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Full text of BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur’s letter in response to claims of his being in contact with an alleged bookie

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Apr-2015Dear Mr Srinivasan,The BCCI has received intimation from the ICC ostensibly under your direction that I should keep away from one Mr Karan Gilhotra who is a ‘suspected bookie.’ The intimation further states that the information is unverified. I have earlier been the joint secretary of the BCCI under your president-ship and I am now secretary, BCCI. I only wish that you had shared the list of ‘unverified suspected bookies’ with me and other colleagues so that we could identify such persons and keep away from them. I have known this person who has been active in the political and cricketing activities in Punjab and adjacent states. I had no knowledge or any clue about his ‘activities as a suspected bookie.’It is curious that intimation about my having known this ‘suspected bookie’ was brought to the ICC notice by your friend Mr Neeraj Gundhe. Mr Neeraj Gunde incidentally is circulating to the media in Delhi the details of documents against your critics in the BCCI. He operates on your behalf. A procured complaint and an ICC advisory based on ‘unverified information’ was issued at your behest on the eve of the BCCI working committee meeting. It was intended to be a counter offensive on your behalf, since you have not reconciled with my election as secretary, BCCI. I would request at least now share with me or other colleagues in BCCI the list of suspected bookies in India, so that we may keep away from them. You may also share this information with your family members, whose involvement in betting has been proved.Since the ICC advisory to me had been made in public, I would be making this letter to you public.With regards,Yours sincerely,Anurag Thakur

Newcomer Dilshan Munaweera, looking to fix his spot as a long-term opener in the Sri Lanka squad, will face a stern test against South Africa on Saturday

Andrew Fernando in Hambantota21-Sep-2012One game into the World Twenty20, it is clear Sri Lanka have invested a great deal in Dilshan Munaweera. The team has split up a successful opening pair, moving their best batsman Mahela Jayawardene to a less favoured batting position to accommodate Munaweera in his familiar spot. It would have been easy for the seniors to pull rank and ask Munaweera to inject energy into a middle order carrying two accumulators, but they’ve been careful to make his international baptism a gentle one. Largesse towards youngsters has been a hallmark of a side that understand the leap Sri Lanka players must make when they move from the local circuit to international cricket.It also emphasises Munaweera’s importance to Sri Lanka’s campaign. Dinesh Chandimal waits on the sidelines to replace the first batsman to falter, but if he joins a lineup already looking short of firepower, Sri Lanka’s finishers may have to work even harder towards the close. With one of the most aggressive top threes in the tournament, Sri Lanka have banked on sustained hitting during the Powerplay, and Munaweera must play his part for the strategy to prove worthwhile.Saturday’s match shapes as the biggest test of Munaweera’s career. Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel have bloodied more hardened men than he, and a nervous start to international cricket and an awkward first dismissal cannot have boosted Munaweera’s confidence greatly. Moreover, South Africa will have studied him closely in their team meetings. They will know he is, at present, over-reliant on boundaries to make a score. They will know he cuts and pulls well but drives poorly. They will endeavour to keep him on strike, knowing he has trouble rotating it, and the customary dose of newbie-abuse will no doubt be gleefully given as well.”It’s always going to be tough, especially when you’re an opening batsman,” captain Mahela Jayawardene said of the trial awaiting Munaweera. “It’s a great experience for him to play one of the two best bowling combinations in the game right now. He has Dilshan at the other end to guide him and a couple of other senior batsmen to follow.”Not only will Munaweera’s mettle be tested by bowlers much faster and capable of generating more bounce than he has encountered at home and on A-team tours, he will also be playing on a foreign surface. The Bloomfield Cricket Club pitch he has thrived on has a reputation for being low and slow. Both pitches in Hambantota so far have had plenty of bounce and carry, and South Africa’s seamers will squeeze every inch of movement available as well.It is perhaps unfair to expect Munaweera to pass the test with flying colours, given his inexperience and the gulf between domestic and top-level cricket he must learn to bridge in the next few weeks. A young Mahela Jayawardene was among the most complete batsmen Sri Lanka’s system ever produced, and even he was forced to make drastic improvements in his early years to compete against the finest.”For me Wasim Akram was the guy I struggled against early on because of his quality and variations,” Jayawardene said. “Every time I played against him early I struggled early on. Every time after the game he would pat me on my back and say keep learning, and that’s what I did. It was a good experience for me. I was one of the victims of his hat-trick early on. After 12 years of international cricket he started getting hat-tricks against Sri Lanka. It was tough playing him.”One of Sri Lanka’s biggest selection regrets has been the meandering career of Chamara Kapugedara. No one can doubt the batsman’s talent, having seen it in spades in domestic cricket as well as in patches for the national team, but perhaps his failure to grow into a match-winner was hampered by inconsistency in selection and a tendency to bat him out of position. So far Munaweera far has avoided that fate.”The good thing is that he’s got a free hand. When you have a youngster coming into the set-up, there’s not much pressure on you. You just go out there and enjoy yourself and back yourself to play your game. That’s what is exciting about young cricketers coming in. We’re just going to give him the license to go out there and enjoy himself.”A poor outing against South Africa’s pace may not warrant Munaweera’s exclusion at the Super Eights stage, but it may earn a him a reputation for being a soft target. He will be watched, analysed, and attacks will formulate plans specifically for him in the coming weeks. It is a different world of pressure at the top, and Munaweera will get a healthy taste of that on Saturday. How he responds in that game and the matches to follow may not shape his career, but having provided Munaweera with the best chance to succeed, Sri Lanka will hope their investment pays off.

