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Hashan Tillakaratne, the former captain, has said that Sri Lankan cricket is currently going through “the dark ages” and that an elected body is the way forward.”Under Arjuna Ranatunga the interim committee is divided,” Tillakaratne said. “The most popular sport in this country is cricket. Arjuna is not allowed to do the work he wants to do by other interim committee members. Normally when an interim committee is appointed the previous members are dissolved and a new committee is appointed. The decisions taken by Arjuna are not approved by the Sports Minister [and] as a result of this the development of cricket is not taking place. Because of their differences all cricket development has come to a standstill. After so many years I see Sri Lanka cricket at present going through the dark ages.”Tillakaratne, 41, felt cricket in Sri Lanka was not progressing because interim committees were allowed to run for longer periods than elected bodies. “Since 1999 it has become a habit that whenever there is a TV deal around the corner the elected body is dissolved and an interim committee is appointed. Even in the past and even today this has been the practice,” he said. “Don’t be surprised if elections are held the moment a new TV deal is struck by the present interim committee.”If someone comes up with an action plan for SLC he is not allowed to implement it because someone else comes and puts a spoke in the wheel. Elected bodies run for only six months but interim bodies carry on for more than three years.”Tillakaratne also said politics played a role in stemming the chances of players from villages and smaller localities. Constant political interference, he believed, led to a breakdown in development.”The meaning of interim is for a short time,” he said. “For so many years cricket administration has been run by interim committees where development cannot take place. You can make money and waste money and you are not answerable to anyone. Appointing interim committees should be for a short time maybe to clear a problem that has come up. But elections should be held immediately and elected bodies should run cricket.”As a result of a breakdown in the development of cricket in the outstations, Tillakaratne said clubs do not receive funds, thereby leading to the stagnation of provincial cricket. “Our cricket is going backwards. Look at India and how they have developed youngsters. [Sachin] Tendulkar, [Rahul] Dravid, [VVS] Laxman and [Sourav] Ganguly are under constant pressure from the youngsters because of their development. Where is Sri Lanka today in comparison? Our international calendar is empty. We are trying to win the 2011 World Cup but how can we develop new cricketers playing against weak teams like Zimbabwe and Bangladesh? The only way to solve this problem is to go for elections.”Tillakaratne, who also works with Cricket Aid, the SLC’s tsunami-relief programmes, said cricket committees were “corrupt”. “I am a member of the present cricket committee. The appointment of former captains to the committee makes it difficult for me to do any work inside it. There are a lot of problems with cricket. For these problems we don’t get a proper answer. I don’t think my services are required. Arjuna is saying one thing and Gamini Lokuge [Sri Lanka’s sports minister] is saying another. This problem has to be solved first before we can take any decisions with regard to cricket.”In July, Tillakarante was removed as Sri Lanka’s team manager for the India series after just two days into the job.

Sri Lanka 127 for 2 (Silva 52*) beat West Indies 125 (Small 37*, Rose Fernando 3-22) by eight wickets
Scorecard
Sri Lanka took a 2-1 series lead with an emphatic eight-wicket win as they chased the lowest total of the contest so far. West Indies’ middle order collapsed to Sri Lankan spin and only some late fightback by Danielle Small took them past 100. However it was not enough as Sri Lanka reached the target with 81 balls to spare.After choosing to bat, West Indies’ openers put on 25 before Deandra Dottin was caught for 15 off Chandi Wickramasinghe. Offspinner Rose Fernando struck twice after that to reduce the visitors to 52 for 3. Then came the collapse as West Indies lost four wickets for one run inside three overs. In the 18th over captain Nadine George was stumped off Shashikala Siriwardene, her counterpart in the Sri Lanka side. Stefanie Taylor and Merissa Aguilleira fell in the next over before Siriwardene returned to remove Kirbynia Alexamder for a duck with the score at 64. Small’s unbeaten 37 off 72 balls barely revived the innings that ended with Wickramasinghe dismissing Afy Fletcher to end with 2 for 23.Sri Lanka’s openers, Dedunu Silva and Chamari Polgampola, scored at nearly three and a half an over as they looked to wrap up the chase between them. Silva’s 58 included nine fours while Polgampola’s 47 had eight. The two fell off successive balls when West Indies needed only seven more to win.

