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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.”

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Sanjay Bangar returned career-best figures of 6 for 41 after to dismiss Vidarbha for 106 before Tejinder Pal Singh steered Railways into the lead on day one at Nagpur. Bangar, at the age of 34 and after 13 years on the circuit, rocked Vidarbha’s middle order with his medium pace variations. Amit Deshpande, the top-scorer with 23, was trapped lbw before Bangar snared three more victims in his next six overs. In reply, Railways stuttered at the start but Tejinder buckled down for a 106-ball 65 to help them take the lead just ahead of stumps.
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Led by Sangram Singhs’ superb unbeaten 132, a hungry Himachal Pradesh top order powered on the ignominy against Jammu & Kashmir and finished the first day on 337 for 2. Sandeep Sharma, the captain, got the ball rolling with a polished 65 after his opening partner Manish Gupta was forced to retire hurt early on, but it was the unbeaten 191-run stand for the third wicket that really punished the hosts. Taking the innings by the reins, Sangram smashed 132 from 128 balls, with 16 fours and two sixes, and was ably partnered by Maninder Bisla, who carted 86 from 114 balls. Neither batsman had really gotten going this season – Sangram’s highest was 37 and Bisla had just one fifty – but the duo stepped it up in style and promised plenty more on day two.
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Niranjan Behera’s 77 and a solid lower-order rally helped Orissa overcome a jittery start and post 265 for 6 on the first day’s play against Tripura at Agartala. Reduced to 60 for 3 by Vineet Jain, Tripura’s opening bowler, Orissa regained ground thanks to Behera’s 207-ball effort – a career-best knock, incidentally – and handy contributions from captain Pravanjan Mullick (39) and Rashmi Das (27). Behera and Rashmi both departed with the score on 189, but Debasis Mohanty (44 not-out) – who hit 67 in the last match against Jharkhand – and Halhadar Das (25 not out) added a vital 76 to varnish their efforts.
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Yashpal Singh, Services’ middle-order batsman, continued his good form with a crucial 103 out of a total of 216 against Jharkhand on day one at Jamshedpur’s Keenan Stadium. A feeble top and middle order crumbled against the spin trio of Sunny Gupta, Shahbaz Nadeem and Shahid Khan, but Yashpal, his side’s highest run-scorer this season by far, held the innings together. He watched batsmen come and go – three fell between overs 31 and 34 – but in Ashish Mohanty, who cracked 57 from No. 8, he found an able ally and the two added 123. Shahid wrapped up matters with 4 for 31 before Jharkhand’s openers played out eight overs to finish the day on 15 for no loss.
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Half-centuries to Somasetty Suresh and Sreekumar Nair formed the crux of Kerala’s first-day effort against Goa at Margoa, with the tourists finishing on 204 for 8. Hurt at the top of the innings by Saurabh Bandekar and Anil Naik, Kerala owed much to Suresh’s dour 58 and Nair’s gritty 65 and an 88-run stand for the fourth wicket. Once both departed, there was another mini-collapse with three wickets falling in the last seven overs of the day.
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It was slow moving on the first day’s play between Assam and Madhya Pradesh at Dibrugarh, with Assam inching along to 117 for 4 from 65.4 overs. Jagadeesh Arunkumar, the captain, top-scored with an unbeaten 44. The only wicket-takers for MP were the opening bowlers, Sanjay Pandey and Taduri Prakash Sudhindra, with two each. Rahul Bakshi, the wicketkeeper, had three catches to his name.

New Zealand Cricket (NZC) will receive NZ$406,000 as compensation from the government for the cancelled tour by Zimbabwe. The tour, originally planned for December, was called off after the government refused to grant visas to the Zimbabwe players, due to human rights violations in the country.”We decided the tour was not appropriate given the Zimbabwean Government’s continuing human rights abuses,” Trevor Mallard, the sports minister, told the New Zealand Press Association. “The Labour-led Government made an important stand over this tour in order to send a strong message to Robert Mugabe’s government over its appalling human rights record and continuing abuse of democratic principles.”Mallard added that NZC expressed concerns over the financial losses they would suffer with the tour being cancelled, and that the government felt it fair to compensate NZC immediately.In January, the Zimbabwe board suspended the national team from playing Test cricket until early next year, due to their disappointing performances on the field. An ICC delegation is currently in the country to reassess the team’s future as a Test playing nation.

