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While the old firm of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara made merry in their last few years, unloading big scores on oppositions like they were having a going-out-of-business sale, Sri Lanka had also invested in a few startups. Lahiru Thirimanne was among the promising ventures that impressed in domestic cricket, and made encouraging starts to their international careers.There has been some frustration in the years since, but the investment in Thirimanne has begun to come good in ODIs. His Test average, though, remains in the mid-20s. He hit two centuries in the 2014 Asia Cup, and became Sri Lanka’s youngest World Cup centurion in March, so the selectors feel there is quality there. They will hope that his 44 in Galle and a 62 at the P Sara hint at big Test runs to come, following a lean series against Pakistan.”If you look at the ODIs, I was always in the runs,” Thirimanne said. “In Tests, the shots I played weren’t executed all that well. There was an element of bad luck as well – sometimes the shots went directly to hand. Mentally I never had an issue. I was always ready for the matches I played. But then when you spend a little bit of time at the crease it gets easier. Once you score 20 or 30 runs, you start playing those shots well.”Despite his good returns in ODIs, Thirimanne has largely been a slow mover in Tests, in which his career strike rate is 40.26. He has added attacking strokes to his ODI game, but his approach in Tests could do with some fine-tuning, he said.”When I go to bat, usually there’s a bit of pressure on the team. There are two options – to hit out quickly and try to get some runs with the batsman on the other end, or to stay at the wicket for a while and work through it. I did take the second option quite often. But then sometimes you think that it would have been good to follow a middle path – to score runs without taking too many risks. My low strike rate has often had to do with the situation.”Thirimanne has been a victim of Sri Lanka’s frequent top-order reshuffles. In this series alone, he has batted at Nos. 3, 4, 6 and 7, and has had no more than 13 innings in any particular spot, out of 42 overall.He has been talked about as Kumar Sangakkara’s replacement at No. 3, and even his ODI success has come in the top three. But with Upul Tharanga set to return to the XI, Thirimanne may have to settle for a middle-order position.”You have to bat well wherever you get the opportunity, so there’s no real excuse,” Thirimanne said.  “That’s something I’ve learned since making my debut. You have to play anywhere at this level. That said, I do have good one-day form in the top three, and I hope I can replicate that in Tests.”Thirimanne has been among the left-handed batsmen who have struggled against R Ashwin’s offspin this series. He has fallen to Ashwin three times in four innings.”Even though Ashwin doesn’t have a doosra or too many other variations, he troubles batsmen with those changes of speed,” Thirimanne said. “He doesn’t give many loose balls at all. It’s a big challenge for a left-hander. A right-hander would have two or three options. We’ll talk as a team and work hard in training. We’ll try to counterattack him and win through. It’s important to go in with a clear mind and a clear plan.”

Ricky Ponting says his players are keen to test themselves against the World Twenty20 champions in Mumbai on Saturday. “We are pretty excited actually and looking forward to the match against a team which won the World Cup a few weeks ago,” Ponting said. He also sought to underplay the hype surrounding the game, just as he hoped the tired debate over verbal volleys would die down.”There are a lot of things said in the build -up to this game,” he said. “Probably there was more talk about this game than the one-dayers. So I would expect good entertaining Twenty20 cricket and we are looking forward to it. It’s a nice way to wind up the tour – to tell you the truth – to be playing a game like this around which there has been so much build up and talk.”When asked whether it was more difficult to adjust to the shorter version from the longer version Ponting said: “I am not sure what is more difficult, going into a longer-format of the game from Twenty20 or the other way round. But we do prepare slightly differently for this form of the game.”We get time to go out there and settle down in a 50-over game. There is some time in Twenty20 also, but not much. So you might go there and start hitting everything from the first ball and make sure you are timing everything spot on right from the word go. It’s a lot more intense. Everything you do through a 50-over game, you have to do it right at the start of a Twenty20 game. That’s the way the preparation is.”Ponting also conceded that it was difficult to plan too much for a Twenty20 match. “This game is harder than any other game to plan. Because things just change so quickly, you’ve got to be changing your field placings almost every ball, mix and match your bowlers to suit the batsman. Everything is on-the-spur-of-the-moment stuff here.”There was also some doubt about Matthew Hayden playing the game, as he has a sore throat, but Ponting “pretty much guaranteed” his return. He also acknowledged Brad Hogg’s impact in the series, but said his selection in the side wasn’t guaranteed.”That’s the thing we have to decide. We had a look at the wicket, it looks good. There is no doubt the wickets turn a bit in this part of the world as we saw in the Champions Trophy. But even in that tournament we played five fast bowlers, four frontline and Shane Watson. I think we’ve got bowlers who can adapt and adjust to any conditions so we leave that decision until we finalise our side on Saturday.”

