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Hashan Tillakaratne, the former Sri Lankan Test Captain made a fleeting visit to Vienna on Monday. The surprise visit, which came about through personal contacts from the reformed Sri Lankan CC, was a fleeting one, although they were able to take him to see the facilities are Concordia CC’s ground in Markommannenstrasse in Vienna’s 22nd District, where he was able to meet with Concordia CC Chairman and ACA Cricket Development Officer, Siva Nadarajah, who presented him with a team shirt and cap.The ground was officially opened on Saturday 21st June, which some 400 people attending – including youth team players from Tegernsee CC, who have been frequent visitors to Austria for some three seasons now. It will also be used for the forthcoming ECC Notts Sport® Trophy.

Central Districts will field an unchanged team for their penultimate round match of the State Championship against Northern Districts at Hamilton, starting tomorrow.The same 12 who played Otago in Invercargill last week have been selected. They are: Craig Spearman (captain), Jamie How, Peter Ingram, Glen Sulzberger, Greg Todd, Ross Taylor, Jesse Ryder, Bevan Griggs, Andrew Schwass, Michael Mason, Brent Hefford, Ewen Thompson.Central Districts shares third equal place in the competition with Northern Districts and Otago, well behind the competition leaders Auckland and Wellington who are on 32 and 31 points respectively.

Paceman Stephen John razed Lahore Greens with seven for 54 on Wednesday sending the visitors crashing to 132 all out as Islamabad gained the advantage in their Cornelius Trophy match at KRL Stadium.Islamabad batsmen Ashar Zaidi and Hammad-ul-Haq then took centre stage helping their side to a healthy 246 for one, a lead of 114 by the close of the first day of this three-day game.In a ruthless display, Ashar scored an unbeaten 112 off just 88 balls, his marvellous innings comprising 14 boundaries and two sixes.Hammad, no less impressive, was closing in on his century and stood at 96 when play ended for the day. His knock was also laced with 14 hits to the ropes. But had it not been for John’s excellent show with the ball, the complexion of the game may well have been quite different. He tore Lahore Greens batting apart, three of his victims going for nought.The tourists were in such hopeless form that their top scorer, not surprisingly, was Mr Extras with 30.Summarised scores:*At KRL Stadium, Rawalpindi:LAHORE GREENS 132 (Imran Qadir 29; Stephen John 7-54; Muhammad Altaf 2-28);ISLAMABAD 246-1 (Ashar Zaidi 112 not out, Hammad-ul-Haq 96 not out).At Nawabshah Stadium, Nawabshah:NAWABSHAH 142 (Nasir Khan 28, Shahid Hussain 21, Abid Ali 20; Ariz Kamal 3-28, Zeeshan Essa 3-28, Faraz Ahmed 2-14, Adeel Malik 2-29);KARACHI GREENS 173-3 (Rashid Ali 73, Mir Rashid 60, Ariz Kamal 27 not out).*At PCB Regional Academy Ground, Karachi:QUETTA 331-8 innings closed (Javed Iqbal 123, Naseem Khan 110, Abdul Rehman 25, Abdul Wali 20 not out; Mohtashim Ali 3-73, Shahbaz Bashir 2-49); SIBI 19-1

Canterbury will field the strongest team possible against Northern Districts in Gisborne for the next round of State Championship play.The return of New Zealand team members from Australia will boster the side considerably, giving two benefits, one for the Canterbury side to build on its second round victory over Otago this week and two, for the CLEAR Black Caps to keep their form from the Australian series in readiness for the two-Test National Bank series against Bangladesh starting in Hamilton on Tuesday, December 18.The team is: Gary Stead (captain), Jarrod Englefield, Michael Papps, Aaron Redmond, Chris Harris, Chris Cairns, Nathan Astle, Craig McMillan, Gareth Hopkins, Wade Cornelius, Paul Wiseman, Warren Wisneski, Shane Bond, Chris Martin.

