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The Bangladesh Cricket Board had met on September 20. The following were decided at the meeting:

• The National Cricket League 2011-12 will be an eight-team competition. The two new teams to be included are Rangpur Division and Dhaka Metropolis.
• The BCB will start the process of establishing a television channel. A committee was formed to expedite the procedure. The committee is headed by media and communications committee chairman, Mohammed Jalal Yunus. The other members are Dewan Shafiul Arefin and Siraj Uddin Md Alamgir.
• Gazi Ashraf Hossain was named chairman of the BPL [Bangladesh Premier League] committee. The tournament will be held in February 2012 at the Shere Bangla Stadium in Dhaka and Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong, and will last 21 days. A stipulated number of international and Bangladesh players will be put on auction ahead of the tournament.
• The Sylhet Divisional Stadium will be developed into an international standard facility by December 2011.
• Former Bangladesh opener Zahid Razzak was appointed manager of the national team for the home series’ against West Indies and Pakistan.
• The draft of the Regional Cricket Association concept was approved in principle. Board members were asked to come up with observations, suggestions and recommendations [if any] within the following seven days.
• The board approved the appointment of 39 assistant district coaches.

Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecom company, has pulled out as title sponsor of the Champions League Twenty20 tournament. Airtel had signed a five-year deal reportedly worth $40 million to sponsor the event in 2009, but has decided to withdraw its sponsorship two years into the deal, according to ESPN Star Sports (ESS), the tournament’s broadcaster.”We confirm that due to unforeseen circumstances Airtel has exited the title sponsor slot for Champions League Twenty20 this year,” Sanjay Kailash, the executive vice-president for Ad Sales and New Media, ESS, said in a statement emailed to ESPNcricinfo. Kailash added that they are in negotiations to sign a new title sponsor and will make a formal announcement soon. ESS paid nearly $1 billion in 2008 for the 10-year-broadcasting rights for the tournament.The CLT20 has had something of a rocky existence so far, struggling to attract a large viewership and suffering in comparison to its glamorous sibling, the IPL, despite having arguably a higher standard of cricket on display. The event’s scheduled first season in 2008 was cancelled because of the terrorist attack on Mumbai in November of that year. When the tournament did make its belated debut as a 12-team event in 2009, it was hurt by a more nagging problem – fans in India, cricket’s largest market, showed little interest in non-IPL teams.That year the CLT20 drew an average television ratings point (TRP) of 1.06 (one TRP represents 1% of viewers in the surveyed area in a given minute), compared to an average TRP of 4.1 for the 2009 IPL, according to TAM Media Research, a television ratings agency. The ratings did improve in 2010, when the event was held in South Africa and aggressively promoted with advertisements featuring Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan. The average TRP rose to 1.45 and 77.7 million Indian fans tuned in to watch over the course of 16 days. However, the ratings were still far below that of the IPL, which had an average TVR of 5.51 the same year.The 2011 CLT20 will be held in India from September 23 to October 9, and will be preceded by a qualifier for the first time from which three teams will progress to the main round to compete with seven others. The qualifiers will be held in Hyderabad between September 19 and 21, while the main tournament will be spread across three cities – Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata. The event could have as many as four IPL teams in the main draw if the Kolkata Knight Riders make it through the qualifiers, potentially increasing interest in the Indian market. IPL champions Chennai Super Kings, runners-up Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians have already qualified on the basis of their performance in the IPL.

