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India’s comprehensive innings and 77 run loss to Sri Lanka at Colombo has consigned them to eighth place on the ICC Test Championship table.India (0.69 points per series average, down from 0.77) exchange places with Pakistan (0.73), who had earlier slipped to eighth behind their nearest rivals after drawing their away series with England in June.Sri Lanka maintain fourth position with their 2-1 series victory, improving their average to 1.08, and thereby moving clear of the West Indies who had been on level terms with them at an average of 1.00 prior to the completion of this series.The outcome of this latest series overrides the 0-0 result of the two-Test series played between Sri Lanka and India in 1997/98.Sri Lanka’s next opportunity to close the gap on England (1.14), who are presently in third, will come when they host the West Indies in November. They can draw level on the table with victory in that series, which will be the first between the two sides on Sri Lankan soil to consist of more than one Test.Before then, their only assignment is an Asian Test Championship fixture against Bangladesh, which will not affect the standings on the table as it is a one-off match.India’s next opportunity, meanwhile, to regain seventh position will come in October when Pakistan host New Zealand. As they drew their last series against the New Zealanders in Pakistan in 1996/97, a loss would see the home side slip to 0.67, just behind India once more.India can control their own fate in November, when a reversal of their 2-0 series loss in South Africa in 1996/97 would also ensure that they would shrug off eighth place.The next series to count towards the ICCTC starts when Zimbabwe host South Africa later this month. It will be a fresh opportunity for points for both sides as neither of the last two meetings between the sides in Zimbabwe qualifies for consideration under the ICCTC rules.The teams played a one-off match in 1995/96 and their subsequent meeting at Harare in 1999/00 was part of a two-Test home and away series which, for the purposes of the ICCTC, is seen as having been played in South Africa.However, no matter the result, the respective positions of the two teams on the current table will not be affected.

Mumbai batsman Hiken Shah has challenged his suspension from official cricket by the BCCI in the Bombay High Court. The board had suspended Shah with immediate effect in mid July after he was found guilty of having “approached” a Mumbai team-mate.On behalf of Shah, advocate Som Sinha filed a writ petition in the court last week. A two-judge bench of Justice VM Kanade and Justice BP Colabawalla heard the matter on August 4. The judges didn’t grant any immediate relief to the petitioner but have asked the BCCI to file a written reply to the objections raised by Shah’s counsel. The case will next be heard again on August 11.ESPNcricinfo understands that Shah’s petition is based on the fact that he has been suspended without providing any details in writing about his alleged breaches. Shah is also understood to have noted in his plea that he had been granted permission to travel to the UK to play for the minor counties.While announcing Shah’s suspension, the BCCI release had noted: “Hiken Shah made a corrupt approach to one of his colleagues from first-class cricket, who is also a member of one of the IPL teams. The approached player immediately informed the incident to his franchise team. The franchise team followed the process of informing the incident to the Anti-Corruption Unit of the BCCI. Based on the information, BCCI President, Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya, instructed ACU to conduct an immediate inquiry into the matter.”After a detailed inquiry into the reported incident, the inquiry commissioner found Hiken Shah guilty of committing breach of Articles 2.1.1; 2.1.2; and 2.1.4 of the BCCI Anti-Corruption Code for participants and recommended their provisions to the BCCI President.”Shah, meanwhile, had stressed he was innocent. “All I will say is I am innocent and I will fight to prove it,” he had told ESPNcricinfo.

England’s captain, Michael Vaughan, continued his poor recent form when he fell for a sixth-ball duck in his first match of the season for Yorkshire against the students of Bradford and Leeds UCCE.Vaughan managed only 123 runs at 20.50 during England’s recent series victory in New Zealand, but any hopes of starting the home summer with a bang vanished when he was caught behind off the bowling of the left-arm new-ball bowler Harry Gurney.Gurney, 21, has played just one first-class match for his native Leicestershire, against Northamptonshire last September. One consolation for Vaughan was that, although his dismissal was embarrassing, it won’t count against him in the official averages as this fixture does not have first-class status.Vaughan’s duck came a day after he said he wanted to stop opening for the England Test side and drop down to No. 3 in a swop with Andrew Strauss. By the close of the first day, his Yorkshire team-mates had made light of his failure, reaching 384 for 6 thanks to a century from Jacques Rudolph.Yorkshire’s first Championship match isn’t until April 23, when Hampshire come to Headingley for a First Division clash. England’s three-Test home series against New Zealand, meanwhile, starts on May 15 at Lord’s..

