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Ranjit Saini, Cricket Canada’s interim president, has told Cricinfo of his board’s plans to expand cricket across schools to reduce the senior side’s current reliance on ex-pats.”We want it to become huge, much bigger than it was – 150 schools are currently involved and over the next couple of years we would want 1000 to 1500, we want a wider pool of player to pick from and identify and channel into an elite order.”To get up to 1500 schools we would need $100,000 to $150,000 a year and I think that’s realistic. We could get many sponsors involved, in each local area and make the programmes a real community event, which could attract community sponsors.”Saini’s ambitions could stumble on the board’s finances which are already under strain following the loss of a major sponsor late in 2009 but he remains confident.”We are in talks with many agents, and what comes out of that we don’t know yet, but schools will be a major focus. This is a new time for cricket here and we are a new cricket Canada.”

Nathan Bracken’s hopes of returning to Australia’s one-day team this summer have been given a boost after he was named in the New South Wales Twenty20 squad. Bracken had surgery on his right knee in October and has not played at a high level since the one-dayers in England in September.He played Sydney grade cricket on the weekend and bowled eight overs, and the Blues have called him in to a 15-man squad for Wednesday’s must-win game against Queensland at Stadium Australia. New South Wales have also named Phillip Hughes, who could be released from Australia’s Test squad in Hobart if Simon Katich is passed fit.Aaron Bird has been included in the group and is free to play despite being reported on Monday for a dubious bowling action. The Blues will be taking on a Queensland side featuring Daniel Vettori, the New Zealand captain, who will fly in to Sydney on the day of the match.New South Wales need to win on Wednesday to have any hope of reaching the finals and ultimately the multi-million-dollar Champions League, which they won last year. The allrounder Moises Henriques, 22, remains in charge of the side in the absence of the captain Katich and his stand-in Stuart Clark.New South Wales squad Phillip Hughes, David Warner, Phil Jaques, Usman Khawaja, Dwayne Smith, Ben Rohrer, Steven Smith, Moises Henriques (capt), Dominic Thornely, Grant Lambert, Daniel Smith (wk), Steve O’Keefe, Nathan Bracken, Aaron Bird, Mitchell Starc.

Trott takes his time
Jonathan Trott is going to annoy a few opposition during his international career, because he takes an age to prepare himself to face up for a delivery. After a solitary Test, it is already getting to South Africa. During the one-day series he was given a warning for time-wasting and the umpires had to have another word with him on the final day at Centurion, although he wasn’t officially warned. Trott marks his guard regularly with a huge line carved by his boot, and then likes to survey the field before strolling into line before finally taking strike. A couple of times the bowler and Graeme Smith waved their arms in frustration, but Trott trotted on at his own pace.Running madness
Kevin Pietersen certainly likes his quick singles – or Red Bull runs as they have become known – but it means a few hairy moments. On 27, Pietersen pushed the ball into the covers and raced off for a single. The ball went straight to JP Duminy, one of South Africa’s best fielders, but luckily for Pietersen the fielder couldn’t collect. A direct hit at either end would have resulted in a wicket, but the way Duminy was shaping suggested he would have picked Pietersen as the preferred option. Instead, he and Trott punched gloves mid-pitch and breathed a sigh of relief. But wait…Kevin does a Nasser (or a Thorpe)
Thoughts were just beginning towards a comfortable draw when Pietersen and Trott resumed after tea. Then, out of nowhere, Pietersen pushed the ball into the off side and set off for a single without realising that Friedel de Wet, the bowler, was already closing in on it. De Wet collected and quickly realised he had oodles of time to run up to the stumps. There was no question of Trott, the non-striker, actually attempting the run. His only choice was whether to save or sacrifice himself, and he chose the former. The moment brought back memories of the horror mix-up between Nasser Hussain and Graham Thorpe at Antigua in 1997-98, when Hussain’s run-out precipitated a calamitous collapse. But shortly after Pietersen’s demise, Nasser was keen to make one point abundantly clear. “It was Thorpe who ran me out, the one time I wasn’t guilty.”A thin line
Quick bowlers like to get very close to the front line and eventually they will overstep and lose out on a wicket. And sometimes it will be a vital wicket. That is what happened to de Wet when he trapped Pietersen straight in front of middle with one that skidded through, only to see Steve Davis’s arm out-stretched. De Wet went down on his knees, knowing how vital that moment could become, and he won’t have felt any better when the big screen showed a replay. Pietersen will think it evened the score after he was bowled off an unnoticed no-ball in the first innings.When a review isn’t a review
South Africa thought they had broken the stand between Pietersen and Trott when the ball flew to Graeme Smith at gully off Paul Harris, but Trott stood his ground and the umpires weren’t sure. They went to the TV official, but it wasn’t a review under the new system because the on-field umpire had asked for the extra assistance to check whether it was a bump ball. In fact, the replays showed it had missed the bat and hit the boot, so that ruled out the catch, but under the new playing conditions the third umpire was also allowed to check for lbw. As it happens, it was going down leg side, so it was much ado about nothing.Unexpected bowl
Who was this coming on for a trundle? The man with a bust rib who wouldn’t bowl until next week. In the 55th over Smith, in a sign of desperation, threw the ball to Jacques Kallis in his search for a breakthrough. It soon became clear he wouldn’t be at full pace, far from it, as he marked out a short run and Mark Boucher came up to the stumps. He operated at something around Paul Collingwood’s pace as he tried out a series of cutters, then shortly before tea he tried a bouncer at Pietersen. It wasn’t a threat, but South Africa will be delighted he’s coming back to action.Game changer
England were saving the game with reasonable comfort, but we should all have known better. In the second over with the second new ball – a passage of play that was always likely to be vital – Jonathan Trott got a brute of a ball from de Wet that jumped off a length and took the glove. Still, it needed some catch, and in AB de Villiers it was heading to the right man (his first-innings spill off Alastair Cook was the rarest of aberrations. Sure enough, he flung himself low to his left to pull off a stunning take. It led to a thrilling final hour.

