Ireland are to tour Bangladesh for three one-dayers next March and April.Ireland, who in addition to beating Pakistan in that memorable World Cup match earlier in the year also defeated Bangladesh, will also play two four-day warm-ups against local teams.”As we are not yet in the ICC’s Future Tours Programme, we have to look for matches against the teams close to us in the ODI rankings, such as Zimbabwe, Kenya, West Indies and Bangladesh,” Warren Deutrom, the Ireland Cricket Union’s chief executive told .”Bangladesh are sending me an itinerary for the tri-series and after that they have also agreed to play us in three ODIs and a four-day game – an ideal pre-season programme for the coach and players.”The tour gets underway from March 16.

Spinner Paul Harris was named as one of five South African Cricket Annual Cricketers of the Year in Johannesburg on Monday night. Also named were Gulam Bodi, Justin Kemp, Charl Langeveldt and Morne van Wyk.The award was a late birthday present for Harris, who turned 29 on Friday. The tall Titans left-arm bowler made a highly impressive entry into Test cricket when he played in home series against India and Pakistan last season. Both teams contained renowned players of spin bowling but Harris claimed 11 wickets in four matches at an average of 28.54.All five nominees were first-time winners of the award in line with a new policy that players will only be recognised once by the Mutual & Federal Annual. Titans batsman Bodi was recognised for his outstanding achievement in finally earning international one-day colours more than six years after missing out on a tour of the West Indies because of injury.Bodi, 28, was selected as a wrist spinner in 2000-01 but was injured the day before he was due to depart for the Caribbean. In recent seasons he has shone with the bat, making his international debut as a batsman against Zimbabwe in August. He was also included in South Africa’s squad for the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 in September.The big-hitting Kemp, who was appointed vice-captain of the one-day team for the recent tournament in Pakistan, confirmed his reputation as one of the most exciting batsmen in the world game during the past year. Among several fine performances was a thrilling, match-winning maiden one-day international century against India in Cape Town.Swing bowler Langeveldt was a consistent performer for the Proteas in one-day internationals and was joint leading wicket-taker for South Africa during the World Cup in the West Indies with 14 wickets at 25.78, including 5 for 39 in the win against Sri Lanka.van Wyk was honoured for his outstanding run-scoring efforts for the Eagles in domestic cricket. He was the leading run-scorer in both the MTN Domestic Championship and the Standard Bank Pro20 and topped the averages in the SuperSport Series. His feats earned him a recall to the national one-day team for the tour of Ireland.

It would not be a surprise if Mahela Jayawardene spent time each day looking into his hotel mirror chanting the line “We believe we can beat Australia”. Like The Little Engine That Could, Jayawardene must hope that if he says something often enough it will come true and mountainous tasks will be conquered.Over the past two weeks he has used a lot of lines about challenging Australia. He has never been boastful or confrontational, but at first he was mildly convincing even when his team was struggling for runs in the final warm-up. When he repeated the message after the innings-and-40-run Test defeat at the Gabba it sounded more like an empty promise.”We need to believe in ourselves that we can beat Australia,” he said quietly. “If we don’t have that belief there’s no point turning up in Hobart. I firmly believe that we’ve got the personnel to do that and we just need to back our ability … Our all-round game needs to improve and I believe we can do it.”The motivational mantras must be swapped for on-field toughness in Friday’s second Test and the tourists require more than a good talking over the next couple of days. Methods to deal with Australia’s suffocating bowling line and restrictive fields need to be found along with tactics to stifle the hosts’ powerful batting order. Trevor Bayliss, the coach, will have a busy few days and the team will be desperate for the return of Kumar Sangakkara to provide some backbone.Sri Lanka may have arrived in Australia with a balanced squad but that changed when Sangakkara’s hamstring tore in the first week of the tour. Ricky Ponting, who recognises the threat of the wicketkeeper-batsman and has caught glimpses of his training and net sessions during the match, expects Sangakkara to play along with Lasith Malinga, who was left out in Brisbane.Jayawardene was too cautious to predict the return of either, but Malinga’s cause was helped by Ponting’s local knowledge. The ball did not swing when Ponting scored 96 and 124 in the Pura Cup match at Bellerive Oval two weeks ago and the lack of movement will boost Malinga’s chances of inclusion. Vaas was picked at the Gabba because of his swing capabilities and he may have to wait until Sri Lanka face England next month for his 100th Test.It would be brave if the visitors dumped such an experienced performer for a vital game, but they need to have their most potent combination available if they are going to create any Australian cracks. Their tactics in the first Test were conservative and they were beaten easily despite the public mutterings of self-belief. Attacking actions must replace the words on Friday.

