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Umar Gul, the Pakistan fast bowler, is hopeful of returning to bowling in a week’s time after making sufficient recovery from an ankle injury which ruled him out of the tour of South Africa. Gul and Shoaib Akhtar were sent home from the tour to appear before a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) medical commission.”There is no pain in my ankle at the moment but the physiotherapist at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) has suggested that since my calf muscles are a bit weak, I need to do some exercises to develop them,” Gul told . “That should allow me to resume bowling in the next four or five days.”Gul was expected to play the second Test at Port Elizabeth after missing the first, but the team management decided against it, fearing that he might aggravate the injury before the World Cup. Gul added that his prime target was proving his fitness before the selectors announce the World Cup squad.”Playing the World Cup is one of my dreams,” he said. “In order to represent the country in the mega event with full force and fitness, I will be making all out efforts from hereon.”Gul has also signed a contract with English county Gloucestershire as their overseas player this season.

Jacques Kallis has joined the chorus of international cricketers in urging the ICC to have a separate window for the Indian Premier League (IPL). Kallis felt the players were experiencing an increasing workload and highlighted it as the reason for the lack of allrounders in the game at present.”If you see the amount of cricket we’ve been playing there may be evenmore of a decline [in allrounders],” Kallis said ahead of the first Test against India in Chennai. “There’s just too much of workload on the allrounders and they’re going to have to come up with some plan to cut it down. Otherwise the allrounders may have to become [solely] Test players or ODI players to cope with the workload. From that point of view, it is sad to see.”Adding to the gruelling schedule will be the inaugural 44-day IPL tournament, set to start on April 18. “It’s tough to turn down good money,” he said, “and somewhere along the line there is going to be sacrifices having to be made. It will have to be done by individual players. As far as I’m concerned, I still think I’ve got a good few years left in me and hopefully the IPL will be lucrative.”It’s going to be a tough decision and maybe the ICC will have to integrate the IPL into the international season and make sure that’s part of it. Hopefully work around it, still giving the players a break. Maybe they can come up with some formula – limit it to 20-25 ODIs and 14-15 Tests. I don’t know the ideal number but maybe someone can work it out.”However, after its meeting in Dubai on March 18, the ICC had made it clear that the Future Tours Programme will not be altered to suit the IPL as neither the league nor the Indian board, which runs it, made such a request.South Africa’s coach Mickey Arthur was the first international coach tosuggest something similar last fortnight. “I do think the IPL is good for cricket,” he told Cricinfo. “However, there must be a window period for it in the international schedule.”John Dyson, the West Indies coach, had also voiced similar concerns in the wake of the possibility that Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul would miss the first two home Tests against Australia in order to be available to play for their IPL franchises.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsWesley Barresi struck five sixes and seven fours during his 40-ball 75•ICC/Donald MacLeod

Scotland captain Preston Mommsen’s unbeaten 44-ball 68 went in vain after his bowlers and fielders conceded too many runs, to allow Netherlands amass 191 for 6. Netherlands’ 32-run win was set up by Wesley Barresi’s quick start and Peter Borren’s surge at the end which helped them collect 56 runs in the last five overs, after Scotland had dropped Barresi twice early on in the same over.Opting to bat with an unchanged side from the game against Afghanistan, Netherlands lost their first wicket, that of Stephan Myburgh, to Alasdair Evans in the third over before Ben Cooper joined Barresi. In their second-wicket partnership of 82 runs, Cooper’s contribution was only 12 off 14 as Barresi unleashed several orthodox shots, including drives and cuts before he was given two reprieves in three balls in the sixth over. He soon struck a six to make Scotland realise the price of that. He was particularly harsh against Michael Leask and Richie Berrington, collecting 25 runs off eight balls, put together. Evans provided a bit of respite by getting both batsmen out in the 11th over, but that only brought Borren on the pitch.The run rate was over nine when he walked out and he made sure it fell only fleetingly. After relying on singles early on, he let loose with two leg-side heaves in the 15th over, and pelted Watt for 19 runs in the 17th over with slog-sweeps and a reverse-sweep. His fifty off 24 balls acted as the a burn in the wounds after Scotland had hurt themselves to allow Barresi’s fifty off 27 balls. An 18-ball 24 from Roelof van der Merwe lifted them past 190. Evans took two more in his last over to finish with a career-best 5 for 24.Scotland, in response, were in a spot of bother early on after losing their openers in the first nine balls. They struggled to get partnerships going as left-arm spinners van der Merwe and Pieter Seelaar got the next four batsmen out, three of them holing out in the deep, to leave them reeling at 75 for 6. The required rate had shot up to 14 when Safyaan Sharif joined Mommsen with eight overs to go. Mommsen chaperoned the partnership of 80 runs for nearly eight overs, but it was a near-impossible task to accomplish with the tail and despite some meaty blows till the end, Scotland were all out for 159.

