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Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff have agreed to pay their counties 10% of their potential earnings from the Indian Premier League, after England’s cricketers were cleared to take part in the competition for a three-week window that will rule them out of the start of the English season.The settlement was agreed after negotiations between the Professional Cricketers’ Association and the ECB, with Hampshire’s chairman, Rod Bransgrove, and Lancashire’s Michael Cairns representing the counties of England’s two most marketable players.”It’s something the players are supportive of,” Sean Morris, the chief executive of the PCA, told the Guardian. “One game’s absence could net a county a fair bit of money, so commercially it makes sense. The counties would probably prefer it that way round than having a player for one game that he might not have played in anyway.”Bransgrove, who has already had dealings with the IPL after agreeing to the release of Dimitri Mascarenhas for last year’s competition, described the arrangement as “sensible and adult.” If Pietersen was bought at the auction for his projected value of US$1.5 million, his three weeks’ work could net his county a sum in the region of £50,000 on a pro-rata basis.That figure could rise for the 2010 season. Lalit Modi told Cricinfo on Friday that he would be expecting a two-year commitment from any player signed by the IPL, and there’s still a chance that England may rearrange their summer fixtures to accommodate longer stints in next year’s competition. “Broadcasting contracts could make that tricky at the moment, but it’s a question of how flexible people can be,” said Morris.”It doesn’t make sense to have conflicting games between international cricket and the IPL,” he added, “so we could reach the stage where England players are available for the whole tournament. Who knows, if that happens, Flintoff could probably part-fund some of the ground redevelopment at Old Trafford by himself.”

Bangladesh, led by their captain Mohammad Ashraful, may have extended the first Test against Sri Lanka to the fifth day in Mirpur, but the visitors are confident of wrapping up a win on Wednesday.Boosted by Ashraful’s half-century, Bangladesh closed the day at 254 for 5 chasing an improbable 521. Although the past month has seen India and South Africa pull off record chases, it’s unlikely Bangladesh will be able to manage a further 267 runs; no team has chased 500 in a Test before.Tillakaratne Dilshan, the Sri Lanka batsman, said his team were looking forward to a win. “They will be under pressure on the fifth day because they need to get around 270 runs and we need only two wickets to expose their tail,” Dilshan said after the day’s play. “Tomorrow [Wednesday] after two overs, the new ball will be available for us so we have a very good chance to win this Test match.”Bangladesh began their chase with a brisk opening stand of 40 between Imrul Kayes and Tamim Iqbal, who made 47. Tamim said the surface at the Shere Bangla National Stadium was the best he had encountered in a home Test. “It has even bounce and is not slow and low,” he said. “It is a pitch that keeps both the batsmen and the bowlers interested.”Tamim felt if Bangladesh’s overnight pair of Ashraful and Shakib Al Hasan – who added an unbroken 74 – hold out till lunch on the fifth day, the hosts had a shot at winning. Tamim, though, failed to convert a promising start, dismissed while going for a rash pull, which he admitted might have come about due to his anxiety. “I have been getting lots of 20s and 30s during the past few months and that played on my mind when I moved into the 40s. Maybe I was a bit nervous and wanted to get to the half-century quickly.”I thought I could relax a bit once I reached that mark. It was a wrong shot to play at that stage and probably it was not one of my strengths. Maybe on another day, another situation and I would have thought differently.”Tamim said he was “more to blame” for the run-out of Kayes, and defended the team’s attacking approach against Muttiah Muralitharan. “The best thing is to be positive against him as Ash [Mohammad Ashraful], who I think plays Murali the best, showed. I think the attacking intent from our batsmen was good but maybe we could have done without a few errors in judgment.”I was more comfortable in the second innings against him and I am sure If I play him a bit more then I will be even more confident while facing him.”

