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Sri Lanka Cricket has agreed to release seven high-profile cricketers to play in the Bangladesh Premier League, an about-turn from their stance last week.A desire to maintain a good relationship with the BCB, and the one-week postponement of Sri Lanka’s domestic one-day tournament have led to the change of heart. SLC’s desire to see foreign cricketers – including those from Bangladesh – participate in its own city-based T20 league, may have also influenced the decision.

List of players to be given no-objection certificates

• Jeevan Mendis

• Ajantha Mendis
• Tillakaratne Dilshan
• Chamara Kapugedara
• Thisara Perera
• Sachithra Senanayake
• Seekkuge Prasanna

Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sachithra Senanayake and Ajantha Mendis are among those who will now be allowed to play in the BPL.SLC had been opposed to issuing no-objection certificates to its centrally contracted players largely because their absence would have diluted the quality of the forthcoming Premier Limited Over Tournament. That tournament was originally scheduled to begin on November 20, but it now appears likely to be put off until around November 27, thanks to prevailing bad weather in Colombo.As the BPL runs from November 22 to December 15, the cricketers leaving to Bangladesh will miss several rounds of the Premier Limited Over Tournament in any case. However, SLC officials said the home clubs had agreed to release these seven centrally-contracted players, and some players themselves had made appeals to be allowed to play in the BPL. The players had argued that BPL experience would stand them in good stead come the Asia Cup in February next year, which will also be played in Bangladesh. All seven players released are likely to be in contention for Sri Lanka’s Asia Cup squad, and indeed the World T20 to follow.SLC has also said it would like to have overseas cricketers participating in the inaugural Elite Championship T20, which is set to begin towards the end of January. That tournament would appear more attractive to sponsors and broadcasters if two foreigners featured in each of the five teams. Given the current international schedule and the money that is likely to be on offer, SLC believes cricketers from Pakistan and Bangladesh are most likely to be drawn by the Elite Championship T20.In addition to the seven centrally-contracted players, two other Sri Lankans had already been confirmed to participate in the BPL – Kumar Sangakkara, who had been awarded a central contract but is now retired from international cricket, and Dilshan Munaweera, who does not have a central contract.

