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Mornantau Hayward and Lance Klusener were recalled as South Africa announced the Test and one-day squads to tour Sri Lanka in August. But there were no seats on the plane for Neil McKenzie, Paul Adams or Andrew Hall, who recently denied rumours he was about to quit international cricket. There was, however, a spot in the one-day squad for the uncapped Jean-Paul Duminy.Hayward, who is 27, has been playing for Middlesex alongside Klusener and has represented his country in 14 Tests, the last of which was against Pakistan in January 2003. He recently went back on his decision to quit international cricket, and was included in the Test squad, but will return home when the one-dayers start.Klusener, 32, is another who has had his differences with the South African board in the past, and has had to wait almost three years since he played the last of his 48 Tests against Australia at Melbourne in December 2001. He was named in both the Test and one-day squads.Duminy, a 20-year-old left-handed batsman, was a member of the Under-19 team which toured England last year, and has played only 10 first-class matches for Western Province. He and Alan Dawson, the fast bowler, will join up with the one-day squad at the expense of Hayward and Boeta Dippenaar.Omar Henry, South Africa’s chief selector, said that he was pleased with both squads, and delighted to have Hayward and Klusener back. “It’s great to haveNantie back and hopefully he can pick up where he left off when he last playedfor South Africa,” said Henry. “His experience in the UK will be an asset as the lengths he will need to bowl in Sri Lanka are pretty similar to those in England. He brings real pace and aggression to the attack.”On Klusener, Henry said: “His experience and previous success in the subcontinent will be invaluable, he also brings great variety with the ball which will be critical on the pitches in Sri Lanka.”The first of the two Test starts on August 4 at Galle, and the first of the five one-day internationals will be played on August 20 at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.Test squad Graeme Smith (capt), Mark Boucher, Nicky Boje, Boeta Dippenaar, Herschelle Gibbs, Nantie Hayward, Jacques Kallis, Lance Klusener, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini, Robin Peterson, Shaun Pollock, Jacques Rudolph, Martin van Jaarsveld.ODI squad Graeme Smith (capt), Mark Boucher, Nicky Boje, Alan Dawson, JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Lance Klusener, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini, Robin Peterson, Shaun Pollock, Jacques Rudolph, Martin van Jaarsveld.

England 231 for 6 (Trescothick 108*) beat Pakistan 229 for 7 (Razzaq 64, Younis 63, Flintoff 4-32) by four wickets

Marcus Trescothick completed a memorable weekend with a magnificent unbeaten 108, and Chris Read chipped in with a resourceful and impish 25, as England recovered from a seemingly hopeless position to win the deciding match of the NatWest Challenge in the most thrilling manner imaginable.Chasing 230 for victory at Lord’s, England had at one stage been cruising at 129 for 2, but lost four wickets for 25 runs as Pakistan stormed back into contention. Trescothick and Read, however, withstood a ferocious onslaught from Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami, adding 77 for the seventh wicket. Such was the potency of Pakistan’s fightback, the result was never truly settled until Trescothick deposited Azhar Mahmood into the Grand Stand to seal the match with nine balls to spare.Trescothick’s innings of 86 at The Oval had been an eye-popping onslaught, but in terms of sheer gumption, it was not a patch on this performance. He rode his luck, outrageously at times, but with the memories of his past failures at Lord’s – two centuries and an 86 in his last three visits, all in a losing cause – he was not about to let it slip for a fourth match in succession.England were 154 for 6, 86 runs from victory, when Read joined Trescothick in the middle of a disturbing wobble. For Read, it was a first return to Lord’s since his famous dismissal by Chris Cairns’s slower ball in 1999, but together they kept the run rate ticking at six an over. Trescothick swept a brace of welcome boundaries off the spinners, while Read tickled Mohammad Hafeez for four to third man, before picking up four byes as Hafeez beat everyone with a skiddy doosra.A steady drizzle sent the England balcony scurrying for their Duckworth/Lewis calculations, as Shoaib returned for his final burst of the match. He could – and should – have made the breakthrough, when Trescothick, on 93, edged a searing off-stump delivery to the left of Rashid Latif, who spilled the chance. Trescothick doubled the agony by cutting Shoaib to third man to bring up his fifth ODI century, and Shoaib finally accepted it wouldn’t be his day when a Waqar-esque late-swinging yorker exploded across Read’s stumps and away for four byes.When – if – they can bear to conduct a post-mortem, Pakistan will accept that they lost this match in the first 15 overs of England’s innings. Sami and Shoaib, still smarting from their rough treatment on Friday, had strained every sinew to make the breakthrough, and it defied logic that England were able to grind their way to an extremely healthy 71 for 1.England’s confusions began in the second over, when Trescothick survived a point-blank run-out attempt from Sami, and then sparred a Shoaib short ball over the heads of the slip cordon. Vikram Solanki didn’t last long, blown out of the water by Sami’s 95mph off-stump lifter (24 for 1), but Michael Vaughan lived a charmed life – dropped on 0 at second slip by Hafeez, then bowled by a Sami no-ball.Trescothick might have been run out – again – after jabbing down late on a Sami yorker, and on 35 he was dropped at midwicket again by Hafeez. But the relative calm of Azhar Mahmood and Abdul Razzaq enabled him to grow in confidence, alongside Jim Troughton, who cracked four eye-catching boundaries in a 40-run partnership for the fourth wicket. But with the introduction of the spinners, Shoaib Malik and Hafeez, came four wickets in nine overs as the pendulum swung Pakistan’s way at last. Trescothick and Read, however, could not be halted.After winning a good toss, England had been ahead on points – just – at the halfway mark. Razzaq, with 64 from 53 balls, and Mahmood had stolen 91 runs from the last ten overs to ensure a competitive total, but England owed their position to another command performance from that unlikeliest of misers, Andrew Flintoff. Flintoff returned figures of 4 for 32, his best in a home international, picking up 3 for 13 in his first eight overs to restrict Pakistan to 118 for 5 after 35 overs. For Pakistan, Younis Khan gritted his teeth to score 63, his first runs of the series.England were deserving winners of an astonishingly close and uplifting series. Pakistan, for their part, did not deserve to lose.Click here for today’s Wisden Verdict