As reported by Cricinfo last month, Cricket Kenya has launched an investigation into the team’s recent poor performances and reports of indiscipline on the tour of England last July.A three-man task force will carry out a fact-finding mission to establish the current position as related to the standards, management and performances of the national cricket team. In addition, there will be an assessment of the policies and programmes of CK in their promotion, development, welfare and performance of the national cricket team as well as the administration, facilities, finances, resources and capabilities within the board.They will also look at results over the past 12 months and every aspect of the management and performance of the national squad. The structure regarding players’ pay is also likely to come under scrutiny after increasing disquiet that considerable increases in pay have not been matched by results.The task force will report back to the CK executive with recommendations in all areas under review.The three members of the task force are Jasmer Singh, a long-standing administrator who was also communication and publication manager for the old KCA; Phil Toye, the current chairman of Kenya Kongonis; and Sharad Rao, Kenya’s representative on the ICC’s Code of Conduct Commission with wide experience in international legal and sports panels, including the Commonwealth Games Federation.”The task force is mandated to carry out a detailed inquiry into various matters including the results of matches played over the past 12 months and the overall performance of the team players,” said Tom Tikolo, CK’s chief executive, in a statement. “It will also report on the structure, performance and responsibilities of the national team’s selection and coaching staff and make recommendations on remunerations for the contracted players.”

International news agency Reuters has resumed coverage of Australia’s tour of India after the BCCI dropped contentious accreditation terms.Reuters suspended coverage on Thursday, the first day of the opening Test at Bangalore, because of “unacceptable” conditions imposed by the Indian board. They wanted the BCCI to remove the terms regarding distribution of pictures to cricket websites.The BCCI said on Friday it was amending the terms and conditions, and removing the section on website picture distribution and Reuters immediately resumed coverage for the second day of the Test.”We are grateful to the BCCI for taking such a fair and reasonable approach in this matter and are delighted to be able to resume coverage of the current series in India,” Christoph Pleitgen, global head of news agency for Thomson Reuters, said.”We look forward to our continued coverage of cricket in India on terms which respect the freedom of the press and protect the news interests and coverage rights of the media.”

Scorecard

Barely 12 overs into the game, India A had lost half their side and hopes of a place in the final seemed a distant dream. New Zealand A may have even entertained thoughts of an early finish but, as it turned out, the entertainment was at their expense. Yusuf Pathan, walking in at No.7, repaired a broken innings with an assault that included nine sixes and propelled the Indians to 305 for 8. New Zealand fell short by 81 runs and conceded a bonus point which means they need a sizeable victory against Australia on Monday.The surface at the MA Chidambaram Stadium favoured batting but New Zealand’s sharp fielding and poor communication between India’s batsmen resulted in three run-outs, leaving the hosts 66 for 5. It was in this disarray that Yusuf began his innings, and though he recieved valuable support from Rohit Sharma and brother Irfan, it was his 148 off 127 balls that proved to be the difference between the two sides.Yusuf’s innings was filled with positive intent. He looked aggressively for singles early on, played the ball into gaps, improvised when necessary, and pounded nearly every loose ball that came his way. The frontline bowlers had succeeded in checking the top-order but the spinners and back-up seamers failed to contain Yusuf and Rohit.New Zealand’s captain Peter Fulton tried to stem the flow of singles by bringing Brent Arnel back into the attack but Yusuf greeted the new-ball bowler with a straight drive for four. Offspinners Nathan McCullum and Jeetan Patel tried bowling a yorker length but Yusuf merely paddled those away. The shorter deliveries were dispatched square of the wicket on both sides and the fuller ones were hit straight.Rohit fell after a workman-like 36, caught behind by Reece Young diving to his right. Irfan joined Yusuf and they didn’t let the initiative slip, adding 59 at a run-a-ball. The spinners offered too many freebies: full tosses were clubbed for sixes, one full-blooded pull by Yusuf off Patel landed on the roof.Fulton brought back Grant Elliott towards the end but the move proved costly. Yusuf began the over on 95 and, taking cue from Luke Ronchi, moved to 101 with a straight six. The next ball was driven past the bowler for four, and the pressure began to tell on the fielders when a skier was spilled at deep midwicket and rolled towards the boundary. He made room and scooped the next ball to extra cover before carting him into the stands at deep midwicket, making it 25 for the over.Mark Gillespie was punished in the final overs, and his no-balls didn’t do his team any favours. Neil Broom dismissed Yusuf off the final ball of the match as he miscued a loft to McCullum at long-on.Though the New Zealand top order didn’t suffer the Indians’ fate, their batsmen failed to convert their starts. Aaron Redmond and BJ Watling began steadily but both fell trying to carve the ball over the packed off side. Fulton found Dhawal Kulkarni’s gentle pace to his liking and hit him for a couple of boundaries during a breezy 42 off 39 balls before he was stumped down the leg side off Piyush Chawla.James Marshall pushed the singles initially before taking the attack to the spinners. He slogged Chawla for a massive six over midwicket, and improvised against Yusuf’s fast offbreaks, playing the reverse-sweep and the conventional sweep. His 71-run partnership with Neil Broom was the only passage of play in which New Zealand challenged the home side. That was to be the only substantial partnership in the chase as Suresh Raina ran through the lower order with four wickets. With the run-rate climbing, India had the match wrapped up well before Patel top-edged Chawla to Raina at mid-on in the 46th over.With the bonus point, India move to the top of the table with nine points.

