James Anderson will miss England’s second one-day international against Sri Lanka after he twisted his ankle playing squash.An ECB spokesman said: “James has been receiving ice treatment to the area and will undergo an X-ray tomorrow morning, with further assessment likely in the next 24 to 48 hours.”Anderson is likely to be replaced by James Kirtley for the day-night game at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo this Friday. The blow followed the news that Stephen Harmison will be unavailable for the forthcoming Test series with an injured back.

Karl Johnson, the turf manager who created the cricket pitches at New Zealand Cricket’s High Performance Centre, that have seen the world Women’s and men’s Youth World Cups staged at Lincoln University, has resigned his position to become the turf manager at Hamilton’s Stadium and Westpac Park.Johnson created some of the best pitches in New Zealand and oversaw the spectacular development of Bert Sutcliffe Oval at the HPC. Martin Snedden, the chief executive of NZC, said it was “really sad to lose one of the key people at the HPC. When you compare it with what was there in 1996 it is so much more developed. He has done a terrific job.”But the philosophy of the HPC is not only the players who we hope to develop but all people in cricket. That is John Reid’s view, that just as players are expected to benefit then it is the same with turf managers and Karl has been one of the more highly respected managers in New Zealand.”It is his ambition to put himself to the ultimate test in charge of Test wickets and it is right to feel that way. He moves on with our blessing and while it provides us with a short-term issue for a new manager, it will be the same for the next person who takes on the job,” Snedden said.

Close Sri Lanka 331 and 99 for 5 lead England 235 (Butcher 51, Thorpe 43, Muralitharan 7-46) by 195 runs
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Muttiah Muralitharan, an unlikely batting star yesterday, returned to type and tormented England with the ball at Galle, finishing with 7 for 46, his best figures on this ground. That restricted England’s first innings to 235, and although Ashley Giles and Gareth Batty hit back, reducing Sri Lanka to 99 for 5 in their second innings, the overall lead of 195 is assuming ominous proportions for England, who will have to face Murali again in the final innings of the match on a pitch taking increasing amounts of turn.The first two sessions belonged to Murali. There was an air of inevitability as he mowed his way through England’s inexperienced middle and lower order with a magical spell of spin bowling – which included his 50th Test wicket against England. Mark Butcher and Graham Thorpe, the overnight batsmen, did their best to resist him with a third-wicket partnership of 75, but the danger signals were all too apparent.Had Sri Lanka’s fielders – and umpire Daryl Harper – been more alert, England would have been even deeper in the mire. In the space of eight deliveries in the first hour, Butcher was reprieved twice and Thorpe once, and Sri Lanka’s frustration was plain to see, especially when Murali threw the ball to the ground in anger after dropping Butcher off his own bowling.But after England’s trial by spin, it was the seam of Chaminda Vaas that made the breakthrough, as Thorpe was trapped lbw for 43 by a ball that was angling into middle and leg (142 for 3). One run later, and Paul Collingwood had completed an unhappy first Test innings, when Murali found the outside edge, and Sanath Jayasuriya snaffled an excellent one-handed catch at slip.Murali was rampaging and England were unable to resist. Andrew Flintoff tried to play himself in, but was caught napping when he played back to a big-turning offbreak and was given out leg-before for 1. Then Chris Read fell for a duck to become Murali’s fifth wicket of the innings, Tillakaratne scooping up a one-handed chance at bat-pad (155 for 6).As the wickets tumbled and the run rate dried up, the pressure piled onto Butcher’s shoulders, and while he managed to keep Murali at bay, he fell to Jayasuriya shortly after lunch. Attempting to cut a ball too close to his body, he nicked it to Kumar Sangakkara for a hard-fought 51 (177 for 7).Batty hung around for 41 balls, and scored a gutsy 12, including a sweep for six off Kumar Dharmasena. But in his next over, Dharmasena got his man when Batty clipped him to Jayasuriya at leg slip (183 for 8). Giles whacked Dharmasena for six over mid-on to bring up the 200, and then repeated the shot in Jayasuriya’s next over. But when he tried to do the same against Murali, he picked out Marvan Atapattu on the midwicket boundary (201 for 9).Richard Johnson and Matthew Hoggard put on a valuable 27 to give the total some respectability, including two meaty sixes over midwicket by Johnson. He perished, though, going for another big shot, as Atapattu took his second catch on the boundary.England trailed by 96 runs and needed to make early inroads, and Giles did just that. Jayasuriya edged a well-flighted delivery to Marcus Trescothick at first slip, who did well to latch on to a sharp chance at the third attempt (26 for 1). Atapattu and Sangakkara were then made to work hard for their runs, as the bowlers built up the pressure and gave little away. Little urgency was shown by either batsmen, even though Sangakkara slowly began to up the tempo with a couple of elegant cuts for four off Hoggard.

