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Organisers of the Bank Alfalah Cup have decided to play all the remainingmatches of tournament at Dambulla after heavy monsoon rain in Colombo.The last four games were scheduled to be played in Colombo, but prospects ofplay were remote considering the current cyclonic weather pattern.The dates of the matches have been changed as well, with the fourth, fifthand sixth games to be played on May 18, 19 and 20. The final, which was tohave been played under lights, will now be a day match.May 18 ­ Sri Lanka v Pakistan
May 19 ­ New Zealand v Sri Lanka
May 20 ­ Pakistan v New Zealand
May 23 ­ The final

New Zealand Cricket will be $US 500,000 better off after some of the money withheld by the International Cricket Council pending a claim by Global Cricket Corporation was made available today.The welcome news came from the meeting in Monaco yesterday of the ICC’s commercial arm.New Zealand orginally had $US 2.5 million withheld from its tournament payout for not playing their pool game in Kenya due to security fears.England, who refused to play in Zimbabwe had $US 3.5 million withheld and it will get $US 1.5 million back.Sri Lanka which had half a million United States dollars withheld will get all its money back.The return of cash followed an assessment and what the ICC called “an informed judgment” that the maximum claims against the three countries would not exceed the amounts withheld.India was in a different position, however, and no monies were returned to it.The ICC president, Ehsan Mani, said the specific nature of the issues relating to England, New Zealand and Sri Lanka allowed this decision to be made.”The nature of the claims allowed us to return money to three of our Boards,” he said.”In relation to the Indian Board, it is not possible at this stage to assess the likely maximum claims and all countries made the prudent financial decision to continue to withhold the Indian Board’s World Cup distribution at this stage.”

Bangladesh were given another taste of the harsh realities of playing cricket in Australia when the Commonwealth Bank Academy side provided a lesson in batting concentration at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane today. Playing their second match of their Australian tour, the Bangladeshis ended the first day of three, in this unofficial game, trailing by 205 runs with nine wickets in hand, after the home side declared at 258 for 3.A fine third-wicket stand between opener Matthew Innes and Rhett Lockyear restored the position in full for the Academy side, while demonstrating the virtue of application to the tourists. They batted for 195 minutes and added 180 runs in just over 53 overs. Innes, from Victoria, was especially in control and batted throughout the innings for his 128, scored offf 200 balls, in 293 minutes. Lockyear, from New South Wales,scored 90 before he was stumped by Khaled Mashud off Mohammad Rafique.The Australians capitalised on their decision to bat first. There was some early excitement as Scott Meuleman was bowled by Mashrafe Mortaza off the second ball of the second over.Aaron Nye attempted to dig in but fell to a catch by Khaled Mashud for 10 and the home team were 20 for 2. But Innes and Lockyear settled,and while none of the bowlers were really taken to, their accumulation kept a good momentum going throughout the innings. Innes’ half-century came off 107 balls and Lockyear’s off 123.Once Lockyear departed Callum Ferguson joined Innes and they added 58 in 46 minutes before the declaration was made.Bangladesh opener Hannan Sarker battled for 36 minutes before he was trapped leg-before by Chris Duval. However, Javed Omar and Habibul Bashar made a good recovery and took Bangladesh to stumps at 53 for 1 off 19 overs. Omar was 32 not out and Bashar on 13.

Significant changes to the International Cricket Council’s one-day international rankings list have occurred as the first year of results in the original calculation drop out.The refreshed table is based on the results of the last two years. Matches played in the last 12 months have a higher weighting in the calculation. They are worth two-thirds and the previous year has a one-third value, with matches played in the next year worth full value. An annual refresh of the table will be done on July 31.The new order is:

New Old Rating RankRating Rating Change Change1 Australia 134 132 +2 -2 South Africa 118 120 -2 -3 England 107 103 +4 up 44 West Indies 106 103 +3 up 25 New Zealand 106 101 +5 up 36 Sri Lanka 105 106 -1 down 27 Pakistan 105 108 -3 down 48 India 104 104 0 down 39 Zimbabwe 63 66 -3 -10 Kenya 28 28 0 -11 Bangladesh 3 4 -1 –

