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The ICC has extended the deadline for naming the World Twenty20 squads, although the chances of Kevin Pietersen being included for England remain very slim.The original deadline was Saturday but boards have now been given until August 24 to submit their 15-man lists for the tournament which begins on September 18, after the ICC received requests “from several of its members”.It is understood that the ECB was one of the boards who asked about the possibility of an extension with the ICC but that was to avoid a clash with the final Test against South Africa which starts on Thursday. The ECB was also believed to be happy to abide by the Saturday deadline if required.Sri Lanka, who are currently in the midst of the SLPL, are another country who requested an extension as their domestic Twenty20 tournament will help determine selection for the World Twenty20.It is now expected that England will name their squad on Tuesday, following the conclusion of the Test series, although the party, it is believed, was decided during a selection meeting at Edgbaston last week.Although Pietersen offered an apology to the ECB on Tuesday night for what he termed ‘provocative’ text messages to South African players it was met by a cool response from the management and Andrew Strauss. His apology followed the YouTube video on Saturday night when he made himself available for all international cricket having previously retired from limited-overs cricket which led to him being unavailable for Twenty20.”The truth is a lot has happened over the last seven days,” Strauss said. “The England team has been in the news for the wrong reasons. We all want to move forward but there are some underlying issues on trust and respect that don’t get dealt with over night and it’s going to take quite a long time to overcome those.”Hugh Morris, the managing director of England cricket, said lots of negotiations remained. “We are in receipt of Kevin’s apology, but further discussions need to take place to establish whether it is possible to regain the trust and mutual respect required to ensure all parties are able to focus on playing cricket and to maintain the unity of purpose that has served us so well in recent years.”Five countries – Australia, India, New Zealand, South Africa and Bangladesh – have already named their squads for the World Twenty20.

Match facts

Rangana Herath is Test cricket’s leading wicket taker over the past year, but can he transfer his home form to Australian conditions?•Associated Press

December 14-18, Bellerive Oval
Start time 1030 (2330 GMT)

Big Picture

For Australian cricket fans, it will be difficult not to think that the main course has been served before the entrée. The battle with South Africa for the No.1 Test ranking has come and gone, all before the most popular part of Australia’s international cricket season, the Christmas and New Year period. But as New Zealand showed with their victory in Hobart last summer, classic Test matches can pop up at any time, against any opponent, and now it is Sri Lanka’s turn to attempt to produce the unexpected.It is not that Sri Lanka are a weak Test team, far from it, but their record away from home is disappointing. Leaving aside Bangladesh, Sri Lanka have won only two away Tests in the past five years, and they are yet to win a Test in Australia. But they will take inspiration from their most recent Test in Hobart, when Kumar Sangakkara was driving Sri Lanka towards an incredible chase of 507 when he was wrongly given out caught off his shoulder. Had the DRS been around, it might well have become one of the greatest Test victories of all time.Sangakkara is back, and along with Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan forms a formidable batting line-up. Sri Lanka’s main issue is finding a way to take 20 wickets. But for all the talk of their less-than-threatening seam attack – Rodney Hogg said this week that ”Sri Lanka have the worst new ball attack that has landed on our shores ever” – Shaminda Eranga showed against the Australians on debut in Colombo last year that he is a bowler to watch out for, and he should enjoy the Australian conditions far more than those at home. Much will also depend on how Rangana Herath transfers his home form to the Australian pitches.The Sri Lankan attack will be coming up against an evolving batting order. Australia’s first Test in the post-Ponting era will also be their first with Phillip Hughes at No.3 and Shane Watson at No.4. It is an order they hope can take them through all of next year and a pair of Ashes series, but if there are any cracks in the plan or nerves amongst the batsmen, it is up to Sri Lanka to find them. Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey at Nos.5 and 6 could hardly be in finer touch, so it is all the more important that Sri Lanka don’t let Australia’s top order feast.

Form guide

(Most recent first)
Australia LDDWD
Sri Lanka LWDDW

In the spotlight

Phillip Hughes is only 24, but he has already had a number of incarnations in Australia’s Test team. The previous one ended in Hobart last December, when he couldn’t avoid edging to the cordon off Chris Martin, a recurring theme in that series against New Zealand. His return will come at the same venue, albeit batting at No.3 instead of opening, and facing one of Test cricket’s less imposing seam attacks. All the more reason he must make use of this opportunity. Over the past year, Hughes has worked hard to improve his leg-side play and widen his scoring areas, but whether he can translate that to Test cricket is one of the big questions to be answered in this series.Who is the leading Test wicket taker over the past 12 months? Graeme Swann? Vernon Philander? James Anderson? No, no and no. It’s Rangana Herath, who since this time last year has collected 64 Test victims at 20.64. Although it is true that much of his success has come in home conditions – he took 20 wickets in the two recent Tests against New Zealand in Sri Lanka, and 12 against England in Galle – he will still be a challenging opponent for Australia’s batsmen. In his newspaper column on Thursday, Michael Clarke wrote that Herath’s accuracy and clever variations made him a difficult prospect, and in his first Test in Australia, in Hobart this week, Herath should take note of Shane Warne’s oft-quoted advice: “If it seams, it spins”.

