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Luke Wright has been named as Sussex’s captain across all three formats for the 2016 season, following Ed Joyce’s decision to stand down in the wake of the club’s relegation from Division One of the LV= County Championship.Wright, 30, took charge of Sussex’s T20 fortunes last season, leading his side to the quarter-finals of the NatWest T20 Blast. However, it was in first-class cricket that he made his biggest impression, scoring 1,220 runs at 46.92, including a career-best 226 not out against Worcestershire.”I am hugely proud and honoured to be the captain of this fantastic club,” Wright said. “To think that I am following in the footsteps of some great captains is a massive privilege.”Mine and the coaches’ challenge is to get this club back to winning ways. This starts with not only trying to get back to Division One, but to create a culture that can challenge to win it.”Sussex’s Championship campaign was undermined by a spate of injuries, particularly to their stable of fast bowlers, with Tymal Mills, Ajmal Shahzad and Chris Jordan all ruled out at various stages of the season. Michael Yardy, the former club captain, retired at the end of the season while Joyce stood down to concentrate on his batting after averaging 32.88 for the campaign.”Thanks to all the Sussex supporters for sticking with us through what has been a difficult summer but hopefully good times are ahead,” Wright said.”We also need to be successful in all forms and I was delighted with the improvements we made this season in the T20 competition, but a lot of hard work is required by all to achieve these goals.”Mark Robinson, Sussex’s team manager, said: “We’re delighted that Luke has accepted the offer of captaincy. It comes at an important time for the club, as we look to rebuild and come back stronger for the 2016 season.”Luke will bring a lot of experience from around the world, as well as passion, commitment and energy. He will have the full respect from everybody from within the club and the game.”

With a fighting innings of 51 not out, which has lasted nearly two and a half hours, Robin Weston was attempting to bring stability to the Middlesex innings after five wickets had gone down for 124.The last to fall was Paul Weekes’ wicket, caught at cover for 13 from a lofted shot, an hour before bad light and rain brought an end to proceedings at 5.44pm with seven overs remaining of the second day’s play. Middlesex had reached 169 for five.Having made a slow but solid start to their first innings, the home side had struggled to consolidate during the last two sessions of play.Their opening stand put 74 on the board when two wickets went in successive overs. Michael Roseberry, who was dropped at slip before he had scored, was caught on 30 off the outside edge as he pushed forward to off spinner Suaun Udal in the 34th over.In the next over, Dimitri Mascarenhas bowled Andy Strauss for 33 and then struck again three overs later, having Stephen Fleming caught at slip for five. That gave him two wickets for seven in six overs of accurate pace bowling.Shortly before tea, which was taken on 119 for four, Middlesex lost Ben Hutton for six when Neil Johnson took his second catch, at slip. It was off Udal who claimed his second wicket for 41 in twenty overs.Earlier this morning, a big-hitting spree by Hampshire’s tail-enders added 94 runs in only 74 minutes before they were dismissed for 404 an hour before lunch.After losing his partner Adrian Aymes, who managed to add only six to his overnight score of 63 before falling leg before wicket to Phil Tufnell, Udal went on to become the fifth Hampshire batsman to score a half-century in the innings. Remarkably, this is the second time this season that five Hampshire batsmen have hit half-centuries in a single innings.Hampshire’s eighth-wicket stand of 114 fell just five short of their record against Middlesex.Udal’s fifty was the quickest of the five, coming from 81 balls and included six boundaries. He hit two of those off Angus Fraser in the second over of the morning, one to square leg and the other between long leg and square.Alex Morris kept up the scoring rate after Udal had skied to be caught at mid-wicket off Paul Weekes. He had been dropped earlier at short mid-wicket off Tufnell, but continued with his hard hitting which brought him six boundaries and a six over the sight screen off Weekes who eventually bowled him when he was only seven short of yet another fifty by a Hampshire batsman.With his dismissal, Weekes completed his first five-wicket haul in five years. The last occasion was against Glamorgan when he had eight for 39, his best first-class figures.

