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Glamorgan have had to cancel their Twenty20 match against Bangladesh A, provisionally set for June 13 2005 at Sophia Gardens, because of the tourists’ heavy schedule. The ECB had liaised with their counterparts in Bangladesh to work out a solution, but the match will not take place.Mike Fatkin, Glamorgan’s chief executive, sympathised with fans. “This is obviously disappointing to us and to our members, who would have enjoyed seeing Glamorgan taking on the tourists in a Twenty20 floodlit game,” he said. “However, we do have the pleasure of hosting the Australia/Bangladesh NatWest Series one-day international in Cardiff the following Saturday, June 18, and all cricket fans in Wales will be looking forward to welcoming the Bangladeshi team for that game.”Bangladesh A are also scheduled to play a three-day match against Glamorgan in the last week of July, but a venue has not yet been finalised, although Swansea had been earmarked. Fatkin explained: “The St Helen’s Balconiers, the body responsible for generating the funds which allow Glamorgan to continue playing in west Wales, has decided not to accept the offer of the Bangladesh A game.”

Michael Vaughan hopes Andrew Flintoff can make his Test return during the upcoming series against New Zealand, however he said it was vital that Flintoff not rush back too soon and risk aggravating his ongoing ankle problems. Flintoff has not played a Test since the 2006-07 Ashes loss in Australia and a fourth operation on his left ankle ruled him out of the recent tours of Sri Lanka and New Zealand.”He has got three or four four-day games for Lancashire, so hopefully he will come through those with overs under his belt, runs by his name and give himself a good chance because we want him back,” Vaughan told . “An England side with Freddie in is a better team.”He wants to be there. He is the only one who knows what his anklefeels like. He hasn’t bowled 18 to 20 overs in a day yet and had to go out and bowl five or six the next day yet, so hopefully he will get through that.”Flintoff himself was aiming to be ready for the first Test, which starts on May 15, however that will depend on his progress during Lancashire’s initial games. His first big trial will be in a four-day match against Surrey beginning on Wednesday, and Vaughan said there was no point hurrying him into the national side before he was ready.”We just want him right, whether that means he misses the first game, second game and comes back for the third,” Vaughan said. “I just want him back fit and ready; whether it’s first or third, that will do me. It is so important you listen to your body and know yourself.”Flintoff’s fast-bowling colleagues Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard are also desperate for a successful start to the county season following their axing from the Test side during the tour of New Zealand. Vaughan said Hoggard would undoubtedly be working overtime to put his name back in the frame, while Harmison would be fired up and keen to prove a point.”Harmy has been given a harder time and I wouldn’t want to be a county batsman over the next month having to face him because I think he has got a bit of a bee in his bonnet and a point to prove,” Vaughan said. “That is exactly what I want – I certainly don’t think it is the end of their careers yet.”Regardless of how the attack looks, there could be adjustments to England’s top order for the first Test with Vaughan himself keen to drop down the order. He had a poor series personally in New Zealand, scoring 123 runs at 20.50, and a direct swap with the No. 3 Andrew Strauss might be on the cards.”I wouldn’t say I would carry on opening for England, no,” Vaughan said. “We will have to sit down with Peter Moores and the selectors. Straussy is at three at the minute – he likes opening and I am at two and like batting at three – so maybe that will be a little bit of a change.”

Earlier this week, Mohammad Ashraful told Cricinfo that he didn’t “want to think about captaincy for another five years at least”. But Ashraful, 20, is going to have to address the issue rather sooner than that – he has been named as captain of the Bangladesh Cricket Board XI that is taking part in this season’s Duleep Trophy tournament in India.Ashraful has been put in charge of a squad which includes only two non-Test players – the left-arm spinner Abdur Razzaq (who has played in six ODIs) and the wicketkeeper Sahagir Hossain Pavel.The selectors originally asked Naimur Rahman, the offspinner and former Test captain, to join the tour, but he declined, telling the Daily Star Sport: “I think I’m not mentally ready to play at this level at the moment. If I start now, I’ll have to begin from zero. Having been out of international cricket for three years, I’m not looking forward to a return to the national side. Besides, I’ve recently started my own business so that has made it difficult for me to concentrate on cricket.” Naimur, 30, who played the last of his eight Tests in December 2002, added that he was also suffering from a knee injury which needs further treatment.The BCB XI’s campaign in the tournament, whcih also includes the five Indian zonal teams, begins with a match against East Zone at Jaipur, starting on February 25. They then take on Central Zone at Jaipur (March 1). The six teams have been split into two groups, and the five-day final between the two group winners will be played at Indore later in March.Bangladesh Cricket Board squad
Al Shahriar, Rajin Saleh, Nafees Iqbal, Aftab Ahmed, Mohammad Ashraful (capt), Alok Kapali, Manjural Islam Rana, Sahagir Hossain Pavel (wk), Abdur Razzak, Talha Jubair, Nazmul Hossain, Tareq Aziz, Anwar Munir.

