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Scorecard

Pakistan Under-19 seized the advantage by reducing England Under-19 to 290 for 9 on the opening day of the second Test at the County Ground in Derby. Middlesex batsman Billy Godleman stood firm at one end and scored 115 but Pakistan’s bowlers pegged away at the other, taking seven wickets for 118 runs after England were 172 for 2 at one stage.Rory Hamilton-Brown’s decision to bat initially paid off as England’s openers, Godleman and Alex Wakely, added 95 for the first wicket. Rawalpindi fast-bowler Mohammad Aamer gave Pakistan the first breakthrough when he bowled Wakely for 43 and Mohammad Rameez soon had Adam Lyth caught behind with England on 107 for 2.Ben Wright and Godleman added 65 for the third wicket but Pakistan made inroads by dismissing Wright while Imad Wasim picked up the wickets of Hamilton-Brown and Ben Brown in quick succession to reduce England to 190 for 5. Rameez ended Godleman’s 249-ball innings which included 12 boundaries to put Pakistan on top.Wasim ended the day with 3 for 43, while Rameez and Azhar Attari took 2 for 81 and 2 for 44 respectively, to finish a satisfactory day for Pakistan after they had been routed by an innings and 58 runs in the first Test.

Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene has said that if his country was to make any headway in the Twenty20 format, the Sri Lankan cricket authorities must plan out a proper structure for it domestically.”Twenty20 is something unique and provides a lot of challenges to cricketers,” said Jayawardene. “If we are to go forward we need to play more Twenty20 cricket domestically at a highly competitive level, not just clubs competing with each other day in and day out.”We have to look into getting the best players involved and have a high quality tournament,” he said. “Twenty20 is going to be a part of the international calendar, so we need to develop specialist players for this type of game.”Jayawardene said that with every game Sri Lanka played in the inaugural ICC World Twenty20, they learnt a lot.”Hopefully we should get a few more good cricketers coming through this system who will be really good Twenty20 players. Guys who are in the middle should be able to handle tough situations, not panic, be cool-headed and have confidence in what they are doing and bat according to situations. Bowlers with a lot of talent and variation who can adapt to different conditions will also come into play.Jayawardene stated that it was disappointing that his team won only one of their three matches in the Super Eights, against Bangladesh, but had words of praise for his bowlers.”We started off very well and we had our chances, but we made a few mistakes especially in the batting department. We never batted to our potential. We tried to do too many things which were not in our control,” he told the . “If we had stuck to our strengths and batted accordingly we probably would have given a better account of ourselves.”He praised his bowlers’ performance at the Twenty20 event. “The bowlers bowled really well throughout the tournament. Even without Murali [Muttiah Muralitharan] they put their hands up and performed really well. Credit should go to them.”Jayawardene was of the opinion that the ICC would not allow Twenty20 to replace the fifty-over game.”Twenty20 has been brought in to get in more crowds for the game. We need to strike a proper balance between Test cricket, one-day cricket and Twenty20. That’s the right way to go about it. The more we play Twenty20 the more we get kids involved. It’s obviously good for the game, but the real challenge for individual professional cricketers would be Test cricket and one-day cricket to test their capabilities.”Twenty20 cricket will develop individual skills. It will improve the one-day version just as one-day cricket improved Test cricket – run-scoring became faster, and Tests became more interesting and result oriented. I’m sure Twenty20 will have the same impact on one-day cricket as well.”

Why was the CLT20 culled and what is the most significant impact?
The CLT20 was cancelled because of the lack of viability from a broadcaster’s perspective. An IPL insider revealed that the tournament was worth almost a billion dollars over ten years but the broadcasters failed to recover even a tenth of that.The biggest impact following the cancellation of the CLT20 will be felt by non-Indian domestic teams, who have lost out on a three-way income stream. Non-Indian teams in the tournament received participation fees of US$500,000 per team, prize money and US$150,000 per player who chose to turn out for his IPL team instead of his domestic team, in the event that both qualified.”The CLT20 was a cash cow for international teams,” the source told ESPNcricinfo. “For a team like T&T, when a Samuel Badree or Dwayne Bravo is playing for other teams, the money they receive from them would change things immediately. The CLT20 was a game-changer for other teams around the world given the sheer amount of money.”