A little over eight months ago, Makhaya Ntini produced a devastating spell under lights as Australia were skittled out for 93 at Newlands, and similar pace-friendly conditions in Durban are likely to influence India to play seven batsmen (including Mahendra Singh Dhoni) in the second match of the series. With Virender Sehwag still nursing a sore hand, Sachin Tendulkar could be called on for some seam-up bowling should the rain, which again threatens to disrupt play as it did at the Wanderers on Sunday, relent on Wednesday.Mickey Arthur, South Africa’s coach, made it amply clear that his team would target the Indians with pace, and they have released Boeta Dippenaar from the 14-man squad that was picked for the opening game. But South Africa too have a history of batting frailty when the ball moves around – Stuart Clark routed them in last year’s Newlands Test , and Kyle Mills inspired an emphatic New Zealand victory in the Champions Trophy – and some of the grass seen on the pitch on Tuesday could be clipped away before the game starts.With the evening conditions providing extra incentive to the pace bowlers, the toss will be crucial. Over the past few seasons, and especially during the 2003 World Cup, the winning formula for Kingsmead usually meant putting a decent total on the board and then unleashing the fast men to scupper the run chase. In Munaf Patel, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar, India have some options of their own, even if they’re not in the Ntini-Pollock class.If Tendulkar and Sehwag do fill up the fifth-bowler quota, Dinesh Mongia is almost certain to get a game at No.7. And with Zaheer having emerged with credit from the tour game at Benoni, Agarkar could be the one to miss out on the XI. Despite this being no spinners’ paradise, Harbhajan Singh’s recent displays more or less seal his place in the side.South Africa will leave the slow bowling to Graeme Smith, if needed, and opt for an all-pace attack in conditions that are likely to be overcast with all the rain about. With the breeze from the Indian Ocean an additional factor to consider, a line-up of Ntini, Pollock, Andre Nel, Jacques Kallis and Charl Langeveldt is a frightening prospect.On his first tour here in 1996-97, Rahul Dravid revealed glimpses of his class with a fine second-innings display even as India were shot out for 100 and 66 in a Test match. Not long after, he played a wonderful knock in a lost cause in an ODI while an irate Allan Donald let fly with a volley of abuse. The leader of the pack will need to set the tone for his players in this series, and then hope that some of the youngsters show the same sort of resolve that he did all those years ago.Teams
South Africa (likely): 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Loots Bosman, 3Herschelle Gibbs, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 AB de Villiers, 6 Mark Boucher (wk),7 Justin Kemp, 8 Shaun Pollock, 9 Charl Langeveldt, 10 Andre Nel, 11Makhaya Ntini.India (likely): 1 Sachin Tendulkar, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 MohammadKaif, 4 Rahul Dravid (capt), 5 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), 6 Suresh Raina,7 Dinesh Mongia, 8 Irfan Pathan 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11Munaf Patel.

