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The star-studded Mohammedan Sporting Club faced their first defeat in Premier League against Victoria Sporting Club in BNS today. Victoria Sporting secured full points by beating their mighty rivals by 21 runs.Minhajul Abedin got the initial luck when he won the toss and sent Victoria to bat first. Despite losing two wickets at quick succession Jahangir Alam and Nuruzzaman started to consolidate the innings. The put on 28 runs in the third wicket before Jahangir (32), the man-in-form, imprudently got himself run-out. Rashed Hanif, the younger brother of Amir Hanif, made a big mark with the bat with the assistance he received from his captain Khaled Masud and Alok Kapali.Rashed baffled all efforts and plans made by the Mohammedan bowlers, who were frantically trying to get rid of him. The Pakistani hammered 8 fours and 3 sparkling sixes all the way through his brilliant knock (114). Khaled Masud (20) and leg spinner Kapali (33) gave him good support from the other end. Victoria threw a good challenge by ending up with 258 for 6 after 50 overs.Mohammedan’s regular Haq openers, Rashedul and Ehsanul, made a quiet but steady start as they carried off an 88-run partnership from 17.3 overs. Rashed Hanif, after a brilliant show with the bat, came up good with ball too as he broke the opening stand removing Rashedul Haq (41).Ehsanul (45) wretchedly became a run-out victim after a while when he attempted to make an easy single into a tight two. Sri Lankan star Hashan Tilkaratne went in with one-down Habibul Bashar and built a 37-run stand between them. Bashar was in the best of his forms and they both looked quite comfortable against the Victoria spinners. The chipped in with singles, twos and occasional boundaries before Saiful Islam was brought on from the pavilion end.This was a judicious decision made by Khaled Masud as Manjurul Islam and Rashed Hanif were slowly becoming ineffective. Right arm medium pacer Saiful troubled both Bashar and Tilkaratne a lot by bowling in a fixed line and length. Offie Masudur Rahman came to bowl at the other end and removed danger man Habibul Bashar for 18. Saiful, who was slowly making Tilkaratne impatient, soon got his precious wicket. The left-hander was clean bowled while attempting to play the bowler across the line only to miss it completely. Tilkaratne (playing in place of Tikolo today) made 23 off 38 balls.Saiful Islam trapped Sanwar Hossain lbw for naught in the very next ball, which seemed to be the turning point of the match. The next batsmen from the front-tail could hardly do anything, as they didn’t have too many overs left to play with a cool head. Mohammedan lost their 7th wicket with the score on 160.Wicket keeper Anwar Hossain set up a blasting knock of 34 off just 34 balls that included 4 boundaries but it was already too late for Mohammedan to do any sort of miracle. At the end of they bunched up 237 for 9. The spinner trio Enamul, Rashed Hanif and Masudur Rahman rolled up wonderfully, claiming 2 wickets each. Rashed Hanif was adjudged the man-of-the-match without a shred of doubt.

The Western Australian Cricket Association (WACA) is pleased to announce the following list of State Contracted Players for season 2002-03:

Player	Club	DOB
Jo Angel	Midland Guildford	22 April 1968
Ryan Campbell	Joondalup	7 February 1972
Sean Cary	Willetton	10 March 1971
Michael Clark	Subiaco-Floreat	31 March 1978
Murray Goodwin	Subiaco-Floreat	11 December 1972
Kade Harvey	Scarborough	7 October 1975
Brad Hogg	Willetton	6 February 1971
Stuart Karppinen	South Perth	13 June 1973
Shaun Marsh	Willetton	9 July 1983
Scott Meuleman	Melville	17 July 1980
Matt Nicholson	Scarborough	2 October 1974
Marcus North	Bayswater-Morley	28 July 1979
Chris Rogers	South Perth	31 August 1977
Luke Ronchi	Perth	23 April 1981
Adam Voges	Melville	4 October 1979
Darren Wates	South Perth	2 July 1977
Paul Wilson	TBA	12 December 1972
Rookies
Andrew James	Perth	2 February 1983
Craig Simmons	Rockingham-Mandurah	1 October 1982
Michael Thistle	Bayswater Morley	5 August 1980
ACB
Adam Gilchrist	Perth	14 November 1971
Mike Hussey	Wanneroo	27 May 1975
Justin Langer	Scarborough	21 November 1970
Damien Martyn	South Perth	21 October 1971
Brad Williams	Scarborough	20 November 1974

