Scorecard

Four quick wickets from Andy Bichel saw Queensland fight their way into the match after being bowled out for just 169 by Victoria on the opening day of the Pura Cup match at Brisbane. Bichel (4 for 31), began the rot by forcing Michael Klinger to edge behind in the fifth over, and followed that up by claiming the key scalps of Nick Jewell, David Hussey, and Cameron White as Victoria failed to capitalise on its fine work in the morning session.Earlier, White, the Victoria captain, got it right when he inserted Queensland on a greenish wicket and saw Michael Lewis (4 for 35) and Gerard Denton (4 for 58) rip through the opposition. Together, both fast bowlers delivered Victoria a strong start, Denton trapping Jimmy Maher, the Queensland captain, leg before for just 1 in the fourth over. Lewis was more lethal, dismissing Martin Love, Clinton Perren, and Craig Philipson in a fiery burst of 3 for 9 off eight overs.Queensland had done well to recover from 6 for 69 thanks to a 46-run partnership between Bichel and Christ Hartley, the wicketkeeper, before Lewis returned to trap Hartley in front of the wicket for 24. Bichel continued the repair work in a 42-run eighth wicket stand with Chris Simpson (32), taking Queensland beyond the 150 mark before Denton and Allan Wise (2 for 37) returned to wipe up the tail.Jon Moss and Adam Crosthwaite will have a tough task ahead of them on the second day as Victoria try and build a lead over Queensland.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

On a day whose events were purely of academic interest, thanks to cyclone-induced rain washing out the first three-and-a-half days of play, Sri Lanka dominated, grabbing a bit of the psychological advantage for the rest of the series. A probing spell of left-arm seam from Chaminda Vaas engineered an Indian collapse, for their lowest-ever total against Sri Lanka, before the batsmen, led by the classy Mahela Jayawardene, managed some useful practice ahead of the second Test at Delhi in four days’ time.The ease and flourish shown by the Sri Lankan batsmen was in stark contrast to the pottering nature of India’s display. The difference in run-rates today – India crawled along at a little over 1.5 runs an over while Sri Lanka motored at close to 4 – may lead one to believe that the pitch was changed midway through the day, but the Indian batsmen did themselves no favours by retreating further into their shells when the choke was applied. The pitch wasn’t keeping as low as last evening and it was left to Mahendra Singh Dhoni, on Test debut, to breathe some life into the innings and save them from ignominy.For most of last week, there was no respite from the rain. On the final morning, it was more like a drought, not water but runs, with the batsmen managing just 19 runs in the first 20 overs of the day, including a period when they endured 38 consecutive dot balls. Staggeringly, Vaas’s first 11 overs of the day were maidens – the greybeards in the crowd probably harked back to nearly 42 years back when Bapu Nadkarni sent down 23 consecutive maidens in this city – and both Muttiah Muralitharan, who equalled Anil Kumble’s record for 24 caught-and-bowled dismissals, and Malinga Bandara, the legspinner, posed plenty of problems.There was no record 35th hundred for Sachin Tendulkar, undone by a fastish offbreak from Murali after a painstaking 126-ball knock, and he was lucky not to fall much earlier, when Sangakkara failed to latch on to a nick in the second over of the day. Neither Sourav Ganguly nor VVS Laxman succeeded in breaking the shackles – a mix-up when Laxman took off for a non-existent single and Ganguly hesitated ended their partnership – and didn’t endeavour to use their feet against the spinners. Ganguly, who was given a warm reception when he walked out to bat, managed one well-timed cover-drive but soon chipped low to point where Tillakaratne Dilshan plucked an excellent catch.Countering Murali on a sluggish surface on one’s Test debut can be a nervy prospect, but Dhoni backed himself and wasn’t afraid to loft the ball over the fielders. In 54 deliveries, he scored more fours than what both Dravid and Tendulkar had managed in 231, and made sure he wasn’t bogged down by rotating the strike.Dhoni showed that one could score runs on the track and the point was reinforced, with finesse, by Jayawardene and Sangakkara. Neither Ajit Agarkar nor Irfan Pathan managed to exert any sort of control and Sourav Ganguly, coming on in the 10th over, was singled out for punishment with 16 runs in his two overs. Jayawardene’s velvet-smooth drives came as a whiff of fresh air, after most batsmen struggled to get the ball off the square, and he showed his full repertoire in his breezy 71. He shifted to one-day mode after tea, finding the boundary with ridiculous ease and often managing to adjust in the last minute. Just when he appeared all set for a hundred, in his first match in India, he was given out when the ball appeared to have only brushed the pad.Sangakkara and Thilan Samaraweera joined the fun and it was only Anil Kumble, who was unlucky not to have more than three wickets, who asked some searching questions. He foxed Marvan Atapattu with a short one that hurried on and deceived Sangakkara with a legbreak that stayed a bit low. The rains ensured that there was no chance of a result in this game, but based purely on today’s events Dravid’s boys will know that, despite the 6-1 hammering in the one-dayers, beating Sri Lanka in Tests, especially in subcontinental conditions, is a different kettle of fish.