Just as Sri Lanka seemed to be grinding their way to a big second-innings lead, two wickets in five balls dented their progress and sparked off a mini-collapse. Atapattu drove Giles into the body of Collingwood at silly point and set off for a risky single. Collingwood turned and chased the ball, and as the batsmen hesitated, he returned to Read and Sangakkara was run out by miles (72 for 2).The mix-up must have affected Atapattu, as in the next over he was outfoxed by Batty. Atapattu danced down the track, but completely missed a straight one and Read stumped him (72 for 3). Suddenly England had a spring in their step. Batty gave them more heart when he trapped Tillakaratne leg-before. Padding up to a quicker one, Tillakaratne was hit in front of middle and given out by Harper to complete a miserable match with the bat (78 for 4).Thilan Samaraweera was next to go when he edged Giles to Trescothick. The ball flew off the bat, hit Read’s right glove, and Trescothick was alert enough to take his second juggled catch of the innings – this time at the second attempt (85 for 5). Vaas and Mahela Jayawardene shut up shop for the last ten overs, but it was England who finished the stronger. They were understandably buoyant after their impressive fightback, but there is still much for them to do to save, let alone win, this intriguing Test match.

Russel Arnold, Sri Lanka A’s current captain, believes his young side ofhopefuls, who have started a super-intensive programme of A team tours, arequickly learning and growing in self-belief.

Sri Lanka played impressively to win the recent Kenstar triangulartournament in Kolkata over the festive season, beating the hosts India inthe final.The team’s performance was not as consistent as they would have liked –they won their first two games easily, twice chasing over 300, but then lostboth their second round matches — but they performed when it mattered most."Our bowlers were not up to the mark in those two games but we batted verywell to chase 300 and win,” recalled Arnold, who is now pushing hard for areturn to the national team.”But in the next two matches our batting let us down. It’s hard to tell whyit happened. Maybe it was due to the slowness of the pitch, a little bit ofover confidence on our part or the Indian and Pakistani bowlers had learnttheir lessons from the previous games and bowled to a line.”"The loss to Pakistan almost shattered us. We had to depend on the outcomeof the last qualifying match between India and Pakistan to know whether wehad got into the final. When we actually qualified, we got our act togetherand performed to our potential to beat India in the final," said Arnold."The two losses made us work harder for success. We showed glimpses of whatthe team is capable of achieving under pressure. This performance will haveto back up with consistency. What the last few months have shown is that wehave started to believe that we can do things and compete with any teamunder different situations."We were not as strong as India and Pakistan, who had more establishedplayers in their sides but on that day everyone contributed towards the win.The support given by coach Hemantha Devapriya and manager Nuski Mohamed atall times was encouraging from the team’s point. It helped lift our spiritswhenever we were down," Arnold said.

With scores of 96 not out, 100 not out, 9, 9 and 35 not out, Arnold easilytopped the tournament batting averages with 249 runs (avg. 124.50). NaveedNawaz (203 runs), Saman Jayantha (186), Shantha Kalavitigoda (148) and JehanMubarak (143) were the other top order batsmen amongst the runs."I am quite happy with my batting form, but I will have to constantly get asmany runs as possible," said the 30-year-old left-hander.Schoolboy Mohamed Maharoof, a budding right-arm medium pacer, topped thebowling averages with nine wickets taken at a cost of 11.77. He excelled inthe last two games to take eight wickets that included four in the final.Rangana Herath, a left-arm spinner who has performed consistently well inrecent tours to South Africa and India, finished with eight wickets.Nuski Mohamed, the manager, believes the new intensive A team programme willreap dividends and help narrow the gap between the senior team and theirreplacements."The whole purpose of each tour is to try and bridge this gap. We’ll have tofind star players who should be available to fill the vacancies at everybeck and call," said Mohamed. "It is less evident in teams like India andPakistan. We should also have a backup team of players ready to fill in thebreach like the Australians. The only way to achieve that is to have moretours of this nature."Sri Lanka A are due to tour New Zealand in March, England in May-June andZimbabwe in October this year.