New Zealand has enjoyed the biggest jump, in terms of rating points, moving from eighth to fifth place, while England has leapt four places to No 3 and the West Indies have increased three places from seventh to fourth.The reasons for the marked change, and the way the system works this sort of upheaval could occur each year, are because the teams that have improved, have had bad seasons drop off their calculations. England lost a season in which it had two wins from 14 games, New Zealand lost a year in which they had 12 wins in 35 completed games, and the West Indies dropped a year in which they won only eight games of 23.The opportunity for fluctuation is high, and probably reflects the competitiveness of the teams concerned. Only three points separate third-placed England and eighth-placed India.It is so close that if a team like India won two or three games in a row against a top-ranked team like Australia or South Africa, they could almost immediately leap to third place. England had such a leap in its performance by beating South Africa three times out of four in their recent NatWest Series.The method of separating teams with equal ratings has also changed as the system has evolved. Previously the team with most matches got the higher rating, but now the rating is extended to three decimal places to resolve the issue. England, the West Indies and New Zealand are separated by only 0.826 rating points, and the West Indies and New Zealand by 0.174.The actual ratings for the three are: England 106.783, West Indies 106.130 and New Zealand 105.957.The change has also highlighted Australia’s increased dominance as the gap between it and second-placed South Africa has now extended from 12 to 16 points. Such has been world champion Australia’s dominance of the one-day game that it is going to have to suffer a massive turnaround in form to lose its hold on first place. Its last 12 months has been its most successful period to date, so that season will not fall out of calculations for another two years.Pakistan and Zimbabwe both paid the price for having good seasons drop off the calculation scale. Pakistan has had a poor last 12 months while Zimbabwe has suffered a more gradual decline over the last three years.ODI playing record in the new period of calculation (August 2001-July 2003):

P W L T NR %Australia 52 38 12 1 1 75.5%South Africa 64 40 21 2 1 65.1%England 47 23 22 – 2 51.1%West Indies 46 23 20 – 3 53.5%New Zealand 49 22 26 – 1 45.8%Sri Lanka 67 33 31 1 2 51.5%Pakistan 58 33 23 – 2 58.9%India 64 36 24 – 4 60.0%Zimbabwe 50 11 36 – 3 23.4%Kenya 29 4 24 – 1 14.3%Bangladesh 26 – 24 – 2 0.0%

These results can be broken down by each weighting period. Matches played in the last 12 months (Period Two) were formerly taken at face value, but are now dampened down to a weighting of two-thirds. Matches played in the 12 months prior to this (Period One) now carry a weighting of one-third.Period Two results (August 2002-July 2003):

P W L T NR %Australia 34 28 5 – 1 84.8%South Africa 37 24 11 1 1 68.1%England 24 10 13 – 1 43.5%West Indies 27 13 12 – 2 52.0%New Zealand 21 13 8 – – 61.9%Sri Lanka 44 21 20 1 2 51.2%Pakistan 36 16 18 – 2 47.1%India 33 18 12 – 3 60.0%Zimbabwe 26 5 18 – 3 21.7%Kenya 20 3 16 – 1 15.8%Bangladesh 20 – 18 – 2 0.0%

Period One results (August 2001-July 2002):

P W L T NR %Australia 18 10 7 1 – 58.3%South Africa 27 16 10 1 – 61.1%England 23 13 9 – 1 59.1%West Indies 19 10 8 – 1 55.6%New Zealand 28 9 18 – 1 33.3%Sri Lanka 23 12 11 – – 52.2%Pakistan 22 17 5 – – 77.3%India 31 18 12 – 1 60.0%Zimbabwe 24 6 18 – – 25.0%Kenya 9 1 8 – – 11.1%Bangladesh 6 – 6 – – 0.0%

