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Upali Dharmadasa has been elected unopposed as president of Sri Lanka Cricket, along with the rest of his team, in the board’s first election in seven years. The election, overseen by the sports ministry, was marked by the late withdrawal of all opposition candidates.Nishantha Ranatunga was voted in uncontested as secretary and Nuski Mohamed was elected treasurer. The only election to be contested was for the post of assistant treasurer, with Ajitha Pasqual defeating Susantha Fernando. All those elected will serve a one-year term.Mohan de Silva, one of the candidates for vice-president, told ESPNcricinfo that the entire opposition had decided not to contest the elections as a “symbolic gesture of protest” against what they saw as political interference in the election process. “Most of our member clubs and associations brought to our notice that there was undue pressure put on them to change the delegates [who would vote].”According to him, they brought the matter to the notice of the Director General of Sports, Ranjani Jayakody, who was overseeing the election, but she told them she was going to accommodate all changes until the morning of the elections even though the deadline to nominate the delegates had passed.In light of her decision, and to safeguard what de Silva called “the gentleman’s game”, he and his team decided to withdraw. “This is not an election held for a government institution. This is an independent institution,” he said. “So it becomes a farce. Therefore all of us decided this election is not conducted in a free and fair manner.”However Jayakody, denied that there had been any pressure and said the delegates represented the views of clubs and therefore their individual preferences were not of any consequence. “The concerned parties can take necessary legal action,” she told reporters. “I held a fair election.”Despite his views on the election, De Silva said they intended to support the new committee and work together for the progress of the game since Sri Lankan cricket is going through a difficult situation. “There is no animosity,” he said.The biggest challenge the new committee faces is that the board is about $70 million in debt, following stadium-related expenses for the 2011 World Cup, including the construction of two new stadia in Pallekele and Hambantota and the renovation of the Premadasa Stadium.Dharmadasa acknowledged the magnitude of the problem and said it “will be a struggle for about five years” for SLC to get back on its financial feet. He is hopeful that the government will come to the sport’s aid in the short term, and that SLC can raise significant revenues from India’s tour in July and the World Twenty20 tournament in September. He also intends to execute a cost-cutting plan that will reduce administrative overheads by as much as 60%.The high cost over-runs are being blamed on the interim DS de Silva administration, in which Ranatunga also served as SLC secretary. The stadia are now being maintained by the government, with the army, navy and air force each looking after one stadium. The players were not paid for eight months between the 2011 World Cup final and the Test series in South Africa, and are still owed over 50% of their salaries for that period.The press conference was held inside the Ministry of Sports, and both the Director General and Dharmadasa were subjected to extended questioning (in Sinhalese) by a number of reporters. In the absence of a moderator, each journalist was free to ask multiple follow-up questions. In one instance, a reporter asked the new president five or six consecutive questions, but Dharmadasa appeared happy to answer all of them. Most of the questions dealt with the circumstances surrounding the election and SLC’s financial situation.Dharmadasa was president of SLC from 1996 to 1998 and also headed the last interim board before it was dissolved. Since 2004, the SLC has been run by interim committees – nine in all – controlled by the government, and the election itself is a fallout of the ICC’s ruling that requires all member boards to be free of political interference from 2012.