Pakistan sounded a warning to their Asian neighbours when they defeated SriLanka by five wickets in Galle today to win the unofficial Test seriesone-nil. They came to Sri Lanka with an extremely young squad and have shownthat they have plenty of talent waiting in the wings when the seniors startto fade.Having saved the First Test Match in Dambulla by the skin of their teeth,Pakistan held the initiative throughout the last two games and, if the truthbe told, fully deserve to win the series: their batsmen showed greaterapplication, their fast bowlers were occasionally exceptional and, if thiswasn’t enough, they could count on the services of a fine wrist spinner.They were always likely to win this match after Sri Lanka had collapsed toDanish Kaneria last evening. Sri Lanka’s only hope was the overnightpartnership between Thilan Samaraweera and Prasanna Jayawardene. They keptsuch hopes alive for 40 minutes this morning, extending the partnership to46 runs, before a wonderful rocket like throw from the deep square boundaryby Irfan Fazil ran out Jayawardene and opened the door for Pakistan.They needed no second invitation to wrap up the innings. By the time thatJayawardene had removed his batting pads, Malinga Bandara, the next man in,was walking back to the dressingroom having edged his first delivery straight to Hasan Raza at short gully.Thilan Samaraweera, obviously worried that he was going to get stranded,following the example of Raza yesterday and tried to pick up some quick runsbefore the innings closed. Unfortunately, he made the fatal mistake ofmissing a straight ball from Yasir Arafat and was trapped leg-before wicket.Dinusha Fernando rounded off the disappointment when he was run out by IrfanFazil, as he tried to pinch the strike. Sri Lanka had lost their last fourwickets for seven runs and Pakistan were required to score just 137 forvictory.Pakistan made heavy going of the target. Humayun Farhat, the wicket keeper,was promoted to open the innings, but he was trapped leg-before wicket inthe first over. Taufeeq Umar was also trapped leg-before, this time offSamaraweera, moments after the luncheon interval.Hasan Raza, the mainstay of the Pakistan batting throughout the tour, thenadded 24 runs with Salman Butt, before the young left-hander pulled lamelyto mid-wicket. When Raza was caught behind off Dinusha Fernando, Pakistanwere 67 for four and Sri Lanka may have sensed an outside chance of victory.Misbah-ul-Haq (23), who had saved the day in Dambulla, came to the rescueagain, this time with Faisal Naved (42*). The pair added 55 runs for thefifth wicket, to finally drain the spirit from the Sri Lankan’s. When Misbahwas bowled with 15 runs still required, they had already given up and it wasno surprise that the target was eventually reached courtesy of four sloppyoverthrows.Both coaches have maintained throughout this three-week tour that the endresult was of secondary importance to the identification of new talent. Bythat measure too, Pakistan have gained the most from the tour. Three playersin particular look like they can make the jump into the national team soon.Hasan Raza, still only 19 years old if you believe the statistics, standsout as the one class batsman, having scored 321 runs at 64.2. DanishKaneria is a leg spinner of great potential and claimed 21 wickets in theseries; whilst Irfan Fazil’s fast bowling was particularly impressive onthis lifeless surface in Galle.Sri Lanka meanwhile have discovered little, although they will take heartfrom the fact that the bowling academy appears to be bearing fruit, with anumber of promising young fast bowlers now emerging.Thilan Samaraweera distinguished himself with 21 wickets, AvishkaGunawardene stated a powerful case for a recall into the national squad, andthe performance of Michael Vandort was encouraging, if not compelling, withthe bat. Alas, the rest of the batting was hugely disappointing and,Samaraweera apart, no spinner grabbed the eye.Food for though then for the Sri Lankan selectors, who picked an unwieldy 22players for this three-match series. Apparently, the rationale was to giveas many players as possible an opportunity. The chances of them taking thatopportunity, however, were dramatically reduced by the ensuing sense ofinsecurity within the squad. Unfortunately, it’s back to the drawing boardfor Sri Lanka.