After the run feast that happened in the early part of the day, therewas nothing much to look forward to as Pakistan took the field. MaybeWasim Akram would charge in and make the ball talk. Even that did nothappen. At the end of the day, it made absolutely no difference to theresult. Pakistan go through to their next encounter in the Asia Cupagainst India tomorrow, having beaten Bangladesh by 233 runs at theBangabhandu stadium on Friday.The crowd went silent as wicket after wicket fell on what was asdocile a wicket as you would see. Habibul Basher who made a halfcentury against India provided the lone resistance. Even that was onlya token resistance. His 23 provided the crowd with some relief from aseemingly unending list of soft dismissals.For Pakistan, the wickets were shared around. Abdur Razzaq bowled thestraightest of the lot and was the most successful, bagging threewickets. Bangladesh ended on 87 all out. Shariar Hossain could not batafter as he was seriously dehydrated earlier in the day and left thefield. This was Bangldesh’s lowest total in limited overs cricket. Toadd insult to injury, this was also the largest margin of victory in alimited overs match beating the 232 run thrashing that Australiahanded out to Sri Lanka in 1987.When cats run around among pigeons, mayhem is the only result. ImranNazir was licking the cream off his whiskers as bowler after bowlertried his luck at stemming the rot. Fortunately for the hosts SaeedAnwar was motoring sedately along at a run a ball. Driving the ballwith more elegance than the rampaging Nazir, Anwar found the gaps withconsummate ease.Nazir showed no restraint and his onslaught was so overwhelming thatthe crowd was on its feet in excitement. When the ball was up for thedrive it disappeared over either mid off or mid on. If the ball wasshort it was anybody’s guess where it disappeared. Even deliveriespitched well outside the off stump disappeared over mid wicket. Naziropened his shoulders and unleashed raw power. The fact that he wasdropped twice did little to deter the youngster.The man took the brunt of the bashing was roly poly Khaled Mahmudwhose two overs disappeared for 31 runs. Needless to say, he wasquickly removed from the attack by an embarrassed captain.Saeed Anwar walked across after one such dropped catch and cautionedhis opening partner. The next ball Anwar faced, the first of the dayfrom Naimur Rehman uprooted his off stump. Coming a bit down thetrack, Anwar played down the wrong line and lost his off stump. He hadcontributed 31 to a total of 83.Yousuf Youhana who more than helped Pakistan save one Test match inthe West Indies came in at one drop, much ahead of his customarynumber five position. His presence at the crease brought a semblanceof normalcy to the proceedings. Although he smacked the second ball hefaced to the fence, he was in principle at least more selective inshot making.With temperatures rapidly approaching the mid forties, and humidity atover 80% it was but natural that things slowed down. And at thehalfway mark of their innings, Bangladesh had lost one man to theweather. Shariar Hussain holding his thighs and calves fell flat onthe ground and simply could not get back up. He was soon half carriedoff the field by his team mates.There was no stopping Imran Nazir. Playing strokes all around thewicket, the youngster was going along merrily when a bit of badrunning between the wickets stopped him dead in his tracks. Afterstarting and stopping and starting again he was found short of hisground by a neat bit of fielding by Aminul Islam.Youhana was joined by Inzamam ul Huq out in the middle and from theword go neither were in any manner of strife. All of a sudden, aglance at the scoreboard revealed the fact that Youhana had helpedhimself to 80 runs. Against the grain of play, Nazir was dismissedwhen he looked good for a century. The same happened with Youhana.Overbalancing against left arm spinner Enamul Hoque, Youhana was a tadlate getting back to his ground and Khaled Masud behind the stumps hadthe bails off in a flash.The hugely popular Shahid Afridi walked out to a generous round ofapplause from the crowd. After playing and missing at a good manyballs, Afridi finally connected. And the result was the same each time- the ball went crashing to the fence. Having adopted the mid wicketfence as his preferred destination, Afridi clouted everything that wasbowled at him in that direction.At the other end Inzamam was all smiles as he toyed with the bowling.Standing tall, the man from Multan drove superbly through both off andon side. If Afridi was the beast, Inzamam was the beauty. Using defttouches, a dab around the corner and a tap past short third manInzamam gathered runs at a good pace. As the innings drew to a closehowever, no one was in the mood for anything delicate. Taking turns,Afridi and Inzamam clouted the ball round the park. Even when they didhit the ball straight to the fielder the catches were grassed.The two remained unbeaten as Pakistan posted 320, the highest score inthe Asia Cup competition. Inzamam was on 75 and Afridi 45 when theumpires ended the action and took the players off the field. Fiftyovers of maximum viewing pleasure had come to an end.One must however spare a thought for the Bangladesh side. Pushing hardfor Test status that they will in all likelihood attain in the nearfuture, the team was helpless and often clueless. Taken most to taskwas mediumpacer Khaled Mahmud whose 10 overs cost him and Bangladesh81 runs.

Essex paceman Ricky Anderson bowled his side into a winning position, returning figures of 5-79 to leave the home side requiring 209 runs for victory.That Surrey reached 306 in their second innings owed much to some resolute batting that saw three batsman reach half-centuries before defiant innings by Martin Bicknell and Ian Salisbury in the late order supported the earlier efforts.After a delayed start when six overs were lost to rain, Essex would have been pleased with their progress when they took three wickets to leave their opponents with a slender lead of 108 runs and four wickets intact at lunch.All three wickets were claimed by Anderson, those of Mark Ramprakash, 61, Adam Hollioake, 52, and Jonathan Batty with the final delivery before lunch.Anderson made it four victims when obstinate Gary Butcher edged a lifting delivery to the wicket-keeper but Bicknell and Salisbury stoutly resisted a number of bowling changes until Bicknell was bowled by Ashley Cowan for 24.Rupesh Amin fell immediately but Ed Giddins joined Salisbury in a last-wicket stand of 28 that frustrated Essex for 13 overs until Salisbury edged a ball from Anderson behind the wicket in the first over after tea to give the bowler his 34th first-class wicket of the season.Essex made a promising start but the loss of both Paul Grayson and Stephen Peters in the 13th over gave Surrey some encouragement before Stuart Law and Richard Clinton steered Essex to the close.They will start the final day requiring a further 144 runs with eight wickets intact to achieve their second Championship win of the season.