Wicketkeeper Thami Tsolekile will captain the South African Invitation XI in a three-day tour match against the Sri Lankans, starting on December 9 in Benoni. Five members of the squad who played against the touring Australians in November have been retained.The selectors were unable to pick players from two of South Africa’s six franchises, Cobras and Warriors, because they will contest the domestic one-day cup final on December 9. As a result players such as Wayne Parnell and JP Duminy, who are considered to be on the fringes of the Test squad, were unavailable for selection.The schedule gave other promising players such as Lions’ batsman Temba Bavuma and Titans fast bowler Hardus Viljoen an opportunity to represent the Invitation XI. “We have chosen a mix of players who have shown good form in the various domestic competitions and those who have been identified as having the potential to move up to a higher level,” Andrew Hudson, the convenor of selectors said.Batsmen Reeza Hendricks and Rilee Rossouw have performed impressively for Knights and Lions bowler Pumi Matshikwe is the second highest wicket-taker in the SuperSport Series this season. The likes of Tsolekile and left-arm spinner Paul Harris could force their way into the national squad with good showings in the tour match.Tsolekile had replaced the injured Heino Kuhn as wicketkeeper of the A side against the Australians. Tsolekile was long thought of as the No. 2 wicketkeeper in the country, after Boucher, but fell out of favour with the emergence of Kuhn. He appears to be back in the selector’s minds as the succession debate continues, with Boucher’s poor batting form against Australia fuelling calls for a replacement to be groomed more seriously.Harris, who missed his first Test in four years when he was replaced by legspinner Imran Tahir for the Australia series, also has the opportunity to stake a claim for a recall. Batsman Dean Elgar is the other player who will be watched closely as the race for national berths heats up. Elgar has been a part of numerous A tours and is regularly among the top ten batsmen in the SuperSport Series. He has been tipped as one of the players who could form part of South Africa’s experimentation against Sri Lanka.Opening batsman Alviro Petersen was among the notable absentees from the squad. Petersen was dropped from the Test squad to make room for in-form Jacques Rudolph but scored a century on a spicy pitch in Potchefstroom against the Australians. He is in Namibia and CSA granted him permission to miss the tour match.Fast bowler Marchant de Lange is also not part of the squad. de Lange took five wickets against the Australians in Potchefstroom was not considered because of injury. He dislocated his thumb and will be assessed by the Titans physio later in the week. Albie Morkel and Lonwabo Tsotsobe, whose place in the Test XI was taken by Vernon Philander, are still recovering from side strains while Ryan McLaren is also injured.South African Invitation XI: Thami Tsolekile, Temba Bavuma, Farhaan Behardien, Dean Elgar, Paul Harris, Reeza Hendricks, Pumelela Matshikwe, Rilee Rossouw, Stiaan van Zyl, Hardus Viljoen, David Wiese.

India will have their first on-field action on their tour of Australia on Thursday, December 15, when they take on a Cricket Australia Chairman’s XI in a two-day game.Peter George, who made his Test debut against India in Bangalore last year, and Tom Cooper, who played for Netherlands in the World Cup, are the best-known faces in the Chairman’s XI side. Ed Cowan, one of the candidates for a batting slot in the Australian squad, was to originally captain the side but was pulled out to represent his Big Bash League side. Cowan, and other bigger names in Australian domestic cricket, like David Warner, Phil Hughes, Usman Khawaja and Doug Bollinger, will be in for India’s second tour game, which begins on December 19.Not a first-class game, India’s first outing is expected to allow all the specialist batsmen in the squad to have a hit and all the specialist bowlers to bowl. However, the second half of India’s touring party reached Canberra only in the wee hours of Wednesday, so it is possible the likes of Virender Sehwag might be rested. “We would like to give our youngsters an opportunity of course; some of us haven’t played much cricket over here,” MS Dhoni, the India captain, said. “It’s slightly different, so we will try to make the most of it.”Medium-pacer George, whose first Test wicket was Sachin Tendulkar, said his side will provide decent opposition to the tourists. “We definitely don’t want to give them a nice walk in the park,” George said. “Cricket is definitely a game of momentum, and if you start to get on a bad roll it tends to snowball a bit, so if we can manage to do our bit to help the Aussies and peg the Indians back in these games it would be good.”Dhoni also said the game was important in terms of building momentum. “The first game is always important; if you have momentum on your side it always [builds up],” he said. “You don’t really want to lag too much behind right from the very start, so a good start is crucial.”This is India’s first overseas trip after they were whitewashed in England, where their insufficient preparation came in for sharp criticism. Dhoni said that aspect can be ruled out this time. “We are here close to 12 days early and if 12 days are not enough then one month wouldn’t be enough so we have to adapt to the conditions.”