" We will reverse the result"- said Mahbubul Anam, after Bangladesh’s tour of Zimbabwe in April 2001, when the side was defeated in both Tests and all three one-days. This raised debates among the journalists present there, who took his words as much as true. It meant Bangladesh is going to thrash Zimbabwe in all five matches waiting to be staged in home grounds."Reversing the result" was a metaphorical use by Mr. Mahbubul Anam and perhaps we all are quite aware of that. Bangladesh stands at the bottom in the Test team ranking and Zimbabwe positioned itself as the ninth strongest Test nation – just over us. Someone having the least knowledge about cricket would recognize the reality that there is a gulf of difference in the standard between these two nations.As for our African foes, they got the Test status nine years before and had played a good number of matches since then. They have a batsman like Andy Flower who’s batting genius is unquestionable. He will be a sheer worrying matter for Bangladesh as our bowling is below the average and the mighty Zimbabwean can throw a monkey wrench in the works of even the greatest of bowlers of his time. Look at his average, look how he bats under pressure and look at his consistency.In the very recent practice matches our batsmen failed to show that they can hang on to the wicket. If someone stayed in case, he was seen hesitating to go for shots. This happens when the confidence is volatile. Our players cannot synchronize both things that are absolutely vital in playing Tests – staying in the wicket and taking advantage of the loose ball as much as possible. Think about the Test in Multan, where we watched the horrendous selection of balls by our prominent batsmen.One thing is transparent – the tracks of Bangladesh are going to benefit the batsmen without a shred of doubt. The Dhaka pitch is a bowler’s killing ground. Only the spinners could get some favor. Our batsmen are less accustomed to play leg-spinners and mind that Paul Strang is a very good leggie. As to deal with the leggies we have already displayed a shocking feat (Crushed against Danish Kaneria’s not-so-harmful deliveries).Actually we have to restrain our hopes a bit. Hoping for a win against Zimbabwe is going to be a premature optimism. It will be praiseworthy if Bangladesh pulls off a draw out of their opponents in the Tests and a win in the one-day series.

It was a momentous day for Zimbabwe, the minnows of Test cricket, at theHeadquarters of the game, as they embarked on their first ever Test series inEngland.This historical tour has been a long while coming; eight years and 41 Testsafter Zimbabwe were elevated to Test status. It will be remembered thatEngland had opposed their entry to the highest level of cricket until 1992.In view of that, it is of some significance to note that the relative newentrants to the international scene have maintained a parity in the resultsof their previous encounters with England at both levels of cricket.Indeed, at one stage, the sequence of victories, in the shorter version ofthe game, stood at 6-2 in favour of Zimbabwe. This was not merely aflattering margin, but in fact, arose from the dedication and hard work that Zimbabwe had put into their game. They would, no doubt, wish to forge ahead in the outcome of Tests as well.Despite the distraction of the current situation at home and the unwelcomingweather conditions that the tourists have had to endure from the start ofthis tour, the players have remained focused to the task in their endeavourto reverse the result of their 2-0 defeat last month in the Caribbean.However, on the evidence of their performance on the opening day of thisinaugural Test, it appears that it would be quite a toil for them to get thebetter of England, a side which occupies only one position above them at thebottom of the table in the unofficial world Test rankings. They certainly did not rise to the occasion; the first day of the Lord’s Test match has always been regarded as something special.To have lost three wickets in the first six overs before the total had evenreached double figures would indicate, perhaps, a loss of nerves. But it hasto be said their batting has had a look of deficiency, judging from their previous couple of Test series. It has been a major problem through adispiriting recent past.Just how brittle the batting has been was further exemplified in their failing to chase a meagre 93 to win a Test against West Indies only six weeks ago.Zimbabwe’s wretched performance with the bat today arose from a combination of a lack of application and poor shot selection.England’s pace bowlers, on the other hand, took advantage of the favourableovercast conditions on a pitch which had a bit of grass on it. Zimbabwe neverlooked like being able to make a recovery after Andy Caddick had inflicted the early damage to the innings, removing the first three wickets for 2 in a space of nine balls.His figures, however, were not quite as remarkable as Ed Giddins who, playingin only his second Test match, had a haul of 5 for 15 from seven overs.Zimbabwe, through a most inept batting performance, had made the England bowling appear unplayable.

