Russel Arnold has been recalled to Sri Lanka’s Test squad for their forthcoming two-Test series against West Indies, which begins in Colombo on July 13.Arnold, 31, lost his place more than a year ago due to poor form, but a match-winning hundred against a touring West Indies A side in a recent four-day game helped him make a comeback. He replaces Shantha Kalavithigoda, who made his Test debut against New Zealand at Wellington in April.”Russel performed better in the four-day games against West Indies A and taking his form into account he was preferred over Kalavithigoda,” Lalith Kaluperuma, Sri Lanka’s chairman of selectors told AFP.The left-arm seamer, Nuwan Zoysa, is also back in the side after recovering from injury, as well as Muttiah Muralitharan, who has been out of the side for 11 months due to a shoulder injury. Gayan Wijekoon, 28, the only uncapped player in the side, comes in at the expense of other allrounder, Farveez Maharoof. Marvan Atapattu remains as captain, with Mahela Jayawardene his deputy.West Indies will play a two-day warm-up game in Colombo over the weekend. The first Test will be held at the Sinhalese Sports Club here from July 13 while the second match will be played at Kandy from July 21.Sri Lanka squad Marvan Atapattu (capt), Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Thilan Samaraweera, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Chandana, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa, Muttiah Muralitharan, Lasitha Malinga, Gayan Wijekoon, Russel Arnold, Rangana Herath.

Sachin Tendulkar may or may not be available for all the Tests against Australia, but a Tendulkar show of another kind will be opening shortly for his fans. According to a report by AAP, a Hindi musical called “Main Sachin Tendulkar” (“I am Sachin Tendulkar”) will be hitting theatres in Mumbai next month.The show is being directed by Sabyasachi Dev Burman, a former dramatics teacher at Mumbai’s Poddar College. The report indicated that about 30 actors – including the character who will play Tendulkar – have been decided, but did not name the lead actor. Talking about the production, Burman said: “It is not exactly about the life and times of Sachin Tendulkar. It takes on Tendulkar’s excellence in the cricket world which in turn leads to a series of events and happenings in the life of the common man.”Over a 15-year international career, Tendulkar, 31, has captured the imagination of cricket audiences worldwide, and especially in India. His 114 Tests have fetched him 9470 runs and 33 centuries, while his 13,415 runs is the most by any batsman in one-day internationals. Now, to go with all those achievements, he’ll have another one to add to the list.

Mark Waugh, who won the Ashes six times, believes England’s quick return to the mistakes of previous sides will remain for the rest of the series. Writing in his column, Waugh said most of the bowlers had gone missing at crucial times and the batsmen were guilty of indecision.”Under pressure, old habits have quickly resurfaced with sloppy fielding, poor body language, negative batting and inconsistent bowling coming to the fore,” he said. “All the talk before this Test was how much England have improved, but apart from Harmison and Flintoff I can’t see how they are any more dangerous or likely to beat us than other English teams.”Waugh said his suspicion of a suspect batting line-up that was untried against quality bowlers had been confirmed at Lord’s. “With the bat, indecisive strokeplay and a negative mindset has given the Aussies a head start.”A player who scored 1189 runs in 17 Tests in England, Waugh said Australia’s batsmen “foolishly tried to force the issue” on day one. “It is a fine line to tread balancing aggressive, positive cricket, but not going overboard and losing respect for your opponents and your wicket,” he said. “This is one of the few chinks in their armour … I doubt whether the Australians will bat as recklessly as they did on the first day again.”

