Dhaka 302 for 7 (Halim 89*, Niamur 62) lead Barisal 193 (Hossain 55, Rafique 4-60) by 209
ScorecardKhaled Mahmud, fighting for his place in the national side, made a dought half-century in a rearguard action for for Dhaka. In reply to Barisal’s 193, Mahmud’s side were struggling at 54 for 4 when Mahmud and Halim Shah came together. They added 89 runs before Mahmud was out for 51, but Halim went on to remain not out on 89 at the close of the second day, as Dhaka finished on 302 for 7. Naimur Rashid hit a fiesty 62, while Fahim Muntasir made 34 not out.Khulna 160 and 129 for 8 (Parvez 48) lead Sylhet 80 (Razzaq 7-11) by 209 runs
ScorecardKhulna were well on top in a low-scoring match, getting Sylhet out for 80 after making 160 in their first innings. The star of the match was Abdur Razzaq, a left-arm spinner, who took 7 for 11 in just 16.1 overs. Only Imtiaz Hossain, with a gritty 30, provided any resistance, as the Sylhet innings lasted 50 overs and one ball. In their second innings, Khulna extended their lead to 209, as Raju Parvez made 48 of the 129 runs they scored for the loss of eight wickets.Rajshahi 234 (Nuruzzaman 39, Arafat 7-62) lead Chittagong 191 for 7 (Hakim 53, Saifullah 4-54) by 43 runs
ScorecardYasin Arafat’s 7 for 62 was largely responsible for Rajshahi being all out for 234, but Saifullah Khan’s 4 for 54 in 32 overs kept the game on a tight edge, as Chittagong were 43 runs behind at the end of the second day, with just three wickets in hand. Faisal Hossain, whose 21 not out occupied all of 76 balls, was Chittagong’s best hope.

Hampshire are confident Shane Warne will sign an extension to his current contract to keep him at the club until he retires.Warne, who’s contracted until September 2004, was due to captain the side last season, but had to serve a year-long ban after failing a drugs test. John Crawley took over instead and Hampshire had a disappointing season, winning only two matches in the County Championship. However, Warne’s ban comes to an end on February 10 of this year, and hence he will be able to take charge this summer.Rod Bransgrove, Hampshire’s chairman, told BBC Radio Solent: “I’d like Shane to be here for the rest of his playing days. It would be very fitting if he was to finish here – I’m sure he’d like to play for Hampshire as long as he can. We’ve got an ambition to rebuild the whole fabric and structure of our squad, utilising the skills and abilities of our younger players, and we see Shane as an intrinsic part of that.”Warne himself has publicly stated that he believes he has “two or three more years” left in him. In 2005 he is likely to be touring England with Australia, but that aside he will be generally available for county games and Hampshire are believed to be aiming to sign him on a four-year contract which will run to the end of the 2007 season.

Murray Goodwin will return to Hove in 2004, ending months of speculation over who would be Sussex’s second overseas player alongside Mushtaq Ahmed.Goodwin’s future was uncertain when talks stalled over the length of the contract Sussex were prepared to offer. Gary Kirsten was close to signing, but he told the county last week that business offers outside the game meant that he had to turn down the offer.It has been a busy winter for the county champions. They have signed Ian Ward, Mohammad Akram, Jason Voros and Luke Wright, and disposed of Bas Zuiderent, Billy Taylor, Paul Hutchison and Shaun Rashid.

Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lanka’s controversial offspinner, has eased fearsthat he will withdraw from Sri Lanka’s two-Test tour of Australia inJune-July this year after Australian newspapers claimed he had threatened topull out because of constant verbal abuse from Australian crowds.”I did not threaten to pull out of the tour,” Muralitharan told Wisden Cricinfo. “I just said I was not sure about the tour yet.” Muralitharantoured Australia in 2003 and a tour pullout is extremely unlikely, especially with the two matches expected to be played in Darwin and Cairns.Muralitharan was quoted as saying: “I will think very carefully when it [thenew contract] comes because we have an Australian and a Zimbabwe tour. Lasttime, I had a lot of bad feelings [playing in Australia] but I don’t know what will happen in the future and how the public will react.”The crowd is the main problem, not officials or players,” he said. “You can’t keep bringing up the past and accusing someone. The evidence is there. I have a deformity on the elbow. I can’t straighten it. Before I bowl, they are calling ‘no-ball’. It’s ok once or twice, but not if you are going on and on about it,” he added.Meanwhile, Muralitharan has urged Australia’s selectors to name Shane Warnein their Test squad on Friday. With both spinners now within striking distance of 500 Test wickets, Muralitharan would like the challenge of racing Warne to Courtney Walsh’s 519-wicket world record.”I am looking forward to the challenge and I definitely want him to come toSri Lanka,” said Muralitharan. “He has been a great bowler and someone who Ihave always greatly admired. I have learnt from his patience and character.”Muralitharan [485 wickets] expects Warne [491 wickets] to reach the world record first: “He his a great bowler and is six wickets ahead and should getthere first. He has done cricket proud in the last decade so if he does reach it first, good on him. But I do have time on my side with three or four years left to play.”