IndiaRahul Dravid c Sangakkara b Vaas 32 (97 for 3)
Sachin Tendulkar lbw b Muralitharan 22 (108 for 4)
VVS Laxman run out (Tharanga/Sangakkara) 5 (109 for 5)
Sourav Ganguly c Dilshan b Fernando 5 (117 for 6)
Irfan Pathan c and b Muralitharan 0 (118 for 7)
Ajit Agarkar run out (Gunawardene/Sangakkara) 4 (128 for 8)
Anil Kumble c and b Vaas 9 (159 for 9)
Mahendra Singh Dhoni c Gunawardene b Bandara 30 (167)
Sri LankaAvishka Gunawardene c Dhoni b Pathan 4 (5 for 1)
Kumar Sangakkara lbw b Kumble 30 (62 for 2)
Mahela Jayawardene c Gambhir b Kumble 71 (124 for 3)
Marvan Atapattu b Kumble 7 (158 for 4)

Battling to get sufficient accommodation for the estimated 25,000 people expected in Guyana for the 2007 World Cup, Guyana is building new hotels, upgrading existing ones and establishing bed-and-breakfast homes.Karran Singh, the chairman of Guyana’s organising committee, admitted that he was worried about the small number of approved hotel rooms for teams, officials, media, sponsors and spectators. He said: “My main concern is our ability to accommodate – not loosely accommodate – but accommodating comfortably, that’s my big worry.”But with four new hotels being built and several others being upgraded in time for the eight matches to be played in Guyana, Singh expressed confidence that Guyana would be able to make available a total of 5,000 rooms plus accommodation provided by families and friends.Donald Sinclair, director of tourism studies at the University of Guyana, who is integrally involved in planning for Guyana’s hosting of the World Cup, said authorities would shortly outline the required standards for bread-and-breakfast accommodations at privately-owned houses. “Obviously, our stock of rooms will have to be complemented by the bed-and-breakfast arrangements and this has a lot of implications for some things that need to be happening now or perhaps things that should have started earlier.”Unlike other Caribbean countries that are tourism-dependent, Guyana would also have to recruit and train hospitality workers as well as upgrade entertainment venues such as bars and restaurants to acceptable international standards, said prominent Guyanese hotelier, Shawn McGrath.A brand new stadium, with a capacity for 15,000 people, is being built with assistance from the Indian government in time for the World Cup.

Dion Ebrahim, Zimbabwe’s former vice-captain, was arrested this morning for using a ZC-sponsored car two weeks after the board decided not to offer him a new contract. Ebrahim was held at Highlands Police Station in Harare for several hours. Beatrice Mtetwa, his lawyer, told journalists that the arrest was illegal as ZC had not paid Ebrahim his outstanding match fees.”They had him arrested because he was using their car,” Mtetwa said. “They are still holding him. I wrote their lawyers telling them that we will not release the car until he is paid his dues. They can only take the car with a court order. This case has nothing to do with the police. This is a civil case. It is an abuse of the police, and ZC have always done that.”A spokesman for the board told Cricinfo: “Ebrahim no longer has a contract with ZC and so there are no grounds for him to continue using ZC property. Because of the continued unlawful use of the ZC vehicle, ZC approached the police to retrieve from a former employee what belongs to it.”It later emerged that Tatenda Taibu, the former captain who quit international cricket, had also been contacted by the police. He told Associated Press: “I am not handing over the car until I have been paid all the money I am owed in several months’ salary and Test match fees amounting to a large sum of money.” Ebrahim said on his release: “Like Tatenda said, they are not getting the car until they pay me all the money I am due, which is a lot.”Ebrahim and Taibu are among a number of players who are still owed around $200,000 in backpay. ZC has repeatedly avoided settling, and even though they were supposed to be paid in US dollars, the players claim that ZC has only offered to settle in Zimbabwe dollars at a derisory exchange rate.”The issue of Ebrahim’s payment is separate from his continued use of the ZC vehicle,” the spokesman said. “However, for the record, Ebrahim collected part of his payment from us and rejected the other cheque saying it was not in the form he wanted, possibly foreign currency. As we have said before, we are under advice to pay in local currency. Thus, the payment that Ebrahim says is outstanding to him is only so because he has made it that.”Although the strike by leading players ended last week when almost all of them signed new contracts, the issue of backpay remains unresolved. Critics of the board claim that it has no money, and it is also reported that ZC has approached the ICC and asked for an advance of the money it will receive from the 2007 World Cup to help it meet its running costs.

