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Brad Hodge, the Australian batsman, will miss the next five weeks of the county season with Lancashire after signing for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL. It is a move that has come out of the blue and the player only learnt of the approach within the last 48 hours.Hodge is the leading scorer in Twenty20 cricket worldwide with 1649 runs at 42 and a strike-rate of 139 from 47 matches. “I was approached only 24-48 hours ago and I’m still in shock at the opportunity that has been presented,” he said.”Twenty20 is a format that I really enjoy and have a good record in, and to be part of the inaugural IPL tournament is something most cricketers would find hard to turn down. It’s been an extremely difficult decision to make, but Lancashire have been very understanding of my situation and I hope to repay them on the field when I return.””Brad is arguably one of the best Twenty20 players in the world,” said Jim Cumbes, the Lancashire chief executive. “Although it’s disappointing to be losing a player of his calibre for part of our season, we are very lucky at Lancashire to have depth in our squad and this is a great opportunity for someone else to step up to the plate.”Hodge will join his Victoria team-mate David Hussey at Kolkata, who will lose Brendon McCullum to New Zealand’s tour of England at the end of the month and Ricky Ponting to a training camp. He will leave after Lancashire’s current Championship game against Somerset and the first match he misses is the Friends Provident Trophy clash against Scotland. Lancashire have no current plans to bring in another overseas player for the period Hodge is away.

Lasith Malinga’s world-record four wickets in four balls against South Africa during the World Cup has inspired his former school, Mahinda College in Galle, to hold a felicitation ceremony in honour of its past cricketers who have gone on to play for Sri Lanka.The ceremony, to be held June 2 at the college hall, will pay tribute to several former and current Sri Lankan cricketers including Somachandra de Silva, Jayananada Warnaweera, Athula Samarasekera, Marvan Atapattu, Upul Chandana, Malinga and the late DLS de Silvam who played in the 1979 World Cup.Several other cricketers in the pre-Test era will also be felicitated, namely the late DD Jayasinghe, Somasiri Ambawatte, WB Bennett, DP de Silva, PHKH Ranasinghe, AJ Samasekera, Gajaba Pitigala, Mihiri Egodage, Kamal Dharmasiri, Neil de Silva, Dileepa Wickremasinghe and Upul Sumathipala.Sumathipala, a member of the organizing committee, stated that the school wanted to honour its past cricketers for some time and Malinga’s record-breaking feat precipitate plans to hold a ceremony. He said that Malinga will be presented a special award.Sumathipala also stated that Champaka Ramanayake, a former Sri Lanka fast bowler and head of Sri Lanka Cricket’s fast bowling academy, will receive a special award as the coach who discovered and nurtured Malinga to become an international fast bowler. All the cricket coaches who served Mahinda College in its 115-year history will also be felicitated.

Zimbabwe cricket has suffered another loss with the news that Noel Peck, who has been head groundsman at Bulawayo’s Queens Club since 1988, has resigned.Cricinfo has learnt that Peck quit on April 5 and is now serving out his three-month notice period before leaving at the end of June. It is understood that he will then leave Zimbabwe and settle in England, where he has family, and once there he hopes to continue working as a groundman.Peck, who is 60, is also responsible for the maintenance of the pitches at Bulawayo Athletic Club and the recently-built Emakhandeni Cricket Ground.He started maintaining the wicket at Queens on a part-time basis as he was still employed by the National Railways of Zimbabwe. He prepared the wicket for the first Test match to be played at Queens when Zimbabwe took on Sri Lanka in October 1994.In 1997, Peck resigned from the NRZ and was taken on by the Zimbabwe Cricket Union the following year as a full-time curator. He has maintained both the playing and practice area that have been praised by a number of touring sides.

Richie Benaud added his voice, on Sunday, to calls for Bangladesh and Zimbabwe to be dropped from senior international cricket. Benaud, currently in England where he is commentating for broadcaster Channel 4, made his comments after witnessing Bangladesh’s innings and 261-run defeat in the first Test at Lord’s.The match, Bangladesh’s first Test in England, finished before lunch on the third day with Benaud labelling it an “absolute shambles”. Benaud, writing in the News of the World, was adamant that the presence of Bangladesh – whose only win in 37 Tests has come against fellow strugglers Zimbabwe – was neither good for the game as a whole or for the teams themselves.Benaud said: “After witnessing this two-and-a-bit day farce at Lord’s, I am convinced our game’s governing body – the ICC – must make a firm and swift decision, They must remove Bangladesh and Zimbabwe from full-time international cricket until their ability and infrastructure warrant their re-inclusion.He added: “Both teams need to be put on hold for the good of cricket. They are simply not good enough to be pitched against proper Test match countries. What should be done is to have both countries scheduled to play a carefully programmed series of matches against A teams and minor teams from the other eight [Test] countries and they should play against one another as well. They can undertake short tours where none of the opposition will be of international standard and we can see if they are improving, standing still or going backwards.”The ICC is due to hold its annual meetings at Lord’s in June. However, it is unlikely that the standing of either Bangladesh or Zimbabwe will be on the agenda given that the governing body has repeatedly said their Test status is not up for discussion. Benaud, 74, one of cricket’s best-known broadcasters, was the first player to complete the all-round double of 2,000 Test runs and 200 Test wickets. He led Australia in 28 of his 63 Tests and never lost a series as captain.