Live scorecard

Jacques Kallis fell a couple of muscular drives short of becoming the first man since Donald Bradman to score centuries in five consecutive Test matches as South Africa dominated the opening day of the series against New Zealand at Westpac Park in Hamilton. Kallis’s 92 was buttressed by a classy 72 from the other Jacques, Rudolph, with Gary Kirsten – who played some superb cuts and drives off Daniel Vettori – providing a stabilising hand in the final session. When stumps were drawn, South Africa were 279 for 4, with Paul Adams, the nightwatchman, keeping Kirsten company.The highlight of the day’s play was the 132-run partnership for the third wicket, after both Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs had gifted Vettori their wickets with injudicious shots. While Jacques and Jacques were at the crease, the shot selection was tremendous, the concentration levels unwavering, and New Zealand’s dejection palpable.Kallis slowed down after Rudolph departed, and was dismissed a quarter of an hour before stumps, hooking Jacob Oram to Daryl Tuffey at deep fine leg. Neither Kallis, nor Kirsten at the non-striker’s end, observed Oram gesturing for two men to be placed on the fence for the shot, and Kallis insouciantly dropped the ball into Tuffey’s hands (271 for 4).Torrential rain had ruined the strip originally chosen for the game, and when play started on a pitch right at the edge of the square, it appeared as though it had been airlifted from the subcontinent – deep brown and with not a hint of live grass. New Zealand gave Test debuts to Michael Papps and Brendon McCullum, and included two spinners in their endeavour to win a first ever series against South Africa.After a hesitant start that included streaky shots through the slip cordon, Gibbs and Smith took charge. Gibbs stroked two superb cover-drives off Tuffey and after 12 overs marked by little penetration, Fleming tossed the ball to Vettori. He settled into a probing line and length straight away, varying his flight to keep the batsmen guessing.Smith decided to take the initiative after drinks, coming down the track to smash a delivery over midwicket and then rocking back to place another through backward point.Gibbs brought up the 50 with a guide past gully, and a top-edged pull over the keeper for four, but just when it all appeared rosy, Vettori struck. Smith was enticed forward by a flighted delivery, and his neither-here-nor-there chip found Oram at midwicket (51 for 1). He made 25.The batsmen then went into hibernation for almost half an hour as Vettori and Chris Cairns dried up the runs, supported by Fleming’s restrictive fields. Gibbs finally jolted South Africa out of their stupor with a magnificent straight six off Vettori, before falling to one of the worst deliveries sent down all morning. A hit-me ball wide outside off stump, and Gibbs (40) hit it alright, straight to Scott Styris at cover (79 for 2).Rudolph and Kallis regained some lost ground with some pleasing strokes just before lunch, with Kallis clearing the rope twice as Paul Wiseman wasn’t allowed to settle. After the interval, both men played some glorious strokes while dismantling a mediocre bowling attack.Fleming opted for pace to try and force a breakthrough, perhaps hoping that Cairns and Tuffey might get the ball to reverse swing. But there was little movement, in the air or off the pitch, and a flick off the pads from Kallis when Cairns overpitched set the tone for the session.