The Board of Directors of Easterns Titans have announced that it has resolved to release Jacques Rudolph to the Goodyear Eagles before the start of the 2005-06 domestic season.”The on-going negotiations regarding Jacques Rudolph and the possibility of him being released to the Eagles at the end of December 2005 have been somewhat protracted,” Brandon Foot, chairman of the Eastern Titans, was quoted in a media release as saying. “Jacques is a very special person in the Nashua Titans Cricket family. He is a home-grown youngster of whom we are very proud and with whom we have walked through times of difficulty and success. We wish Jacques everything of the best and sincerely hope that he returns to the Titans fold in the not too distant future.”Richard Pybus, the new coach of the Nashua Titans, recommended that Rudolph be released before the start of the season because he intended to coach the Titans in a very specific way and he did not think it would be in the team’s interest if his methods were imparted to a player who was joining a rival team. “It is felt that it will be in best interests of the Titans and Jacques Rudolph, if Jacques be allowed to start the season with the Eagles. We will be very sorry to lose Jacques, but we wish him well and hope that he soon regains his rightful place in the South African side,” he said. “In releasing Jacques, it will afford the Titans the opportunity to allow our top order batters to fight for positions without having to disrupt the team at Christmas when Jacques would be leaving us.”Tony Irish, the CEO of the SACA, who has negotiated on Rudolph’s behalf during the transfer said that it was a good decision to move before the season started. Rudolph said that he was looking forward to the upcoming season with the Eagles. “I’ve really enjoyed my cricket at the Titans and have been given lots of support there,” he said. My wife, Elna, and I are however looking forward to our new life in Bloemfontein and to my cricket with the Eagles.”The Northerns Cricket Union has elected two committees to represent Northerns Cricket and Titans Cricket at the amateur and professional levels respectively. The committees were elected during the annual general meeting on August 22.Titans Cricket Executive Committee: Jesse Chellan (President), Roy Coetser, Hero Ramogale, Gys Rautenbach, Vincent Sinovich, Amarlal SomaNortherns Cricket Executive Committee: Pietie Steffens (President), Dicks Tlou (Vice President), Wouter Burger, Afrika Dido, Billy Nkwinika, John Wright

“The time has come for Australia to drop Matthew Hayden,” according to Michael Slater. Hayden, who hasn’t made a century since July 2004, still has the confidence of Ricky Ponting, but Slater, his former opening partner, said it was time for change with the Ashes at stake.”He’s struggled to make runs all series, as he did in 2001 in English conditions,” Slater said in the . “In truth, he has been out of form for 12 months.” What Slater did not add, however, was that the treatment he was recommending was the exact same fate that he himself suffered in 2001. Back then, he was dropped for the Oval Test to make way for Justin Langer, and never played for Australia again.After struggling in the past three Tests, Australia have received a boost with Glenn McGrath, who missed Trent Bridge with an elbow injury, declaring himself fit for the series-deciding fifth Test starting on September 8. “I’ve improved out of sight,” McGrath said in the . “Errol Alcott is again weaving his magic. If I don’t quite make the Essex match then I’ll definitely be right for The Oval.”Slater said he would promote Simon Katich to replace Hayden and draft in the allrounder Shane Watson, who is playing at Hampshire. “[Simon] has done the job in four-day cricket and in one-day matches and has the technique to cope well,” he said. “Watson gives Australia a fifth bowling option, something England have had all series.”In the past four Tests Hayden has managed only 180 runs with a top score of 36 and his lack of productivity has been a crucial factor in the side’s lack of success. However, Kim Hughes, the former Test captain, agreed with Ponting and said Hayden should be retained.”You’ve got to persevere in that instance,” Hughes said in The Australian. “You know Matthew has had a fantastic record. It’s not so much that he’s struggling to get started. He’s getting in. He’s doing the hard yards and then just getting out.”Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors, told the Courier-Mail it was too early to speculate about the line-up. “It is a concern we are 2-1 down and we will have to pick the best team to give ourselves the best change of winning,” he said.Slater also suggested recalling Stuart MacGill to exploit England’s weakness against legspin, even if it meant dropping Shaun Tait, who took three wickets on debut at Nottingham. “Australia must do something to change things because right now they are staring down the barrel at losing the Ashes,” Slater said. “I believe we will lose unless the selectors make changes.”