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Half-centuries from Lisa Sthalekar and Melissa Bulow steered Australia to a comfortable six-wicket win against England at the IIT Chemplast Ground in Chennai. Sarah Taylor had struck 101 to boost England to 268 for 8 but Australia reached their target with 20 balls to spare.After being asked to bat, Sarah provided the ideal start. England lost Laura Newton for 38 but Sarah added 119 runs for the second wicket with Claire Taylor. Sarah struck her century off 111 balls and hit 15 fours. Claire’s 54 took just 56 balls but her dismissal led to a steady fall of wickets.”My 41 against New Zealand helped me get into a rhythm. I tried to hit fours and take as many singles as possible,” said Sarah after her maiden ODI century. “What I have concentrated on is the mental aspect of batting when practicing at the nets. The wickets in India are different from those in England in the manner that the ball comes on a little more and the pitches are harder.”All of England’s middle-order batsmen got into double figures but no one made it count. Beth Morgan struck 23 off 20 balls at the death to push England to 268 when at one stage they looked set for much more.”We were probably lucky that England didn’t get to 300,” said Karen Rolton, the Australian captain, echoing that sentiment. “On this ground the game can really change any time. It looked like we would go down to the last over but some good hitting by Cathryn Fitzpatrick right at the end meant that we got home with three overs to spare.”Australia started off well, with it’s top-order making nuggety contributions with Bulow and Sthalekar scoring 52 and 77 respectively. The openers, Bulow and Shelley Nitschke, added 80 in quick time before both fell on the same score. Rolton joined Sthalekar for a 71-run stand for the third wicket before Kate Blackwell and Sthalekar added 75 for the fourth.Australia now face India on Saturday in what is effectively a semi-final. The winner of that game will play New Zealand in the final on March 5.

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.

Michael Hussey’s phenomenal run of form has moved him to the top of the International Cricket Council rankings for one-day international batsmen for the first time following the DLF Cup in Kuala Lumpur. Meanwhile, India’s failure to reach the final of the tri-series has resulted in a two-place slip to No.5 in the ICC Championship table.Hussey, 31, went into the DLF Cup at seventh place, but an unbeaten century against West Indies and an average of 152 shot him into first place. Only 12 batsmen have reached higher ratings than Hussey’s mark of 805 points in the past 10 years. With the Champions Trophy beginning in India next month, Hussey will have an opportunity to better his tally. No international batsman has reached 900 rating points since South Africa’s Gary Kirsten in 1996.Incidentally, Hussey displaced Adam Gilchrist, who did not take part in the Malaysia tournament, from the top spot. Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain, has slipped from second to fourth place. Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s poor tournament – just 23 runs from four innings – slipped him down to eighth position.In the bowling category, Brett Lee’s 12 wickets from three matches moved him back into second place. Lee is still well behind South Africa’s Shaun Pollock who retains his status as the world’s top-ranked bowler and all-rounder in ODIs. Nathan Bracken has moved up to fourth in the bowling list, a career best placing, while Ian Bradshaw ends the tournament where he started, in sixth place.

India have the same number of points as Pakistan and New Zealand but now sit below both sides in a tightly packed section of that table when the ratings are re-calculated to three decimal places. The West Indies have taken the seventh position, three points ahead of England and five points behind Sri Lanka. Australia still occupy the first place, seven points ahead of South Africa at No.2.

Click here for the full ICC rankings.

