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Middlesex’s close-season recruitment drive continued with the announcement that they have signed Scott Styris and re-signed Nantie Hayward for next summer.”We needed to add depth to our batting and Scott gives us that,” John Emburey, Middlesex’s coach, told the BBC. “Added to that, he’s a more than useful bowler. He’s very strong in one-day cricket and will make a very good third of fourth seamer. As for Nantie, we believe he will become a match-winning bowler.”Hayward disappointed in 2004 with 31 wickets at 29.61 but Emburey said that he was a quality player. “He will become a match-winning bowler. The pitches didn’t help his style of bowling, and Lord’s is particularly flat. But we saw enough to snap him up for next season.”It will be Styris’s first crack at English domestic cricket and he replaces the South African Lance Klusener.Last week, Middlesex confirmed that they had signed Ed Smith on a two-year deal.

It might well turn out to be a farce, but it’s going ahead anyway. That was the verdict of James Sutherland, Cricket Australia’s chief executive, when asked about the decision to play the three one-day internationals against Zimbabwe.”I read that people regard the tour going ahead as being farcical, because it’s not the best against the best,” Sutherland admitted. “I accept that to some extent. But Cricket Australia has obligations to the future tours program, such that these one-day matches should go ahead. It’s never been discussed or never been an issue that the one-day matches were in consideration.”The Australian board has been widely criticised for agreeing to go ahead with the matches even though the Test series was called off last Friday.Sutherland continued that the situation which led to the cancellation must not be allowed to happen again. Asked about Zimbabwe’s Test status, he said that it was "higher on the agenda now than it has ever been before.”He went on to say that there were "a number of other full member countries are concerned about how things have developed in recent weeks. The ICC and the member countries really need to address it so there is some certainty into the future.”

LAHORE, April 3: Trials for the selection of the Pakistan women’s cricket team will be held at six centres between April 8 and May 2. The selected national team will take part in the qualifying rounds of the IWCC Trophy to be played in Holland this July.Former Pakistan captain and ex-chairman of selection committee Imtiaz Ahmad and former Test all-rounder Ijaz Faqih will conduct the trials as selectors.According to the schedule, the process of trials will commence from Gaddafi Stadium when two-day trials will beheld on April 8 and 9. The selectors will then proceed to Peshawar where the trials will take place on April 15 and 16 at Peshawar Gymkhana Cricket Ground.National Stadium, Karachi is the next venue of the trials where it will be held on April 22 and 23. In Quetta the trials will be staged at Shola ground on April 25 and 26, followed by Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad on April 29 and 30.The round of trials will be conducted at Multan Cricket Stadium in Multan on May 1 and 2.Women cricketing affairs has come under the governance of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) after receiving recommendations of the scrutiny committee conveyed by the PCB chairman under the orders of the Honourable High Court.

Despite being ruled out of India’s two remaining Test matches against Sri Lanka, fast bowler Javagal Srinath is almost certain to be fit to tour South Africa in October.Srinath suffered a fracture in his left hand after being struck by a Dilhara Fernando delivery during the Galle Test match against Sri Lanka, but his orthopaedic surgeon Dr HPC Khincha said that the injury was not “serious” on Monday.”He may not be able to bat or field for three weeks,” Khincha told the Press Trust of India. “That he has bowled in a match after getting injured is a good sign. Srinath has a fracture of the left fifth metacarpal bone joining the little finger and the wrist.”Srinath did not bat again in the match but took five wickets in the first innings.Apart from Srinath, India are currently having to do without Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Ashish Nehra and Anil Kumble while captain Saurav Ganguly’s position has come increasingly under pressure.