Yorkshire 144 and 44 for 1 trail Lancashire 517 (Law 206, Horton 149) by 329 runs
Scorecard

This was a day of records at Headingley, none of them favourable to Yorkshire. The most notable were the highest partnership for Lancashire in first-class matches against Yorkshire, and the highest individual innings for Lancashire in Roses matches.Perhaps in the end Yorkshire did rather well to dismiss Lancashire for 517, after they were 383 for two at one stage. The batsmen chiefly responsible for Lancashire’s position of virtually overwhelming strength were the two Australian-born players, opener Paul Horton (149) and the former international Stuart Law (206). Their contributions enabled Lancashire to pass 500 and finish the day 329 runs ahead, with one already Yorkshire wicket down.Horton and Law began the day in possession of the crease, and stayed in control until well into the afternoon session. They used the well-tried method of laying a firm foundation before attempting to build. Horton, 82 not out overnight, took 48 minutes to reach his second first-class century, and was stuck on 99 for quite a while, but he refused to be flustered and finally turned a ball from Jason Gillespie towards long leg to reach three figures; it took him 186 balls.Horton continued to play the anchor role while Law now began to play his strokes. He reached his century off 139 balls shortly after lunch, and altogether scored 125 runs during the afternoon session as he thrashed an innocuous attack. He overtook Horton in the 140s, and their partnership was worth 258 runs, beating the previous Lancashire best against Yorkshire for the seventh wicket of 247 by Graham Lloyd and Ian Austin in 1997.The stand was finally broken when Younis Khan took a fine diving catch at slip off Tim Bresnan to remove Horton for 149, his highest first-class score. Andrew Flintoff played an innings of mixed quality, 24 off 37 balls, while Law reached 201 at tea. He had now beaten Reggie Spooner’s best of 200 not out for Lancashire against Yorkshire. He failed, however, to reach Maurice Leyland’s record of 211 for this fixture, being run out for 206 in a mix-up with his partner.Lancashire’s tail had little to offer, and the last eight wickets went down for 134 runs. The top Yorkshire bowler was Adil Rashid, with three expensive wickets. Yorkshire lost the wicket of Craig White before the close and face a major task even to avoid a three-day innings defeat.

In a survey conducted by the ICC, technology has found favour with most international captains, who believe that it will result in better decision-making by umpires. While some aspects of already existing technology were questioned, the general opinion was that umpires needed to have a load taken off their shoulders. Incidentally, the ICC’s recent experiment with no-ball calls at the Videocon Cup was given a thumbs-up by the umpires.The two dissenting voices came from Australia and Zimbabwe: Tatenda Taibu believed that "what’s already there is enough", while Ricky Ponting felt that decisions were best left to the umpires.Michael Vaughan was more vocal in its support, but also suggested that existing technologies needed to be looked at again. He also felt that the role of technology should not overshadow the role umpires played."In general, I am in favour of using new technology to assist the umpires as they only have a split second in which to make a decision which can be analysed over and over again," Vaughan said. "So I don’t believe they should be the sole judge of all appeals.""But I have reservations about the use of certain types of technology. I am not convinced, for example, that Hawkeye is always 100 per cent right on lbw decisions because the umpire in the middle is still the person who is best placed to judge how the pitch is behaving and what the ball is doing."That said, I do like the idea of using technology to highlight the wicket-to-wicket area on a pitch so the umpire can get a better idea as to whether the ball has pitched inside or outside the line of leg stump. I think that would really help eliminate some of the more obvious bad decisions when a batsman is given out when the ball has pitched outside the line of leg stump."Inzamam-ul-Haq agreed with the idea of removing some load off the umpires, for they were prone to make tiny errors, and in international cricket, even small mistakes made a difference. "Yes, I’m very much in favour, because the game of cricket has become very professional, small errors have been affecting results. So much cricket is being played and umpires have been under tremendous pressure due to the heavy workload on them."Graeme Smith, Stephen Fleming and Marvan Atapattu were a few of the other captains who favored more technology.

