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The Indian board (BCCI) has disbanded its ground and pitches committee with immediate effect.The BCCI was faced with an embarrassing situation after the fifth and final ODI between India and Sri Lanka at Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla was abandoned after 23.3 overs due to a dangerous pitch.Former captains swiftly reacted with shock and dismay at the dangerous pitch prepared by the Delhi & Districts Cricket Association (DDCA), while former Indian batsman Sanjay Manjrekar told Cricinfo that Delhi should be blacklisted as an international venue.The ground and pitches committee was headed by Daljit Singh, who was present in Delhi as the controversy unfolded. Along with various DDCA bigwigs, the on-field umpires and match referee Alan Hurst, Daljit inspected the unfit strip as well as an adjacent strip after play had been stopped. A decision to abandon the game was taken approximately an hour and ten minutes after another delivery spat up from an awkward spot on one of the dicey patches of the strip.The committee also included Dhiraj Parsana, PR Viswanathan, Rajiv Gokhale and Rahul Das.

Joel Garner, the manager of the West Indies team, has hit back at the comments of the former coach John Dyson, who said on the weekend that West Indies would struggle to match Australia in the upcoming Test series. Garner said the squad had moved on from the Dyson era, during which the side won three of 19 Tests.”He was with us for about 18 months or so and I think that was more than adequate time if you did the job you were supposed to do in trying to get some sort of order or whatever was needed,” Garner told AAP. “I’m not going to say too much about his tenure but we’ve moved on. We’re looking to a different approach to how we did things and that is it.”Dyson was sacked in August and the team in Australia is now led by Garner and the coach David Williams. Garner was in the nets on Sunday, sending down a few short deliveries to Dwayne Bravo ahead of the four-day tour match against Queensland that begins in Brisbane on Wednesday.The touring squad has plenty of new faces and the attack in particular lacks experience. The allrounder Bravo is the only member of the bowling unit who has played a Test in Australia and Garner hoped the attack would retain their composure in the unfamiliar conditions.”I’m hoping that they settle down fairly quickly and are disciplined, and if they are disciplined I don’t think they will have any problems,” he said. “I think most of the time you get into trouble as bowlers is when you start experimenting.”West Indies are expected to choose a full-strength side to take on Queensland as the recent player strike has starved several of their key men of time on the field. The uncapped opener Adrian Barath, 19, will open the batting with Chris Gayle.

Worcestershire have signed Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan as their overseas player. Shakib is the first Bangladesh player to be signed by a county and will join the team in 2010 following the conclusion of the tour of England, subject to completion of visa arrangements.”I am delighted to be joining Worcestershire in 2010. I followed county cricket as a young player growing up and the opportunity to fulfill one of my ambitions by playing as an overseas player in England is one that excites me greatly,” Shakib said. “I consider it a huge honour to be the first Bangladeshi overseas player in county cricket and can’t wait to give my all for the club on the field.”County cricket has traditionally been the stage for the world’s best players and it is a matter of great pride for me to be associated with a club that has an overwhelming history and had been home to so many legendary cricketers. Particularly as an allrounder, I am thrilled and inspired to be joining the team once graced by Ian Botham, Imran Khan and Kapil Dev.Steve Rhodes, Worcestershire’s director of cricket, was delighted with the signing of the top-ranked allrounder in ODIs. “I have been following his [Shakib’s] progress for some time and it is clear to me that he is a very good player. His current ICC rankings prove this and I know he is hungry for success. His all-round skills will be a great boost to our young team for the business end of the season.”Shakib captained his country to its first ever overseas Test win earlier this year, against a depleted West Indies side. He filled in after the regular captain Mashrafe Mortaza had to pull out of the tour due to injury. Shakib slammed an unbeaten 96 in the Grenada Test and also picked up the Man-of-the-Series prize for his 13 wickets.

Simon Taufel: ‘Each time I go to the gym or have a scoop of ice cream, or see 111 on the scoreboard, I’ll think of my mate Shep and say “thanks pal”•Getty Images

Shep’s umpiring style convinced me that in order to be a good umpire, you needed to be a good person first. I first came in contact with Shep soon after becoming an international umpire and was a third umpire for him in his Australian Tests. Even as his junior in terms of age and experience, Shep always treated me with respect and was prepared to give me the benefit of his experience. He owed me nothing at this stage of my career, yet he gave freely.I then umpired with Shep in the Pakistan v India Test series in 2003-04 when both countries resumed sporting relations after over a decade. I was thoroughly impressed by his match fitness in the heat of Pakistan as well as the enormous respect that the players had for him – a respect earned over many years of top-class umpiring and match management. I could never fault Shep’s fairness, integrity or desire to umpire well. He took enormous pride in his work and in his performance – if he ever made an error, he took it personally, which showed me that he truly cared about what he was doing. Shep’s umpiring record speaks for itself, but my fondest memories of Shep will be of the man – a true gentleman, a kind spirit and a great bloke. We’ll miss him dearly and we are all better umpires for having had the opportunity to work with him.Shep and I had a deal going with each other on tour – I would do an extra lap for him in the gym and he would have an extra scoop of ice cream at the end of a day’s play for me. Now each time I go to the gym or have a scoop of ice cream, or see 111 on the scoreboard, I’ll think of my mate Shep and say “thanks pal”.A great umpire and an even greater man.