The gap between Bangladesh and South Africa in terms of experience and performance is significant but the home captain Mashrafe Mortaza has urged his team to play fearless cricket.South Africa are the second-most successful T20 team in international cricket apart from being one of the five teams to have played at least 75 T20s. Bangladesh languish below Ireland, Netherlands and Afghanistan in terms of wins and have only played 42 matches in this format since 2006. While many of the South Africans play in the IPL, Bangladesh haven’t had a domestic T20 competition since December 2013 and their only T20 moment of note is the win over Pakistan in April, their only T20 game since they hosted the World T20 in 2014.Mashrafe is also keen to see how his team, which is full of confidence after ODI series wins at home against Pakistan and India, reacts against such strong opposition.”South Africa have a number of players who can single-handedly win them a T20,” Mashrafe said. “We don’t have many such players but if we can play as a team and maintain our consistency, we will do well. We have to play with guts. T20 is a game of courage. We have only one option: to play with self-belief. It would be better to sit at home if we are fearing them. It can happen so in that case we should keep that off the field.”What happened in the past will certainly not be of any help. What we did in the last series won’t come to use either. On the day, we have to start and finish well. If we are consistent, it will give us confidence. We don’t have a good record and we play very few T20s. We have only one experienced T20 player and that’s Shakib [Al Hasan]. They have 8-10 players who regularly play T20s across the world. They are ahead of us in that regard. But it is only a piece of statistics. It will be a different game altogether when we play well in the middle.”Mashrafe is pinning his hopes on his bowlers keeping South Africa to around 160, and said he was happy to see the pace bowlers come to the fore after years of spin being Bangladesh’s only bowling strength.”We have been reliant on spin for around 10-15 years but since the Zimbabwe series, we have been getting positives out of using three pace bowlers in the XI. Spin is still our strength but pacers are also contributing in a big way. We have to ensure our best possible combination is out in the field.”Our bowlers can win us the game. India can chase 300-plus totals but our bowlers were outstanding in that game. Of course our batsmen are doing well but I still feel our bowlers can win us a T20. If a team scores 200 it would be hard for us to chase. Our batsmen will find themselves in the game when the opposition can be restricted to around 150-160.”On Friday, Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusingha said it was an exciting time to be a Bangladeshi cricketer, given how much their team was winning against higher-ranked opposition. “I think it is an exciting time for Bangladesh,” he said. “I mean it is always good to win but the way we are playing and winning is more exciting.”

The Hong Kong women’s team will tour Bangladesh for eight days starting next week. Between 20 and 29 March the side will play four one-day matches against the Bangladesh women’s team.The Bangladesh Cricket Board has selected 14 players for the training camp ahead of the tour, while there will also be four reserves.Bangladesh women Shathira Zakir Jessy, Shukhtara, Ayesha Akhter, Salma Khatun, Irin Sultana, Chamily Khatun, Rumana Akhter, Panna Ghosh, Shamima Akhter Pinky, Jahanara Alam, Lily Rani, Tithi Rani, Papiya Haque Babu, Mina Khatun.Reserves Fatematuz Zahora, Rifat Ara, Mahmuda Khan, Lata Mondal.

Wayne Larkins, the former England batsman, has been spared a jail sentence after pleading guilty, last November, to deception.Larkins and his partner, Deborah Lines, attempted to secure a mortgage against the house of her sick father – Robert Adams – but she had forged her father’s signature, claiming she and Larkins owned the property. They were then granted a £155,000 mortgage for a house in France and Adams, now 78, only realised the scam on noticing his name had been removed from the deeds.Judge Graham Hume Jones, of Taunton Crown Court, issued the pair a 12-month suspended sentence, and said: “Deborah Lines and Wayne Larkins, as a result of your dishonest dealings an elderly man has been caused a great deal of distress and the house he has lived in for a number of years has been put on the line.”Whatever explanation you gave the fact is you were dishonest,” he added. “Both of you were in this together. Wayne Larkins, you could have pointed out the error of your partner’s ways in dealing with the original mortgage.”Lines and Larkins were ordered to pay back £54,000, an amount frozen in their account since they sold the French property.

India’s first major cause for concern on their tour of the West Indies came in the form of Ramesh Powar, the offspinner, who has been ruled out of the first two one-day internationals due to injury.Powar, 27, twisted his ankle during practice yesterday and did not take part in the warm-up match against Jamaica at Montego Bay. There was a further scare with news that Sreesanth, the young fast bowler, was not fully fit and was a doubtful starter to the series. Along with opener Robin Uthappa, Sreesanth was left out of the warm-up match against Jamaica.”Ramesh Powar will struggle to make the final XI, but we will monitor his situation every 48 hours,” Rahul Dravid told reporters. “As for Sreesanth’s condition, it will be monitored regularly.”If both miss out, India are likely to go into the first game with the same combination that took on the Jamaica XI at Montego Bay.

Sourav Ganguly will cut short his stint with Glamorgan in the English County Championship and return to India next week after Greg Chappell, the new national coach, asked for him to be present at a conditioning camp for the players ahead of the new season. As things stand, Ganguly would miss India’s first assignment, a one-day tournament in Sri Lanka, as he still has to sit out four matches of a six-game suspension, but with the Indian board lobbying the ICC to lift the ban, he could yet be on the short flight across the Palk Straits.Ganguly scored one brilliant hundred for Glamorgan and has also worked on his bowling, without setting the county scene alight. Glamorgan officials are expected to allow him to return on July 12, though he may fly back to represent the Welsh side in a four-day game that starts on July 21.Chappell is currently overseeing India’s crop of fast bowlers at a camp in Bangalore, and has apparently insisted on Ganguly being present for the first team get-together of the season.