Rudolph uncorked a superb cover-drive off Tuffey, and followed it up with a contemptuous pull in front of square. And when Kallis slammed three fours in one Tuffey over – on and off-drives, followed by a cracking square cut – to bring up the 50 partnership, Fleming knew that the gamble had failed.Vettori came on, and Rudolph said hello with a sumptuous square-drive for four. In keeping with the spirit of change, Oram had come on at the other end, but Kallis met him with a fortuitous edge for four – the slips had long since scattered – and a savage pull that cleared the fence at square leg.Rudolph had his own moment of good fortune, edging Vettori past slip for four, but Dame Luck had nothing to do with the stunning straight six with which he reached his 50. A cute late cut demoralised New Zealand further, even as Kallis continued to cover-drive like a dream at the other end.Rudolph’s dismissal, brilliantly caught low to his left by McCullum off Styris’s bowling, resulted in most of the momentum being lost, with both Kallis and Kirsten appearing content to play the waiting game in the final hour. New Zealand may have reined it back as the shadows lengthened, but South Africa had enough batting in reserve to motor out of sight on day two.

The England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is considering what it will need to do if it is to complete an about-turn and sanction October’s tour of Zimbabwe without attracting the fury of many groups in the UK. It has been under pressure from the international cricket fraternity even since it revealed that it was considering cancelling the tour on moral grounds back in January.At its meeting in Auckland last month, the International Cricket Council (ICC) made it abundantly clear that moral grounds didn’t wash. The only reasons acceptable were player safety or government intervention. Abhorrent regimes and mad despots cut no ice. The motions passed in Auckland were thinly-veiled shots across the ECB’s bows.Faced with the possibility of fines, the tit-for-tat cancellation of the ICC Champions Trophy and the one-day series against India, and even suspension from international cricket, there are signs that the ECB is prepared to bow to pressure and rethink its objections to playing in Zimbabwe. It is likely to delay any decision until after the Australians have toured in May to assess the level of protests and any security issues which might arise.A report in The Guardian claims that the board is preparing to ask players if they are willing to tour and to allow them to opt out of the trip if they want. There are also plans being discussed to remove logos from the players’ kit in an attempt to appease sponsors – some are known to be extremely unhappy with the prospect being associated in any way with the tour.A possible problem is that several of the England players who were caught up in the will-they, won’t-they farrago during last year’s World Cup are understood to be very much against touring. Nasser Hussain has made it clear that he is against the series going ahead on moral grounds, and there is the real possibility that England could end up sending a very third-rate squad.The Guardian adds that the players were briefed before they left for the Caribbean and told that the ECB was against the tour taking place, and that even if it did, they would not be pressurised to go.While it is being squeezed by the ICC on the one hand, the ECB is still under considerable pressure from many within the UK to stay at home on the other. However, the financial penalties it faces are so substantial that it simply cannot afford not to go. The only thing that could save it was if the British government were to ban the tour, but that is highly unlikely to happen.The difficulty of their position was highlighted by John Read, the board’s director of communications: “The ECB is once again in an invidious position because of the utterly tragic situation in Zimbabwe,” he explained. “If we undertake the tour we will face condemnation from a number of key stakeholders in the game. If we don’t go, however, and are unable to convince the ICC that the government’s disapproval of the tour as voiced to date constitutes force majeure then we risk a fine. The ICC now has the power to suspend countries that breach touring regulations and ban us from international cricket.”The ECB has calculated that the worst-case scenario of England being suspended from the ICC could cost it as much as £50 million. While common sense would indicate that such action would amount to international cricket cutting off its collective nose to spite its face, there are those at Lord’s who believe that the ICC is prepared to do just that. There are various vested interests, notably Jagmohan Dalmiya, who stand to gain from England being punished.”When the ICC have specifically put these powers in place only last month,” a source within the ECB told the Daily Telegraph, “yhey may feel that if they refuse to use them, they will look either silly or weak.”The ECB hoped that Des Wilson’s report would provide them with an escape route from this whole sorry mess. It’s now clear that it won’t.As it is, the ECB stands accused of operating with double standards, and will probably be financially hammered, and certainly condemned, whatever it does. It’s going to be a tough few weeks for the board.

