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Division One

Gloucestershire v Surrey at Bristol
Gloucestershire enter the match without an overseas player with Upul Chandana back in Sri Lanka and Malinga Bandara not arriving until next week. Mark Ramprakash is still out with a broken thumb and Graham Thorpe will lead the side in the absence of Mark Butcher, who is not expect to be back into action until August. Alistair Brown took charge for the Twenty20 but Thorpe takes control for the Championship and is in need of some runs in his last first-class outing before the Lord’s Test.Middlesex v Hampshire at Southgate
Ed Joyce returns to boost Middlesex after powering Ireland to the World Cup at the ICC Trophy in Ireland. Alan Richardson also comes back into the side after resting for the Twenty20. Shane Warne returns for Hampshire after two weeks out while Dimitri Mascarenhas will undergo a late fitness test. Only 16 points separate the two teams and Middlesex have a game in hand.Nottinghamshire v Glamorgan at Trent Bridge
Mark Footitt, a seam bowler, makes his first-class debut for Nottinghamshire against struggling Glamorgan. Stephen Fleming and Mark Ealham return to the side after missing some of the Twenty20 matches. Glamorgan have also called up a young seam bowler with Huw Waters, 18, in their 12-man squad. Alex Wharf and Adam Harrison both miss out with injuries sustained during the last couple of weeks. Glamorgan have lost seven out of eight Championship matches this season.

Division Two

Durham v Lancashire at Chester-le-Street
The return of Jon Lewis, Nathan Astle and Ashley Noffke given Durham an almost full strength squad as they aim to consolidate their position at the top of the table. Lancashire are now without Muttiah Muralitharan who is back in Sri Lanka but Kyle Hogg returns to the squad. Lancashire’s batsmen have found some form in recent Twenty20 games and will be targeting revenge over Durham who comprehensively beat then at Old Trafford earlier this season.Somerset v Leicestershire at Taunton
Charl Langeveldt will make his debut for Somerset, joining up with Graeme Smith, and replaces Gareth Andrew from the recent Twenty20 sides. Leicestershire will have Chris Rogers making his county debut, after joining as cover for Dinesh Mongia who is back at an Indian training camp. Darren Robinson, the opening batsmen, takes the place of Stuart Broad in the 12-man squad.Worcestershire v Yorkshire at Worcester
Shoaib Akhtar faces a late fitness test while Steven Davies and Matt Mason return to the Worcestershire squad. Matthew Hoggard is recalled by Yorkshire after suffering some harsh treatment during the recent one-day action. Deon Kruis also bolsters the seam attack but Adam Warren or Richard Pyrah will miss out.

West Indies 294 for 3 (Lara 120, Sarwan 106*) lead Bangladesh 284 (Rajin Saleh 47, Banks 4-80) by 10 runs
Scorecard

Brian Lara: came in with his captaincy on the line but finished with a fantastic 119© AFP

Hundreds by Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan put West Indies in control of the second Test against Bangladesh at Sabina Park. At the close if the second day, they had reached 289 for 3, a lead of 10 runs.Although Lara fell five overs before the close for an excellent 119, the day belonged to West Indies. Pedro Collins wrapped up the Bangladesh innings in the morning, and despite the early loss of Chris Gayle, caught behind off a lazy drive for 14, it was one-day traffic thereafter.Sarwan and Devon Smith added 83 for the second wicket before Smith was run out for 44, and then Lara and Sarwan put on 179 in 45 overs. In scoring his 26th century, Lara joined Sir Garfield Sobers as the West Indian with the most Test centuries. Compared to Lara, Sarwan’s hundred was relatively sedate, spanning 186 balls. Despite the wicket of Lara, West Indies remain in a good position to press ahead and build a substantial first-innings tommorow.

