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When Tasmania played Victoria in their Pura Cup match in November, George Bailey was third in command for the Tigers. Ricky Ponting was available for a rare outing for his state and Dan Marsh, the team’s leader for most of the last four years, was bumped down to second in charge.Now, at the business end of the season, Bailey has been thrust into the captaincy for the first time as Marsh recovers from a calf tear and Ponting takes a break ahead of the World Cup. Tasmania are equal on points with New South Wales, who are on top of the Pura Cup table.With two games remaining, the Tigers have a good chance not only to contest their fourth final but to host it for the first time. Bailey knows the pressure will be on as he guides the team against South Australia at Adelaide Oval starting on Thursday.”In previous years Tassie have been needing to win the last couple of games and see what happens in other games,” Bailey said. “This year our destiny is in our own hands.”Bailey, 24, has captained his club side, South Hobart-Sandy Bay, and brings to the leadership impressive links with the state team: his great-great-grandfather was the Tasmania player George H Bailey. His first chance to act as the Tigers’ skipper was during their limited-overs loss to the Redbacks last week.”I like to have some control over what’s going on out in the middle,” Bailey said. “There are plenty of blokes with some experience [to call on for advice], Michael Di Venuto has filled in before. As a team we know where we’re heading, I’m just there to marshal them out on the ground.”Tasmania have a few seasoned campaigners – Di Venuto, Sean Clingeleffer and Damien Wright – but Bailey said the team’s progress in 2006-07 was thanks largely to their newer faces. Last year three key members of their attack – Ben Hilfenhaus, Brendan Drew and Brett Geeves – were in only their first or second seasons of first-class cricket.

Bailey said Hilfenhaus and Drew had been especially impressive with their work ethic and ability to keep improving. “Those guys are a bit more experienced and it’s a bit the same with the batting,” he said. “Birty [Travis Birt] and me have been around longer now and are starting to feel as though we belong there.”The chance to spend a week under Ponting’s guidance in November also proved beneficial for the younger players. “As much as playing with him we also had the chance to spend a couple of days training with him and seeing the way Ricky prepares to play was really valuable,” Bailey said. “He can reel off what’s been happening in your second XI or grade sides. It’s great to see how seriously he takes it.”Bailey said the competition from players outside the starting 11 had also strengthened the Tigers, as Michael Dighton proved with two centuries and two fifties since his recall just before Christmas. “He took his opportunity when [Michael] Bevan retired and hasn’t looked back,” Bailey said. “To have guys like that sitting in the wings for the first half of your season … he’s been on fire since he’s come in.”Bailey has been pleased with his own form this year but said with only one century in 2006-07 the time had come to lift his output. “I’ve been more consistent this year with getting a start but have only got one hundred to date,” he said. “I need a big one and hopefully I can do it against South Australia.”Although he is looking forward to Thursday, Bailey hopes his tenure as captain is just for one match. Marsh is an outside chance to return for Tasmania’s last game against New South Wales starting next Thursday.In the meantime, Bailey won’t be taking the last-placed Redbacks lightly. “They’re as dangerous as any team going around,” he said. “There are guys in that team who might be playing for their careers.”

Leicestershire have defended their use of Kolpak players and insist they won’t mean that young English cricketers will be kept out of the first team.There have been plenty of arrivals at Grace Road during the off season with South African quicks Garnett Kruger and Dillion du Preez along with Jermaine Lawson, the West Indies fast bowler, joining on Kolpak deals. They join HD Ackerman and Claude Henderson, while the official overseas player is Boeta Dippenaar.However, chief executive David Smith told the that the club’s aim is to push forward young talent. “Our medium-term plan is to develop Leicestershire and Rutland-born cricketers,” he said. “This will help us engage the local business community as the team will reflect the multi-cultural diversity of our city. This is vital if we are to underpin the financial stability of the club over the coming years.”He says that the Kolpak route isn’t one that the county takes lightly, but draws on the example of Durham to prove how it can be successful.”Kolpak cricketers are not popular but we have used the Durham blueprint for success in an effort to develop our team in the mid-term and hopefully provide England with some international cricketers.”However, Durham have produced a number of England players in the last five years – Paul Collingwood, Steve Harmison, Liam Plunkett and Phil Mustard – while Leicestershire’s only major success story is Stuart Broad who has now moved to Nottinghamshire.