Matthew Hayden will play in the first Test against New Zealand on Thursday after recovering from a shoulder injury suffered two weeks ago at Christchurch. Hayden was passed fit after completing four net sessions over the past two days and will open with Justin Langer at the same ground in the match starting on Thursday.”He’s pulled up well without too much discomfort, and is now set to play,” Alex Kontouri, the team physiotherapist, said. Hayden strained the AC joint taking a diving catch from Chris Cairns on February 22 and the slow-healing injury forced Australia to keep Mike Hussey on the tour once the one-day matches finished.Hussey will return to Brisbane to play in Western Australia’s vital Pura Cup match against Brisbane at the Gabba on Thursday. Brad Hogg, who was part of Australia’s 5-0 series victory, has also been selected in the Warriors squad. Hayden’s recovery clears up one place in the order, but there is still doubt over the make-up of the bowling attack with Jason Gillespie, Brett Lee and Michael Kasprowicz battling for the two spots alongside Glenn McGrath.

Kumble strikes, finally
Never before in a Test has Anil Kumble waited so long for hisfirst wicket. After 46 overs in the first innings – where he wasmilked, cut and blasted – and 16 overs in the second – where he wasreduced to firing it down legside to stem the run-flow – the momentfinally arrived. Shifting to the pavilion end, reverting to over thewicket, he speared one on middle stump and managed to break it justenough. Yasir Hameed, who was in the midst of a superb spell as heupped the ante, pushed forward and was beaten by both spin and pace.Kumble spun around to ask the question, Simon Taufel’s hand slowlybegan its ascent and the Bangalore crowd let out a mighty relievedgasp before going completely berserk. (SV)Glorious certainty
In an unpredictable game, there is at least one element that is always predictable, though not monotonously so: Shahid Afridi will attack. The first time he gets strike in Pakistan’s second innings is off the last ball of the first over, from Irfan Pathan. Pathan drops short. Afridi pulls him for four.He comes on strike to play the fifth ball of Lakshmipathy Balaji’s over. No-ball short outside off, Afridi slashes and misses. Next ball, drifting down leg, glanced for four to fine leg. Last ball, lofted off-drive for four. That’s now 12 off 4, an average of 3 runs per ball. But don’t be misled – Shahid Afridi does not deal in threes. (AV)Siddhartha Vaidyanathan is on the staff of Cricinfo.

Charl Langeveldt, the South Africa fast bowler, has opted out of the Test series in India beginning next week, saying the controversy over the selection of the squad so upset him he feels he won’t be in the right frame of mind for the matches.Langeveldt was picked ahead of Andre Nel in the 14-man squad for the three-Test series, a move seen by many as pandering to Cricket South Africa’s transformation policy. Nel was reportedly disappointed after his exclusion, and there was speculation over his future with South Africa.Gerald Majola, the CSA chief executive, said Joubert Strydom, the convenor of selectors, had accepted Langeveldt’s request to withdraw from the touring party, and that the selectors were considering a replacement.”Charl Langeveldt called me today in an emotional state saying he wanted to withdraw from the tour of India so that he can consider his international future in the right frame of mind,” Majola said. “He said that the public controversy over the selection of the Proteas team to tour India had upset him to the extent that he would not be in the right frame of mind to tour India and do his best.””Charl said he wanted to use this time instead to consider his future in international cricket in a cool and calm manner.”I have assured Charl that he is very much in the plans, and is regarded as one of our best fast bowlers in both ODI and Test cricket.”We will have in-depth discussions with him, and hopefully he will continue to be available for international selection.”No replacement has been named as yet for Langeveldt in the squad, which arrives in India later this week.