Impact on respective boards

BCCI
Of the three stakeholders – the BCCI, CA and CSA – the Indian board and its teams are the best off. The BCCI will receive US$190 million – more than half the $330 million settlement between the three boards and the broadcaster Star India – and the IPL teams will no longer have to spend thousands of dollars for retaining overseas players for the CLT20. “For Indian franchises, most of the amount would be spent towards retaining the services of a Pollard or de Villiers,” the source said.Cricket Australia
CA is the next biggest beneficiary. It will receive US$80 million following the closure of CLT20 and has a television rights deal to cushion it against other loss. Cricket Australia made somewhere in the region of US$25 million in each edition of the Champions League, and in the early seasons of the Big Bash League, it was this money that allowed the BBL project head Mike McKenna to say “domestic Twenty20 operations” were running at a profit.The broadcast networks, Channel Nine and Channel Ten, alleviated CA’s reliance on this revenue in 2013. The deal with Channel Ten for the BBL alone is worth $20 million per season, while Nine’s investment of $500 million over five years also strengthened the board’s position and the funds that could be doled out to the states and their BBL teams.Cricket South Africa
The South African board will receive US$60 million from the settlement but its franchises, who operate as separate companies to the national body, are concerned about their own affairs. CSA will split the participation fees of the two teams who took part in the tournament between all six of their franchises, who received R350,000 (US$28.778) a year.Several franchise CEOs described the funds coming in from CLT20 as “essential”, because the income-earning opportunities for South African franchises are limited. “The participation money from the CLT20 is worth more than we get in prize money for winning a domestic tournament,” Nabeal Dien, CEO of Cobras, said. For turning up in the CLT20, teams receive the equivalent of R2.4 million (US$200,000). In comparison, South Africa’s first-class competition carries a total prize money of R2 million (US 166,666).West Indies Cricket Board
The West Indies Cricket Board loses between $300,000 and 400,000 as a whole from the tournament being cancelled. A major portion, over 65% of the money they would earn from the CLT20 was channelled towards development in the territories with the remainder retained by the board.The WICB was also concerned about the impact on domestic teams. “It’s what funds the region will be devoid of, not the board. Everything does not just go in the WICB coffers as that money has to be shared,” Michael Muirhead, CEO of WICB said. “You can’t just say what money the board will be missing out on.” He estimated that the funds that “the region” would no longer be privy to could be around “a couple hundreds of thousands of US Dollars.”Sri Lanka Cricket
For Sri Lanka, where the board owns all the franchises, the effect will be felt at national level. The SLC received the US$500,000 participation fee plus the amounts from players retained by IPL franchises. Around 5% of this money went into operational costs, another 5% to the players and the remaining 90% into SLC coffers.

Cricket has lost one of its greatest friends with the death of former Warwickshire player Jack Bannister. He was 85.Bannister enjoyed a fine career as a player and journalist, but it was perhaps his role in establishing the Professional Cricketers’ Association – the players’ union in England – that will prove to have the greatest ramifications.He attended the organisation’s inaugural meeting and went on to serve it for 20 years as secretary and then as chairman and president. Having helped establish a standard employment contract and minimum wage for cricketers, he then set to work establishing their first pension system. Later he helped negotiate a solution when some counties were keen to ban players who had appeared in Packer’s World Series.The roots of better salaries, freedom of movement and more equitable terms and conditions for players all grew from those roots. The players of today owe Bannister and his colleagues a great deal.A medium-fast seamer, Bannister was a good enough player to take 1,198 first-class wickets over a 20-year career at an average of 21.91. His figures of 10 for 41, taken against Combined Services in 1959, remain the best innings figures taken by a Warwickshire bowler, while he also claimed 9 for 35 against Yorkshire in 1955. He featured in the Warwickshire sides that won the County Championship in 1951 and the Gillette Cup in 1966. He retired at the end of the 1969 season; the year in which the Sunday League was introduced.He established a successful chain of bookmakers during the later years of his playing career but, once his broadcasting career blossomed, relinquished control of the business to his daughter.He had started to write for the during the latter years of his playing career – a relationship that was to endure for 40 years – and subsequently enjoyed a distinguished career as broadcaster and writer with the BBC and TalkSPORT. He was chairman of The Cricket Writers’ Club between 1994 and 1996.He referred to Richie Benaud as his “best friend in life” and, every week from 1987 – when Bannister joined Benaud in the BBC TV commentary box – to three-weeks before Benaud’s death in April 2015, the pair exchanged racing tips. Golf was another great passion they shared.”There is no denying that every cricketer owes Jack a huge debt of gratitude because he was one of the pioneers who were responsible for laying the foundations for the organisation we have now,” Jason Ratcliffe, the assistant chief executive of the PCA and chairman of the Warwickshire Old County Cricketers’ Association, said.”Jack was always a players’ man and he worked tirelessly to improve pay and conditions for players during his long association with the PCA.”He was a fantastic cricketer with an outstanding record for Warwickshire. After he retired from playing, Jack became an influential figure in the broadcasting box from where he continued to promote the game he loved. Everyone at the PCA is very saddened to hear the news of Jack’s death and our thoughts go to his family, many friends and colleagues.”Wolverhampton born, Bannister’s family moved to Birmingham and he gained entry to King Edward’s School Five Ways through the 11+.

