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Clive Lloyd, the former West Indies captain, has said that he will try and convince Duncan Fletcher to take over the position as coach of West Indies. Fletcher had a long stint as the England coach before quitting after the World Cup last month.West Indies, currently in England for a full Test tour, are without a permanent coach after Bennett King too joined the exodus of international coaches after the World Cup. David Moore, who assisted King during his tenure, is coaching the side, though only on a temporary basis. Lloyd credited Fletcher for England’s rise as a Test team and was hopeful that he could reverse West Indies’ sagging fortunes if appointed.”If he’s interested, yes,” Lloyd told when asked if he would speak to Fletcher. “I think Duncan still has a part to play in cricket in general. He is a strong man and a strong character. He has done a good job for England and I’m sure that he or someone of that ilk will be able to do something for West Indies.”West Indies’ last two tours of England have ended in thumping series defeats: they went down 3-1 in 2000 despite leading the series after the first Test at Edgbaston, while in 2004, they were whitewashed 4-0. Lloyd didn’t sound too optimistic about their fortunes this time either.”I don’t think people are expecting great things, but we expect them to hold their own when things get tight,” he said. “If they can draw or get close to doing well in one of the Test matches, that’s what we’d be looking for. [Brian] Lara has left, so there’s not a lot of experienced batting. They don’t have guys to set the world alight. They have to learn very quickly.”Lloyd was hopeful that Ramnaresh Sarwan, the new captain, manages to instill a professional work ethic in a team under fire for indiscipline and poor form after their lacklustre World Cup campaign.”There are some very tough decisions to be taken,” he added. “These guys have a comfort zone and they have to get out of that to reach the heights of other countries. We used to be very athletic and we have to get that work ethic back. Sarwan has now got a chance to do what I did and bring the guys up a level. The situation will get tough at times and it is how he handles it that matters.”

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) set National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) a tough target of 375 runs to chase in their fourth-round Pentangular Cup Cricket Championship match at the Multan Cricket Stadium.Strong batting by the PIA top order helped them reach 339 for 8 in the second innings before captain Yasir Hameed made the declaration. PIA had earlier gained a 35-run first-innings lead over NBP who ended the day on 58 for 2 with Umar Gul picking up both wickets. They still need another 317 runs to win the match with eight wickets in hand.Yasir Hameed struck form for PIA, after a run of low scores, with his 12th first-class hundred. His 101 off 183 balls included 11 fours. The two openers were dismissed after a 94-run partnership before Yasir was joined by Kamran Sajid for a third-wicket partnership of 130 runs. Kamran’s 52 off 94 balls included five fours.Earlier, Agha Sabir had contributed 52 off 138 deliveries with seven fours. Small but useful contributions by the remaining batsmen took the PIA score to 339 for 8. Umar Gul hit three fours and two sixes while making 29 off just 19 balls.NBP are in danger of losing their top place in the table and with that the opportunity of winning the Pentangular Cup. Faisalabad have played all their matches and have a total of 27 points while NBP have 18 with one more game to play.PIA will raise their tally to 18 points with a win here, with their last match coming up in the fifth and final round that gets underway on Sunday. Another win for PIA as well as NBP — who play Karachi Harbour in their last encounter — will bring the tournament to an interesting situation. In this scenario, Faisalabad, NBP and PIA will all end up with 27 points each. The winner will then be decided on the basis of the best net run-rate.

July 8-11 – Frizzell County Championship

ScorecardHarbhajan shone with the bat at the County Ground in Bristol, smashing 11 fours and 3 sixes as Surrey piled up a massive 603 without one batsman going past three figures. By stumps on day two, he had taken a wicket as well as Gloucestershire struggled to avoid the follow-on.July 6 – Twenty20 Cup

ScorecardAfter two other bowlers from the subcontinent, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Mushtaq Ahmed, had helped restrict Surrey to 144, it was the turn of the Asian contingent at the Brit Oval to try and wrest victory. Harbhajan bowled with tremendous control to concede only 13 from his spell and there were two wickets for Azhar Mahmood, but Sussex still eased home with three balls to spare.July 5 – Twenty20 Cup

ScorecardThough he was included in the XI, Harbhajan had no role to play in this abbreviated day-nighter at Chelmsford as Surrey slipped to a one-run defeat.July 1 – Twenty20 Cup

ScorecardSurrey notched up their fifth win in six Twenty20 games with a 23-run victory against Kent at The Oval. In a match restricted to 15 overs per side, Surrey scored at more than 11 an over. Kent made a spirited fist of it, as Harbhajan found out, going for 28 in two overs, but they finally fell short of the target.June 29 – Twenty20 Cup