It is something the world has known all these years. The Board ofControl for Cricket in India (BCCI) and its inimitable secretaryJaywant Lele though still feel that it needs to be tabled during theBoard’s 72nd Annual General Meeting in Chennai on September 29.We are talking about what we shall hence call the ‘Lele findings’ onSachin Tendulkar, resulting purely from the industrious researchundertaken by the man after whom the findings have been so named.”The sky is the limit for the 28-year-old master batsman who hasalready collected 25 Test centuries and 29 one-day internationalhundreds by June 30, 2001. He has been the most consistent run-getterin both forms of the game and is already a demi-god in the Indianpantheon,” the BCCI secretary observes.After noting that Tendulkar wrote his name “in golden letters inrecord books” by becoming the first batsman to cross the 10,000-runmark in one-dayers, Lele goes on to add, “Having taken his 100thwicket in one-dayers in the course of the series against Australia,Tendulkar gets into a select list of one-day batting all-rounders likeViv Richards.”Sachin was the only current player to be included in Don Bradman’sDream Team that was released after his death, a great honour indeed toan Indian cricketer.”The Press Trust of India which carried excerpts of the ‘findings’ adds that Lele “also praises captain Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Shiv SundarDas, Harbhajan Singh and a few others for their performances fromApril 2000 to March 2001.”What all these profound observations prove is that even with a stylusin hand, Lele can still be Lele. Here then is to certainties…

After much deliberation, Sri Lanka Cricket’s interim committee is likely to retain Galle as a venue for the two-Test series against West Indies in October but has decided to drastically reduce the costs it will incur in hosting the match there, as well as at other venues for the tour.”We hope to cut costs down to about Rs 3 million (approx. $22,200) to try and offset the losses we will incur hosting West Indies,” Kushil Gunasekera, the interim committee vice-president, said.”We didn’t want to deprive the outstation spectators from watching an international match but at the same time we had to also curtail the losses that we will incur playing at Galle.”Galle traditionally has been an extravagant venue and we will try and keep down costs to a minimum.”Gunasekera said that SLC will not be making use of the Galle Municipal building and the Galle Cricket Club. It will also discard having marquees for spectators as well as feeding 500 school children breakfast, lunch and tea, which alone cost SLC Rs 1.2 million.Galle has been a Test venue for all tours since 1998. The two Tests played against Pakistan and India in Galle brought in revenue of Rs 14 million, Gunasekara said, but with SLC receiving only Rs 45 million for TV broadcasting rights for the West Indies series, it stands to lose overall Rs 105 million on the tour comprising two Tests, three ODIs and two T20s.SLC made a record profit of Rs 87 million from the Pakistan tour against a target of Rs 50 million, and stands to gain Rs 300 million from the recently concluded India tour.The first Test against West Indies starts October 14 with the second beginning at P Sara Oval on October 22. R Premadasa Stadium and Pallekele will host the ODIs and T20s.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
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Manjrekar: The way de Villiers plays spin is remarkable