Scorecard

Carnival came three weeks early for the Trinidad and Tobago team as they captured their first major title in 21 years to lift the 2005-06 Carib Beer Cup. They completed an emphatic 264-run victory over Barbados on the fourth day of the match at the Carlton Sports Club on Sunday.Resuming the day on 112 for 6 in pursuit of 412 to win, Barbados, the pre-series leaders, were bowled out for 147. Mervyn Dillon, the West Indies opening bowler, took three of the last four wickets to finish the innings with 5 for 36 off 21 overs – and a match haul of 8 for 65 which won him the Man-of-the-Match award.”I think we were starved of an opportunity to play for a regional first-class title for so long, and now being in position to win a title that was our motivation here,” Daren Ganga, the T&T captain, told reporters. “When we won the regional limited-overs competition, ironically in Barbados in 2004, I vowed that T&T should take that type of momentum and win a four-day competition. We did not win the title the next year, but two years down the line we have achieved it, and I think it was a matter of self belief.”T&T entered the match last Thursday knowing only victory could give them the title because Barbados needed only one point to seal the deal. “I think we knew that we were the underdogs, and I think that was a great position in which to be coming into a final game, and the guys were up for the challenge from the word ‘Go!’,” Ganga said. “Even from the day before the match, we knew that if we played good cricket, we would come out with the Cup at the end of the day.”Although Barbados’ decision to put T&T into bat surprised Ganga, he was thrilled, since he believed a competitive total would have been challenging for the home team to chase. “We should have gotten more runs in the first innings, considering the start to the innings we had,” he said. “In retrospect, in our planning, we knew most regional teams struggle to chase totals to win games. This was our plan, no matter what total we got on the board. We wanted to put pressure on them on the last day, or the second-last day. We knew we had a chance and the guys played well. We are still surprised how meekly Barbados played, but they were never put under pressure for the entire competition, so I thought that if we were to do this, we would have a chance. Most regional teams when they are put under pressure, they crack, and we did this, and came out on top.”Ganga concluded that the title triumph is an achievement similar to T&T’s qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Finals and the men’s indoor hockey World Championship.

The queue to fill the probable gap of Glenn McGrath in the Test series against South Africa has gained another member with Shane Warne pushing his Victoria team-mate Shane Harwood. Harwood is the state’s fourth-most successful bowler in the Pura Cup this season with 24 wickets at 25.83, but Warne said he worth considering alongside the veterans Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz.”Those guys will be knocking on the door and they’ve got some form as well,” Warne told . “I reckon Shane Harwood is a real chance. He’s been bowling unbelievably fast this year. Everyone who’s played against him is surprised by his pace, his hostility, his aggression – and no one’s seen him.” However, Harwood’s major weakness is his age – he is 31 while Gillespie is 30.Australia’s selectors have told McGrath, who is looking after his sick wife Jane, he needs to bowl for New South Wales if he wants to be considered for the second part of the tour. Mick Lewis, Stuart Clark, Nathan Bracken and Mitchell Johnson are the support staff behind Brett Lee for the one-dayers, which begin with a Twenty20 match on Friday, but an experienced campaigner is needed for the Tests starting on March 16.The tour has already been promoted through the crowd comments of Ricky Ponting, Justin Langer and Mark Boucher, who also said he lost respect for the Australians during the summer, and Warne expected to “have a few verbals” with the players and “some fun” with the supporters. “Whether [Boucher’s] just doing that to try and incite their crowd and make sure they really do get behind South Africa and give us a hard time,” Warne said. “I didn’t witness anything on the cricket field, or off the cricket field. We did the right thing as we do in every series and go and have a drink with the opposition.”Warne told the agency Australia have “definitely got the wood on” their opponents. “Especially in the tight situations, I think we’re all over South Africa, and I think they know that too,” he said. “They’re trying little tricks and trying to get under our skin.”

Sanath Jayasuriya will retire from all forms of cricket after the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies. He had earlier announced that the ongoing match against Pakistan at Kandy would be his last Test.”Not playing Test cricket will help me keep fit and allow me to play on until next year’s World Cup,” Jayasuriya told Reuters. “I will definitely retire from all cricket after that tournament. We are building a really good side for that tournament and I feel we have a real chance of winning, although we’ll have to work extremely hard and perform in all three departments of the game.”He said that the lead-up to his final Test had been emotional but felt that he had picked the right time to end his Test career. “It is sad having played for so long and having enjoyed so many good times with the team, but I feel my decision is good for Sri Lankan cricket as now is the right time to go,” said Jayasuriya. “I had been thinking about it for a while but I made a sudden decision after the first Test, as I felt the time had come for a youngster to be given a chance like I was.”I am fit and I am still performing. Now is the right time to hand over to a player that deserves a chance – I hope the youngster will make use of that. The gap between international and domestic cricket in Sri Lanka is very big and they need to have lots of experience to develop properly.”