Michael Hussey says he is wary of saying he is in good form and believes the second new ball on the third day will be crucial to the fate of the match

Daniel Brettig in Colombo17-Sep-2011Ladies and gentlemen, your Man of the Series. If match awards in Galle and Pallekele were not enough, Michael Hussey strengthened his grip on the individual garlands still further by constructing an expert 118 to hold Australia’s middling first innings together at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground.He did it in much the same style with which runs were collected in the first two Tests, demonstrating patience, placement, and hands that were in equal part deft and powerful. Hussey now has four centuries in five Tests against Sri Lanka. However it is his 95 on a spiteful surface in Galle that sticks strongest in his memory.”I think the first innings in Galle really stands out at the moment,” Hussey said. “Because the conditions were so challenging and to get our team into a great position to win that Test, the first Test of a series, gives me a lot of pleasure. Having said that you’ve got to work hard for every Test match hundred, so I’m elated with all of them.”Well as he has played, Hussey still began this Test with a demotion in the batting order, to accommodate Shaun Marsh at No. 3. The move down to No. 6 seemed scant reward for the form Hussey has demonstrated over the past 12 months, during which he was the only batsman to consistently defy England’s rampant Ashes tourists, and in Sri Lanka has held the entire home attack in thrall.”I’m not fussed at all about being at No. 6,” he said. “Opposition teams will look at our batting order and think it is pretty daunting; if we get some guys in and doing well, it is going to be a very powerful batting order.”Hussey also said he did not want to read too much into his recent run of good scores because form can be a fickle thing. “I’ve always wondered about this good form and bad form thing; there’s such a fine line between them. Sometimes you just need that little bit of luck. Getting a good score early in a series does wonders for your confidence. You feel like you can just relax, play your game. But I’ve never liked to say I’m in good form because it only takes a couple of good balls and you’re suddenly in bad form.”Two of Hussey’s more significant partnerships in this series have been in the company of Marsh, who has made 141 and 81 in his first two Test innings to provide the other major bulwark of Australia’s batting. Marsh’s dismissal late on the first day saw the Australian innings take a turn towards mediocrity, and Hussey said, despite his effort, Australia had fallen a bit short of a good total.”The conditions, as the ball got older, were very good for batting, so it would’ve been nice if we’d gone over 350. Having said that we did lose the toss and on the first morning there was a little bit of juice in the pitch.”The shortfall has placed Australia in their most tenuous position of the series, more or less at the mercy of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara on their beloved SSC strip, where they have now scored 1607 runs in partnership with each other. For this reason, Hussey pointed to the third day as the most important one of the series.”It is a little ominous I must admit. They keep putting the statistics up on the board and you can look it at one of two ways, you can either say ‘oh dear’ or you can say ‘well they’re due to fail’, so hopefully it is the latter. It’s certainly going to be hard to dislodge them with the older ball, but hopefully with the second new ball we can make a few inroads; that’s going to be a key part of the game I think.”It is probably the biggest day of the series coming up tomorrow, if we can bowl well, restrict them and take the wickets, then it is going to put us in a fantastic position to win the Test match, but if we can’t get rid of Kumar and Mahela, they’re going to give themselves every chance to win the Test as well.”