Team news

Hughes has replaced Ponting in the side and will bat at No.3, with Shane Watson moving down to No.4. Australia’s only real question was which bowler to leave out, and Michael Clarke announced on the day before the match that Mitchell Johnson would carry the drinks.Australia 1 Ed Cowan, 2 David Warner, 3 Phillip Hughes, 4 Shane Watson, 5 Michael Clarke (capt), 6 Michael Hussey, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 Peter Siddle, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Ben Hilfenhaus, 11 Nathan Lyon.Dimuth Karunaratne will partner Tillakaratne Dilshan at the top of the order, with Tharanga Paranavitana having been dropped after struggling for his best form for some time now. Nuwan Kulasekara will play after sitting out of the tour match in Canberra, where Shaminda Eranga was the best of the bowlers. They will be joined by Chanaka Welegedara in the pace attack, with no room for Dhammika Prasad.Sri Lanka 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 2 Dimuth Karunaratne, 3 Kumar Sangakkara, 4 Mahela Jayawardene (capt), 5 Thilan Samaraweera, 6 Angelo Mathews, 7 Prasanna Jayawardene (wk), 8 Nuwan Kulasekara, 9 Rangana Herath, 10 Shaminda Eranga, 11 Chanaka Welegedara.

Pitch and conditions

There are showers forecast for the first four days of the game, which won’t make conditions easy for the batsmen, especially on a Bellerive Oval surface that has been relaid this year and has resulted in some awfully seam-friendly conditions in Sheffield Shield matches. In the three games there this season, the totals in the first innings for the team batting first have been 112, 95 and 67. However, the curator Marcus Pamplin is confident that the Test won’t suffer the same fate.”With such a major restoration of over 70 cubic metres of soil of new black soil into the wicket table, the process of the clay to settle down will take time, but we believe we are in a far better position for a more consistent surface than at the start of the season,” Pamplin said. “On the back of a good cricket pitch for the last Sheffield Shield game we think the Test pitch should play better and provide a good contest.”

Stats and trivia

• Sri Lanka have only beaten Australia once in a Test match, in Kandy in 1999. The only remaining player from either side who was part of that game is Mahela Jayawardene
• Sangakkara needs another 107 runs to reach 10,000 in Tests and become the 11th man to the milestone
• This will be Australia’s first Test in Hobart without Ricky Ponting since 1995, when David Boon was the only Tasmanian in the side against Pakistan

Quotes

“None of us will be taking Sri Lanka’s bowlers for granted even though they may be largely unknown in Australia. It was our batting which let us down during the last Test in Perth.”

Simon Jones, the former England fast bowler who has seen his career punctuated by injury, will attempt to return to red-ball cricket next season after renegotiating his contract with Glamorgan.Jones, who will be 34 on Christmas day, helped England win the Ashes in 2005 but has suffered with knee problems ever since he ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament in Brisbane in 2002.He has played only three County Championship matches since 2008 but now feels he can manage his workload and has agreed a deal for six first-class matches in 2013.”I’ve agreed to do these four-day games because I don’t want to leave anything in the tank,” he told . “It’s a continuous thing, looking after my knee. I have to do the right preparation and rest up properly. It’s hard work but it keeps me playing the game I love so it’s not a hardship.”Jones’ Test career was limited to 18 appearances, during which he took 59 wickets at 28.23 and now, feeling back to fitness, he is hoping to help Glamorgan mount a promotion push next season. “I still feel I’ve got a couple of years left in me,” Jones said. “And that’s why I’ve agreed to do these four-day games.”It’s one of those things. I just want to get everything out of my system so when I finish I know I’ve done everything I can in the game and then I can relax and just chill with the kids. I have to play six four-day games and obviously a number of one-day games as well, which I’m backing myself to do. It’s the best I’ve felt in a long, long time.”Glamorgan are short of a quality seam bowler, having seen James Harris move to Middlesex, leaving their attack mostly comprised of young and relatively inexperienced bowlers. If Jones can regain form with the red ball, his experience will complement Graham Wagg with the new ball.Jones has taken 125 first-class wickets for Glamorgan, the club where he began his career in 1998. He left for Worcestershire in 2008, where he claimed another 42 wickets at 18.02, before moving to Hampshire. But his time on the south coast was thwarted with injury and he played only two first-class matches before securing a pay-as-you-play loan deal back at Glamorgan in 2011, primarily for one-day cricket.