Results removed from calculations (August 2000-July 2001):

P W L T NR %Australia 25 19 5 1 – 78.0%South Africa 27 19 6 1 1 75.0%England 14 2 12 – – 14.3%West Indies 23 8 15 – – 34.8%New Zealand 36 12 23 – 1 34.3%Sri Lanka 31 20 11 – – 64.5%Pakistan 24 15 9 – – 62.5%India 28 16 12 – – 57.1%Zimbabwe 31 9 22 – – 29.0%Kenya 1 – 1 – – 0.0%Bangladesh 4 – 4 – – 0.0%

Day 2 ReportFrizzell County Championship Division OneSussex 429 v Surrey 212 for 6 at Hove
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Sussex tightened their control over Surrey in this intriguing tussle of the top two. Sussex resumed play on 362 for 4 and Jimmy Ormond made immediate inroads in to their batting with the three quick wickets of Chris Adams, who went for his overnight 107, along with Matt Prior and Mark Davis, both out for ducks. However, Robin Martin-Jenkins (40) and Mushtaq Ahmed (26) added a valuable 48 for the eighth wicket and Sussex made it to a healthy 429. Martin-Jenkins (2 for 42) and Mushtaq (2 for 79) then went on to shine with the ball to reduce Surrey to an awkward 126 for 6. But Mark Ramprakash held firm with a stubborn 74 not out, and added an unbroken stand of 86 with Martin Bicknell (42 not out) to keep Surrey on course to the follow-on target of 279.Kent 189 and 284 v Essex 183 and 24 for 1 at Canterbury
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David Fulton played a captain’s innings just when it was needed to give Kent the upper hand over Essex at the St Lawrence Ground. After Mark Ealham (5 for 26) had wrapped up Essex’s first innings with a lead of only six for Kent, Fulton carried his bat with an unbeaten 94 to set Essex 291 to win. Michael Carberry (36) and Ed Smith, who only made 32 this time, chipped in with contributions, as well as Geraint Jones, who hit a quick 31 before James Middlebrook (4 for 78) polished off the Kent tail for 284. In their chase, Essex lost one wicket before the close when Will Jefferson was caught off Muttiah Muralitharan – his first Championship wicket – to set up an exciting finish tomorrow with Essex needing 266 with nine wickets remaining.Leicestershire 259 v Lancashire 332 for 4 at Leicester
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Stuart Law continued his excellent form with an unbeaten 150 – his fourth century of the season – and with the help of their other overseas player, Carl Hooper, Lancashire averted a potentially sticky situation to end the day in command with a 73-run lead over Leicestershire at Grace Road. After nightwatchman Gary Keedy was out early on, Lancashire were dangling on 44 for 3, but Mal Loye steadied things with 45 and shared a 93-run stand with Law. The rest of the day then belonged to Law and Hooper, who both toyed with the Leicestershire attack. Law cracked 20 fours and two sixes in his innings, and Hooper smashed three sixes in his 88 not out. Philip DeFreitas (3 for 51) took both of the wickets to fall, but his old England team-mate Devon Malcolm failed to recapture his international days as he ended with 1 for 57.Nottinghamshire 254 v Middlesex 198 for 6 at Nottingham
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Stuart MacGill shook off his jet lag to check Middlesex’s progress with four wickets as they ended the day on 196 for 6, and 56 runs behind Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge. After Notts were all out for 254 early in the day, Andy Strauss (29) and Sven Koenig put on 54 for the first wicket, and Koenig went on to make a solid 75 before he was lbw to MacGill, who only touched down from Australia on Wednesday. Owais Shah (13), Ben Hutton (16) and Paul Weekes were MacGill’s other victims, while Ed Joyce kept up Middlesex’s momentum with 36 before he was caught behind by wicketkeeper Chris Read off Chris Cairns (1 for 33) to keep the match in the balance.Frizzell County Championship Division TwoGloucestershire 201 for 6 v Yorkshire at Cheltenham
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Steve Kirby picked up two wickets in four balls to keep the pressure on Gloucestershire at Cheltenham, but rain once interrupted on a frustrating day. Gloucestershire, 33 for 2 overnight, had reached a healthy 153 for 3 thanks to 73 from Matt Windows and 35 from Tim Hancock. But Kirby removed Windows and Shoaib Malik in a single over, although there was some controversy, as Shoaib did not believe his slip catch (to Stephen Fleming) had carried. It was left to Alex Gidman to keep the innings on track. He eventually fell to Vic Craven for 43, but Jack Russell and Ian Fisher prevented any other mishaps.Durham 345 v Somerset 83 for 4 at Chester-le-Street
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Nicky Peng’s first championship half-century for two years gave Durham something to cheer, as they put a poor first day behind them by taking control against Somerset. Aided by some resourceful batting from the tail, Durham’s last five wickets added 181 runs, and by the close Somerset had lost four big wickets. Only Michael Burns, unbeaten on 25, was offering much resistance, with Vince Wells returning the remarkable figures of 2 for 7 in six overs.Day 1Hampshire 278 v Northamptonshire 76 for 0 at The Rose Bowl
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Simon Katich scored a superb 117 – his third century of the season – to dominate Hampshire’s first innings at the Rose Bowl, but by the close Tim Roberts and Mike Hussey had replied with an ominous opening stand of 76 to leave Northants well placed. Katich cracked 20 fours in his innings, and was head and shoulders above every other Hampshire batsman on display – the next highest score was James Adams’ 32. His only real support came from Dmitri Mascarenhas (31), with whom he added 61 for the sixth wicket, and it required a stunning catch to dismiss him – a one-handed diving effort by Mark Powell at short cover. But by the close, Roberts had raced to 56 not out from 41 balls, including 16 from James Bruce’s only overWorcestershire 237 v Glamorgan 0 for 2 at Worcester
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Nantie Hayward emulated the success of his former South African team-mates, by taking two wickets in his only over of the day, to leave Glamorgan reeling at 0 for 2 at stumps on the first day at New Road. Hayward’s over was the final act in an decent revival from Worcestershire, who had themselves been in all sorts of bother at 65 for 5. But a sixth-wicket stand of 101 between David Leatherdale and Gareth Batty, who each made fifties, set them towards a competitive total of 237, which was supplemented by a run-a-ball 38 from Kabir Ali. David Harrison and Alex Wharf each took four wickets for Glamorgan, but Hayward’s riposte made for an interesting second day.