A day after the ICC launched a formal investigation into Pakistan’s win in the third ODI at The Oval, Ijaz Butt has hit back at what he believes to be a “conspiracy to defraud Pakistan and Pakistan cricket”

Osman Samiuddin19-Sep-2010In an extraordinary outburst, PCB chairman Ijaz Butt has pointed a finger at the English cricketers for their role in the batting collapse that cost England the ODI at Oval and said the board was investigating a conspiracy, involving “august cricket bodies”, to defraud Pakistan and Pakistan cricket.In a prepared statement read out to ESPNcricinfo – and repeated on Pakistan TV channels – a day after the ICC started a formal investigation into Pakistan’s win in the third ODI at The Oval, he also launched thinly-veiled attacks on the ICC, some cricket boards and the media.”This is not a conspiracy to defraud bookies but a conspiracy to defraud Pakistan and Pakistan cricket,” Butt said. “We have taken it in hand to start our own investigations. We will shortly reveal the names of the people, the parties and the bodies involved in this sinister conspiracy and we also reserve the right to sue them for damages.”There is loud and clear talk in bookie circles that some English players have taken enormous amounts of money to lose the match [the third ODI]. No wonder there was such a collapse.”When asked by this reporter whether the board had any proof of the allegations regarding English players, Butt responded with a question: “Did you ask the other people who made allegations against our players whether they had any proof? What did they say? We have thought about this properly and we have positive proofs here before us just like they say they have also.”Butt then concluded his statement: “We feel the media in certain countries is biased and not fair. We feel august cricket bodies are also involved in this conspiracy, which will damage the great game of cricket.”The statement is an extension of the one the board released late on Saturday indicating its unhappiness with the way the ICC handled the Oval allegations. Nobody in the Pakistan board was informed by the ICC that an official investigation was being launched; the chairman, the team manager and the captain only learned of it through media reports.An ICC spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo they tried to contact Butt all through Friday but his phone was unavailable. “On Saturday morning [after the ICC press release was sent out] we came to know that Mr Butt was in Dubai. Haroon Lorgat [the ICC chief executive] sought out and met Butt in Dubai on Saturday evening and discussed matters of mutual interest,” he said.However, there is no indication that the ICC tried to contact anyone else in the PCB, nor tried to reach Butt – who was in New Delhi after meeting the ICC president Sharad Pawar – through any number other than his Pakistan mobile.The PCB also seems unhappy with the official implication that Pakistan’s batsmen were under the scanner. Though the ICC didn’t point the finger at Pakistan in their statement – though did so in their report – the subsequent statement from the ECB confirmed that no English players were involved.”One statement from a very august official of the ICC said no, only Pakistan players were involved,” Butt said, though he refused to elaborate.Butt also refused to give more details of the nature of the board’s investigation, though he said it had already begun. “I will be revealing names of people and organisations who are involved in this, so I don’t want to comment more on the investigations just now. Details will come out only once our investigations are complete.”Butt’s comments may well signal the final nail in the coffin of the PCB’s relationship with the ICC, if they have not completely broken down already. Under Butt’s tenure, the two have clashed consistently. In 2009, the PCB threatened to take the ICC to court after Pakistan was removed as a venue from the 2011 World Cup, following the Lahore terror attacks on Sri Lanka in March. The dispute was resolved out of court but tensions have simmered consistently since.They boiled over again in the aftermath of allegations of spot-fixing during the fourth Test at Lord’s. The ICC provisionally suspended the three players at the centre of the scandal, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, after the Pakistan board refused to do so. At a press conference in Lahore soon after he returned, the board chairman expressed his unhappiness with the ICC’s decision while a police investigation was still ongoing against the three.Butt then went to Delhi to discuss the investigation and allegations with Sharad Pawar, the ICC president. He travelled on Saturday to Dubai, the ICC HQ, though it is unclear whether he has met with officials there. He said, however, that he would raise these issues at the next ICC meeting, on October 11.

