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Former Pakistan batsman Zaheer Abbas has urged the PCB to reappoint Younis Khan as captain to lead the side out of its current crisis. Pakistan’s recent tour of England was riven by controversy, with a expose alleging that seamers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, and Test captain Salman Butt, had conspired to bowl no-balls on demand. The ICC has provisionally suspended the trio, leaving Pakistan without a Test captain.”With the future of Salman Butt as captain and player now uncertain because of the spot-fixing scandal, the best choice to lead Pakistan is Younis Khan,” Abbas told . “The board should not waste any more time in appointing Younis as the Test team captain because he is the ideal man to lead the team after the controversial tour to England.”Younis has led Pakistan before, most notably to victory in the 2009 World Twenty20 and the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy the same year. However, he stepped down before the tours of New Zealand and Australia, over differences with team-mates. He was later banned as a part of the massive disciplinary action undertaken by the PCB in March 2010, following the side’s disastrous, winless tour of Australia.Though his ban was overturned on appeal, the PCB did not give him clearance for selection, on grounds of having made “inappropriate comments” following the penalty.”Whatever problem there is between Younis and the board it needs to be sorted out quickly,” Abbas said. “Younis must meet with the board Chairman and also make himself available for Pakistan again … The forthcoming series [against South Africa in UAE] is going to be a tough task and the board must have the best man leading the Test team.””Pakistan will require his experience in the World Cup. The tournament is not far away and I don’t think we now have time or room for experimenting with new players,” Abbas said.

Manzur Ahmad, a former wicketkeeper-batsman who represented Bangladesh in the 1980s, has been appointed as the CEO of the Bangladesh Cricket Board.Prior to joining the BCB, Ahmed, 54, had served as the CEO of the Brunei Darussalam Cricket Association since 2005, following stints as an executive member and development manager of the association. He was also a member of the Asian Cricket Council’s executive board.”This is a very exciting time for me,” Ahmad said on the appointment. “I had always wanted to involve myself with cricket in Bangladesh and as a keen sports enthusiast and former player this is the ideal challenge for me. I firmly believe that good governance is a key factor in enhancing the level of performance and my effort would be towards achieving that with the BCB.”

Zaheer Abbas, the former Pakistan captain, has said he fears for the future of Pakistan cricket due to what he feels is its poor administration. Abbas’ comments came in the aftermath of Pakistan’s nine-wicket defeat at the hands of England in the second Test at Edgbaston.”Winning and losing are part of the game but I fear for Pakistan cricket because the manner in which matters like transformation of the team have been handled [shows] we are heading towards disaster,” Abbas told . “Decisions [are] taken in a haphazard manner and the state of Pakistan cricket is deplorable. The main culprit is the administration, which should be changed immediately.”Pakistan have a new captain in Salman Butt, who took over when Shahid Afridi quit following the first Test against Australia. The team is in a transition phase after the ban and the subsequent reinstatement of several of their experienced players but Abbas was particularly critical of the recall of Mohammad Yousuf from retirement instead of Younis Khan.”Yousuf announced his retirement and suddenly he was sent to England. How come Yousuf is in the team now and Younis Khan not selected, this is a different set of rules for two players,” he said. “How far can this go? Cricket is a passion in Pakistan and people are getting disheartened by the poor administration of the game.”Yousuf and Younis were handed indefinite bans by the PCB for disciplinary reasons following a winless tour of Australia earlier in the year. Yousuf decided to retire from international cricket while Younis fought against the ban and had it overturned. The players had been accused of creating infighting and having a bad influence over the team.”Where was the team management and the administration when seven, eight players took oath on the holy book (the Koran) and revolted against captaincy of Younis,” Abbas said. “Younis should have been sent to England so that a mixture of youth and seniors would have guided this team. These young players are Pakistan’s future, but I am sorry their handling is very poor.”

The Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) has sought an explanation from fast bowler Sreesanth, who represents the state, after he had reportedly criticised it. Sreesanth has been warned of disciplinary action in the event of a repetition.”If Sreesanth repeats such things in future, the body has authorised the office bearers to take an appropriate action immediately,” KCA secretary TC Mathew told reporters.The uncertainty over Sreesanth’s availability had prompted the KCA to replace him as captain of the state side for the Ranji Trophy, though he was named in the 25-man list of probables for the Indian domestic season. Sreesanth had then suggested that he was considering playing for a different state side, but confirmed this month that he would stick with Kerala.