On the team’s batting
To get just 196 on this wicket was unacceptable. We had three good games with the bat before this but today wasn’t a day for us. It’s just a matter of being consistent. All our batsmen have the experience to get big scores but we let ourselves down today.On Murali’s absence
Murali had a hamstring strain when he was fielding in the Ahmedabad game and we decided to leave him out in the last minute. With the amount the pitch was turning in the morning, Murali’s presence could have been crucial with a total of 230 or 240. But 196 was just not enough.On the pitch
The new ball was coming on a bit but slowly a bit of dust began to come up and it got slower. I wouldn’t say it was the best pitch for batting, compared to the rest of the pitches in this series. But I’m not making any excuses for our poor display.On what has gone wrong
It’s all about getting some momentum early in the series. When you are down in a long series, and when things are not going your way it becomes very difficult to come back. We should approach it game by game and try and perform.On the positives from this series
I think throughout the series Dilhara Fernando has done well. The way he has come back from injury, and the amount of work he has put is in great. Dilshan has also done well. He gets a bit overconfident and takes some unnecessary risks but we need to send messages to him sometimes.On the reaction back home
The CEO of Sri Lanka Cricket [Duleep Mendis] met the team in Pune and given us his full support. We have their backing despite the defeats.On trying to experiment with a few youngsters
Sooner rather than later we may have to try out a few youngsters.On plans for the next few weeks
We’d like to end the tour on a winning note and then take our minds off the results. We hope to refresh ourselves back home, think about the positives from this series and then come back prepared for the Tests.

Jagmohan Dalmiya, the president of the Indian cricket board, has blamed Zee Telefilms and ESPN-Star Sports, the opposing parties in the telecast-rights issue, for putting the Australian series in jeopardy. Dalmiya felt that the TV channels had placed their commercial interests ahead of the public interest for the game.Dalmiya’s comments came in the wake of the battle for TV rights to telecast international matches in India for the next four years. Addressing a press conference in Kolkata, Dalmiya revealed that the BCCI had been “pushed back to the wall” and had “no elbow-room” to arrive at a solution.”We need TV channels for the telecasting of the matches. But they are not ready to come to an agreement so that we can ensure the live coverage of the matches. We require TV channels, but cricket is supreme.”Dalmiya reiterated that the board was trying its best to ensure that the series was telecast live, and said that they had proposed four options to Zee and ESS. “We are making necessary arrangements. We will make an announcement within the next few days.”The first option was to submit fresh bids before the Mumbai High Court whereby rights could be awarded to the highest bidder. The second option was the division of the four-year telecast period into two parts. That would mean that the upcoming three cricket series will be segregated from the total period under consideration. Dalmiya added: “The four-year TV rights contract would then have commenced from May 2005.”As a third option, the TV companies were asked to submit tenders for the coverage of only these three cricket series. The final option was for the BCCI to produce the television coverage of these matches on its own.Dalmiya also said that the board had tried to convince the ICC about holding the series without TV coverage. “In a letter to the BCCI, the Australian Cricket Board even threatened not to come and play in India,” Dalmiya said. “If there was no television coverage. So, we had no option before us other than cancelling the whole tender process.”