Lancashire clinched the second division Championship title the day after losing to Leicestershire by four runs at Old Trafford. With Yorkshire losing against Northamptonshire, the Red Rose county maintain their position at the top of the table.After a slow start to their campaign they built some impressive momentum during the middle of the season, at about the same time as Durham’s flying start was tailing off. Mike Watkinson, the coach, was pleased to claim the title although wishes his team had clinched it against Leicestershire.He told BBC Sport: “We’re very pleased. Winning the division was a major goal for us . It’s a long season. Durham got off to a good start and we got rained off a few times but we always knew it would be a long old haul and we were strong enough to come through at the end.”We don’t have one batsman with 1,500 runs or one bowler with 70-odd wickets. Everybody’s chipped in. Mal Loye’s probably top of the hit parade and on the bowling front everybody’s contributed well.”It’s perhaps the first full season that James Anderson has had for us and he’s led the attack pretty well.Yesterday was a bit of a disappointing end to the season – it would have been nice to celebrate in front of our own supporters.”All three northern clubs – Lancashire, Yorkshire and Durham – have won promotion to Division One for next season, when the Championship changes to a two-up, two-down system for the first time.

For the umpteenth time in this series Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappell insisted that there was still a long way to go, and that being 2-0 up would make no difference to the way they prepared, and to the intensity they carried into the third game.”We will just concentrate on what we have to do. I am happy with the way my team has played in the last two games,” Dravid said on Sunday after a lengthy practice session at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. “But I am not worried too much about the results. We need to focus on the processes we put in place and on our goals, and I believe if you do the processes well, the result takes care of itself.”Dravid also reiterated the need to be consistent, and said that it was something he had put across to the team. “I have put the challenges forward to them,” he said. “We know that we have been inconsistent in the past, and the challenge is to make sure that doesn’t happen again. We have learnt to prepare hard for the match in hand, irrespective of the result of the previous game.”The fact that India are 2-0 up gives them the luxury of considering resting Sachin Tendulkar – who has just managed a successful return to cricket after a long lay-off owing to a painful tennis elbow – although perhaps the time has not yet come for that. “We are aware of that, we have to make sure that we don’t put too much pressure on him,” said Chappell. “If and when the opportunity presents itself, we will look to rest him for a game somewhere down the line.”Dravid added that Tendulkar’s style of playing was in line with the team’s current needs. “When you play 15 years of international cricket, you can’t score in every game, and we don’t expect him to score in every game,” he said. “He’s hitting the ball well, is in good form, and we hope he may continue to do that. Most importantly, he is a team man who can play according to the requirements of the team, who can play differently in different conditions.”Chappell conceded that playing at home did give the Indians an edge. “Playing at home does make a big difference, and Sri Lanka are on the road,” he said. “But the fact is that we have played good cricket in the last two games. We have approached matches with strategies that we think will give us an advantage and work against them, and so far, they have succeeded. Good teams are those who have different players performing in different matches. If someone fails, then someone else turns up.”

Marvan Atapattu, the beleagured Sri Lankan captain, was once again faced with questions on how his team planned to bounce back in the series after suffering heavily at India’s hands. Keeping his cool, he said, “We need to play well as a group for us to bounce back. We have a few things planned, and one of those is not to pressurise individuals. The team has to gel together for us to come up trumps. There is no point having stars and putting pressure on them. As a unit, we all have to respond to the challenge.”Atapattu also defended Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas, who have not had as big an impact as expected. “Murali is a class act, and it’s not easy to bowl on flat tracks,” he said. “Actually, if you take the figures of all the bowlers in the series so far, you will find that Murali has the best figures. As for Vaas, it will be unfair to pull him down when he is bowling to someone like Sachin, who is batting as well as he has done all career long. Vaas is among the top five bowlers in one-day cricket, but how he is bowling here is a reflection of both the conditions and the person he is bowling at. He can’t go from being very good to very bad overnight.”Mahela Jayawardena, who also attended the pre-match press conference, echoed Atapattu’s words, and said he, as an individual, was not feeling any special pressure to perform. “I don’t feel any additional pressure. As a team, we need to get our acts together. We all have the capability, of that there is no doubt. What is important is how we approach the task tomorrow. Personally, I will take it as just another game.”