Jamie Siddons: “I think we’re a bit tired, a bit flat, a bit jaded, and we’ve been focusing on Test cricket, we’ll regroup”•AFP

Two middle-order collapses in Dambulla have handed Bangladesh an all-too-common early exit from a big tournament. Just when they manage to sort one piece of the puzzle, another one pops out of place. Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim were their regular firefighters, rescuing them when top-order failures were the norm early this year, but with Tamim Iqbal now tapping into a rich vein of form and providing robust starts, the others are fumbling.The perfect example is the second Test against India in Mirpur five months ago: the top three made seven runs between them in the first innings but a 96 from Mahmudullah and supporting hands from the rest of the middle order lifted them to 233. And in the second, when Tamim counterpunched with a majestic 151, the experienced batsmen lower down flopped and Bangladesh ended up losing their final seven wickets for 22 runs.At the Asia Cup, the trend of blazing opening stands followed by a limp performance carried on from the England tour. Against India they raced to 81 for 1 in 13 overs, but barely managed to double their score. Today, Tamim started out with three boundaries off the first three deliveries and Bangladesh found themselves at a virtually identical 77 for 1 before sinking to 168 for 8.”Tamim keeps showing the world how good he is, I think it’s a real positive,” Jamie Siddons, the Bangladesh coach, said after the match. “Unfortunately, our middle order which has been saving us for the last six months making a lot of runs has stopped making runs, I don’t know why yet.”One of their big worries is the continuing inability of the most experienced player, Mohammad Ashraful, to make runs. Tamim and Junaid Siddique had weathered the early threat of Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara, but the initiative was squandered when Ashraful pottered around for a painful 29-ball 9, ending with a botched reverse-sweep.”I was just speaking to Ashraful, I think he had tears in his eyes, letting the team down, he knows that and he’s really upset and really frustrated with his shot today,” Siddons said. “You know but it keeps happening.”There were other aspects of Bangladesh’s performance that he was at a loss to explain, like the bunch of wickets that have fallen to part-time spinners, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Virender Sehwag. “It is a frustrating thing, we play spin all the time at home, it’s something we pride ourselves on,” he said. “Our batsmen since I’ve been there have struggled when it spins, whether it is part-time or world-class, we struggled in England when [Graeme] Swann spun the ball, [Daniel] Vettori always troubles us when it’s spinning.”Bangladesh entered the tournament after a two-Test tour of England, and haven’t played one-dayers in three months. Siddons felt his side hadn’t adjusted to the radically different conditions in Dambulla soon enough. “It’s difficult, it was swinging in England and we were focusing on their fast bowling over there and really leaving the ball a lot, not really focused on spin,” he said. “Fast bowlers haven’t worried us here, we’ve handled fast bowling without a problem in both games, but part-time spinners shouldn’t get you out.”The non-stop cricket Bangladesh have played has also had an impact, according to Siddons. “The other sides have had a good rest, had their senior players have rested and we’ve been going flat out for eight months including our domestic cricket,” he said. “I think we’re a bit tired, a bit flat, a bit jaded, and we’ve been focusing on Test cricket, we’ll regroup.”

Match Facts

June 7, 2010
Start time 0900 (0700 GMT)Zimbabwe will have to find an answer to Sri Lanka’s spinners•Associated Press

The Big Picture

India’s inept showing in the tri-series is the main reason why the final league match tomorrow, between the hosts and Sri Lanka, is a dead rubber. What was billed to be an evenly-matched tournament, with India and Sri Lanka sending under-strength teams, has turned into a contest between just two teams. Zimbabwe’s twin victories against India upset all predictions and hence put enormous pressure on India in their final match on Saturday to not only beat Sri Lanka but by a comfortable margin to keep their chances alive. But the Sri Lankans, led by Dinesh Chandimal, oozed class and were the deserved winners. The finalists were already decided and the penultimate game is now a dress rehearsal for the final.In the five games so far, the team chasing has won all games so tomorrow’s contest offers a chance for the team batting first to get sufficient practice in case they are put in again in the final. Zimbabwe struggled against the Sri Lankan spinners in their previous game, which was a very one-sided encounter. If they can work on that area, then the two remaining games should promise to be more competitive. If they could upset India, there’s no reason why Zimbabwe can’t do the same against Sri Lanka.