Jesse Ryder, Ireland’s overseas player from New Zealand, is unlikely to appear for them again after failing to turn up for the washed out Friends Provident match against Surrey at The Oval. Coach Phil Simmons has yet to find out the reasons behind Ryder’s absence.Ryder sent a text message saying he’d missed his flight, but Simmons said: “[I] have heard nothing since. I don’t know what the real position is until I speak to his agent, but he should have been here. It’s not acceptable to me, and I don’t think he’ll play for Ireland again.”An ICU spokesman told Cricinfo that Ryder had been due to catch an early morning flight from Liverpool, where he plays his club cricket for New Brighton, to London but sent the message to Simmons at about 10.30 on Sunday morning saying he hadn’t made it.Ryder, who signed for Ireland earlier this month, has indicated he’ll turn his back on New Zealand cricket and try to forge a career in England.Ireland have drafted in Gary Kidd, a 21-year-old left-arm spinner, to their squad as cover. “I haven’t ruled out bringing in someone else for the final two games against Middlesex and Glamorgan,” said Simmons. “We have a budget already in place for those games. Ideally someone based in England would be our preferred option.”It’ll give me a chance to take a look at Gary, whom I’ve heard good reports about. It’s an opportunity for him to impress me, and I know he’s a player who Adrian Birrell had a high opinion of.”Kidd was in the middle of a match for MCC Young Cricketers against Northamptonshire 2nd XI when he got the call from Simmons. “It came out of the blue. I was told to get to The Oval as fast as I could, and I didn’t hesitate,” he said. “I took 2 for 60 in 21 overs [for MCC] and felt that the ball was coming out well. Hopefully I’ll get an opportunity to show Phil what I’m capable of.”Kidd has one cap for Ireland, playing against MCC in 2004. He was a reserve for Ireland’s World Cup squad and has played successfully in two Under-19 World Cups and for Ireland A in the EurAsia Series in Abu Dhabi.

The long overdue accounts for the old Kenyan Cricket Association, covering the year to the end of 2004, have now been submitted to the ICC and club officials, and they show the level of chaos inside the board in the months leading up to the elections which saw the removal of the old regime.The most revealing part of the accounts are the notes by Shah Patel & Company, the Nairobi-based auditors.The five-page document reveals that many transactions cannot be verified because of missing documentation. “A number of transactions … were not adequately supported by invoices,” the report stated. “As a result of our queries we subsequently received a file containing random invoices not filed in any particular order. We have noted a very large amount of expenses accrued at the year end. Since most of these are not adequately supported, we are unable to comment on the correctness of these expenses.”Critics of the old regime, who were unhappy with the relationship between the KCA and Media Plus, the rights company owned by Sharad Ghai, would have been interested to note that there were “a number of cash payments to Media Plus Sports Ltd for which no supporting documents were available. The payment voucher, which must be authorised by two signatories as per the Association’s protocol has only one signature, that of Mr Ghai.”The report continued: “Media Plus Sports Ltd has been paid US$28,000 as ground expense. This payment is besides the contracted public expenses paid to Media Plus Sports Ltd. There is no authorisation on the payment voucher except a signature by Mr Ghai. The explanation we received was that the Association had to pay Nairobi Gymkhana and Mr Ghai made the payment hence these payments were a reimbursement to Mr Ghai. No documentary evidence was available to support this.”The auditors also stated that they failed “to understand how no supporting documents are available for large amounts spent”. Some items of more than US$20,000 have no documentation at all.While there is no suggestion of anything untoward, what the audit does highlight is the lack of financial control exercised by the old KCA.The new board, which assumed control in May 2005, inherited debts in excess of US$500,000 with no meaningful assets.

Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi have agreed to play for the Asian XI team in a three-match series against a World XI in Houston between June 14 and 19. It had earlier been reported that both players had withdrawn from the event, but Hasan Jalil, the organiser, visited Jamaica during the second Test and persuaded them to change their mind.”I personally met with Younis and Afridi and convinced them we would like to have them play for the Asian XI with other Pakistani players and they agreed,” Jalil told reporters. “Inzamam-ul-Haq was keen that Younis and Afridi should play and now we have the best Pakistani players coming to Houston for the matches.”Inzamam, Younis, Afridi, Yousuf Youhana, Abdul Razzaq and Shoaib Akhtar would all be playing in the Asian XI along with Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Irfan Pathan, Yuvraj Singh, as well as Sri Lankans Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara.Jalil added that he hoped to be able to bring in Brian Lara and other West Indies players.

Shaharyar Khan, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, has written to international and domestic umpires in the country, asking them to report bowlers with suspect actions. According to a report in The News, Shaharyar also provided umpires with a list of bowlers to observe, which included Shoaib Akhtar, Shabbir Ahmed, Riaz Afridi and Junaid Zia.In recent times, a number of Pakistani bowlers at the international level have been reported for a suspect action and advised to undergo remedial measures. In an attempt to avoid similar situations in the future, Shaharyar asked umpires to correct bowlers before it was too late, and to do their job without fear of criticism.While the ICC has put guidelines in place to define suspect actions, what has been notable is the reaction to umpires who report bowlers. In a recent case, Chris Broad, the match referee who reported Muttiah Muralitharan after Sri Lanka’s series against Australia, came under attack for socialising with Australian cricketers. While the accusation was on a different charge, it was widely perceived as an attempt to put Broad under pressure.