Samit Patel, the England and Nottinghamshire allrounder, has been awarded an England increment contract for 2012-13. Patel has played three T20 internationals and three Tests in the current contract period, and that has earned him a total of 21 points (five for a Test, and two for a T20 or ODI). Non-contracted players are awarded an increment contract once a player reaches 20 points during the 12-month contract period.”This contract reflects the contribution Samit has made to our T20 and Test teams this winter and we congratulate him on his achievement,” ECB national selector Geoff Miller said.Patel was part of the England squad on their tour of India and made 69 runs in four innings in three Tests. He was left out of the fourth Test in Nagpur. In the two-match Twenty20 series on the tour, he made 24 and 9.

Sachin Tendulkar will return as the Mumbai Indians captain for the sixth edition of the IPL, which will commence on April 3. Tendulkar, who will turn 40 during the course of IPL 6, had given up the Mumbai franchise’s captaincy after IPL 2011 and his India team-mate, Harbhajan Singh, had taken over.ESPNcricinfo understands that Tendulkar agreed to lead the team this year after Harbhajan, who had captained the franchise owned by the Reliance Industries Ltd in the Champions League 2011 and IPL 2012, expressed his inability to continue in the role.The development on the eve of the player auction puts to rest all speculation that Mumbai Indians are likely to go all out for Ricky Ponting or Michael Clarke during Sunday’s auction, as a captaincy candidate.Tendulkar, who missed the first seven games of IPL’s inaugural edition due to injury, was at Mumbai Indians’ helm since its inception. After he passed on the reins to Harbhajan, Mumbai Indians won their maiden title when they claimed the Champions League T20 title in 2011. In IPL 2012, under Harbhajan, Mumbai Indians made it to the knockouts where they lost to Chennai Super Kings in the Eliminator.

The ECB is to introduce further drug testing as a result of the death of Tom Maynard in June 2012. An inquest on Tuesday heard that samples taken from Maynard’s body contained high levels of alcohol and traces of ecstasy and cocaine consistent with that of a “daily or habitual” drug user. In her summing up at the end of the inquest, the coroner, Dr Fiona Wilcox, urged cricket’s authorities to test hair samples in order to detect drug use.Now the ECB and the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA), the players’ union, aim to increase the amount of drug testing with a view to not just catching drug cheats but also helping those who may be suffering from addiction.The ECB currently carries out around 200 tests a year. That means they test somewhere between 35-40% of the registered professional players in county cricket. Last year one player, Abdur Rehman, who was playing for Somerset, tested positive for cannabis following an in-competition test.Now, however, they appear set to carry out more tests. While they have not committed themselves to hair-sample testing – one of the more effective methods of looking for drug use over a longer period – the ECB, in co-operation with the PCA, has agreed to develop an out-of-competition testing programme to encompass recreational drugs. These measures will supplement the ECB’s existing anti-doping programme, which involves in- and out-of-competition testing through UK Anti-Doping, in compliance with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code, and the financial support provided to the PCA for player education and support programmes.England players are tested, in addition, as part of the ICC’s own anti-doping programme for all international cricketers, which are also WADA compliant. To date, no England player has tested positive under these programmes.”More testing will improve our chances of helping players with a problem which is as much societal as it is sporting,” PCA chief executive, Angus Porter, told the BBC. “We have a comprehensive programme of testing in and out of competition for performance-enhancing drugs – very much in line with the WADA code – testing in competition and also testing for recreational drugs.”What we are now in discussions with the ECB on is whether we need to extend the testing for recreational drugs to out of competition and I think we both think that that is a good idea. We are working on plans for that and investigating the practicality, following sports such as rugby and football which have done similar things.”We all think that the use of recreational drugs out of competition needs to be thought of very differently from performance-enhancing. The purpose of the taker is very different – they are not cheating and need to be thought of differently and it is too easy for people to confuse this.”As things stand, there is no mandatory ban for players caught with recreational drugs – including ecstasy and cocaine – taken from out-of-competition samples. The PCA hopes that would remain the case and, in the first instance at least, a player would be referred for treatment, counselling and support, with suspensions only applied to repeat offenders. In-competition testing is defined as being from 6am local time on the first day of a match up until one hour following the completion of the match.Surrey conducted an internal enquiry following Maynard’s death, which was ruled to be accidental after he was found on the tracks of the London Underground last summer. The club’s chief executive, Richard Gould, told ESPNcricinfo that he was satisfied that Maynard’s drug use was a “one off”. Team-mates Jade Dernbach and Rory Hamilton-Brown both insisted that they had no knowledge that Maynard had ever taken drugs.In a statement following the inquest verdict of accidental death, the ECB said: “While the ECB accepts that recreational drug use is a part of modern society, we do not condone it and will take all reasonable steps to prevent its use within the game. We also believe we have a responsibility to educate all our players and are committed to supporting any player who needs help in this area.”In the light of today’s verdict, ECB and Surrey CCC would like to reiterate that this incident was a terrible human tragedy and again extend our condolences to the Maynard family and to Tom Maynard’s many friends and colleagues within the professional game.”ECB and Surrey CCC would like to end by echoing the statement issued by the Maynard family earlier today. The results of this inquest do not define Tom Maynard or alter in any way the tragedy of his passing. Tom was a great man and a great cricketer and will be remembered forever by everyone who had the privilege to know him.”