India batsman Shikhar Dhawan, who bowls part-time offspin, has been reported for a suspect action after the fourth Test against South Africa in Delhi. Dhawan will have to undergo tests within the next 14 days and can continue to bowl in international cricket until the results of the test are known. The match officials’ report, which was given to the Indian team management, cited concerns about the legality of Dhawan’s off-spin deliveries, an ICC release said.Dhawan bowled three overs and conceded nine runs in South Africa’s second innings at the Feroz Shah Kotla, a match India won by 337 runs to complete a 3-0 series victory.Apart from Dhawan, the international players reported for suspect actions in 2015 include West Indies’ Sunil Narine and Marlon Samuels, Pakistan’s Mohammad Hafeez and Bilal Asif, Sri Lanka’s Tharindu Kaushal and Zimbabwe’s Malcom Waller. Narine and Hafeez were subsequently banned after their actions were found to be illegal.

It looked like being one of those sleepy subcontinental Tests, where the side batting first runs up a big score and the other team tries to match their total.And the first two days on a docile pitch at Colombo’s R Premadasa (formerly Khetterama) Stadium followed that template. India made 537 for 8, with centuries from Sidhu (his eighth in Tests), Tendulkar (12th) and Azharuddin (18th). India declared shortly before the end of the second day, and Tendulkar promised his bowlers would “attack for three days”. They claimed a wicket in the last over. It went to Nilesh Kulkarni, 24, a left-arm spinner from Bombay, who became only the 12th bowler to take a wicket with his first ball in Tests. But his dream start was to turn into a nightmare: he sent down 419 more balls without taking another wicket, and conceded 195 runs.Sanath Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama, team-mates with Colombo’s Bloomfield club, batted throughout the third day (the 12th instance in Testhistory) and on through the fourth. No pair had survived two full days’ play before, although Garry Sobers and Frank Worrell almost managed it against England at Bridgetown in 1959-60: they also batted through two days, but an hour was lost to rain on the second of them.Jayasuriya had reached 326, Sri Lanka’s first Test triple-century, by the fourth-day close. He was within sight of Brian Lara’s Test-record 375, and in anticipation of a new mark the gates were thrown open on the final day. Over 30,000 crowded in, but many were still trying to find a perch when Jayasuriya, two balls after losing his partner for 225, was surprised by one that bounced from offspinner Chauhan and popped a simple catch to Ganguly at silly point. The Indian fielders all ran to congratulate the batsman, and clapped him off the field. Jayasuriya had made 340, from 578 balls in 799 minutes, with 36 fours and two sixes. He banished once and for all any notion that he is only a one-day hitter. Only three higher scores have been made in Tests – Lara’s 375, Garry Sobers’s 365 not out, and Len Hutton’s 364.Jayasuriya’s first task had been to ensure that Sri Lanka avoided the follow-on. “I was happy to go all that way,” he said. “I wasn’t going after the record – at least not until the end of the fourth day, when someone told me I was only 50 short. I felt a great pressure on me when I came out to bat [on the fifth morning], and obviously I am disappointed now – but at least my country has made a great achievement.”His partnership with Mahanama, who scored his first Test double-century, set several more records. They eventually put on 576 in 753 minutes, the longest stand in Test history and only one run shy of the highest in first-class cricket (577 by Vijay Hazare and Gul Mahomed in India in 1946-47). They cruised past the previous-highest Test partnership, the 467 of Martin Crowe and Andrew Jones at Wellington in 1990-91. This record was taken with some relish, as the suffering bowlers on that occasion were Sri Lanka’s.The record breaking did not stop when the epic partnership was ended. Aravinda de Silva showed little sign that he had been padded up for the best part of 13 hours, compiling a neat 12th Test century of his own, while skipper Ranatunga made 86, becoming the first Sri Lankan to pass 4000 Test runs during his innings. Mahela Jayawardene, 19, also chipped in on his debut.England’s 903 for 7 at The Oval in 1938, the highest Test total, was the next big target: eventually that too was surpassed. A score of 1000 seemed a possibility, but as there was no chance of a result a halt was called with seven of the last 20 overs bowled. Sri Lanka’s 952 for 6 is the third-highest total in all first-class cricket, exceeded only by Victoria’s two four-figure totals in Australia in the 1920s.Ona dead pitch India stuck well enough to their task, at least on the third and fourth days. Not surprisingly, the bowlers and fielders wilted on the final day as Sri Lanka piled on the runs with all prospect of a result long gone. Opening bowler Kuruvilla, who picked up a leg injury, was spared much of the punishment, but Chauhan, on his return to Test cricket after doubts about his bowling action, and Kumble both conceded over 200 runs.Tendulkar said the pitch was “unfit for Test cricket”, adding: “If we had lost the toss and batted second, we could also have played a massive innings. We only lost wickets because we took chances and looked for runs.”