Scorecard
While Virender Sehwag & Co. were going berserk at the Brabourne, Mumbai’s batsmen went on a rampage of their own to leave Hyderabad facing defeat at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. Mumbai’s utter domination of the day was shown by the inflation in the number of fielders patrolling the boundary: two at the start to six by an hour after lunch, as a double-century from Ajinkya Rahane and yet another Wasim Jaffer hundred dismantled the bowling.The overnight batsmen, Rahane and Sahil Kukreja, blunted the second new ball and moved unfussily to their centuries early in the day; their 258-run association was the largest-ever at the ground. Soon after Mumbai eased into the lead, and off the first ball after morning-session drinks Kukreja edged to slip, giving Hyderabad their sole moment to shout about in the day.The Hyderabad fielders were thrilled at breaking that stand, but things only got worse when Jaffer walked in. The Mumbai captain has been terrifying domestic attacks since his axing from the national team last year, and today was just another day in the office for him. Unlike all the other batsmen in this match, he didn’t need any time to start stroking the ball around; his first four was a lofted cover drive, followed by a stylish punch to the long-on boundary. His arrival put the Mumbai innings into overdrive – 39 runs coming off five overs, with Jaffer racing to 25off 21.His aggression encouraged Rahane also to open up. On Wednesday, it had been a controlled effort from Rahane, but today he started to take more risks. Wide deliveries that he was happy to leave on Wednesday were crunched to the point region today. Full deliveries outside off wereflicked to square leg, and he jumped down the track to the fast bowlers to punch them down the ground. A six over cover off the front foot, just after Mumbai reached 450, was perhaps the highlight of his innings.Hyderabad tried everything to slow the pair down on a track which still had nothing to interest the bowlers. Bouncers were easily evaded; offspinner Amol Shinde’s leg stump line from around the wicket with a 3-6 on-side field was negated by Jaffer’s reverse-sweeps. The third-man area proved very productive for Jaffer, playing several controlled steers past the slips on his way to a second century of the season. With no bowler with serious pace, and spinners of only middling ability, Hyderabad could do little to stop Mumbai’s batsmen.The 24 overs Mumbai batted after lunch were the most manic; Hyderabad had virtually given up – no chirping at the batsmen, most fielders giving the teapot as they waited for a declaration – as Rahane and Jaffer smashed 141 runs. Rahane, in particular, was having a blast, and was stampeding towards a triple-century when Mumbai decided to declare with 35 minutes to go for lunch. The Rahane-Jaffer show had added 236 runs in 251 deliveries.The docile pitch, on which prising out a batsman is difficult once he’s set, prompted the early declaration, leaving Mumbai 117 overs to collect five (or six) points and move ahead of Punjab into second place.The Hyderabad openers survived a probing spell with the new ball. Both of them, Rushi Raj and Shashank Nag, needed a solid performance, as one of them is likely to be sidelined when VVS Laxman returns for the remaining two Ranji matches. Both their auditions nearly ended almost as soon as it began: substitute Prashant Naik spilled a chance at slip off Raj, and Mumbai were sure they had Nag caught behind on the final ball before tea but the umpire didn’t.They gritted it out against a buoyant Mumbai pace attack, but the introduction of spin ended their 90-minute resistance. Raj charged down the track thrice in offspinner Ramesh Powar’s first over, the third time he slapped the ball back to the bowler.Hyderabad’s batting has been abysmal this season. Not only has there been no centurion so far, there hasn’t even been a hundred partnership. Friday is when they need to change that statistic, and salvage a point that could prove vital in the relegation battle.