Mitchell Johnson ended a Test he was not sure he would play in with anenhanced reputation and the hope India’s batsmen would see him as a threatfor the rest of the series. A mid-match chat with Troy Cooley, Australia’sbowling coach, helped Johnson achieve more swing in the second innings andhis burst of three wickets finished the game late on the fourth day.However, Johnson had to survive a close battle to appear on Boxing Day afterthe push for Shaun Tait grew when he replaced the left-armer for theChappell-Hadlee Series. Johnson’s variety and tight control, which was afeature of the home fast bowlers in Melbourne, were crucial elements asIndia were dismissed for 196 and 161.”There was a bit of concern there [about my spot],” he said after the teamhad completed a recovery session at a Melbourne beach. “It took me bysurprise, being dropped from the one-day squad.”While Australia’s spin options are limited, there is strength in thefast-bowling stocks and the back-up is led by Tait, who remained in the 12-man squad for the second Test. There will be no way infor Tait in Sydney after the 337-run win in Melbourne, but Johnson is stillnot feeling secure about his place. After 11 wickets in three Tests he hasmade a promising start and is safe for a couple of games at least. Johnsondelivered an immaculate line outside off stump at the MCG, which was theplan to frustrate the Indians into rash shots, and he gave away less thantwo runs an over.In the first innings he opened with five maidens to Rahul Dravid and afternot picking up any wickets or much swing he talked to Cooley. The upshot wasa straighter wrist position on day four and some dramatic movement. MS Dhoniand Anil Kumble were caught behind in the same over, setting up a speedyfinish, and Johnson was proud to seal the win by bowling RP Singh.”Getting three wickets was a bit of a relief,” he said. “In the firstinnings I didn’t have any luck, so it was good to get those wickets at theend and to get it reversing was a good sign.”Fourteen victims in the one-day series in India helped demystify the opposition and he was notintimidated bowling to Tendulkar, Laxman, Dravid and Ganguly. “Hopefully theIndians are thinking about me,” he said. “I just tried to back myself andnot think about who was at the other end. Once you start to think about whoyou are bowling to and how good they are you might struggle a bit.”Australia squad Matthew Hayden, Phil Jaques, Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Adam Gilchrist (wk), Brett Lee, Brad Hogg, Mitchell Johnson, Stuart Clark, Shaun Tait.

Clare Connor has been taken on a new role alongside being the ECB’s chief executive – she has been appointed as the European representative to the ICC Women’s Committee. It’s the same role that her predecessor Gill McConway held.The committee, formed in 2005, has three main objectives: to govern and manage women’s cricket in conjunction with the ICC; provide leadership to the Regional Development Managers to assist them in developing women’s cricket in their region; and to make recommendations to the ICC Development Committee for future women’s cricket initiatives.Connor will join representatives from four other regions on the committee, which meets twice a year, including Carol Whilby-Maxwell (Americas), Catherine Campbell (East-Asia-Pacific), Kerri Laing (Africa) and Shubhangi Kulkarni (Asia). The Netherlands’ Betty Timmer is the committee’s chairwoman.Connor captained England for six years from 2000 until retiring. She was awarded the MBE in 2004 and the OBE in 2006. She said she was honoured by the appointment. “With so much international cricket on the horizon, and participation levels at an all-time high, it is an exciting time to be in a position to make an impact on the women’s game through association with ICC.”In particular, the women’s World Cup and the Twenty 20 World Championships, both in 2009, will be impressive showcase events to show how dynamic the women’s game has become in recent years.”