Lancashire have signed Adrian Shankar, a 23-year-old batsman, on a two-year deal. He is a former MCC Young Cricketer and has recently completed a law degree at Cambridge University which means he is now able to resume his cricket career.Shankar spent time with the Lancashire squad during 2008 pre-season training, then played for Kent’s second XI during the first half of the summer before returning to Lancashire and he is looking forward to his new challenge.”Lancashire was always my preferred destination when deciding on my future. My father spent his formative years in Liverpool and retains great affection for the area,” he said. “Even though I have grown up in the South, I have an emotional tie to the North West, and my experience of the people there has only reinforced that.”I know competition for places will be fierce, but that is healthy for the club. I had a positive spell in the second XI this year, and the senior players were very open and welcoming. The coaches and the facilities at Old Trafford mean that the infrastructure is available for me to develop and become an important part of Lancashire’s future.”Cricket manager Mike Watkinson added that Shankar will increase the depth of the club’s youth development. “At Lancashire, we have a very successful academy programme which has so far produced nine players who have gone on to sign professional contracts,” he said. “Adrian is a quality young batsman who fills a gap in our player development programme. He has attracted interest from a number of other counties which confirms his potential.”Shankar has played 12 first-class matches with a career-best of 143.

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Haryana’s fast bowlers followed up their batsmen’s efforts to give their side complete control of the match against Jharkhand on the second day. Sunny Singh added only one to his overnight score before being dismissed for 127 but Haryana amassed 500 with the help of a brisk 82 from Sumeet Sharma and a half-century from No. 9 Abir Lavasa. In reply, Jharkhand crumbled to 84 for 6 with new-ball bowler Sachin Rana taking three wickets. With two days remaining, Jharkhand are facing an uphill battle to stave off an innings defeat.
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In Margao, Goa were also in charge of their match, against Jammu and Kashmir, but not as emphatically as Haryana. Robin D’Souza and Ryan Ninan extended their ninth-wicket partnership to 121 runs to frustrate J&K. The centrepiece of Jammu’s reply was a patient 122-run association between Manoj Joglekar and Samiullah Beigh. Their side were in a hole because they lost three quick wickets each on either side of that stand. Medium-pacer Saurabh Bandekar, a former India Under-19, was their main tormentor, taking four wickets.
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There was another one-sided match in progress in Dharmasala where Himachal Pradesh were eying full points against Kerala. On a day on which fifteen wickets fell, Kerala were forced to follow-on, and were 27 for 2 at stumps in their second innings. It was a great day for Ashok Thakur: he started off with a breezy 33 to boost Himachal to 370, and then took five wickets as Kerala were shot out for 135. It would have been even more embarrassing for Kerala had it not been for their late-order resistance, the last two wickets lifting them from 59 for 8.
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It was an action-packed day in Agartala as well where a low-scoring tussle was playing out. Debutants Sarupam Purkayastha and Deepak Sharma (46) were the only Assam batsmen to make more than 20 when their side were bowled out for 195. Tripura had a slim first-innings lead but Assam’s bowlers took wickets periodically to wrench the advantage back. Tripura finished on 96 for 5 with Nishit Shetty (15*) the only recognised batsman remaining.
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It was a far quieter day in Gwalior with only four wickets falling and 174 runs being scored. Bengal were threatening to dominate the game but Madhya Pradesh captain Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Brijesh Tomar ensured it was a tight affair. Fast bowler Ashok Dinda, who came into prominence during the IPL, took three wickets to leave MP in trouble at 59 for 5, before cautious half-centuries from Kanitkar and Tomar took them to stumps within sight of Bengal’s total.
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In Delhi, Services folded for 77 in their first innings, undone by the quick bowling pair of Sandeep Singh and Mohammad Hashim, to give Vidarbha the edge. That advantage was magnified by an unbeaten century from opener Faiz Fazal, who had top-scored in both innings in the previous match against Madhya Pradesh. Vidarbha finished the day with a 252-run lead and having eight wickets in hand, well-placed to push for victory.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Lahore Badshahs made their second successive ICL final with a masterful performance against Chennai Superstars in Ahmedabad. Lahore have raised their game as the tournament progressed and are peaking at the right moment. The best-of-three finals could be a repeat of the last tournament if Hyderabad Heroes beat the Royal Bengal Tigers in the second semi-final on Tuesday.Naved-ul-Hasan, who had taken seven wickets in Lahore’s last two matches, added three more to his tally to become the tournament’s leading wicket-taker. With each of his scalps he swung the momentum back to Lahore. Ian Harvey had more than made up for the fall of his opening partner G Vignesh in the third over when Naved nailed him in the sixth. Harvey hit Mohammad Sami for two fours – in an over that cost 12 – and with Russell Arnold pushed Chennai past 50 when Naved bowled a fuller delivery outside off stump. Harvey tried to loft it but didn’t quite get the middle of the bat on it and the catch was taken by Saqlain Mushtaq at mid-off.Saqlain broke the next two big partnerships as Hemang Badani tried to push Lahore towards the 150-run mark along with Arnold and R Sathish. He conceded only six runs in his first over and the pressure got to the batsmen when he beat Badani with an offbreak at the start of his next. When Arnold came on strike four balls later, he chose to play a defensive shot but the ball beat his bat to take the off stump. Chennai’s run-rate had dropped and at the half-way mark they had 86 for 3. But Badani found a capable partner in Sathish, who hit two consecutive fours off Sami. Badani decided to take the attack to Saqlain by launching him for a six over his head. But when he tried to do the same in his next over, he misread Saqlain’s straighter delivery and was bowled for 37. Before Chennai could get away again, Naved took two in two overs. That meant Lahore were set a par score to chase.Chennai would have known that a few wickets could have turned their opposition cautious in a knockout game. But Lahore launched an assault so fierce that even the loss of two wickets in the first five overs kept them waist-high above the required run-rate. Imran Farhat had them hurtling towards the target with a 24-ball 45 that included two sixes in a Nantie Hayward over.The run-rate slipped a touch at his fall as Mohammad Yousuf and Inzamam were content to rotate the strike. But then Inzamam decided he wanted to wrap it up quickly and he picked boundaries off each bowler – Sathish was hit for two sixes, Vignesh, Shabbhir and Harvey for two fours each. He reached his half-century off 28 balls, with 36 coming in boundaries.Inzamam fell when four more were required to make it to the finals and Azhar Mahmood did the needful in three balls.