PERTH, Dec 21 AAP – Darren Lehmann will open with fellow left-handed batsman Matthew Hayden in Australia’s day-night cricket match against Sri Lanka on Sunday in Perth.Australian one-day captain Ricky Ponting said he had left it up to Damien Martyn and Lehmann to decide who would walk out to the crease with the big Queenslander at the WACA Ground.”He’s done it before for us as had Damien Martyn, but I just left it up to those two guys to see who wanted it the most and Darren was the one,” Ponting said.Lehmann, 32, will also shoulder the vice captaincy in the absence of Adam Gilchrist who is sitting out the match with niggling injuries.It will be just the fourth time the South Australian has opened the innings for Australia in 84 internationals.Ponting said the match against the struggling Sri Lankans would be a good test for the home team without injured spin king Shane Warne and Gilchrist.He said it would be a good opportunity to grab a psychological edge over the tourists before next year’s World Cup in Africa.The last time the two sides met Sri Lanka defeated Australia in the semi-finals at the ICC Champions Trophy in Colombo in September.They meet this time with contrasting form with the men from the subcontinent being thrashed in South Africa and losing their opening two matches of the tri-series in Australia to England.Meanwhile, Australia has been untouchable this summer.”Not having Gilly and Warney around, two of the more senior members, will be a little different for me,” Ponting said.”But saying that, we still have a lot of very experienced guys in the team like McGrath and Bevan and Lehmann – it will be a test for all of us tomorrow,” he said.The tourists have been disappointing in their opening two one-day matches with batsman struggling on bouncy wickets at the WACA and the Gabba, and fieldsmen missing eight regulation catches in two matches.Classy left-arm paceman Chaminda Vaas and young right-arm quick Dilhara Fernando were excellent in their side’s 95-run loss to England last night but were badly let down in the field.Sri Lankan coach Dav Whatmore bemoaned his team’s dropped catches which included a straightforward opportunity to dismiss century maker Paul Collingwood on 11.He said the team’s lack of confidence in the field was spreading like cancer while captain Sanath Jayasuriya looked totally devastated after last night’s loss.”We are just not playing well at the moment, the confidence is down obviously,” Whatmore said.”It is almost like a cancer isn’t it, it just runs through a team and we’ve all experienced it before.”Jayasuriya said his team had no excuses for not adapting to the lively WACA pitch despite being used to the much flatter tracks of their homeland.”We have played well here before, we have won matches here before and I think there are no excuses that we can’t play well here at the moment,” he said.England lead the tri-series competition by a single point but have played two more games than both Australia and Sri Lanka.

A cavalier 176 by Naeemuddin and equally fine batting by Atiq-ur-Rahman helped Gujranwala to earn a slimseven-run lead against LahoreWhites on second day of the National Under-19 Grade-I cricketchampionship at LCCA Ground Thursday.Replying to Lahore Whites’s first innings total of 349, Gujranwalaamassed 356 for eight declared in 78 overs after resuming the day on46 without loss.By close of play, Lahore Whites were in some trouble when they reached94 for three in the second innings.Naeemuddin, taking advantage of atrocious catching by Lahore Whites,carried on from his overnight 35 and blasted 24 fours in his 216-ballinnings that lasted 311 minutes while putting on 130 for the secondwicket with Atiq in only 99 minutes.Atiq hammered 10 boundaries in his 90-ball 72.For Lahore Whites, captain Arsalan Arshad captured three for 58.Summarized scores:Lahore Whites 349 in 78.2 overs (Kashif Ijaz 74, Salman Qadir 71,Zulqarnain Hyder 61, Wahab Riaz 48; MuzaffarAslam 3-87, Ali Imran2-62, Nadeem Hussain 2-103) and 94 for three in 22 overs (ArsalanArshad 27, Adnan Raza 27).Gujranwala 356 for eight decl in 78 overs (Naeemuddin 176, Atiq-ur-Rahman 72, Shiraz Shabbir 30, Waqas Rafiq 20; Arsalan Arshad 3-58).

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa – Pressure is mounting on South Africa batsman Jonty Rhodes to end his retirement from Test cricket ahead of his country’s world championship showdown against Australia at the end of the year.”We are trying to convert him back to Test cricket,” national selector Graeme Pollock said in a news conference at St George’s Park today during South Africa’s second Test against India.”His experience could be invaluable to us. He plays the quick bowlers well and he plays [leg spinner Shane] Warne really well which is going to be important, once again,” Pollock said.Rhodes played his last Test 15 months ago and then retired to concentrate his efforts on the one-day game and South Africa’s bid to win the World Cup in 2003, which it is hosting.The cricketer, regarded as the best fielder in the world, has never made a secret of his desire to spend more time with his wife and two-year-old daughter and has so far refused to change his mind.Former team-mate turned commentator Pat Symcox wrote an open letter to Rhodes in the national daily newspaper The Citizen today in which he implored him to reconsider his decision.”All I ask is that you give us some of your valuable time – just one more time,” Symcox wrote after explaining how important the player would be in helping South Africa beat Australia to become world Test champion.”We must do whatever we can to get him to change his mind, whether it means talking to his wife, Kate, or whoever. It would be reassuring to have him back for the tour,” Pollock said.– AAP