Essex County Cricket Club begin their Frizzell County Championship Division1 campaign with a home match against near neighbours and rivals Middlesex,commencing on Good Friday. The game runs over the full Easter weekend andEssex, as part of their on-going Kids Into Cricket campaign with associatesponsors Essex & Suffolk Water, are offering children under 18 entry intothe match days for just £1 over the holidays. There are no limits to thenumber of children that adults may bring.A good crowd is expected with many seeing the new installation of theimpressive Essex floodlights at the County Ground for the first time, aswell as the new public and Members’ seating in many areas of the ground andthe new Public Bar Marquee where the public visitors may now purchaseShepherd Neame beers under shelter.The Club are also opening the new Hayes Close Members’ Restaurant undercanvas, which replaces the Riverside Restaurant. The new facility offersexcellent views of the cricket and is expected to be extremely popular.Commercial Manager Dave Comley said:”The Club has done an awful lot to improve facilities for the Members andPublic for the new season and we hope that we will get a bumper support tostart the ball rolling on Good Friday.”The first day of the new season at Chelmsford is Good Friday, commencing at11.00 a.m. with the game scheduled to run to Easter Monday.

The West Indies Cricket Board Inc. (WICB), expressed surprise yesterday to a letter received from the Leeward Islands Cricket Association (LICA).Chief Cricket Operations Officer, Michael Hall, said that the Board was “surprised at LICA’s letter and it may be injurious to the tournament and LICA’s credibility.”Hall went on to explain that the WICB is on record to further expand the Red Stripe Bowl competition, but “for reasons mainly financial” the Board is not able to implement the full expansion plan.Hall also confirmed that the Leeward Islands representatives to the WICB advised the Board’s general meeting on 21st July that the winner of their one day tournament – Antigua – would be the “individual” team and a “rest” would come from among the other member territories.The WICB yesterday also confirmed that both the Windward and Leeward Islands were asked to supply two teams – one “individual” team and a “rest” team. The Windwards Islands however, advised the Board meeting that they had not “devised a mechanism by which they could transparently select an individual island”. This, in the absence of a one day competition among the islands. The Windward Islands therefore sought, and were granted special dispensation to supply a Windwards North and a Windwards South team for the competition. Hall was quick to add that this would be a “one off” situation and that they were expected to comply fully next year.Meanwhile, acting LICA president, Carlisle Powell, says that they (LICA) were not involved in the decision – to invite Antigua to compete as a separate entity. He however admitted that “Antigua was good enough to play on their own,” but stressed that he was bound by the LICA resolution.John Maginley, first vice president of the Antigua Cricket Association Inc. (ACA), says that they are continuing with plans to “play on our own as a separate entity, unless we are told otherwise.”The WICB is expected to make a ruling on whether to be bound by their earlier decision to invite Antigua to compete as an individual island, or to abide by this latest LICA resolution. This decision was expected today from the WICB president, Wes Hall and vice president, Val Banks.Incidentally, Banks was the former LICA president and WICB representative at the time when the discussions about Antigua going solo in the Red Stripe Bowl were ongoing. The other LICA representative leading those discussions was Enoch Lewis.The Red Stripe Bowl competition is expected to start some time in October and will consist of 10 teams in two (2) zones, one in Guyana and the other in Jamaica. The Windward Islands are the defending Red Stripe Bowl champions.

New Zealand have announced squads for the women’s national team and the A side that will train over the next 12 months for the World Cup in Australia in 2009.All members of the squad that lost the Rose Bowl to Australia in March have been included in the national training squad along with Suzie Bates, Selena Charteris, Ingrid Cronin-Knight, Maria Fahey, Ros Kember, Beth McNeill, Rowan Milburn, Louise Milliken and newcomer Prashilla Mistry.Both squads will attend camps at New Zealand Cricket’s High Performance Centre over the winter and the White Ferns will play warm up matches in October-November.New Zealand squad:
Suzie Bates, Nicola Browne, Sarah Burke, Rachel Candy, Selena Charteris, Ingrid Cronin-Knight, Sophie Devine, Lucy Doolan, Maria Fahey, Ros Kember, Sara McGlashan, Beth McNeill, Katey Martin, Aimee Mason, Rowan Milburn, Louise Milliken, Prashilla Mistry, Rachel Priest, Amy Satterthwaite, Haidee Tiffen, Sarah Tsukigawa.A squad:
Kate Broadmore, Saskia Bullen, Abby Burrows, Kendra Cocksedge, Tamara Gould, Holly Huddleston, Victoria Lind, Frances Mackay, Megan Murphy, Katie Perkins, Liz Perry, Sian Ruck, Kerry Tomlinson, Megan Wakefield, Josie Young.