Form guide (most recent first)

Zimbabwe: WLWLL
Sri Lanka: WWLWL

Watch out for…

Since his record-breaking unbeaten 194 against Bangladesh last year, Charles Coventry has scored just one fifty. Although it’s too much to expect a repeat performance, the best he can do is show more consistency in the middle order, and prove that his blinder of a knock was no fluke. His cameo 32 was crucial in Zimbabwe’s shock win against India in the first match, but in the next two games, he scored just 11 and 20.Sri Lanka’s biggest gain against India on Saturday was Dinesh Chandimal.The wicketkeeper-batsman was initially selected for the World Twenty20 as an attacking T20 batsman, but though he didn’t make much of an impact in the Caribbean, he made the chase of 269 look ridiculously simple, smashing 111. He impressed with his shot selection, footwork and aggressive bent of mind. He looked at ease against pace and spin, and the towering sixes underlined his worth as a promising batsman.

Team news

Sri Lankan captain Tillakaratne Dilshan said after Saturday’s game that they will look to experiment before the final and try out some of the players in the bench. Batsman Lahiru Thirimanne hasn’t played a game yet so there’s an opportunity for him. One of the seamers can also be rested, in order to give Dilhara Fernando a game. Sri Lanka (possible) 1 Upul Tharanga, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan (capt.), 3 Dinesh Chandimal, 4 Jeewan Mendis, 5 Chamara Kapugedera, 6 Thilan Samaraweera / Lahiru Thirimanne, 7 Thissara Perera, 8 Suraj Randiv, 9 Nuwan Kulasekara, 10 Thilan Thushara / Dilhara Fernando, 11 Ajantha MendisZimbabwe’s Ed Rainsford hasn’t got a game yet. He could replace one of the spinners.Zimbabwe (possible) 1 Hamilton Masakadza, 2 Brendan Taylor (wk) 3 Charles Coventry, 4 Greg Lamb, 5 Craig Ervine, 6 Tatenda Taibu, 7 Elton Chigumbura (capt), 8 Andy Blignaut, 9 Graeme Cremer, 10 Prosper Utseya/Ed Rainsford, 11 Ray Price.

Stats and trivia

• Of his 75 wickets, Ajantha Mendis has 18 of those in Zimbabwe alone.
• Zimbabwe last beat Sri Lanka in an ODI back in April 2003, in Sharjah.
  

  Quotes

  “I’m very impressed with Dinesh Chandimal’s positive intent. I’ve always backed the youngsters to play their natural game.”

Lachlan Stevens has beaten a strong field to become Mickey Arthur’s new assistant coach at Western Australia. Stevens, who spent several years as a fringe batsman with South Australia and Queensland, was favoured over big names believed to include Jason Gillespie, Allan Donald and Carl Hooper.Despite his relative youth at 31, Stevens has plenty of coaching experience, having taken on the role of high performance coordinator at the Centre of Excellence in 2004. For the past two seasons, he has been assistant to the Queensland coach Trevor Barsby, and his past roles also included a stint as career and education manager with Queensland Rugby Union.”I am excited by the challenge to work with the players of the Retravision Warriors and look forward to helping them to fulfil their potential in the coming seasons,” Stevens said. “I also saw this as a fantastic opportunity to work with Mickey Arthur and learn from one of the leading coaches in world cricket.”Western Australia identified Stevens as a “hands-on” coach who would complement Arthur as he tries to lift the Warriors, who haven’t won any silverware since the 2003-04 one-day trophy. Arthur was confident Stevens would be a good fit with Western Australia.”Lachlan is a very hard worker,” Arthur said. “When you are preparing players to be the very best they can be, it is vital that the coaches set the standard in terms of the level of application required to succeed at interstate level.”