Arjuna Ranatunga, the chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), has said it is “unfair” the national board does not gain any money for releasing its players for the IPL . The SLC, he said, will now ensure it becomes the sole representative of its players and earns revenue from any future contract they sign with other organisations, he said.Speaking in Colombo, Ranatunga refused to react to reports of a breakdown in ties with the BCCI following a recent meeting between Indian officials and Lankan representatives in Bangkok to negotiate a US$70 million deal. “I am waiting till I get a report [on the meeting] before I take up the matter,” he said. Ranatunga has been a vocal critic of the IPL, comparing it once to instant noodles, and the BCCI has reportedly conveyed to Lankan officials that it will not negotiate with them on the deal as long as he is in charge of the country’s cricket.He made it clear the SLC would soon move to minimise the role of players’ agents in the game, especially when it comes to signing IPL contracts, by amending players’ contracts from next year.”The issue with some of the players is that through their agents they go and sign with certain organisations unknown to us and eventually get into a conflict with SLC,” Ranatunga said. “One thing the players should remember is that they are employees of SLC. Every year, we sign about 40 cricketers from the national and ‘A’ teams. We give them very attractive contracts.”It is SLC that looks after the players from the junior level and brings them to the level of national cricket by spending a lot of money. The SLC is therefore duty-bound to earn some money from these cricketers rather than allow them to make payments to some agent outside. This way, we will safeguard our cricketers and make use of the money for cricket development.”Ranatunga said that the money gained as commission by players’ agents from IPL contracts should “come to the SLC because the players are contracted to us”. “We release these players for one and a half months but SLC does not gain any benefit. This is very unfair. In future, SLC will become the agents for its contracted cricketers and we hope to earn a lot of revenue though that. We are getting some advice from the legal side on how to go about it,” he said.The eight IPL teams have top 13 Sri Lankan players on three-year contracts, including Mahela Jayawardene, the captain, Kumar Sangakkara, the vice-captain, Muttiah Muralitharan, Sanath Jayasuriya and Chaminda Vaas.”We cannot do anything right now with the present contracts, which have already been signed. But we will include certain clauses into the contracts next year, which would be beneficial to the players and SLC,” Ranatunga said.However, the board will abide by a sports ministry directive allowing Sri Lankan players to participate in next year’s IPL instead of a tour to England at the same time that was negotiated by Ranatunga. The England series has since been put on hold. “If we get a directive from the minister of sport to release our top cricketers to play in a domestic cricket tournament in India, we have no right to question it,” Ranatunga said.Ranatunga said the SLC will lose money because of the aborted England series and blamed IPL for the loss. He was, however, hopeful that an arrangement could still be worked out with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) so that Sri Lanka could be part of the Stanford 20/20 quadrangular in 2010.He blamed the IPL for SLC’s loss of revenue due to the cancellation of the “special” England tour next year. “Because of the IPL, Sri Lanka will be losing a lot of money,” he said. “We won’t be able to play the postponed one-day triangular with India and South Africa slotted for next year. India has postponed that series because of the IPL. Likewise, we will lose US$2 million on the England tour, money which we can make use for the development of our cricket.