Alexei Kervezee has announced his retirement from international cricket for Netherlands in order to focus on his career with Worcestershire with a view to pushing his case for an England place.The Netherlands board has called Kervezee’s decision “extremely disappointing” and added there would be a chance for him to return in the future while the 23-year-old batsman, who had represented Netherlands in age-group tournaments since the age of 13, said it was a difficult call to make but believes he has to commit full-time to the county scene.”It’s a decision that I haven’t taken lightly and have thought long and hard about over the last few months but feel at this time in my career it is right for me in order to pursue my ultimate goal,” Kervezee said. “I want clarity in my mind as to what I’m working to and for, where I want to be and what I need to do to get there.”It’s always been an honour and pleasure representing Netherlands Cricket and something I never took lightly. I owe a great deal to Dutch cricket and playing for them is something that I will forever cherish, but at this point in my career I feel I need to focus on my future at Worcestershire.”Jeroen Smit, the Cricket Netherlands chairman of selectors, said: “This is an extremely disappointing day for Dutch Cricket to be losing a player of Alexei’s capabilities in a crucial World Cup Qualification year.”Peter Drinnen [the coach], Richard Cox [the CEO] and I have spent many hours in recent times attempting to persuade Alexei against this decision. Alexei has been an outstanding player for Netherlands and he knows our door is always open if his England aspirations don’t materialise but for now it’s time for us to move on and to pursue our stated aim of qualification for the 2015 World Cup.”Kervezee has played 49 first-class matches for Worcestershire and has an average of 32.93 including four hundreds and a top-score of 155. In his first full season in 2010 he scored 1190 Championship runs although struggled to match that return in his next two campaigns with 2012 being a particular battle as he played just seven matches and averaged 25.Internationally, Kervezee played 39 ODIs for Netherlands with a top-score of 92 and 10 Twenty20s.

Match facts

Friday, April 12, 2013
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Welcome back: Virender Sehwag’s return will boost Delhi Daredevils•AFP

Big Picture

Before the IPL began, if a poll was taken to predict which team would lose its first three matches, Delhi Daredevils wouldn’t have got many votes. Despite the loss of Kevin Pietersen and Ross Taylor, the table-toppers from the previous season seemed to have enough firepower in the line-up. The absence of their spearhead Morne Morkel, busy with the domestic competition in South Africa, and Virender Sehwag, who was struggling with a bad back, set them back further. Morkel returned for the previous match but couldn’t stop Mumbai Indians’ marauding batsmen.As they look to snap their losing streak, Daredevils will be boosted by the return of Sehwag, which means they will be able to field a full-strength line-up (among players available for this season) for the first time. What will also encourage them will be the fact that they are up against Sunrisers Hyderabad, generally regarded as one of the weaker teams in the competition despite their two wins from the first three matches.Sunrisers have begun surprisingly well, largely on the back of a formidable bowling unit. Dale Steyn continues to show why he’s the premier bowler in world cricket, Amit Mishra continues to show why he has been such a success in the IPL over the past six seasons, Thisara Perera has sparkled with both bat and ball, and even Ishant Sharma, usually not the most reliable of bowlers in limited-overs, has been tidy. Their batting isn’t exactly fear-inducing though, with several little-knowns who are unlikely to be consistent match-winners.

