Tuesday 16th March, 2010

Tuesday 16th March, 2010

C H I T T A G O N G ,Bangladesh (AP) - Englanddeclared in the morning sessionMonday and then took five wick-ets to leave Bangladesh strug-gling at 191 for five at stumps onday four, chasing an improbablevictory target of 513 in the firstcricket test.

At stumps, Junaid Siddquewas unbeaten on 68, withMushfiqur Rahim on 47 to leavethe home side 321 runs behindand thwarting England’s bid towrap up the match in four days.

Siddique and Rahim put on a

patient 81-run stand, adding 66runs in the third session.

England rocked Bangladesh,dismissing both the openersearly. In-form opener TamimIqbal (14) was bowled by GraemeSwann and Imrul Kayes scored23 before he was caught by MattPrior off Steven Finn before thelunch interval.

England claimed three moreBangladesh wickets - AftabAhmed (26), Mahmudullah (5)and captain Shakib Al Hasan (4)- in the second session. Swanndismissed Hasan, while Tim

Bresnan got the wickets ofAhmed and Mahmudullah.

England’s stand-in captainAlastair Cook declaredEngland’s second innings at 209-7 after adding 78 to the overnightscore.

It was England’s second dec-laration of the match after Cookand Paul Collingwood con-tributed centuries to its first-innings total of 599-6.

England is the only test-play-ing nation never to have lost toBangladesh in any form of thegame.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)- Australia vice-captain Michael Clarkewas besieged by media Monday when herejoined the cricket tour of New Zealandafter a brief trip home and a highly pub-licized split from his fiance, model LaraBingle.

Dozens of reporters, photographersand camera crews greeted Clarke whenhe arrived at Wellington airport fromSydney. Clarke quit the tour suddenlylast week, on the eve of the Australianteam’s third limited-overs internationalagainst New Zealand, to support Bingleafter a magazine published naked photo-graphs of her.

The cricketer’s manager has sinceconfirmed that Clarke, 28, and Bingle, 22,have split and the model has left the cou-ple’s apartment in the beachside Sydneysuburb of Bondi.

Clarke was met at the airport byAustralian team management onMonday and escorted to a waiting car,refusing to answer questions about thebreak-up. Wearing sunglasses andreportedly looking drained, Clarke

responded “no comment, sorry guys” onat least six occasions.

Clarke was then greeted with a hugat the team hotel by his former team-mate and current Australian battingcoach Justin Langer. Australia captainRicky Ponting reportedly welcomedClarke with a more circumspect hand-shake.

Fast bowler Doug Bollinger later saidClarke, his New South Wales state team-mate, would be mentally fine for the firstof two tests against New Zealand start-ing in Wellington on Friday.

“It will take his mind off everythingthat’s going on and I reckon it’ll be greatfor him,” Bollinger said. “He’ll be greataround the group and great playingcricket. He’ll be alright.”

Australia batsman Mike Hussey ear-lier called on the New Zealand team toresist taunting Clarke over his break-upwith Bingle, saying such behavior wouldbe “below the belt.”

Clarke took off to Sydney afterBingle gave an exclusive interview withan Australian magazine over a nude pic-ture scandal.

She said a former boyfriend had cir-culated a photo of her taken in a showerduring a relationship in 2006 and shewas seeking to sue him in court.

The British School in Colombois hosting the Under-18 Boys andGirls Inter-International SchoolsSoccer tournament. Nine boysteams and four girls teams are com-peting in this tournament.

The tournament that got under-way on the 11th of March is in

progress at Obesekerepura Park,Rajagiriya. The Round RobinMatches will be held till the 22nd ofMarch with the semi-finals sched-uled for 23rd of March and the finalson the 24th of March.

While Alethea, Royal Institute,Lyceum Wattala, Lyceum

Nugegoda, Gateway Colombo, AsianInternational School, GatewayKandy, Leighton Park and BritishSchool are competing in the boystournament, Lyceum Nugegoda,Leighton Park, Gateway Colomboand British School are competing inthe girls segment.

INDIAN WELLS,California (AP) - Anexchange between AndreAgassi and Pete Sampras dur-ing a charity match has cap-tured the attention of theBritish newspapers and theblogosphere.

The Sun and TheGuardian newspapers bothhad headlines touting the ver-bal volleys the two formertennis champions and rivalstook at each other Fridaynight. Sports blog Deadspinand The Huffington Post alsoran stories about it.

Sampras was partneredwith Roger Federer andAgassi with Rafael Nadal in adoubles match during theBNP Paribas Open to raisemoney for earthquake reliefin Haiti.

The players were wearing

headset microphones so thecrowd could hear them talk-ing.

At one point Samprasmimicked Agassi’s pigeon-toed walk.

Agassi, in turn, chidedSampras for being stingy. Inhis book, published late lastyear, Agassi criticizedSampras for being a poor tip-per.

Sampras then served highand hard, forcing Agassi toduck out of the way. Thecrowd laughed throughoutand both retired players worebig smiles.

Neither showed up at thepost-match news conference.

Nadal said he thoughtSampras and Agassi werejust trying to have fun withthe crowd and he didn’t senseany real hostility.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - ThePakistan Cricket Board saysthe national team’s managerin recent series againstAustralia and New Zealandpushed for heavy sanctionsagainst players after detailinga spate of disciplinary prob-lems and bickering in theteam.