India’s one-day captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, has won the ODI Player of the Year award at the ICC Awards ceremony in Dubai.Dhoni beat off tough competition from his India team-mate, Sachin Tendulkar, Australia’s fast bowler Nathan Bracken and Pakistan stalwart, Mohammad Yousuf, to take the award.During the voting period, Dhoni played 39 ODIs and scored 1,298 runs at an average of 49.92 and at a rate of 82.46 runs per 100 balls faced. In that time he hit a century and nine fifties, making sure he led his team from the front.Also in that time, in his capacity as a wicketkeeper, Dhoni claimed 62 dismissals (46 catches and 16 stumpings), which is almost twice as many as the next best, albeit having played more matches than any other keeper.He is currently ranked No. 1 in the ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen.Dhoni said: “I would like to thank the voting academy for considering me to be deserving of this award. I am really happy to get this – it’s a great privilege.”Also, it feels great to know that I am the first Indian player to get this particular award and it’s very special because now I am in the company of a lot of other good cricketers. Some fantastic players have won this award in the past and to be mentioned in their company is truly a humbling experience for me.”I would like to thank the ICC, my home cricket board, my family, my team-mates and friends.”The ODI Player of the Year Award was one of eight individual prizes given at this year’s ICC Awards. Dhoni also featured on the ICC ODI Team of the Year as picked by the ICC selection panel. The award was announced by Australia captain and two-time ICC Cricketer of the Year, Ricky Ponting.The panel was chaired by the former West Indies captain, Clive Lloyd, and included the former Australia captain, Greg Chappell, the recently retired South Africa allrounder Shaun Pollock, the former Sri Lanka opener Sidath Wettimuny and the former Bangladesh batsman, Athar Ali Khan.

Diteko Modise, the former financial manager of the South African board, has decided not to appeal against his 76-year sentence for multimillion-rand fraud and money laundering, according to a report in the .In February, Modise was charged with nine counts of fraud, money laundering and theft when 7.4 million rand (US$1 million) went missing from what was then the United Cricket Board of South Africa, in the period that he was in charge of their internal auditing. Although some money was recovered from Modise, the loss totalled 6.1 million rand.After the sentence, Modise had said that he would appeal but, on August 12, abandoned his application for leave to appeal before it could be heard without giving any reasons.Magistrate Jeremy Janse van Vuuren labelled Modise “very greedy”, suggesting he should serve a minimum of 20 years before being considered for parole. He added that Modise had calculated his actions carefully despite already earning an “excellent salary”.

Scorecard

South Zone, led by captain Urooj Mumtaz’s unbeaten 39, beat Central Zone Blues by five wickets at the National Stadium in Karachi on Sunday to clinch the inaugural women’s National Twenty20 Quadrangular Championship.Central began well after being sent in, with Bismah Maroof and Marina Iqbal putting on 48 for the first wicket. However, they squandered the initiative by losing three wickets for 13 runs. Iqbal was the first to go, caught behind by Batool Fatima off Sana Mir for 19. Kanwal Naz then accounted for Maroof, who made 27, and Sabeen Samad, both stumped by Fatima. Nida Dar and Almas Akram repaired some of the damage with a fourth-wicket stand worth 54 runs. Almas made 27 while Nida hit a massive six in the final over before being run out by Mumtaz for 47 as Central finished with 132 for 6.South lost their openers cheaply with 19 runs on the board but recovered when Mumtaz combined with Nain Abidi to add 48 runs. Their stand was ended in controversial circumstances, Abidi being adjudged caught at leg slip for 28 off what should have been a no-ball as only three fielders were in the inner ring. Play was held up for a few minutes when Mumtaz and South’s coach, Farrukh Bari, remonstrated with umpire Humaira Farah, but to no avail. Mumtaz recovered her concentration soon enough and focused on the chase. Pushing for singles and twos, she brought South to within three runs of victory in the final over, finishing the contest by striking the fourth ball for a boundary.Mumtaz was named Player of the Match and shared the Player-of-the-Series award with Maroof, her Pakistan team-mate.