The left-arm quick first played for them in 2023 and then helped them to the Division Two title in 2024

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Oct-2024Jaydev Unadkat will continue his association with Sussex after extending his contract with them for the 2025 and 2026 County Championship seasons. He will be available for the final run-in in both seasons.”When I came to Hove last year, I wasn’t sure what was on offer in the County Championship and how would I adapt to it. But after a few games now, I can definitely say Hove is my home away from home and Good Old Sussex by The Sea has my heart,” Unadkat was quoted as saying in a release by the team.”Everyone at Hove is very pleased and excited that Jaydev [Unadkat] has signed a two-year extension and will be returning to the Club for the next two seasons,” Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace said.”Jaydev’s quality on the pitch has been so evident for everyone else to see, but just as importantly his qualities as a person make him one of the most popular and nicest guys any team could wish for.”Unadkat first signed for Sussex in 2023, and took 11 wickets in three matches. He returned to the team in 2024 and took 22 wickets at an average of 14.40 in five games, helping Sussex win the Division Two title.Unadkat is currently leading Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy, which got underway on Friday.

Joe Weatherley’s 63 from 39 gives Hampshire a chance before Simon Harmer seals shortened chase

Alan Gardner15-Jul-2023Essex squeezed past defending champions Hampshire to reach the Vitality T20 Blast final via a rain-affected chase at Edgbaston. Simon Harmer, who hit the winning runs when Essex lifted the title in 2019, again applied the this time around as he drilled Nathan Ellis into the stands at long-on to complete a five-wicket victory.Having restricted Hampshire to 170 for 7 from 20 overs, Essex were then handed a revised target of 115 from 12 overs, following an extended delay for rain shortly after the start of their innings. Although Hampshire made quick inroads after the resumption to reduce Essex to 50 for 4 after 6.2, the arrival of Australia allrounder Daniel Sams brought a vital injection of power as he and Matt Critchley added 45 in 22 balls.Sams could not finish the job, well held on the boundary by Ross Whiteley, but despite Liam Dawson only conceding seven off the penultimate over to leave 13 needed from the last, Ellis – the hero in Hampshire’s dramatic victory a year ago – was hit for two sixes in three balls to end hopes of a defence.Hampshire’s innings had been a stop-start affair, held together by Joe Weatherley’s 63 off 39 balls. Spinners Critchley and Harmer picked up combined figures of 3 for 55 from their eight overs but a spirited finish from Weatherley and Benny Howell helped get Hampshire up to a par score.The rain delay took eight overs out of the Essex innings and seemed to tip the balance back towards the chasing side, with the requirement now 96 off 55 and the ball skidding around on a greasy outfield. They threatened to squander the advantage by losing 3 for 3 in the space of six ball, but Sams smashed three sixes in an innings of 29 from 17 to put them back on course for only a second Blast final appearance.Essex come out on top of DLS equation
Essex have based much of their approach to this year’s Blast on attacking come what may, so losing a wicket from the third ball of the innings would have been priced in. Adam Rossington’s flip off the hip went fine but Weatherley’s good day continued as he raced around the rope for a tumbling catch. But Essex’s start was scratchy as the clouds began to roll in, with Dan Lawrence dropped off a steepler by Dawson shortly before a heavy downpour took the players off for an hour with the score 19 for 1.The revised target left Essex needing to go at just above ten an over, and that had come down to 68 off 40 when James Fuller struck twice in the space of three balls: Michael Pepper caught at deep third off a wild hack and Lawrence edging a pull to the keeper. When Paul Walter was palpably lbw to John Turner in the next over, Essex were four down with the required rate climbing.”With wickets in hand and a smaller total, you would back yourself to get there,” Harmer said. “But in saying that when you lose wickets it’s tough to start again. You got to have your foot on the accelerator from ball one. So the way that guys like Critch and Dan Sams played, coming in there and striking from ball one was huge for us in the context of that chase.”Weatherley, meanwhile, described Hampshire as “bitterly disappointed” with the outcome. “With Duckworth-Lewis, it only takes is a couple of guys to hit a couple of sixes,” he said. “We still took wickets, if we hadn’t have done it would have looked a lot easier. It certainly feels unfair when they’ve got nine wickets in hand to get ten an over.”Hampshire start well, then stutter
Aaron Beard’s only over, the first of the Hampshire innings, went for 14 as both Ben McDermott and James Vince opened their accounts by whipping leg-side deliveries to the fence. McDermott then picked off Sams’ first two balls, the second via a domineering stride down the pitch before launching over long-off. An edged four wide of the keeper and two more off Sam Cook – one scooped over the head of short fine leg – took McDermott to 29 off 11 but he fell to his next delivery, pulling Cook straight to deep square leg.Hampshire at that point were 39 for 1 after three overs but Vince departed in the next over, chipping Shane Snater to mid-off, and Essex got a hold on the scoring to make it 55 for 2 at the end of the powerplay. The spinners then kept Hampshire in check, with Tom Prest, Dawson and Fuller all falling for middling scores and only five boundaries coming between the seventh and 16th overs.Weatherley, Howell add finishing touch
With wickets falling regularly, Weatherley had to take a circumspect approach, although he did hit one sweetly struck six down the ground off Harmer. Whiteley’s miscue off Walter left Hampshire 130 for 6 after 17, but the arrival of Howell added much-needed impetus at the death, as the seventh-wicket pair mirrored McDermott’s opening burst by lashing another 40 runs to the total. A wide full toss from Sams saw Weatherley bring up his fifty from from 34 balls, and the Hampshire No. 4 then spoiled an otherwise-decent penultimate over from Cook by going deep in his crease to slog-sweep a slower ball for six.Howell then helped plunder 14 off Sams’ closer, including a towering six over long-on the ball after being dropped by Snater, and although he was dismissed off the final delivery his 22 off 11 had given Hampshire something to bowl at. Thanks to the rain, however, and Sams late blows, it would not be quite enough.

