Mohan de Silva, a former president and secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket, and Jayantha Dharmadasa, the current interim chairman, will both be standing in the forthcoming cricket board elections to be held on July 15. De Silva and Dharmadasa will be competing with Minister Sripathi Sooriarachchi for the highly coveted position of board president.De Silva – closely aligned with former president Thilanga Sumathipala in the past – was proposed for the elections by the Cricket Committee of the Sinhalese Sports Club. The club also proposed Michael de Zoysa and Nuski Mohomed as board secretary and treasurer respectively.De Silva’s likely backing by Sumathipala makes him the clear frontrunner to win the elections. Sumathipala and his allies have won all the elections contested since the 1996 World Cup. Their terms of office have been broken only by periodic Interim Committees appointed by the government.

If England’s injury-jinxed cricketers are feeling a touch gloomy as they finalise their preparations for tomorrow’s second Test at Old Trafford, then perhaps they should cast their minds back by precisely a year. On July 26, 2005, the country was engaged in another prolonged bout of navel-gazing. After a feverish build-up to the Ashes, the first Test at Lord’s had been surrendered with barely a whimper, and the same old story seemed set to be unfurled.Of course, we all know what happened next, which just goes to show that when it seems your fortunes have hit rock-bottom, the only way is up. Even so, it will be hard for England to dredge any optimism from their current slough of despond. Only last week, it seemed the stage was set for Andrew Flintoff to make an emotional comeback on his home ground. Instead, he has joined Michael Vaughan, Ashley Giles and Simon Jones on the operating table, not to mention the Ashes critical list. The fact that Pakistan are equally debilitated by injury will come as little consolation.Predictably, Flintoff’s absence has dominated England’s build-up, with a range of options still being weighed up. At Lord’s, England’s four-man attack failed to make any headway against batsmen of the class of Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mohammad Yousuf, and if that in itself was not enough to convince Duncan Fletcher of the need for a rejig, then the subsequent side strain incurred by Liam Plunkett has forced his hand.Into the breach, therefore, comes Sajid Mahmood – a man who was last seen disappearing to all corners of England during a desperate one-day series against Sri Lanka, but who showed on his Test debut at Lord’s in May that he can generate the sort of pace, skid and movement that unsettles the best. “My parents are from Pakistan, but I’ve told them they’ve got to support England or they won’t get a ticket!” he told reporters at Old Trafford yesterday, as he prepared to provide Lancashire with something to excite the home fans.And that’s what this match should be all about for England now. The confirmation of their worst fears vis a vis Flintoff represent a chance for a new beginning, for new heroes to emerge from the wreckage of their best-laid plans. That is especially true for the captain, Andrew Strauss, a man who seemed desperately compromised by his role as “the stand-in’s stand-in” during his first six assignments of the summer, but who now has the rest of the season and – who knows – maybe even an Ashes Test or two to stamp some of his own personality on the role.”Now I’m looking a bit more long-term and I’m looking to win the series,” Strauss told reporters at Old Trafford. “I’m just approaching it a little differently and it adds a little more stability to the situation. But we’re talking about three games so it’s not a massive change in set-up. I’m settling into the job and I’ll receive a lot of support from Duncan Fletcher and the rest of the management team.”