Displaying exemplary grit and determination, Hamish Marshall and JamesFranklin rescued the New Zealand Cricket Academy from a tight spot onthe opening day of their three day MRF Buchi Babu all India invitationtournament semifinal against Oil and Natural Gas Commission at the MAChidambaram stadium on Monday.Shortly before lunch, the New Zealand team lost their fifth wicketwith the total on 92. But for the rest of the day, Marshall andFranklin batted in commendable fashion in a rescue act that won theadmiration of the sparse crowd present. Not until shortly before closewas the partnership broken with Marshall being held by wicketkeeperSandeep Dogra off Amit Bhandari. But by that time he had got a welldeserved hundred and the New Zealand Academy were able to end the daywith the cushion of having made 252 for six off 95 overs.And yet if the afternoon and the evening belonged to the New Zealandside and Marshall and Franklin in particular, the morning’s honourswere claimed by ONGC and Bhandari in particular. Winning the toss, theNew Zealand Academy soon ran into trouble. Off the last ball of thefifth over, JAH Marshall was caught at point by Mithun Minhas offBhandari for ten in a total of 16. In the eleventh over – his sixth -Bhandari struck again. The other opening batsman MHW Papps who hadstruggled for 52 minutes and 27 balls to score five was leg before.That made the Kiwi team 20 for two.L Vincent who came next tried to counter attack but at 37, he hitRahul Sanghvi to substitute Amit Sharma at mid on and departed for 11.AJ Redmond and skipper JDP Oram seemed to have steadied the boat a bitby adding 38 runs for the fourth wicket off 11.2 overs. But Oram whohad dominated the partnership was then bowled by Sanghvi for 20.Bhandari then came back and had the obdurate Redmond caught at slip byGagan Khoda for 25, compiled off 92 balls and inclusive of five hitsto the ropes.At 92 for five, the back of the New Zealand team’s innings seemed tobe well and truly broken. But then followed the partnership betweenMarshall and Franklin which came as a blood transfusion for a sidesinking fast. Battling both the accurate bowling and the intense heat,the right handed Marshall and the left handed Franklin batted withassurance. They nursed the innings through the afternoon sessionadding just 64 runs but more important coming through unbroken. In thepost tea session the pair applied the pressure on the now wiltingbowlers.In the first round game against Districts XI, the 21-year-old Marshallfrom Northern Districts had scored an unbeaten 155. He then missed histeam’s quarterfinal match against Hyderabad. Carrying on from where heleft off against the Districts XI, Marshall played a number ofpleasing strokes. His batting was a blend of power, elegance andtiming. He was very much the dominant partner in the partnership butthe role of Franklin was no less important.Taking three boundaries off one over from Sanghvi, Marshall made hisintentions clear. The 20-year-old Franklin from Wellington too pressedon the accelerator and under pressure, the bowling became wayward.Showing no signs of nerves even in the 90s, Marshall raced to his 100shortly before close. He did not add another run though, the new ball,taken after 90 overs, getting rid of him. Marshall batted almost fivehours, faced 195 balls and hit 12 of them to the ropes. The sixthwicket partnership, which added 158 runs off 57.2 overs, has broughtthe New Zealand side right back into the game.Franklin however could not be dislodged and came in unbeaten with 64invaluable runs when stumps were drawn for the day. He has so farplayed 174 balls and has hit eight fours. But the chief honours of theday were still with Marshall. So impressed was manager Richard Hadleeby his performance that he got the entire team out of the dressingroom to enthusiastically cheer Marshall when he got to his hundred.His gesture, besides symbolising teamwork, was also a handsome tributeto a batsman who had done the most to revive the New Zealand side’shopes in the match.It must have been galling for ONGC to come out second best in a daywhich they had dominated for the first half. Bhandari however put in afine performance, borne out by his figures – 15-8-23-4. Unfortunatelynot much can be said in favour of the other bowlers. Both Sanghvi andVirendra Shewag, in particular were expensive and wilted under therelentless pressure put on them by the Franklin-Marshall association.

Eddie Leie strode in like a man high on life. There was a cheery hello to a largely empty room. There were a few seconds of hyperactive mic testing. And then there was an engaging conversation, not a press conference. One during which he admitted, “All I know is that I’ll pay money to play in the IPL.”The statement was clearly meant as a joke, but the enthusiasm the 28-year old legspinner had for playing as much cricket as possible could not be hidden.”I watch a lot of IPL,” he said. “I recently played in the Caribbean Premier League in West Indies and I think I did okay there. But I’m not thinking that far ahead. If it happens, I’ll be happy. But for me, my focus at the moment is honestly on the game against India A tomorrow, if I get selected, and doing well. Honestly, if you take care of your performance, everything takes care of itself. So the IPL is not on my mind.”