ScorecardHarbhajan was overshadowed by the other specialist spinner in the team, left-arm Nayan Doshi. Doshi took 3 for 31 to Harbhajan’s none for 25 as Surrey won another rain-affected game, this time against Sussex at Hove.June 28 – Twenty20 Cup

ScorecardIn a match affected by the weather, Surrey pulled through by 22 runs. Middlesex could bat only 11 overs, and we well short of their target of 101. Harbhajan bowled just the solitary over, and went for 13 runs.June 25 – Twenty20 Cup

ScorecardHarbhajan took 2 for 22, but that wasn’t enough to stop Hampshire from stealing a three-wicket win at The Oval. Surrey won the toss and batted, but could manage only 118, a total that was well below par.June 23 – Twenty20 Cup

ScorecardSurrey’s second consecutive win in the Twenty20 competition was set up by the batsmen, who racked up 200 against Middlesex at Lord’s. Harbhajan again didn’t do too much, conceding 29 runs from his four overs.June 22 – Twenty20 Cup

ScorecardHabhajan’s first Twenty20 game for Surrey ended in victory for his team, as they thrashed Kent by seven wickets at Beckenham. Kent managed only 140 for 8 in 20 overs, and though Harbhajan went wicketless, he bowled economically, conceding just 22 runs from four overs.June 15-18 – Frizzell County Championship

ScorecardHarbhajan Singh turned in his first outstanding performance of the season for Surrey, taking 8 for 83 in the match, including a first-innings 6 for 36 that broke the back of the Hampshire batting. Surrey won easily, by an innings and 55 runs. Surrey batted first and scored 361 – where Harbhajan chipped in with a 16-ball 25 – and then stunned Hampshire, knocking them over for just 146. Martin Bicknell and Mohammad Akram provided the initial breakthroughs, dismissing the openers, and then Harbahajan took over, and cleaned up the middle order. In the second innings Akram was the star with a five-for, but Harbhajan managed 2 for 47 as Hampshire were bowled out for 160.June 8-11 – Frizzell County Championship

ScorecardSurrey completed just one innings as their County Championship match against Middlesex ended in a draw. When Middlesex batted first Harbhajan had a long spell, bowling as many as 35 overs, but could only pick up two wickets giving away 87 runs as Middlesex put on 437. Surrey managed to top this, scoring 460 in their sole innings of the match. Harbhajan landed one second-innings wicket as Middlesex declared on 356 for 6 when time ran out.June 5 – National League

ScorecardHarbhajan Singh’s first National League one-day match, against Warwickshire at the Whitgift School, Croydon, did not go well at all. Warwickshire scored a strong 309 for 8 in 45 overs, and Harbhajan could pick up just one wicket as he gave away 59 runs in nine overs. He failed with the bat, scoring just one as Surrey lost by 49 runs.June 1-4 – Frizzell County Championship

ScorecardHarbhajan Singh did not exactly set the stage alight in his first County Championship match of the season for Surrey. He had moderate pickings of 3 for 117 in the match. In the first innings he managed to snare Tony Frost, the No. 8 batsman, and Heath Streak, the No. 9 batsman, while in the second innings he bagged a top-order wicket, dismissing Jonathan Trott. The match ended in a draw.

Western Australia 6 for 248 (Harvey 53*) beat Queensland 244 (Harvey 4-28) by four wickets
Scorecard

Kade Harvey led a one-man assault on Queensland, to give Western Australia a thrilling four-wicket win in the final of the ING Cup. Harvey launched his display with 4 for 28 with the ball as Queensland batted first and reached 244, and then turned the game on its head with a blazing 53 not out off 42 balls from No. 7.WA had been almost down and almost at 6 for 173, but Harvey teamed up with Darren Wates (29 off 27 balls) to add an unbeaten 75 for the seventh wicket to guide them to victory with two balls to spare. They had needed to score 45 from the last four overs, and 8 from the last six balls alone, but Wates sealed the Cup with a six and then a four off the part-time bowling off Clinton Perren, who was called into the attack after four Queensland bowlers sustained injuries in the course of the innings.It was an excruciating loss for Queensland, who had seemed all set to end a three-year curse and become the first home team to win a domestic one-day final since 2000. “They came back from the dead,” admitted their captain Jimmy Maher. “We thought we were home.”Queensland’s optimism had been based on a fine mid-innings display, after WA had raced to 1 for 100 in 22 overs. Nathan Hauritz (2 for 55) was the catalyst, obtaining great turn and using subtle variation to bamboozle the batsmen. The opener Scott Meuleman smacked an impressive 71 from 85 balls, but the middle order failed to build on his good work as WA lost 5 for 62 and the run-rate required escalated.But the 47th over, which featured 13 runs including a dropped outfield catch by Ashley Noffke that went for six, was the turning point.Harvey and Wates took control against a Queensland attack that was visibly limping by the end. Maher was nursing an injured hamstring throughout, Andy Bichel and James Hopes suffered cramp and Craig Philipson was replaced with an upper leg injury after a long chase to the boundary. They paid the price by conceding some late-innings misfields, with slower fielders made to cover extra ground.Earlier, Harvey’s four wickets in Queensland’s innings came at crucial moments. Stuart Law (50 off 40) and Maher (46 off 43) were the first two victims, after racing to 100 in the first 12 overs. Meanwhile, the rookie wicketkeeper Chris Hartley enjoyed a one-day debut to remember by dismissing Meuleman with a vital stumping, standing up to the medium pace of Hopes.