Sri Lankans 299 and 66 for 1 drew with the West Indies Cricket Board President’s XI 296 (Hinds 83, Ganga 54)Sri Lanka’s second-string attack achieved a three-run lead on the first innings over the West Indies Cricket Board President’s XI today, but a more consistent line and length might have produced greater reward in the drawn match.The lack of discipline at Arnos Vale was reflected in the concession of 25 no-balls and three wides in a total of 32 extras.Before the game was called off with 8.4 overs left, Sri Lanka’s former captain Sanath Jayasuriya took the opportunity to collect some useful runs ahead of Friday’s first Test. He smashed seven fours and one six in an undefeated 44 off 46 balls, as the Sri Lankans finished on 66 for 1 in their second innings.Tillakaratne Dilshan was the batsman out, to the last ball of the match. Dilshan, who was promoted to open to give him some match practice, made 20 off 46 balls with three fours before edging Dwayne Bravo to Carlton Baugh, the wicketkeeper. Earlier, the Sri Lankans picked up their wickets with a mixture of speed and spin, and only the captain Daren Ganga (54), Ryan Hinds (83) and Baugh (43) made runs in the top order.Ganga anchored the innings after the Sri Lankans had reduced the President’s XI to 56 for 3 by the 17th over. Ganga helped his team recover from that bad start by sharing a 70-run stand for the fourth wicket with Hinds.Hinds, the 22-year-old Barbadian left-hander who captained the West Indiesteam in the Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka in 2000, gave the selectors areminder. He was dropped from the national squad after his Test-debut season last year, but his 83 in 197 minutes here was a fine knock.His innings ended when he unnecessarily chased a wide one and edged a catch to Mahela Jayawardene at slip, giving the persistent Dinusha Fernando his first wicket of the innings. Hinds faced 166 balls and hit seven fours.Fernando also claimed Baugh, who hit an exciting 43 off 55 balls with one six and five fours before gloving a rising delivery to Dilshan behind the wicket. Baugh and Hinds shared a sixth-wicket partnership of 94 to lift the President’s XI from 130 for 5 to 224 for 6. Once that stand was broken the last four wickets tumbled for 34 runs. Dave Mohammed provided some entertainment in scoring 33 from 39 balls with two sixes, and added 38 for the last wicket with Jerome Taylor.Thilan Thushara, the left-arm fast bowler, struggled with his run-up andwas no-balled eight times in his first seven-over spell. He ended upbowling 11 no-balls and three wides for figures of 2 for 43 off 11 overs.Thilan Samaraweera was the most successful bowler, taking 3 for 56 off 19 overs including two in one over – Tino Best and Daren Powell were both dismissed behind the wicket, with Dilshan claiming a stumping and a catch.

Apart from staging the hottest ever Test match, with temperatures in excess of 38 degrees Centigrade (100 degree Fahrenheit) on each day, the recently concluded first test match of Asian Test Championship established four unique test records that have gone unnoticed by cricket statisticians. The following are the four unique records:1. Pakistan’s record equalling five centuries were made out of a total of 546-3 declared. This total is the lowest ever to include 4 centuries, let alone 5. The previous record was West Indies’ 550 v India at St John’s in 1982-83 – that total included 4 centuries.2. The Pakistan v Bangladesh test match saw the first ever instance of both left-handed opening batsmen scoring centuries in the same innings. Saeed Anwar and Taufeeq Umar provided the 39th instance of both openers scoring centuries in the same test innings, but the first ever by a left handed opening pair.3. For the second time in Test history two separate century partnerships for the same wicket in the same innings were recorded. Inzamam-ul-Haq and Yousuf Youhana added 123 (unbroken) for the fourth wicket and then Yousuf Youhana and Abdur Razzaq added 165 (unbroken) for the fourth wicket. The first such instance was for the West Indies against England at Kingston in 1959-60. E.D.A.S.McMorris and G.S.Sobers put on 133 (unbroken) for the 3rd wicket. McMorris then retired hurt and then G.S.Sobers and S.M.Nurse put on 110 for the same wicket for West Indies v England at Kingston in 1959-60. However, Pakistan’s achievement is unique in that both century partnerships were unbroken.4. The Pakistan v Bangladesh and the concurrent Sri Lanka v India (3rd Test at Colombo) test matches provided the unique feat of centuries on test debuts on successive days in two separate test matches. Never before has there been such a feat. Taufeeq Umar of Pakistan scored 104 on 30th August, and on the next day, i.e. 31st August, T.T.Samaraweera of Sri Lanka scored an unbeaten 103.CricInfo readers will be interested to note that B.H.Valentine (136) of England and L.Amarnath (118) of India provide the only instance of two batsmen scoring centuries in their debut tests on the same day in the same test match. This rare feat occurred during the 1st Test between India and England in 1933-34. The match was the only test match ever played at the Gymkhana Ground in Bombay. On 17th December 1933, i.e. the third day of this test match, B.H.Valentine resumed on his overnight 79 and went on to score 136 in England’s innings of 438. Later in the day, India batted, and by the close of play, were 159-2 with L.Amarnath unbeaten on 102.