“We were to get some money for the first time for a tour to England. This is a special tour and they were very helpful to pull us out of the red and promise us the money. They also offered us the Stanford tournament as an added incentive. We might lose even that but we are still trying to negotiate,” he said.Outlining his reasons for pushing for the England tour, rather then the IPL, Ranatunga said that Test cricket needed to be preserved and playing for the country should be a player’s “first choice”.”I don’t want to elaborate anything further than that,” he said. “I have mentioned this in a very understanding language to the players and explained to them. Taking decisions on their behalf is not my responsibility. As a past cricketer, I feel we have a great responsibility to see that Test cricket is not surpassed by other forms of cricket especially Twenty20. Instead of pursuing only money for cricket we have a responsibility to safeguard Test cricket.”

India’s newly-appointed national selectors, the first set to be paid by the BCCI, will be on a four-year contract which will be reviewed annually, according to Shashank Manohar, the board’s new president. Manohar was confirmed as Sharad Pawar’s successor at the annual general meeting in Mumbai, while Kris Srikkanth was appointed the new chairman of the selection panel.The BCCI unveiled its new list of office-bearers at the meeting, and declared revenues of Rs 1000.14 crore (approximately US$215 million) for the previous year, with Rs 559.31 crore coming from media rights alone. While the board’s revenues have jumped by 36% from the previous year, according to its annual report, its profit for 2007-2008 is Rs 303.15 crore.The BCCI also approved the increased payments for domestic players, and has decided to set up an exclusive sports medicine centre.While those were the major announcements, the handover was smooth and underlined the fact that the reshuffle was essentially a result of an arrangement that will continue to see Pawar, who is the ICC vice-president, remain firmly in control of Indian cricket, albeit in an advisory capacity. Manohar, said to be a hardliner, is a staunch loyalist of the federal minister.In fact, the new arrangements that were formalised today resembled a game of musical chairs among administrators of the ruling group. N Srinivasan, the previous BCCI treasurer, is now its secretary, and takes over from Niranjan Shah, who has been accommodated as IPL vice-chairman. Sanjay Jagdale, the former selector, takes over from MP Pandove as the board’s joint secretary; Pandove is now the treasurer.Among other significant appointments, Lalit Modi, who heads the IPL and Champions League, will now also head the BCCI’s influential fixtures committee that decides on venues and dates for international matches in India. Modi remains on the marketing committee, which is headed by Pawar.Besides Srikkanth, the other national selectors are Yashpal Sharma (North Zone), Raja Venkat (East), Surendra Bhave (West) and Narendra Hirwani (Central). N Srinivasan, who takes over as secretary from Niranjan Shah, will be the convenor of the selection panel. MP Pandove replaces Srinivasan as treasurer while Jagdale is the new joint secretary. The five vice-presidents are Arun Jaitley (North Zone), Shivlal Yadav (South), Arindam Ganguly (East), Chirayu Amin (West), and Lalit Modi (Central).The BCCI also named its junior selection committee, which will be chaired by Abey Kuruvilla, the former India bowler, and also includes Sanjeev Sharma, Sanjay Desai, Rajesh Bohra and Rajendra Singh Hans. The panel will be convened by Jagdale.Shah has been appointed to a new post – the vice-chairman of the council. The governing council also includes Chirayu Amin, Farooq Abdulla, Rajeev Shukla, IS Bindra, Arun Jaitley, Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and the Nawab of Pataudi.The BCCI announced that cricketers who played the 2007-08 Ranji Trophy will earn Rs 37,000 per match day, up from Rs 25,000-26,000 in 2006-07. They also nominated umpires Amiesh Saheba and Suresh Shastri to the ICC panel.The Indian board granted Affiliate Memberships to the Meghalaya Cricket Association, Nagaland Cricket Association, and Arunachal Cricket Association while Chhattisgarh State Cricket Association and Bihar Cricket Association were given Associate Membership.For a full list of the BCCI appointments click here.

