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Allan Donald, the former South Africa fast bowler, has expressed an interest in becoming Yorkshire’s new director of cricket, according to reports from South Africa.The club have suffered a calamitous winter with several administrative hiccups. The post was originally offered to Chris Adams, the Sussex captain, who accepted the role before pulling out at the eleventh hour. This effectively left the man he was to replace, David Byas, without a job; after mulling his options over Christmas, Byas retired earlier this week.Sources in South Africa, as revealed in this morning’s say Donald, 40, is interested in the position, although it is believed the club will still advertise the position in the national newspapers.”It’s flattering if someone like Allan Donald is interested in the job,” Stewart Regan, Yorkshire’s chief executive said, “and we are certainly interested in talking to as many people as possible, but we have not received an application from Allan and everything is still wide open in terms of the club filling this position.”The job is undeniably one of the most high-profile in cricket and it’s bound to attract some high-quality names” he said. “At the same time, I would stress to our supporters that we are still very much in the process of casting the net and that nothing whatsoever has yet been finalised.”Donald, who retired from cricket in 2002, has been linked to several managerial and coaching positions. He applied for the job of England’s bowling coach in 2006, when Troy Cooley returned to Australia, but withdrew his application when a development opportunity arose in his native South Africa. He now works for the country’s high performance department, as well as a commentator on South African television.Yorkshire will advertise the position in the national newspapers on Sunday.

Scorecard

Sri Lanka’s batsmen missed a crucial opportunity to adjust to the Queensland conditions ahead of next week’s Test and were knocked down on the first day of the tour game by Ashley Noffke. The tourists received an early taste of what the Gabba would be like next week and their top order failed to cope with the tricky bounce and early movement from an attack led by Noffke’s 5 for 36 and supported by Mitchell Johnson, Andy Bichel and Michael Kasprowicz.However, there was encouragement with the performance of the bowlers as they reduced Queensland to 4 for 60 when bad light stopped play 5.4 overs early. Lasith Malinga was a difficult prospect under dark clouds and he captured Jimmy Maher and Chris Simpson while Farveez Maharoof removed Ryan Broad and Andrew Symonds. Symonds’ Test warm-up ended on 22, an innings which included three consecutive boundaries off Malinga and finished with an edge to Prasanna Jayawardene.Jayawardene, the batsman-wicketkeeper who will play in Brisbane after Kumar Sangakkara’s hamstring injury, and Marvan Atapattu were the only members of the top seven who made an impression as the Sri Lankans reached 9 for 210 before declaring to allow their bowlers an opportunity in the sultry conditions. It was a worrying performance and the batsmen have only one more innings to fine tune for the first Test.Sanath Jayasuriya (0), Michael Vandort (4) and Mahela Jayawardene fell in the morning to Noffke and Chamara Silva (0) was run-out chasing an unnecessary second. While Jayasuriya dusted off with a century in the previous match in Adelaide, Jayawardene has looked unconvincing since arriving in Australia and picked up a second zero.Jayawardene lasted only six balls before Noffke had him lbw playing from the crease, which left the Sri Lankans at 3 for 14 after Jayasuriya pushed to gully and Vandort edged to first slip. Noffke was particularly impressive in his first spell, taking 3 for 7 off 11 overs, and he kick-started the opening session, which finished when Atapattu was out cutting on 48, leaving the Sri Lankans at 6 for 81.”It was a bit of hard work in the morning,” Atapattu said. “We were taken by surprise more than anything by the sideways movement. We expected the wicket to be harder and bouncier. But you shouldn’t have any doubts about our talent and ability going into a Test.”Noffke was again heavily involved after lunch, collecting Maharoof and Chaminda Vaas, who fell to a sharp caught-and-bowled, and he took his third five-wicket haul of a fine season to justify his elevation to the new ball ahead of Bichel and Kasprowicz. “It’s never been done before and it’s strange,” he said.”They’re two guys who I’ve learnt a lot from in the past, standing at mid-off and watching them. It’s a good learning experience and it’s just the evolution of cricket, we’re all going to retire or step down and let the younger guy through.”Fortunately for the Sri Lankans, Prasanna Jayawardene was able to push them towards respectability with the help of Maharoof (20) and Malinga Bandara, who struck eight fours and a six off Daniel Doran’s legspin in his 43. Jayawardene’s responsibilities have increased with Sangakkara’s injury and he showed his capabilities during his half-century. Like Atapattu, Jayawardene cut well and hit nine boundaries in his unbeaten 58, which came from 130 balls.

