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Matabeleland lost their first match in the Logan Cup to Mashonaland by eight wickets in a match where the result was probably decided on the first day with the loss of the toss. A gruelling first day took its toll on the young side and they never really recovered from there on.For most players it was probably the first time they had spent the whole day in the field and it certainly showed. However the main problem dogging the side is the current selection policies undertaken by the three selectors, none of whom have any playing experience at this level, and team selection is somewhat wayward, with the final teamprobably not as strong as it could be.13 players were named, with Hitz being omitted and Mukadam, whose father is a selector, being named as twelfth man. Here is a player, playing league cricket, who clearly is not good enough to make his provincial debut at this stage, being named as twelfth man ahead of Hitz who was desperately unlucky not to have played last season but who had made his debut the previous season with reasonable success. Hitz was later included in the side at the expense of Mukondiwa, a decision that reverted back to Hitz again being omitted and left out of the squad. This in some ways had an effect on the team, as it was only announced on the morning of the match, with Hitz expecting to play.For this weekend the team shows three changes. Out go Matthew Townshend, Jason Hitz and Munir Mukadam, with Keith Dabengwa and Clement Mahachi returning to the squad after injury. Probably the most important and totally unrealistic change is the dropping of Ryan King as captain and replacing him with the 40-year-old Colin Williams. One finds it hard to understand this move which certainly does not encourage youngsters and in particular a young and promising captain. Should Williams fail again as a player, are Matabeleland strong enough to play a captain who hardly warrants a place?The other surprise is leaving out an Academy player who admittedly did not perform well, but neither did the two players who played and are now replacing him. Are the selectors keen on blooding new players at the expense of experience and in so doing weakening the team? The current policies for selection will do little to help a side that has been hit with the loss of some key players so early in the competition.With the weather hot again and the wicket likely to play the same,Matabeleland could be in for another long period in the field.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has accepted Vijay Malalasekera and Anura Tennekoon as Sri Lanka’s representatives for its annual general meeting which will be held at Lord’s later this month.The air of uncertainty that hung over the country’s representatives to the ICC was cleared at the ruling body’s cricket committee meeting held in London recently, when ICC chief executive David Richards met Sidath Wettimuny, who represented Sri Lanka from the Interim Cricket Board.The acceptance by ICC of Malalasekera, who heads the Interim Cricket Board, and Tennekoon, the chief executive officer, was conveyed to Wettimuny by Richards.The ICC will write to the Interim Cricket Board soon endorsing their decision.The fears that Sri Lanka may lose its ICC Test status as claimed by certain factions opposed to the Interim Cricket Board were also allayed at the London meeting.

Gabriel Agbonlahor says he’s ‘never seen’ a defensive midfielder as slow as Everton’s Allan. 

The lowdown

Everton lost 5-0 at Tottenham Hotspur on Monday night, leaving them just a point above the relegation zone, albeit with a game in hand on Burnley.

Allan saw out the full 90 in North London, as he’s done in all five of Frank Lampard’s Premier League games so far.

He was a regular under predecessor Rafael Benitez too, with 21 starts from a possible 25 in the top flight this season.

The latest

Speaking to Football Insider, former Aston Villa striker Agbonlahor said that Lampard is far from blessed with options in central midfield.

He believes Dele Alli and Donny van de Beek struggled against Tottenham Hotspur, while £70,000-per-week Brazilian Allan looked like he had virtually no running power.

“It’s a bit strange that Dele Alli hasn’t started a game yet,” he said.

“Even when he came on it didn’t look like he had anything to offer. It’s a bit of a worry.

“Frank Lampard will look at Van De Beek as well, after that performance you can see why Man United didn’t play him much. He was very poor, playing sidewards whenever he got the ball and not playing forwards.

“There are a lot of problems at Everton. Allan as well. He hasn’t got any legs, he couldn’t catch my kids if they were running. I’ve never seen a defensive midfielder so slow.”

The verdict

Allan was actually Everton’s strongest performer in the defeat on Monday, if you go by SofaScore ratings.

That may not be saying much – he only scored 6.8 out of 10 – but he did win five out of eight ground duels and register a passing accuracy of 87% (including four out of five long balls).

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From that point of view, he’s a slightly curious target for Agbonlahor.

Having said that, he is dribbled past more often than any other Everton player (2.8 times per 90 minutes) and makes the third most fouls (1.2) and maybe that suggests players are able to occasionally power past him, leading him to cynically bring them down.

In other news, read this journalist’s fresh investment claim. 