HOBART, Feb 5 AAP – Western Australia dominated the rain-disrupted opening day of the Pura Cup match at Bellerive Oval today, leaving Tasmania struggling at five for 115.After the Tigers won the toss and looked well-placed at none for 71 at tea, veteran paceman Jo Angel led a great fight back in which the Warriors captured five wickets for 44 runs in just under 18 overs.Tasmania’s opening partnership of left-hander Michael Di Venuto and captain Jamie Cox delivered a solid performance but the momentum was lost in the second session.The Warriors took three wickets in the first half hour for the addition of only 11 runs.First to go was Cox, caught at short leg by Chris Rogers for 34 in the first few minutes.Just seven minutes later, Di Venuto (31) fell LBW to veteran paceman Jo Angel, who celebrated his 100th Sheffield Shield/Pura Cup match by adding another two scalps to his 402 first-class tally.In a major blow, Scott Mason was caught by Warriors captain Justin Langer after scoring just five runs off 13 balls in 13 minutes.In his last Pura Cup appearance at Bellerive against the Victorian Bushrangers last month, Mason scored his maiden first-class century and racked up an impressive 174 runs to help the Tigers achieve their first victory of the season.Cox had been hoping the left-hander would deliver a similar performance today.Next out was allrounder Ben Oliver, who fell LBW to quick Brad Williams on 11 after 33 balls and 41 minutes.Dan Marsh was bowled by Williams for zero, beaten between bat and pad.Facing just one delivery, which he edgily played for four, Scott Kremerskothen finished the day not out four with Michael Dighton on 17.The day’s play – totalling just 174 minutes – was frustrated by the weather.Rain delayed the start by three-and-a-half hours and bad light stopped play at 5.43pm as rain clouds threatened.

Gloucestershire captain Mark Alleyne saw his decision to bat first backfire on him at Bristol as his side closed a rain-hit opening day of the CricInfo Championship second division match with Warwickshire on 135-8.After heavy showers delayed the start to 2.15pm, Warwickshire’s pace attack took advantage of some moisture in the pitch and the humid conditions to rip through the Gloucestershire top order.The home side found themselves on 39-5 at tea and it needed an unbeaten 53 from Jeremy Snape to restore some respectability to the total.Melvyn Betts produced a fine opening spell of 6-4-10-2, which included the wickets of Kim Barnett and Matt Windows, caught at gully and first slip respectively for ducks.Dominic Hewson hit a defiant 26, but he, Chris Taylor and Alleyne were all caught behind by Keith Piper.Jack Russell provided some stubborn resistance before he played on against Alan Richardson for 12, and it became 86-7 when Martyn Ball was caught at second slip by Nick Knight off Betts for 13.That was the cue for Snape to play some more aggressive shots and he brought up the hundred with a four through the covers off Betts.Mike Cawdron offered solid support and the pair put on 49 runs for the eighth wicket before Cawdron was yorked by Vasbert Drakes for ten from the final ball of the day.Snape, who has been in fine form with the bat over the past month, has so far struck eight fours in his 113-ball innings.

ScorecardGary Ballance’s half-century shored up Yorkshire’s innings but ended disappointingly•Getty Images

