Tillakaratne Dilshan has become the fifth Sri Lanka player to sign up with the inaugural Caribbean Premier League. He will join Guyana Amazon Warriors as a replacement for the injured New Zealand batsman Martin Guptill

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Aug-2013Tillakaratne Dilshan has become the fifth Sri Lanka player to sign up with the inaugural Caribbean Premier League. He will join Guyana Amazon Warriors as a replacement for the injured New Zealand batsman Martin Guptill, who broke a bone in his right hand in the match against Antigua Hawksbills on August 17.Dilshan will join his Sri Lanka team-mate Lasith Malinga, who is also with Guyana. The other Sri Lanka players in the CPL are Muttiah Muralitharan and Kumar Sangakkara (Jamaica Tallawahs) and Mahela Jayawardene (Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel).Guyana coach Roger Harper said: “While it is sad to lose a player of Martin Guptill’s ability at this stage of the tournament, we are delighted to have secured a top-quality replacement in Tillakaratne Dilshan.”He offers so much to any side he plays for, as an attacking batsman, a useful bowler and also someone who is outstanding in the field. We look forward to him linking up with us ahead of Thursday’s semi-final and his big-match experience will be a great asset to us.”Guyana topped the points table after the league stage and will meet Trinidad & Tobago in the first semi-final in Port -of-Spain on August 22.Dilshan has had some practice in the Twenty20 format of late, with two international games against South Africa followed by three in the Sri Lankan domestic Super 4’s tournament.

Steve Harmison, the England fastbowler who took 223 wickets in 63 Tests, has retired from competitive cricket, bringing to end a 17-year career with Durham

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Oct-2013Steve Harmison, the former England fast bowler who took 223 wickets in 63 Tests, has retired from cricket, bringing to an end a 17-year career with Durham. Harmison did not play a game in the club’s 2013 County Championship-winning campaign and his contract subsequently expired.”I was hoping to go out on a high in my benefit year but my body has not allowed me to, and I have not made a single first-team appearance,” Harmison told the local newspaper. “With my contract up at the end of the season, I have known for a while I would be calling it a day.”After making his Test debut against India at Trent Bridge in 2002, Harmison also played in 58 ODIs, picking up 76 wickets at an average of 32.64. He also played two T20s against Australia and Sri Lanka. He was an integral part of the England squad that clinched the historic 2005 Ashes 2-1, taking 17 wickets from five matches.His retirement, following that of Matthew Hoggard last month and Andrew Flintoff three years ago, means that only Simon Jones, of England’s four-man pace attack in that series, is still playing.Harmison famously produced figures of 7 for 12 against West Indies in Jamaica in 2004 and was briefly rated as the No. 1 bowler in the Test rankings later that year, but had admitted that he found touring difficult because of homesickness and once admitted: “I don’t like travelling full stop – that’s just me and I’ll never change.”
His decline – and his aversion to touring – was summed-up by the opening ball of the 2006-07 Ashes. Harmison, clearly struggling for form and confidence, delivered a wide that went straight to second slip and set the tone for a performance, both individually and collectively, that was well below the standards set in the 2005 series. He never recovered his best form.When the Ashes were contested again in England in 2009, Harmison played in only two of the five Tests in what proved to be his last series as an international. His final first-class appearance came at Leicester in July last year when he was on loan with Yorkshire. Having played a big part in Durham’s previous two title wins – Harmison was their leading wicket-taker in 2008 and 2009 – he was awarded a benefit season with the county in 2013 but only featured in six 2nd XI games.”There have been good and bad times but the way I look at life is you always have to learn from your mistakes,” Harmison said. “If you do, sometimes they’re not a bad thing.”No one’s more frustrated than me at how little I’ve played for Durham in the last few years, but injuries are part of being a fast bowler.”I had plenty of highlights in an England career that spanned nine years, during which time I became the world’s top-ranked Test bowler.”
While Harmison may have faded, taking some of the gloss off his career, there is no doubt that, at his best in the period between 2003-2005, he was one of the most formidable fast bowlers ever produced by England and a key part of the side’s resurgence in those years.