As fitness tests go, it was unconventional but effective. All week long, Ryan Sidebottom has been struggling to recover from the grade one hamstring tear that ruled him out of England’s final warm-up match in Dunedin, but with six deliveries in the nets at Hamilton’s Seddon Park, he confirmed that, come Wednesday morning, he’ll be ready to resume his new-ball role.Granted, the over was a sideshow as the target was the team’s security advisor, Reg Dickerson, who has been so under-employed on this sleepy trip that it was decided his own safety should be put on the line. But Sidebottom’s zip and swing were very much in evidence, as was his snarl of frustration when his prey avoided dismissal, as all doubts about his fitness were allayed.”I’m fighting fit and available for selection,” said Sidebottom. Earlier in the afternoon he had been put through an exhaustive series of shuttle runs by the team physio, Kirk Russell, and later returned to the nets for a proper work-out. “It’s a bit of relief because it’s a worry when you get injured, but I’m not getting on the plane home so I’m happy with that and I’m raring to go now.”The New Zealand series will be the culmination of a remarkable year for Sidebottom, who wasn’t even a blip on the international radar during the dying days of Duncan Fletcher’s England regime. But then last May came the new coach, Peter Moores, and within the month, he’d recalled from the wilderness a man whose only previous Test had come six years previously, at Lord’s in 2001.And for that, ironically, Sidebottom owes a debt of gratitude to Stephen Fleming, his captain at Nottinghamshire, who is now chief among his targets for the Test series. It was a phone call to Fleming from Moores’ deputy, Andy Flower, that set the chain of events in motion. “I had to give him an honest appraisal of Ryan’s bowling,” said Fleming, “and that killed me because I knew if I told them how good he was then he’d get taken away from us and he’d do bloody well for England. But I thought Ryan had been overlooked for too long.””He’s had some lovely words to say about me,” said Sidebottom after hearing of Fleming’s praise. “He’s a lovely bloke, a great character and a really nice man. For him to say those things about me is a great honour, and I’m looking forward to bowling at him. Hopefully I can knock him over.”New Zealand will be hoping that Fleming’s influence on Sidebottom is not too detrimental to their series prospects. “He’s a very positive captain, so I’m a lot more positive as well,” said Sidebottom. “He was always very attacking so that helped my bowling. He taught me to keep plugging away and never give up, because he always had the slips in so you had to bowl well and on the money more often than not. “So far, Fleming has been spot-on in his predictions. Sidebottom has been arguably England’s bowler of the year with 29 Test wickets at 32.27, and undoubtedly the unluckiest – innumerable chances have been missed off his bowling, not least by the former wicketkeeper Matt Prior, who has paid for his errors with his place in the side.The missed chances have been hard for Sidebottom to bear, especially on the pancake-flat decks at The Oval and Galle where he toiled lucklessly in consecutive series-deciders against India and Sri Lanka. “The lads keep going on about me having a bit of white-line fever, but aggression is part of my game,” said Sidebottom. “When I’m pumped up I’m bowling well. Sometimes go over the top and react too much so I know I’ve got to curb it a little bit, but sometimes you do get frustrated. You just have to get on with it, and keep bowling.”Happily for England, that is exactly what Sidebottom intends to do in the coming week. With England’s other injury concern, Paul Collingwood, also coming through practice unscathed, the team is taking shape nicely with one day of practice to come.

Stuart MacGill has been given a clear run into the first-Test team after Brad Hogg was trimmed from Australia’s 13-man squad in Brisbane. Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, watched Hogg bowl in the nets before making the decision, which was helped by the cloudy and damp conditions.MacGill, who made light of his “bowl-off” with Hogg after training on Monday, is now in the prime position to play against Sri Lanka at the Gabba on Thursday and resume his Test career after an 18-month break. He needs only two wickets to reach 200 and should line up alongside Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson, who is eyeing a debut on his home ground.The Australians held on to Ben Hilfenhaus, the Tasmania fast bowler drafted into the squad at the weekend, but picking four fast bowlers is unlikely despite the swing-friendly conditions. Hogg was due to return to Perth to prepare for Western Australia’s Pura Cup match against Queensland on Friday.Sri Lanka’s choices are more difficult as they have four quality options to shoehorn into a probable three-man attack. Trevor Bayliss, the coach, will consider a pace quartet but the hamstring injury to Kumar Sangakkara, which has ruled him out, means the safer option is to pick another batsman and let the wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene slot in at No. 7.If that happens Farveez Maharoof appears to be the unlucky bowler despite his strong performances in the tour game against Queensland. “Dilhara Fernando will be the first quick picked,” Bayliss said. “He’s been the leader of the attack for the last few months. We gave him a rest in the last match because we thought he’d be the first pick.”Depending on whether we go into the match with four quicks or three, there might be one guy who is desperately unlucky.” Chaminda Vaas and Lasith Malinga add necessary variety to the unit and the forecast of more rain in Brisbane over the next couple of days increases the chances of the visitors preferring their experienced bowlers.Sangakkara is hoping to play in Hobart and his place at No. 3 will be taken by Michael Vandort, leaving Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu in strong positions to return as openers. Both Jayasuriya, who started the tour with a century followed by two failures at Allan Border Field, and Atapattu have been out of the side for long periods, but they have been used at the top of the order in both tour matches.”Marvan looked good in both games,” Bayliss said. “In the game against Queensland he got almost 50 on a difficult wicket and looked very at ease, hopefully he brings that into the Test and we get a good start.”