Manish Pandey bowled despite illegal action

Manish Pandey, who is presently on the BCCI’s list of players with an illegal action, ended up bowling in the match against Australia A on Friday.
The on-field umpires Anil Dandekar and Nand Kishore caught on to the mistake soon after he completed his first over and asked India A captain Unmukt Chand to take him off.
Pandey, a part-time medium-pacer, was called when he had bowled for Karnataka in a Ranji Trophy game against Madhya Pradesh in January. His primary role is that of a batsman, though, but if he wants to add to the 193.3 overs he has bowled in eight years of domestic cricket, he will need a clean chit from the BCCI suspect action committee first.

Leie holds the record for the best figures – 3 for 16 – for a South African on T20 debut. So it should be no surprise that he has been persisted with for their next T20 assignment against New Zealand. Perhaps if he does well in the A-team tri-series currently underway in Chennai, he might come back to India for the World T20 in March.But, according to Leie, he is quite a way down the pecking order. “I’m not even the best spinner in the country, to be honest. We’ve got Imran Tahir, great spinner. Aaron Phangiso, great spinner. We’ve got Robin Peterson. So I don’t even think I’m first line for selection. For me, I just need to do well tomorrow so as to get one up in the series and go to the final. Not what the senior team does. That’s out of my control.”All he plans to do is work on his game, with a little help from YouTube.”I relied mostly on the videos of legspinners around the world – Danish Kaneria, Shane Warne, Anil Kumble, my favourite, Mushtaq Ahmed, from back in the day,” he said. “So I try to learn as much as I can from them. My action might be a bit similar to most of them, with the arm coming from the top.”That isn’t the extent of his unconventional upbringing in cricket. Even the decision to become a legspinner was a fine story. An eight-year-old Leie was playing mini-cricket, a venture designed to bring more kids into the game in South Africa, when he was asked to go run an errand. Along the way, he figured out he had a nifty little talent.”With mini-cricket, everyone gets a chance to bowl, everyone gets a chance to keep, everyone gets a chance to bat. You rotate. So I was running in and just bowling and one day I got sent to the shops by my mother. But I was reluctant on going. So [on the way] I started playing with stones, just flicking like this [mimics the release of a legspinner]. Obviously, it was a gravel road and it kept on doing that [mimics the stone’s deviation] and when I went practice after that, I started getting a few wickets at training. So I just stuck to that.”

Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium is set to host a Test match after 35 years, when England tour India in November-December for a two-Test series. The change was prompted due to the unavailability of the Wankhede Stadium, the regular Test venue, which is undergoing renovation for the 2011 World Cup in the subcontinent.The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) had discussions with the owners of the Brabourne Stadium, the Cricket Club of India (CCI), over the sharing of tickets and a three-year deal on hosting rights will be signed on June 18.”A formal agreement, for a period of three years till Wankhede is available to us again to host matches, is to be signed with the CCI on June 18 when our managing committee meets,” Dr PV Shetty, the joint secretary of the MCA, told . “The discussion part is over and the CCI authorities have agreed to keep 50% of the club house tickets to themselves and give the rest to us [MCA].”Incidentally, England were the last visiting team to play a Test at the Brabourne Stadium, back in 1973. A dispute over tickets between the MCA and the CCI led to the birth of the Wankhede Stadium nearby, which held its first Test in 1975. Brabourne hosted three one-day internationals between 1989 and 1995, before playing host to five ICC Champions Trophy games eleven years later. The last international match played there was a one-off Twenty20 international between India and Australia last year.