Scorecard
Sussex boosted their hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals of the Friends Life t20 and virtually ended Gloucestershire’s at the same time with a six-wicket win at Arundel.Chris Nash took 4 for seven as Gloucestershire were bowled out for 121 and then made an unbeaten 36 to steer Sussex home with 11 balls to spare. The result lifted Sussex into second place in the south division while Gloucestershire are now five points adrift of the top four with the same number of games remaining.Hamish Marshall got Gloucestershire off to a good start as he and Kevin O’Brien put on 42 for the first wicket off 28 balls. There was to be no repeat of their 192-run stand against Somerset, though, as O’Brien holed out to Nash at long-on off the bowling of Luke Wright for just four.Chris Liddle put down a straightforward catch on the midwicket boundary in the same over and Marshall threatened to make the most of the reprieve. He had made 41 of Gloucestershire’s 64 runs when he was third out pulling Ollie Rayner to deep square leg where Wright took the catch.Ian Cockbain and Chris Taylor put on 29 for the fourth wicket, but when the former fell to Monty Panesar (2 for 29) for 18, Gloucestershire’s innings fell apart as they lost their last six wickets for 27 runs.Nash was the main destroyer as he removed Jack Taylor with his fourth ball and then bowled both Chris Taylor and Ed Young in his second over before having Jon Lewis caught at long-on in his third.Umar Gul (2 for 16) then wrapped things up with 10 balls still remaining by bowling Richard Coughtrie and David Payne in successive balls. Sussex’s reply did not get off to the best of starts with Ben Brown and Wright both departing cheaply inside the first four overs.Brown was trapped lbw sweeping at a full length ball from Kane Williamson while Wright skied a catch off Payne to mid-off. Muttiah Muralitharan (2 for 25) then had the alarm bells ringing as he removed Matt Prior and Murray Goodwin in successive balls in his first over.Prior top-edged a sweep to short fine leg and Goodwin went first ball as he pushed forward and edged to wicketkeeper Coughtrie. Lou Vincent and Nash guided Sussex home, though, with an unbroken partnership of 74. Vincent finished unbeaten on 44 with Nash making 36 from 32 deliveries.

The ICC has explained its decision to do away with runners in international cricket by saying there had been widespread abuse of the rule that allowed batsmen to ask for runners in the event of an injury. The runner rule has been in operation for more than a century, appearing in the MCC’s Laws of Cricket as far back as 1884 and perhaps even before then, but the ICC decided to repeal it on the recommendation of its Cricket Committee in May this year.”It’s been considered by the cricket committee… and there has been a strong feeling that runners were used not in the right spirit,” ICC chief Haroon Lorgat said in Hong Kong on Thursday at the conclusion of the the five-day annual conference. “It’s quite a difficult one for umpires to determine whether there has been a real injury to batsmen or whether it was a tactical use of runners.”The move was also an attempt to redress disparity between batsmen and bowlers Lorgat said. “If a bowler gets injured you can’t continue bowling for the rest of the day and the feeling was that it would be better to not allow the use of runners because there has been abuse in the past.”In the 2009 Champions Trophy, Andrew Strauss refused to allow his South African counterpart Graeme Smith a runner after Smith had requested one due to cramps. Strauss said cramps were a side-effect of a long innings while Smith claimed runners had been granted for that reason in the past, pointing to an inconsistency in the rule’s implementation.Among other changes decided on by the ICC at the annual conference were the use of new balls from each end in ODIs, batting and bowling Powerplays to be taken between overs 16 and 40, and bowlers being allowed to run out non-strikers backing up unfairly.