A convincing five-wicket win over Canterbury on Saturday gave Auckland their fourth consecutive State League title.The defending champion Hearts returned to Christchurch’s Redwood Park with recent memories of twice losing to the Magicians in round-robin play.Keen to avenge the losses, Hearts’ skipper Michelle Lynch won the toss and gave Canterbury first use of a bouncy pitch and lightning-fast outfield.Early breakthroughs by pace bowler Natalee Scripps and off-spinner Debbie Ramsay brought key Magicians pair Haidee Tiffen and Nicola Payne together at the crease with the score at 18 for two wickets and the innings delicately poised.A partnership of 82 runs between the TelstraClear White Ferns pair had their side well placed at 100 for two when a low, diving catch by Emily Drumm in the covers sent Tiffen back to the pavilion for 38.Payne, who had struck some crisp straight drives and was punishing of anything short, followed soon after for 34 when Rebecca Rolls gloved a fine edge off Scripps.The Magicians middle and lower-order were unable to sustain any momentum as the last eight wickets fell for 42 runs.Capable left-hander Maria Fahey was left stranded on 13 not out as run outs and the medium pace of Helen Watson, with two for 31 from 10 overs, claimed the final wickets.Scripps finished with the impressive figures of three for 13 from 8.3 overs as the Magicians were all out for 142 in the 47th over, no doubt grateful for the Heart’s contribution of 17 wides.Hearts’ opener Rolls signaled how she was going to go about chasing the meagre total with a cracking back foot drive for four through cover point from the first ball of the innings.In a player of the match performance, Rolls peppered the boundary and dominated the scoring, putting on 33 for the first wicket with Lynch and 67 with Drumm for the second.A premeditated sweep shot lead to her demise on 82, bowled by left-armer Helen Daly with the score at 132.In similar fashion to the Magicians, the Hearts’ middle-order made hard work of scoring the remaining 11 runs, losing two more wickets before Watson finished the match with a boundary through the covers in the 38th over.

Somerset Under-16s lost their two-day match against Middlesex at Richmond on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.Batting first Middlesex scored 308 for 8. The pick of the Somerset attack was Lee Denslow who bowled 23 overs and took 4 for 80.When Somerset batted they were all out for 239, with Lett top scoring with 48, to give Middlesex victory by 69 runs.

Burnley fans in the Transfer Tavern are loving the action in the 2018 World Cup but can’t wait for their European adventure to begin on July 27.

The Clarets ended the season in seventh place, guaranteeing a place in next season’s Europa League. They will enter the qualifying rounds to fight for a place alongside Europe’s elite in the group stages. Sean Dyche’s side was drawn to face Scottish team Aberdeen in their first qualifier.

Our punters are hoping to see some new faces arrive at Turf Moor ahead of the journey up north. Scott Arfield left the club on a free transfer to Rangers, but Dyche is yet to make a signing in the summer window. Adding goals to the side will be a priority if Burnley are to compete on a European and domestic level.

Therefore, the perfect signing could be a former striker – Danny Ings. Valued at £7.2m by Transfermarkt, the striker left the club for Liverpool for £7m back in 2015 after an excellent debut season in the Premier League. His time on Merseyside has been plagued with injuries which has seen him fall down the pecking order. Ings recognises he needs first-team football and is set to leave the club this summer.

A return to Burnley would be the best option for the former England international as he looks to get his career back on track. Ings was a popular player at Turf Moor, scoring 43 goals in 130 appearances for the Clarets. Returning to the familiar environment under a manager that knows him well would be a wise decision.

Liverpool are unlikely to command a large fee for Ings due to his injury problems meaning Burnley could get a great deal. Still only 25-years-old, Burnley need their former forward to fire them to European success.

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Burnley fans, thoughts?

ScorecardOman’s Sultan Ahmed won the toss against Hong Kong’s Tanwir Afzal, and his bowlers did the rest•Hong Kong Cricket

Left-arm pacer Bilal Khan, playing his first T20I game, sliced through Hong Kong’s top order, setting up a crushing six-wicket win for Oman in the first T20 international in Abu Dhabi. Mehran Khan then snuffed out any hopes of a recovery, dismissing Mark Chapman and Tanwir Afzal. The collapse seeped into the lower order as well with Hong Kong barely managing to play out 20 overs. Bilal and Mehran claimed combined figures of 8-0-49-5, and debutant left-arm spinner Ajay Lalcheta picked up a wicket with his first delivery as Hong Kong stuttered to 106.Waqas Khan, coming in at No.8, top-scored with 19 off 28 balls with only three other batsmen getting double-digit scores.Oman’s top order suffered a similar slide, as they were quickly reduced to 43 for 4, Tanwir Afzal striking twice. However, Zeeshan Siddiqui and captain Sultan Ahmed steadied the innings and took their side home with an unbroken 64-run partnership in 8.4 overs. Siddiqui and Ahmed stuck four fours each as Oman completed the chase with nine balls to spare.