Match facts

Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Start time 1000 local (0430 GMT)

Big Picture

“We’re both young teams,” has been the phrase of the tour so far. “Both teams are rebuilding,” captains, players and team directors have said. All of this is another way of saying neither team is particularly good at present. There is a lot of chatter about potential and talent. Less about Test form and recent record.India are further down the transition track, and so appear the more polished outfit. KL Rahul is the least experienced batsman in the top order, but he already has a ton in Australia. Rohit Sharma is an unproven Test no. 3, but he has sent Sri Lanka bowlers into therapy in other formats. Between Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara, there is enough quality in that top order to hurt Sri Lanka, as long as the visitors can overcome their aversion to batting well away from home.After years of seeking a partner for Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sri Lanka’s opening partnership has emerged as one of the hosts’ strengths. Dimuth Karunaratne still plays the snazzy legside flicks, but has recently discovered the offside, and added a few points to his batting IQ. Kaushal Silva hangs on like a limpet, rarely punishing the opposition, but often annoying them.There are the flakier batsmen – Jehan Mubarak and Upul Tharanga are yet to prove they can be Test performers. But offsetting this uncertainty is Angelo Mathews, who after Kumar Sangakkara is becoming Sri Lanka’s sure thing.The attacks are evenly matched, even if Sri Lanka’s pace stocks are again diminished by injury. Dhammika Prasad and Nuwan Pradeep are improving bowlers, and in Rangana Herath and Tharindu Kaushal Sri Lanka have a varied spin threat. They will hope Sri Lanka stay within reach of India for the first three days, before the Galle surface’s cantankerous mood takes hold on days four and five.It isn’t a Galle match without a late batting collapse, and as India appear intent on fielding five bowlers, Sri Lanka will hope to expose the lower middle order. Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri will feel the opposite. The extra bowler in the side will help put pressure right back on the Sri Lanka’s batsmen.

Form guide

(last five matches, most recent first)

Sri Lanka: LWLLL
India: DDDLL

In the spotlight

A day out from the match, Kumar Sangakkara already smiles down from almost as many hoardings as the politicians contesting in the election, in under a week. Fans in Galle will hope he can give the venue he calls his “favourite ground to play in” a final Test to remember. As big scores are rare at the P Sara, the first three days of this Test present his best chance of matching Don Bradman’s double-century record. It remains to be seen if he will be back to his hungriest in this series, after a lower-intensity outing against Pakistan.Virat Kohli had an outstanding tour of Australia, but has been short of runs across formats since the World Cup. Two failures in the practice match won’t have done him much good. The early stages of this Test should present conditions he is more comfortable in, but with all the talk of leading an aggressive team, and trialing new ploys to fit the new philosophy, will the focus on his own run-making persist?

Team news

Dushmantha Chameera has been bowling in the nets, but it appears as if the selectors would prefer to preserve him for the Tests in more seam-friendly conditions in Colombo. Lahiru Thirimanne has a weak grip on his no. 4 position, and could easily be replaced by Upul Tharanga. Tharindu Kaushal will likely play ahead of Dilruwan Perera.Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Kaushal Silva, 2 Dimuth Karunaratne, 3 Kumar Sangakkara, 4 Upul Tharanga, 5 Angelo Mathews (capt.), 6 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 7 Jehan Mubarak, 8 Dhammika Prasad, 9 Tharindu Kaushal, 10 Rangana Herath, 11 Nuwan PradeepM Vijay is out with a hamstring injury, which means Rahul will open alongside Shikhar Dhawan. India will likely prefer the pace of Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav to the skill of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The spin attack will probably comprise R Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh.India (probable): 1 KL Rahul, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Rohit Sharma, 4 Virat Kohli (capt.), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 7 R Ashwin, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Ishant Sharma, 10 Varun Aaron, 11 Umesh Yadav

Pitch and conditions

There have been intermittent rains in the days preceding the match, so expect a stop-start game. Despite the bad weather, however, the pitch seems to be a typical Galle track, which will dry out considerably over the course of the game.