Baqai Dolphins marched into the final of the 17th Karachi Gymkhana Callmate Festival, handing out a 50-run defeat to KESC in the second semifinal played on Wednesday.Put into bat after losing the toss, Baqai Dolphins were bowled out for 159 runs in 24.1 overs due to some splendid spin bowling by Tahir Khan, who picked up five wickets for only 10 runs.Cruising along at 116 for two with Hasan Raza (56) and Shadab Kabir (29) among the runs, Dolphins lost their last eight wickets for the addition of only 43 runs, with Tahir running amock. Left-arm spinners Asif Ghouri two for 30 and Jaffer Qureshi two for 40, lent Tahir admirable support.Former champions KESC never really got off the ground and were skittled out out for 109 in 23 overs.Left-arm Adnan Malik was the pick of the Dolphins attack, claiming four wickets for 23 runs. He was ably assisted by the other left-arm spinner Qaiser Abbas two for 29.Thursday’s fixture: Tapal CC vs Baqai Dolphins 1.00 p.m. (Final)Aamir, Afsar Shine Match winning unbeaten knocks by Aamir Iqbal and Afsar Nawaz, paved the way for Mohammad Hussain CC to pick up the Seventh Danish Trophy, trouncing KGA Gymkhana by eight wickets on Wednesday. Electing to bat first after winning the toss KGA after a slow start managed to pick up the tempo through Hilary Rodrigues (48) and Rajesh Ramesh (21). With Freddie Decruze contributing 33, KGA scored 152 for seven in 20 overs.Skipper Amir Iqbal (69 n.o.) and Mohammad Zafar (35), added 61 runs for the first wicket with 153 runs needed for victory.Mohammad Hussain CC were home and dry after 17 overs in reaching 154 for two. Aamir slammed seven boundaries and Afsar clobbered two fours and two sixes in his unbeaten knock of 41 runs.Amin Merchant, vice-chairman KCCA Zone III, was the chief guest on the occasion and presented the trophies to the winners and runners-up.UBL A win A.O. Academy moved ahead in the Baqai Inter-Academies Ramazan Festival tournament, brushing aside Customs by 75 runs at the UBL A ground Wednesday.A.O. Academy batting first scored 175 for seven wickets in 25 overs through Rizwan Khan (49), Asadullah (42), Khurram Khan (23) and Babar Agha (22). Off-spinners Waqas three for 29 and Faizan Hussain two for 38, bagged the wickets for the fielding side.Customs in reply were restricted to 105 for nine wickets. Talha Khan was top scorer with 32 runs. Adnan Ali three for 18, and Samiullah two for 18, grabbed the wickets for the winners.In another match played in the afternoon session, UBL A routed their junior string by eight wickets.UBL B winning the toss and deciding to bat first, managed 123 for eight wickets in the 22 restricted overs. Ehsanullah (34) and Salman Hussain (31) batted well.Openers Kamran Ahsan (50) and Usman Farhat (45) steered their team to victory with a blazing stand of 99. UBL A finally went on to win scoring 124 for two wickets in 19.4 overs.AOCC lift trophy Hosts A.O. CC won the A.O. Super Cup after handing out a five-wicket defeat to Dewan Mushtaq Sugar Mills under floodlights on Tuesday night.Dewan Mushtaq opting to bat first after winning the toss, were restricted to 135 runs for eight wickets in 20 overs. Fahadullah was the top scorer for his side with 40 runs, with two boundaries being his principal strokes. Farhan Adil chipped in with (27).Off-spinner Shoaib Malik bagged two wickets for 13 runs.A.O. CC needing 136 runs for victory, scraped home with three deliveries to spare, thanks to Test discards Shadab Kabir (49),Kamran Hussain who had earlier scored 201 runs in the tournament, was declared the best batsman and Dr. M.A. Shah with his left-arm floaters, the best bowler after capturing 11 wickets.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India’s one-day and Twenty20 captain, has been chosen for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the country’s highest honour for a sportsperson. He is the second cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar to receive the award. Dhoni led India to victory in the World Twenty20 in South Africa last year and the tri-series in Australia in 2008.”We are very happy. He has represented the country with distinction, and deserves the honour,” Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president, said. “His exemplary leadership and demeanour under pressure, especially in the Twenty20 World Cup and the tri-series in Australia, has made him an ideal role model for millions of young Indians who want to make a mark in life.”BCCI chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty said what impressed him most about Dhoni was the way he conducted himself. “What I like most about him, apart from his cricket, is the way he leads,” Shetty said. “He is a cool customer and never gets agitated. He displays clarity of thought and speaks his mind even if it may not be seen in the right sense.”An official announcement would follow after August 20.