The International Cricket Council has said it will help to ensure that the South African duo, Nicky Boje and Herschelle Gibbs, are able to tour India in October without fear of arrest.Boje and Gibbs run the risk of being detained by Indian police over match-fixing allegations dating back to 2000, but Dave Richardson, head of the ICC’s cricket operations, said they would try to defuse the situation before the Champions Trophy tournament at the end of the year.”We can only facilitate the process,” said Richardson. “It is principally a problem of two individual players and they are obviously taking legal advice. But if we receive a request from the South African cricket board, we are willing to facilitate it.”Gibbs and Boje have not toured India since the scandal broke in 2000, because they have failed to obtain any assurance that they will not be detained for questioning.The former South Africa captain, Hansie Cronje, was implicated in the same scandal. He admitted involvement on his part and was served with a life ban before dying in a plane crash in 2002.The Champions Trophy will be held from October 7 to November 5 in Mumbai, Mohali, Ahmedabad and Jaipur.

Paul ‘Sachin’ Harris
He’s tormented Pakistan enough with the ball, but it was now Paul Harris’ turn to do so with the bat. He arrived early this morning and took a crunching blow to the head to begin with. But the more he hung around, the better he got. Having survived a barrage of bouncers and frustrating Danish Kaneria with the sweep, he pulled out the day’s glory off Mohammad Asif: a drive on the up, straight enough past the stumps, elbow high, Sachin Tendulkar’s trademark stroke. It was, for Pakistan, the most dispiriting moment of the day.Are we in Johannesburg? – III
Perhaps learning from Pakistan’s mistakes earlier, Dale Steyn kept it full in his first over and Kamran Akmal duly played-and-missed on several occasions. However, reverting to the shorter length, Steyn was edged over the slips for a four, straight-driven for another, pulled past mid-on for a third, driven to cover for three and finally driven to the backward point boundary to end a 19-run over.Guard of honour
As Inzamam-ul-Haq strode out of ODIs in Jamaica, he was given a guard of honour by his team-mates. A repeat of that, with the South African team lining up near the pitch and welcoming the local hero as he ambled in at the fall of Akmal’s wicket, for what could very well be his last outing. As suggested by our very own Cricinfo journalist, it might well have been a tactic employed for a flow of emotions which, in turn, could lead to an early dismissal.Nel kneels to pray
Pakistan’s openers were tearing into South Africa’s attack, Andre Nel was tearing into Pakistan and something had to give. In the 14th over of the innings, Butt left a ball from Nel that angled in and missed the stumps by a few inches. Nel’s follow-through is one of cricket’s great sights; this time he curved round, off the pitch and knelt down cursing his luck. Anywhere else, that would’ve been that. In Pakistan, during Ramadan, and on a ground where Mohammad Yousuf first knelt down in a prayer of thanks (for his double century), the gesture was significant, as the crowd’s roars of approval proved.Rattled yet again
Younis Khan, with an aggressive century in his previous Test outing a few days ago, was welcomed by a loud Lahore crowd, hoping for a repeat of aggression right from the start. Clipping his second delivery to midwicket for three, Younis was on his way. Well, until a quick delivery, prompting a rash drive, sneaked in between bat and pad to peg back Younis’ off stump. A reckless shot to be dismissed cheaply again, this was the third time Younis had his stumps rattled in three consecutive innings.Marathon man
Pakistan are in the midst of a fitness makeover and Kamran Akmal appears to be one of the beneficiaries. He told David Dwyer, the new fitness trainer, that he felt the freshest he has ever been after keeping for 90 overs under the Karachi sun. He kept here for 125 overs before calmly trotting out to open Pakistan’s innings. A flurry of boundaries and a second half-century, off only 56 balls, suggests he wasn’t kidding about how fresh he feels. If only he could hold on to the catches.