Stats and trivia

• The match will be Angelo Mathews’ 50th Test.
• Once the hosts’ fortress, Sri Lanka have lost two of their last three matches in Galle.
• India have not won a series in Sri Lanka since 1993.
• None of India’s top six have played a Test in Sri Lanka.

Quotes

“In the last eight years of my career, Kumar Sangakkara has helped me personally. He is always willing to help the young guys and whenever you play a bad shot he comes up to us and says that we can play it in a better way. He gives confidence to the youngest and not only for the batsmen – for the bowlers as well. We learnt a lot from him and we are thankful for who he has been for the team on and off the field. He is your go-to man. You can always go to him and get an honest opinion.”
“It’s a great opportunity to create some momentum, knowing it’s a three-match series. Even if it’s an off day, you still have time to re-group and think about what went wrong. If it’s a good day you can learn from it.”

England’s 18-team county system will survive in a revamped 20-over competition if recommendations from an ECB working party are accepted next month – but only if promotion and relegation is the price the counties agree to pay.The proposed rejection of an eight-team franchise, or big city, T20 cricket comes with a recognition that the counties must accept the rigours of two divisions based on merit – rather than the regional system currently adopted – if they are to retain a future at the centre of the English T20 game.The proposals have the pragmatic support of Andrew Strauss, the England team director, who believes they will not only improve the standard of England’s T20 cricket in the build up to the 2019 World Cup but will also prevent England’s domestic T20 competition disappearing into obscurity.A report in the has now confirmed that the long-awaited consultation paper has now been circulated to the counties. County chief executives will be asked to support what is essentially a proposal of minimal disruption to England’s professional game before the decision goes before the Board on March 7. Changes would be introduced from 2017.The working party also rejects the notion, strongly advanced by some of the bigger counties, that those city-based grounds with the biggest capacities should automatically be given First Division status on the grounds that these venues – if full to capacity – provide a better spectacle and a more attractive TV product.Meritocracy – based on the ability to win cricket matches – has for now at least won the day. It has perhaps been a blessing for the smaller counties that football, against the odds, has set an example, as Leicester City’s advance to the top of the Premier League has delighted neutral supporters throughout the country.Modest adjustment these proposals might be, but the ECB hierarchy – led by the chief executive Tom Harrison and chairman Colin Graves – is desperate for even this small mercy to be adopted on the grounds that lucrative global TV rights deal can more easily be secured when viewers can identify with a slowly-changing elite of counties.The IPL’s example, where new franchises appear annually for a variety of reasons, sometimes linked to financial irregularities, suggests that some degree of flux is not an issue. A debate over will nevertheless take place over whether two-up, two-down is preferable, as in the Championship, or whether moves should be made to restrict changes to only one up, one down.The initial contention of the ECB executive, championed by Harrison, was that to maximise revenue English cricket required a new-look tournament based on the Big Bash model and centred around eight city-based teams, so ensuring quality. A working party with a strong county make-up has unsurprisingly rejected the argument that English cricket cannot spread standards across 18 profesisonal clubs..Two divisions based on merit, with more media attention on the First Division, is a potential compromise that has long been signalled. If the solution is adopted, but fails to be a commercial or public success then not too far down the line it is easy to envisage schisms in the English professional game.A new broadcasting deal, after all, is timed for 2020 and negotiations will soon begin in earnest. Those who favour a Big City future are not about to abandon that view.Until 2020 at least, however, the 18 counties remain. They are expected to retain the county name – Warwickshire apart, who already use the Birmingham tag for T20. In theory there would be nothing to prevent all the counties simply playing as the city and town of their home ground. For some, notably Yorkshire, there would be a wish for exemption.In a PCA survey last year, a comfortable majority of professionals – around 65 per cent – believed a tournament with global appeal could simply be achieved within the current county structure by introducing promotion and relegation.The challenge from the players, however – 85% support for a change which has yet to be resolved – was to play that tournament in a block and involve England players as much as possible.A move to an elite collection of city or franchise teams has long been opposed by the counties on the grounds that it would put the entire professional system in England in jeopardy by relegating the 18 counties as second-class citizens, making their gradual demise inevitable.Such an outcome would have a negative effect on the development of players on which all forms of the game depend as well as rendering the investment in many county grounds largely wasted.There is little to suggest that the next generation of cricket lover is irredeemably wedded to the county system, but that they await to be won over by the excitement and sense of occasion they crave in England’s T20 tournament.To reject the recommendations from the working party, chaired by Andy Nash, the Somerset chairman, would leave England’s professional circuit facing an uncertain future that could make it increasingly irrelevant and conceivably bring about its eventual downfall. Tradition is being assaulted from all sides by the commercial argument..Most counties have already assembled their overseas players for the NatWest Blast in 2016 – a challenging task in itself considering the lack of availability for a tournament that stretches over a large portion of the season. Panic buying is therefore unlikely, although some counties – Yorkshire a prime example – still have overseas slots available.Those not yet at full quota have long suspected the possibility that the eight teams reaching this year’s NatWest T20 Blast quarter-final are likely to gain automatic qualification for Division One, with a potential play-off between the fifth-placed teams for the final spot.The loss of local derbies has long been advanced by counties as an argument against two divisions based on merit but this has been rejected by the working party as an essentially defeatist attitude by England’s professional clubs at a time when the rest of the world is revelling in the opportunities offered by the burgeoning interest in T20 cricket.Chelsea do not fret about not playing Fulham. Newcastle and Sunderland, the Manchesters United and City, Aston Villa and Birmingham and many others have long learned to cope at times without each other’s company. If the derby match in cricket is so important perhaps the questions should be addressed about the weak appeal of the other matches.Grumbles that under a new arrangement some counties will concentrate on success in T20 rather than produce Test players for England have also been heard but any shift in priorities is arguably an inevitable consequence of changing times. Twenty20 is an irresistible force even for those who wish to resist it.Fear that some counties will chase T20 glory to the detriment of the longer forms of the game have led some to propose a league table based on results in all competitions – a solution for county cricket’s ills that was first advanced in detail by Matthew Engel in about 30 years ago and which failed to capture the public mood.In any case, there is a simple way to control such an unwanted outcome. If a two-divisional structure in T20 attracts more lucrative TV deals then the desire of some counties to concentrate on T20 could easily be corrected by offering massive increases in prize money for the Championship – and, should it be desired, 50-over cricket as well – to make success comparable to that in T20. All paid out of central funds.As counties already receive additional payments for other factors, such as the number of players produced for England, such control mechanisms would be merely an extension of current policy. The outcome would be that the wealthiest counties would be the ones winning cricket matches.

Arnald Konwar, the Assam offspinner who had signed up for the Indian Cricket League (ICL), has announced his return to the fold of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).”I had signed up for Rs 60 lakh for two years with the ICL hoping to get a chance to play alongside greats like Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath,” Konwar told reporters in Guwahati. “But since they had not joined, I decided to return.”Konwar and five other players from the state had joined the ICL alleging that they were not given a chance by the Assam Cricket Association (ACA) to play at the national level. Konwar claimed that it was not the money that had lured him into the league, but a genuine intention of playing alongside cricketing greats. Both Warne and McGrath have instead signed up for the Indian Premier League (IPL), launched by the BCCI.Konwar alleged that the ICL itinerary was yet to be fixed and even the grounds had not been finalised. “One cannot continue in such uncertainty,” he said.Bikash Baruah, ACA secretary, denied the allegations of the other five players that they were patronised by the body when it came to selection for national-level tournaments. He said they were denied opportunities due to below-par performances.