Rudi Webster, the sports psychologist, sat in the small viewer’s gallery at the Kensington Oval, and watched West Indies’ nets session. Last month, he was breathing fire against the West Indies board. “The board must now step up to the plate, accept responsibility for their substandard performance and design ways to improve it,” he wrote in a column. “They can start by answering the three questions that were posed earlier: where are we going, what do we believe in, and what do we exist for?”Webster has now been roped in ahead of the second Test against India to help the West Indies batsmen. West Indies’ batting in recent times has had been like a déjà vu. Every time West Indies get themselves into a strong position, the batsmen slip up, and collapse. Ian Bishop called it frailty of the mind.Darren Sammy, the West Indies captain, acknowledged that the batsmen are lacking in confidence. “Sometimes, the opposition, the pressure, the situation of the game, we don’t handle it as well as we should. We bat well, get into good positions and then collapse. So when we are in that situation, we need to rise above it. That’s a mental issue. Hopefully what the doc is doing will work for us. He is trying to build some confidence in our batsmen.”The time frame seems too short. Webster joined just two days ahead of the Test. What can he do on such short notice? “Everybody starts somewhere,” Sammy said. “Throughout the past few series, apart from the first Test in Sri Lanka, our batting has been struggling a bit. Webster’s inclusion can hopefully work out for the best.”Webster looks avuncular. He chats with the Indian journalists about confidence and fear. “If I place a plank down on the ground and ask you to walk, you will walk. But if I place that plank in the air and ask you to walk you won’t. You will worry about all the attached fear.”Perhaps, it is not just fear of failing but fear or nervousness to achieve success that is at the root of West Indies’ problem. Sammy cited some instances. “Once we create an opportunity to get on top we should stay on top. We don’t often find often ourselves in that situation and so we find it difficult to put the nail in the coffin. We have been working on it. Hopefully, in this game we can get it all together.”Sammy comes across as a man who tries to be open to criticism. “I should contribute with the bat,” he said. “I know it’s affecting me and the team. I have not been able to put runs on board.”However, he must be getting increasingly tired of the Chris Gayle question. He has been assaulted on the issue at every venue. He often first tries to manoeuvre around a question before he is almost forced by reporters to give a straight answer. Monday was no different. “Whoever is picked must score runs. Whatever issues they have is beyond my control. It’s between the board and Gayle to sort it out,” was Sammy’s first attempt to duck the probe. The questions did not stop, though.Would you like to have him in your team if he is available? “If he is available why not?”When did you last interact with him? “I cannot recall. I last saw Chris in Jamaica. We said hi and that was it.”The inquest continued. Are you still friends? Sammy allowed himself a grin before saying, “As far as I know we are still friends. He hasn’t done anything wrong to me and I haven’t done anything wrong to him. That constitutes friendship.” That answer finally drew some smiles.The fact is, though, that Gayle will not play the Barbados Test, and however skilled a psychologist Webster is, only the West Indies batsmen can actually break the déjà vu. Will they?

ScorecardSussex moved into the top half of the first division table after securing their third County Championship win of the season today. They needed just 56 minutes to complete an eight-wicket victory over pre-season title favourites Somerset at Hove.Their win had been set up by a first-wicket stand of 201 between Chris Nash and Ed Joyce on the third day after Sussex had been set 272 to win. Nash, who resumed on 111 after completing his first century of the season, seemed in a rush to complete a quick victory as he took boundaries off Charl Willoughby and Steve Kirby, who opened the bowling for Somerset.Nash moved to 120 off 174 balls with his 16th four, a superbly timed back-foot force off Kirby which sped to the cover boundary. But he perished to the next delivery, although he could hardly do anything about a ball from Kirby which barely rose above ankle height as it clatteredinto his off stump. Nevertheless, Nash moved onto 656 Championship runs, fivemore than Joyce, after six games.Nash had added 35 in 10.2 overs with Luke Wells and, although cloud cover continued to encourage the Somerset seamers, Sussex slowly whittled away at their target. Goodwin drove successive deliveries through the covers off Gemaal Hussain to get the target down to single figures and then straight-drove Willoughby up the slope for successive fours to complete back-to-back home wins for his side.Goodwin finished unbeaten on 27 and Wells was 32 not out at the close.