But will it just be support or something more over-bearing? The impression given at Lord’s was that Strauss’s strings were being pulled by his inscrutable puppet-master on the pavilion balcony. Fletcher’s influence was felt at every critical juncture of that match, not least when England delayed their declaration on the final day. Conservatism has always been Fletcher’s watchword, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing – take the winter of 1999-2000 for instance, when his first role upon joining the England set-up was to teach a shambolic side how not to lose.However, it was confirmed this afternoon that Jamie Dalrymple – an Ashley-Giles-like spinner-cum-batsman – has been released from the squad which suggests Strauss will indeed receive the support he so needs from Fletcher. Had Dalrymple made his debut tomorrow, it would have been safe to assume that another drawn series was Fletcher’s, and England’s, limited ambition.Quite the contrary, though. Panesar, who will now certainly play, has obvious fallibilities with the bat, and in especially the field, which no doubt irk Fletcher considerably; his favoured players are, in general, all multi-faceted. So in releasing Dalrymple, perhaps Fletcher sees Panesar as the main threat to Pakistan’s dominance with the bat. That is, though, rather unlikely that the coach should be so suddenly swayed into believing Monty is a matchwinner; more probable is that he is backing Strauss to the hilt and giving him the players wants.Given Old Trafford’s inclination to turn from day one, Pakistan have been seriously considering a recall for Sussex’s evergreen leggie Mushtaq Ahmed.”We are keeping all our options open since we don’t have a master blaster in our ranks,” said Pakistan’s coach, Bob Woolmer. He was referring to the continued absence of Shoaib Akhtar, but it might as well have been Fletcher talking about Flintoff.Woolmer himself has been on about Flintoff too, warning his team not to take England too lightly as a result of his absence. “It would have given our team a psychological boost to play against a player of his quality,” he claimed. “It is not a positive for us that he is missing.”Pakistan’s openers, Salman Butt and Imran Farhat, might beg to differ, after enduring a torrid enough time against Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison at Lord’s. But for the celebrated middle-order, to which the vice-captain, Younis Khan, is set to return after recovering from a knee injury, that might well be true. Inzamam has nine half-centuries in consecutive innings against English Test attacks; Yousuf has two double-hundreds and a 48 in three innings. It’s all been ridiculously easy pickings for them.Even without Flintoff to put the wind up them, Pakistan still have plenty respect for the remaining England fast bowlers, as demonstrated by Woolmer’s unconventional use of a slab of marble to simulate the steepling bounce that Harmison can extract from a good length. It just goes to show that, for all the suggestions to the contrary in recent weeks, one man doesn’t make a team. In the coming weeks, England have a golden three-Test opportunity to discover the true quality of their reserves, because one day, they really will have to do without Flintoff, full stop.England (probable) 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Andrew Strauss (capt), 3 Alastair Cook, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Ian Bell, 7 Geraint Jones (wk), 8 Matthew Hoggard, 9 Sajid Mahmood, 10 Steve Harmison, 11 Monty Panesar.Pakistan (probable) 1 Salman Butt, 2 Imran Farhat, 3 Younis Khan, 4 Mohammad Yousuf, 5 Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Abdul Razzaq, 7 Kamran Akmal (wk), 8 Shahid Afridi, 9 Mohammad Sami, 10 Umar Gul, 11 Danish Kaneria.

Lancashire’s coach Mike Watkinson has signed a contract extension which will keep him at Old Trafford until the end of the 2009 season. Watkinson who has been with the club since 1982 and captained Lancashire to three trophies in the 1990s is in his fifth season as cricket manager.”There is a fine balance at Lancashire between trying to ensure immediate success and building for the future, that is something we have worked hard and carefully to achieve and this season has seen we are on the right track,” he said. “The Lancashire ECB Academy is well established, we continue to be the best at producing players for England at all levels, and we have a highly competitive squad with a great team spirit. Now we can carry on in the same vein and hopefully reap the rewards over the next few years.””We are delighted that Mike has accepted this opportunity to take the club forward,” said Jim Cumbes, the county’s chief executive. “When he was first appointed, he became our first full time cricket manager with the responsibility of looking at our whole cricketing set up and pulling it together. We believe that he has done a great job.”

Ricky Ponting, the Australia batsman and captain was tonight named Test Player of the Year at the ICC Awards in Mumbai.Ponting, 31, topped the poll ahead of his team-mate Michael Hussey – who earlier was named ODI Player of the Year – Pakistan’s Mohammad Yousuf, Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka and Australia’s Shane Warne. During the voting period between August 1 2005 and August 8 2006, Ponting scored 1791 runs at an average of 68.88. And during a remarkable few weeks he scored hundreds in both innings of a Test in three different games: against the West Indies at Brisbane and against South Africa in Sydney and Durban.”On behalf of the ICC, I would like to congratulate Ricky on winning this award, which recognises his prolific year,” Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive said. “The fact this award was voted for by Ricky’s peers and many vastly experienced former players and observers of the game shows the high regard in which he is held by the cricketing world and he is a worthy winner.”Earlier in the evening, Ponting was been named in both the ODI and Test teams of the Year, as chosen by the five-man panel consisting of Sunil Gavaskar, Arjuna Ranatunga, Waqar Younis, Allan Donald and Ian Healy.Previous winners of the award were Jacques Kallis in 2005 and Rahul Dravid in 2005.

Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif have been acquitted by the tribunal appointed to review their appeals against the drugs ban imposed on them by an earlier committee. The three-man committee, headed by Justice Fakhruddin Ebrahim, voted two to one in favour of the acquittal. Haseeb Ahsan, former Test cricketer, and Ebrahim were in favour of the acquittal while the third member, Danish Zaheer, dissented.”This appeal committee holds that Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif will not be deemed to have committed a doping offence,” Ibrahim told reporters in Karachi. “The ban and punishment imposed by the earlier tribunal is hereby set aside as being contrary to the provision of laws.”A 30-page plus judgement (to read the full text of the judgement click here) for released by the committee detailed the reasons for their decision and though they are extensive, one significant theme that emerges from it is problems with the workings of the previous committee.In particular, concern has been raised over the fact that while the original body was constituted to work within the guidelines of the PCB’s anti-doping policy, the punishment it decreed – and the benchmarks it derived them from – were based on the ICC’s anti-doping regulations.The ruling concludes that both players were able to prove ‘exceptional circumstances’, in that neither was fully aware of the substances they were taking. Crucially, it points out that ‘exceptional circumstances’, as defined by the PCB and the ICC were signficantly different and that while the previous committee used ICC’s definition of the term, it was bound to use the PCB’s.The role of the PCB in ensuring their players were not only fully aware of banned substances but also understood the literature that they had been provided has also been highlighted in the report. “It is plainly evident that neither Shoaib Akhtar nor Mohammad Asif were ever warned or cautioned against taking supplements,” the judgement reads.”Hence, this committee is of the considered view that both players have successfully established that they held an honest and reasonable belief that the supplements ingested by them did not contain any prohibited substances.”The report also includes an 11-page note of dissent from Zaheer, the third member of the committee. He points out flaws in the testing procedures carried out by the PCB and argues, on that basis, that the whole process should be repeated, new samples provided and fresh verdicts given.Bilal Minto, one of the lawyers representing Shoaib, told Cricinfo that the decision was a good one, but highlighted that the PCB had also let down the players. “We are very happy about the judgement obviously. But it is clear that the PCB’s level of educating players about anti-doping legislation is poor. As lawyers, even we struggled to make sense of their anti-doping regulations so expecting players to be able to understand it is not right.”Shoaib, banned for two years, and Asif, for one year, appealed after they were found guilty for testing positive for the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone in dope tests that were internally conducted by the PCB at the end of September.

The ICC did not have any immediate reaction. “Malcolm Speed is currently in Uganda and we can’t comment on the issue unless we have all the details,” said Brian Murgatroyd, the ICC spokesman. “We need to go through the judgement and also get the PCB’s version before making any comment.”The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), in charge of monitoring drugs in sport, said they needed to discuss the matter with the ICC. Frederic Donze, their media relations officer, told Cricinfo: “We will now review the reasons for the decision, liaise with the ICC and consider whether to exercise its right of appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.”The original tribunal which had imposed the ban was chaired by barrister Shahid Hamid and included Intikhab Alam, the former Pakistan captain, and Waqar Ahmed, a doping expert.