	Aravinda de Silva wants to improve the pitches prepared for junior cricket © Getty Images

Newly-appointed chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket’s (SLC) cricket committee Aravinda de Silva said that one of his prime concerns was to restructure school cricket.”We have to develop our coaching sector. Like medical science, the coaching system keeps changing with new methods and we’ve got to keep pace with it. We have school cricket coaches but only some of them are knowledgeable,” said de Silva. “What is important is that you need more specialised coaches at the lower level than at the top level. You don’t need much coaching once you reach the top if you have received proper coaching at the start.”De Silva was appointed to the post last week by the SLC interim committee headed by Arjuna Ranatunga. The rest of the cricket committee comprises past Sri Lankan cricketers Sidath Wettimuny, Hashan Tillakaratne, Ranjan Madugalle, Guy de Alwis, Michael Tissera, Roshan Mahanama and Graeme Labrooy.Another important aspect de Silva said that he wants to improve is the pitches prepared for junior cricket. “The pitches prepared for school matches don’t give the batsmen much confidence to play shots.”De Silva, who is consultant coach to the Sri Lanka Under-19s side preparing for next month’s junior World Cup in Malaysia, stated that while he did not see any dearth of talent in the squad, half the side was prone to injuries due to lack of proper conditioning, training and fitness levels.”I cannot perform miracles within such a short time. But the boys are keen to learn. Their basics are good and I don’t want to make any drastic changes and complicate things at this stage. The problem with the batsmen is that they think of too many things (rather) than go out there and hit the ball,” De Silva said. “If we are to prepare properly for a World Cup we must start concentrating on our present Under-17s squad and prepare them for the next junior World Cup in two years.”De Silva said that SLC interim committee chairman Arjuna Ranatunga had been very supportive of U-19 cricket and had come to witness the matches played by Sri Lanka in the on-going U-19s tri-nation series against Pakistan and England. “Arjuna is keen to improve the standard of junior cricket,” said de Silva, who played most of his cricket for Sri Lanka as deputy to Ranatunga.

Day 4
ScorecardKarachi Urban became the new Quaid-e-Azam Trophy champions as they defeated Sialkot by eight wickets, on the fourth day at the Multan Cricket Stadium.After being asked to follow-on, with a deficit of 220, Sialkot averted an innings defeat as they scored 288 in their second innings. Karachi Urban polished off the required 69 with little fuss, losing just two wickets.Sialkot resumed their overnight 175 for 3, and Tariq Mahmood’s stubborn resistance – he scored 29 off 203 balls in over four hours – kept the opposition bowlers at bay. Shahid Yousuf made amends for his first-ball duck in the first innings with a worthy 70 the second time round. He faced 105 balls and hit nine fours and two sixes. The rest didn’t contribute much as four wickets fell for only 15 runs.Yousuf found an able ally in Kashif Raza (25) as the pair added 78 for the eighth-wicket. The last three wickets fell at the same score of 288. For Karachi, seamer Tanvir Ahmed and offspinner Tahir Khan picked up three wickets each.Karachi Urban then reached their victory target in just 12.3 overs. Hasan Raza, the Karachi Urban captain, was declared the Man of the Match after his unbeaten 161 in the first innings.Babar Naeem (Rawalpindi) was declared the best batsman of the tournament, Tahir Khan (Karachi Urban) was adjudged the best bowler and best fielder while Zulfiqar Jan (Peshawar) bagged the award for the best wicketkeeper.Sialkot won the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy for the first time last season. No Karachi team had qualified for the tournament’s final in the last five years. This is the 18th title by a Karachi team, a record.

In Durban, KwaZulu-Natal beat Border by 11 runs thanks to 71 from Rivash Gobind who, almost single-handedly, took Natal to 201. After a solid start, Burton de Wett caused Natal to collapse from 155 for 4 as he took 3 for 19 to clean up the tail. Border made an indifferent start but a 67-run partnership between Kevin Bennett (53) and Laden Gamiet (62*) brought them back into the game but in the end there was just too much to do as they finished on 190 for 5.In Potchefstroom, North West registered an exciting one-wicket win over Free State, which went down to the last over. Set a target of 288 to win, North West were almost out of the game at 187 for 9 with 10 overs remaining. A last wicket partnership of 102, with 51 coming off thefinal three overs, allowed them to win with two balls to spare. Diminutive ThandoBula struck four boundaries and three sixes in his career-best 76 notout, while Friedel de Wet smashed seven fours and three sixes in hiscareer-best 56 not out. Bennett Sekonyane (4 for 38) and Quinton Samson(3 for 51) also achieved career-bests, but still ended on the losingside. Having scored 287 for 7, thanks to an innings of 127 fromJonathan Beukes and forties from Riel de Kock and Craig Thyssen, FreeState must have been confident of a win.In Cape Town, Western Province had to work hard to gain a controlled six-wicket win over their unbeaten neighbours Boland. Boland were asked to batand were soon in trouble at 20 for 3. But 49 from Gerhard Strydom and a career-best 96 not out from Warren Swan put them back on track for a good total. A further 43 from Godfrey Stevens allowed Boland to reach 242 for 8 in their 45 overs. Western Province’s innings was never in any real trouble as they controlled the chase with Alistair Gray (70) and John Geoghegan (77), the Supersub, scoring their first limited overs fifties. A further 43 from Bob Homani, another career-best, saw Province pass the target with six wickets and three overs in hand.