The disappearance of five members of an Indian women’s cricket team, currently on a tour of England, may have been pre-arranged by their families, according to the team coach, Ravi Sharma.The women, who are on three-week visas, went missing from their accommodation in Hounslow eight days ago and have failed to re-establish contact. “This is a bitter experience for me,” Mr Sharma, 52, told London’s Evening Standard. “I have been ringing the players’ families in India to tell them that I’ve had to contact the police and they have asked me not to get the authorities involved.””They started shouting at me. I believe the parents were involved and this is all part of an organised scheme for the players to stay in Britain for good. I think they are all part of this plan which we had no idea about until the girls vanished.”Police have confirmed the names of those missing as Mandeep Virk, 19, Baljeet Kaur, 22, Parvesh Rani, 25, Ekta Andotra, 21, and Rajwant Kaur, 24. It is believed the players may have been in contact with a “middle man” in England who arranged for them to sneak out of their rented accommodation last week.The team captain, Renu Margreate, pleaded with the missing girls to make their whereabouts known. “We are very, very worried for you,” she said. “You are spoiling it for the rest of us; you are going to ruin our futures if you don’t come back.””The five girls that are missing were particularly passionate about England,” added their team-mate, Rashemi Sharma. “But we had absolutely no idea they had planned anything. They simply walked out of the house last week saying they were going to stay at another house nearby. We only realised afterwards that they had thrown their bags out of the windows.””I’ve never had trouble like this with players before,” confirmed Mr Sharma. “We are deeply distraught. The girls now think their futures in cricket are ruined. The five who have gone have wrecked it for all of us. Now it all makes sense when I think about how they used to talk with very strong feelings about coming to play cricket in England. Now I realise it was not just cricket they were interested in.”