This is the week when some players can go through agonies while others tend to go through the motions. The first group study the league tables; the second read holiday brochures or golf magazines.Sussex’s cricketers, at least for the first couple of days of this match against Yorkshire, find themselves in the first category. Still needing nine points to be safe from relegation, they cannot yet permit themselves the gentle deceleration towards October in all its amber abundance.Nor, of course, could they afford to give a debut to a coltish Academy cricketer, his eyes bright at the merest thought of the big time. Instead, Ed Joyce and his players spent the first day of this game striving to keep their fate under their own control, which is not easy when you are playing the best team in the country.In such predicaments it must be rather reassuring to have Steve Magoffin in your side. For all that he is 36 in December, Magoffin must be almost certain that his services will be required at Hove next summer, whether or not the saga of his British citizenship is successfully concluded. His 64 wickets in Division One and the testimony of his peers proclaim his quality.At lunch in this game Yorkshire’s score of 106 for 2 scarcely justified Joyce’s decision to insert them. One imagines that Andrew Gale’s attack, even without Steve Patterson, who was surprisingly omitted from the eleven, would have made greater inroads. Perhaps Joyce, rather like Marcus Trescothick a couple of weeks ago, simply didn’t fancy taking first knock.The loss of the openers, Adam Lyth and Alex Lees, had been followed by a brisk third-wicket partnership between Gary Ballance and Gale, the Yorkshire captain fairly skipping along to 31 not out off 30 balls. Then Gale attempted a back-foot drive off Magoffin’s second ball after lunch but merely edged it onto his stumps.Four overs later, Jonny Bairstow, having received most of his 18 balls from Magoffin, inside-edged a catch to Ben Brown. Bairstow came into this game with a County Championship batting average of 107.1 yet he had been throttled by the accuracy of Magoffin, who had risen to the task of removing Yorkshire’s two highest scorers this season.Eleven overs and one break for rain later, Ballance was dismissed for 55 after playing an 119-ball innings studded with fine drives but whose ending, cutting Chris Liddle loosely to Joyce at backward point, scarcely made the case for his restoration to England colours.Once again, therefore, the task of building a substantial total was left to batsmen below Yorkshire’s top five, a fact which has irritated Jason Gillespie even as his team has been lauded to the heavens. As usual, though, Yorkshire’s later batsmen responded, at least to the extent of taking their side from 140 for 5, when Ballance was out, to 241 for 7 at the close.Such a total is respectable enough on a wicket which is offering the seamers help, but the batsmen responsible for Yorkshire’s recovery were both dismissed by fine balls in the long evening session. Jack Leaning was caught at slip by Chris Jordan off Lewis Hatchett for 36 when the left-arm seamer moved one sharply off the pitch and seven balls before the end of play, which arrived unusually late for September at 6.15pm, Adil Rashid was caught behind off Chris Liddle for 53 when he pushed forward at one which straightened a little.Rashid’s fifty, all cuts through gully and wristy clips past midwicket, had shown care but also commitment, a quality shared by Gale’s batting at present. The Yorkshire captain is only 61 runs short of a thousand in the County Championship and other batsmen, notably Lees, might learn from a technique which seems uncluttered by doubt. In his 26 Division One innings this season, Lees has been dismissed between 10 and 40 on 14 occasions. He has the ability to play himself in, which is vital; then he seems to bat so tentatively that he gets out, which must be deeply frustrating.At times Lees seems like Macbeth wondering what will happen if he fails; Gale is like Lady Macbeth – a comparison rarely made, perhaps – exclaiming: “We fail!”, partly in disbelief that such a thing might occur. Considering the possibility increases the likelihood. Gale, one senses, does not depart to the pavilion wondering what might have happened if he had only thrown the kitchen sink and all his utensils at the ball.Sussex, for their part, can be quite happy with their work on the first day of this game. Magoffin, Hatchett and Liddle comprise a good trio of seamers but Yorkshire have bowlers of comparable or greater powers. The tough task before Joyce and his batsmen will be to bat more resolutely than they managed earlier in the season. If they do that, they can turn their attention to more relaxing matters and stop worrying what is going on at Trent Bridge and Taunton.

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.”

Westerns made it two out of two with a four-wicket win over Kenya Select at Bulwayo in a low-scoring match which only just made it into the fourth day. On a below-par pitch, the spinners dominated with Keith Dabengwa taking 8 for 84 to add to his seven-wicket haul in the first round while Hiren Varaiya and Collins Obuya took 10 of the 16 Westerns wickets to fall. The Kenyans had Tanmay Mishra to thank for bailing out their first innings, his 89 forming the backbone of their 218. Set 176 to win, Charles Coventry paved the way with 76. The visitors will be disappointed with the result but heartened by the way they battled, and it should be remembered that they had less than 48 hours to acclimatise to the conditions.Northerns, who dominated the competition when they were Mashonaland and are the Logan Cup holders, were trounced in three days by seven wickets at Kwekwe by Centrals. On another substandard surface, Northerns took a first-innings lead of 62 but then Ed Rainsford, who took a career-best 6 for 20, blew them away second time round for 69. Set 132 to win, Centrals lost two early wickets before E Chauluka (43*) and Walter Chawaguta (29*) guided them home.Easterns, who drew in the first round, eased past Southerns by 183 runs thanks to hundreds from Stuart Matsikenyeri and newcomer Stephen Nyamuzinga.

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.”