Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf, has accept an invitation by Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, to visit and watch the ongoing India-Pakistan series. Manmohan extended the invitation publicly on Thursday and it was accepted within a day.A Pakistan foreign ministry official told AAP, “Yes, he has accepted the invitation,” while a foreign office spokesman, Jalil Abbas Jilani, said that they were “looking at the schedule of the president.” Musharraf had expressed his desire to watch a match in the ongoing series in India in an earlier interview, and this was seen as an opportunity to improve bilateral ties between the two countries. Manmohan said as much when he made the invitation to Musharrraf: “I do hope [President Musharraf] and his family will enjoy their visit to our country,” he was reported to have said by the BBC. “I must say… nothing brings the people of the subcontinent together more than our love for cricket and Bollywood.”Earlier, a spokesperson for India’s ministry of external affairs said that the visit would not be given the status of a state visit, but a friendly one.

Yorkshire held their nerve against Worcestershire to secure a 14-run win. Ian Harvey and Craig White used all their experience to put in two excellent displays of death bowling. Despite a 117-run stand between Kabir Ali (67) and Zander de Bruyn (82) the asking-rate continued to climb to over nine an over. White bowled Ali and had de Bruyn caught by Tim Bresnan. Ian Harvey used his slower-balls to good effect and the lower-order batsmen couldn’t find the boundaries needed. Yorkshire’s innings was based around a captain’s innings from Anthony McGrath. His 74 from 94 balls lifted Yorkshire from 88 for 4 after Michael Vaughan had been bowled by de Bruyn for 9.Surrey overcame the experience of the one-day specialists Gloucestershire to secure a three-wicket win at Bristol. Click here for a full match report.Middlesex left themselves with too much to do against Northamptonshire as Paul Weekes’s 105 proved in vain at Lord’s. Click here for a full match report.Kent eased into the quarter-finals with a thumping 127-run win against Derbyshire. After squeezing into the second round with their last-ball victory over Durham, Derbyshire did not put up much of a fight at Canterbury. Geraint Jones spent some welcome time in the middle as he cracked 70 from 75 balls. Matthew Walker hit 56 from 74 balls and Darren Stevens boosted the total with a brisk 47 from 42 deliveries. Derbyshire slumped to 27 for 5, as Martin Saggers claimed three wickets, and never threatened to approach their target with all the Kent attack chipping in.Warwickshire thoroughly outplayed Leicestershire as a superb performance in the field carried them to an 83-run win at Edgbaston. Dougie Brown rocked the Leicestershire top-order with a three-wicket burst to put the skids under their run-chase. Brown’s spell reduced them to 16 for 3 – and they never recovered – with Ian Bell and Alex Loudon also taking three wickets each. Heath Streak played his part, bowling eight overs for just 13 runs, after hitting a quick-fire 28 from 27 balls to lift Warwickshire’s total past 200. Nick Knight anchored the innings with 69 but a middle-order wobble left them grateful for the ninth-wicket stand of 55 between Streak and Tony Frost.

Andrew Flintoff and Brad Hodge starred for Lancashire as they progressed into the next round with a six-wicket win over Essex at Old Trafford. Flintoff took four wickets – including Grant and Andy Flower – to restrict the Essex scoring-rate. The rest of the Lancashire attack took a wicket each and only Ravinder Bopara (42) made much of an impression with the bat. James Foster and Tim Phillips tried their best to lift the tempo but the target was always comfortable. After Alex Tudor struck twice, to remove Mal Loye and Stuart Law, Hodge played a perfectly paced one-day innings, adding 112 with Mark Chilton, before Flintoff finished the job.Hampshire powered past Glamorgan by six wickets at Cardiff. An unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 130 between Nic Pothas and Kevin Pietersen made light work of a potentially testing target of 215. Pothas and Pietersen joined forces after Hampshire slipped to 89 for 4. Simon Katich fell first-ball and Simon Jones removed Shane Warne and Chris Tremlett – both sent in as pinch-hitters. But Pothas reached his second one-day century while Pietersen launched four sixes in his 64-ball 69. Sean Ervine starred with the ball, his 5 for 50 meant Glamorgan’s tail could build on a platform of 150 for 4, after Michael Powell was dismissed 56.Yorkshire v Northants at Headingley
Warwickshire v Kent at Edgbaston
Surrey v Hampshire at The Oval
Lancashire v Sussex/Nottinghamshire at Old Trafford (Sussex play Notts tomorrow)