Ian Butler, the New Zealand fast bowler, has been reduced to relying on medical advances in an attempt to revive his international career. Butler, 24, has suffered from a bulging disc in his lower back for the past 22 months and with surgery not an option, he has to wait for the discovery of a new treatment for the problem.Butler planned on having pain-killing injections in order to represent Northern Districts, but consultation with his coaching staff scrapped that idea. “There was no point having injections to mask the pain,” he told stuff.co.nz. “I didn’t want to risk it for later in life. It was worth it to wait. If something happens and medical procedures improve, I could be back again.”A nerve being damaged by compression added to Butler’s troubles, and while the bulging disc can be managed, he admitted life was tough. “Then daily life becomes hard. Even getting out of bed is hard,” he said. “I’m not throwing away all hope of bowling but I’ve just got to be sensible about it. I was almost kidding myself that it [the injections] was going to be of any benefit.”After being picked as a batsman in a Twenty20 tournament last weekend, Butler decided to try bowling slower. “I was just trying to cover other bowlers,” he said. “I was bowling very, very slow, it could almost be described as spin. James [Marshall] just asked me if I could do a job bowling with the keeper standing up.”Butler’s last Test and one-day international appearances were in late 2004.

Last Friday’s appointment of Ray Jennings as South Africa’s new coach caused a few raised eyebrows. Jennings has a reputation for blunt talking, and his first interview since the announcement did not disappoint.He told reporters that he was not going to be a touchy-feely coach and that if his players needed “a good kick up the backside” then that’s what they will get.Jennings forged a reputation as a hard man both as a player – he was South Africa’s leading wicketkeeper for more than a decade during the era of isolation – and a coach. In the past he has made bowlers run laps of the field for bowling no-balls, and on a recent A-team tour of Zimbabwe, he moved the fridge out of the changing room and made his players drink warm fluids.”If the players expect soft drinks, I will make sure there are none,” he told the South African newspaper Rapport. “They will go to a tap and get on their knees and drink water until they realise that it is an honour to play for South Africa.”Jennings has made it clear that he feels South Africa are at rock bottom. “Either the players work with me, or I leave,” he explained. “The UCB put its faith in me to jack up the team. In order to do so, five things must be re-introduced: passion, respect, image, discipline and fun. These five things are inseparable. One will never have discipline if people don’t respect you. If the players are not honest with you and don’t respect you, there won’t be discipline There isn’t enough respect in the SA team.”There are fears that this confrontational, controlling style might backfire, both with the players and opposition.”Cricket seems to be moving more towards the spirit of the game, and Jennings’s appointment is almost swimming against the tide of playing cricket according to the spirit of the game,” commented Ray White, a former president of the South African board. “I wonder how popular he will make the team while he is in charge.”But Jennings appears to have little time for any niceties such as popularity. “I know there are players in the team who are in a comfort zone and might feel the game owes them something,” he added. “We can’t have one coach after the other. The players’ attitude will have to change.”The relationship he has with some of the senior players – Mark Boucher and Jacques Kallis spring to mind – will be worth watching. “I don’t think he is going to behave like a school teacher,” Boucher told Wisden Cricinfo. “I think he will understand that he is dealing with professionals who have been around for a while, and he will treat them with the respect they deserve.”That might be wishful thinking on his part.