Paul WilsonPaul Wilson has been recruited to the Western Warriors from South Australia. The 30 year-old former Southern Redbacks pace-man has taken 125 wickets in 40 1st class games at an average of 29.79 and, 99 wickets from 52 limited overs matches at an average of 23.75 – economy rate of 4.05.Craig SimmonsCraig Simmons is the first Rockingham-Mandurah player to be awarded a State Contract. A promising opening batsman, Simmons was a key member of Australia s successful Youth World Cup team last season.From last season’s list of State Contracted Players, Rob Baker, Geoff Cullen, Brad Oldroyd, Gavin Swan, Peter Worthington and Rookie Beau Casson have so far not been offered a contract. Simon Katich has been listed with the NSW Blues.Luke Ronchi and Adam Voges have been up-graded from Rookie to Senior status.Additional ContractsOver the next few weeks the WACA will give consideration to the addition of up to 3 State Player Contracts and two Rookie Contracts.

Central Zone, riding on Gagan Khoda’s unbeaten 246, piled on theagony for South Zone on the second day of their Duleep Trophymatch at the Bhausaheb Bandodkar Stadium in Goa on Friday. Resuming at178 for two, Central Zone lost only one wicket the whole daywhile amassing a total of 469 for three. This was in reply toSouth Zone’s first innings total of 141.Khoda was in his elements. He struck the ball crisply and showeddeep concentration and total determination. By close, the 26-year-old righthander from Rajasthan had faced 416 balls and hit 29 foursand five sixes. Khoda, who played in two ODIs against Bangladeshand Kenya in 1997-98, was at ease against the reputed South Zoneattack which included Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, SunilJoshi, Aashish Kapoor, Vijay Bhardwaj and Venkatapathi Raju.Khoda and the other overnight batsman Md Kaif took the score to282 before the latter was caught by wicketkeeper Naidu off Kapoorfor 69. He batted three hours, faced 179 balls and hit seven foursand a six. The third wicket partnership between Khoda and Kaifadded 176 runs off 57.3 overs. That was South Zone’s only successof the day for Khoda and Yere Goud then came together to sharean unbroken fourth wicket stand of 187 runs off 54.2 overs. Atstumps, Goud who got a century in the last match against champions NorthZone was on 75 compiled off 163 balls with eleven hits tothe ropes. South Zone who are already in arrears by 328 runsface another tiring day in the field on Saturday.

With a 3-1 deficit to make up and three matches remaining, the West Indies have rung the changes for the fifth one-day international against South Africa in Bridgetown on Wednesday.Leon Garrick, Nixon McLean and Wavell Hinds have all been cut from the 14-man West Indian squad with opening bat Daren Ganga, leg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine and Barbadian Corey Collymore all winning call-ups.If Collymore plays in one of the three remaining games in the series, he will become the first Bajan to have played against the South African in either the Tests or the one-dayers during their 2001 tour, an extraordinary and embarrassing state of affairs for Barbados given the island’s history and contribution to West Indies cricket.In the South African camp, all-rounder Lance Klusener seems certain to miss Wednesday’s match and might well be out of the remainder of the series with a groin strain that forced him off the field during the fourth ODI in Grenada on Sunday.West Indies teamCarl Hooper (captain), Chris Gayle, Daren Ganga, Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ricardo Powell, Ridley Jacobs, Neil McGarrell, Mervyn Dillon, Corey Collymore, Cameron Cuffy, Dinanath Ramnarine, Kerry Jeremy, Marlon Samuels.

ScorecardFlashes of spectacular cricket marked the first innings of BPL’s second season but the difference in strength between the star-studded Dhaka Gladiators and the hastily gathered Khulna Royal Bengals, who played with just one foreign player, was stark. Owais Shah’s blast with the bat and Mosharraf Hossain’s good form with the ball exacerbated the difference and Dhaka’s margin of victory in Mirpur was 62 runs.After faring poorly for Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League, Shah found form immediately in Bangladesh, hammering six sixes and four fours in his 48-ball 84. He targeted the on-side in his typical method, using the angles even while lofting the ball. Shah added 90 runs for the third wicket with Anamul Haque, who batted with utmost freedom against a bowling attack that lacked direction.Anamul scored 50 off 39 balls with four boundaries and three sixes, and thrived on Shah’s aggression at the other end. He was caught off Dolar Mahmud in the 15th over, letting Shakib Al Hasan take the crease for the first time since he suffered a shin injury in late November. He blasted his first ball for six over wide mid-on, and gave support to Shah in their 64-run stand for the fourth wicket. Shakib was unbeaten on 27 off 14 balls.Royal Bengals depended a lot on Riki Wessels and though he delivered a 23-ball 30, it was never enough when the asking rate was above ten an over. When he fell in the ninth over with his team on 67, Khulna lost their way, with Mohammad Mithun and captain Shahriar Nafees also falling on the same score.Left-arm spinner Mosharraf took four wickets, all important ones in the context of the innings, and it masked the gaps in the Dhaka bowling attack, which is based mostly on spin. Asif Ahmed made 29 low in the order, but it was too late in the day to turn the game.