Temperamental fast bowler Sreesanth has been given another chance to resurrect his stop-start career, after being selected in India’s 15-man squad for the first two Tests against Sri Lanka. Weeks after being given a “final warning” for his poor on-field behaviour, Sreesanth is now a candidate to share the new ball with Zaheer Khan, who has recovered from his shoulder injury.Sreesanth last played for India in 2008, and had his share of injuries and criticism over attitude in equal measure. During the time he spent out of the Indian team, Sreesanth played 10 first-class games for 28 wickets, including one five-wicket haul for Warwickshire, and 23 overs for no wickets against Andhra in his latest Ranji Trophy match. Clearly his selection is a gamble on promise over form. It is a big – bordering on generous – decision made by the selectors, and an equally big chance for Sreesanth to wash away all the criticism against him.Zaheer made an expected comeback, having recovered from the injury he sustained during the IPL, and having featured in Twenty20 matches during the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament and a Ranji Trophy fixture. He has not missed a Test, but has not played limited-overs cricket for India since the ICC World Twenty20 in June.The selectors also recalled Pragyan Ojha, the left-arm spinner, and S Badrinath. His Tamil Nadu team-mate M Vijay retained his place as reserve batsman. Ojha, yet to make his Test debut, toured Sri Lanka in 2008, but lost his place to Amit Mishra, who made a strong debut against Australia in Mohali in 2008-09. Vijay, an opener, was handed a debut in Nagpur against Australia after Gautam Gambhir was banned for one Test. Badrinath has yet to play a Test.There was no place for Ashish Nehra, who has done well after making his ODI return, or Munaf Patel, as India opted for three spinners. There was no reserve wicketkeeper named.The decision to pick 15 players, and that too an extra batsman, raised questions about the selection. Usually for a home series, only 14 players are picked. And with the middle order set in stone, neither Vijay nor Badrinath has a realistic chance of starting in Ahmedabad. Now both of them will miss important Ranji Trophy matches, when only one was needed as injury cover, unless someone is sent back to domestic cricket on the morning of the Ahmedabad Test.The selection also left the bowling unbalanced. MS Dhoni is not a fan of playing only two pace bowlers unless the pitch is extremely spin-friendly, and the selectors have given him only three fast bowlers to choose from. Zaheer Khan is coming back from injury, Ishant Sharma is in poor form, and Sreesanth is a completely unpredictable character. One bowling back-up would have been of more value than two batting back-ups. And what about Munaf? He has lost his Test place on the basis of 13 overs bowled in two ODIs against Australia, one of them on a flat Hyderabad pitch.India squad: MS Dhoni (capt/wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, M Vijay, S Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra.