Tom Moody has insisted that he will honour his contract as Sri Lanka’s coach despite security concerns for foreign nationals in the volatile region. Escalating violence in Sri Lanka, where a three-decade-old separatist ethnic conflict has claimed more then 60,000 lives, forced Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s website to issue warnings of kidnapping for ransom.”It has not got to the point where it has stopped me from thinking about doing my job,” Moody told . “When you’re out of the country it probably appears a bigger deal and more of an issue than it is to the people who are here. The Sri Lankan people have grown relatively immune to these kind of things. It’s not as though the people are daring not to venture outside. There has been a significant increase in the military and police presence, which is comforting. In a way, I’m becoming immune, too.”South Africa’s withdrawal from a tri-series last month following a bomb blast in a Colombo marketplace was another indication of the fragility of the situation. Moody, though, felt that no cricketer was safe from danger: “I think there has to be a realisation that in this day and age, no matter whether you’re in London, Sydney or Colombo, you have to be mindful of the unpleasant possibility of terrorist action”.Already tipped as a strong candidate to succeed John Buchanan as coach of Australia after the World Cup, Moody looked back at Sri Lanka’s recent success. “Things had been very good. We took a lot of confidence out of the England series,” he said. “From a team and an individual point of view, the build-up over the last six months has been really pleasing. This is something we have worked hard at. It’s certainly not something that happened overnight.”This has been 14 months in the making. South Africa’s withdrawal was frustrating from the viewpoint of momentum. The more wins we could have got under the belt, the better. But with the bad comes the good. It has given us the opportunity to rest our guys, and gives those with a few niggles time to recover.”

Titans regained the top spot in the Standard Bank Cup after a win in a highscoring match against Warriors on a good batting strip at StGeorge’s Park, Port Elizabeth.Batting first the Warriors started off cautiously but at the fall of the first wicket Robin Peterson came to the crease and raced away to 90 off 82 balls. The third wicket also produced a partnership of 97 as Peterson and Arno Jacobs took control. Jacobs and Tyron Henderson then put on 42 in the final five overs for the Warriors to finish on 246 for 3.The Titans fired on all cylinders as the top four all scored half-centuries. Alviro Peterson and Goolam Bodi scored 51 each, Martin van Jaarsveld, the Man of the Match, scored 62 and Johan Myburgh finished on 56 not out as they passed the target with an over to spare.It was hard work for the bowlers, but that is how it should be for a limited overs match and credit must go to the ground staff for the preparation of a spectator pleasing pitch.Cape Cobras played themselves right out of the Standard Bank Cupsemi-finals after being blown away by the Lions at Newlands, Cape Town.Set a meagre target of 161 the Cobras were bowled out for 121 in what must rate as their worst performance of the season. A top score of 24 from Renier Munnik was all the Cobras could muster as Saurab Chatterjee picked up a career best of 4 for 27 in 6.3 overs.The Lions had also struggled to put an innings together with Matthew Harris propping up the middle of the innings scoring 56 and easily winning the Man-of-the-Match award. With Charl Willoughby taking 3 for 19 in his nine overs and the Lions reaching 160 for 9 in the 45 oversthe Cobras looked to be in with a chance of their first win of the season, but by handing the Lions the bonus point the Cobras now have no chance of reaching the semi-final stages.

ScorecardAmit Verma’s unbeaten 74 helped Assam stay afloat, but by only just, on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy semi-final in Vadodara•Fotocorp