New Zealand will be represented at the Hong Kong Sixes this year, and a strong team has been named. For those players on the fringe of selection for the tour of India and Pakistan, it gives them an early taste of the international scene, albeit in a restricted form of the game.Andre Adams, one of the surprise omissions from the one-day team for the tour, is included while Matthew Horne, the discarded opening batsman, will open the innings. Another player included is Aaron Barnes, who at the end of last season said he was severing his ties with New Zealand cricket to live in England. However, he decided to return after a successful season of league cricket. He has experience in the shorter versions of the game for New Zealand having earlier been a member of the New Zealand Super Max international side.Chris Nevin, who was dropped from the opening batting position for the tour, has also been included. Well-performed domestic players Matthew Walker, from Wellington, and Joseph Yovich from Northern Districts have also been included. The team leaves New Zealand on October 30 and returns on November 4.The team is: Matthew Horne (captain-Auckland), Tama Canning (Auckland). Andre Adams (Auckland), Aaron Barnes (Auckland), Chris Nevin (Wellington), Matthew Walker (Wellington), Joseph Yovich (Northern Districts).

Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lanka’s offspinner and leading wicket-taker, revealed that he regarded Brain Lara as the world’s best batsman at the moment, despite Matthew Hayden topping this week’s PriceWaterhouse Coopers ratings.Muralitharan, who has 459 Test wickets, said Lara was the “most dangerous left-hand batsman I have ever bowled to in my career”, even though Hayden has been piling on the runs for the last couple of years. Murali added: “Hayden is a very good batsman, no doubt about that, for anyone who scores 380 has to be brilliant, but Lara is more classy any day.”However Steve Waugh, the Australian captain, disagreed and compared Hayden’s form to that of Sir Donald Bradman after his record-breaking innings of 380 against Zimbabwe at Perth.Muralitharan is currently ranked second to Shaun Pollock on the weekly Test-bowling ratings. Pollock is no stranger to the top spot, with this recent promotion to No. 1 being largely due to his consistent performances in Pakistan which included a six-wicket haul in the second Test at Faisalabad.Hayden, Lara and Ricky Ponting made up the top three batsmen while Michael Vaughan climbed back into the top ten after his unbeaten 81 which helped England defeat Bangladesh in the first Test at Dhaka last week.