Match facts

Tuesday July 1, 2008
Start time 10.45 (local), 9.45 (BST)

Big Picture

New Zealand can’t quite begin their long journey home yet, and with the taste of victory champagne still fresh following the series victory at Lord’s on Saturday they now have two ODIs in Aberdeen, the first of which is against Ireland. It is a chance to give a few of the players who have watched from the sidelines recently a run, although New Zealand will be guarding against any embarrassing slip-ups. For Ireland it’s the start of a busy summer, which also includes important Twenty20 qualifiers plus a host of ODIs. Since their magical World Cup campaign they have struggled to reach those heights again as amateur players are torn between cricket and their jobs, while those good enough for professional careers are snapped up by counties. Ireland are missing three key personnel – Niall O’Brien, William Porterfield and Eoin Morgan – for that reason, while Jeremy Bray, David Langford-Smith, Trent Johnston and Boyd Rankin are also unavailable. But this a chance for some others to make a name for themselves.

Form guide

(Last 5 completed ODIs; most recent first)
Ireland LLLWN
New Zealand WWWNL

Watch out for

Ross Taylor He struggled against England, often found out by seam and swing and sometimes by his own impetuosity. He is still the most talented of New Zealand’s young top order and the lesser attack of Ireland could be right up his street.Kyle McCallan Now leading Ireland in the absence of Trent Johnston, McCallan is a hardworking offspinner who isn’t afraid to give the ball a tweak. He enjoyed some fine moments during the World Cup. In 25 ODIs his economy rate is 4.25 so he can’t be underestimated.

Team news

New Zealand have named a 12-man squad and will make at least three changes from the final ODI against England. Jamie How, who has played for much of tour with a cracked finger, is rested so James Marshall gets another chance at the top of the order, while Scott Styris – who was Man of the Match at The Oval and Lord’s – also sits out. Kyle Mills gets a match off so Michael Mason is in the squad as is offspinner Jeetan Patel, who hasn’t featured in any internationals to date on the trip.New Zealand (from) Brendon McCullum, James Marshall, Ross Taylor, Daniel Flynn, Jacob Oram, Grant Elliott, Gareth Hopkins, Daniel Vettori (capt), Tim Southee, Jeetan Patel, Mark Gillespie, Michael MasonWithout the three county-based players, Ireland have had to draft in reinforcements but Gary Wilson, the wicketkeeper, is on Surrey’s books while Alex Cusack won a Man-of-the-Match award on his debut against South Africa last year.Ireland (from) Kyle McCallan (capt), Andre Botha, Peter Connell, Alex Cusask, Phil Eaglestone, Thinus Fourie, Gary Kidd, Chris Doughtery, Andrew Poynter, Paul Stirling, Reinhardt Strydom, Andrew White, Gary Wilson (wk)

Stats and trivia

Quotes

“It’s been a long tour. But there’s no way we want to leave Scotland being beaten. It’ll be a hard couple of games, but there’s no way we’ll treat them as any less important as any other one-day international.”
Jamie How confirms New Zealand won’t be taking the next couple of matches lightly

Shaheen Shah Afridi, the Pakistan left-arm fast bowler, has signed for Middlesex for the 2022 season.Afridi, 21, will join up with the Middlesex squad for pre-season training in the spring, and will remain with the club until mid-July, when Pakistan’s tour of Sri Lanka is due to take place. In that time, he will be available for County Championship fixtures as well as the entirety of the Vitality Blast campaign, including the knockout stages of the tournament should Middlesex qualify.”I am very excited to be playing for Middlesex next season,” Afridi said. “I know from my time in England they are a great county and to play at the Home of Cricket really will be a dream come true. I am looking forward to being part of the team and helping create a wonderful season for the club.”Afridi has played 19 Tests for Pakistan, claiming 76 wickets at 25.25 including three five-wicket hauls, and a best match performance of 10 for 93, against West Indies at Sabina Park six weeks ago.He has also featured in 28 ODIs and 30 T20Is, and starred for Pakistan at Middlesex’s home ground of Lord’s during the 2019 World Cup, when he took 6 for 35 against Bangladesh.Afridi’s previous experience of county cricket came for Hampshire in 2020, when Middlesex were his victims in a stunning final outing of that season’s Vitality Blast, as he returned figures of 6 for 19 in his four overs, including four wickets in four balls to seal a 20-run victory.”We are absolutely delighted to have secured the services of one of international crickets’ most exciting talents,” Andrew Cornish, Middlesex’s chief executive, said. “Shaheen is a world-class pace bowler, and we are thrilled that he will be representing us in 2022.”His signature was highly sought-after, and the fact that he has chosen to join Middlesex is a massive coup for us as a Club and speaks volumes of our ambitions.”We need Middlesex to be competing at the top level and challenging for trophies. Signing players of Shaheen’s calibre, who can add quality and experience to our existing squad, is a significant step towards us getting there.”Shaheen is a genuine match winner and I’m sure all our members will be excited to welcome him to Middlesex and share in our delight that he will be wearing the three Seaxes of the Club on his chest next season.”