Sir John Anderson is set to retire as the chairman of New Zealand Cricket at tomorrow’s AGM after 13 years in the post.”Since 1995 Sir John has paved the way forward for a resurgence in cricket in New Zealand and his governance during that time has revitalised the sport and its finances, and has seen NZC successfully manage its way through some turbulent issues,” Justin Vaughan, New Zealand Cricket’s CEO, said. “His leadership will be missed.”Anderson, 63, was appointed chairman in 1995 and subsequently became the country’s representative on the ICC board, a position he now relinquishes. A board member, Alan Isaac, will take over Anderson’s position during the interim until a replacement is formally elected on September 29.In addition, Chris Moller, the former chief executive of New Zealand Rugby Union, has been appointed as a NZC board director. The board also recommended that Don Neely, the president of NZC, who has concluded his second one-year term, be re-elected for a final term.

ScorecardAndrew White cracked an unbeaten 109 as Ireland set about making up for lost time against Canada following the opening-day wash-out. The home side further advanced their position with three late wickets as Canada struggled to 31 for 3 at the close.Ireland had won the toss on the opening day before rain prevented play, so they were presented with the challenge of battling some early moisture in the surface. At 142 for 4 the day was in the balance, but it was turned completely in favour of Ireland as White and Kevin O’Brien added 154 for the fifth wicket.White struck 14 boundaries in his 141-ball effort, while O’Brien hit four sixes in his 65 before lofting a catch to long-on off Steve Welsh. Canada’s fielding deteriorated as the day went on although the bowlers stuck to their task when the pitch flattened out under the sunshine.It was Kyle McCallan, Ireland’s captain, who capped their impressive performance by having a hand in all three Canada wickets to fall. He ran out opener Ruvindu Gunasekara and then, with ball in hand, dismissed Mohammed Iqbal, caught at silly point, and bowled Sami Faridi through the gate in consecutive balls during his fourth over.

Sarah Taylor, England’s talented wicketkeeper-batsman, is on the brink of becoming the youngest woman to 1000 ODI runs. Taylor, who has just turned 19, is almost certain to beat Mithali Raj, India’s skipper, who was 21 years and a week when she brought up the feat.Taylor needs 32 runs to bring up the landmark which could be achieved today when England face South Africa in the fourth ODI at Shenley. There is then a fifth ODI, on Monday at Chesterfield, before the series against India which begins later this month.The match is a dead rubber, with England already having wrapped up the series, so all eyes will be on Taylor, who averages 40.33 from her 31 ODIs to date. An assured batsman with a natural eye, her stated aim from the outset of her career has been to score at a run a ball. Her strike rate may be below that but still stands at an impressive 76.10.But Charlotte Edwards, Taylor’s captain, will remain the fastest player to the feat for now. While Edwards was 21 and a half when she brought up 1000 ODI runs, she required only 30 ODIs to reach the mark in June 2000 against South Africa. Raj was also quicker, having reached the milestone in her 31st one-dayer, against New Zealand in December 2003.Taylor’s efforts, then, reflect both her talent but also the increasing amount of international cricket played by women.