Cricket Australia has said that Australia’s tour of Zimbabwe will go ahead as planned. Steve Bernard, the manager of the team, said that the Australians were satisfied with the security arrangements made by the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU), and that it would take “something drastic” to derail the tour now.”There’s no doubt we’re coming, unless something drastic has to happen just before the tour,” Bernard said. “We were coming anyhow but we had to make all the necessary security checks ahead of the tour.”An Australian delegation has spent the last two days inspecting the arrangements in Harare and Bulwayo, the venues for the Tests. Bernard took pains to stress that even this was routine procedure before any tour. “We would want to stress that the pre-checks we are conducting are not only for Zimbabwe but we have had security checks in Sri Lanka and the West Indies, where our teams have played before.”

Hampshire’s Chris Tremlett’s winter of recovery reached a further stage when he was selected in the 14 Man England Academy squad to tour Malaysia and Sri Lanka.The Academy will play a single one-day match against Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur before heading on a four-and-a-half week tour of Sri Lanka, where they will play seven matches against Sri Lanka A, Academy XI and an Under-19 sides.The Full Squad is: K Ali (Worcestershire), G Batty (Worcestershire), I Bell (Warwickshire), R Clarke (Surrey), R Dawson (Yorkshire), R Key (Kent), K Hogg (Lancashire), G Muchall (Durham), M Panesar (Northamptonshire), C Read (Nottinghamshire), D Stevens (Leicestershire), C Tremlett (Hampshire), J Troughton (Warwickshire), M Wallace (Glamorgan).

* Scindia hopes summit will restore Indo-Pak cricketing tiesCongress parliamentary party deputy leader Madhavrao Scindia on Sundayhoped that suspended cricketing ties between India and Pakistan wouldbe restored after the summit between Prime Minister Atal BihariVajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.Talking to reporters at Indore airport, Scindia, a former president ofthe Board of Control for Cricket in India, criticised the BJP-led NDAgovernment for snapping cricket ties with Pakistan. “Since the NDAhas a history of taking u-turns from its earlier positions, there arechances of normalisation of relations in this field,” he said.”Mutual exchanges in the arena of sports, culture and education,among other fields, has the potential of cementing ties between thetwo countries,” the Congress leader said. “Even the Prime Ministerhad two months ago stated that there will not be any talks with thePakistan government until it stopped abetting cross border terrorism.But suddenly he has extended an invitation to Musharraf and thereforeon the issue of cricket also the government will take a u-turn,”Scindia added.* Indian quartet back, richer by the Adelaide experienceFour talented trainees from the National Cricket Academy, DeepakChoughule, Vinayak Mane, Parthiv Patel and Arindham Das have returnedricher by their coaching experience at the Commonwealth BankAustralian Cricket Academy at Adelaide.Three of the players – Deepak, Vinayak and Parthiv – were selectedunder the aegis of the Gavasar-Border Foundation scholarship whileArindham’s trip was sponsored by the Cricket Association of Bengal.The traines were at the Australian Academy from June 4 to July 14.The four unanimously agreed that the trip was a great exposure and theblend of strenuous physical fitness sessions and technical skillswould stand them in good stead. In addition they had the benefit oflistening to former Australian captain Ian Chappell who spoke to themon captaincy, umpiring and various other aspects of the game. “Welearnt a lot,” the quartet echoed.Last year Sridharan Sriram, Md Kaif and Shiv Sundar Das had been sentunder the Gavaskar-Border scholarship to Adelaide for a similar stint.* ACA’s month long coaching camp concludesThe month long coaching camp at the Assam Cricket Academy which beganat Guwahati on June 17, concluded on July 15. At a simple function,distinguished guests like Pankaj Bora, MLA, Rana Goswami, MLA and theformer secretary of the ACA Badan Saikia, the former ACA vicepresident and former Ranji player from Dibrugarh Jatin Bora and manyformer Ranji Trophy players from the city attended the closingceremony of the Academy.After the guests and ex-players, as well as one of the twoInternational umpires from Assam, Suren Ram Phukan, were felicitatedwith the traditional `Gamocha’, the inaugural speech was delivered byNandan Bezbaruah, ACA secretary and he made a special mention of thecoaches who rendered selfless service for the past month. “It isbecause of them that the camp was conducted so successfully,” hesaid. The function was presided over by Brojen Gohain, ACA Vice-President while Dilip Choudhury, assistant secretary, ACA proposed avote of thanks.Fifty two players were selected initially of which 32 were kept to theend of the camp. They were all given certificates and a T-shirt.