Spin has been Kolkata Knight Riders’ tried-and-tested formula to win at home. It’s unlikely the surface for their next game will change too much, even though their opponents, Delhi Daredevils, possess a tasty spin attack themselves

The Preview by Karthik Krishnaswamy06-May-2015

Match facts

Thursday, May 7, 2015
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)2:21

O’Brien: Daredevils should bat first

Big Picture

Spin, spin, spin. It’s been Kolkata Knight Riders’ tried-and-tested formula to win at home, and their last match – a 35-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad – showcased it in exaggerated proportions. Perhaps the pitch they played on was a response to the slightly wobbly position they began that match in – a loss might have caused them to slip out of the top four.It’s unlikely the surface for their next game will change too much, even though they are in a far better position now, even though their opponents, Delhi Daredevils, possess a tasty spin attack themselves. Brad Hogg and Piyush Chawla (and possibly Johan Botha too), against Amit Mishra and Imran Tahir should make for an interesting contest.Daredevils have lost three of their last four games, and sit not too far above bottom-placed Kings XI Punjab. They are still in with a chance of finishing in the top four, but have only four games left, and cannot afford to take any time finding a way to win matches. A defeat to Knight Riders may just end any realistic hopes they have.

Form guide

Kolkata Knight Riders WLWLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Delhi Daredevils LLWLW

Watch out for…

He’s scored his runs at a strike rate of over 140, but he’s only faced 86 balls this season. From that stat it might seem like Angelo Mathews is batting too far down the order, but that hasn’t always been the case. In his last two innings, he came in with a reasonable number of overs left, got starts, and got out, finishing with scores of 16 and 12. Mathews will definitely want to contribute more substantially when he comes in with eight or nine overs to go.He isn’t spoken about in the same breath as Sunil Narine or Brad Hogg, but Piyush Chawla‘s legspin has been a vital facet of Knight Riders’ success. This season, he has taken seven wickets while conceding only 6.96 runs an over. He gets a lot of help from the Eden Gardens surface, no doubt, but opposition teams haven’t really been able to go after him.

Stats and trivia

• Robin Uthappa has 22 stumpings in the IPL, a record he shares with MS Dhoni. But he’s taken only 81 innings, to Dhoni’s 114, to reach the mark
• Four players likely to play this match – Gautam Gambhir, Amit Mishra, Piyush Chawla and Manish Pandey – feature in the top five of the ‘Most ducks in the IPL’ list

Quotes

“Brad Hogg has done a fantastic job in Sunil Narine’s absence. We wanted a spinner that we thought a lot of batters would struggle to pick. Certainly Brad is in that category. Even the players who play with him regularly find him difficult to pick.”

Owen Graham, one of northern California cricket’s most beloved figures, passed away on Saturday at the age of 48

Peter Della Penna24-May-2015Owen Graham, one of northern California cricket’s most beloved figures, passed away on Saturday at the age of 48. Known to most people as “OG”, he was a hugely influential youth coach in the San Francisco Bay Area.Over the last decade, he has helped develop many of USA’s elite junior players from the North West Region, including Saami Siddiqui and Saqib Saleem, who went on to play for the senior team, as well as Shiva Vashishat, who led USA to the ICC Under-19 World Cup in 2010.”Today I lost a mentor, coach, friend, man who has made me the cricketer I am today, man who has impacted my life in so many ways, man who gave me my nickname, man who has taught me the art of captaincy, man who has taught me to have discipline in all aspects of life….I was blessed to have you in my life,” Vashishat posted in a message on social media late Saturday night.Graham had endured a three-year battle with cancer after he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2012. He underwent chemotherapy in early 2013 when he was initially cleared. However, the cancer resurfaced and he left California for his native Jamaica at the end of 2014.Graham had moved to the United States in his early 20s and spent nearly half his life playing and coaching youth cricket in the Northern California Cricket Association (NCCA), one of America’s oldest leagues founded in 1892. Described by former NCCA president Ganesh Sanap as “NCCA’s guiding light”, Graham started the NCCA Junior program in 2002 and was also the founding coach of both the California Cricket Academy and East Bay Youth Cricket Association.A prolific batsman for Caribbean Cricket Club in the NCCA, Graham also had the unique distinction of being one of the key batsmen for the San Francisco Freedom in Pro Cricket, the now defunct US professional T20 league started in 2004. Freedom were champions in Pro Cricket’s lone season, defeating a New Jersey Fire squad featuring former India allrounder Robin Singh and West Indies batsman Ricardo Powell in the final.An eight-team charity Twenty20 tournament named after Graham, now in its second year, was held this weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area to help pay for his medical costs. The event raised more than $20,000 last year and a separate crowdsourcing web page had raised more than $6,000. Sanap said that although players are in mourning, the tournament will continue with the final day’s matches being webcast with a live video stream. Graham’s daughter Adria will also be in attendance at the final to present the trophy to the winning team.”The cricket must go on,” Sanap told ESPNcricinfo. “OG wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”