Barbados-born Mark Lavine turned on a bit of Caribbean style on Saturday to entertain fans in a one of the backwaters of the cricket world with a all-round performance that continues to have the fancied Highveld Strikers on the back foot against North West.After taking career-best figures of six for 55 in the the Strikers’ first innings, Lavine held the North West reply together with a hard-hitting 85, before taking the one Strikers wicket to fall before stumps on day two.Lavine’s knock came off just 97 balls and included ten fours and three sixes, helping to hold together a North West innigs that at one stage looked as if it was on the point of imploding dramatically.When Lavine strode to the wicket, North West had just lost their fourth wicket with just 109 on the board. Despite a useful start from the openers, wickets fell at irritatingly regular intervals for North West as they looked to establish a healthy first innings lead.That they earned an advantage of 53 runs was as much a result of some fine batting for the tenth wicket as it was the product of Lavine’s brilliance. Roe and Jordaan rode their luck in a partnership of 49, frustrating the Strikers attack with a succession of unorthodox strokes.The sense that Lavine was the beneficiary of some divine assistance was only enhanced when he raced in to take the only Strikers wicket to fall before bad light stopped play – Bacher caught behind by Poole for just nine. If North West can continue to prise such spectacular performances from Lavine and play with the kind of collective commitment they have already shown this season, they may have a surprise in store for some of the other traditional powerhouses on their visits to Potchefstrom.

South Division

A magnificent 44-ball hundred from Luke Wright took Sussex to their first Twenty20 win of the season, beating Kent by seven wickets at Canterbury. After losing Chris Nash for 1, Murray Goodwin (30) and Wright put on 82 for the second wicket, but it was Wright’s partnership of 85 with his captain, Chris Adams, which propelled Sussex’s chase of 182. Wright fell immediately after reaching his hundred, which contained 11 fours and six sixes, but Adams’ slick 38 saw his side home with 17 balls to spare.

Midlands-West-Wales Division

Warwickshire kept up their unbroken record in the Twenty20 Cup with a 12-run win over Northamptonshire at Edgbaston. It was the ever-youthful Darren Maddy who anchored their victory with another fine allround performance. His 51 from 37 balls took Warwickshire to 174 for 7 from their 20 overs – aided by a bristling 20 from Dougie Brown, playing his first game of the season – before Maddy took 2 for 30 in Northamptonshire’s unsuccessful chase. Johan van der Wath was left stranded and unbeaten on 48 as the visitors ran out of overs.Mark Wallace and Ben Wright guided Glamorgan to a five-run victory at Sophia Gardens over Somerset, the pair’s unbeaten partnership of 47 taking Glamorgan home with four balls to spare. The home side were in difficulty when they lost Damien Wright at 96 for 5, but Wallace took command in his 30-ball 35 to settle any nerves. Somerset’s dauntingly powerful lineup were cut apart by Andrew Davies’ 2 for 12, Ryan Watkins’ 2 for 26 and three wickets for Dean Cosker.

Hooray for helmets
The selection of Farveez Maharoof created a headache for the team before the first Test and the bowler finished the match with one. Brett Lee’s bouncer is mean most of the time, but it is even more dangerous on a murky morning and Maharoof was unable to avoid it. He turned his head as he ducked and the ball thudded into the back of his helmet, ballooning to Adam Gilchrist. It was the second helmet Lee had struck in the game after finding Marvan Atapattu’s in the first innings.Not yet safe hands
Phil Jaques staged a verbal defence of his fielding before returning to the Test team on Thursday and he has spent much of the match at short leg, a position he has been working hard to master. His efforts in close have been fine but he made a mistake at square leg in the second over of the morning. Lunging to intercept Chamara Silva’s flick off Stuart Clark, he was unable to grab the chance that was comfortable by Test standards.Nifty fifty
After Stuart MacGill’s speedy achievement of 200 wickets in 41 Tests comes Stuart Clark’s acceleration to 50. Clark recovered quickly from Jaques’ spill to trap Prasanna Jayawardene lbw in his next over and bring up his half-century in 10 games. Charlie Turner reached the mark in a record six matches while other Australians to beat Clark included Fred Spofforth, Rodney Hogg and Terry Alderman (eight matches) and MacGill, Arthur Mailey and JJ Ferris (nine).The immoveable feast
Tea times have permission to switch due to rain or a team being nine wickets down, but the lunch reservation is always the same. Sri Lanka lost four wickets in the 18.5 overs allowed by the rain and regulations in the first session, with Lee making the penultimate breakthrough two minutes after the food was due. The 40-minute break was taken and the players returned for 15 balls before Muttiah Muralitharan was bowled by Clark.