Herschelle Gibbs has been offered an unexpected chance to push for an international recall after he was drafted into the South Africa A squad to face England, at Potchefstroom, on Tuesday.He was one of three changes to the original group with Gibbs’ Cape Cobras team-mates Andrew Puttick, who hit a century in the Champions League, and seamer Rory Kleinveldt also added. Henry Davids, the opener, has dropped out with a broken thumb and left-arm spinner Robin Petersen has been deselected after indicating to Cricket South Africa that he will be taking up a Kolpak contract with Derbyshire.The selectors have also decided to remove Ryan McLaren because he is likely to have played both Twenty20 internationals and could also be needed as a replacement for the injured Wayne Parnell in the first ODI next Friday.For Gibbs, though, this is an opportunity to earn perhaps a final crack at the top level after he was dropped from the one-day and Twenty20 squads to face England. He has responded with 163 runs in three domestic 40-over innings including an unbeaten 102.”Herschelle has shown excellent form in recent MTN40 matches,” said convener of selectors Mike Procter, “and this match will give him a further opportunity to press his case for an international recall. He is showing the consistency we want from him and his last innings was a match-winning century.”The door is not closed to him or indeed to anybody else who produces the goods in domestic cricket. Both Puttick and Kleinveldt impressed for the Cape Cobras in the Champions League competition.”When the A-team squad was first named three weeks ago Procter’s comments suggested the selectors had finally moved on from Gibbs ahead of the next World Cup although did add that domestic form could change the situation.”We have lost patience with his inconsistency and I had a chat with him this morning and we agreed that he has been inconsistent,” he said. “We have to keep 2011 [the World Cup] in mind and we need to spread our wings a bit…He is 35, but he is fit and he is a huge talent and if he makes a mountain of runs and is batting consistently then things change.”The strong South Africa A squad is led by Hashim Amla and also includes Morne Morkel. Last week England lost their Twenty20 warm-up to a similar set of A-team players by four wickets after being bowled out for 89.Revised squad Hashim Amla (capt), CJ de Villiers, Dean Elgar, Herschelle Gibbs, Rory Kleinveldt, Heino Kuhn, Morne Morkel, Andrew Puttick, Rilee Rossouw, Juan Theron, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Vaughn van Jaarsveld

Andhra Pradesh notched up their second win of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, beating Goa by 16 runs in a rain-affected encounter in Vishakapatnam. In a game reduced to 17 overs-a-side, Goa had left Andhra reeling at 74 for 7 in the 14th over, before the eighth-wicket pair of captain Bodapati Sumanth (47) and Duvvarapu Shivkumar (22) lead the recovery with a stand of 40, and took their team to a respectable 118. The Goan reply was led by their captain Sagun Kamat, who made a run-a-ball 41, but there was little support available from the rest of the line-up as the visitors fell short of their target. Only three Goan batsmen reached double-figures; the trio of Doddapaneni Kalyankrishna, Shankara Rao and Syed Sahabuddin took seven wickets between them to ensure victory.The two other contests, between Hyderabad and Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka and Kerala, both at Vishakapatnam, were washed out without a ball being bowled.

It may be being widely reported that Kabir Ali will leave Worcestershire at the end of the season, but county chief executive Mark Newton is adamant that won’t happen unless someone agrees to pay £60,000 to release him from the last year of his contract.Kabir is said to have verbally agreed a three-year deal with Hampshire, but Newton remains determined over the issue of compensation. “£60,000 is the minimum we would accept to let Kabir leave,” he told the Kidderminster Shuttle. “We feel very strongly about this. Do we run the risk of having an unhappy Kabir next season? Of course we do, but we all know Kabir well enough to know that if he is here next year then he will give 100%.”If, as seems increasingly likely, no other county agrees to the fee, then he has the choice of seeing out his last year with Worcestershire or paying the money himself.Rod Bransgrove, Hampshire’s chairman, also looked to play down his county’s association with Kabir until the contract issue is resolved. “We can’t agree a deal until he is released by Worcestershire. He is a player we are interested in, as I imagine are others, and we will continue to be interested in.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Muttiah Muralitharan hurried New Zealand to their demise•AFP