Steve Harmison has been ruled out of the entire Test series © Getty Images

Steve Harmison will miss the entire India Test series with a hernia injury. Harmison will have an operation today which will rule him out for four to six weeks.Stuart Broad, James Anderson and Chris Tremlett are all in line for the third seamer’s spot, although Tremlett only has an outside chance after being called up to the squad as cover on Monday.Peter Moores confirmed the news, saying: “Unfortunately for him the hernia has come back and now it’s all about getting the operation done as quickly as possible.”It was nearly a month ago that Harmison first sustained the injury, during the final Test against West Indies at Chester-le-Street but Harmison played on. He then did further damage in Durham’s Championship match against Sussex at Horsham.But Moores defended the decision to delay Harmison’s treatment. “If we’d operated on him then, the timeframe realistically for a sportsman is six weeks plus a couple of weeks to get back and bowl, that really would put him out of these two Tests, so we’d only have him for the last Test.”It was felt there was a good chance he could manage it but at Sussex he did it fielding, they think. The timeframe between the two series, you could say get an injury right, but anybody who’d bowled knows once you’ve got fit, you’ve got six weeks of muscle wasteage to overcome and building up you’ve got to get bowling fit before you play.”Steve’s one of those bowlers who needs to bowl. Realistically, it was the right decision.” Harmison is now likely to also miss the Friends Provident Trophy final at Lord’s on 18 August. His next international duty will probably be the Tests in Sri Lanka in December.Moores admitted that the situation was frustrating but added that England had little choice. “You have to work with what you’ve got,” he said. “The good thing is we have Ryan Sidebottom in, who is the sort of senior, mature exponent of what he does. He may not have a lot of Test experience, but he’s got a lot of first-class experience.”It’s better to look forward than to look back,” said Moores. “We have to keep working as hard as we can on all our bowlers. It’s the same with Freddie – when he’s back he’s got to be ready to play. We’ll be looking all the time to keep our people on the park.”There is very little prospect of Tremlett being required for the Test, and only a spate of further injuries will prevent him from playing for Hampshire at Chester-le-Street on Friday.”The choice for the final pace bowling position will be between James Anderson and Stuart Broad,” said David Graveney, the chairman of selectors yesterday. “They are different types of bowlers and the final decision will depend on our assessment of the pitch and the weather conditions at Lord’s.”Revised squad Michael Vaughan, Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Ian Bell, Matt Prior, Ryan Sidebottom, Monty Panesar, Matthew Hoggard, James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Chris Tremlett.