West Indies experienced a day of bowling improvement before being let down again by their batsmen, but Fidel Edwards still wants the attack to provide greater back-up to the No.1 Corey Collymore. Collymore has given the opposition most trouble during the series with his economical returns, including 2 for 54 in the first innings when he finally received useful assistance from Edwards, Powell and Bravo.Australia began the day with a lead of 107 but lost six wickets in the first session and a total of 9 for 150. “I think I’ve given Corey a little bit of support but we need to give him a lot more,” Edwards, who took 3 for 116 today, said. “Getting nine wickets today was a good comeback and hopefully things will get better.”West Indies, who finished the day at 4 for 82, need 175 runs to force Australia into a second innings and Edwards was confident they would achieve the target despite having a lower-order struggling to contribute. “We’ve started behind the eight ball and hopefully we can bat through tomorrow and make them bat again,” he said. “The tail hasn’t been batting that well but hopefully we can stick around and get some partnerships. We’ve been doing more work at training on our batting than our bowling.”Brad Hodge has showed that patient practice can pay off as he produced a smooth debut that was boosted by advice from Dean Jones, who was Victoria’s No.3 when he made his debut as an 18-year-old, and Steve Waugh. Jones wanted to make sure Hodge focused on watching the ball hard and remembered to breathe and relax.”They sound like pretty simple things but you can sometimes forget them in a state of arousal,” he said. “Stephen said to back yourself because what you’ve done in the level below will stand you in good stead for this level.”Hodge, who has been a member of tours to India, New Zealand and England without playing a match, said he was nervous, but he didn’t show it once he took a first-ball single to cover. “I knew I’d get the opportunity and I wanted to enjoy it,” he said. “I hit a cover-drive when I was 10 or 11 and it was a relief to feel the ball on the bat and hear the cheer of the crowd. That relaxed me a lot.”He looked calm throughout his innings, despite being part of a “terrible” run-out that cost Andrew Symonds his wicket, and brought up his half-century from 83 balls with a glide to third-man. “Not too many people expect a helluva lot from your first game so 60 is a real nice score and I felt nice at the crease,” he said. “You can get carried away with your debut and now I can just look to enjoy the next game.”Hodge was disappointed to be given out lbw to Collymore and felt he might have edged the ball as it hit the pad. “Maybe it was just because I was out,” he said. “I felt like I could have made a hundred.”