It’s hard to remember when last a team was in such disarray before a must-win Test match. Pakistan’s injury problems began as a bothersome aside but have now taken centre stage as they have only three fit bowlers going into the Kolkata Test. India, on the other hand, are sitting pretty, with their one doubtful starter, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, having recovered fully from a twisted ankle. An SOS has been sent to the Pakistan selectors, but with flight connectivity to Kolkata not being the greatest, it will be a challenge to get someone in with enough time to spare to take the field in the second Test.More than a few experts have been surprised by the rise of Sohail Tanvir, who with his unorthodox action, delivering not quite off the wrong foot but releasing the ball before his leading foot lands, was a novelty in Twenty20 cricket before sneaking into the one-day team. Now, with one Test under his belt, he is likely to lead Pakistan’s pace attack, with Umar Gul out, and Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami struggling with chest infections and illness. Tanvir has Danish Kaneria and Abdur Rehman as his only fully fit bowling partners.Although India must be secretly boosted by Pakistan’s troubles, Anil Kumble insists his team are not thinking of the composition of the opposition side. “Ideally we should look to control what we can control. The team is raring to go and that is a good sign,” said Kumble a day before the game.It’s not a bad approach to take, for Pakistan could just be at their most dangerous if Shoaib or Sami, or both, are somehow fit when play begins on Friday, though that seems desperately unlikely. Pakistan now truly have nothing to lose and everything to gain, and this will mean that any relief they get is a positive and should boost them going into the game.India, meanwhile, have a choice of their own to make, with a thought to bring in a third spinner in Murali Kartik. However, in order to do so, they will have to do some significant juggling, either using one of the middle-order batsmen as an opener and leaving out Dinesh Karthik, who has scored heavily in Tests this year, barring the last game, or play just one fast bowler and use Sourav Ganguly as a medium-pace option. Both seem unlikely, though Ganguly did play a significant part with the ball in the first Test.”I think Sourav has done well in the last game, and I don’t think he should change whatever he has been doing to satisfy your definition of success,” said Kumble when asked about Ganguly’s effort with the ball. “I think his role in the team, as a bowler it was very important for us in Kotla. I am sure he will get a bit of bowl here as well. I hope he will be more successful here than in Kotla.”Either way, the decision on the playing XI will be made late in theday, after consultation with Dilip Vengsarkar, who is expected to arrive in Kolkata on the eve of the match. The only thing that could tempt the Indians into playing three spinners is the pitch, but it’s tough to say if there are strong enough indications that the pitch will crumble. The curator insists it will begin to take turn on the third day, but such predictions are dangerous.”It seems to be a decent wicket and it should play well,” said Kumble. “But it is for us to take the momentum from Kotla and ensure that we turn the screws on early. We need to bat to our potential, and we should not let them off the hook as we had done in the first innings in Kotla.”What makes it harder to believe that the Indians will play three spinners is the fact that Harbhajan Singh was quite significantly under-bowled in the first Test. He bowled 15 overs in the first innings and 17 in the second, and on both occasions even Zaheer Khan had sent down more overs.It’s too early to judge Kumble the captain, after just one Test match, but already he appears to be a man in control of his team. He’s been playing the game at the highest level for 17 long years and there’s little he has not experienced first hand.Malik, however, barely portrays the same picture. Again it would be unfair to slate Malik without inside knowledge of how he interacted with his team, but on the field he has not looked a leader. He has looked like just one of the boys, and with the results not coming, and the runs also reducing to a trickle, the pressure is fairly and squarely on Malik. One thing’s pretty clear, though, if he gets through these testing times unscathed, things are only going to get easier for him.Teams
India (probable): 1 Dinesh Karthik, 2 Wasim Jaffer, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Sourav Ganguly, 6 VVS Laxman, 7 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), 8 Anil Kumble (capt), 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Munaf Patel.Pakistan (from): Salman Butt, Yasir Hameed, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik (capt), Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal (wk), Sohail Tanvir, Mohammad Sami, Shoaib Akhtar, Danish Kaneria, Abdur Rehman, Yasir Arafat, Faisal Iqbal.

The Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association was plunged into another crisis with the resignation of Nilesh Lakhani from the executive.Lakhani, who is chairman of the Parklands club, is seen as one of the people within the NPCA who actually gets things done, and his resignation will be a serious blow to the credibility of the already beleaguered executive. The NPCA has already lost its chairman and secretary this year.What will really hurt the NPCA is the stinging attack on the executive’s abilities in his letter of resignation. “I have looked at the position and have concluded that I have no confidence in the way that NPCA is currently operating,” he wrote. “It is no secret that there is no proper management in the NPCA executive. It is something we have been criticised for by everyone who has any sensible interest in cricket.It has been difficult for me to understand not only who is running the NPCA but also how it is run. At present the NPCA has no “official” chairman, it has no vice-chairman and now it has no “official” secretary . How long are you going to continue like this? And yet we continue to pretend to the outside world that we have no problems without accepting our fault.”I have taken little part in attending NPCA meetings over the past several months … [because] the way in which NPCA executive meetings are called is pathetic. I usually receive an SMS around 4.30 pm on a particular day saying that NPCA executive will be meeting at 7.00 pm on the same day to discuss urgent matters. How can you operate in this way and expect commitment from members?”Lakhani’s attack on the NPCA comes after months in which the executive has been roundly condemned from all sides for its lack of openness and accountability and its continual stalling of the introduction of a new constitution and an AGM.This might turn out to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and it will be hard to see how, bereft of its last credible administrator, the current executive can carry on with any credibility.

Scorecard
On a rain-affected day in which only 56 overs of play was possible, Barbados took control of their match against Guyana through centuries from left-hand batsmen Jason Haynes(111) and Ryan Hinds(101 not out). Resuming on 58 for 2, the pair kept the Guyanese bowlers at bay till the penultimate over of the day, when Haynes edged legspinner Leon Johnson to slip. They added 212 runs for the third wicket to leave Barbados in charge at 256 for 3 at stumps on the second day, a lead of 71. It was Haynes’ maiden first-class century, and contained 11 fours, while Hinds, who made 95 in the previous match against Windward Islands, capitalised on a dropped catch to reach his seventh century. Guyana used as many as eight bowlers but were unable to make much of an impact on a Kensington Oval track which was perfect for batting.
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A solid batting performance gave Jamaica a 187-run first-innings lead and put them in charge of their game against Combined Campuses and Colleges. Former West Indies batsman Wavell Hinds top scored with 87 while Xavier Marshall contributed 69. Marshall, who started the day on 50, added 54 for the third wicket with nightwatchman Andre Russell(33). Fast bowler Jamal Nowell then removed both batsmen before Hinds and Brendan Nash were involved in a patient 85-run stand. However, the tail caved in meekly, with the last six wickets falling for 38, as Jamaica were bowled out for 286. Nowell was the highest wicket-taker with four, while left-arm spinner Kavesh Kantasingh picked up three, including that of Hinds. In reply, the visitors had reached 36 at stumps, losing the wicket of captain Shirley Clarke in the process.
Scorecard
Leeward Islands dismissed Windward Islands for 134 to gain a handy 67-run first-innings lead before their batsmen consolidated the advantage by reaching 179 for 5 at stumps. After being bowled out for a paltry 201 in the first innings, Leewards stormed back into the match with the help of former West Indies fast bowler Adam Sanford’s four wickets. Windwards lost their last six wickets for 41 runs to be bowled out at the stroke of lunch. Leewards’ captain Omari Banks led their batting with an unbeaten 51 to ensure they maintained the upper hand in the game. Montcin Hodge (21), Steve Liburd (24) and Javier Liburd (36) also chipped in with useful contributions.