The first phase of the battle within the BCCI seems to have ended with the IPL governing council appointing Chirayu Amin, an industrialist and head of the Baroda Cricket Association, as the league’s interim chairman on Monday following the suspension of Lalit Modi late on Sunday night. After a day of silence, Modi surfaced late on Monday evening by saying he was still IPL chairman, though suspended, and announcing, ominously, “Wait – we have just begun.”Amin’s appointment was announced by BCCI president Shashank Manohar following a meeting in Mumbai; he also said that the board’s chief administrative officer, Ratnakar Shetty, would look into the records and documents of the IPL. The former cricketers on the governing council – Sunil Gavaskar, MAK Pataudi and Ravi Shastri – have been entrusted with working out modalities of the 2011 auction, including a plan to for franchises to withhold three foreign and four local players, after consultations with the players, coaches and franchise officials.At an unusually lengthy press conference by his standards, Manohar fielded questions on the allegations against Modi and the accountability of the governing council and offered a glimpse of the way ahead. While he was fairly detailed in explaining the charges against Modi and the other shortcomings of the IPL, his defence of the inability of other members of the council to prevent this situation from developing was less convincing.”In the last 15 days, there were lot of allegations and counter allegations made through media, as a result of which, the board looked into the allegations levelled and took a decision to issue a show cause notice to Lalit Modi, and pending inquiry, decided to suspend him,” Manohar said. “The board will hold, after receiving a reply from Mr. Modi, an inquiry if necessary. If the reply or Mr Modi convinces the members, the proceedings will be dropped …”Shetty has been asked to look into the the records because many of the documents are missing. Every day the income-tax department is asking for records and we don’t have them in our custody.”Manohar said it was necessary to suspend Modi in order to hold a “free and fair enquiry”. “Suspension is not a punishment – he [Modi] is kept away from the functioning of the board to ensure free and fair enquiry,” he said.He said the governing council would need a month to complete all its tasks, since most of its members were unaware of what was happening until now.

Areas of investigation

• Initial bids of Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab

• The broadcasting deal

• Bid rigging in 2010

• Internet rights

• Behavioral patterns of Lalit Modi

Modi’s temporary successor, Amin, is a highly successful Vadodara-based industrialist, whose Alembic pharmaceuticals company lends its name to one of the city’s three first-class cricket grounds. Currently a BCCI vice-president, he has been on the board for the past few years and has served on its marketing committee.”The immediate task is to clean-up the IPL. The game has just been concluded and so we will start planning for the next year. That is the priority right now,” Amin was quoted as telling . “”Modi has been given an opportunity to reply to all these things and we will wait till the reply comes. Once he replies then the Council will look at it and will decide on further action.”The IPL governing council, minus its suspended chairman, met at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai to discuss the issue of Modi, who was sent a charge sheet after the tournament’s final, and the possibility of an IPL without him.Absent from the meeting were Modi and Farooq Abdullah, the president of the Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association. Those present included Manohar, vice-president Arun Jaitley, secretary N Srinivasan, media and finance committee chairman Rajiv Shukla and IPL vice-chairman Niranjan Shah.The meeting started at 10 am, just a few hours after the BCCI sent Modi a show-cause notice, and a charge-sheet specifying the allegations, that capped two weeks of raging controversy over financial wrong-doings in IPL. Modi was asked by the BCCI to reply to the show-cause notice within 15 days.