Thirty-six teams, 32 matches and three days of non-stop cricket action would be the best way to describe the 17th edition of the Glucofit Cricket Sixes organised by the Old Wesleyites Sports club.The final day started off with Lumbini Mv, Mahanama College Colombo, Jaffna Combined Schools and Ananda College Colombo already comfortably in the quarter-finals from their merits on day one and two. However none of them could capitalise on moving forward as they fell prey to seasoned campaigners.Lumbini Mv lost to Nalanda College by 32 runs, the favorites from yesterday Jaffna Combined schools lost by two runs to underdogs Richmond College Galle, while Mahanama and Ananda Colleges were undone by St. Joseph’s College and St. Sebastian’s College respectively. The two semi-final matches were electric with four of Sri Lanka’s best schools taking part.The first game between Nalanda and St. Joseph’s was expected to be a one-horse race for the Nalandians. However the Joes had other plans, batting first and racing to 86 for 2 courtesy of a brilliant half-century by Chatura Kumara. Nalanda were never in the hunt and every time they did try to get away with the game, the Josephian bowlers held their nerves and clawed right back, ultimately winning against all odds by a good 35 runs.The second semi-final was a blockbuster with St. Sebastian taking on the in-form Richmond College, who, up that point, did everything right. However inexperience showed as they chased down a mere 55. The boys from the south self-destructed with three run-outs in quick succession to ultimately lose by 13 runs.The final was yet again expected to be an easy victory for St. Sebastian’s given their consistency in the tournament; however the Joes went about their business as usual initially restricting the Sebastian’s to 61 for 2 with some very good bowling and fielding. The highlight in that inning was that both wickets to fall were run-outs.St. Joseph’s started off shakily losing Roscoe Thatil and Chathura Kumara in the first over, but thanks to sensible batting by Jayathilake (28*) and Jayasinghe (21*) the boys from Darley Road managed to win the Glucofit Sixes 2009 in style.Thatil walked away with the best bowler and player of the tournament awards. St. Sebastian’s wicketkeeper PD Dias was adjudged best fielder and even though Chathura Kumara failed in the final he was still the best batsman with most runs and most sixes in the competition. MAS Jayathilake bagged the Man-of-the-Match award for his all-round performance in the final.

Kabir Ali has agreed a three-year deal with Hampshire, subject to negotiating his full release from Worcestershire.While the bowler hopes to join Hampshire ahead of the 2010 season, the thorny issue of compensation has yet to be resolved. Worcestershire have demanded £60,000 in return for releasing Kabir from the final year of his contract. The bowler, however, suggests that the club exasperated his injury problems by asking him to bowl when injured and failing to provide adequate medical treatment. Unless a compromise is reached, it is an argument that could have to be settled by lawyers.Kabir would certainly represent a decent signing for a Hampshire side that are still not certain of avoiding relegation. While he has missed much of the 2009 season through injury, Kabir has the best strike-rate of any England-qualified bowler (with more than 100 first-class wickets) and was close to an England recall before injury struck.Though several clubs expressed an interest in the fast bowler, Kabir only held talks with Hampshire and feels the club offer him the best opportunity to regain a place in the England side.

England’s dismal defeat to Australia at Headingley could cost the local economy in Leeds up to £2 million.Experts say that a full five-day Test match would have generated £8 million but with supporters checking out of hotels early, and 18,000 ticket refunds for Monday, has meant that profit projections were down-graded to £6 million.”It is disappointing the full five days won’t be played out,” said Gary Verity, chief executive of tourism organisation Welcome to Yorkshire. “Of course, it will affect the estimated total aimed at boosting Leeds’s economy.”But Deborah Green, chief executive of Marketing Leeds, insisted the city could still do well financially out of the Test match: “We won’t make as much as a region as would have done from the full five days but six million pounds could still be a conservative estimate,” Green told . “And we count ourselves lucky that we’ve at least had three good days when the sun has shone.”Australia won by an innings-and-80-runs inside three days, meaning those fans who had purchased tickets in advance for the fifth day’s play on Tuesday, at a reduced rate, will not be refunded.Instead, they have been offered the opportunity to watch a Yorkshire match before the end of the season.