Tammy Beaumont responds with half-century in 39-run loss

ECB Reporters Network14-May-2022Northern Diamonds 177 for 5 (Winfield-Hill 96) beat Loughborough Lightning 138 for 7 (Beaumont 59) by 39 runsA fantastic knock of 96 from England’s Lauren Winfield-Hill saw Northern Diamonds shine in a 39-run victory over Loughborough Lightning in the opening round of the Charlotte Edwards Cup.Winfield’s superb innings, which came off just 51 balls and was her highest score in T20, powered the visitors to a formidable total of 177 for five which proved too much for the hosts at a sun-drenched Haslegrave.Winning the toss and opting to bat, Diamonds took full advantage of the conditions with an opening assault on the Lightning bowlers that they struggled to recover from for the remainder of the innings.Each of the opening five overs went for double figures as Diamonds cruised past 50 with some powerful hitting from Winfield-Hill and Abi Glen.Glen fell to a catch from Teresa Graves off Kirstie Gordon for 25 but it barely mattered as Holly Armitage joined Winfield-Hill at the crease and the pair put on 99 for the second wicket with the Diamonds skipper offering valuable support to the free-scoring opener.Lightning had their chances and a drop on the boundary from Lucy Higham proved particularly costly as Winfield-Hill took full advantage by smashing three consecutive sixes off the unfortunate Kathryn Bryce in the very next over.The England star looked to be easing her way to a century but fell four shot when she skied a delivery from Bryce to Bethan Ellis who took a fine running catch over her shoulder.From 145 for two when Winfield-Hill departed in the 16th over the Diamonds innings faded somewhat with Leigh Kasperek (7), Phoebe Turner (0) and Beth Langston (1) departing in quick succession as only Armitage stood firm to finish unbeaten on 40 as Diamonds closed on 177 for five.Lightning’s reply got off to an excellent start with Marie Kelly and Tammy Beaumont full of running and deft stroke play if not the power hitting of Winfield-Hill.The opening pair had reached 79 in the 11th over when Kelly advanced down the wicket and was bowled by Beth Langston for 46.The run-chase became even tougher when Kathryn Bryce was bowled by Emma Marlow for four with Beaumont continuing to do her best with the odd boundary and some excellent scampering between the wickets.Beaumont brought up her half-century with a boundary off Kasperek in the 16th over and while she remained at the crease Lightning had a glimmer of a chance with the experienced England international looking in great form.But it was not to be as Lightning’s chances were extinguished when Beaumont was bowled by Marlow for 59 in the next over leaving the run rate increasingly insurmountable as the hosts’ innings closing on 138 for seven with Smith picking up a couple of wickets in the final over.