Chris Woakes, the Warwickshire allrounder, has signed for Wellington to play New Zealand domestic cricket between November and January and is hoping to use it as an opportunity to stake his claim for a place on the England tour to the country next year.Woakes was not included in either the Test or the performance squad for the trips to India before Christmas. He featured in a number of one-day squads during the English season although only played two ODIs and one of those, at Cardiff against South Africa, was virtually a washout. In his other appearance, at Trent Bridge, he took 0 for 35 in six overs although did score an unbeaten 33.However, his form for Warwickshire throughout the season was outstanding. In the Championship he took 27 wickets at 25.22 and scored 431 runs at 71.83 as part of the title winning side. He also almost guided the county to the CB40 title at Lord’s but was left stranded on 24 against Hampshire.Woakes is set to play three first-class matches in the Plunket Shield and eight matches in New Zealand’s domestic Twenty20 tournament, the HRV Cup. The deal will see him link up with Jeetan Patel, the New Zealand offspinner, who was Warwickshire’s overseas player in 2012.”Joining Wellington as the club’s overseas player is a great opportunity for me, and I’m really looking forward to joining up with Jeets and the rest of the Firebirds squad,” Woakes said. “With James Franklin and Jesse Ryder also in the team I’m sure it’s one that can challenge for honours.”With England starting a full tour of New Zealand in February next year, it’s also a really good chance for me to make a big impression and hopefully the selectors will be following my progress and seeing what I can do in these conditions.”Woakes is the fourth English player to sign for a New Zealand side in recent weeks after James Foster and Steven Croft joined Northern Knights for the HRV Cup. Somerset’s Peter Trego had signed for Central Districts. The country has been a popular destination in the past, too, with Andrew Strauss spending time there when he was dropped by England in 2007 and Steven Finn playing for Otago last year.

The furious stand-off between the ECB chairman Giles Clarke, Lalit Modi, the former IPL commissioner, and the global sports and media business IMG, over alleged talks about a rebel Twenty20 league in England has been stripped bare in the report of a BCCI disciplinary committee.Modi has been found guilty on eight charges of “various acts of indiscipline and misconduct” during his time in charge of IPL and he is expected to face recommendations of a life ban at a special general meeting of the BCCI on September 25.But it is previously unseen details of alleged emails between Modi, IMG and key administrators in English county cricket which will be read closely by those interested in the feverish debate which sounded three years ago about the future of Twenty20 in England.Clarke’s allegations that Modi and IMG were involved in embryonic plans to launch a rebel T20 league in England were denied by both parties and the protracted legal claims and counter-claims that followed were eventually settled out of court.Any introduction of a T20 franchise operation in England – which became known as Project Victoria – would have transformed professional cricket in England and left the game facing the most unpredictable period in its history.Instead, the ECB, with Clarke at the forefront, has reasserted its rule over professional cricket in England and has confirmed plans next season for a revamped T20 tournament based on all 18 first-class counties to be played over most of the summer, largely on Friday nights.The league has been presented as a solution which takes regard of England’s traditions, weather and potential, but critics argue it as unambitious and fear that it will not attract overseas players because it is played over such a prolonged period.The BCCI disciplinary report outlines an alleged plan “to create a rebel 20:20 league in England without the involvement of English Cricket Board by targeting weak and cash starved counties.”For the first time, a series of emails between administrators and IMG representatives have entered the public domain, with the BCCI disciplinary committee concluding: “It states that membership has been obtained of counties that are financially vulnerable and potential acquisition targets. The said counties are Kent, Essex, Middlesex, Northants, Derbyshire and Leicestershire as potential acquisition targets.”Under Project Victoria, according to further emails, the 18 counties could be amalgamated for the purposes of T20 into eight franchises. Scotland would also be considered as, according to one email exchange, “there were a lot of Indians in Glasgow”.The BCCI disciplinary committee concluded: “We are convinced that by being part of a plan to create a new T-20 League in England by targeting weak counties, which Mr Modi knew was outside the ECB’s knowledge and umbrella, Mr Modi endangered the harmony between the BCCI and the ECB. We hold that the charge is proved against Mr Modi on this count.”Clarke protested to the Indian board once he learned of a meeting in Mumbai between Modi and a party of county chief executives representing four Test match counties: Yorkshire, Lancashire, Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire.Modi’s written submission stated that county representatives “were all frustrated about the lack of vision at the ECB and they wanted some form of ideas to stimulate discussion back home. However, no deal was offered or proposed. They simply talked about ideas and the respondent told them what was obvious: there was an opportunity in England to create an EPL.”Many county representatives involved, however tentatively, in confidential discussions about the future of Twenty20 in England have since moved on or have had to work hard to repair relationships with the higher echelons of the ECB.