The finances of CSA will soon be laid bare as the body agreed to an external, forensic audit. The decision was taken in conjunction with a resolution not to appeal a High Court judgment which ordered CSA to reinstate Mtutuzeli Nyoka as its president on Wednesday night in Johannesburg.An extraordinary meeting of the board was called to discuss the road forward after a high-profile spat between chief executive Gerald Majola and Nyoka. The kernel of their conflict was financial and revolved around R4.7 million (US$671, 428) in bonuses that was paid out to 40 CSA staff after the hosting of the IPL and Champions Trophy in 2009. It later emerged that Nyoka also wanted details of how CSA spent money from an account to the value of R84.6 million (US$12,085,714). CSA maintain that the money was used to run the IPL.In deciding not to oppose Nyoka’s return to office, CSA have agreed to a full audit, even though it has held its own inquiry into the payments. That investigation, chaired by vice-president AK Khan, cleared Majola of any wrongdoing and cautioned him of making any future “errors of judgment,” because the bonuses were not cleared by CSA’s remunerations committee. Insiders said this was in keeping with a precedent set during the hosting of previous major tournaments such as the World Cup in 2003 and the World Twenty20 in 2007.It has not yet been decided who will conduct the external inquiry and Nyoka said a lawyer from CSA’s Legal and Governance Committee will make the decision and announce it “very soon.” Indications are that the South African Sports and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), who were observers at the meeting, will conduct the investigation. South Africa’s sports ministry said that SASCOC would be enlisted if CSA were unable to come up with a satisfactory resolution on Wednesday.”The meeting today was extremely good,” Nyoka said at a media briefing afterwards. “I don’t think one can be dishonest and say that there weren’t problems, there were problems. We should not underestimate the damage that has been done in cricket. But we made an important decision.”Nyoka appeared a more satisfied man than he has in the past, having finally won his battle after six months of turbulence. Nyoka was removed from office in February when the board passed a vote of no confidence against him. He chose to challenge the decision in court and on April 15, judge Phineas Mojapelo ruled that Nyoka was removed from office unlawfully and ordered that Nyoka be reinstated with immediate effect.Nyoka said that the tussle between him and Majola had ended and that “what we are committing to do is to undertake a process of reconciliation and healing.” After the meeting, Nyoka and Majola held a private discussion, in full view of the press, for 10 minutes. They were both animated in their talk but it culminated in them addressing the media together.”Gerald and I were children together,” Nyoka said, before turning to Majola and embracing him while the cameras rolled. “This is a handshake of friendship and deep affection and respect.”Majola, who emerged a relieved man, said he was satisfied with the proceedings and pledged his allegiance to Nyoka. “As my president, I will serve him.” The pair said their decision was taken with the best interests of cricket in mind.

Tillakaratne Dilshan has sent out a warning to other teams that Sri Lanka will start playing their best cricket from their game against New Zealand on March 18 onwards, and keep improving as the tournament reaches its knockout stages. Dilshan’s all-round performance on Thursday – he scored a century and took four wickets – helped Sri Lanka qualify for the quarter-finals with a win over Zimbabwe, but he said it was from now on that they had to be on the top of their game.”After March 18 we have to play our best cricket. We cannot afford to make mistakes with the quarter-final and semi-finals coming up,” Dilshan said. “We know we have qualified but we can’t take it easy for the next few matches. We have to play with 100% commitment from the New Zealand match.”Dilshan had gotten off to starts in three of Sri Lanka’s previous four games in this World Cup, but had not kicked on to get the big score, on two occasions perishing to strokes he would not have been happy with. Against Canada in Hambantota, after reaching fifty, he hit a short and wide delivery straight to deep cover, and then against Kenya in Colombo, he seemed to be lining up for a big shot before deciding to fend a short delivery to the keeper, after making 44.After those performances, Dilshan recognised the importance of him having gone on to score 144 on Thursday in Pallekele. “I am really happy with my batting and bowling performance. In the first couple of matches I got the starts but I didn’t capitalise and get a big one. But today [Thursday] I did that and that’s why I am happy with the hundred.” His innings makes him the highest scorer in the tournament so far, with 283 runs at an average of 56.60.It was not just about Dilshan’s batting on Thursday though. He came on to do a job with the ball, and in just three overs snapped up figures of 4 for 4, his best in one-day internationals. He was even on a hat-trick at one point and would have got it had Mahela Jayawardene held on to a tough catch from Graeme Cremer at slip. Dilshan put his success with the ball down to the fact that Sri Lanka played only one of their frontline spinners on Thursday, which meant his responsibility as a bowler increasedTillakaratne Dilshan’s 144 in Pallekel made him the leading run-getter of the World Cup so far•AFP