On their last tour to SA, they became the first Asian side to win a Test series in the country

Andrew Fidel Fernando25-Dec-2020

Big picture

At face value, do Sri Lanka really have a chance? Let’s look at the facts against them:

• They’ve not played international cricket since March.
• Most squad members have spent three weeks playing T20 cricket, and are now expected to make the substantial switch into Test mode.
• They’ve had no warm-up match due to Covid-19 complications.
• They are missing Angelo Mathews – the most experienced member of their batting order.
• Sri Lanka batsmen have always struggled at Centurion.

And yet, when they won 2-0 in South Africa last year, Sri Lanka had faced even steeper odds, their fast bowling stocks having been decimated by injury, while a captain had just been sacked, and a coach was fearing for his job (which he would lose, several months later). This time, not only do they feel they have a stronger seam attack, but also have a batting group with more experience, and a coach who knows South African conditions intimately, in Mickey Arthur.South Africa, however, are much more fearsome in the Highveld – where both Tests will be played – than they are on the coasts, particularly against South Asian opponents. They also have players in form. Anrich Nortje was rapid in the T20s against England, as well as in the IPL. This was in T20s, but the man is clearly in good rhythm, and the prospects of him hitting high speeds at Centurion will worry some Sri Lanka batsmen. The likes of Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen and Keshav Maharaj are coming off excellent performances in the four-day competition (Markram has 75, 113, 149, 121 in his four most-recent innings), which is leads to another point – they have been playing long-form cricket, where Sri Lanka have not had competitive multi-day matches to play for at least five months.South Africa clearly start as favourites, but as Sri Lanka’s captain Dimuth Karunaratne has asserted, a lot depends on how well each team bats after their long Test hiatus. There have been some seriously low team totals in each of the last four matches between these teams. If that is the case again, Sri Lanka will feel they have a chance.Related

• De Kock wants Test captaincy only as a short-term role

• Hendricks, Petersen withdrawn from SA squad

• Is Markram ready to repay South Africa's faith?

• Sri Lanka's recent dominance over South Africa

• Karunaratne on matching South Africa's seam bowling

Venue record

These teams have played four times at Centurion, and South Africa have won each of those matches, two of them by an innings. The closest Sri Lanka have ever come, was when they lost by just three wickets, way back in 2002. The most-recent Centurion match between these teams was in 2011 – Sri Lanka losing by an innings and 81.

Players to watch

Quinton de Kock will captain South Africa in a Test for the first time, but already, he has said he sees himself only as a caretaker leader. He leads the team in all three formats now, and also keeps wickets in all three. The usual question here: how will captaining over five days impact his batting and his keeping? (His batting has been good of late – his average up at 45.9 since the start of 2019.) And will he lead well? De Kock is generally a cricketer of few words, but this new job may need him to find his voice.Can de Kock juggle with captaincy, batting and keeping?•Getty Images

Kusal Perera played one of the all-time great innings to wrench victory from defeat last year in Durban, but aside from this one blinding knock, there hasn’t been a lot to his Test career. Eighteen Tests in, he has an average of 31.13, which is passable only for an allrounder. And he has batted everywhere from No. 1 to No. 8, without appearing in more than eight innings in any one position. Despite his having produced Sri Lanka’s greatest-ever innings from No. 5 on the last tour here, his team now looks set to ask him to open the innings, to cover for the injured Oshada Fernando. If he is to find a more stable place in the XI, Perera desperately needs to settle into a more consistent phase in his career.