West Indies allrounder Kieron Pollard has suffered a shoulder injury and will be out of action for a period of at least three weeks. Pollard sustained the injury during Trinidad & Tobago’s Regional Super50 game against Leeward Islands. He missed the semi-final against Guyana, which T&T won, and will not play a part in the final either.Pollard was playing with a fractured wrist as well and said he would use the lay off to heal both injuries. He is expected to be fit for the limited-overs leg of West Indies’ tour of India, which begins on November 29, after the three Tests.”Pollard has returned home since Sunday and it is a big blow for us because he came in and immediately made a big, big impact,” T&T manager Omar Khan told the . “He added a lot of motivation and support…the team was energised with him around and we will miss that.”Pollard had joined T&T’s Regional Super50 campaign after the ODI series in Bangladesh, where he scored 41 runs in two innings and took no wickets. Against Leeward Islands, he scored a quick 34, helping T&T chase down the target of 96 in 14.3 overs to secure four ‘super bonus points’. He was replaced by West Indies Under-19 opener, Evin Lewis, in the T&T squad.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsTaufeeq Umar’s mammoth knock was his best in Tests•Associated Press

Twelve hours of monkish accumulation in the Abu Dhabi heat earned Taufeeq Umar only the seventh double-century by a Pakistan opener, and the first since 1992. It also left a tired Sri Lanka waiting for a declaration as Pakistan’s batsmen, barring Misbah-ul-Haq, favoured accumulation over urgency. Misbah finally relented about an hour before close of play, after the lead was 314, leaving the Sri Lanka openers a testing period to survive.Sri Lanka’s day got worse when umpire Tony Hill, who is having a rough game, harshly adjudged Tharanga Paranavitana leg-before first ball. Several close shaves against the new ball followed, which was the last thing Sri Lanka needed after Taufeeq had ground them out of the match.Taufeeq went through three contrasting partnerships on the third day: he collected runs without risk with Younis Khan, stepped back as Misbah attacked the bowlers and finally took charge when Asad Shafiq – coming in at 436 for 4 – remained stuck on 1 for 30 deliveries.As is often the case in sagas of self-denial, there wasn’t a particular Taufeeq stroke that stood out. What did was the way he got his runs – dabbing and steering when he could have indulged in a cut, stepping out to clip and drive when he could have lofted, nudging when he could have flicked. He patted away numerous half-volleys and scored less than a third of his runs in boundaries. He ran 90 singles, 21 twos and 10 threes in the sapping heat.There were also outside edges that did not carry, inside edges that missed the stumps and a let-off soon after Taufeeq had reached his century yesterday, but in an innings that spanned close to 500 deliveries, it was almost par for the course. Taufeeq continued to pull with zest throughout, showing that nine successive sessions on the field had not diminished his effort.With Taufeeq’s patience at one end, Misbah brought the urgency the innings had begun to scream for before umpire Tony Hill ruled him caught behind, his third big error of the game.After Chanaka Welegedara had accounted for Azhar Ali in the seventh over of the morning, Taufeeq and Younis ensured Sri Lanka’s relief was temporary with a stand that had a sense of inevitability in the resolute manner it was built. Welegedara tested Pakistan in the morning, getting nip off the surface and swing in the air. A ripping inswinger uprooted Azhar’s off stump. It was the tenth time Azhar had failed to convert a half-century into a Test hundred.Apart from that, and a couple of edges and mis-hits that didn’t carry to the fielders, Pakistan carried on unbothered, though they did not really dominate. Taufeeq and Younis hardly took any risks. Younis benefited from a dropped catch by Prasanna Jayawardene off Tillakaratne Dilshan when on 16 but was handed a marginal leg-before decision by umpire Rod Tucker. It was again Welegedara who earned the breakthrough with a delivery that straightened a little.Younis’ departure quickened proceedings considerably. With a mixture of slog-sweeps, a late cut and a reverse-sweep, Misbah chugged along at close to run-a-ball. Even Rangana Herath, who had troubled Pakistan the most, was reduced to bowling in the rough outside leg stump from over the wicket. The line got rid of Misbah just before tea, though the ball had only brushed his sleeve before being taken by Prasanna Jayawardene. Taufeeq was again left to push on with another new batsman for company.This time, Taufeeq was forced to be the aggressor, with Shafiq refusing to score till a message from the dressing room forced him to look for some runs. Even then, he managed 26 from 94 and ultimately ran out Taufeeq, ironically refusing a sharp single to a man who had been on the field for all three days.That was the only way the immoveable Taufeeq could have got out, but not before Sri Lanka had been deflated. Their nightmare was complete when Paranavitana went immediately. Kumar Sangakkara and Lahiru Thirimanne were positive, though, as they got through 11 overs without further damage.