The Sri Lankan board has forwarded the report on Muttiah Muralitharan’s doosra to the ICC. Mohan de Silva, the board president, confirmed the news: “The report from the University of Western Australia (UWA) was sent with the observations of the bowling review group to the ICC on Friday,” de Silva told Reuters. “The details of the report will now be circulated by the ICC to their officials.”The doosra, and the report prepared by UWA, has already generated plenty of controversy. Bruce Elliott, the ICC-approved biomechanics expert who carried out the tests on Muralitharan’s action, strongly recommended that spinners be allowed to bend their arms to a greater degree than the current five degrees stipulation. “Most assuredly the five degrees [rule] is based on illogical data because they’ve just tested fast bowlers and assumed that there is some relationship between fast bowlers and spin bowlers,” Elliott told reporters. “Fifteen degrees is the right angle to select for fast bowlers and you probably should come down to 10 degrees for spin bowlers.”However, the ICC has since reiterated that it does not plan to tamper with current tolerance levels. According to the tests, Muralitharan’s arm bends ten degrees while bowling the doosra, making it an illegal delivery.

Ian Healy, the former Australian wicketkeeper, has claimed that banning Muttiah Muralitharan from bowling his doosra does not go far enough – his entire bowling action should be re-examined.Healy was disappointed that biomechanical experts at the University of Western Australia focused only on Murali’s mystical doosra when they hooked him up to their computers. “It’s a bit of a shame,” said Healy. “The public wants to know how the rest of his action stands up. Let’s get the whole thing analysed. If I was Murali, I would want that.”Healy, who was in Zimbabwe commentating on last week’s first Test against Sri Lanka, also called for any testing of Murali to be conducted in a match situation instead of a laboratory. “It should all be done from live action in the pressure of a game,” he told The Australian newspaper.Meanwhile Bruce Elliott, the Perth-based biomechanist who investigated Murali’s doosra, said that Brett Lee, Shoaib Akhtar and various other front-line bowlers also routinely breached the ICC’s new five-degree arm-extension rule.”You look at Shoaib Akhtar and Brett Lee and they have hyperextension in the joints, which is a special occurrence,” said Elliott. “I guarantee Shoaib extends more than ten degrees on some deliveries because of it, and Brett could well too.”But Elliott said the law, not Shoaib or Lee, should be tinkered with. He said the five-degree rule should be trebled to accommodate bowlers with their physical characteristics.The recently sacked Zimbabwe captain, Heath Streak, said that the ICC, havingjudged Murali’s doosra to be illegal, should now strip him of all Test wickets he has taken with the ball, which is bowled with an offbreak action but spins like a whopping legbreak. But the Wisden editor Matthew Engel disagreed. He told the Melbourne Age newspaper: “Chuckers have been part of the game since overarm bowling began. Only when a bowler is no-balled, then it is considered illegal. You can’t retrospectively change the records, going through each dismissal to see if it was taken with the doosra.”Australian players reacted sympathetically to Murali’s latest setback. Adam Gilchrist, who has previously landed himself in hot water for pontificating on Murali’s action, said: “I think he is a great exponent of what he does. I think he is talented enough and resilient enough to redefine the delivery or develop something else.”Ricky Ponting suggested Murali’s action had grown more ragged of late. “It might have got worse over the last couple of months. He certainly hasn’t taken all his wickets with that delivery.”Bishan Bedi, the former Indian spinner, has always been very vocal in his views regarding Murali. He told the Indian Express, “I have never seen Murali bowl. Bowling is an art. Chucking is not. And why just the ‘doosra’, even his ‘pehla’ [the offspinner] is not genuine.”Bedi also felt that the methods used to test Murali’s bowling action were ineffective. “Why are they [ICC] resorting to geometrical methods to assess bowling actions of cricketers. The field umpires must decide with their human eyes. You can’t decide things with the help of protractors.”

Paul Nobes has been appointed South Australia’s chairman of selectors for the 2004-05 season. He takes over from John Nash, who will now form part of the three-member panel along with Neil Dansie.Unlike in previous years, when the panel consisted of five members, the current one only has three, with two others taking up newly created grade-observer roles. Explaining the logic behind the new structure, Harvey Jolly, the South Australian Cricket Association’s general manager of cricket, said: “We have chosen this structure to better enable the selection panel to focus their time on selection for the Pura Cup, ING Cup and Cricket Australia competitions, with dedicated support from the grade observers, who will identify talent in the grade competition.”Nobes, 40, played 86 first-class games for Victoria and South Australia in a career which spanned eight years, from 1988 to 1996, and scored 6180 runs at 41.75.The new panel will commence duties from July 1.