Somerset’s three-day friendly against Glamorgan at the County Ground in Taunton ended in a draw, after some very entertaining cricket from both sides in bright sunshine was enjoyed by a good sized crowd.Resuming on their overnight total of 172 for 3 the visitors took the score onto 383 for 9 before declaring, with Darren Thomas making 100 and David Hemp 70. The pick of the Somerset bowlers was Keith Dutch who ended with the impressive figures of 17 overs, 4 maidens, 3 wickets for 58 runs.Chasing a total of 385, by the time that the players left the field with eight overs remaining, Somerset had reached 260 for 4, with Piran Holloway unbeaten on 78.Earlier Matt Wood had scored 66 an impressive, Rob Turner 43, Aaron Laraman a quickfire 32 and James Bryant 30, which included two enormous sixes off Robert Croft, one of which landed in the St James Street Car Park.After the close of play Somerset coach Kevin Shine told me: "This was a tough start for us against first class opponents and our bowlers have been made to work hard out there. They met the challenge I set them in the second innings, and there were good spells last night from Keith Dutch and Michael Parsons. Today everyone has bowled well. It was a very flat wicket and the batters dominated with the short boundary and 1300 runs were scored in three days."Looking ahead to Monday’s match at the Hampshire Rosebowl he said: "There is still a bit of work to do, but this performance is going to make selection difficult for the next game, and there will be keen competition for places ,especially with Ian Blackwell coming into the reckoning."Somerset start their first class season next Saturday when they entertain Loughborough University at Taunton in a 3 day match, and the season gets underway in earnest on Good Friday when they travel to Bristol for their championship opener against the `old enemy’ Gloucestershire.

The Jamaican opening batsman, Wavell Hinds, has been cleared to make the tour of Sri Lanka with the West Indies team after all. Hinds, who was a late replacement for the injured middle order batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul, was himself injured while participating in the Melbourne Cricket Festival.The clearance has been received by the West Indies Cricket Board, and Hinds will now travel to Sri Lanka today – via Miami – and is expected to arrive in Sri Lanka on Wednesday. Although Hinds has been cleared to join his West Indian counterparts on tour in Sri Lanka, he has been advised not to field too close to the wicket for the next few months.This means that Hinds will be available for selection to take part in the West Indies’ second warm up match ahead of the first Test. The WICB decided against naming a replacement for Hinds, and opted instead to await the doctor’s opinion on whether or not Hinds could in fact join the West Indies on tour following corrective surgery to his broken nose.The West Indies will engage Sri Lanka in three Tests, followed by a triangular one day international series which will also involve Zimbabwe and host country Sri Lanka.

A fluctuating day’s cricket left the crucial CricInfo Championship game between Surrey and Lancashire at The AMP Oval evenly-poised at stumps on the second day.Surrey had time to face one over at the end of the day as they began their second innings 28 runs in arrears after fighting back throughout the afternoon; possibly a vital contribution with the pitch taking spin and the world’s best off-spinners on either side.Lancashire had begun the day in determined mood in reply to Surrey’s first innings total of 248. They reached lunch on 82 without loss after 29 overs in a rain truncated morning session.With Tudor and Bicknell bowling to an aggressive field of four slips and a gully, the Lancashire openers concentrated on survival, but grew in confidence as the partnership wore in.First to go was Jamie Haynes. Having justified his inclusion in the side in the absence of Atherton (on England duty) and Chiltern (injured), the former second team ‘keeper played back to Saqlain and was given out lbw having completed his second first-class half-century.It was a crucial breakthrough. The opening stand between Haynes and his captain, John Crawley, had yielded 100 but Surrey soon struck again. Crawley misjudged a Bicknell delivery and was dismissed lbw shouldering arms, while Fairbrother swept Saqlain to Ramprakash at deep square leg.Scuderi was deceived by the infamous Saqlain mystery ball and could only top-edge the ball to gully and Graham Lloyd could not keep down a short ball from the swift Tudor.Andrew Flintoff was in forthright mood, and benefited from a let off when Butcher put him down at slip off Tudor. Eight cracking boundaries followed before Butcher made amends as Flintoff snicked another ball from Tudor.Warren Hegg proved to be more obdurate. His 74 not out helped guide the tail into vital partnerships that eventually earned a lead of 28 runs. He hit three boundaries in a row off Bicknell and reiterated his worth to Lancashire following his recent century at Northampton.No-one else could find an answer to Saqlain who finished with 6-89, trumping Muralitharan, who took five wickets in the Surrey innings.Afterwards John Crawley admitted that the game was evenly poised and suggested that both teams should have scored more runs.”Having won the toss they would have hoped for more runs but at 110 for no wicket we would have hoped for the same,” Crawley reasoned.”It’s the kind of wicket if you get one or two then a few more follow but if you get in on it there are runs to be had. The pitch is a good four-day pitch, there is a bit in it for everyone but the spinners have had to work for their reward.”If it continues to play well and it doesn’t disintegrate we would be hopeful of scoring somewhere around 240 on the final day. Our game plan for tomorrow is to attack them early on and see if we can bowl them out cheaply.”