To be or not to be…fit? Forever the question with Shoaib Akhtar © AFP

The much-awaited results from Shoaib Akhtar’s scan on his injured ankle have revealed that his old hairline fracture has still not healed properly. The result means he will be unable to resume bowling for four to six weeks and will almost certainly rule him out of the initial part of Pakistan’s tour to England.”It’s a bad week for me. First I lost a close friend and now got a bad news that my injury has not healed although I still feel no pain and can jog for hours,” Akhtar told AFP. “But a bad news for me is a good news for the English batsmen. I will do my best to recover in time to at least play two Tests.””I carried that ankle injury from the series against England but I continued to play. Even after the operations I was feeling well before I twisted the ankle earlier this month.”Bob Woolmer, Pakistan’s coach, told Cricinfo that the results of the scan they had sent to specialists in South Africa did not make for good news. “Unfortunately the scans have revealed that though he doesn’t have a new injury, the fracture that he sustained during the home series against England and India, has not yet fully healed. He cannot bowl at all for four to six weeks.”Woolmer agreed it was “highly unlikely” that Shoaib would be able to play any part in the first half of the England tour but wasn’t willing to comment on whether he would be taken as a member of the squad. “We have a selection meeting later tonight in which we’ll discuss the situation and come to a decision after that.”The fact that his old injury still hasn’t healed will not sit well with the PCB. After he sat out the ODIs against India and then missed the tour of Sri Lanka, reports suggested that Shoaib was training and recovering with his own trainer rather than PCB-appointed officials, which irked board and team officials. It means, as one source close to the team revealed: “no-one is quite sure what he has been doing to his ankle because given proper rehabilitation, it should’ve healed comfortably by now. But it hasn’t.”The first Test is due to begin at Lord’s on July 13, just over five weeks, from now, which means Pakistani fans will now witness, helplessly, the same anguished race against time English football fans are currently experiencing with Wayne Rooney’s metatarsal.Earlier, the PCB had said their own medical commission had advised Shoaib three weeks’ rest and that his selection for the tour of England rests on the recommendation of the commission.Pakistani selectors are scheduled to announce the touring squad in the next day or so. Wasim Bari, chief selector, has said that Shoaib is likely to accompany the squad whether or not he is injured.He told : “It is certainly the most difficult decision that the selection committee will have to take when it meets. I’ve already met Inzamam and Woolmer recently to take their inputs over the team’s selection but recent developments have made it necessary to meet them again.”Bari said the inclusion – or not – of Shoaib will be the main issue of discussion. “There is nothing in writing for us on Shoaib’s fitness issue so I can’t say what we might opt for in our meeting to select the team.,” Bari added. “There is no doubt that Shoaib is a key player for us but then he has to be fit to be able to live up to the expectations. He cannot be included in the team without achievement and proving full match fitness.”

Tatenda Taibu, Zimbabwe’s captain, has ended his 11-year relationship with Takashinga and is looking for a new club side. He joined in 1993 when he was still at Chipembere Primary School in Highfield.Taibu made up his mind before last month’s Champions Trophy. “It was a very difficult decision for me to make but I felt that I needed to move to a club with very few, if any, players in the national team,” he told the Daily Herald. “At the moment there are about seven Takashinga players in the national team and so I decided to join a smaller club where I can help the youngsters there to progress in their cricket.”Three clubs – Uprising, Old Georgians and Harare Sports Club – are vying to sign him. “I have already spoken to these clubs,” he admitted. “This week I will be attending their training sessions to see how they do it and also have a look at their facilities.”His decision to move might not be as straightforward as it seems. Taibu admitted that there were problems – he described them as minor – with Takashinga but stressed the club “had become my second home and it was hard leaving”.But Takashinga has strong political affiliations and its influence with the selectors is considerable – Steven Mangongo, until recently the chief selector, is a senior member – and it is rumoured to have close links with the ruling Zanu-PF party. Its players have been sent home from development clinics for turning up in Zanu-PF T-shirts and bandanas, and one former club member said; “The ZCU makes them a powerful club, because they want them to be powerful. They have some real radicals and that suits some people at the ZCU down to the ground.”Every time they play against white or Indian clubs there are problems. There are always racial things said, and arguments on the field. Except when Taibu and [Stuart] Matsikenyeri play, then they keep quiet.” Without the calming influence of Taibu, things are likely to get worse.

Simon Taufel: ‘It’s very hard when you have one of your senses taken away from you’© Getty Images

Amid all the excitement surrounding the historic series between Pakistan and India, one group of people have been largely forgotten – the umpires.Simon Taufel, the Australian who officiated in the first two matches, told the Sydney Morning Herald of the problems he encountered. The main difficulty is the noise – and it’s not only the umpires who struggle, as proved on Tuesday when Sourav Ganguly clearly edged the ball but such was the cacophony that neither bowler nor wicketkeeper appealed.”From an umpiring perspective, it’s very difficult and challenging,” Taufel explained. “Umpiring before 75,000 at the MCG is nothing like here. The fans go nonstop. When the person they love comes out the noise is immeasurable.”That makes umpiring bloody difficult, especially when it comes to caught-behinds and communicating with other officials. It’s nothing you could ever train for. It’s very hard when you have one of your senses, hearing, taken away from you.”The fact that that the umpires have been ignored is probably a mark of the good work they have so far done: the effect of any howlers in these high-pressure games would be multiplied tenfold. “I’ve made several close calls in the two games already,” Taufel smiled. “Maybe you think that you might start World War Three if you get something wrong but, on the whole, I feel very comfortable to keep calling it as I see it.”