2002

Pakistan’s first full tour of Bangladesh ended in a whitewash of the hosts, both in the Tests and one-day internationals. Pakistan won by an innings and 78 runs on day three of the first Test at the Bangabandhu National Stadium. Waqar Younis took six to dismiss Bangladesh for 160, Pakistan’s batsmen racked up 490, and Danish Kaneria polished off the local batting order with seven wickets.Bangladesh didn’t fare much better in Chittagong, making scores of 148 and allowing Pakistan to score 465 – Yousuf Youhana had an unbeaten 204 to his name and Younis Khan 119. Reeling under the mountain of runs they crashed to an innings-and-169-run defeat.Tests: Pakistan 2, Bangladesh 0
Bangladesh were clearly overawed by their opponents as the ODI series began. Bangladesh, owing plenty to debutant Tareq Aziz’s 3 for 19, bowled Pakistan out for 202 in 49.5 overs in the series opener in Dhaka but flopped with the bat. Pakistan used eight bowlers – even Inzamam-ul-Haq bowled a wicket-maiden – and won by 49 runs. Crowd trouble marred the second ODI – Shoaib Akhtar, who was fielding near deep fine leg, got hurt when one of the spectators hurled something at his head and had to go to hospital to receive treatment – but Pakistan won by 72 runs. The rout was completed thanks to Adbul Razzaq’s 6 for 35 and Shahid Afridi’s 44-ball 83 in the final game.ODIs: Pakistan 3, Bangladesh 0
2003
Pakistan hosted Bangladesh for a return series in the second half of 2003 and the result was the same. Hundreds in both innings from Yasir Hameed, on Test debut, was the highlight of a seven-wicket win at Karachi’s National Stadium. Habibul Bashar was Bangladesh’s star performer with 71 and 108 but there was little else. Shabbir Ahmed, another debutant, and Kaneria each grabbed eight wickets in the match.Bangladesh made 361 in their first innings in Peshawar, with Javed Omar scoring 119 and Bashar 97, but folded for just 96 in the second as Shoaib finished with ten wickets in the game. Mohammad Hafeez’s maiden hundred then sealed a nine-wicket win.The series ended in a thriller in Multan, sealed by Inzamam’s masterclass. Bangladesh bowled extremely well to gain a 106-run lead but collapsed to 154; set 262 to sweep the series Pakistan struggled spectacularly and owed everything to Inzamam’s unbeaten 138. Victory was attained by one-wicket and Inzamam was rewarded with the captaincy.Tests: Pakistan 3, Bangladesh 0
Bangladesh stayed on for an ODI series and lost 5-0. The margins of victory were comprehensive, bar the fourth ODI when Bangladesh pushed Pakistan to the wire. Hameed’s maiden hundred powered the hosts to a 137-run win in Multan; Youhana’s 106 set up a 74-run win in Faisalabad; the series was clinched with a big win in Lahore, thanks in no small part to Umar Gul’s economical five-wicket bag; Pakistan edged a Rawalpindi thriller in game four, chasing down 223 off the penultimate ball of the match with Youhana not out on 94; and the drubbing came with a 58-run win in Karachi, one set up the top order. Youhana’s 366 runs pushed him into the top ten of the ICC’s ODI batsmen.ODIs: Pakistan 5, Bangladesh 0

Ehsan Mani has warned that the ICC could lose credibility as a result of the “disgraceful” handling of the Malcolm Speed affair. Speed was placed on gardening leave until the end of his contract in July after reportedly falling out with some of the executive board.Mani, who was president of the ICC between 2003 and 2006, said that he was disappointed with the way the matter had been dealt with. “He [Speed] has served the ICC with loyalty and a huge amount of distinction and I would have expected that if there were differences they could have been handled privately,” Mani told the .”The way the board has handled this has been disgraceful. If they do not pull their act together they will lose credibility.” Mani’s comments come in the wake of similar remarks by his predecessor, Malcolm Gray, who said that things had got out of control and that differences “should be handled better”.The current executive will also be uneasy with Mani’s comments about the independent forensic audit into Zimbabwe Cricket. It voted to keep the report secret, a decision which was the catalyst for Speed’s departure as he made it clear he did not agree with the move.”The ICC must always be transparent,” Mani said. “Ideally the report should have been made public. Nothing ever stays private. But I am hopeful that with David Morgan taking over [in July] the ICC will come through this.”