Tasmania 7 for 219 (Watson 63, Bailey 52*) beat Victoria 218 (Berry 64, Butterworth 3-33, Kremerskothen 3-35) by three wickets
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Tasmania recorded their first win of the ING Cup season, effectively killing off any hopes that Victoria may have had of winning the trophy. In sweltering heat at the MCG, Tasmania emerged victorious by three wickets chasing a Victorian total of 218 all out. Shane Watson was the hero, belting 63 after claiming 2 for 15 with the ball.Tasmania slumped to 4 for 90, but Watson and George Bailey (52*) gutsed it out to ensure an upset. Shane Warne was a peripheral figure in his comeback game, finishing with 1 for 48, and scoring only 7.Victoria remain on 23 points, with Queensland (28) and Western Australia (29) now favourites to contest the final on February 29 . Victoria will need an overwhelming victory against Western Australia next weekend to have any chance.Victoria won the toss, but were quickly in trouble, losing 3 for 31 in seven overs. It didn’t get any better, and when David Hussey – in superb form this season – was out for 25, they slumped to 6 for 83. It was left to Darren Berry, the wicketkeeper-captain, to get his team back on track. Berry made 64, and added 96 with Andrew McDonald.

Warne lasted only 12 balls before popping a return catch to Scott Kremerskothen, who finished with impressive figures of 3 for 35. Luke Butterworth was the other bowling star, with 3 for 33.With the temperature soaring past 40 degrees, Tasmania were given a decent start by Michael Di Venuto (45). But when Warne trapped Daniel Marsh leg before for 5, Tasmania were in trouble. But Watson and Bailey saw off Warne, and edged Tasmania close to victory with a 94-run partnership.Watson was superbly caught by Matthew Elliott off the bowling of Michael Lewis, but despite some more wobbles, Tasmania got home with three overs to spare. Both Lewis and Cameron White finished with two wickets apiece, but Victoria were left to rue an indifferent batting display.

Mark Butcher has been ruled out of England’s next tour match, against a Vice-Chancellor’s XI starting on Friday, although he still hopes to be fit for the first Test at Sabina Park, which begins on March 11. “He’ll continue to receive treatment over the next few days and we’ll just have to see how the injury progresses,” said an England spokesman. “We haven’t ruled him out of the Test match as yet.”Butcher was fielding at mid-off on the second day of England’s drawn tour match in Jamaica, when he moved to catch a ball being returned to the bowler. He appeared to go over on his ankle and collapsed to the ground, to the initial amusement of his team-mates. But it quickly became apparent that the damage was serious, and Butcher was carried off the field in some pain. A subsequent x-ray revealed a ligament sprain and he spent the evening on crutches and with the ankle strapped.”It seems that Nasser was throwing the ball to Rikki Clarke but I thought he had thrown it to me,” Butcher explained. “Rikki called ‘mine’ just as I went to catch it and as I came down I turned to see where he was and twisted the ankle. It made quite a nasty noise and I was concerned it was worse than has turned out. There are countless more dangerous things to do on a cricket field than trying to get the ball back to the bowler and to injure myself is such innocuous circumstances is quite upsetting.”Duncan Fletcher, England’s coach, expressed his concern about Butcher’s condition. “It’s got to be a big concern for us when one of our key players is injured,” he said. “He’s batted really well for us over the last two years and he’s a major component of that batting line-up. He’s a left-handed batter, which is important, and he plays pace really well, but we’ll only know how bad he is in a day or two.”Butcher has played in England’s last 35 matches, but if he does miss the Jamaica Test then his place is sure to go to Paul Collingwood, who staked a bold claim for the No. 3 position with a century in today’s match. Butcher should, at the very least, be fit for the Trinidad Test which starts on March 19.”We won’t be able to tell for 48 hours how much healing time will be needed,” he admitted on Monday. “Tours are short and you don’t get time to play much before the first Test. It’s a big blow and the last thing I needed.”

Stuart Law’s bid to become a non-overseas player with Lancashire looks likely to fail in the short term.Law is applying for British citizenship – his wife comes from Liverpool – but he has been told that the process could take as long as two years. That won’t cause any problems this summer, but in 2005 counties will only be able to employ one overseas player each, meaning that if Law isn’t qualified by that time then Lancashire could face a tricky decision.Law scored 1820 first-class runs at an average of 91.00 for Lancashire last summer. He plays his final match in Australia this week, for Queensland against New South Wales at the SCG.