The Pakistan Cricket Board’s effort to host a home series received another jolt with the West Indies turning down an invitation to play a one-day series later in the year.After being rejected by Australia, India and Sri Lanka for security reasons and scheduling problems, the PCB has now been told by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) that they can’t undertake a tour in August due to prior engagements.The PCB had invited West Indies and New Zealand to play a three-match ODI series in August to give its team some practice before the Champions Trophy in September. This would have also helped the PCB recover from the financial setback suffered due to the postponement of Australia’s tour in March. Bangladesh are currently in the country for a five-match ODI series and a Twenty20 international to cover for Australia’s pull-out.”Yes, the West Indies board has informed us that since they are already committed to play some games in Canada in August, they can’t accept our invitation,” Shafqat Nagmi, the PCB’s chief operating officer, said. “We have sent a fresh invitation to New Zealand asking them to come and play a full five-match one-day series instead of three ODIs. We are awaiting a reply from them.”

The Central Zone Cooch Behar Under-19 Trophy match between Uttar Pradeshand Railways at the Kamala Club ground in Kanpur ended in a draw on Mondaywith Railways gaining 5 points out of the match since they took the firstinnings lead. Uttar Pradesh had to be satisfied with three.Railways who started their second innings on the final day got to score 152runs in 81 overs, while losing 7 wickets in the bargain. Manoj Srivastava(42) was the top scorer for Railways while the top order chipped in withsome sedate performances.Earlier on the second day Railways managed to take a slender 6 run lead,when the bundled out UP for 179 in their first innings. Apart from theopeners Faizan Khan (42) and A Kapoor (56), who added 86 in 37.5 overs,none of the others stayed long enough to forge significant partnerships.Raza Ali with 3 for 26 was the pick of the Railways’ bowlers.Railways who elected to bat on the opening day, were reduced to 185 after afine 84 run second wicket partnership between Surinder Singh (46) and MSSrivastava (43) which took the score to 101 in 39.2 overs. N Choudhary (3for 46) was the best bowler for UP.

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

The burning question at the start of play, considering the poor weather forecast for the next couple of days, was when Sri Lanka would declare. The answer may not have been a popular one, at least not in Bangladesh, but it went according to the script. Sri Lanka ground down the visitors in humid conditions, with 125 runs coming in the first session, 107 in the second and 118 in the third as the lead swelled to 488.Mahela Jayawardene allowed Prasanna Jayawardene and Chaminda Vaas to bring up their maiden centuries before finally declaring 15 minutes before the close. The Bangladesh openers safely played out three overs before the close.Prasanna, who scripted a fluent knock, and Vaas, who played a chanceless innings, stitched together an unbroken 223-run stand while Michael Vandort got to his third hundred. Just for good measure, Jayawardene reached his 17th century as Sri Lanka indulged in a run orgy.Sri Lanka had started off with a positive intent in the first session: Vandort batted aggressively, Tillakaratne Dilshan belted the ball around and Jayawardene upped the ante. Things slowed somewhat in the second session and meandered along at a leisurely pace in the third but the writing was on the wall. The first Test was limping towards a predictable conclusion.The attack was more incisive once the new ball was taken in the second session. It helped that Jayawardene fell almost immediately, slashing uppishly at a swinging delivery well outside the off stump. Mashrafe Mortaza made the batsmen poke tentatively, Shahadat Hossain got it to kick up from short of a length, and Prasanna and Vaas went quiet. Only 19 runs came in eight overs before both men pulled Shahadat in the ninth over to break the shackles.The stranglehold was broken as Vaas began to pull with purpose when Shahadat hurled in a few bouncers. Mohammad Ashraful, the captain, sent down a few long hops, and they too were promptly dispatched.In the morning, with the sun out and a light breeze blowing, the pitch was perfect for batting. Ashraful started off with a pace and spin combo – Mortaza and Abdur Razzak. Mortaza kept pinging the full length, while Razzak sent down one arm-ball after another. But a comatose pitch and aggressive batsmen resulted in the ball being dispatched all around the field.