Mumbai v Baroda Mumbai 278 for 6 (Kambli 108*, Morris 51*) lead Baroda 213 all out (Mongia 74, Salvi 5-42) by 65 runs
Vinod Kambli (108 not out) scripted a memorable rescue act as Mumbai overcame some jittery moments to finish the second day 65 runs ahead of Baroda at the Wankhede stadium. At 142 for 6 Mumbai were in serious strife, but Robin Morris and Kambli added an priceless 136 runs together to wrest back the initiative. Vinayak Mane(50) was also among the runs with an elegant half-century. Shekar Joshi derailed the innings with three wickets as all the batsmen fell to irresponsible shots. But just when the scene looked bleak, Kambli stood up to be counted.
ScorecardUttar Pradesh v Delhi Delhi 478 (Gambhir 147, Oberoi 80, Gupta 5-143) lead Uttar Pradesh 19 for 0 by 459 runs
Slow left-arm spinner Praveen Gupta bowled a marathon spell to finish with a five-wicket haul, but Delhi finished the first innings on an imposing 478 at Kanpur. The much-hyped return of Ajay Jadeja had an abrupt end as he was bowled by Gynandra Pandey for just 13. After suffering a batting mauling yesterday, Pradeshhad done a great job to reduce Delhi to 416 for 8, but a fine 51 by Sarandeep Singh ensured that the visitors finished the second day on a high note.
ScorecardGujarat v Hyderabad Hyderabad 27 for 1 and 245 (Lalit Patel 5-58) lead Gujarat 119 (NP Singh 6-33) by 153 runs
After bowling Hyderabad out for 245 and sitting pretty at 113 for 3, Gujarat were tightening their grip on the match. That was when Narender Pal Singh decided to take matters into his own hands and along with Venkatapathy Raju triggered a batting fiasco. The last seven Gujarat batsmen made a grand total of 11 runs as the home team were reduced to their knees and effectively shut out of the contest. L. Pawar (40) top scored for Gujarat, an innings that may well be forgotten in the face of Singh’s six wicket effort.
ScorecardKerala v Punjab Punjab 541 for 7 (Mongia 151, Ricky 125)
Punjab continued to flog the hapless Kerala attack as they piled on 541 at the end of the second day at Palakkad. The highlights of the day were solid half centuries by Chandan Madan (67) and Reetinder Singh Sodhi (57*). Dinesh Mongia and Ravneet Ricky had stroked fine centuries yesterday and set up a perfect launching pad for the middle-order. Sreekumar Nair manfully toiled all day and was the most successful bowler with three wickets in the innings. The last session was washed out due to rain and Kerala were given some respite by the forces of nature.
ScorecardRajasthan v Bengal Rajasthan 32 for 1 and 205 for 6 (Khoda 86, Paul 6-68) lead Bengal 118 (Sharma 6-18) by 119 runs
Sanjeev Sharma demolished Bengal with a six-wicket haul and Rajasthan held all the aces at the end of the second day’s play at Jaipur. Shib Shankar Paul cleaned up the Rajasthan tail and finished with an impressive six-wicket haul. On a difficult pitch, Gagan Khoda’s 86 on the first day may prove priceless as Sharma ripped through the underbelly of the Bengal batting with devastating effect and conceded only 18 runs in his 16.5 overs. None of the batsmen had a clue against his seam movement as the visitors were bundled out for a paltry 118. Rajasthan were 32 for 1 in their second innings as Bengal tried to recover from the shock dealt by Sharma earlier in the day.
ScorecardKarnataka v Tamil Nadu Karnataka 23 for 1 and 208 all out (Balaji 4-51, Ramkumar 4-42) lead Tamil Nadu 184 (Prasad 6-51) by 47 runs
Venkatesh Prasad`s inspired bowling ripped through the heart of the Tamil Nadu batting as they collapsed to 184 all out on the second day at Bangalore. Having seen his batsmen play irresponsibly yesterday, Prasad made a powerful statement by probing in the corridor and troubled arguably the best batting line-up in domestic cricket. The two Sridhiran’s, Sriram and Sharath, prevented a batting debacle and on a pitch offering assistance to the seamers, gave the visitors some sort of a chance. The home side will hope for a disciplined batting approach tomorrow and carry on the momentum that Prasad so effectively gained.
ScorecardRailways v Andhra Pradesh Railways 192 for 1 (Bangar 72*, Pagnis 58) trail Andhra 262 (MSK Prasad 61) by 70 runs
Sanjay Bangar propelled the innings with an unbeaten 72 as Railways were comfortably placed at the end of the second day’s play in Delhi. The Andhra innings finished with a slight flourish as left handed Shankara Rao hit a valuable 53 to nudge the score past 250. But the Railways reply was the antithesis of the Andhra batting and had all the attributes of application and patience. Amit Pagnis was in fine fettle as he helped himself to 58 and Sanjay Bangar staked his claim for the Australian tour with a characteristically dour 72. He was ably supported by Tejindar Pal Singh, who finished with a strokefilled 52. None of the Andhra bowlers posed any sort of threat and that may well be the story tomorrow also.
ScorecardSiddhartha Vaidyanathan is on the staff of Wisden Cricinfo.