Tom Curran returned to the old stamping ground of his father Kevin as he made good use of a rain-wrecked affair at Wantage Road

ECB/PA20-May-2015Surrey 155-3 trail Northamptonshire 309 (Newton 95, Peters 82) by 154 runs
ScorecardTom Curran returned to the stamping ground of his father Kevin•Getty Images

Tom Curran, at 20, made a maiden first-class appearance on the Wantage Road ground where his father Kevin played for eight seasons in Northamptonshire colours during the 1990s – and he made good use of it in a bedraggled match heading for a draw.Curran’s skiddy approach, bearing some similarity in action to his father, dismissed the industrious Stephen Peters and Rob Keogh before lunch in a match that had lost 164 overs to rain on the first two days.Peters, 64 not out, had missed his century and so too did Rob Newton. He begun brightly – dismissing Curran down the ground effortlessly off the second ball of the day – but rode his luck, too, driving over the slip cordon and skying a hook in between fielders.His fifty – the third in the Championship – came off 67 balls, but he fell five runs short of three figures, fifteen minutes after lunch.When Adam Rossington and Josh Cobb added 50 for the sixth wicket, serenity was restored but carnage was soon to descend in the most unthreatening of circumstances after Cobb drove to Batty from Ansari’s left arm spin. David Willey was bowled the very next ball while Steven Crook fell at deep mid-wicket in the following over from Batty, without adding a run himself.With Olly Stone dismissed cheaply too, Rossington could be forgiven for feeling bemused at the other end. He reached 50 off 69 balls and took out his frustrations with a huge blow for 6 down the ground off Ansari which almost took out the windows on the top tier of the Spencer Pavilion.When Rossington chipped back to Ansari for 58, Northamptonshire had lost their last five wickets for 21 and their last seven for 96 – and could only blame themselves.Ansari and Rory Burns showed how the placid pitch was really playing when they opened the Surrey innings and guided them to an uneventful 89 without loss. But Ansari’s edge produced an athletic catch from behind the stumps from Rossington off Mohammed Azharullah and two further wickets quickly followed.The accumulation of bonus points seems likely to be the only meaningful activity on the final day with a draw all but certain.

The ICC has fined M Vijay 25% of his Test match fee for an “illegal” logo on his bat he used during the only Test againt Bangladesh in Fatullah

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Jun-2015The ICC has fined M Vijay 25% of his Test-match fee for an “illegal” logo on his bat. The said logo, it is learned, was on one of the edges of Vijay’s bat, that he used last week in Fatullah during the only Test against Bangladesh.The logo in question was placed towards the bottom half of one of the edges of Vijay’s bat. Under a new ICC rule which came into operation from May 1 this year. “Any number of Manufacturer’s Identification and/or design feature permitted on the edge of the bat but only within the top 9 inches.”According to the , Vijay had used the same bat during the Test series in Australia last year. The old rule concerning logos towards the middle on the edges of the bat expired on April 30, 2015. The provision stated: “one Manufacturer’s Identification and/or Design Feature permitted on the edge of the bat not exceeding 50% of the edge of the bat.”

Ross Taylor has conceded New Zealand will be under pressure in Tuesday’s second ODI against Zimbabwe after going down 1-0 in the three-match series on Sunday