“We usually have two or three spinners in the line-up, but today there was only [Muttiah] Muralitharan, so I knew at some point of time I would have to bowl. I seized that chance and I hope the captain will have lots of confidence in my bowling in the future. I think I can contribute a lot with my bat as well as ball and as a wicketkeeper in this World Cup.” Dilshan does also keep wickets but is not expected to unless his captain Kumar Sangakkara suffers an injury.As far as missing the hat-trick was concerned, Dilshan said he was not that disappointed because Jayawardene, who dropped the catch on the hat-trick ball, had taken a stunner the previous ball. “Mahela’s dropped catch can happen to anyone in the match. He created a great catch before that and made it a hat-trick ball.”There was another milestone mised as well: two more runs would have taken Dilshan past Aravinda de Silva’s score of 145 against Kenya in 1996, giving him the highest score by a Sri Lanka batsman in World Cups. But Dilshan said he was not even aware of the statistic until after he was dismissed.”It was only after I got to the dressing room that someone told me that if I had scored another one run I would have passed Aravinda’s record. At that time nobody can send a message. It was the 45th over. But I am not worried about messages and I am not thinking of records. I am always playing for my team. After the 45th over I was trying to get the maximum runs for my team.”Although Sri Lanka won comfortably, their fielding in the first ten overs of Zimbabwe’s chase was not up to the mark, and Dilshan noted the room for improvement. “At the moment we are playing really good cricket and everything is going really well for us. We can’t say we are not going to make any mistakes; anybody can make mistakes sometimes while batting or on the field. We have to minimise the mistakes coming to the quarter-final and keep going for the rest of the tournament.”Sri Lanka’s next game, against New Zealand on March 18, is not in Sri Lanka as all their other group games have been, but in Mumbai. Dilshan, though, put a positive spin on the slightly puzzling scheduling, saying playing at the Wankhede Stadium would give them an opportunity to get used to the renovated ground, where the finals of the World Cup will be held on April 2.”If we qualify to play in the final, we’ll play in Mumbai. It’s a good opportunity to play another match there before the final. We are happy playing New Zealand in Mumbai.”

Trevor Bayliss, Sri Lanka’s coach, has said that Muttiah Muralitharan looks good to get back to match fitness for Sri Lanka’s quarter-final against England on Saturday. Murali had sustained a hamstring injury during Sri Lanka’s comprehensive win against New Zealand last Friday. That he didn’t bowl in the nets today – three days before the game – would have been a concern, but Bayliss said Murali had managed to play with niggles in the past, and this should not be too different.”He didn’t bowl against the batsmen in the nets, but he did bowl for some 20 minutes at the back,” Bayliss said. “We are very confident that he will play, and I think he’s pretty confident he will play as well. He’s a guy that has played through a few niggles in the past, and I’m sure he’ll be fine, come game day.”Even on one leg, Murali was a puzzle New Zealand couldn’t solve in Mumbai. He spent time off the field and therefore started late, coming on in the 18th over. After his first over, he rushed off the field again, but came back to rip the heart out of New Zealand’s middle order, dismissing Ross Taylor, Kane Williamson, Scott Styris and James Franklin.It is hardly a wonder that Murali will be a starter even if he is not completely fit against a side that is historically not known to be great against spin; a side that could not break free from the stranglehold of the Bangladesh spinners in a league game in this tournament. Bayliss had no doubts about Murali’s importance to the team, but also said that the side is not as singularly reliant on him as in the past.”He’s certainly an important part of the team,” Bayliss said. “What we have been trying to achieve here is to try and get some of our young players to live up to world-class standards. Over the last few years, we have had a number of young debutants playing the game; you have a look at some of the guys like [Ajantha] Mendis, [Angelo] Mathews, Thisara Perera, those type of guys have done extremely well and have played a big part in the success of our team.”For Bayliss personally, any of the next three games could be his last as Sri Lanka’s coach. He wants all three of them. “A successful three games would be nice, but all along the way what we’ve tried to do is play good cricket and give ourselves a chance to win. We believe if we play good cricket, we’ll be very difficult to beat.”