Fumbling times for Tare
Twice in the first over of the match, Aditya Tare failed to collect the ball cleanly. On both occasions the ball arrived at a slower pace than the Mumbai glove-man would’ve expected, but both times Tare was besides the line of the delivery instead of lining himself behind. He continued to fumble frequently, adding to the bowlers’ and Sachin Tendulkar’s frustration. Three overs before the Kolkata innings came to an end, Ryan McLaren’s attempted yorker to Owais Shah went wide, but Tare was once again was slow off his haunches, and his dive came late as the opposition picked a few more extras.Simon says not out
Dwayne Bravo picked a return ball from Chris Gayle and immediatlely threw at the stumps, finding the Jamaican halfway down the pitch. But Gayle, having been sent back by Sourav Ganguly, charged back home to beat Bravo’s direct throw in the nick of time. Simon Taufel, the square-leg umpire, did the right thing to re-arrange the bails and avoid cutting the rhythm of the match, even if the entire Mumbai team pleaded him to refer the decision to the third umpire.Bravo, bravo
After his first over in the second spell went for 13 runs, Bravo, before passing the ball to the captain, bounced it hard on the pitch in disgust but the rebound came back swiftly to hit him flush on the face. Bravo didn’t wince, and the consummate cricketer that he is, was furious at himself for leaking runs.“Sky is your limit”, Dinda to Gayle
During the batting time out taken by Kolkata, 12th man Ashok Dinda rushed into the field, along with Dav Whatmore. As the Kolkata coach got busy with Owais Shah, Dinda threw the towel to Gayle and started pointing towards the top tier of the CCI pavilion, inspiring the West Indian to hit over the sky. Though the distance was within manageable limits for the 6’4″ tall West Indian, it was a big challenge considering the Mumbai bowlers were firing yorker-length deliveries at him consistently; in the end Dinda’s demands went unfulfilled.Hazare presses the panic button
On the final delivery of the Kolkata innings, Zaheer Khan fired in a searing inswinging yorker against Gayle. Gayle had moved a step down the legside when the ball hit him on the toe of his back leg, which was easily half a yard, if not a full one, down the leg side. But the umpire Sanjay Hazare, reluctant initially, finally raised his finger after Zaheer started to appeal incessantly.Kartik goes blind, makes Dada angry
Murali Kartik, Kolkata’s best bowler, made an impact immediately by picking a wicket in his first over. And in the following over, he nearly snatched the prized wicket of Tendulkar, as the Mumbai captain’s leading edge flew back towards Kartik. However, Kartik failed to sight the ball at all and came up with a late attempt which proved to be unsatisfactory. Ganguly, standing at cover shrieked at his bowler knowing well it would be the most important turning point of the match as Tendulkar was on 41 and the match still hung in the balance.Ganguly gives extra workouts
Throughout the Mumbai innings bowlers argued with Ganguly about the fields he was setting. One fine example was when Angelo Mathews pushed Shane Bond back towards the third man and positioned Owais Shah at short-fine leg. The very next instant, Ganguly got Bond inside the circle while sending Shah towards fine leg. Mathews argued strongly, waving his hands, forcing Ganguly to reverse his decision. Ganguly’s indecisiveness only added to the workload of his fielders.

David Warner wants the ICC to clarify its stance on switch-hitting after the umpires in Tuesday night’s Twenty20 against West Indies told him he couldn’t face up right-handed. The left-handed Warner tried to get in position for a switch-hit against Narsingh Deonarine but the bowler backed out and Warner exchanged words with the umpires Bruce Oxenford and Rod Tucker after the incident.”It was a funny one – Ox said to me, ‘You can’t do it because they have to chop and change the field all the time’,” Warner told the . “I told him, ‘Well it’s not hard and I’ll tell them when I’m going to bat right-handed or left-handed so they can change the field’. Whatever. I have to wait for the bowler to change from over the wicket to around the wicket so what’s the difference? The umpires told me I have to notify the bowler so I turned around and said, ‘OK, I’m going to bat right-handed.'”Tuck looked at me and goes, ‘Nuh’. I let it go. But then I went to the square-leg umpire in the next over and I said, ‘Why can’t I do it?’ He basically said it’s too much time and it’s not in the spirit of the game. I still went to bat right-handed – but he shook his head again.”A Cricket Australia spokesman said their understanding was that Warner’s tactic was not against the rules of cricket and might be an issue the ICC could decide on once and for all. When Kevin Pietersen showed off his left-handed switch-hit in 2008 it was ruled by the MCC, the guardians of the game’s laws, that the stroke would not be made illegal.Warner said he batted right-handed as a child and during most net sessions he bats right-handed for the last five minutes. He does not want to abandon the switch-hit, which he believes gives him the advantage of being able to hit with the turn regardless of whether an offspinner or a legspinner is operating.”Last year at The Oval, we had a practice out in the middle and Haury [Nathan Hauritz] was bowling,” Warner said. “They were turning square and I got sick of it. I couldn’t hit a ball, so I batted right-handed and I started putting him into the stands. That’s when Tim Nielsen said to me, ‘What’s going on here?’ So I thought I might as well bring it out in a game. If a spinner is working to a plan to me, why can’t I try to counteract it?”