Ricky Ponting’s 100th Test win arrived in the nick of time to allow him to fly home for the birth of his second child, which will rule him out of the second Test starting in Kandy on Thursday. The reserve batsman Shaun Marsh is set to make his debut, while David Warner, previously seen as a Twenty20 specialist, will join the group as a standby player.Ponting’s wife Rianna is pregnant and medical advice that the birth was imminent had Ponting booked to board a plane home hours after the tourists completed a 125-run victory over Sri Lanka in the first Test in Galle. Ponting will remain at home for about a week and is hoping to be back in time for the third Test.”Rianna had another scan on Tuesday and the doctor believes it’s going to be [due] in the next few days, so I’ve been keen to get this Test match over pretty quickly and get a flight out tonight,” Ponting said. “I’ll then get back Sunday night, so I’m pretty sure the little one will come a couple of days after I’ve got back hopefully.”Hopefully the baby comes in the next couple of days and hopefully I’ll be around for a few days and hopefully be able to get them out of hospital and be back in time to get prepared to play the third Test. As the tour’s worn on, one thing I didn’t want to do if at all possible was miss the birth, and Rianna’s started to struggle a little more the last few days so she just needs me home at the moment.”Reflecting on his feat in becoming the first man to participate in 100 Test wins, Ponting said each victory had gained in significance for him as the Australian team began its transition from an all-conquering unit to the battling group of 2011.”You always do [appreciate them more], yeah,” Ponting said. “My proudest moment as captain was walking off the field in Durban [in 2009] when we beat South Africa over there. That was with a very young team. That was the proudest moment of my captaincy, and I think Michael [Clarke] will say something similar now.”Michael’s played in a lot of Test wins as well, but take away the fact this was his first Test as captain, I think anytime you teak a young team onto the ground and you can win a game I’m sure it’s something we can all be proud of. It goes to show things aren’t all doom and gloom in Australian cricket, and if we play the way this group knows it can play I’m sure we’ll be competitive over the next few weeks as well.”It’s been a great week for this team, for us to eke out as many runs as we did in the first innings set the game up for us, but a lot of good things have happened this week, not just my thing, Michael’s first Test as captain, and a couple of the debutants playing a big role in the result as well. It’s been an enjoyable week.”Clarke’s tribute to his predecessor was warm.”We just had a toast in the changing room and I think there was about eight or nine of us that it’s their first Test match win, that includes support staff, and for Punter it’s his 100th,” Clarke said. “It’s a very special victory for Punter. I think the one thing I’ve always said is a great player is determined by his longevity and Ricky’s played a hell of a lot of Test cricket, scored a hell of a lot of Test runs and captained a hell of a lot of Test victories as well.”He’s an amazing player. His bowling wasn’t even too bad yesterday.”

Mark Ramprakash has expressed disappointment at the one-match suspension he has been handed by Surrey, following his reaction to being given out obstructing the field against Gloucestershire last week.The controversial incident occurred when Ramprakash was ruled to have impeded Gloucestershire’s Ian Saxelby, as he attempted to gather a throw at the bowler’s end, with the batsmen attempting a tight second run. The umpires, George Sharp and Nigel Llong, gave the decision and Ramprakash was far from happy and returned to the field to remonstrate with the officials.He was handed three penalty points by the ECB, but his county have gone a step further and withdrawn him from their squad to face Northamptonshire in the CB40.”VERY disappointed to b banned for 1 game given the circumstances,” Ramprakash said on Twitter. “I dont agree with the umpires interpretation of what happened or rule.”Richard Gould, the Surrey chief executive, said: “Mark regrets his action in returning to discuss the matter with the umpires, and accepts the imposition of a one match ban, in addition to the automatic three point penalty as part of the ECB disciplinary process. The ECB has confirmed that the case is now closed.”Ramprakash’s dismissal was just the 22nd occasion in first-class cricket that a batsman had been given out obstructing the field.