Pitch and conditions

South Africa need to balance creating conditions that will suit their seamers, and making sure it’s not impossible for their batsmen to find form. So it will be green, but not too green, and we can expect pace, bounce and swing but not the kind that saw Sri Lanka crushed at the Wanderers in 2017. SuperSport Park is usually a bat- first pitch; if you can get through the first hour or so, it very good for batting on the most of the first three days. De Kock said he expects it to take some turn later on.It’s been raining a fair bit on the Highveld in the build-up and afternoon thunderstorms are forecast from Sunday. Otherwise, it will be warm with temperatures touching 30.

Team news

It’s Oshada’s hamstring injury that will keep him out of the first Test, and him being unavailable means there may be a spot in the batting order for Dasun Shanaka, who not only brings dynamism to the lower middle order, but also can send down a few overs of serviceable seam bowling.Sri Lanka are wondering whether to go in with an out-and-out spinner in Lasith Embuldeniya, or to hedge their bets and go with Wanindu Hasaranga, who adds value with his batting. There is one other serious injury worry too. Suranga Lakmal picked up a hamstring niggle in the approach to the match, and may need to be replaced, perhaps with Kasun Rajitha.Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Dimuth Karunaratne (capt.), 2 Kusal Perera, 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Dinesh Chandimal, 5 Dhananjaya de Silva, 6 Dasun Shanaka, 7 Niroshan Dickwella (wk), 8 Suranga Lakmal/Kasun Rajitha, 9 Lasith Embuldeniya, 10 Vishwa Fernando, 11 Lahiru KumaraWith Kagiso Rabada out through a groin injury, right-arm seam bowler Glenton Stuurman may get a debut. But that’s only if he gets over a niggle. An injury doubt also hangs over Lungi Ngidi. Lutho Sipamla and Migael Pretorius would seem to be the next in line to play, if Ngidi or Stuurman (or both) aren’t fit in time.South Africa (probable): 1 Aiden Markram, 2 Dean Elgar, 3 Rassie van der Dussen, 4 Faf du Plessis, 5 Temba Bavuma, 6 Quinton de Kock (capt. & wk), 7 Dwaine Pretorius, 8 Anrich Nortje, 9 Keshav Maharaj, 10 Glenton Stuurman, 11 Lungi Ngidi

Stats and trivia

• In the two Tests Perera has played since the last South Africa series – of which he was Player of the Series – he has averaged six and has a top score of 23. Perera, however, has been unavailable for several Sri Lanka Tests through injury.
• On Sri Lanka’s last tour here, de Kock was South Africa’s best batsman, hitting 80, 55, 86 and 1 in his four innings.
• South Africa have only ever lost two of the 25 Tests they’ve played at Centurion – against England in 2000, and Australia in 2014.
• Even overall (counting Tests in Sri Lanka as well), Sri Lanka have a poor win-loss record against South Africa, having won only nine and lost 14 of their 29 Tests.

Quotes

“There is a lot of grass on the surface at the moment, and I think the more there is, the easier it will be for us. When you have less of an up-and-down type pitch, you just have to survive that first couple of hours, and you give yourself a chance to put a decent score – something like 300 – on the board.”Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne“I don’t want to think ahead too much. I’m trying to keep it as basic as possible and as simple as possible. It is something we are aware of, the last time they were here, they did beat us, so its definitely something we want to rectify. Hopefully we can do it by being as simple as possible.”