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Nilesh Kulkarni’s match haul of ten wickets enabled Mumbai to storm to their first win of the season, steamrolling Gujarat by an innings and 163 runs at the Wankhede Stadium. Kulkarni snared 10 of the Gujarat 15 wickets to fall today, and along with offspinner Ramesh Powar who snapped up five in the second innings, gave Gujarat no chance. Gujarat, who were felled for 147 in the first innings, didn’t do much better in the second, rolling over for 193. Azharuddin Bilakhia stood out with a steady 88, including 11 fours, but Kulkarni and Powar shared nine wickets between them to seal the contest.
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Suresh Raina rediscovered his form with an excellent 124 at Chennai, enabling Uttar Pradesh to gain the first-innings lead against Tamil Nadu. Raina struck 20 fours in his 230-ball knock, one that spanned two minutes less than five-and-a-half hours, and received good support from Ali Murtaza in a 165-run stand. Ravichandran Ashwin was he lone bowling star for Tamil Nadu, toiling hard for 44.3 overs for his six wickets. Tamil Nadu replied with 63 for no loss at the end of the day with Anirudha Srikkanth finishing on a 67-ball 48.
A couple of half-centuries from ASK Varma and Prasad Reddy steered Andhra towards a big win on the third day at Anantpur. Varma followed up his first-innings century with a gritty 81, including nine fours and two sixes, while Reddy continued the good form he’s shown all season with a crucial 52. Syed Sahabuddin’s breezy 46 added to Karnataka’s misery, stretching the lead to beyond 400. Karnataka began their reply in sloppy fashion, losing two wickets for 35 before stumps.
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The Vadodara clash was poised on a knife edge at the end of the third day, with Baroda needing 84 more runs with five wickets in hand. Chasing 213, Baroda got off to a confident start with Connor Williams and Satyajit Parab adding 74 for the opening partnership but a glut of wickets changed the complexion of the contest. Amit Mishra, the legspinner, led Haryana’s fightback with 4 for 45 in 20 overs and set up an exciting finish. Earlier, Joginder Sharma, with a stroke-filled 65-ball 54, boosted Haryana to 210 in their second innings.
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Sourashish Lahiri led a solid middle-order performance as Bengal gained the upper hand against Maharashtra at Kolkata. Resuming on 199 for 5, Bengal extended their total to 325 thanks to Lahiri’s 54, including seven fours. Deep Dasgupta and Rohan Gavaskar chipped in with 49 and 38 respectively as Bengal gained a handy 110-run lead. Maharashtra replied in confident fashion, ending on 78 for 1 before the day was out.
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Pankaj Dharmani’s fantastic 151, along with Uday Kaul’s painstaking 71, rescued Punjab from dire straits at Jaipur. Punjab were reeling at 61 for 4, chasing Rajasthan’s healthy 332, but Dharmani stitched together a vital 51-run stand with Vipul Sharma before seizing the initiative with Kaul. Dharmani, a master of batting with the tail, cracked 16 fours in his unbeaten knock, while Kaul was the more patient partner, consuming 240 deliveries for his 70. Both were undefeated at the end of the day with the Rajasthan’s lead whittled down to just 21.
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Delhi were facing the humiliating prospect of an innings defeat, after being forced to follow-on, on the third day against Saurashtra at Rajkot. Resuming on 84 for 4 in their first innings, Delhi rode on half-centuries from Shikhar Dhawan and Rajat Bhatia apart from a 74-ball 43 from Ashish Nehra. But no-one went on to a big score, with four batsmen falling to the left-arm spin of Rakesh Dhruv, as Delhi failed to avoid the follow-on. They were in further trouble in the second innings, ending on a precarious 84 for 4 at stumps.

