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Dilip Vengsarkar has quit his post as the chairman of selectors of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) three days after he was replaced by Kris Srikkanth as the chairman of the national selection panel. However Vengsarkar will continue as the MCA vice-president.Vengsarkar sent a letter to the MCA tendering his resignation. “As you are aware that by virtue of me being the chairman of India’s selection committee, my term as the chairman of MCA’s selection committee, which expired two years ago, was extended,” Vengsarkar said. “Since I am no longer an India selector, I would like to relinquish my post as the chairman of MCA’s selection panel. I would like to thank the MCA managing committee as well as the Cricket Improvement Committee for all the support they had extended during my tenure.”Mumbai cricket is as healthy as ever and I am sure, by the grace of God, will remain so for many years to come. I would like to request you to call on the Cricket Improvement Committee at the earliest to appoint a selector in my place as the season is about to begin.”Vengsarkar was ineligible for the national selector’s job after the BCCI revised the rules and barred selectors from holding posts with state associations.

Match facts

Tuesday, August 27, 2008
Start time 2.30pm (local time) 0900 (GMT)

Big Picture

The fourth ODI was pushed to Wednesday, the reserve day, after persistent rain ruled out any possibility of play on Tuesday. After a hiding in the first game in Dambulla, India have regrouped well to take a 2-1 lead in the series. Much of the success has been due to the seam duo of Zaheer Khan and Praveen Kumar who, with their contrasting styles, have found chinks in Sri Lanka’s imposing top order. India’s batting wears a rather thin look in terms of form and numbers but the bowlers have compensated for that by relentlessly chipping away at the wickets and not allowing any top-order partnerships to develop.Sri Lanka have their backs to the wall and need to win the next two to round off a victorious summer. The scenario is similar to last year’s home series against England, which they conceded 3-2 after winning the first game. Since their 5-0 clean sweep against South Africa four years ago, their only bilateral series wins have come against Bangladesh. Surprisingly, their batting hasn’t been up to scratch, contrary to the popular perception of their invincibility on home pitches. Mahela Jayawardene’s 94 yesterday was the highest score by a Sri Lankan at home in 14 complete ODIs, after Upul Tharanga’s 105 against Bangladesh in 2005. Sanath Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara have yet to fire in this series, Tillakaratne Dilshan has failed to convert his starts and the persistence with Chamara Silva hasn’t paid off.Sri Lanka have just a day to get their act together and keep the series alive. They haven’t ever lost two successive ODI series at home, and Jayawardene will be desperate to ensure it doesn’t happen now.

Form guide (last 5 ODIs)

Sri Lanka LLWWL
India WWLLW

Watch out for

Kumar Sangakkara: Following his century in the third Test, Sangakkara has had a rather quiet series so far, with scores of 19, 2 and 9, and on two occasions was squared up by Zaheer’s incoming delivery. He is too good a player to fail continuously, though, and a big score should be around the corner.Wickets with the new ball: Seamers have enjoyed the conditions at the Premadasa at least over the last three day-night matches, claiming 42 of the 50 wickets taken by bowlers. Dilhara Fernando rolled England over with figures of 6 for 27 under lights last year and India’s seam attack was just as potent on Sunday.

Team news

The teams didn’t practice on the eve of the match. Chamara Silva will be under pressure to keep his place with the likes of Mahela Udawatte and Malinda Warnapura competing for his spot. Silva has scored just one fifty in his last 11 innings. With the opening pair not firing either, Sri Lanka may decide to bring in an opener to replace Silva, and drop Sangakkara to No. 3.Sri Lanka (likely) 1 Sanath Jayasuriya, 2 Mahela Udawatte, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene (capt), 5 Chamara Kapugedera, 6 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 7 Chaminda Vaas, 8 Nuwan Kulasekara, 9 Thilan Thushara, 10 Ajantha Mendis, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan.India will probably retain their winning combination and the performances of Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina – both were due some runs – should come as a relief to the captain.India (likely) 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 S Badrinath, 7 Rohit Sharma, 8 Praveen Kumar, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Munaf Patel.

Pitch & conditions

A similar pitch to the first game is on the cards, and with conditions likely to suit bowlers in the evening, the captain winning the toss will almost certainly bat first. Scattered thundershowers are predicted on Tuesday, but hopefully, the forecast will be as inaccurate as it was on Sunday.

Stats & Trivia

• Sri Lanka have gone 20 innings without a half-century partnership for the opening wicket against the top teams (excluding Bangladesh and Zimbabwe). They average 16.90 for the first wicket against these teams during this period.
• Muttiah Muralitharan’s figures of none for 48 from nine overs on Sunday was his second-most expensive spell in a home ODI for the last ten years. The only occasion he went for more runs during this period – against Pakistan in 2006 – he had three wickets to show for his efforts.
• Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas both went wicketless on Sunday. The last time this happened in a 50-over ODI was way back on January 13, 2006, in a VB Series match against Australia in Melbourne.
• Dhoni has made ten 50-plus scores in 34 ODI innings as captain. The matchwinning 76 on Sunday was his first ODI half-century in eight innings in Sri Lanka.
• Zaheer has taken 10 wickets in his last five ODIs at an average of 13.30 and an economy rate of 3.01.