Phil Jaques will put his first taste of Test defeat to positive use, declaring that Australia will be “fiercely competitive” and “as aggressive as possible” in a bid to ram home the series win. Jaques said being the senior opener in Perth in just his fifth Test, with Chris Rogers making his debut, did not unduly burden him but he is boosted by Matthew Hayden’s expected return in Adelaide on Thursday.”We will approach it how we always approach it,” Jaques said, “which is fiercely competitive and play the game the right way but play the game hard. We will be trying to be as aggressive as possible without crossing that line.”Hayden should come back from a hamstring injury that forced him to miss the third Test and Jaques, for one, can’t wait. “Matt coming back into the side will make a difference to our team and give us a whole lot of confidence,” Jaques said. “He’s a fine player, with a fine record.”He’s fantastic, a wealth of knowledge. My mindset didn’t change too much not having Matt there, but having him there will give the side what we need at the top of the order.”He was confident Rogers would be a success in his future Test opportunities, but for the meantime it’s set to be the Hayden and Jaques show with the latter having ensured his spot for a while with good scores against Sri Lanka and now India; Perth was a rare double failure. His partnership with Hayden is developing well, too.”Every Test we get a little more understanding of the way the other plays,” Jaques said. “We are starting to work out when we’re having our low periods and our high periods. It’s definitely good to have a regular player there that’s for sure but it’s good to have Chris as well. He did his best last week and I’m sure next time round he’ll make a big score.”Having struggled against the seamers – and Irfan Pathan in particular, who bagged him twice – Jaques said there would be some adjustments. “We will be looking at revising some plans and going from there. Everyone’s entitled to a bad game every now and then. [Pathan] bowled really tight lines, really nicely. He bowled me a couple of good balls. That happens in cricket, hopefully I can get him next time.”He also promised his foot movement would be better and that the approach would not to be too different if India selected two spinners or one. Speaking of spin, Jaques backed Brad Hogg to get the nod ahead of Shaun Tait’s pace, which would deny Tait a home Test. “Usually we do play spinners here, it’s one of those wickets that does spin. Personally I think Hogg might play but we will have to look at the wicket.”It will be all eyes on the pitch in the next day or so, as this will affect India’s line-up also, with suggestions that they may play five bowlers, bringing back two spinners. The weather may also come into play, as showers are forecast for the first two days at least. But with Australia’s top order promising to put up a fight, and India with the desire to level the series, where top-quality cricket is concerned the outlook is sunny.

Mark Vermeulen is poised to make the unlikeliest of international comebacks a little more than two years after he burnt down Zimbabwe Cricket’s academy and tried to set fire to the ZC boardroom.He was cleared on grounds of mental illness by a Harare court a year ago after it was revealed he suffered from a serious depressive illness.Although he resumed playing club cricket, few believed he had any hope of returning to the national side given his many problems. Shortly before the attacks in October 2006, he had been banned from playing club cricket in England for ten years – later reduced to three – after an incident where he clashed with spectators in a league match.In May 2008, Vermeulen publicly offered to help rebuild the academy if he was handed a central contract, but nothing came of it.However, Ozias Bvute, ZC’s managing director, confirmed to Cricinfo that Vermeulen would be offered a chance of rehabilitation. “We have allowed Mark to participate in our leagues. There was actually no ban on him, but relations were restrained after the two arson attacks.”In a separate interview with the local Independent newspaper, Bvute said: “He approached us with a desire to play in our leagues. Having weighed various issues we decided it was in his best interest to be allowed to play since he indicated that cricket was the only thing he lives for.”Should he make the grade, he will be selected [for the national team]. The decision was driven by a desire to help rehabilitate him, taking into account that he served Zimbabwe well when he first played for the national side. Life is such that everyone deserves a second chance.”Vermeulen played 32 ODIs and eight Tests between 2000 and 2004 but was no stranger to controversy. In 2003, he was sent home from the tour of England because of disciplinary problems, and as schoolboy he was once banned for walking off with the stumps after receiving a poor lbw decision and locking himself in the changing room.Nevertheless, on his day Vermeulen, who is still only 29, is a good top-order batsman and if he can regain his form then he is likely to be pressing for a recall in the near future.