West Indies 595 for 5 (Lara 313*, Sarwan 90) v England
Scorecard

Brian Lara completely and utterly dominated the second day of the final Test in Antigua. He eased to his second-highest Test score of 313 not out, and became only the second player to score two triple-centuries, as the batsmen racked up the runs against a tired and toothless England attack. West Indies had cruised to 595 for 5 at the close with Lara 68 runs away from the world-record individual score. And at this point, you wouldn’t bet against him reclaiming his title from Matthew Hayden.Resuming on 86 not out, Lara piled on the runs – and the agony – for England. He slowly wore the bowlers down, adding 232 with Ramnaresh Sarwan at the start, and then 126 with the ever-dependable Ridley Jacobs towards the close. Now this England team have some idea of what it was like here 10 years ago when Lara romped to his then record 375. Back then there were all sorts of celebrations, and they’ll have to start thinking of some more for tomorrow if Lara reclaims batting’s promised land.It was a mammoth effort from Lara. Not just time-wise – over 10 hours in all -, but just when the Caribbean needed something special from him to restore their faith. He was back to his best, scoring over half his side’s runs. His timing and placement was almost perfect, and the majority of his 23 fours and three sixes were worth every penny to watch – even for the England fans who paid the levy.But it wasn’t all about power, his running between the wickets was another feature, as was his instinctive feet movement. He scored allround the wicket to every part of – and three times out of – the ground. He was a man on a mission; determined, decisive and destined to make a huge score.It was another grinding day for England’s bowlers, who again struggled to make an impression on the flat pitch, which continued to hold no demons. Lara, in particular, helped himself to anything off line and he set the tone of the day from the very first ball, spanking Matthew Hoggard through the covers. The shots kept on coming, as he elegantly and effortlessly glided the ball between the fielders. It was as if he could pick the gaps at will and off every delivery.Lara raced to his hundred within 20 minutes of the start, and he didn’t hang about all day, passing his 150 in no time. He took a liking to Gareth Batty in particular, dancing down the track and cracking him through the offside for the shot of the morning. And that was just the start. As he strode into the 190s, he brought up his double in style. He slammed Batty’s opening ball of his afternoon spell for the first six of his innings, straight down the ground and way over the stand into the carpark. The next delivery was swept for four to take him to 199, and then the single did the job. He jumped for joy and punched the air as if he was letting out all that frustration and pressure of the past month. And you got the feeling there was still plenty to come.Indeed, the milestones kept on coming. After a bad patch by his standards, playing and missing a few times, he regained his control and composure to notch up his 250. Again it was Batty on the receiving end. Lara belted him down the ground for four, and next ball slapped him through the covers for the 250. This time, though, there were no celebrations. You could tell he wanted more – much more.Next all eyes were on the 300, and after an edgy period in what was a tetchy 290s, he nudged Batty into the offside to start the party – again. The whole of St John’s were on their feet, cheering a living legend of the game, and Lara was punching the air for their third time in the day. Just for good measure, he launched Michael Vaughan out the ground in the final over of the day.The only real close call he had was when he was nearly run out on 127 from a Hoggard direct hit. And that was the only way England were going to get him out. They did manage three wickets today, though, which gave them some relief from their lashings of Lara.

Sarwan was happy to play second fiddle early on. He took the opportunity to play himself back into some sort of form on the flat track and dead ball. He notched up his half-century with a cracking cover-drive off Hoggard, and later clipped Batty over midwicket for four, and over long-on for six the next ball. But just when he had a fifth Test century for the taking, Stephen Harmison provided some relief for England with the new ball. Sarwan jabbed at a rising ball outside off and edged it to Marcus Trescothick at first slip for 90 (330 for 3).The wicket slowed things down, as Ricardo Powell took time to settle himself in what is only his second Test. He had a touch of fortune early on with some streaky shots, but he ran out of luck when he tried to pull a short ball from Harmison well outside offstump, but skied it to Nasser Hussain at third man for 23 (380 for 4).Lara wasn’t impressed, but he found a more reliable ally in Ryan Hinds, who played sensibly for his 36. There was something for Batty to smile about, though. He picked up his second caught-and-bowled of the innings when Hinds miscued an ondrive andchipped the ball back (469 for 5).Jacobs stuck around for a handy 47 not out, and rubbed salt into the bowler’s wounds with a few of his bruising blows. There was no chance of the short ball bothering him on this pitch, whose docile nature Vaughan must have been cursing all day – and a heck of a long day at that. He had to endure 105 overs of torture, using seven bowlers in all, including himself and Trescothick. He wasn’t helped by the fact that Hoggard missed the last two sessions feeling unwell. Again, England didn’t bowl that badly, but they just came up against someone too good. It was Lara’s day, but tomorrow could be his best.