Mike Atherton and Sourav Ganguly produced a feast of high-quality strokeplay to become Lancashire record-breakers at Taunton.Replying to a modest Somerset total of 198, the two Test players put on 192 for the first wicket in 34 overs to lead their side to a seven-wicket victory – only Lancashire’s second in the National League this season.The stand was the county’s highest opening partnership in the competition, beating the 177 compiled by Graeme Fowler and Gehan Mendis against Kent at Canterbury in 1986.It was murderous batting, particularly in the closing stages, when Atherton and Ganguly appeared to be trying to out-hit one another with a succession of thumping boundaries off the medium-pacers.Atherton hit a near faultless 105 off 115 balls, with 14 boundaries, managing to score faster than his partner for most of the stand.Ganguly was first to go for 82, having smashed a six and 10 fours, in a typically elegant contribution. He had faced 93 balls when trying one big hit too many and departing with just seven runs needed.Atherton quickly followed and John Crawley missed out before Lancashire cruised home with seven overs to spare, denting Somerset’s title hopes in the process.While the serene batting will be remembered by most of a bumper crowd basking in glorious sunshine, it was the visiting bowlers who set up victory after Somerset had won the toss.Home skipper Jamie Cox opted to go into the game with an extra bowler, calling up all-rounder Jason Kerr for his first appearance of the season at the expense of Mark Lathwell.It proved a mistake as, despite an encouraging start, Somerset batted poorly, with too many players tossing their wickets away through poor shots.Wicketkeeper Rob Turner was promoted to open with Cox and the pair put on 46 in quick time. Then, after Piran Holloway had fallen for a duck, Peter Bowler helped Cox add 45 for the third wicket.But from a promising 103-2 in the 19th over Somerset fell away as spinners Chris Schofield and Gary Yates took two wickets each in key spells that enabled Lancashire to peg back the run-rate.The pair sent down their combined 18 overs for only 73 runs, sharing the vital wickets of Cox, Bowler, Mike Burns and Ian Blackwell.Somerset were never able to accelerate again and the total of 198 all out in 44 overs looked woefully inadequate on a typically batsman-friendly Taunton pitch.Glen Chapple weighed in with 3-23 from his nine overs as only Keith Parsons of the later batsmen showed much composure in making 25.As it turned out, 250 might not have been enough against players of the calibre of Atherton and Ganguly in top form.But Cox conceded he had got it wrong. “We should have played Lathwell. But our medium-pacers have been going for a few with the white ball and I thought Kerr would be a handy extra option,” he said.The only Somerset player with cause to smile was Bowler, whose benefit game this was. His coffers will have been swollen considerably by the gate receipts and a bucket collection that raised more than £1,700.

Crowd trouble forced two interruptions in play during the second T20I at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack as India slid to a six-wicket defeat against South Africa. Play was held up for more than 50 minutes during South Africa’s chase after spectators, largely from one section of the stadium, began throwing plastic bottles onto the field.The first bottle-throwing incident came in the break between innings – India were bowled out for 92, their lowest T20I total at home – and did not interrupt play. The second came after 11 overs of South Africa’s chase and stopped play for 27 minutes. The players remained in the middle through the delay and play resumed at 10pm, with security personnel lining the boundaries. However, a third wave of bottle-throwing two overs later forced them off. Play resumed after a 24-minute hold-up once the police had cleared the section of the crowd causing the disruption.South Africa required another 4.1 overs, which passed without further incident, to complete the chase and seal the series 2-0.The incident is the first case for the BCCI’s new president, Shashank Manohar, to handle and there would be several points of concern for the board in how the situation was dealt with on the spot in Cuttack.The matter did not come up at the post-match presentation ceremony, though both captains were interviewed by the broadcasters and could have been asked for their thoughts on it.The issue was raised at the subsequent press conference, however, and prompted this response from India’s captain MS Dhoni: “Frankly, from a safety point of view, I don’t think there was a very serious threat. A few of the powerful people from the crowd were good enough to throw the bottles inside the rope. So the umpires thought it was better that players go off the field for a while. The reaction of the crowd, you know, we didn’t play well, so at times you get reactions like this. It’s only the first bottle. After that they start throwing for fun. We shouldn’t read too much into it. I still remember we played in Vishakhapatnam once, we won the game very easily, and that time also a lot of bottles were thrown. It starts with the first bottle, and after that, you know, it is more fun for the spectators if they start doing it and following it.”The incident also raises questions about safety precautions at grounds in India, especially for high-profile matches like today’s. The standard procedure is for spectators who buy drinks at the ground to be given their liquid refreshments – whether water or soft drinks – in plastic cups, which cannot be used as missiles. How the spectators could carry bottles to their seats on Monday will be a matter for investigation.Also apparent was the lax security; when the match resumed after the break most of the policemen on the boundary could be seen watching the match rather than facing the crowd, as is standard procedure.