England 87 for 2 (Vaughan 44*) trail New Zealand 470 (Taylor 120, How 92, Vettori 88, Sidebottom 4-90) by 383 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentary
How they were out

England ended a rather subdued second day in Hamilton on 87 for 2, still 383 behind New Zealand’s first innings of 470. On a pitch which remains slow and unyielding they appeared to be making sedate progress until two late wickets – admittedly one of them nightwatchman Matthew Hoggard – underlined that they still have plenty to do.The day was dominated by Ross Taylor and Daniel Vettori, whose seventh-wicket stand of 148 extended midway into the afternoon. Taylor, whose off-side driving was a delight, completed his maiden Test hundred while Vettori looked set for his until he perished to Paul Collingwood. England might have believed they were in the ascendancy at the start of play, after the in-form Brendon McCullum had been dismissed late on the first day’s play, but Taylor and Vettori beat them back in a stand that occupied half the day.Taylor’s innings was a triumph of the will. He has built his entire international reputation of the strength and speed on his one-day strokeplay, and in two previous Test matches he had returned a highest score of 17. There was nothing frenetic about his approach to this innings, however. At the close of the first day, his colleague Jamie How remarked that he had never seen Taylor play so straight or with such determination, and having batted for almost three hours to reach stumps on 54 not out, there was a certain inevitability about his progress today.Taylor was aided and abetted by a docile pitch and an even more docile attack. Both Ryan Sidebottom, the pick of England’s seamers on the first day, and the off-colour Matthew Hoggard served up wide half-volleys in the opening ten minutes that Taylor slashed gratefully for four, and the left-handed Vettori was also allowed to settle quickly with a pull for four and a punched drive behind point. From 282 for 6 overnight, Taylor brought up the 300 in the fourth over of the day with another thumping drive, as England searched in vain for some inspiration.It didn’t come from Steve Harmison, unsurprisingly. He entered the attack in the 12th over of the morning, but was gloriously square-driven by Taylor as he too overpitched outside off stump. Collingwood was also called into the attack for an early burst, and though he found a genuine edge off Vettori that flew through the vacant second slip for four, both batsmen soon grew accustomed to his lack of venom.Taylor eased into the 90s with a crisply driven half-volley from Collingwood, but was made to wait for his big moment as England finally sensed an opportunity to apply the pressure. Monty Panesar kept him pinned on 98 with a timely maiden, but when Harmison dropped short four balls later, Taylor climbed into a cathartic pull shot, and instantly raised both arms in triumph. His hundred had come from 185 balls with 16 fours, and had taken him a shade over four hours. Vettori congratulated him with an embrace and a handshake, and no doubt a quiet reminder that, with New Zealand still shy of their par total of 400, his real task was still ahead of him.The breakthrough came when Michael Vaughan, almost in desperation after three hours of frustration, threw the ball to Kevin Pietersen. Taylor looked to carve his second ball over midwicket and a top edge was gratefully held by the bowler. Vettori, who until then had unfussily moved towards his own hundred, then fell to another part-time bowler, looking to run a ball angled across him to third man but only succeeding in steering it straight to Andrew Strauss at wide slip. Not much went right for England but their catching could not be faulted.The end came soon after, Sidebottom polishing things off in three balls of a new spell. Jeetan Patel nicked one angled across him to Strauss at slip and then Chris Martin lived up to his reputation as a non batsman by missing a straight one, the only time an England bowler managed to hit the stumps in a day and a half.Vettori would have noted with anticipation the increasingly frequent puffs of dust blowing up from the bone-dry surface. And yet Vaughan and Cook were rarely troubled in an opening stand of 84, although Vettori and Patel did enough to suggest that batting against the twin-spin attack in the fourth innings of the game will be a far tougher proposition.Just as it appeared that England would finish the day with all their wickets intact, Cook contrived to get himself out, miscuing a pull off Martin, and upholding the old adage that one brings two, Hoggard edged to slip in Martin’s next over. That brought in Strauss for a rather fraught couple of overs but he survived.