Dilhara Lokuhettige (also known as Lokuhettige Danushka Dilhara) is the only new face in the 14-member Sri Lanka A squad to take on West Indies A in two unofficial Tests at Dambulla and Kandy starting on June 23.Lokuhettige is a hard-hitting right-hand batsman and effective right-arm medium-pace bowler who came to prominence when he scored the fastest fifty of last season, off just 22 balls, for Moors against Air Force on his home ground at Braybrooke Place.Lokuhettige, 24, won selection for some consistent performance over the past few seasons. Since making his first-class debut in 2000-01, he has scored 1682 runs at 27.76, with one century and four fifties, and also captured 134 wickets (27.51) from 58 matches. He started off with Antonians SC and then moved to Galle CC before joining Moors in 2003-04. “We think that he has the potential to develop into a good allrounder,” said Lalith Kaluperuma, the chairman of selectors. “That is why we have picked him.”The rest of the squad remains unchanged from the one that played in the four unofficial Tests against England A and Pakistan A, with the exception of Shantha Kalavitigoda, Thilan Thushara, Anushka Polonowita and Thilina Kandamby. The last three failed to make it to the 25-member pool owing to poor performances in the last series, while Kalavitigoda has been omitted because of an injured shoulder. “Kalavitigoda is nursing a shoulder-muscle injury,” said Kaluperuma. “He has not recovered 100%. We decided to rest him to give him time to recover to full fitness.”Kalavitagoda, the right-hand opener, made an instant impact in the only match he played against England A, scoring an impressive 83, a knock which put him on the flight to New Zealand where he went onto make his Test debut at the age of 27. Kaluperuma also said that his committee decided to stick by several tried and tested players who had appeared for Sri Lanka in order to give them an opportunity to regain their places in the national side ahead of the West Indies series that will follow the A tour.He added that for the two-day practice game against West Indies A on June 19-20 at Moratuwa, the selectors would concentrate on picking players from the Under-19 team who are members of the 25-member A-team pool, namely Harsha Vithana, Upul Tharanga, Chamara Kapugedera, Charitha Jayaweera and Gihan de Silva. “We don’t want these players who have been identified as future talent to be thrown into the deep end at once,” said Kaluperuma. ” We want them to come up gradually and make the grade.”The 25-member A-team squad is currently under training under the watchful eyes of coach Stan Nel and the new manager Anura Tennekoon, the former Sri Lankan captain.Sri Lanka A squad
Russel Arnold (capt), Prasanna Jayawardene (vice-capt, wk), Avishka Gunawardena, Ian Daniel, Michael Vandort, Jehan Mubarak, Gayan Wijekoon, Malinga Bandara, Suraj Mohamed, Dilhara Fernando, Ruchira Perera, Dilhara Lokuhettige, Sajeewa Weerakoon, Malintha Gajanayake. Standby players: Upul Tharanga, Nandika Ranjith, Priyankara Silva, Gihan de Silva.

Sachin Tendulkar has been ruled out of the first Test between India and Australia at Bangalore, beginning on Wednesday. Sourav Ganguly confirmed this in his pre-match press conference, where he also said that the pitch was “very, very dry with a lot of cracks” and added that he had never seen a pitch like this in Bangalore before.Tendulkar’s omission was on the cards after he preferred not to have a bat at the nets and instead concentrated on bowling for about an hour to his team-mates. Ganguly confessed that in these conditions, the team would miss Tendulkar’s bowling ability as well. Tendulkar’s crucial wickets at Kolkata, in the 2001 series, as well as the dismissals of Damien Martyn and Steve Waugh at Adelaide, would surely have been on Ganguly’s mind.Ganguly spoke about how intense the rivalry between Australia and India has been and said: “Except for the Mumbai Test, the last six Tests that we have played have lasted for all five days. It will be a hard-fought series but I hope it’s not as competitive as the last two because it’ll become really tough for both sides.”Sunil Gavaskar, who was recently appointed as a consultant for the Indian side, oversaw the team’s practice for nearly an hour. Ganguly spoke about how the team had sought the assistance of Bruce Reid in the recent past, as a bowling coach, and said that Gavaskar would help out John Wright when required. Gavaskar added that Tendulkar’s injury may not be entirely due to the weight of the bat. “You tend to grip the bat harder when you play a long innings and are more prone to such injuries. I’ve experienced similar situations myself.”Tendulkar¹s absence clears one issue for the Indian team. Barring drastic measures, it is now almost certain that Aakash Chopra, whose stolidresistance laid the foundation for many huge Indian totals in Australia,will open with Virender Sehwag, and Yuvraj Singh, who scored an electrifyingcentury against Pakistan at Lahore, will bat at No. 6. VVS Laxman, who the Australians fear even more than Tendulkar, is likely to take the No. 4 position.