Dilshan carved the fifth ball of the day, from Mortaza, to the point boundary and two overs later, Vandort waltzed down the track to send Razzak’s floaters over the rope twice. A ball later, he brought up a convincing hundred with a sweep shot. It was an innings that hinted at a promising future.Ashraful, leading for the first time, was aggressive – there was a slip, short-leg and a silly point for the spinner, while only one man was out for the seamer. Perhaps, looking at the dark clouds that the weathermen promised, he could have had an inside-out field and delayed the declaration.No one could fault his bowling changes though. He rotated the spinners well, giving two spells to Mortaza, but the dead track and the high-quality batsmanship didn’t help. The busy Dilshan was, as always, on the look out for the runs. He chose to go back to the spinners to cut, forcing them to bowl fuller, upon which, he drove them nuts.He showed a strong preference to the off side, scoring nearly three-quarters of his runs in that region. A complete mess-up ended his breezy knock. He square-drove to left of sweeper-cover where Mortaza fumbled, creating thoughts of a second run in Dilshan’s mind. But Jayawardene, who retired hurt yesterday due to cramp, stayed rooted to his crease.Vandort had departed early, after setting the tempo. Using his height, he stretched forward well to drive anything remotely full. He also swept the spinners impressively but he fell, against the run of play, when he pushed a touch lazily at a Mohammad Rafique delivery.Jayawardene was unhurried and classy, and used the pull shot well to accelerate the scoring. By the close of play, only one team could lose and that was not Sri Lanka.

Despite coming under pressure from the England and Indian boards, the UK-based players who have signed up to the Indian Cricket League have insisted that they will not renege on their contracts.In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Nixon said that Leicestershire have been under increasing pressure from the ECB to block him taking part. “At this stage of my career it’s an exciting challenge to play in the ICL,” he said. “Surely it’s a good thing for any county player to experience high-pressure cricket on surfaces where our national team has traditionally struggled?”Nixon entered into the deal with ICL after consulting with the Professional Cricketers Association in the summer, but since then the Indian board has upped the ante and threatened to bar anyone participating from its own official Indian Premier League. That has led to the ECB starting to flex its muscles but one county chairman stated that attempts to obtain clarification from the board had proved unsuccessful.The ECB has fallen into line with its Australian Pakistani and South African counterparts in taking an increasingly hard line towards players allied to the ICL. The official reason given is that the ICL has no drug-testing or anti-corruption controls and “would threaten media and sponsorship revenue generated by official competitions”.Darren Maddy is the only other England-qualified cricketer known to have signed. Two county-contracted Irish players – Surrey’s Niall O’Brien and Warwickshire’s Boyd Rankin – have also joined and a fifth as yet unidentified person is thought to have signed. While the Irish board will not take action against its pair, the problem comes if their counties qualify for the IPL as the Indian organisers will almost certainly block their participation.