The PCB on Mondayrevealed Abdul Raquibreferred a number of inci-dents to the PCB inquiry com-mittee for behavior he saidcontributed to the team’sheavy losses to Australia inboth test (3-0) and limited-overs series (5-0).

On the recommendationsof the inquiry committee, thePCB last week banned ShoaibMalik and Rana Naved forone year and fined them eachtwo million rupees(US$23,500). WicketkeeperKamran Akmal was finedthree million rupees(US$35,200) and his brotherUmar Akmal was fined twomillion rupees.

Shahid Afridi was fined 3million rupees for ball tam-pering during the limited-overs series againstAustralia, while former cap-tains Mohammad Yousuf andYounis Khan were barredfrom representing Pakistanfor indefinite period.

The PCB said Yousuf and

Younis developed differencesduring a limited-overs seriesagainst New Zealand in theUnited Arab Emirates whicheventually led to Younis step-ping down from the captaincy.

Raquib, according to thePCB, wrote in his manager’sreport that “the team unitycompletely broke down”when the then captain Younisdecided to drop Yousuf for thesecond ODI.

“When Yousuf was told hewas dropped on account ofhis poor fielding, he curtlyreplied ‘I have been fieldinglike this for the last sevenyears’,” PCB quoted Raquibas saying in his report.

“He (Yousuf) publiclyargued with the team coach(Intikhab Alam) and theresulting disquiet in the teamled to the dropping of ShoaibMalik and Umar Akmal.”

Dilshan to play T20 for New South Wales

T. M. Dilshan

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Sri Lankabatsman Tillakaratne Dilshan is expected toplay for New South Wales state inAustralia’s domestic Twenty20 cricket com-petition next season.

“Tillakaratne Dilshan is an outstandingall-round player,” Cricket New South Waleschief executive David Gilbert said Monday.“As well as being one of the world’s most

destructive batsmen in Twenty20 cricket, hebrings a wealth of international experienceto our team.

“We look forward to him playing a lead-ing role in helping New South Wales winnext season’s Big Bash and thereby qualify-ing for the Champions League.”

Dilshan, 33, was player of the tourna-ment at last year’s Twenty20 World Cup in

England, scoring 317 runs at an average of52.83. He briefly joined Northern Districtsprovince this summer for New Zealand’sdomestic Twenty20 tournament.

His signing for New South Walesrequires the approval of the Sri Lankanboard.

Australia’s six provincial first-classteams are allowed to recruit two foreign

players for the domestic Twenty20 competi-tion. The top two teams in the tournamentqualify for the lucrative Champions Leagueinternational tournament featuring theleading provincial teams from around theworld.

New South Wales won the first edition ofthe Champions League but did not qualifyfor the second tournament.

Bangladesh holds offEngland’s victory bid

England’s Tim Bresnan, second right, celebrates with teammates Michael Carberry, right, and GraemeSwann the dismissal of Bangladesh’s Mahmudullah Riyad, unseen, during the fourth day of their firsttest cricket match in Chittagong, Bangladesh, Monday, March 15, 2010. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

England 1st Innings: 599-6 declaredBangladesh 1st Innings: 296 all outEngland, 2nd InningsA. Cook c Ahmed b Mahmudullah 39M. Carberry lbw b Razzak 34J. Trott c Siddique b Hasan 14K. Pietersen lbw b Hasan 32P. Collingwood c Mahmudullah b Razzak 3I. Bell not out 39M. Prior c Shahadat b Hasan 7G. Swann c Siddique b Hasan 32Extras: (5b, 2lb, 2nb) 9Total: (for seven wickets, declared) 209Overs: 49.3Fall of wickets: 1-65, 2-87, 3-126, 4-130, 5-131, 6-144, 7-209.Did not bat: S. Broad, T. Bresnan, S. Finn.Bowling: Shahadat 6-0-19-0, Rubel 6-1-28-0 (2nb),Mahmudullah 8-0-26-1, Naeem 3-0-14-0, Shakib 16.3-1-62-4, Razzak 10-2-53-2.

Bangladesh, 2nd InningsTamim Iqbal b Swann 14Imrul Kayes c Prior b Finn 23Junaid Siddique not out 68Aftab Ahmed c Prior b Bresnan 26Mahmudullah b Bresnan 5Shakib Al Hasan lbw Swann 4Mushfiqur Rahim not out 47Extras: (2b,2lb) 4Total: (for five wickets) 191Overs: 75Fall of wickets: 1-33, 2-45, 3-99, 4-105, 5-110.Still to bat: Shahadat Hossain, Naeem Islam, AbdurRazzak, Rubel Hossain.Bowling: Broad 12-5-34-0, Bresnan 16-5-45-2, Finn11-4-31-1, Swann 29-6-61-2, Pietersen 5-0-11-0,Trott 2-0-5-0.Umpires: R. Tucker, T. HillTV umpire: Enamul HaqMatch Referee: J. Crowe Toss: Ban

Scoreboard

British School conducts soccer tournament

Clarke returnsto New Zealand

Michael Clarke

PCB says manager wasin favor of heavy fines

Agassi, Sampras rivalrystill makes news

Andre Agassi (left) and Pete Sampras.

Younis Khan’s decision to dropMohammad Yousuf during the ODIseries against New Zealand ulti-mately led to his own resignationfrom the captaincy