Hosts Ireland will play Scotland in the final of the ICC Trophy on Wednesday (July 13) at Clontarf near Dublin. Ireland defeated Canada by four wickets while Scotland beat Bermuda by six wickets to set up the final between two sides who have never won the tournament.The final World Cup qualifying slot will be awarded to the team that finishes fifth. Holland and UAE will play off for this spot at Clontarf on Monday after Holland defeated Denmark and UAE overhauled Namibia.Peter Gillespie and Andrew White hit Ireland to victory in a tense semi-final against Canada. With the run-rate mounting – they required 240 for victory – Gillespie struck a six and a four from consecutive deliveries in the 48th over before White completed the win with a six from the second ball of the final over. White, who was also at the crease when Ireland beat West Indies and Surrey, finished 28 not out while Man-of-the-Match Gillespie was unbeaten on 64.Jeremy Bray failed to make a mark at his home club. He was out for 10 with the score on 12. Eoin Morgan followed 29 runs later for 20 and, though captain Jason Mollin made a personal tournament best of 44, Ireland were pegged back to 106 for 5. Trent Johnson led the recovery but when he was caught in the deep for 44 to become Kevin Sander’s third victim, Ireland were left needing a run a ball with only four wickets in hand. Gillespie and White, though, held their nerve.In the other semi, Bermuda elected to bat against Scotland at The Hills, but they struggled to 26 for 3. Scotland’s leading wicket-taker Paul Hoffman was the spearhead as only Albert Steede of Bermuda’s top seven batsmen made double figures. Bermuda’s innings was rescued by the controlled hitting of Dean Minors and Lionel Cann. When Cann joined Minors at the crease Bermuda were heading for humiliation at 88 for 7, but he struck 45 from 38 balls for Cann, while Minors added an unbeaten 53 to lift the surprise semi-finalists to 219 for 9.Scotland had a shaky start to their reply, at 52 for 3. The Scottish batting line-up, though, has strength in depth and Gavin Hamilton and Cedric English found their form at an opportune time. Both Hamilton and English made their first half-centuries of the tournament to shepherd Scotland to safety. Hamilton was caught out for 59 but English remained unbeaten on 75 as Scotland won by six wickets.Holland moved to within one match of the World Cup finals by thrashing Denmark by 89 runs. The Dutch were unlucky to miss out on automatic qualification from Group B but bounced back with determination. Bas Zuiderent and Dan van Bunge both hit centuries as Holland amassed 314 for 6 in 50 overs. Denmark did not get close in their reply and were bowled out in the final over for 225.UAE ended Namibia‘s dream of a second consecutive appearance at the World Cup. Gerrie Snyman contributed 82 not out to a competitive target of 240 for 7, but UAE produced their best batting performance of the tournament to reach the target with 18 balls to spare. Syed Maqsood (84) and Khuram Khan (92) were the key men for UAE.In the play-off matches for ninth to 12th place, USA picked up their first victory of the tournament in beating Papua New Guinea by eight wickets and Oman beat Uganda by six runs.

Lancashire’s joy at reaching the semi-finals of the Twenty20 Cup was shortlived as Essex taught them a lesson in the 40-over format, winning by eight wickets at Old Trafford. Batting first after winning the toss, Lancashire limped to a below-par 154 for 8, and were well beaten with more than seven overs to spare. Iain Sutcliffe topscored with 54 and Mark Chilton anchored the remainder of the innings with 48 not out, but Sajid Mahmood, the No. 10, was the only other batsman to reach double figures as Essex’s spinners, led by Danish Kaneria (3 for 24) scythed through the innings. In reply, Grant Flower made 66 in even time and Ravinder Bopara completed the job with 45 not out. James Anderson, with 2 for 36, was the pick of Lancashire’s attack.