ScorecardLife is full of blue skies for Peter Moores since his arrival at Trent Bridge•Getty Images

Fast-improving Nottinghamshire dodged the worst of the rain to register their third victory in four LV= County Championship matches by beating Worcestershire by five wickets at New Road.Needing 75 more runs, they were delayed for 75 minutes by a heavy shower and it was after lunch when a strong team performance came to a successful conclusion after a stand of 157 by James Taylor and Riki Wessels.On the resumption at 157 for three, their partnership was worth 120 and when it was broken by Saeed Ajmal it was the county’s highest for the fourth wicket in championship meetings with Worcestershire.Taylor, a former academy player at New Road, compiled a classy 66 from 127 balls and Wessels, after a first-innings duck, more than made amends with 88 from 190 balls on the ground where he marked his debut for Notts by scoring 67 in May 2011.Worcestershire, as always, kept fighting to the end but they were eventually overpowered by two batsmen – and a team – at the top of their game since the forner England coach, Peter Moores, was added to the coaching staff as an assistant to Mick Newell.After a sluggish start to the season, it now seems that Nottinghamshire can do no wrong. Since propping up the Division One table in the Championship on June 24, they have amassed 77 points from four matches, two of them against Worcestershire, and in completed games in all competitions they have reeled off 10 consecutive wins.Worcestershire, in contrast, have lost seven completed matches in a row, mostly in the Royal London One-day Cup, and the struggle against relegation in the Championship continues despite another committed display.The match was probably lost on the second day when a dropped chance allowed Nottinghamshire to take control by adding 157 in the afternoon session.By the last day their victory was close to being a formality, although Taylor and Wessels went out of their way to avoid unnecessary risks in adding 31 in 12 overs by lunch.It was only when they looked for a big finish that they came unstuck, departing in successive overs from Ajmal as they tried to take on the off-spinner. Taylor was caught at extra cover and Wessels at mid-off.Notts eventually got home 45 minutes after lunch. Samit Patel (17 not out)) avoided a “pair” with a six to mid-wicket off Brett D’Oliveira and Chris Read (19 not out) finished it off with successive fours off Ajmal.

John Savage, the former Leicestershire and Lancashire player, has died aged 79 after a short illness. Savage, who also coached at Lancashire for nine years from 1969, passed away in Rochdale Infirmary on Monday after a short illness.Savage, an offspinner, played the majority of his first-class career at Leicestershire – from 1953 to 1966 – before heading to Old Trafford in 1967. With the emergence of fellow spinner Jack Simmons, first-team opportunities were limited, but Lancashire saw in Savage strong leadership qualities and asked him to take on the role of player-coach for the club’s up and coming talent.Savage took 965 wickets in 347 matches, passing 100 wickets in a season on three occasions.It was a post he held from 1969 until the end of his playing career in 1978. In 2001, John was elected a vice-president of Lancashire County Cricket Club. Although born in Ramsbottom, Savage made his home in Crumpsall, North Manchester.