The Jamaica Cricket Association is holding its hands over committing to the Stanford 2020 competition and the proposed US$280,000 to be allocated to each territorial board. However, the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (T&TCB) has no such qualms and they are moving ahead.”We will welcome any funding for development,” T&TCB general secretary Forbes Persaud said yesterday following a meeting between board officials and chairman of the 2020 organising committee, former West Indies fast bowler Andy Roberts, at the National Cricket Centre in Balmain, Couva.Roberts was in Trinidad as part of the series of visits through the islands by members of the 2020 board of directors-comprising 14 West Indies cricket legends-to assess the facilities and appraise the regional boards about the tournament and to discuss the disbursement of funds. However, Roberts’ visit coincided with a media release on Monday by the West Indies Cricket Board which issued a caution about the tournament, the brainchild of Antigua-based American businessman Allen Stanford.”The generous offer of assistance, which is proposed, is to be welcomed,” the WICB statement said in part. “But if it is Mr. Stanford’s desire to genuinely assist in the development of cricket, we would expect this to be progressed in conjunction with existing Caribbean initiatives, which are well advanced….”Visits to our respective territories have been made by envoys of Mr Stanford and we have indicated general interest in his proposal to offer funding. But we have made it clear that we expect these arrangements to be pursued through our collective participation at the level of the West Indies Cricket Board. Anything else would suggest an attempt to create duplication and division within West Indies cricket, which we do not believe is Mr Stanford’s intention.” The statement was signed by the six territorial boards, including the T&TCB. And in a Caribbean Media Coporation (CMC) report yesterday, JCA president Jackie Hendriks said his board, also one of the signatories to the statement, supported the board’s position. He added that Jamaica would adopt a wait and see approach.”Speaking for Jamaica, certainly when we heard about it we were asked to send some of our programmes to them which we did but we made it very clear that we could do nothing until the West Indies Cricket Board sanctioned the whole initiative and this is so up to now,” Hendriks said. “My understanding is that efforts have been made by the president of the West Indies Board [Ken Gordon] to get in touch with Mr Stanford without any success so therefore we are waiting to see exactly the outcome of any discussions between the West Indies Board and Mr Stanford.”However, yesterday, the T&TCB adopted a slightly different position. “After the meeting today, we have a clear picture as to what the whole thing is all about,” said Persaud, who along with second vice-president Azim Bassarath and T&T senior team manager and T&TCB executive member Omar Khan held talks with Roberts. Board president Deryck Murray is out of the country. The WICB did say they have an interest in the whole project. (So) at this stage we will be putting forward our proposals to the organisers by the end of the week with respect to how we would be using the funds.”Under the Stanford proposal, US$100,000 is to be used to develop cricketing infrastructure, while the remaining US$180,000 is to go towards player development and team preparation for next year’s 2020 series.The cash-strapped T&TCB currently has a bank overdraft of $279,000 and a debt to the WICB of $1.5m which was a loan to help with the construction of the National Cricket Centre.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Pakistan turned on the style in the second one-day international as they inflicted a thumping seven-wicket defeat on England, levelling the series with six overs to spare. Shoaib Akhtar and Kamran Akmal produced most of the sparkle as one confirmed his rejuvenation as an international force and the other confirmed his potential as one for the future. Back in the present, both were far too good for England in a match that showed how quickly fortunes can change in the limited overs game.Akmal’s second one-day century came from 108 balls, his first against West Indies was also as an opener, and followed on from Shoaib’s fiery five-wicket haul which knocked the stuffing out of England. Chasing 230, Pakistan did not need to race along but Akmal was in a hurry from the start. Despite kick-starting his knock with an uppercut for six off Steve Harmison he did not take any undue risks and found few problems with any of the bowlers. He indulged in his favourite cover drive, peppering the off side with timing and placement.Defending a well-below-par total, England knew that early wickets were their only chance and needed a repeat of Shoaib’s performance which had earlier left them floundering on 130 for 8. A bowler light after subbing James Anderson with Vikram Solanki, they threw their new-ball heavyweights at the Pakistan openers. Akmal and Salman Butt responded to the challenge by setting a rapid pace, latching on to any hint of width and having the confidence in the pitch to drive through the line.Marcus Trescothick tried to regain some control by delaying his Powerplays but, unlike the first match, the Pakistan batsmen did not need to force the pace against Ian Blackwell and Paul Collingwood. Even Flintoff’s strike with the first ball of his second spell and Collingwood’s well-disguised slower ball to Younis Khan did not slow the tempo. Akmal was not bothered whether the field was in or out and it was only a moment of over-confidence that brought his downfall with the job almost done – and Inzamam-ul-Haq finished it with a flourish.

The job was started, and in destructive fashion, by Shoaib on a pitch that offered more pace and carry than on Saturday. He sparked Pakistan into life, bringing out his full box of tricks in a stunning seventh over of the innings. He produced a perfect slower ball which Trescothick failed to pick and Andrew Strauss couldn’t get out of the way of a searing bouncer, Akmal leaping to hold a fine, high catch.Rana Naved-ul-Hasan then delivered the crucial over of the match, removing England’s powerful middle order in the space of five balls. Firstly Pietersen, clearly in discomfort after aggravating a rib injury, swished and missed after a brief boundary flurry. Next Andrew Flintoff, after his early alarm call to receive the Sports Personality of the Year award, was given another wake-up when he was cramped for room trying to play a pull.As England tottered, five wickets down, Shoaib returned from receiving treatment on a calf injury to produce another of his spine-tingling overs of extreme pace. His second ball back accounted for Geraint Jones, who couldn’t get his gloves below a rapid, well-directed bouncer. Blackwell then had no answer to the pace in the following over as he failed to get in the same postcode as a full, fast, straight ball that sent the off stump flying.With Shoaib reaching his blistering best a swift end to the innings was on the cards but Solanki and Liam Plunkett restored respectability with a record ninth-wicket stand of 100.They milked the spinners, as Inzamam strangely opted not to bring a quick back, but it was far from all nudge and nurdle as Plunkett launched a handsome six off Shoaib Malik while Solanki frequently flicked through midwicket. Plunkett’s first international fifty confirmed his allround promise and is another tick for him on an impressive tour.But if England thought they had been given a sniff, that notion was quickly snuffed out by another of the impressive youngsters. With the crushing nature of this win Pakistan now have the momentum in the series but, as this double-header in Lahore has shown, that can change in the blink of an eye.