Pakistan have left out Shoaib Akhtar from their 17-man squad for the upcoming series against South Africa, although the door remains open for the fast bowler to return for the ODI matches later in the tour. Mohammad Asif, who along with Shoaib only recently returned to full-time cricket following the overturning of a drugs ban, has been included in the squad.Iqbal Qasim, a member of the selection committee, told Cricinfo, “Shoaib has been left out because we felt his full match fitness hasn’t yet returned after the break he has had from the game.” There had been considerable speculation in the run-up to today’s announcement that Shoaib would miss out, selectors and team management apparently not happy with his fitness levels.But Qasim said the door remains open for a call-up as the series progresses. “For longer matches, we think the fitness isn’t ready yet. But there will be first-class matches in Pakistan that he can play in and work back towards maximum fitness and hopefully make it in time for the ODIs.”Inzamam-ul-Haq, Pakistan captain, told Bigstarcricket.com, “It was a shame Shoaib (Akhtar) couldn’t make it but he hasn’t played any cricket for three months and even before that he only played a few one-day matches in England, when he had waited about nine months to play cricket after injuries. So he will get his chance now to play some first-class cricket in Pakistan and hopefully he will prove himself and be ready to join us for the one-day series.”Mohammed Asif has been bowling really well in practice and I’m pleased to have him back with us. Our bowling attack is stronger for having him back. He’s a clever bowler and everybody will want him to play in the Test series, though there is plenty of competition for places.”Shabbir Ahmed, who has only recently returned from an ICC-imposed ban for a suspect action, was also not selected. “He has only just returned to cricket and we have pace bowlers like Gul and Nazir who have done really well recently for us, so there wasn’t really any place for him right now. He will play more first-class matches and we’ll take it from there,” said Qasim.Mohammad Sami emerges as the winner from the travails of Shoaib and Shabbir, but it is the return of Asif that really gives the bowling its sting. Qasim said, “Even now, I think our bowling is stronger than India’s pace attack and they have done really well in South Africa. So I think the bowlers we have selected should do well there.”The other selection of note is that of Zulqernain Haider, the 20-year-old from Lahore, as reserve wicketkeeper behind Kamran Akmal. Akmal’s form behind the stumps and with the bat has been poor for much of the year and the idea of taking a reserve had been publicly mooted on several occasions, including once by Bob Woolmer.”We’ve picked Zulqarnain as cover for Akmal,” said Qasim. He is still our first-choice but just to ease a little pressure off of him and also in case he picks up an injury, we felt we should have some cover. This is an important season beginning now, with the World Cup, and we want to make sure our best players are available for that.”

Haider was wicketkeeper in the Pakistan U-19 team that won the World Cup in Dhaka in 2004 and has appeared for the Pakistan ‘A’ and Academy sides a number of times since. He has been in the national squad before, picked for the 2004 home series against Sri Lanka, as understudy to Moin Khan. Incidentally, in the second Test of that series, Akmal was chosen ahead of Haider as replacement for Moin, since when he has established himself as the number one choice.With Abdul Razzaq injured and Shahid Afridi out of form, the number six spot becomes the domain once again of a specialist batsman, as opposed to all-rounders. Faisal Iqbal will be in contention, but so too will Asim Kamal, the doughty left-hander, who is back, ready to tour the country against whom he made such an impressive Test debut in 2003. “As a left-hander, in the middle order, he provides us some variety as well as stability.”Overall, I think this is the most balanced squad we could have picked. These guys, if they play to their potential, can do well in South Africa,” Qasim said.Squad for South Africa: Mohammad Hafeez, Imran Farhat, Yasir Hameed, Shoaib Malik, Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Asim Kamal, Faisal Iqbal, Kamran Akmal (wk), Zulqernain Haider (wk), Shahid Nazir, Umar Gul, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Sami, Danish Kaneria, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan.

James Hopes, the Australian allrounder, is set to be forced out of his Derbyshire contract with a shoulder injury. He is currently playing with the aid of injections and is still aiming for the World Cup before taking a break from the game.Hopes, who has nine one-day internationals under his belt, was recalled by Australia for the Twenty20 International against England following the withdrawals of Mitchell Johnson and Brett Lee. However, he didn’t make the final XI in Australia’s 77-run win.He said missing his first season of county cricket is a major blow. “I know it leaves the club in a difficult position but there is just no way I’ll be able to play,” he told the club website. “I have always wanted to play county cricket and was delighted at the prospect of linking up with Derbyshire this season. I am waiting for final confirmation from the medics with both Queensland and Cricket Australia later this week but it’s not looking good.”Tom Sears, the Derbyshire chief executive, added: “This is obviously a massive blow as James is an outstanding all round player who will be very hard to replace. We are in the position where we have the financial resource to look at the best possible alternative and Dave Houghton [the director of cricket] has drawn up a list of potential replacements.”There are very few genuine allrounders of James’s ability available so it may be that we look at a specialist.”