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

England grasped control of the second Test in Wellington, with James Anderson picking up his fourth five-wicket haul to help dismiss New Zealand for 198 shortly before stumps on the second day. With a lead of 144, and on what remains an excellent pitch, England’s hopes of levelling the three-match series grow by the day.Before this Test, Michael Vaughan spoke of his excitement at the change in personnel following the semi-ruthless double-axing of Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison. And although Tim Ambrose’s credentials have increased exponentially following his attractive maiden hundred and silky-smooth keeping, it was Anderson and Stuart Broad – the new, young bowling replacements – who Vaughan most needed to pass the litmus test. Both did just that.After Ambrose’s superb maiden hundred – becoming the first England wicketkeeper in 11 years to reach a ton on foreign soil since Alec Stewart in 1997 – Anderson was immediately to the fore, ripping out New Zealand’s top three in perfect bowling conditions. Much as England’s lower order had struggled, New Zealand’s openers couldn’t cope with Anderson’s natural away swing. The ball to remove Matthew Bell was as unplayable as Jacob Oram’s crackerjack to Vaughan yesterday, knocking over his off stump and giving the bowler the confidence to pitch it up. Jamie How prodded meekly at another outswinger, as did a quizzical Mathew Sinclair, and after 16 overs New Zealand had slipped to a precipitous 31 for 3.They weren’t finished, however. Stephen Fleming – playing for the last time on his home ground – and in particular Ross Taylor took the attack to England in a fourth-wicket stand of 71, laden with counterattacking strokes in front of square. There was a determined (perhaps sentimental) stickiness to Fleming which contrasted starkly with Taylor’s natural inclination to force the scoring rate, and the pair made hay while England’s concentration noticeably slipped. Monty Panesar’s fielding was at its most clumsy and costly, letting through two fours and missing a run-out opportunity – though he was on the receiving end of a dreadfully panicky throw from Kevin Pietersen at cover.Fleming threw away his wicket with a careless slap to point and, after Taylor brought up an attractive 74-ball fifty, he became Anderson’s fifth victim when he pushed forward at another awayswinger. It was Anderson’s fourth five-wicket haul, and you could hear the rumbles of discontent grow ever noisier at Auckland’s decision to employ him last week.At 113 for 6 New Zealand were in danger of folding like a pack of cards, but in came their most in-form and dangerous pair, Brendon McCullum and Daniel Vettori, who smacked 52 in little more than five overs. McCullum looked in bristling form, charging Anderson and shuffling to the off side. A wonderful back-foot drive past Broad looked to have dented his confidence, but impressively he had the gumption to pitch it up two balls later, handing Andrew Strauss his second safe slip catch.Vettori at least managed to cut down England’s lead with another hugely valuable and immensely infuriating fifty – brought up off his 42nd ball with the most audacious of uppercuts for six over third man. However, Paul Collingwood mopped up the tail with career-best figures of 3 for 23 as New Zealand were dismissed for 198 with about half-an-hour of the day’s play remaining.Alastair Cook and Vaughan survived the last five overs and, leading by 148, England are in the box seat and ready to bat New Zealand totally out of the game.