Scorecard
David Masters carried his Championship haul of wickets to 71 for the season asEssex gained the upper hand against Gloucestershire on the second day of theCounty Championship match at Colchester’s Castle Park.The 33-year-old paceman, the leading wicket-taker in the country, took fourwickets for 50 runs as the visitors finished on 176 for 6 in reply to theiropponents’ total of 363 all out.Masters’ nagging accuracy and ability to extract lift made him a difficultproposition and he was on course to register his sixth haul of five wickets ormore in an innings until rain arrived to end play at 3pm.It came with Gloucestershire still requiring a further 38 runs to avoid thefollow-on – far from a straightforward task on a lively pitch. Masters struck in his second over by getting rid of Hamish Marshall with the help of Tom Westley at second slip.Then, after lunch, he had Chris Taylor caught behind before removing brothersAlex and Will Gidman with successive deliveries. The dismissal of Alex Gidman was not without incident. After the visiting skipper was given out lbw when he had scored 29 – which included two sixes in one over from off-spinner Tom Westley – he moved forward to remonstrate withumpire Steve Gale for a few seconds before turning and heading back to thepavilion.Gale had yesterday reversed his decision after giving Essex century maker Ryanten Doeschate out caught behind. It was an unsavoury incident and no doubt one which will be reported to the appropriate authorities. Certainly it took some of the gloss off a fine effortfrom Kane Williamson.The New Zealander batted with an assurance his colleagues failed to match andwas within sight of a century when Graham Napier trapped him on the back footfor 83. It was an effort which spanned 107 balls and included 10 fours.Napier had earlier got rid of opener Chris Dent – with Westley again acceptinga slip catch – but it was the evergreen Masters who claimed the day’s honours.Earlier in the day, Jon Lewis claimed the final Essex wicket after the homeside had resumed on 359 for 9. Tom Craddock was bowled to give the fast bowler figures of four for 46 from 15.5 overs and his dismissal left ten Doeschate unbeaten with 124, whichcontained 10 fours and one six and spread over 182 deliveries.

A visit by the ICC’s Pakistan Task Team (PTT) to Pakistan is on the cards, though details of the scope and nature of the trip as well as the timing are yet to be finalised. The development comes after the PTT’s report on Pakistan cricket was criticised by the PCB on two counts, among others: the timing of its submission, and the observation that other than the visit of an individual member, the task team had not actually set foot in the country before putting together the report.That criticism has especially stung the ICC though officials insist that the trip is not a direct consequence of that and had been on the cards for some time. It is unclear yet, however, who will visit and when; the reports that Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman and head of the PTT, might do so. Haroon Lorgat, the ICC’s chief executive, will almost certainly be part of any such delegation and has been a regular visitor to Pakistan; his last trip was just before the World Twenty20 in 2010.What will be on the agenda is also not yet known. But it is difficult to imagine that some discussion on the broadest recommendations of the report – on the politicised nature of PCB governance and the system of appointment of the board chairman by the patron, the country’s president – will not form part of it. Meetings with the highest political offices in the country will not be ruled out. The PCB will be keen to revive discussion on security matters and the return of international cricket, an issue they feel was given little space in the report.The development has emerged at a time of growing divergence between the PCB and ICC over the 38-page report, which made 63 recommendations for what, in effect, amounts to a re-haul of the game and its governance in Pakistan. That the Pakistan board was not particularly taken in by the report was evident in their long and detailed public response – their own observations – made earlier this week. The board said the report was a “scholarly exercise” and took a dig at the fact that nobody other than Dave Richardson, the ICC’s general manager and a PTT member, had even come to Pakistan. It also said the report contained factual errors and that a number of recommendations were “superfluous or redundant”.The prospect of ICC officials visiting Pakistan had been discussed earlier in meetings between the two bodies on the issue of the ICC governance-clause amendment, which calls for political interference in cricket boards to end, effectively by 2013. That was an amendment against which the PCB sent the ICC a legal notice in May, ahead of the ICC