Lancashire have signed New Zealand batsman Lou Vincent as their replacement overseas player for the upcoming Twenty20 Cup.Vincent has been playing for Ramsbottom in the Lancashire League and had recently participated in the unofficial Indian Cricket League. His signing is still subject to a work permit and registration. “I’m delighted to get the opportunity to play in the Twenty20 Cup for Lancashire,” Vincent said. “Twenty20 is a format which suits my game, and I can’t wait to play my part in a successful campaign for the club.”Lancashire’s original overseas player Brad Hodge will be on international duty with Australia until the end of their tour of the Caribbean (July 6) while Mohammad Yousuf is with the Pakistan national team for a tri-series in Bangladesh.”We are about to start a very important Twenty20 competition and we have bought in a player with a great reputation in the format who will add firepower to our top order,” Lancashire’s cricket manager Mike Watkinson said. “He is an exciting player and excellent fielder, just what we need for Twenty20 cricket.”Vincent has played 23 Tests and 102 one-day internationals and has also had a county stint with Worcestershire in 2006.

Gautam Gambhir says India cannot claim favouritism in the upcoming Test series despite Australia fielding a relatively inexperienced squad by Australian standards. The visitors have lost several key men since their series win in India in 2004-05 and their 15-man squad includes four uncapped players and four who have played 11 or fewer Tests.Australia’s captain Ricky Ponting has conceded his side is far less experienced than India, who could potentially start the series with as many as eight players with more than 50 Tests under their belts. But Gambhir pointed out there were few differences to the Australia squad that beat India 2-1 in Australia earlier this year.”If you look at the Australian bowling attack, it is pretty similar to the one we played against when we toured there,” Gambhir told . “The only difference is that they don’t have the experience of a spinner such as Shane Warne or Stuart MacGill.”In any case when you play against a team like Australia, you have to play to the best of your ability. They are tough to beat and they always play to the best of their ability. You just cannot think of beating them by playing one or two sessions well. You have to be at the top of your game throughout the five days.”Both teams are hoping for a friendlier series than the contests in Australia, where the cricket was often overshadowed by on-field and off-field controversies. Gambhir said it was important India were mentally prepared for a rematch.”You don’t want to be playing a weak opposition. Australia is the toughest series for any cricketer,” he said. You have to be fully ready mentally to take anything on. You should be prepared for everything that comes at you and at times give it back.”Gambhir’s debut Test four years ago remains the only one he has played against Australia. He is entering the series in fine form having struck three half-centuries in the recent three-match series in Sri Lanka but he was frustrated at his failure to go on and reach triple-figures.”Hitting 300 runs in three Test matches is very satisfying, but I still think I should have got more runs,” he added. “You don’t get these kind of opportunities when you’re playing Test cricket. Test cricket is all about settling in and getting big runs – as many as possible.”On Monday Australia arrived in Jaipur, where they will train and play the first of their two warm-up matches. The Test series begins on October 9 in Bangalore.

Bishan Bedi, the former India finger-spinner, is convinced Australia will need to play Jason Krejza in the third Test in Delhi if they are to have their best chance of beating India. Bedi worked with Krejza, the offspinner, at training on Sunday and he was cautiously optimistic about the bowler’s potential.”I was basically working with Jason,” Bedi told the . “He is potentially very good but he must realise his potential. I think they will have to play Jason. They need a finger-spinner.”After Warney there is a big void, there is no doubt about that, but I think some of these youngsters can take responsibility with a bit of commitment. We shouldn’t really be in any kind of haste. The results will come.”In the first two Tests Australia relied on the minimal-turning legspin of Cameron White, who made his debut in Bangalore, and the part-time offerings of Michael Clarke. The Delhi pitch is expected to offer spin and Krejza, as a man who can turn the ball sharply, will come into Australia’s calculations.He had fallen out of contention following a miserable performance in the tour game in Hyderabad, when he was belted into submission and collected match figures of 0 for 199. But the confident Krejza said after the match that he valued the match as a learning experience.”It was a tough game,” he said. “I knew what was going to happen in that game and I didn’t bowl as badly as the figures said I did … As a spinner there are times when you get a bit of stick and you have just got to get back on the horse and keep going. That was my attitude.”