Division One

Points TableGlamorgan eased their relegation fears with a four wicket win over Gloucestershire. Michael Powell held Glamorgan’s run chase together with a composed 69, adding a match-winning 73 with Mark Wallace. Gloucestershire had made a decent attempt at defending 194 with Jon Lewis causing problems with 3 for 35. However, Daniel Cherry chipped in with a useful 38 to rebuild the innings from 40 for 4. Gloucestershire’s batting never managed to hit the heights of their extraordinary run chase against Lancashire – when Ramnaresh Sarwan and Mark Hardinges added 221 – and the innings stuttered along. Kadeer Ali and Alex Gidman both struck half-centuries but all the Glamorgan bowlers chipped in and David Harrison was particularly impressive taking 2 for 16 from his nine overs.

Division Two

Points TableSussex remained on course for the Second Division title after a five-wicket success against Warwickshire with 25 balls to spare. Murray Goodwin was the star with the bat striking a composed, unbeaten, 86 to ensure Sussex did not falter after slipping to 90 for 5. Makhaya Ntini’s new ball burst and two scalps for Alex Loudon left the match in the balance but Robin Martin-Jenkins combined with Goodwin to add the final 82 runs. Michael Yardy had earlier undermined Warwickshire’s innings with career-best figures of 6 for 27 after Naved-ul-Hasan had troubled the top order. Yardy has become an increasingly useful option for Sussex this summer, with his left-arm spin, but those figure were probably beyond even his wildest dreams.

Nathan Hauritz, who took five wickets in his Test debut at Mumbai, has been added to Queensland’s squad for the Pura Cup match against South Australia at Adelaide Oval tomorrow.Hauritz arrived back from the series-winning tour of India this morning and quickly told the Queensland selection panel he wanted to play for the Bulls. Queensland will now finalise their team just prior to play.The captain Jimmy Maher is also expected to take his place despite being struck a nasty blow in the ribs from a Shaun Tait delivery in yesterday’s ING Cup win.Queensland Jimmy Maher (c), Andrew Bichel, Joe Dawes, Nathan Hauritz, James Hopes, Brendan Nash, Ashley Noffke, Aaron Nye, Clinton Perren, Wade Seccombe, Chris Simpson, Andrew Symonds, Shane Watson.

Kevin Pietersen, England batsman, Hampshire teammate and good friend of Shane Warne, says the Australian is being targeted by the media and does not get the respect he deserves.ABC Sport quoted Pietersen as saying, “I think he does get treated far too harshly for what he deserves. He’s the best player that’s ever played the game.”Pietersen was referring to the attention the tabloid press has paid to Warne’s often tumultuous private life. Warne separated from his wife earlier this year after tabloids reported on his alleged indiscretions.Pietersen, himself no stranger to tabloid attention, added, “It is ridiculous because you can’t defend yourself and that’s the thing. Much [of] the rubbish that’s written about you, there’s nothing you can do about it.”Pietersen is currently in Melbourne to play for the World XI in the one-day Super Series against Australia.

John Wright, who has experienced the best and the worst of Indian cricket during his five-year tenure as India’s coach, has asked for some time and space for Greg Chappell, his successor, to make a difference to the Indian team.Chappell has had a stormy start to his tenure and the publication of a confidential email in which he had declared Sourav Ganguly “mentally and physically unfit” to lead India, has inflamed passions and polarised opinions. Despite an uneasy truce imposed by the Indian board, observers visualise a difficult period ahead if both Chappell and Ganguly stay in their current positions.Wright, however, was confident that Chappell would be able to work his way through. “There will always be a couple of bumpy issues along the way when you are in a coaching situation,” Wright said, “but I am sure the coach and team will be able to work together.”Wright refused to get into discussions about Chappell’s methods, saying that coaching styles differed from person to person. When asked if he was too soft on some of the players, Wright said: “The bottom line from my perspective as a coach is I work in my way. I know that several people made judgments on how I approached the job and generally it’s from their perspective. I know the way I did the job and I feel we made progress. At the end of the day you do it the way you want to do it. I certainly don’t have qualms about not being hard in the job.”I think you have to ask the players about those sorts of things. I had several years with the team – I enjoyed it, I loved the fans over there. It was probably my most enriching cricketing experience. We took the team to a certain stage and Greg and his team should take it a bit further forward.””My last seven months with the one-day team – the form was poor and Greg’s going about sorting that out. I know that they can play and they’ll get the results,” he said. “I always felt that India could be number one. They’re ranked third in the Test rankings and one-day form can turn around very quickly, as we showed in the World Cup [in 2003] and the ICC Champions Trophy [in 2004].”