With the rain clouds staying away and the Galle sky clear, Sri Lankaromped to victory in the first Test, finishing off proceedingsmid-afternoon. The New Zealand tail offered far more resistance than thetop order – Daniel Vettori led the way with a brave 67 – but with thespinners coming into their own after early breakthroughs from ThilanThushara, Sri Lanka eased to a 202-run win. Fittingly MuttiahMuralitharan, who had taken his 100th wicket in Galle earlier in thematch, had the final say, running out Brendon McCullum with a superb throwfrom mid-off to finish off proceedings.Any realistic hopes that New Zealand had of survival had disappeared soonafter lunch, when Jesse Ryder edged Murali behind. McCullum and Vettoristaved off the inevitable for a while, and there was polite applause forVettori when he reached his half-century. Two neat pulls for four offThushara followed, but by then both Murali and Ajantha Mendis were turningthe ball at wicked angles.And it was Mendis who delivered, coming round the wicket and turning onesharply away to take the edge of Vettori’s bat. Once again PrasannaJayawardene’s glovework was smooth, and as Vettori walked back,it was only a matter of when Sri Lanka would wrap things up. McCullumswung Murali for a six, and then swept him for four to rage against dyinglight, and there were a couple of lovely drives too from Jeetan Patel. Butafter Mendis had seen him dropped by Malinda Warnapura, substituting forAngelo Mathews, at short leg, Murali struck, with the doosra luring himforward and Prasanna doing the rest.Iain O’Brien went caught at silly point off the inside edge, and McCullumthen made the mistake of taking on Murali’s throwing arm to end thecontest. The damage, though, had been done much earlier, as Sri Lankastarted the morning with some exceptionally tidy overs. The pressureeventually told once Thushara switched the angle of attack to round thewicket. Martin Guptill was clueless against one that came in with the armand then darted away to clip the top of off stump. Soon after, TimMcIntosh, perhaps still suffering the after-effects of illness, wassquared up, and Thilan Samaraweera took a fine low catch at third slip.McIntosh waited for the third umpire’s decision, but had to walk offeventually.An even heftier blow came soon after. Kumar Sangakkara threw the ball tohis predecessor as captain, and when Mahela Jayawardene got Ross Taylor totickle on into Prasanna’s hands down the leg side, the Lankan celebrationswere raucous. Up in the dressing room, Trevor Bayliss, the coach, held hishead in his hands in disbelief.With the fields more attacking, both Vettori and Jacob Oram had theopportunity to play some strokes. Vettori played a couple of lovelydrives, and the sweep and pull were also employed by both as thescoreboard ticked along. But just when it seemed that they might get tolunch without further damage, Oram tried to sweep a straighter one fromMendis, and missed.Both Vettori and Ryder saw edges off Murali evade wicketkeeper and slipand go for four, but there was to be no great escape for New Zealand. SriLanka, whose home form is the envy of so many, chipped away relentlesslyand with Thushara adding a cutting edge to the wiles of Murali and Mendis,victory was as inevitable as it was emphatic.

Paul Farbrace has announced that he will be quitting his post as Sri Lanka’s assistant coach when his contract ends on August 20 to take up the position of head coach of Kent.Farbrace explained that he was leaving because he got a better offer from Kent. “I was head of the academy and assistant coach of Kent when I joined the Sri Lanka team two years ago,” Farbrace told Cricinfo. “But this offer from Kent to become their head coach is too good to miss.”I will be taking a lot of fond memories with me being part of one of the finest cricket teams in the world today. I’ve enjoyed watching Murali [Muttiah Muralitharan] break the world Test bowling record, Sri Lanka winning the Asia Cup in Pakistan and qualifying for the ICC World Twenty20 final in England.”Farbrace, who assisted Trevor Bayliss, played an important role in making Sri Lanka a winning unit in world cricket. “I’ve enjoyed working with Sanga [Sangakkara], Sunny [Sanath Jayasuriya], Mahela [Jayawardene], Murali and Vaasy [Vaas] and a host of up and coming youngsters like Nuwan Kulasekara, Ajantha Mendis and Thilan Thushara. Sri Lanka cricket at the moment is looking very vibrant. The only disappointment is that they could not match their Test form in the one-dayers.”Nishantha Ranatunga, the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) secretary, confirmed that he had received an email from Farbrace not wanting to renew his contract, and added: “We will discuss this matter at the next interim committee meeting on August 4.”Ranatunga denied that Farbrace’s decision to quit came after the board decided to appoint the A team coach Chandika Hathurusingha as a shadow assistant coach to Bayliss in May.