Watch out for …

Daredevils’ spin attack: One of the big weaknesses in Daredevils’ squad last season was the lack of experienced spinners. They tried to address that by recruiting South Africa’s Johan Botha and Sri Lanka’s Jeevan Mendis, both of whom can bat as well. Neither of them have impressed in the chances they got so far. Will they turn to another overseas allrounder, Roelof van der Merwe, to partner Shahbaz Nadeem or will they give 20-year-old left-arm spinner Pawan Negi a go?Kumar Sangakkara: In the absence of Shikhar Dhawan, Sunrisers’ batting is heavily dependent on their foreign stars. While Perera and Cameron White have contributed, their captain Sangakkara hasn’t yet hit his stride. Given the limited number of game-changing batsmen in the line-up, Sunrisers need a big innings from Sangakkara soon.

Stats and trivia

• With 45 wickets for Daredevils, Morne Morkel is just one wicket behind Amit Mishra, the leading wicket-taker for the franchise
• Thisara is among the most nomadic of IPL players, having represented four different franchises in four seasons: he began with Chennai Super Kings in 2010, moved to Kochi Tuskers in 2011, switched to Mumbai Indians in 2012 and is currently with Sunrisers
• Over the past week, Sangakkara became the second wicketkeeper, after Pakistan’s Kamran Akmal, to complete 100 dismissals in Twenty20s

Quotes

“Viru (Sehwag) is improving, he is getting better with every passing day. But we will take a decision on him only tomorrow. There is still 24 hours for the match, so there is plenty of time for him to be fully fit.”

As Ranchi debuted as an IPL venue on Sunday, hosting a low-scoring game in which Kolkata Knight Riders got the better of the daunting Royal Challengers Bangalore batting line-up to register a five-wicket win, it was the pitch that was in the spotlight the most. Royal Challengers managed just 115 for 9, but their left-arm spinner Murali Kartik said his batsmen ended just about 10 short of a defendable total given the conditions. Knight Riders allrounder Jacques Kallis also said batting was difficult on the pitch, which “wasn’t ideal for T20 cricket”.”It looked a bit greenish from far but was slightly on the slowish side and double-paced more than anything else,” Kartik said after the match. “Sometimes you never know what is the best total on this kind of surface. I thought possibly 10 more runs would have been a fighting total. One-twenty-five was what we were looking at.”Knight Riders could never really get going in the chase either, and edged home with just four balls to spare. Kallis, who was named Man of the Match for his 41 off 45 balls and 2 for 17, said: “Probably [a target of] 130-135 would have been tough. It wasn’t an ideal wicket for T20 cricket. But those were the conditions given and I think we played better under the conditions than RCB.”Kartik and Kallis were involved in a bit of an exchange over how much the batsmen were backing up; Kartik warned Manoj Tiwary and Kallis about backing up too much in the 16th over of the chase, but ball after ball they kept inching forward until things got a bit heated and the umpire had to intervene.Talking about the incident, Kartik said: “Look, at the end of the day when we [bowlers] miss even by a fraction of a line, it’s called a no-ball. When the lines are the same and the margins are the same, you can’t be stealing a yard or two. I don’t think such things are acceptable. I don’t know how people accept it, I can’t accept it. When I am supposed to be within the line when I deliver, the batsmen are supposed to be within the crease. And again, the margins there are minimal when you look at direct hits and stuff.”The loss leaves Royal Challengers with 16 points in 14 games, behind Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians on the points table. They have two matches to go, and it could be a close-run thing whether they make the playoffs even if they win both their remaining games. However both these games will be at home and, despite their ordinary record on the road, Royal Challengers are yet to lose at the Chinnaswamy Stadium this season.”It’s going to be a must-win situation for us now I guess,” Kartik said. “And since no one else is going to do us any favours, we need to take care of ourselves. But we are still in a good position, we are still among the top four and hopefully [will register] a couple of wins at home.”

The IPL governing council has appointed a three-member commission comprising two former high court judges and BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale to look into the complaints against India Cements, the owners of the Chennai Super Kings, Gurunath Meiyappan, the Super Kings official arrested on charges of betting, and Jaipur IPL Pvt Ltd, the owners of Rajasthan Royals.The two judges are Justice T Jayaram Chouta, a former judge of the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu High Courts, and Justice R Balasubramanian, former judge of the Tamil Nadu High Court.”The Commission will be initiating the adjudication proceedings at the earliest,” the BCCI said in a release.The composition of the commission is different to what BCCI president N Srinivasan had announced in Kolkata, where he said it would be formed by two BCCI officials and one independent member. This commission, Srinivasan said, would be responsible for investigating and deciding whether his son-in-law Gurunath was an owner of the Super Kings franchise.The commission will also conduct an inquiry into the owners of the Rajasthan Royals franchise, three of whose players – Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan – were arrested on allegations of spot-fixing.