Thirush Kamini is a commerce student at the Church Park school near Thousand Lights mosque in Chennai. She is a good student, a very good one, she avers, and has no problem coping with the pressure of balancing studies with, get this, playing international cricket.Part of India’s squad for the quadrangular tournament, Kamini, 16, is a legbreak bowler who debuted for India at the Asia Cup last December and won the player-of-the-tournament award for her eight wickets at 10.87 apiece. She has certainly got the support of her captain, Mithali Raj, who was sure that in Kamini India had a star-in-the-making.At nets, on the eve of India’s opening match against England, she bowled with a round-arm action and tried to the flight the ball pitching it right up to the crease. She had tripped over a practice ball the day before but, typically, dismissed it as nothing serious. Kamini began playing cricket with her father when she was nine years old but soon moved to the Sports and Development Authority of Tamil Nadu for some professional coaching. Playing with boys, for a while, she kept wickets. But by 2002, Kamini had decided that leg spin was the way to go. Though Shane Warne does not feature among her cricketing heroes – she likes Sachin Tendulkar and Karen Rolton – she will hope to get some of his magic when she comes in to bowl at Charlotte Edwards, Claire Taylor, Ebony-Rainford Brent and the other England batsmen.India’s net session went on for three hours with all members of the squad going through the batting and fielding drills before heading off to the swimming pool. England, on the other hand, had a light session late afternoon resting five players from the squad. Edwards, the England captain, said that the side had had two rigorous matches against India A and India B in the last two days so the nets session had been optional. A dilemma that the captain is facing is who should keep wickets in the game against India. Along with Jane Smit, the regular keeper, England have brought Sarah Taylor, a 17-year old wicketkeeper, who has averaged 50.50 in the five matches she has played for England.Asked which team will be the toughest opposition, Edwards said that India, being at home, and Australia, in their current form, are the favourites. “Women’s cricket is really looking good today. All the top four teams are very strong and on a day each can beat the other.”Australia play New Zealand on February 21 at the ITT Chemplast stadium while India take on England at Chepauk.

Graeme Smith, the South Africa captain, says his side will come out with all guns blazing against Scotland on Tuesday and he is well aware of the capabilities of the tournament’s underdogs. Bangladesh and Ireland bagged upset wins on Saturday, beating India and Pakistan respectively, and South Africa struggled in the warm-up stage against Ireland.However, Smith’s side had an easy outing in their first match of the tournament against the minnows The Netherlands, trouncing them by 221 runs in St Kitts, but their biggest test will come when they meet Australia on Saturday. “We are focused on our match against Scotland, because this is the match to play for now,” Smith told AFP.”After what happened in Trinidad [during the warm-up stage] we arrived in St Kitts and since then have had better preparation. The batsmen have had good workouts and the bowlers bowled a few so I am happy with the preparations.”Against The Netherlands the batsmen took the opportunity to collect some records, with Herschelle Gibbs slamming six sixes off an over and Mark Boucher smashing the fastest World Cup fifty off 21 balls. In the middle of it all Jacques Kallis helped himself to an unbeaten 128. The only player to miss out was AB de Villiers, who was dismissed second ball.”He [de Villiers] had a good series against Pakistan back home and there is no doubt in my mind that he is a good player and will be among runs soon,” Smith said. “We know Scotland are a slightly better side so we need to improve. We have analysed some video footage of them.”Peter Drinnen, the Scotland coach, said his team was looking forward to the challenge of playing the best side in the world. Scotland were overwhelmed by 203 runs against Australia in their first match and are hoping for improvement.”We are excited by the challenge and both Australia and South Africa in our group provide us with two real challenges,” Drinnen said. “South Africa have been playing tough cricket for the last year. But we have to think about what we are doing and we need to pose a stronger challenge than we did against Australia.”