Virat Kohli’s India showed they were not one-trick ponies, choosing to field on what turned out to be a proper Test-match first-day pitch and bowling out South Africa for 214 in a little over two sessions. The show of intent was clear: on a pitch that looked damp they went in with just the five batsmen, brought in an extra seamer and when they found no help for the quicks, the spinners ran through the hapless visitors. India were on in the field too: every ball was chased down with intent, and there were at least three excellent catches taken.Playing his 100th Test, AB de Villiers put up a workshop to show his team-mates that it was possible to bat in India – scoring 85 off 105 out of the 132 runs that came while he was at the wicket – but R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja took four wickets each. Ashwin removed Stiaan van Zyl and Faf du Plessis in his first over, the eighth of the day, and Jadeja was responsible for the big wicket of de Villiers. Only some poor running by Imran Tahir and Kyle Abbott denied one of them a five-for.India might have misread the conditions a little, but they certainly did not have enough time to fret over it. This was only the 20th time in 246 Tests in India that a side had decided to field. Bangalore had taken a lot of rain in the week leading up to the Test. Kohli felt there was moisture underneath the surface, and overheads in such weather in Bangalore generally assist movement in the air. Accordingly Kohli brought in Binny ahead of Amit Mishra, retaining Varun Aaron ahead of Umesh Yadav, who had to make way for the returning Ishant Sharma.It will be fair to assume from the first few overs that India expected more from the pitch. Ishant and Binny – opening the bowling – found little bounce or seam movement in what was a comfortable start for the South Africa openers. Before unease could set in, though, Kohli had the luxury of going to Ashwin, who is in such imperious form that South Africa have been playing the man and not the ball.The first ball Ashwin bowled was short of a length and into the pads. As Dean Elgar took an easy single, Ashwin held his hand up in apology to his captain. The standards are high for what is expected of Ashwin nowadays. Immediately he corrected both the line and the length, and for the second time this series van Zyl played a new-ball offbreak from Ashwin for the turn, and was trapped plumb lbw by the actual ball, which only straightened marginally.In came du Plessis, unsure of his defence, and jumped out of his crease, hoping for something in his reach. Ashwin refused to oblige, the dip on the ball taking it away from du Plessis, who flicked at it hopelessly. Cheteshwar Pujara, at forward short leg, plucked a low one. Du Plessis’ scores in the Tests now read 0, 1 and 0 after 62, 51, 60, 17 and 133 in the ODIs.Aaron went for 12 in his first two overs, but Kohli persisted with him. In his third over, he bowled a length that hit top of the stumps, and then got it to hold the line to square Hashim Amla up and send the off stump cartwheeling. Had Amla been slightly forward, he would have covered the movement, which was slight, but it is quite possible it was Aaron’s pace that kept Amla from pressing forward. The seam on this delivery pointed to fine leg, and yet it moved away.An encouragingly bigger crowd than the one in Mohali gave a warm welcome to de Villiers, and India offered him four overthrows early on. That was pretty much the last freebie he would get. His team-mates, who just needed to be there with him, were just as uncharitable. Just after lunch, Elgar swept Jadeja from his improvised guard of off stump, possibly slightly outside. He had managed a good connection on a similar shot before lunch, but this time he tickled it fine, and onto his own stumps. JP Duminy struggled for 15 in a 42-run partnership before edging Ashwin to slip when playing back: had he pressed forward he would have struggled to get to the pitch anyway because this turned from an in-between length.De Villiers, 44 off 54 now, looked sublime amid chaos. Almost every ball that was slightly loose was put away. The pick of the shots came when he danced down to a 90kmph Jadeja delivery, and managed to drive it through extra cover for four. It is difficult to score runs alone, though. Dane Vilas provided him company for 15 runs in a 39-run partnership, but much like Dale Steyn in Mohali, Vilas lost his head here, stepping out and chipping Jadeja back for a return catch.De Villiers took up the scoring duties exclusively now, manipulating fields that were spread out for him. When he danced down the wicket to Jadeja in the last over before tea, he too was found taking defensive action. The ball lobbed up from around the pad area, and Wriddhiman Saha flew to where the forward short leg would have been to take a stunner. The third umpire confirmed that the low catch was clean, but did not contemplate whether de Villiers had hit the ball. No more replays were shown. Morne Morkel and Kyle Abbott added 37 for the ninth wicket to take South Africa to their first 200 in the series, but Binny ended that stand with a brilliant catch running behind and over his shoulder.Just the right time for India openers then to drive the screw in. The first target was for Shikhar Dhawan to get off the mark in the series, and then for the first wicket to reach 20 for the first time in nine Test innings. Then they batted fluently and without pressure, which has been a rare event, with a long time spent on the road. Imran Tahir provided the exclamation mark to South Africa’s day of horror, dropping M Vijay on 21. Dhawan raced away to 45 off 62, the time saved might come in handy should forecasts for rain materialise during the rest of the Test. A word of warning for South Africa: all of Dhawan’s scores of more than 37 have been 81 and upwards.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) issued a cautious initial response to the news that four of its leading players had signed up with the Indian Cricket League (ICL), saying that they would like to confirm the reports with the players before proceeding with any action.The ICL announced earlier today that Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Abdul Razzaq and Imran Farhat had signed contracts with them, putting an end to weeks of speculation.The board has reiterated that any contracted player joining the ICL would thereafter not be considered for selection for Pakistan. Of the four, only Farhat had signed a central contract, though he has, on his own request, been released from it. Yousuf and Razzaq had been offered contracts but hadn’t signed them, reportedly in protest against their omission from the Twenty20 World Championship squad. Inzamam was not included in the list of centrally-contracted players.But Shafqat Naghmi, the board’s chief operating officer, told Cricinfo no action would be taken until and unless the players confirm the reports themselves. “It wouldn’t be fair to act without confirmation from the players. Once that has happened, action will be taken.”Naghmi, however, stopped short of saying bans would be imposed on the players, as is the board’s policy. “We are very clear on what our policy is, but for any ban, the decision has to be approved by the ad-hoc committee.”How much the decision of the four will hurt Pakistan is also not yet clear. Farhat has been out of favour in shorter formats of the game, but it is thought he was still in the running as a Test opener. Razzaq has already announced his retirement from international cricket and though Salahuddin Ahmed, the chief selector, insisted he is still part of Pakistan’s plans, other officials privately concede the future may not be so bright.Inzamam has already retired from ODI cricket, though he insists he still wants to play Tests for Pakistan. But having missed out on a central contract, his immediate future was also not rosy.As Naghmi acknowledged, however, in a statement with more meaning than is immediately apparent, the loss of one player could be the most significant. “If it is true that they have signed up, then losing Yousuf would be the biggest blow to Pakistan cricket.”

