for 7.The Lions survived an Imran Tahir (4 for 33) blitz midway through their innings. The home side were off to a comfortable start, but lost three wickets in as many overs when Tahir came on. Zander de Bruyn (52* off 80 balls) and Thami Tsolekile (49* off 49 balls) stood firm and the Lions won with more than four overs to spare.The defending champions, the Warriors, slumped to a fourth defeat at the hands of the Knights in Bloemfontein. They batted first and their innings hinged on Colin Ingram’s 92 (off 101 balls) and Justin Kreusch’s 55 (off 62 balls). The Warriors notched up 229 for 8, with wickets shared all round the Knights bowlers. Ryan McLaren (1 for 35) had the most economical return.The Knights were merciless in response. Hendricks (89 off 80 balls) and Rossouw (102* off 96 balls) took the game away from the Warriors. All their bowlers bar Rusty Theron (1 for 35) took a pasting and the Knights won inside 36 overs.The Cobras crashed to their fifth defeat on Sunday in Paarl, when they lost to the Dolphins by seven wickets. Another dismal batting performance saw them total just 161 for 9. Owais Shah (48 off 95 balls) and Rory Kleinveld, who was batting at number ten (45 off 30 balls) were the two most meaningful contributors. Tahir (2 for 14) was again a deadly assassin and Kyle Abbott (3 for 49) picked up the most wickets.The Dolphins were in trouble at 36 for 2 but recovered well. Ravi Bopara (50* off 75 balls) and new signing Vaughn van Jaarsveld (76 off 55 balls) took them to victory in the 29th over and also earned them a bonus point. With the Cobras yet to win a match in the competition the Dolphins joined the Lions in the semi-finals.The last match of the weekend saw the Titans beat the Warriors by 25 runs on the Duckworth Lewis method in Centurion. Makhaya Ntini (2 for 27) removed both Titans openers cheaply before Theron (3 for 46) got stuck into the middle order. Henry Davids (51 off 72 balls) was the only half-century scorer for the hosts as they were bowled out for 214 in 38.1 overs.Morkel (4 for 25) showed glimpses of form that may see him get reselected for South Africa as he plucked the Warriors openers early and returned to clean up the tail. Kreusch (68 off 62 balls) was the lone Warrior in a cause that cut short by rain. The heavens opened with the Warriors on 178 for 9 in the 37th over.Batsman of the week: For the only century in this week’s action, Rilee Rossouw gets this week’s award. He also tops the batting charts with an average of 81.25.Bowler of the week: Imran Tahir is knocking so hard on Andrew Hudson’s door, when he becomes eligible to play in December it will make be interesting to see what the selectors do. He single-handedly brought the Dolphins back into the game against the Lions and bowled an attacking but containing spell against the Cobras.

Sri Lanka have dropped two places to fifth spot in the ICC Test rankings following their stalemate in the rain-marred Test series against West Indies

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Dec-2010Sri Lanka have dropped two places to fifth spot in the ICC Test rankings following their stalemate in the rain-marred Test series against West Indies. England and Australia moved ahead of Sri Lanka who now have 109 rating points. India and South Africa remained at the top of the table with 129 and 116 points each.West Indies dominated the first Test in Galle, where Chris Gayle’s triple-century helped them enforce the follow-on against the more-fancied home side. Rain dominated the second and third Tests, at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, and the new ground in Pallekele respectively. West Indies gained as a result of the nil-all scoreline, and were three points behind Pakistan who stayed in the sixth place with 88.Even if England win the Ashes 4-0, the best result they can hope for in the five-match series following the drawn opening Test, they can’t be assured of going past South Africa to the second spot in the table. If South Africa win at least one Test in their upcoming three-match home series against India, they will stay ahead of England irrespective of how the Ashes pans out. A 3-0 verdict in South Africa’s favour will bring them level with India on 123 points, and the deadlock will be broken by the trailing decimals.

Richie Richardson, the former West Indies captain, has been appointed as manager of the West Indies team for a period of two years beginning immediately

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Jan-2011Richie Richardson, the former West Indies captain, has been appointed as manager of the West Indies team for a period of two years beginning immediately in preparation for the ODIs in Sri Lanka and the World Cup in February.”I feel tremendously honoured to be once again asked to serve West Indies cricket. I believe that it is critical for me to lend support to the efforts to re-develop the sport in the region,” Richardson said. “As a former player and captain I gave my all for West Indies cricket on the field. We are at the cusp of a new era and it is now time for me to contribute off the field and aid in the building and resurgence of West Indies cricket.”Richardson played 86 Tests and 224 one-day internationals and has been involved in sport tourism ventures in Antigua and Barbuda and the United Kingdom since his retirement in 1996.”Richie brings immense value to the team management unit,” WICB chief executive Ernest Hilaire said. “He is a legendary former West Indian batsman and captain but he also brings professional business expertise and this provides an ideal fit as we continue to enhance our professional capacity in all areas of West Indies cricket.”