The ICC also penalised their team-mate Haseeb Amjad for spot-fixing and he is out for five years

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Aug-2019Hong Kong cricketers Irfan Ahmed and Nadeem Ahmed have been banned from the game for life after the ICC found the two brothers guilty of trying to corrupt several matches, including those played during the 2016 World T20.Their team-mate Haseeb Amjad was penalised for spot-fixing and is serving a five-year ban. Seeing that all three of them were provisionally suspended on October 8, 2018, Amjad can potentially return in 2023.Irfan, 29, was an opening batsman. Nadeem, 31, was a left-arm spinner. And Amjad, 31, is a seam bowler. They were all charged by the ICC two years ago for “fixing” or trying to “influence” the result or progress of a match. Since they were all “experienced” cricketers, who had attended anti-corruption briefings and still chose to engage in these activities, the ICC came down hard on them.”This has been a long and complex investigation which has uncovered systematic attempts to influence moments in matches by experienced international cricketers over a period of time,” Alex Marshall, ICC general manager (Anti-Corruption Unit), said. “Their conduct was premeditated and sophisticated and each of the Ahmed brothers sought to corrupt others.”The main offences relate to the Hong Kong matches against Scotland and Canada [during the World Cup qualifiers in 2014] where the players fixed specific overs. These matches were won by Hong Kong, so it did not materially affect the results of the tournament, however I cannot reiterate strongly enough to any player considering this that we treat any form of fixing – spot or match – with the upmost seriousness.”Irfan was charged with nine breaches of the ICC’s anti-corruption code, including seeking, offering, accepting or agreeing to a bribe or reward to influence Hong Kong’s match against Zimbabwe in the 2014 World T20. Nadeem and he were charged for a similar offence in the 2016 World T20 as well.The ICC’s order, signed by Michael Beloff QC, read, “Both brothers appear to have made significant sums from their corrupt conduct. For example, the WhatsApp messages suggest that Irfan Ahmed was to be paid ’20k’ for a session, and that a windfall would arise from Hong Kong’s qualification for the ICC World Twenty20.” The tribunal also found evidence that the brothers “seemed to be living beyond their means… they are both paid around HK$11,000 per month by the Cricket board'” and concluded that “neither has to date shown any remorse for their conduct”.Amjad was found guilty of a “spot-fix he carried out” against Canada in 2014. The order said “it involved him conceding a very significant number of runs, early in the match, and therefore the outcome of the match could foreseeably have turned on the spot-fix.”The tribunal could not find any mitigating factors in the case of Irfan, who had previously been suspended for two-and-a-half years after he admitted to the ICC that he had breached the anti-corruption code. And although it noted that it knew of no prior offences committed by the other two, “in respect of Nadeem Ahmed in particular, the ICC submits, and the Tribunal further accepts, that that mitigating factor should be given no weight, or no effective weight, given the overall seriousness of his offending”.

Indian captain achieves a career-high 937 points, the 11th best of all time; Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah also move up

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Aug-2018India captain Virat Kohli moved back to the top of the ICC Test rankings for batsmen after his Man-of-the-Match performance at Trent Bridge. He has amassed a career-best 937 rating points and is one point shy of breaking into the top 10 batsmen in rankings history.Donald Bradman is No. 1 having achieved a rating of 961 points in February 1948 followed by Steven Smith (947), Len Hutton (945), Jack Hobbs and Ricky Ponting (both on 942), Peter May (941), and Garry Sobers, Clyde Walcott, Vivian Richards and Kumar Sangakkara (all on 938 points).Virat Kohli on top of the world•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Kohli is placed 11th on that list after his knocks of 97 and 103 in Nottingham as India beat England by 203 runs to make the series scoreline 2-1 with two Tests to play. He had previously reached the top of the rankings after the first Test at Edgbaston, before ceding it to Smith after low scores in the second Test at Lord’s.Among other Indian players who made big moves in the rankings were Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah.Pandya moved up 23 places in the bowlers’ rankings to No. 51 after taking five wickets in six overs on the second day at Trent Bridge. He occupies the same spot on the batsmen’s charts after his second-innings fifty to set up India’s declaration. Those performances have placed him at No. 17 on the allrounders’ list.Bumrah, who sat out the first two Tests with an injury, took a five-wicket haul in England’s second innings and is now at No. 37 among the bowlers after just four Tests.For England, the biggest move was made by Jos Buttler, whose second-innings 106 took him up 22 places to be No.47 among the batsmen.