ScorecardFile Photo – Arup Das and Krishna Das shared all 10 wickets from the Odisha innings•PTI

Seamer Krishna Das took 7 for 21 to bowl Odisha out for 88 and give Assam, who had made only 92 yesterday, an almost inconceivable first-innings lead. Assam then managed to cobble a total in triple-figures, finishing on 137 for 8 at stumps. The Cuttack pitch afforded 15 wickets on Thursday and 13 today, so any advantage seems vital and the visitors are 141 runs ahead.Krishna and Arup Das, who took 3 for 45, took care of all the Odisha batsmen. Only Natraj Behera and Anurag Sarangi managed to get double-figure scores and Odisha’s best partnership – 22 runs – was put on by the ninth wicket.But the help that was available to the fast bowlers meant the hosts were able to reel in some of the ground they lost. Suryakant Pradhan struck twice in the second over of Assam’s second innings to dismiss Kunal Saikia and Gokul Sharma for ducks. At the other end, Basant Mohanty removed Amit Verma, also for a duck, to leave the visitors on 13 for 3.By the 45th over Assam were 86 for 6. But coming in at No. 7 Syed Mohammad struck 42 off 158 balls with four fours to record the highest score of the match so far and perhaps tempt his team into contemplating an away victory.
ScorecardOvernight rain followed by intermittent showers on the second day resulted in only 16.2 overs being bowled in the Group A game between Bengal and Rajasthan at the Eden Gardens.The start of the match was delayed by an over hour. Resuming from 104 for 3, Rajasthan lost two wickets while putting on 38 runs. Pragyan Ojha got the first when he went through the defences of Ashok Menaria in the 43rd over while Ashok Dinda had Puneet Yadav caught for 14 in the 50th.Ojha came back to dismiss Arjit Gupta for 5 in the 59th over but then the weather intervened. Only 59.4 overs have been possible after two days. Karnatka v Vidarbha in Bangalore – Satish 81* leads VidarbhaDelhi v Haryana in Delhi – Sehwag threat looms

England are “very likely” to take up an offer from Allen Stanford to play a multi-million dollar Twenty20 match during the tour of West Indies next year according to Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman.Clarke met with Stanford at Lord’s on Tuesday to discuss possible joint ventures which could include Stanford having a role in any future English Premier League plus the match next year, which could be worth as much as $20million, against an All-stars West Indies XI.”We did see Sir Allen – a date has not been fixed for when anything will be played, or what format it will take this year or going forward into the future,” Clarke told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme. “I think that match is very likely to take place. Sir Allen is doing a huge amount for cricket in the West Indies and we are keen to help things develop there.”With no window in the current international schedule to allow England’s centrally contracted players to compete in the Indian Premier League (IPL) the ECB is eager to appease players who are keen to cash in on lucrative Twenty20 tournaments.Clarke added: “Of course we are also keen to give our players the chance to make a significant amount of money and these types of games can be tremendously dramatic. We are extremely interested in his ideas but there is a long way to go.”We need to confirm a lot of things with our friends in the West Indies. There is not a specific date at this moment of time and no specific structure at this time.”Clarke also admitted that the ECB are still formulating plans for an English Premier League. “I think what the IPL will achieve is remarkable given the time and speed with which it has been put together. We are spending a lot of time looking at creating a robust, sustainable and economically viable league that still protects our core revenues of Test cricket.”Stanford has previously tried to invite South Africa for a winner-takes-all match but it fell through after a clash with the West Indies board. Last year Stanford also offered to bring the World Twenty20 winners, India, to the Caribbean but the BCCI wasn’t keen on taking part in an unofficial event.

Michael Vaughan, the England captain, might resort to using an oxygen chamber in a bid to hasten his recovery from a broken finger.Vaughan fractured his right middle finger when he was struck by a lifter from Stuart Clark in Yorkshire’s Championship match against Hampshire at The Rose Bowl last Thursday, almost certainly ruling him out of the first Test against the West Indies in two weeks. Early reports from the England management also suggested that he might miss the second Test at Headingley, too.But Scott McAllister, the Yorkshire physio, isn’t ruling out using the oxygen chamber. “It is just one of the options being considered,” he told the , “but it may or may not be beneficial in Michael’s case. “We’re icing the finger to keep swelling to a minimum and concentrating on making sure it is immobile at all times.”Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a technique in which patients are exposed to 100% pure oxygen, promoting the formation of new capillaries surrounding the wounds and thus helping to hasten the recovery. It has been used by Wayne Rooney, the England footballer, and Simon Jones, the England fast bowler.”That combination of regular icing and immobility could well be the best route to follow but we’re keeping an open mind right now,” McAllister added. Should Vaughan not be fit in time for the first Test, which gets underway at Lord’s on May 17, it seems likely Andrew Strauss will replace him at the helm. And Strauss, who led England to a 3-0 win over Pakistan last summer, has received support from Darren Gough.”Without a doubt Strauss [should be captain], as he’s done it before and knows what it’s all about,” Gough told BBC Radio Five Live. “Unfortunately Flintoff got done for going out and having a drink but that should not stop him being captain of England. But I think they will go for Strauss.”