Saurashtra’s seam bowling has been an underrated virtue this season largely because of the havoc created by the Jadejas – Ravindra and Dharmendrasinh – on the raging turners of Rajkot. But their claim to early bragging rights in the semi-final was engineered by some first-rate seam bowling from the left-arm pair of Jaydev Unadkat and Hardik Rathod.Assam, after being asked to bat, struggled with yet another batting meltdown, with only Amit Verma, unbeaten on 74 after a nagging day-long examination, and KB Arun Karthik attempting to wear the opposition down. But Arun Karthik’s wicket in the 62nd over, brought about because of misjudgment in length to an indipper from Rathod, opened the floodgates; Assam lost three more wickets in the space of 11 overs, eventually ending the day on 193 for 7.While a whiff of the early-morning nip might have aided swing bowling, pronounced movement off the seam on a sturdy, grass-speckled surface was the defining aspect of Saurashtra’s bowling. There was pressure applied on both ends, with a chatty slip cordon making it harder for the batsmen.Not surprisingly, Rathod landed the first blow in the fourth over as Rahul Hazarika, hassled by a succession of prickly, good-length deliveries, poked one to first slip where Cheteshwar Pujara bent forward to hold a fine, low catch. His opening partner, Pallavkumar Das, was luckier as Pujara put down a similar chance, off Unadkat. Assam’s next casualty was Gokul Sharma, the captain, who was bowled by Unadkat.With Unadkat and Rathod mostly persisting with just short-to-good length, Sharma’s dismissal was an exception: it was full and snaked through Sharma’s feeble front-foot offering. Having received a reprieve early on, Pallavkumar couldn’t encash his luck for much longer as Rathod got one to cut back into his pads and the batsman was trapped in front of the stumps.Assam coach Sanath Kumar had said on Friday that his team’s wobbly batting had virtually made it non-negotiable for one of the three professionals to score heavily, and in Verma and Arun Karthik they had two willing volunteers. Having weathered the last few overs of Rathod and Unadkat’s extended first spells, they found a little respite in the third and fourth seam-bowling partnership of Deepak Punia and Chirag Jani, but it wasn’t much more. Punia was miserly all day, conceding only 36 runs from 21 overs.For Verma and Arun Karthik, the square cut and the flick were the go-to strokes, and once the surface calmed down a bit, they ventured to drive through cover more often. Whenever Saurashtra’s bowlers went for the bouncers – they even had a leg trap complete with a leg gully and a short leg standing deeper than usual – both batsmen rode them down or left them alone. While they managed only 54 runs in the second session, they had importantly deprived Saurashtra of a wicket.They would return after tea to build on those small gains, and the intent came through in the accelerated rate of scoring. But Arun Karthik’s wicket left the door ajar for Unadkat, who dismissed Syed Mohammad, the quarter-final centurion, and Swarupam Purkayastha in successive overs. Mohammad’s wild slash was a response to being tied down by some sharp seam bowling, and he was duly caught behind.Verma, though, didn’t flinch; the last ball of the day that had him squared up and beaten without getting him out summed up his toil.

Tammy Beaumont, the Kent wicketkeeper-batsman, has been recalled to the England Women’s squad for the T20 series against South Africa but Mark Robinson, the new head coach, has kept faith with the players who lost the Ashes to Australia last yearBeaumont last played in the one-day series against India in August 2014 and her previous T20 came against Australia in Dhaka in the final of the 2014 World T20.She is only included in the 15-player squad for the T20 with Lancashire’s Kate Cross playing the one-day series.

England squad for SA tour

Charlotte Edwards (capt), Tammy Beaumont (T20 only), Katherine Brunt, Kathryn Cross (ODI only), Georgia Elwiss, Lydia Greenway, Rebecca Grundy, Jenny Gunn, Danielle Hazell, Amy Jones, Heather Knight, Natalie Sciver, Anya Shrubsole, Sarah Taylor, Lauren Winfield, Danielle Wyatt

Sarah Taylor is in line to win her 100th ODI cap during the series. She currently sits on 98 one-day appearances and will be the seventh England player to reach a hundred caps.The nine members of the squad who are currently playing the Women’s Big Bash will join the rest of the party in South Africa at the end of January for a 10-day training camp before the ODI series starts on February 7 in Benoni. The three ODIs will form part of the ICC’s Women’s Championship in which England currently sit fifth and South Africa fourth.It will be the first assignment for Robinson and he is looking forward to getting the team back into the middle.”Having started to work with some of them, having watched recent footage and through following the progress of those playing in the WBBL, there is no doubt that this is a hugely talented squad with enormous potential,” he said. “I am relishing the prospect of helping them unearth even more of that potential and to seeing them develop in their next chapter as professional cricketers.”The ICC Women’s Championship table is currently very tight so the next twelve months are vitally important for us. We need to hit the ground running in the three ODIs against South Africa, who we know will pose a strong challenge on home soil. I am excited to see what this England team can do.”