New Zealand Cricket Board (NZC) confirmed the appointment of JustinVaughan and Steven Riddell as its two new directors, at NZC’s AnnualGeneral Meeting in Christchurch today. They will replace Terry Jarvis and Peter Sharp, who did not seek re-appointment.The outgoing directors were congratulated by Martin Snedden, the chiefexecutive of New Zealand Cricket. “Both these directors selflessly gave their time and expertise to assist with the governance of cricket in New Zealand and have assisted in steering NZC to develop and maintain cricket as the country’s number one summer game,” he said.Vaughan is the chief executive of a medical technology company and has played six Test matches and 18 One-Day Internationals for New Zealand. He was the captain of the Auckland team for four seasons and was twice voted Auckland Player of the Year. He has served on the board of Auckland Cricket since 2001.Riddell is a company director who has served on the board of Canterbury Cricket since 2001. He has served on the management committee of the Buller Cricket Association and is its life member.The new directors will be faced with the task of lifting the board out of its current financial crunch.New Zealand Cricket posted a loss of $6,105,152 in the 2004/05 financial year, NZC announced in its annual report.”Revenue was down on budget as NZC felt the full impact of theabandonment of the Sri Lanka tour of New Zealand. Fortunately we shouldrecover most of these lost revenues when Sri Lanka tour in January nextyear,” NZC Chief Executive Martin Snedden said today.”Revenue was also affected by the ICC’s continued prudent retention offunds from the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup.”It is hoped the ICC’s contractual dispute with the Global CricketCorporation can be brought to an end during the current financial year, at which time NZC should receive a final distribution from the retainedfunds.”NZC operates a four year financial cycle to cope with the fluctuatingnature of revenues received between world cups. In some years revenue is significantly higher due to NZC’s participation in international cricket tournaments and in other years revenues are significantly reduced due to lower overseas broadcasting income from inbound tours. The 2004/05 year is the third year of the current cycle.

Adam Gilchrist has recommended that Australia rest some of its key players for the Champions Trophy one-day tournament so that they are fresh and ready to take on England in a bid to regain the Ashes later this year. Australia, who lost in England 2-1 last year, host them in the 2006-07 season, and Gilchrist recommended that the selectors plan the teams for the season around that series.”We have to get our priorities right there,” Gilchrist was quoted as saying in Sydney Morning Herald. “It is important that selectors, administrators, players and whoever else needs to be involved sits down and nuts that out.”I am not saying no-one goes, or all key players [don’t go to the Champions Trophy] … I don’t know. But we have to sit down and address it, definitely. I think we have to look very, very seriously at that lead into the Ashes.”There is the Champions Trophy, and I believe there are potentially other games of one-day cricket that may come up prior to that. We are going to have to be very careful about what we want to prioritise as most important.”While Gilchrist made his views clear, they certainly didn’t find much support from Cricket Australia – Michael Brown, their operations manager, ruled out a “mass rest”, instead stating that the best team will be selected.”We are worried about the whole seven months of cricket. The ICC Champions Trophy is clearly important to Cricket Australia. We’ll be sending a very, very good team, the best team available at the time,” Brown said. “For us, the ICC tournaments are of number one importance. We have never won a Champions Trophy and would like to win it. I can’t stress this enough about the Champions Trophy: we’ll be going with a team that we intend to win it [with].”Part of our strategic plan is to lead the world in cricket performance, so to entertain the thought that we’re going to be mass resting players is not going to happen. What we will do is individually manage every player’s workload over the period because let’s not forget that some players over the next 12 months play very little cricket.”There are suggestions that England might rest some of their players – including Andrew Flintoff – for the Champions Trophy. However, Brown defended Cricket Australia’s stance on the matter by pointing to the schedules for the two teams: England play seven Tests and ten ODIs in the summer before heading to India for the Champions Trophy in October; Australia, on the other hand, have a five-month break before the tournament.”What we will do is prioritise the whole summer,” Brown said. “We’ve got an incredible six or seven months of cricket and we’ll prioritise to make sure that all our players are prepared in the best way they can be for every match they play.”