Quotes

“You need to punish him if he bowls a bad ball. If you continue to defend him, he will always be on top.”
“I am pleased with the way the two spinners bowled. They went for 50 runs but lot of guys do go for that kind of scores these days. These are two exceptional spinners and I am sure they well come back strongly.”

Sachin Tendulkar will not play the five-ODI series in Sri Lanka after sustaining an injury to his left elbow during the third Test in Colombo. S Badrinath, the Tamil Nadu batsman, will be his replacement.”I spoke to Sachin and the team physio [Nitin Patel] this morning and I can confirm that Tendulkar has been ruled out of action for two to three weeks,” Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI’s chief administrative officer, told Cricinfo.Tendulkar had jarred his elbow while attempting a catch in the 47th over of Sri Lanka’s first innings on Saturday, and was quickly taken off. An MRI scan revealed a swelling, and Tendulkar didn’t take the field for the rest of the innings. However, he did bat in India’s second innings on Sunday, though two places below his customary No. 4 position. Tendulkar was out for 14, which still leaves him 77 short of surpassing Brian Lara as the leading run-getter in Tests.After missing the Asia Cup in Pakistan due to a groin injury, Tendulkar had been named in the ODI squad for Sri Lanka as well as the Champions Trophy in Pakistan which takes place in September. His last one-day match was the second final of the Commonwealth Bank Series against Australia in Brisbane in March 2008.Badrinath confirmed his call-up to the national team, and will leave for Sri Lanka on Wednesday. “Yes, I got a call to join the team for the Sri Lanka series and I’m leaving day after,” he told Cricinfo. Badrinath said though the Muttiah Muralitharan-Ajantha Mendis spin combination was a testing one, he had the advantage of having faced Murali at the Chennai Super Kings nets during the Indian Premier League earlier this year.”The injury to Tendulkar is sad and it is very hard to step into his shoes,” Badrinath told the . “I am looking forward to the challenge of playing to the best of my ability. I have worked on my strokes, the innovations over the years. I have picked wickets for my club Jolly Rovers in the TNCA first division league with my off spin. Fielding and fitness are always high on my priority list.”The five-match series will be played from August 18-29.

Gloucestershire, already struggling financially to compete with other English counties, will not pay fees to agents, says their chairman.”The worrying factor is agents get paid if their players move,” Light told . “We in Gloucestershire are not going to pay agents, we’ve decided we will not do that.”Agents, Light feels, are a detriment to county cricket and wants to make sure Gloucestershire’s best players are not swayed by lucrative offers elsewhere. But thats not going to be easy, he admits.”The club has a policy of not paying any agents fees to prevent a regular merry-go-round of players as is common-place in football,” said Light. “Several counties are coveting our leading players. Lucrative offers have been made to Alex Gidman and to Steve Kirby from well-to-do counties, backed by much more money than we’ve got.”Gloucestershire are languishing at the bottom of the Championship second division points table.

Nathan Hauritz, the Australian offspinner, has echoed Shane Watson’s feelings on the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, saying he didn’t care where he played as long he got to represent his country.Watson had said he’d play anywhere but some Australian players, including Andrew Symonds, expressed their reservations on touring Pakistan, which had two bomb attacks on its cities in the past two weeks.However Hauritz, who was named in Australia’s 30 probables for the Champions Trophy, said getting the chance to play for the national team didn’t happen all the time. “You can go to a number of places in this world that are dangerous,” Hauritz, who last played for Australia in 2004, told the Sydney-based . “But at the end of the day it’s not my call and it’s up to Cricket Australia. I’m sure they will do everything they can to make sure it’s safe.”Peter Young, the Cricket Australia spokesman, made it clear the board wouldn’t send players to a place that was dangerous. “We understand the players’ concerns,” Young said. “It is a concern of ours. International cricket is important to billions of fans around the world but, like Andrew [Symonds] said, ‘It’s only a game’, and the issue is if we can justify sending our players anywhere where it might be dangerous.”Australia are expected to take a decision on whether or not to tour Pakistan in three weeks. While the board, along with New Zealand Cricket and the England board, had hired Reg Dickson, an independent security expert, to visit Karachi and submit a report on the security measures for the Asia Cup, Cricket Australia’s own operations chief, Michael Brown, is not expected back from his annual leave till next week, Young said.