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Aug-2015Ross Taylor has conceded New Zealand will be under pressure in Tuesday’s second ODI against Zimbabwe after going down 1-0 in the three-match series on Sunday. Taylor scored an unbeaten 112 in New Zealand’s innings of 303 for 4 but Craig Ervine and Hamilton Masakadza set up Zimbabwe’s second-highest successful ODI chase of all time to reach the target with an over to spare.”Any time you go 1-0 down in a three-match series you are under pressure and Zimbabwe play very well at home,” Taylor said after the loss. “But we will analyse it and come back better in a couple of days’ time. It’s only one game but we have to win the next two to win the series. Tuesday becomes a very important match.”The defeat continues a disappointing form-line for New Zealand since they reached the World Cup final in March – their only other ODI series since then was a 3-2 loss to England. New Zealand’s batting was solid in Harare but Taylor said the fielding was sub-standard, although he said Zimbabwe’s batsmen had played “outstandingly well” to chase down the target.”We were very happy with 300 – we thought it was probably a 270-280 wicket so we thought we were probably 20 ahead,” he said. “But the way Chibhabha and Hamilton came out and got them off to a good start, it was always going to be tough to peg them back. If we were able to pick up wickets through the middle, we would have given ourselves a chance but we weren’t able to do that.”The way Ervine batted as well as Masakadza, they batted outstandingly well and took the game away from us. To get there with an over to spare was a very good effort.”The way they manipulated the right-left combination and being able to put our spinners under pressure throughout the whole match played a big part. We will be better for the hit-out. We were a bit down on our fielding. We pride ourselves on our fielding and we let a few things through that we would normally stop on a good day.”New Zealand have rested captain Brendon McCullum and fast bowler Tim Southee for the three-match series, while Trent Boult, Corey Anderson and Mitchell Santner are unavailable due to injuries.

Lancashire were celebrating on Kentish soil for the third time in as many weeks after securing LV= County Championship promotion from Division Two after courageously batting out the final day at Canterbury

ECB/PA04-Sep-2015
ScorecardSteven Croft led from the front to defy Kent on the final day•Getty Images

Lancashire were celebrating on Kentish soil for the third time in as many weeks after securing LV= County Championship promotion from Division Two after courageously batting out the final day at Canterbury.Fronting his side’s backs-to-the-wall display Steven Croft, their captain, batted a shade over four hours for 72 and was still out in the middle at 4.55pm – with his side on 258 for 4 – to shake hands on his side’s fifth draw of the campaign that secured five points and sealed their return to the top flight.Having already beaten Kent by 51 runs here in the Royal London Cup tie of August 8, Lancashire returned a week later to win the day once more on by securing the tie that took them to the NatWest T20 Blast finals day. And it was their fifth-wicket pairing Croft and Alex Davies who ensured Kent would be denied success once more with a dogged, fourth-day stand that extended 50 overs.With no quarter asked or given, the Lancashire pair added an unbroken 120 while fending off all that Kent could bowl at them with old and new ball alike. It was a spirited display that paid respect to the competition and division alike and a performance of which Ashley Giles, their cricket director and head coach was justifiably proud.”It was a strange week because we should be absolutely over the moon, but there are parts of this game that we’re a bit disappointed with how we’ve played,” Giles said. “It’s probably our worst game in the Championship, although we’ve come away with a draw. We lost to Gloucester at home, but probably played better cricket.”We’ve done what we came to achieve, which at the start of the year was promotion and winning the T20 at the start of the week was an amazing feeling for everyone.”Today, I thought they were brilliant. This morning we asked for that resilience and fight. Good sides win a lot, but they also become very difficult to beat. Those four guys, particularly, I thought it was a really fantastic effort.”Starting the day on 47 for 2, following on and still 264 in arrears, few would have backed Lancashire to see out the day, yet Kent, having totally dominated the opening three days with bat and ball, were restricted to only two bowling successes.Third-wicket partners Ashwell Prince and Haseeb Hameed started circumspectly, but were quick to pounce on the occasional loose delivery served up by an equally patient Kent bowling attack.
They added 62 inside 17 overs before Kent finally got their breakthrough by removing Prince for 39. Pushing forward but also well outside the line of a Darren Stevens in-ducker, the diminutive left-hander was rapped low on his front pad and, after time for reflection, sent packing leg before by umpire Graham Lloyd to bring Croft to the crease at 11.42am.Kent winkled out another in the mid-session when Calum Haggett removed opening bat Hasseb for 44 to make it 138 for 4. Playing back to a full-length, cross-seam delivery that skidded through, Haseeb had his furniture rearranged to end a stoic 203-minute stay.Thereafter Croft and Davies dug in, adding 28 during an attritional stint of 28.4 overs through to tea. They refused to yield to the new ball and continued after the resumption as Croft reached his second half-century of the game after three hours 23 minutes’ batting. It included seven fours.Davies also reached the landmark after 157 minutes, his 50 also included seven fours and came from 136-balls faced. He also saw it through to stumps, reaching 58 in almost three hours and scoring only seven boundaries.The pair shook hands as they walked off, but Lancashire will only truly celebrate once the Division Two title is secure.In praise of Croft and Davies, Kent allrounder Darren Stevens said: “To be fair, they batted brilliantly and we’ve already spoken about how many of our lads would have the temperament to do the same thing. It was a great effort.”That said, I didn’t feel we had the rub of the green today. There were so many play and misses, a few snicks through the cordon to third man and a nick to the keeper by Davies that wasn’t given, but you can’t deny the class of their lads for batting it out for the draw.”They’ve got one over on us three times in the past month here, added to which they turned us over in the Championship up at their place earlier in the season, so we owe them one for sure. Next time we come up against them Lancashire can be sure of a good fight, and hopefully that will be with Kent back in the top flight as well.”