Western Province 217 and 62 for 1 lead KwaZulu-Natal 187 (H Amla 78*, Henderson 3-27) by 92 runs
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Western Province reclaimed the initiative in the SuperSportSeries final at Newlands, as KwaZulu-Natal were bowled out for a mere 187 in their first innings. By the close of the second day, WP had extended their lead to 92, with nine wickets still standing.Natal had resumed on 33 for 1, and found the going just as hard as their opponents had on the first day. The two Amla brothers proved how difficult it was, scoring just 14 runs in a partnership that lasted for 14.1 overs.On a bowler-friendly pitch, Hashim Amla showed a lot of patience to held the innings together with an unbeaten 78, while Claude Henderson, in his last first-class match in South Africa, took 3 for 27 and was ably assisted by all the Province bowlers.Bad light once again caused an early finish, although with 21 wickets in two days, one wonders if this final will last the full five days.

Titans 184 for 5 (Rudolph 46, Kemp 48) beat Eagles 94(Bosman 42, Thomas 3-20, Reddy 3-27) by 90 runs
ScorecardThe Titans demonstrated how much they had learned from their first match of the Standard Bank PRO20 series, as they compiled 184 for 5 second time around, against the Eagles at Bloemfontein. After winning the toss and batting first, Jacques Rudolph anchored the innings with 46 from 45 balls, allowing Justin Kemp to crack 48 from 24 deliveries, including three boundaries and four sixes. Gerald Dross then added 35 from 20 and right at the end of the innings Daryll Cullinan had a ball, belting 16 off only five balls.The Eagles stumbled at first, as they lost three wickets in four overs, all to Alfonso Thomas. Loots Bosman briefly looked as though he might repeat his efforts at the weekend, but he was running out of partners when he was bowled for 42. Brendon Reddy then wrapped up the tail, taking 3 for 27 in his four overs to help the Titans to the bonus point.

Cricket lost one of its most dedicated and colourful servants on Wednesdaywhen Krish Mackerdhuj, the first black president of South Africa’s UnitedCricket Board (UCB), died in hospital in Durban. He was 64.Mackerdhuj underwent knee surgery on Saturday, and seemed on the mendbefore showing signs of heart congestion on Tuesday. He suffered a fatalheart attack in the early hours of Wednesday morning.Not the least of Mackerdhuj’s achievements was the important role he playedin South Africa landing the right to host the last World Cup. Ali Bacher,the former UCB managing director, explained: “He and I went to Lord’s inFebruary 1993 for a 12-hour meeting on future World Cups, and he played akey role in South Africa securing the 2003 World Cup.”Bacher described Mackerdhuj as a “champion for non-racial sport andcricket”, and an “outstanding ambassador for South African cricket”. Heexpanded: “We had a warm and close relationship. Before unification he wasperceived as a hard-liner, but he was a soft, compassionate person.”Ray Mali, the current UCB president, also paid a fulsome tribute. “SouthAfrican cricket has lost a visionary leader,” he said. “Krish played a keyrole toward unity, both in his position as president of the [non-racial]South African Cricket Board and the UCB. His strength, determination andspirit were inspirational to all as he led South Africa into theinternational fold. He was a fine man and a wonderful leader.”Mackerdhuj, a chemist by profession, crowned a successful career in cricketadministration when he was elected the South African board’s president in1992. He remained in the position until 1998, and was then appointed SouthAfrica’s ambassador to Japan, a job he took to with relish and held untilthe end of 2003.Cassim Docrat, the chief executive of the KwaZulu-Natal Cricket Union,summed up Mackerdhuj’s important place in the history of South Africancricket. “The first part of his involvement in sport was in the struggle,”he said. “He believed all South Africans should be equal in sport, and thatnon-racial sport could only be played in a free South Africa.” Docrat saidthat Mackerdhuj was a vital figure in the 1991 unification of a previouslyracially divided game in South Africa: “He was pivotal, and he was theright man for the job of UCB president.”Mackerdhuj was an eloquent and persuasive speaker, and a skilled negotiatorwhose lively sense of humour in the midst of heated debates was often hismost effective weapon. He was an executive member of the apartheid-eraSouth African Council on Sport, and served as National Sports Congressvice-president. He was presented with the State President’s award forsports administration by Nelson Mandela in 1994.Mackerdhuj’s funeral will take place in Durban on Saturday. He leaves hiswife, Sminthara, and two sons, Prashim and Arvin.