Scott Styris will finish his county season a week early after New Zealand became worried that a series of niggling injuries could harm his preparation for the Twenty20 World Championship. Styris has had problems with his lower back, knee and calf during his seven-week stint at Durham and will play his final game for the county against Hampshire this weekend.Lindsay Crocker, the New Zealand team manager, said their priority was to ensure Styris was fit for the Twenty20 tournament in South Africa in September as well as the international season that follows. “In spite of having had a month off before taking up the contract, Scott has had a number of injury issues while with Durham,” Crocker said.”We have decided that he needs to return to New Zealand so we can begin working on his fitness and rehabilitation, ahead of our busy international season. While he is still able to play in a limited capacity, we feel that seeing out his contract to 31 July could potentially limit his chances of being fit for the ICC World Twenty20.”Styris also hurt his back last year while playing at Middlesex and he aggravated the problem at the Champions Trophy. That led to him missing the home series against Sri Lanka and the start of the CB Series, although when he returned he was in fine form and was New Zealand’s leading run-scorer at the World Cup.However, New Zealand gave him a clean bill of health leading into the 2007 county season and before Styris joined Durham Crocker said he had no concerns over the allrounder’s fitness. In his four first-class games so far this season he has struggled for form, scoring 191 runs at 23.87. Styris will have just over a month to prepare for the World Championship before New Zealand depart in the first week of September.

Not only is there a divide between the haves and have-not counties, if Leicestershire chairman Neil Davidson is to be believed, but there is also disagreement between the chairmen themselves.On Wednesday Davidson claimed there was a gulf between the counties who host international cricket and the rest. He said that the major counties, plus Kent and Sussex, earned £17.6 million between them in 2006 while the other nine shared £6.6 million. He also claimed that Surrey received the most – £10.1 million – while Derbyshire at the other end of the scale got £2.4 million.Clarke, whose relationship with Davidson is best described as civil, dismissed the claims in coldly polite terms. “It was deeply regrettable that Mr Davidson saw fit to release a paper which contained factual inaccuracies and ignored the findings of last year’s independent KPMG report, which concluded that the international grounds did not obtain financial benefit after taking into account facility and operating costs from international matches.”And in today’s Daily Telegraph Surrey chairman Paul Sheldon also disputed Davidson’s comments. “We can refute every financial argument that he puts,” he said. “The Test-match playing counties give £2 million a year to the centre, which is then redistributed among the smaller counties.”His research and reporting, although some of it is quite interesting, is flawed by the fact that his figures are erroneous. I cannot understand why he would do this without checking his facts. It does not seem anyone supports his views because his facts are just wrong.”

England’s plans to host the ICC World Twenty20 in 2009 would be threatened if the UK government imposes a ban on the Zimbabwe side entering the country.Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, told the BBC that it was a condition of hosting an ICC event that all member teams would be able to play.”We haven’t yet had to deal with a situation whereby a country isn’t allowed by the host nation’s government to take part in an ICC event. If that happens, the board would have to meet and take whatever action it deems necessary.”However, at the moment all we have are media reports, so I would say that all this remains speculative. The board next meets in March so to suggest what action might be taken would be premature.”A source close to the ICC told Cricinfo that it was inconceivable that the competition would proceed without Zimbabwe and that contingency measures would be drawn up to enable the tournament to be switched should the need arise.

Scorecard
Points table

Mathew Inness retired in style by bowling Western Australia to a 222-run victory over Tasmania at the WACA. The Tigers began the day still 336 short of their target with seven wickets in hand, but any thoughts of a dashing chase ended when they lost 3 for 5 in five overs before lunch.Inness picked up two of those wickets, George Bailey caught behind for 33 and Tim Paine bowled for 5, and he finished the job by trapping Tim Macdonald lbw to secure the win. It capped off a remarkable year for Inness, who collected 4 for 44 to take his season tally to 40 wickets at 20.12. Only Doug Bollinger and Ashley Noffke had more prolific campaigns than Inness, who was overlooked for every match last summer.After Paine departed Tasmania were 6 for 161 and Luke Butterworth’s 79, which included four sixes, was the only bright spot as the defending champions ended their season in fourth place. Although Inness’ seven wickets were the most from any bowler during the game it was another retiree, Justin Langer, who was named Man of the Match for his first-innings 131.