Vendors made full use of a meeting on the World Cup to vent anger about their treatment generally and to call for a better deal.After more than two hours of talks at St Mary’s Primary School in Bridgetown on Sunday, the estimated 60 vendors came away with assurances that the cup would offer more opportunities for selling inside the new-look Kensington Oval than the old cricketing arena, and that there would be fairness in the allocation of positions.Against a backdrop of repeated applause, vendors’ spokespersons Keith Corbin and Ireka Jalani raised concerns about the alleged disregard by the authorities of sellers’ views on matters, including the construction of markets, a reported lack of state marketing of those venues, and a crackdown on vending in city areas.Corbin wanted to know if the vending opportunities available at the ground would be set aside for “just a select few” or if vendors would get a chance to be involved. Chief operations officer with World Cup Barbados, Vancourt Rouse, said “a couple of dozen” opportunities for vending would be available inside Kensington, but distribution would be based on a tendering system. He urged vendors’ groups, including the Barbados Association of Retailers, Vendors and Entrepreneurs, and the Kensington Vendors’ Association, to get together to ensure their members got a good deal.Manager of Legacy Barbados, David Reeves, told the meeting efforts were being made to ensure the tendering process was fair to vendors, to the point of making provision to help them fill out the relevant forms. He said vendors would have greater opportunities and fewer restrictions outside Kensington Oval, a venue where the ICC was involved in the rules. Planning for 60 days of activities surrounding the tournament offered “a tremendous amount of vending opportunities”, he said.The high level of security surrounding the events was also raised by Reeves, who said Barbados was talking to people who had gone to Germany for the football World Cup with a view to comparing developments there with the local plans. He said matches in Germany were played under the same security arrangement the Caribbean would have in place for next year, based on the much-talked-about “sunset legislation”.The meeting was called by Legacy Barbados to explain its mandate and get the views of vendors on a number of matters.