Ashantha de Mel, the newly appointed Sri Lankan chairman of national selectors, has alleged that Sanath Jayasuriya was forced to retire from Test cricket. He has also blamed his country’s cricket establishment for the “mess” that the national side is in. Sri Lanka’s fortunes have dipped significantly since an interim committee took over last year – they slipped from second to sixth in the ICC’s one-day rankings and from fourth to seventh in Tests – and de Mel has criticised Tom Moody, the national coach, for failing to deliver.Speaking to the , de Mel, 46, claimed that Jayasuriya’s surprise decision to quit Test cricket was a result of pressure from Lalith Kaluperuma, a former selection head. “I have very reliable information that he was forced to retire,” de Mel said. “I was surprised when I heard that he was going to retire. If a player wants to retire he does that before a series, but on this instance he was forced to retire and for me it’s totally wrong. They should have at least respected the man because he has done so much for the country, but on this instance he was basically asked to pack his bags and go home.”De Mel backed Jayasuriya’s ability to perform in the national side even at the age of 36. “I can tell you that he’s undoubtedly the fittest in the team and if you take the current crop of players and ask them to do a 100-meter sprint he will come first,” he said. “When the selectors knew that Marvan [Atapattu] is not going to make it to England with his back problem they should have continued with Jayasuriya. He just played a county season in England last year and knows the conditions well and is the only Sri Lankan to have scored a double hundred in England. What more credentials do you want?”De Mel hinted at a possible request to Jayasuriya to return to the Test fold if Sri Lanka’s inexperienced openers failed in the first Test against England at Lord’s on Thursday. “Sri Lanka now has two inexperienced openers in Upul Tharanga and Michael Van Dort and any bowling attack would love to bowl at them instead of Jayasuriya, even when he is out of form. All I can say is that the selectors got their onions mixed up,” he said. “If these guys don’t do well in the first Test it’s prudent to send Sanath to play the remainder of the series. He’s a proven player and still has a lot of cricket in him.”On Moody’s role as coach, de Mel said the Australian – who is paid more than his predecessors Dav Whatmore and John Dyson – had failed to come up with results. “I wonder whether Tom is the right candidate. He’s basically a coach who speaks of strategy,” he said. “Things like field placing, weakness and strengths of the opposition. Someone like Mahela [Jayawardene] has a problem with his foot movement at times and I wonder whether Tom Moody can correct that. Look at Dilhara Fernando; he has a no ball problem. The answer is to drop him from the side and ask him to rectify the problem on his own and come back to the side.”If we take John Dyson he was very professional. As chairman of selectors I had a lot of arguments and disagreements with him but he provided the results,” de Mel added. “You’ve got to face the fact that during John’s time we were number two in the world. His only blemish came against Australia, the number one team in the world. I can’t understand why a man who had produced results was sent home.”

West Indies have made two changes for the final two one-day internationals against India in Trinidad. Wavell Hinds replaces the injuried Shivnarine Chanderpaul while Sewnarine Chattergoon, a left-hand opener, comes in for Runako Morton.Scans after the third ODI at Warner Park in St Kitts revealed that Chanderpaul suffered a small hamstring tear to his left leg while batting. Though not available for the ODIs, Chanderpaul will remain with the squad to receive treatment from Stephen Partridge, the team physiotherapist.Chattergoon made his debut in the recent series against Zimbabwe and replaces Morton who has struggled to cement a spot at the top of the order despite a string of chances. Hinds, meanwhile, has not played for West Indies since the tour of New Zealand in March.Squad Brian Lara (capt), Chris Gayle, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Wavell Hinds, Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Smith, Dwayne Bravo, Carlton Baugh (wk), Corey Collymore, Fidel Edwards, Jerome Taylor, Ian Bradshaw, Dave Mohammed.

Gloucestershire have announced that Ian Harvey has signed a contract to keep him at the county until the end of the summer.”It’s fantastic news to be back in the side for the rest of the season and it’s great to be offered the opportunity to stay on,” Harvey said. “I see this as a massive bonus for myself and my family, it is really good news, great for myself and great for the team. Hopefully we can continue our successful start to the season and get some more trophies in the cabinet.””Ian has made a terrific contribution both on and off the field for the first part of the season,” commented Tom Richardson, the county’s chief executive. “It’s really good to have him back in the team and we look forward to continuing the results of the season so far. Our supporters have been really pleased to see Ian back at the club and I am sure he will continue to add a lot of value to the side.”