“I signed up at the end of August,” Rankin told The Daily Telegraph. “I knew there was a bit of uncertainty, but I’ve been speaking to the Proffesional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) and I’m fairly happy about the position. I can’t do much about it now in any case …””My sympathies are with the players,” Neil Davidson, Leicestershire’s chairman told the paper. “I can’t see any point banning them because they appear in independent tournaments out of season, when they’re out of contract.”The ECB were forced to back down on their decision to deselect Maddy from the England side for last month’s Hong Kong Sixes when approached by the PCA’s lawyers. “The ECB seem to be going further in supporting the Indian board over the ICL than any other board and it is not clear to us why. We would like some clarification as to why,” Ian Smith, the PCA’s lawyer, said last week.What will be at the back of the ECB’s mind are the similarities with World Series Cricket, which ironically launched 30 years ago this month. Attempts then to block players who signed with Kerry Packer were overturned in the High Court in a legal case which cost English cricket a fortune. Their ultimate sanction this time – banning those involved with ICL – could well again be construed as restraint of trade.

It took Darren Lehmann a long time to become comfortable with the role of the full-time coach. A natural, free-swinging player, he was happier doing rather than thinking for much of his career. Now he wants to be one.Lehmann retired from the first-class scene last year and the break from South Australia has helped him re-discover his love for the game. To stay involved he now wants to pass on the things he did and didn’t learn during his long career.”There’s so much out there,” he said during a break from a level three coaching course in Brisbane. “You are allowed to know more as you get older. I knew a lot more at the end of my career, but I thought I knew a lot more at the start.”Lehmann, who played 27 Tests and 117 internationals, was essentially self-taught while picking up important tips from David Hookes, Greg Chappell and Wayne Phillips. “Having a ‘coach’ coach has never been high on my agenda,” he said. “When I stopped playing I fell in love with the game again. Then you want to become a coach. I love watching and want to learn about all the coaching techniques going on behind the scenes.”The Centre of Excellence, where the course is being held, is a familiar place for Lehmann, who last year travelled with the Academy side as an assistant, a role he will repeat this winter. As a teenager Lehmann rejected the chance to attend the facility when it was based in Adelaide, but 20 years later he is one of the many past players who has turned into a tutor.”It’s really enjoyable, and I can have an influence on them,” he said. “I’m trying to up-speed them as players. I learnt most things after 30 as a player. Now I try to help them to do it in their 20s, so they reach their peak earlier.”Lehmann is joined at the seminar by his former South Australia team-mate Greg Blewett, a light-footed batsman who played 46 Tests between 1995 and 2000. Blewett stopped playing last year and has kept himself busy working as a television commentator. “I’m at the stage where I’m trying to find out what I like the most,” he said. “It’s really a trial and error thing.”Lisa Keightley, the Australia women’s coach and former opening batsman, is also on the course along with the current first-class players Dan Marsh, Andrew McDonald and Nick Jewell. Rumesh Ratnayake, the Sri Lanka fast bowler of the 1980s and 90s, and Douglas Hondo, who appeared in nine Tests for Zimbabwe, add an international flavour to the Cricket Australia initiative, which is being run alongside Australia’s pre-tour camp for the West Indies tour.”To have the likes of Lehmann, Blewett and Keightley working with other high performance coaches from around the country and overseas will provide a fantastic learning environment for what is Australia’s flagship coach education program,” Tim Nielsen, the national coach, said. “This course illustrates the importance of ongoing education for coaches.”

Johann Louw, the South African-born allrounder, has rejoined Northamptonshire for the 2008 season. Louw last played for the club in 2004, after which he signed for Middlesex.”We are fortunate that we have been able to attract a player of Johann’s quality back to the club at this late stage of preparation,” David Capel, the Northamptonshire coach, said. “We needed to reinforce our seam bowling department due to the ECB blocking Johann van der Wath and Andrew Hall’s registrations for 2008, and although we will not have Johann available for the opening two Championship and Friends Provident Trophy matches he will be a welcome addition to our squad.”He has expressed to me how excited he is about returning to us and I feel that he is capable of matching his best season for us when he took in excess of 60 first-class wickets. He has obviously been in good form during the South African domestic season, which he will be looking forward to continuing when he joins us at the end of April.”Louw said he was looking forward to returning to the club, adding: “Hopefully we can achieve what the club has being working towards and personally it will be great to be under the watchful eye of David Capel. I am very excited about the season and can’t wait to join the squad at the end of April.”