Scorecard

After their two previous drubbings, England hit back in the fifth NatWest Series match by beating West Indies by a comfortable seven wickets. After Michael Vaughan sent the opposition in, Stephen Harmison led the way with three wickets, and was backed up by James Anderson, who chipped in with 3 for 37 as West Indies were bowled out for only 159. England then reached their target with all of 28 overs to spare.It was a must-win game for England, both in terms of this tournament, and team morale, and they took control early on and never let it go. For West Indies, apart from a stand of 63 between Ramnaresh Sarwan and Ricardo Powell, they never recovered from their wobbly start, in which they slumped to 72 for 6.Under cloudy skies and on a seaming pitch, Michael Vaughan had no hesitation in bowling first, and Harmison struck as early as the second over. Shivnarine Chanderpaul nibbled at a perfect awaycutter, and Geraint Jones took a smart catch diving to his left behind the stumps (9 for 1).Chris Gayle was in typically aggressive form, hitting five quick boundaries, while at the other end, Dwayne Smith made a watchful start. However, after 10 balls he prodded forward to Harmison and feathered one through to Jones, who took his second catch (29 for 2). The very next ball, West Indies stumbled to 29 for 3 when Gayle was run out by a direct throw from Vaughan in the covers after Sarwan called him through for a quick single.Harmison welcomed Brian Lara to the crease with a couple of short ones, but it was Anderson who rediscovered the happy knack of taking crucial wickets when a frustrated Lara tried to drive a full ball off the back foot, but inside-edged it into his stumps for 6 (40 for 4).Dwayne Bravo got going by on-driving Anderson to the boundary, but he was later helpless against another pearler from Anderson. It pitched outside off and cut away to take Bravo’s outside edge and give Jones his third catch (62 for 5). Ridley Jacobs was the next to go, when he played on to Anderson trying to drive a full delivery, and another early finish seemed in prospect.However, Sarwan and Powell rode the waves and took their time to rebuild the innings. Powell, unusually low down the order at No. 8, played a host of drives, including a belter off Harmison, who was brought back early by Vaughan in an attempt to finish off the innings. Powell then launched Marcus Trescothick straight back over his head for the first – and only – six of the innings.But just as West Indies were beginning to get back on track, Paul Collingwood popped up with a stunning one-handed catch high at backward point to get rid of Sarwan from a Trescothick long-hop (135 for 7). In the following over, Harmison then removed the dangerous Powell, when he inside-edged a short one into his stumps for a battling 35 (137 for 8).Ian Bradshaw and Ravi Rampaul frustrated England at the bottom of the order, adding 22, before Anthony McGrath and Darren Gough wrapped up the innings with 9.5 overs still remaining.England then put their two recent batting nightmares behind them, as Trescothick and Andrew Strauss guided them to victory. Trescothick twice square-drove Jermaine Lawson, and later emphatically hammered a short ball to the fine-leg boundary on his way to passing 3,000 one-day international runs.However, Bravo made the much-needed breakthrough, albeit luckily, when Vaughan foolishly flashed at a wide, short ball, and Gayle took a good catch to his right at first slip (55 for 1). Robert Key, playing in his first one-dayer since June last year, got off the mark with a confident on-drive for four, but Bravo picked up another wicket when he nipped one through Key’s bat and pad to clip the middle stump (64 for 2).

However, Strauss prevented any wobbles with a quickfire 44 from 37 balls. He was in a man in a hurry. He cover-drove Bravo and then crunched Lawson to the square-leg fence, before welcoming Rampaul to the attack by twice swatting him over midwicket.Trescothick then went into overdrive as well. He smashed three consecutive boundaries off Bravo, the second of which brought up his 17th one-day half-century. But not everything went his way, as he was later out in one of the most unlucky ways. Strauss drove Bradshaw straight back down the wicket, and Bradshaw finger-tipped the ball onto the stumps at the non-striker’s end with Trescothick out of his ground (120 for 3). Trescothick had made 55, including nine boundaries.Andrew Flintoff strode out and showed what England what they had been missing, as he hit an entertaining 21 from 18 balls, featuring three bruising fours and a huge six over square leg off Rampaul. It was left for Strauss to hit the winning runs, though, as he creamed his ninth boundary through the covers to complete a thoroughly one-sided game.