Australia must improve and so too, by his own admission, does their coach Darren Lehmann. In the aftermath of a 3-0 series defeat that ended with an ICC fine for too readily taking the bait thrown by England fast bowler Stuart Broad, Lehmann said he had learned much from his first international assignment, including the fact that even a “jovial” radio interview back home can ping around the world if he does not choose his words more wisely.Lehmann arrived in the job only two weeks before the start of the Ashes bout, and while he has been credited with lifting Australia’s team spirit and preaching an aggressive, flair-filled brand of the game, he has been unable to bring about the lift of standards required for the team to win a Test match. They have now gone nine Tests without singing the team song, and as Lehmann acknowledged his error in responding to Broad, he also spoke of unearthing a “winning attitude”.”It was a good learning curve for a new coach, wasn’t it?” Lehmann said. “You know, a jovial setting but you’ve got to learn from that. I’ve got to learn and improve from that. The players aren’t on their own in trying to improve. Coaches have got to improve so that’s something I’ve got to get better at. I’ve had a chat with him (Broad) already. We just move on.”I’m still loving it, it’s a great job. I’d like to win a Test match though, but it’s a fantastic job. Now I’ve seen all the players here, and the one-day and Twenty20 players are obviously [arriving] Thursday, so you get to deal with them and look at how we’re going in that format of the game as well. By the end of the tour I’ll have a really good mindset on all the players, which will be quite comforting for me as coach.”Lehmann did not retreat for one moment from the version of cricket romanticism he and captain Michael Clarke have shown an evangelical zeal for, even though England’s shrewdness and pragmatism has stonewalled them repeatedly across the series. He took pride in having setup a thrilling final day of the Oval Test, though the generosity of Clarke’s declaration meant the tourists were ultimately left cajoling the umpires into using their light meter and ending play – the object of a crowd’s well-oiled booing at the end of the match.”Look, I can’t control the crowd. They’ve been pretty good all series. We’ve kept them quiet most of the time, even though we are 3-0 down, so it shows how close it probably is,” Lehmann said. “In regards to that you can’t do anything about that. What I do know is that game was set up totally by the Australian cricket team and I think the crowd probably enjoyed that more than the other days so far. That’s the brand of cricket we want to play. We want to push the boundaries.”We were quite happy to lose a game to set up the game. English fans have been great all summer, but to come out and see that on the last day, I think it was outstanding from Michael and the set-up what we tried to do. We want to keep challenging our players in those situations to get better, learn from the mistakes we make. We’re going to make mistakes, we understand that. But we’ve got to improve from there. If we do that, then we can challenge.”Having had so little preparatory time ahead of the series and also no say in the touring party that was chosen, Lehmann said that while he had been impressed overall by the work ethic of the players, changes could be expected before the return matches in Australia. It may be that Lehmann asks for his own choices of assistant coaches, as has become fashionable in 21st century sport.”It’s great learning about the players how they are. I’m very impressed with their work ethic on and off the ground, how they go about it,” Lehmann said. “I think there’s a lot of improvement in our setup, which is exciting for me. Would I change too much? Really hard when you’ve just come into the setup and the touring side’s been picked. When we’re back home you’ll probably see different things happen, but in terms of hearing a lot of things from outside and not being in that circle for many years, to come in and see how they’re trying to improve all the time was impressive for me. Now it’s just a matter of improving that skill level for us to compete better than we have.”