Sri Lanka’s sports minister Dayasiri Jayasekera has said that elections for Sri Lanka Cricket will be held in January 2016

Sa'adi Thawfeeq10-Oct-2015Sri Lanka’s sports minister Dayasiri Jayasekera has said that elections for Sri Lanka Cricket will be held in January 2016. SLC has been administered by a nine-member interim committee, headed by former cricketer Sidath Wettimuny, since April 1.Speaking at an event at the Pallekele stadium, Jayasekera said: “Elections will be held in January next year, and those eligible could contest and get elected. Those elected to power to this prestigious body will have the challenge of generating their own finances to fund the ongoing projects for the future undertaken by the present interim administration.”This is not the first time January elections have been mentioned. Three months ago, the Sri Lanka board itself had stated its commitment to holding elections before the end of January.The interim committee was established because the posts held by the then existing office-bearers, led by president Jayantha Dharmadasa, had become null and void – the laws governing all sports bodies in the country require annual elections to be held on or before March 31 but SLC’s elections were postponed until the end of April due to the 2015 World Cup, which ended on March 29. The interim committee’s time in power was not specified, but it was expected to last not more than six months.In April, the ICC announced that the appointment of an interim committee at SLC was a breach of the ICC’s constitution. As such, it had placed certain sanctions on SLC, including holding payments due to the board in escrow, and suspending SLC’s voting rights at ICC meetings. The ICC had also urged SLC to hold elections by October, but this is understood to have been a soft deadline.

The Pakistan selectors have retained offspinner Bilal Asif for the three-match ODI series against Zimbabwe, in a bid to assess his credentials ahead of the England Test series

Umar Farooq30-Sep-2015The Pakistan selectors have retained offspinner Bilal Asif for the ODI series against Zimbabwe, in a bid to assess his credentials ahead of the England Test series. The idea is to have someone to fill the bowling hole left by Mohammad Hafeez, who has been banned for one year for an illegal bowling action.Asif was originally only part of the T20 squad visiting Zimbabwe, but did not make it to the playing XI. He was also selected for Sri Lanka ODI series but returned without making a debut. Almost 30, he has 32 wickets in 11 first-class games at 28.90 apiece.”The request to retain Bilal Asif had been made by the team management, as conveyed by the manager Mr Intikhab Alam,” chief selector Haroon Rashid said in a statement. “In a separate discussion with Misbah-ul-Haq, it was put forth by the Pakistan Test captain that since the England team contains five left-handed batsmen and because of Hafeez’s inability to bowl at international level, we were left with no offspin bowling options in the Test squad.”Pakistan have picked two other spinners for England series – legspinner Yasir Shah and left-arm spinner Zulfiqar Babar. The selectors named Hafeez as a specialist batsman in the squad, along with two more openers – Ahmed Shehzad and Shan Masood, with Azhar Ali the No. 3 batsman.”Misbah suggested that since Bilal Asif is presently the standout available option in the domestic circuit, so if we can try him in the ODI matches against Zimbabwe for assessing his offspin bowling credentials, it may help us in case we intended to add him as the 16th member in the Test squad against England,” Rashid said.”We have already picked two left-arm spin bowlers in the Pak ‘A’ team to the UAE for this purpose but if Bilal Asif is found up to the mark in Zimbabwe, then we can have him in the Test squad as an offspinner along with leggie Yasir Shah and left-arm spin of Zulfiqar Babar. The suggestion was discussed by the selectors, as well as with head coach Waqar Younis, and there was unanimity of view on the issue.”Pakistan play three ODIs in Zimbabwe, starting on October 1.