annual conference; along with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the PCB is one of the boards most affected by the change.In those meetings in Dubai before the annual conference, the two sides agreed to extend the deadline given to boards to implement the changes and the ICC expressed its willingness to visit Pakistan and discuss the changes with president Asif Ali Zardari. The clause was voted in at the annual conference without any objection from any board, though incidentally, the legal notice has not been withdrawn but lies inactive currently.It has also emerged that the PCB was unhappy at the timing of the release of the report. The PCB had requested the ICC not to make the report public until their response to it had been submitted. The ICC, however, put the entire report online on July 6, leading the Pakistan board to go public with their own observations.In his defence of the report, Lorgat said that the PCB’s chief operating officer Subhan Ahmed had been given the report “more than a week prior to the ICC executive board meeting in Hong Kong [in the last week of June] … and provided only minor observations which were incorporated into the final report.”The PCB disputes this version. Though officials agreed that the report was given to Ahmed, they claimed it was understood at that stage that any observations would be informal and preliminary; in fact they claimed only Ahmed was allowed to see the report and was given less than 24 hours to comment on it. “This is something the chairman needs to see and give feedback on as well as the board of governors and not just one person,” a board official told ESPNcricinfo. The ICC denies this was the case.In any case, some broad observations were given to the ICC and, by the time officials flew out to Hong Kong, incorporated in the report. The report was officially presented at the annual conference in June. At the time, PCB officials said they would respond to it with their own observations. ESPNcricinfo understands that the PCB then asked the ICC on return from the meeting “to not put the report up on the website as the board was going to prepare their observations.”That it was published before formal observations were given has upset the PCB. An ICC official said that the report had been released online because “in the interests of transparency we publish all reports.” A senior Pakistani official insisted that the issue wasn’t the publication of the report. “We feel they should’ve done it once we had officially submitted our observations. Now they say we have discredited the report with our observations.”As a fall-out of this episode, believes the PCB, the ICC has tried to limit further damage and indicated their willingness to send the PTT to Pakistan in the near future.

ScorecardJhulan Goswami was the key to India’s victory•Getty Images

India Women broke their run of defeats by beating New Zealand Women by three wickets in the third-place playoff of the NatWest Women’s T20 Quadrangular Series at Aldershot.Having suffered three straight losses during the group stage, India chased down New Zealand’s 95 with a ball to spare. India’s captain Jhulan Goswami was the star, guiding her side home with a cool 33 not out from 28 balls. In a low-scoring encounter, New Zealand were left to rue the 10 wides and three no balls they sent down.The chase was by no means certain when India were reduced to 24 for 3 but Harmanpreet Kaur (14) and Veda Krishnamurthy (15) helped them recover and laid the foundations for Goswami to finish the job.It was an unhappy farewell to Twenty20 cricket for New Zealand’s captain Aimee Watkins. She retires after the upcoming ODIs and had started well at the top of the order, making 15, before becoming the second of two wickets for Amita Sharma.At one stage, when they were 61 for 3, New Zealand looked capable of posting a threatening score but Liz Perry fell for 18 and the lower order couldn’t carry on. Amy Satterthwaite top-scored with 35 but it wasn’t enough.”We needed this win very badly before the start of the ODI series,” Goswami said. “This win will give us much needed momentum because we did not have any so far. I hope we carry this into the ODI series. You must remember that we beat a good side like New Zealand. All four sides are evenly matched, but we had not got up on the victory column as yet.”I told my coach (Anju Jain) that I need to bat up the order and she agreed. If I had not taken the responsibility, the result may have been different. The win came at the right time. You must remember that we were playing for the third place in a world tournament.”Watkins said: “Everyone’s really disappointed. I think the wicket was the reason. We obviously we did not get a big score on the board. While bowling, we were all over the place and we bowled both sides of the wicket. We also gave away too many extras I think.”