Cricket Australia has apologised for a rogue, ribald tweet in reaction to Ian Bell’s survival of an appeal for a catch by Steve Smith on day three of the Lord’s Test.Bell was on 3 when he sliced Ryan Harris low to Smith in the gully. Smith appeared to take a clean catch but Bell stood his ground. The umpires conferred and after the third umpire, Tony Hill, viewed video evidence the batsman was spared.Australia’s players were surprised at the decision, with Smith visibly unhappy that his word had not been accepted. Amid widespread condemnation of Hill’s call, the official CA Twitter account gave vent to Australian frustrations with the words “That decision sucked ass #bulls***”.The tweet was soon deleted, and a subsequent apology suggested the words had not been typed from Lord’s: “Apologies for the inappropriate tweet earlier regarding the Bell catch. It didn’t emanate from CA’s official Twitter presence at Lord’s. CA is currently investigating the matter.”The official CA Twitter account is accessible to numerous staff members within CA, used as it is for a wide variety of announcements, updates and links.

Though Sri Lanka continue to perform satisfactorily in limited-overs tournaments, recent assignments in the Champions Trophy and the West Indies have helped make plain the challenges the side faces over the next two years. In both tournaments Sri Lanka leaned heavily on their experienced batsmen while the young talent largely failed to produce dividends for the considerable faith that has been afforded them.Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan were the team’s top scorers in the UK, with Lahiru Thirimanne, who made only 73 runs at 24.33, the best among the rest. Sangakkara and Jayawardene were also among Sri Lanka’s top scorers in the Caribbean, while Dilshan’s replacement Upul Tharanga led the list, thanks largely to a score of 174 not out.All three seniors privately hope to continue at the top level until at least the 2015 World Cup, but have maintained in public that their time in the game is largely subject to form and fitness. With all three over 35, the national selectors had embarked on building a team for the future, but with Sri Lanka’s young players unable to produce the kinds of innings their team can compile totals around, the home series against South Africa shapes as health-check for Sri Lankan cricket.”We’ve done well in patches in the last two months, and when we did that it was the seniors that stepped up – guys like Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene,” captain Angelo Mathews said. “They’ve carried a lot of the burden and we need that experience in the side but what the youngsters need to do is look at how those guys prepare and how they focus and we all have to get that mindset right. It comes through experience, but the amount of matches the younger guys have played, they have some good experience now as well. We need to fine tune our performances.”We need to have that mindset where you think you can be the next Mahela and think you can be the next Kumar. It comes with experience and a lot of hard work.”Plenty is expected of Dinesh Chandimal and Thirimanne, and it is the former’s recent inability to make good on his initial limited-overs promise that has been most dispiriting for Sri Lanka’s future hopes. Chandimal averages 18.19 in the last 16 months since the tour of Australia, having hit only two fifties in 28 ODIs. He has been given a sustained run in the top order after becoming vice-captain in February, but his place in the side is in question even as he prepares for the prospect of captaining the team in the first two matches against South Africa, in Mathews’ absence due to an over-rate suspension.”We all know how good a cricketer Dinesh Chandimal is and he doesn’t become a bad player just because he has been unsuccessful in two tournaments – which can happen to any cricketer,” Mathews said. “He is the vice-captain and he deserves his place. I am sure he will be among the runs soon, and if the selectors make him captain, he will do it well.”Thirimanne has not yet made his place safe either, but he has produced promising innings in the recent tournaments, despite being the first batsman to be moved around the order as the team’s requirements change. His 57 in the Champions Trophy match against Australia set the foundation for Jayawardene’s sparkling innings, and a 46 in the tri-series final against India helped Sangakkara build what would become a competitive total.”Lahiru is one of our best up-and-coming players because he has never said no to anything. He always just gets on with the job even when it was hard work. We’ve sent him in when we were in trouble in England as well as in the West Indies, and he has responded brilliantly. He’s got great character, and we need that.”He has the potential to bat at number three in the long term. He has the composure, he’s very calm and he makes good decisions. He’s showed a lot of maturity and he’s got a long future. I’m sure he can be the next Sangakkara.”Mathews played himself into some form in the Caribbean and more confidence in both disciplines has had a positive impact on his captaincy, he said. Mathews averaged 49.66 with the bat and 17.57 with the ball in the tri-series.”When you’re contributing to the team in any way, that does a lot of good for your captaincy. As an allrounder, it’s especially good to get both wickets and runs and that helps you earn respect in the team as well.”