Australia are leaving little to chance ahead of this week’s Ashes decider with Tim Paine, the Tasmania wicketkeeper, called into the squad as cover for the injured Graham Manou. While Australia’s first-choice glovesman, Brad Haddin, has been ruled fit to play the fifth Test at The Oval, his understudy, Manou, is still experiencing discomfort from a hand injury sustained during the Edgbaston Test, prompting selectors to call in Paine as a precautionary measure.With Haddin rested and Manou unavailable for the recent tour match against England Lions in Canterbury, Australia called in Chris Hartley, the Queensland wicketkeeper, who had been playing in the Northern Premier League with Chorley. Hartley has now been relieved of his duties, with Paine due to arrive into the UK a week earlier than his one-day squad team-mates.Haddin, who is still nursing a broken finger sustained moments after the coin toss at Edgbaston, played in Australia’s three-day demolition of England at Headingley last week and is expected to present himself for duty at The Oval this week.”Hads will be fine,” said Tim Nielsen, Australia’s coach. “He will more than likely be injected like he was at Headingley but he’ll train today. Graham just isn’t recovering as quickly as we would have liked or as he would have liked, but there’s no concern about Hads’ fitness or position in the team.”

Despite a series win, Mahela Jayawardene has said Sri Lanka still need to go a fair distance to hit peak form. Jayawardene, who gave up the captaincy after Sri Lanka’s aborted tour to Pakistan in March, felt Kumar Sangakkara was playing the right cards as leader of a somewhat inexperienced side.”Winning the second Test was a fantastic achievement and a great effort from all the guys in the team,” he wrote on his website. “So to play below par and take a 2-0 lead is really pleasing. [But] the fact is that we are not playing brilliant Test cricket right now and there is some way for us to get to our best. As Sanga [Sangakkara] said afterwards, it reflects well on the teamwork and the fact that when we needed something special someone put their hand up.”The thing is with captaincy is that you need to make bold decisions and you need to think out of the box,” he said. “Sanga has been doing that. Sometimes it will work and he’ll be applauded. Other times it may backfire and he’ll be heavily criticised. That’s life, sadly. Sanga knows it too and he has a tough skin so it will be fine for him.”Jayawardene’s assessment of what the home needed to do for a clean sweep was simple: “We searched for scoring opportunities and we punished the bad ball. We have to continue that in the final Test.”Having already squandered the series, Pakistan captain Younis Khan was hopeful his side could salvage a face-saving win in the final Test, starting in Colombo July 20. “We have to win this game,” he told AFP. “There is a one-day series after this, and if we finish the Test well it will boost our confidence for those matches.””The batting has let us down badly, but we can’t afford another failure,” said Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam. “There is a lot of pride to play for in the third Test.”

VVS Laxman may have had little to do in the IPL but he remains one of Lancashire’s key players as he returns to represent the county in the 2009 season. Laxman spent a month with Lancashire in 2007, but this will be his first full season with the county after he signed up as the club’s overseas player towards the end of last year.”I played for six to seven weeks, and I had a great time with them last time,” Laxman told the . “If I can continue that this time around, I will be really pleased.”They are a great bunch of cricketers to be sharing the dressing room with and it is a great county team to be associated with.”Laxman had a fairly impressive season with Lancashire in 2007, when he managed 541 runs in eight games, averaging 54. The highlight then was his run-a-ball century against Surrey at The Oval which took his team to the brink of a County Championship win, only to fall short by an agonizing 24 runs, chasing a mammoth 489. “It was a heartbreak day at The Oval but we must all be proud of what we did that day,” he said. “It was a Herculean task, but coming so close was a great moment for every one of us.”But it makes me hungry to do it this time. I firmly believe the players have got the potential to go on and do that.”As Laxman was away for the IPL, Lancashire drafted in South Africa batsman Ashwell Prince, who made the most of his opportunity as a stand-in, scoring close to 500 runs in 10 innings so far. However, Laxman did not fear the competition. “Ashwell is a great player,” he said. “He has done really well for his country, he has done really well for Lancashire also.”I will try 100% to the best of my ability, I will try to perform to my potential. I don’t think there is added pressure, but there is responsibility to do well for the county.”Lancashire take on Hampshire in their championship game in Liverpool on Wednesday, and Laxman is ready for the challenge. “This will be my first game for quite a long time, and I am looking forward to it. Playing in England is always challenging, be it the weather conditions or the pitch conditions.