At least the rain stopped yesterday. But that was the only good newsavailable for England’s cricketers, who found themselves unable to make itonto a playing field for the third consecutive day. This time, however, theycouldn’t even make the 75-minute trip to the indoor facilities at the BKSPsports academy, because of the death of their coach driver’s father late onThursday night.With most of the Muslim population devoting themselves to Friday prayers, itproved impossible to find a replacement driver at such short notice. Butgiven the state of Dhaka’s roads, England would probably have been quiterelieved not to be subjected to the whims of a novice behind the wheel oftheir coach.On a muggy but drizzle-free day (to use the local vernacular, in which a torrential downpour counts as a light shower), England were at least able to set foot onto the hotel tennis courts for some fitness drills. They then travelled the short distance to the national hockey stadium, which is situated right next to the waterlogged Bangabandhu, where it is hoped that the first practice match – against the Bangladesh Cricket Board President’s XI – will get under way on Sunday.Given the condensed nature of the tour, the team that is selected for thatmatch is likely to be a fair reflection of the intended Test side. “In 10days’ time, fingers crossed, I’m going to be playing a Test match and I’mpretty excited by it,” said Chris Read, who is the front-runner for thewicketkeeping spot that Alec Stewart finally vacated in September. “ButI’ve not even seen a pitch yet.”England’s only other selection dilemma pits Rikki Clarke against PaulCollingwood for the pivotal No. 6 slot, a position that has been left openby Andrew Flintoff’s late withdrawal with a groin strain.

John Howard and Mahinda Rajapakse, the respective prime ministers of Australia and Sri Lanka, have been asked to exercise restraint when making statements about controversial issues in cricket. Ehsan Mani, the ICC president, feels that the controversy over Muttiah Muralitharan’s doosra was blown out of proportion by their remarks.Speaking to reporters in London, Mani said, “it’s not helpful when high-profile people make these sort of comments. I wish they’d talk to us first rather than making statements in the public arena.”Murali had threatened to boycott Sri Lanka’s forthcoming tour of Australia after the Howard, told a radio station that he believed Murali chucked. However, Howard immediately went on the defensive and asserted that his own comments were blown out of proportion.The Advertiser quoted Howards as saying, “I was simply reflecting on the scientific research in Perth in relation to one of his deliveries. Muralitharan is very welcome to come to Australia when Sri Lanka tours later this year.”Howard was referring to the recent tests conducted at the University of Western Australia, which found that the straightening of Murali’s his arm while bowling the doosra were more than the permissible limit for a spinner.Kevin Maher, who is the president of Cricket Far-North, the body responsible for Tests in Darwin and Cairns, said that he wished Howard hadn’t made the statements in public. “Is Johnny qualified to speak on this matter?” Maher asked, “He might be a cricket lover but I don’t know that it’s his place to call him [Murali] a chucker. It’s disappointing. The whole city of Cairns was looking forward to him coming. The clash between Muralitharan and Warne was a big thing for us.”

Whilst the First XI were struggling against their Somerset opponents, Hampshire 2nd XI were recording their second successive ECB 2nd XI Championship victory against the same second side. In a run chase on the third and last day, the last five wickets fell for just 6 runs to give the visitors victory.The first day did not start until 4pm following heavy rain, but the Hampshire batsmen made up for lost time with Alex Morris, Lawrence Prittipaul and Iain Brunnschweiler all posting half centuries.When Somerset batted Piren Holloway played superbly, hitting 21 fours and 4 sixes in his run-a-ball 143, James Hibberd the young Calmore all-rounder took 2 wickets, as Somerset declared 52 runs behind.Again with rain threatening, Hampshire pushed their second innings score along. Dominic Clapp who made his first team debut for Hampshire in the match against Oxford UCCE scored 55, whilst Iain Brunnschweiler’s 49 allowed Hampshire to set Somerset a target of 5 an over (281 in a minimum of 49 overs).Somerset set about their task with vigour, Holloway and Keith Parsons both plastered the boundary boards, and skipper Wesley Durston kept up with the run rate, however with 51 still needed Parsons was run out on 88, Renato Almeida was well caught by Charlie van der Gucht off Chaka Hodge, Rowe was bowled by the impressive Mark Thorburn, who then had Reynold McLean (brother of Nixon) lbw next ball, to give Hampshire victory.Mark Thorburn dinished with 4 wickets, with van der Gucht and the Anguillan, West Indies ‘B’ player Chaka Hodge taking 2 a piece.