Alok Kapali: omitted from training squad© Getty Images

Bangladesh have stepped up preparations for their inaugural tour of England in May and June, by naming a preliminary 20-man training squad that will assemble in Dhaka over the coming weeks. One notable omission is Alok Kapali, Bangladesh’s underachieving allrounder, although there are two new additions in the left-handed batsman, Shahriar Nafees Ahmed and the Under-19 paceman, Shahadat Hossain.Shahadat, reputed to be the fastest bowler in the country, was first spotted during the 2004 Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh, and his 12 wickets in the first two Tests against Zimbabwe A were instrumental in their eventual clean sweep. Shahriar, meanwhile, made 218 runs against Zimbabwe A in the three Tests as a specialist opener, and given that both teenagers toured England with the Under 19s last year, they have a degree of experience despite their tender years.The squad has been selected with England’s early-season conditions in mind, and for that reason there are six pacemen in the 20-man squad, and four left-arm spinners. "We had considered two things before selecting the preliminary squad," Faruque Ahmed, the chief selector, told The Daily Star. "We thought that there was no need to make any changes from the last series against Zimbabwe. But we also felt the need to add a couple of new faces who have real potential."Kapali aside, there are few surprises in the squad. The batsman, Tushar Imran and the seam bowler, Anwar Hossain Munir, have been recalled after consistent performances for the Bangladesh A team and the BCB XI respectively, as has the former captain and allrounder, Khaled Mahmud, whose form in Bangladesh’s domestic competitions has been irresistible.Preliminary squad Habibul Bashar (capt), Khaled Mashud (wk), Khaled Mahmud, Mohammad Ashraful, Javed Omar, Rajin Saleh, Nafees Iqbal, Aftab Ahmed, Tushar Imran, Shahriar Nafees Ahmed, Mohammad Rafique, Manzarul Islam Rana, Enamul Haque, Mashrafee Bin Mortuza, Tapash Baisya, Nazmul Hossain, Anwar Hossain Munir, Talha Jubair, Shahadat Hossain Rajib, Abdur Razzak Raj.

England felt the force from the press

England’s cricketers will be glad that for once the rugby players are hogging all the limelight ahead of their World Cup final against Australia on Saturday. While they are in touching distance of being crowned world champions, the cricketers can only dream of such scenarios after their catastrophic start to the one-day international series in Sri Lanka yesterday.As expected, the English newpapers didn’t spare the rod on Michael Vaughan and his bedraggled lot, or his “Load of Lankers”, as called them. “Michael Vaughan and his England players were shockingly transformed from playground bullies to quivering wimps,” John Etheridge fumed. “They did not so much get a reality check here yesterday as a full-scale assault on their pride and credibility. England suddenly discovered opponents with the skill and courage to stand up to them.”Marcus Trescothick was on the end of most of the rants after he gave away his wicket and started the landslide. Etheridge continued: “Several batsmen self-destructed with rash shots – Trescothick and Andrew Flintoff were probably the most culpable – and the rest simply could not knuckle down against the deviating ball.” were a touch more subtle. “England go down in flames” roared their headline, but David Hopps was just as scathing, pointing out that English collapses are becoming a regular feature in one-dayers. “Occasional batting disasters are a fact of one-day life, but for England they are becoming a habit. Their three lowest scores have all come in the past two years, during Duncan Fletcher’s time as coach. Seven of their worst ten totals have occurred in the past five years.”Hopps added: “So now we can confirm the true value of five weeks in Bangladesh: precisely zero. England did not overstress the importance of their clean sweep in Tests and one-day internationals, but in Sri Lanka’s cultural triangle their preparations here were exposed as inadequate.””The kings of Bangladesh were quickly exposed as the paupers of Sri Lanka,” pronounced Simon Briggs in the . “England’s seamers, though they faced an impossible task, were arguably too ready to stick to the same intimidatory lengths they have been using for the last month in Bangladesh. Against batsmen of this quality, the ball simply sat up to be hit.” But Briggs was able to salvage one bright spot from a dark day: “If nothing else, this match should serve as a useful reality check for the remainder of the tour.”Reality check? Richard Hobson in , said it was more like an awakening “as rude as a seaside postcard”, and added that “Sri Lanka inflicted a beating that was more severe than anything England dealt to Bangladesh during the first leg of the tour.”Lawrence Booth, in , agreed. “It was a massacre to rank with any England have suffered over the years. In the steamy jungle of Dambulla, the two one-day trophies of the English summer feel a long way away. Suddenly, Vaughan is seeing a side of the job so familiar to many of his predecessors – the overseas post-mortem. This time county cricket was definitely not to blame.”Angus Fraser was on the same wavelength in The Independent: Following England’s horrendous batting performance here against Sri Lanka … it could be described as a day-evening encounter, but calling it a match may be pushing things a bit far.” He did however, point out that nothing at all went England’s way: “At the end, and in the privacy of their dressing-room after the game, the England captain will have attempted to convince his side that this was one of those days when nothing went right for them. This to some extent was true.” Then came the but, though: “But England’s downfall had as much to do with their own shortcomings as the excellent form of their opponents.”As Booth said: “Things can surely only get better.”