The repercussions of Pakistan’s worst-ever defeat to India in the Kitply Cup came to light today with Nasim Ashraf, the board chairman, lashing out at the team management in the aftermath of an embarrassing 140-run loss on Tuesday.In an email written to team manager Talat Ali, a copy of which was published in and various Urdu newspapers, Ashraf was especially severe on Shoaib Malik’s captaincy and fitness, and picked out Kamran Akmal for “unsporting behaviour” after he claimed a catch that he hadn’t taken cleanly.”Last night’s performance against India in which we lost by over 100 runs was embarrassing,” Ashraf, who will fly to Dhaka on Saturday to have a meeting with the team management, wrote. “It is not a question of losing a match but our overall performance and the lack of resolve and commitment bothered me the most.”Ashraf has sent copies of the email to coach Lawson and Malik and asked the team management to respond in 24 hours “so that timely action can be taken before the next match against India [assuming the sides meet in the final].”Among the many points he raised he questioned why an additional spinner was not included in the team, also inquiring about the fitness of Malik.”The previous game against Bangladesh had clearly highlighted the characteristics of the track in Dhaka, that the spinners were going to play crucial role. The team selected for India game had four fast bowlers. Also, you [referring to Ali] clearly told me that Malik was 100% fit and therefore was the second spinner in the side. What happened to that? Why did Malik not bowl?”Ashraf then turned his attention to the team’s lethargic body language, saying that they looked “paralysed” in the field after the flying start made by India. “Nobody suggested to the captain that he must have a mini conference with the vice-captain and other players – junior or senior – and take corrective action. Even the commentators were talking as to the possibility of changing the bowling and bringing in Shahid Afridi at an early stage.”Akmal’s place in the side looks to be in danger after Ashraf called for his ouster. “[The] wicketkeeping was pathetic, especially after Kamran Akmal dropped the catch and pretended that he had held on to it. This is unsporting behaviour but perhaps one has to give him the benefit of the doubt as he may not have realised that the ball had slipped out from his hand, which was picked up by the cameras.”I do not want such behaviour from any Pakistani player. Please warn everyone. We ought to be looking at playing another ‘keeper.”He said that fast bowlers should be advised not to “overextend themselves” referring to the 38 extras Pakistan conceded, a problem that has plagued them for a considerable period of time. “They should have been instructed to bowl strictly to a line and length and to contain especially when the batsmen were in such full cry. It seemed as if we were just continuing with tactics that were clearly not working. We need to be more proactive on the field.”Except for a few on the field, the body language was not competitive. We were smiling and joking as if we were some junior team which was happy just to be given the privilege of playing a top team. This has to stop.”He directed the team management to conduct a fitness test on Malik “so as to determine clearly whether he can bowl full 10 overs.” He also asked the touring management to decide on the playing XI for a probable summit clash with India, and, to request for an additional spinner if they needed one.The publication of the email offset another chaotic day in Pakistan cricket, culminating in the sacking of Saleem Altaf, a former cricketer and senior board official, reportedly after allegations that he was leaking information to the press.Ashraf later admitted to reporters at Gaddafi Stadium that he had sent the email. “Yes definitely I sent it. We discussed it and the team have to take corrective action. Hopefully the performance in the next game will be better.”The contents of the email are bound to raise questions as to why the chairman of the board is interfering to such a degree in what are essentially matters for the team management and selectors.

Internationals Rachel Pullar and Clare Taylor will spearhead the State Otago Sparks’ bowling attack in this summer’s State League series.Pullar is a five-year veteran with the TelstraClear White Ferns while Taylor, awarded an MBE recently for her services to the game, has 15 years of international experience behind her for England. Taylor played for the Sparks in 2000/01 following the CricInfo Women’s World Cup in New Zealand.Coach Geoff Rodden will also be able to call on the services of long-serving provincial representatives Kirsten Spence and Megan Kane, while the team will be captained for the second successive year by Sarah Helmore, who has been drafted from Canterbury.Debut players this season are Claire Thompson and Adele Crawley.The Sparks’ season runs from mid-December through to mid-February.The State Otago Sparks this summer are: Sarah Helmore (captain), Natalie Bannerman, Adele Crawley, Jenna Innes, Alana Kane, Megan Kane, Katherine Lynch, Katey Martin, Rachel Pullar, Elizabeth Scurr, Kirsten Spence, Clare Taylor, Claire Thompson, Sarah Tsukigawa.

Muttiah Muralitharan has flown out of South Africa directly to Australia to undergo an operation for Hernia. All arrangements for his surgery is handled by Dr. Quintus De Zylva, the BCCSL representative in Australia.Muralitharan will not be available for the ODI Series against South Africa. His availability for the Australia Tour will depend on his speed of recovery after surgery.

Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq has, in his first public comments since undergoing an angioplasty, clarified that he did not suffer a heart attack. He also thanked people who had wished him well around the world, and confirmed he was on the mend.In a video shot at his home and uploaded to his YouTube channel, Inzamam said his visit to the hospital had been a “routine check-up” after experiencing discomfort in his stomach. “I want to thank everyone in Pakistan and around the world for praying for my health. I want to thank the Pakistan people, and cricketers from Pakistan and around the world who sent their well-wishes.”I saw reports saying I had suffered a heart attack. I did not. I went to my doctor for a routine check-up, who said they wanted to conduct an angiography. During angiography, they noted an artery of mine was blocked, so they inserted stents to alleviate that problem. It was successful and easy, and I came back home after just 12 hours at the hospital. I feel fine.”The 51-year old was taken to hospital complaining of chest pains on Monday; at the time his management had said that he had suffered a heart attack, and had to be rushed for surgery.Inzamam urged people to keep tabs on their cardiac health, and consult their doctor if they had any concerns. “I went to the doctor because I felt a very slight bit of discomfort. It wasn’t even close to the heart area, but the stomach. Had I delayed getting it checked out, doctors said the heart could have been damaged.”Inzamam, 51, is Pakistan’s highest run-getter in ODIs with 11701 runs in 375 matches, and their third-highest in Tests with 8829 runs in 119 matches. He was also among the country’s most successful captains.He retired from the international game in 2007 and has since held several positions in Pakistan, as a batting consultant and then the chief selector from 2016 to 2019. He has also worked as head coach of Afghanistan.

Centuries from openers Martin Guptill and Glenn Phillips were just enough for Auckland to scrape to a four-run D/L win against Central Districts, a result that pushed them to the top of the Ford Trophy points table. After Auckland were asked to bat at the Eden Park No. 2, Guptill (112 off 105) and Phillips (102 off 89) thwacked their way to a 208-run stand in just 27.5 overs, before both were dismissed in quick succession off the bowling of Blair Tickner. Sean Solia’s 57-ball 70 and brisk cameos from Mark Chapman (43 off 28) and Robert O’Donnell (44 off 33) helped Auckland pile on 392 for 3.Central Districts lost Jesse Ryder for 1 in the third over, but kept pace with the asking rate. George Worker put on stands of 74 and 125 with Tom Bruce and Dane Cleaver respectively. Cleaver followed up Bruce’s 34-ball 50 with 77 off just 50 balls, an innings that featured seven fours and four sixes. Worker struck his ninth List A ton, and was unbeaten on 107 when rain came down. After a 13-minute interruption, play resumed without a reduction of overs. Soon after, however, heavy rain forced the game to be called off with Central Districts four runs short.In the only match not affected by rain in the round, Northern Districts beat Otago by 125 runs in Whangarei. Their win was set up by fifties from Dean Brownlie and Tim Seifert, before 19-year-old Zak Gibson took a career-best 4 for 31 to run through Otago’s batting line-up.Otago, who were set a target of 260, were reduced to 42 for 6 in the 13th over. Gibson claimed four wickets in his first four overs. Scott Kuggeleijn (2 for 31) and Ish Sodhi (2 for 30) were also among the wickets. Wicketkeeper-batsman Derek de Boorder top-scored with 43 at No. 8, but his was the only major contribution as Otago folded for 134 in the 39th over.Earlier, Brownlie scored 71 as he put on 57 for the opening wicket with Bharat Popli and 55 for the fourth with Daryl Mitchell. But Netherlands international Michael Rippon, a left-arm wristspinner took 3 for 36, and medium-pacer Christi Viljoen returned figures of 3 for 45 to keep things tight. Seifert (56 off 50) was the only other batsman who could get past 30. He put on 56 for the seventh wicket with Brett Hampton (29), before they lost four wickets in five balls to be bowled out for 259 in the last over.Hamish Bennett’s figures of 3 for 9 helped Wellington beat Canterbury by 10 runs (D/L method) in their rain-curtailed fixture at the Basin Reserve.Wellington were put into bat before the match was reduced to 27 overs a side. They were 35 for 2 in the 11th over, when Tom Blundell – who is part of the New Zealand ODI squad for the Chappell-Hadlee series – scored 32, and combined with Scott Borthwick (38), before falling with the score on 66 in the 16th over. Thereon, Wellington scored 100 runs off 69 deliveries thanks to Matt Taylor’s unbeaten 43 off 22, to post 166 for 6. Logan van Beek and Tim Johnston took two wickets each for Canterbury.In reply, Canterbury were reduced to 12 for 3 in the fifth over, Bennett taking all three in consecutive overs. Opener Jack Boyle put on 54 with Todd Astle (26) for the fourth wicket. Wickets off consecutive overs, including that of Boyle for 68, set Canterbury back. They slammed 11 off the next three balls as the rain came down, and were 123 for 6 in 22.2 overs – 10 short of the par score – when play was stopped.