Bangladesh are toying with the idea of sending Mashrafe Mortaza up the batting order in the upcoming T20s against Zimbabwe. The idea is a first, at least for Bangladesh, for thinking out of the box has not always been high on their agenda in a format where they have been a few steps behind the times.It is understood that Mashrafe’s floating batting position is still in the discussion stage, and will only be used as a surprise option. While Mashrafe has been batting regularly in the nets, the idea gained momentum when he struck an unbeaten 32-ball 56 for Comilla Victorians during the recently-concluded Bangladesh Premier League. Given the emphasis is clearly on experimentation ahead of the World T20, Zimbabwe can expect the unexpected.Chandika Hathurusingha, the Bangladesh head coach, held his cards close to his chest, but is understood to be the man to have floated the idea. “Mashrafe has done good things for himself and he is telling me all the time that he can bat, so I asked him to prove it to me,” he said. “He is doing well in the nets.”Mashrafe underlined the challenge of trying out the new role, but was open to moving up the order if the situation demanded it. “It is hard to start something new at this stage of my career,” he told . “It was a different story when my batting was at its best. It is hard to adapt now. But I am trying for the sake of the team. I am confident and the rest depends on how much I can do.”In the build up to World T20 campaigns in the past, Bangladesh have promoted and tried out players with reputations of being big-hitters. However, apart from the 2007 tournament, where they famously beat West Indies, Bangladesh have failed to make an impact in each of the other four editions. This time, the thought process has not really bordered on the outlandish. But keeping Mashrafe as a batting option is forward thinking given how the captain has inspired the team.In any case, Bangladesh’s 14-man squad for the Zimbabwe series has been training on specific areas for the last five days at the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna, in a bid to get the players used to the idea of playing T20s. Batsmen have been practicing their big-hitting skills, while the fielders have been made to work on the busy areas of the ground like the deep leg-side boundaries and the cover region.Along with the front-line batsmen, who have spent plenty of time on the centre-wickets in front of the bowling machine, Mashrafe getting a sizable amount of time with the bat has intrigued fans and media alike. The inclusion of Nurul Hasan, Shuvagata Hom and Abu Hider further states their intent of bringing the big-hitting flavour to an otherwise industrious batting unit.Mashrafe, who said that Bangladesh’s experimentation was focused on the forthcoming Asia Cup T20s and World T20s, was open about using the matches against Zimbabwe as a trial run leading into the bigger battles. “All of those in the squad will be getting a chance,” he said. “We will not try anything that will look odd. We are only thinking of doing things that will help us in the forthcoming tournaments. We have to try something different, test ourselves looking ahead.”It is hard to deny that BPL didn’t have an impact. But I think now they are hitting the ball well, especially in the nets in the last few days. It makes me positive. I think we can do well if they bat and bowl in this way. At the same time there’s the pressure of international cricket so it is important to implement with cool heads.”

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.

The ICC executive has decided to recommend to its annual general meeting in June that Kenya be stripped of its status as an ODI member and will revert to being as associate member. The executive, who have been meeting in Dubai, also announced that the Africa Cricket Association (ACA) would be looking into the ongoing crisis in the country.The ICC accepted an offer by the ACA to travel to Kenya to speak with the parties involved in the current dispute to see if a resolution to the current impasse is possible. The ACA will be assisted by Percy Sonn, the ICC’s vice-president, and will report to the executive on the findings of thisvisit and its view on whether the current issues can be resolved.At the same time, the ICC will continue with the initiative of an independent commission to develop a new constitution for cricket in Kenya. This commission, which was established last year, has been in limbo since the announcement of the formation of Cricket Kenya in January.Another blow to the Kenyan Cricket Association came with the news that that suspension of the special funding from the ICC would continue, although the executive did agree to release the $54,000 associate member entitlement to help “deal with the pressing financial obligations of the KCA.”Kenya’s loss of one-day membership almost exactly two years after they reached the World Cup semi-finals will be a bitter pill to swallow and is clearly a result of the bitter in-fighting which has blighted Kenyan cricket for so long.But it will retain its one-day status for matches against Test-playing countries and also against other members of the top six associates.

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.