Matabeleland were forced to follow on as they failed to score the required 445 runs to make their opponents bat again on the third day of their Castle Lager Logan Cup match. In reply to the visitor’s declared score of 644, the home side were all out for 392 off 100 overs in their first innings and at the close of play were 109 for four after 49 overs.Matabeleland resumed at their overnight score of 197 for five, with Gavin Ewing and Mike McKillop leading the fightback. The pair put up 162 runs for the sixth wicket, staying at the crease for the entire two and a half-hour first session. The home side went to lunch on 349 for five with the two still unbeaten.Ewing however departed in the second over after lunch when he was trapped leg before wicket by medium pacer Blessing Mahwire for 83. His dismissal marked the collapse of the Matabeleland innings as it had centered on his partnership with McKillop. The middle order and the tail soon collapsed with four wickets falling for 33 runs. Colin Williams could not found his mark as he was dismissed the same way as Ewing, falling lbw to Angus Mackay without scoring.Mahwire came on to mesmerize the Matabeleland batsmen when he took the lastthree wickets of the innings. He grabbed the wickets of Matthew Townshend,McKillop and Tawanda Mupariwa to shatter the home team’s hopes for a bigscore.The last two men in, Mupariwa and Norman Mukondiwa, offered some resistancebut the innings eventually crumbled when Mahwire claimed the final wicket,bowling Mupariwa for 13. Mukondiwa was left unbeaten on 8 runs. Mahwire emerged as the pick of the visitors’ bowlers, taking four for 40 in just 10.2 overs with three maidens. Mackay and Matambanadzo took two wickets each while Rogers and Craig Evans took a wicket apiece.In their second innings Matabeleland suffered a setback when captain andopening batsman Ryan King was dismissed lbw by Mackay without scoring.Wisdom Siziba, Mecury Kenny and Warren Gilmour were to follow their captain.King decided to change the batting line-up, bringing in Mukondiwa, who was unbeaten in the first innings, at number six and this ploy worked out well as Mukoniwa played an anchor role, letting Strydom go for the runs. The two were left unbeaten at the close with Strydom on 40 while Mukondiwa had score 6 runs.The home side will be relying on their middle and tail-end batsman to batfor the whole day on Monday if they are to succeed in forcing a draw.

The four Test playing nations of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) whichdecided to enter into a pact with the provision to compensate for thelosses suffered by the ACC in the event of non-participation, willfinalise the agreement within two months, Jagmohan Dalmiya, chairmanof the Asian Cricket Foundation (ACF), which implements the ACC’sprogrammes, told a press conference in Kolkata on Wednesday.Dalmiya said that the decision to sign an agreement was mainly aimedat avoiding any embarassment or losses to the ACC in the event of acountry pulling out of a tournament.Dalmiya said that participation in any tournament was an internalmatter between the country’s Board and its government but pulling outof the tournament entailed heavy financial losses for the tournamentorganisers.The former ICC president said that the representatives of the fourAsian test playing nations will work out the agreement in detailbefore it is put in force ahead of the Asian Test Championship.Dalmiya said that the 1996 World Cup in the sub-continent which sawAustralia and the West Indies refusing to play their matches in SriLanka citing security reasons had taught the ACC "some lessons"."That was a bad experience for us. It puts the organisers and thesponsors in an embarassing position. We just want to avoid such asituation", he explained.Dalmiya said that the ACC’s Lahore meeting also decided to invitetenders for marketing and sponsorship rights to the events. The Lahoreconclave also approved the Asian Development Plan that was prepared bythe Asian Cricket Foundation in consultation with the ACC DevelopmentCommittee.In order to improve the standards of the game in non-Test playingcountries like Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Nepal, the ACC willsoon appoint three Development Officers with considerable cricketingbackground. An elaborate scheme of coaching would be taken up in thesecountries with simultaneous emphasis on physical training and sportsmedicines, he said.Stating that ACC had earmarked 2.5 million dollars for developmentwork in the current year, Dalmiya said that ACC had teamed up with NewZealand Sports Turf Institute to implement a curatorship programme inthese countries.The ACC will organise a curatorship seminar of June 3 and 4 in HongKong for its member countries while it also had plans of setting up acricket academy in the near future.