ScorecardRizwan Cheema took England’s bowlers to the cleaners in a feisty performance at Fatullah•Associated Press

Rizwan Cheema gave England a massive scare in their opening World Cup warm-up match against Canada, as he blazed 93 from 70 balls from No. 7 to give life to a faltering run-chase at Fatullah and raise the very real prospect of an embarrassing upset. However, five wickets for Stuart Broad on his return to competitive action, allied to a greater knowhow at the death, enabled England to defend their middling total of 243 despite being outgunned on the boundary count. Having recovered from 28 for 5 inside the eighth over, Canada’s challenge finally ended on 227, with 23 balls left unused.It was a sloppy display from England at an admittedly outlandish venue, although one that they ought to have been familiar with, having launched their tour of Bangladesh on the same ground in February last year. But it was Canada who looked the most at home in the conditions, as Cheema made light of a dramatic top-order collapse, which included first-over wickets for both the fit-again Ajmal Shahzad and Broad, who had not bowled in a match since tearing stomach muscles at Adelaide in December, but who ended up being England’s saving grace with match figures of 5 for 37.There had been no inkling of the drama to come when Canada lost half of their batsmen in the space of 44 balls, including the veteran John Davison, whose whirlwind century against West Indies in 2003 is the stuff of World Cup legend. However, Cheema has previous in that regard as well. At King City in August 2008, also against West Indies, he had battered the bowling to all parts in a 69-ball 89, and this time he produced ten fours and five sixes, including two in an over from the otherwise impressive Broad. While he remained, Canada held out hope of a major scalp, but with his hundred in sight, he took the aerial route once too often, and picked out Ian Bell at long-off.Still their challenge was not finished, as Chohan – who had earlier impressed with the ball – dug in for a spirited 44 from 74 balls to take the game right down to the wire. Canada entered the final ten overs needing 47 to win, and a clumping Chohan six off James Tredwell took the requirement down below 20. But Tredwell extracted Harvir Baidwan for 14, via a catch to Paul Collingwood, before Broad returned to seal the deal, striking with the first ball of his ninth over to trap Chohan lbw.If England seemed an unsettled outfit, that fact was telegraphed at the toss, when Kevin Pietersen was revealed as Andrew Strauss’s 13th opening partner, and England’s 21st in ODI cricket since the 2007 World Cup. Though Pietersen made an indifferent 24 from 27 balls in his new role before chopping on to Chohan, the message from the England management was that this tactic was intended to be a permanent measure for the duration of the World Cup.The timing of the reshuffle is hardly opportune – Pietersen has only ever opened in six of his 223 List A matches, and never at international level, while England’s first World Cup fixture is looming against Netherlands at Nagpur in less than a week’s time – but in the absence of Eoin Morgan in the middle order, the team think-tank has decided that an injection of urgency in the opening overs is the best way to balance the loss of such a pivotal player.England won the toss and batted first, only for Strauss to fall to a strangle down the leg side in the second over of the game. However, Jonathan Trott, whose berth at No. 3 seems set in stone, did what he does best, anchoring the innings with an unhurried 57 from 81 balls, while Matt Prior – the man who opened the batting in Australia last month – showed he was unaffected by a reversion to the lower order, as he upped the tempo with a fluent 78 from 80 balls in the latter stages of the innings.In between whiles, England allowed themselves to get bogged down against Canada’s nagging repertoire of spin and medium pace. Chohan and Baidwan claimed three wickets apiece, while the legspin of Balaji Rao proved tidy in a ten-over spell that conceded 38 runs and claimed the scalp of Collingwood, whose 9 from 21 balls was another scratchy affair that ended with a wild charge down the pitch and a routine stumping.When Luke Wright was trapped lbw for a five-ball duck, England were dicing with humiliation at 158 for 7, but Prior and the lower-order boosted their total with some urgent strokeplay. Broad, back in the side after a two-month lay-off following his torn stomach muscle in the Adelaide Test, clubbed 22 from 27 balls to help hoist the total to 243. At 28 for 5 in reply, it looked like being more than enough. But in the end, England barely bellyflopped over the line.