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ScorecardWest Indies Under-19s kept the seven-match series alive by successfully defending their score of 177 in the fifth youth ODI in Guyana. Preston McSween’s four wickets made Bangladesh fall short of their target by 67 runs as only three of their batsmen reached double figures and only one crossed 20.Rifat Pradhan troubled West Indies’ top order, dismissing opener Leroy Lugg and Shimron Hetmyer by the time the team score reached 36. Tagenarine Chanderpaul kept them stable with a fifty, but once he fell for 51, legbreak bowler Jubair Hossain ran through the lower order to finish with 4 for 20 from 7.3 overs. Offspinner Mosaddek Hossain gave only 19 from his 10 overs and picked up two wickets.In reply, Bangladesh lost four wickets for the score of 35 as McSween and Ray Jordan rattled their top and middle order. They shared the top five wickets, leaving Bangladesh at 55 for 5, as they later crawled to 110 in the 39th over. Only opener Shadman Islam could offer some resistance with a 49 and Mehedy Hasan and Rahatul Ferdous also reached double figures but could not make an impact.Bangladesh still lead the series 3-2 and the sixth one-dayer will be played on Saturday in Georgetown.

Michael Hussey has revealed he arranged a formal meeting with former Australia coach, Mickey Arthur, to express concern about the direction and culture of the Australian team as early as the West Indies tour in 2012, and also conceded that his concerns hastened thoughts of retirement. During the Caribbean trip, on which the tourists won the Test series 2-0, Hussey met with Arthur to outline his worries about the way the team was progressing, foreshadowing the dire results that would occur in India and England following his retirement.A few of Hussey’s points of trouble included the development of an insular team environment where players looked out for themselves and their own positions rather than pulling together for the team, and also the emergence of a tense, unhelpful atmosphere in the dressing room. In his autobiography, , Hussey writes that he did not feel his concerns were adequately addressed.”While I was in the West Indies, I became concerned at a deeper level about how I was enjoying being in the team,” Hussey wrote. “My view was always that in cricket you have to be genuinely happy for your team-mates’ success. If it wasn’t happening, was it the team culture or was it just a few players? I was a bit nervous about that, and organised a meeting with Mickey.”I sat down with him and and got all my concerns out in the open. ‘We need to foster a culture that makes them want to think about other people and play for the team,’ I said. ‘Get them out of [that] insular thinking and bring in team activities. It’s about caring for each other. There’s too much insular thinking; about number one only.'”Did Mickey see it as something that could be improved? In our chat, I don’t think anything I said went in. Mickey definitely listened, but he was in tunnel vision mode too. He had specific things he wanted to focus on, and anything from left field didn’t register. I walked away from the meeting thinking I was glad to have got it off my chest, but it didn’t go anywhere.”It was understandable how Mickey had his specific plans, and Michael [Clarke] too, but for me it was a big early warning sign that this team had problems ahead of it. We were fostering an environment where guys only cared about their positions and didn’t think about the team. The dressing room became just as stressful and tense as [it was] out in the middle. It should be a sanctuary, where you can let go and have a joke with your team-mates. Our dressing room wasn’t relaxed or calm, or conducive to good play. I didn’t enjoy that tension, and I’m sure some of the guys weren’t enjoying it.”Through the period of Clarke’s captaincy and Arthur’s coaching tenure, Hussey enjoyed some of the best run-scoring form of his career, but his memoir is dotted with instances of reservations about the direction the team was taking, particularly due to several of the dictates of the Argus review. Hussey also recalls how Clarke’s position as a selector, a post he has now relinquished, created an atmosphere in which players were fearful of consequences should they put a single step wrong in the dressing room.Issues with the Australian team’s direction and the attitudes of individual players were to bubble to the surface in India earlier this year following Hussey’s international retirement. His earlier worries were borne out in the homework saga, David Warner’s misbehaviour during the Champions Trophy in England, and the sacking of Arthur immediately before the Ashes.

Sri Lanka Cricket president Jayantha Dharmadasa has said that the board had not questioned Kumar Sangakkara’s loyalty to his country. In an email exchange with Sangakkara, published in the , Dharmadasa said the board had not misrepresented any facts or misled the media.Earlier this week, Sangakkara confirmed that he would represent Kandurata Maroons in the Champions League T20 tournament, instead of his IPL franchise, Sunrisers Hyderabad. He also criticized SLC, saying he was perturbed by the manner in which the board had publicly framed his situation.”We totally deny that SLC has misrepresented facts to the media nor mislead the media in any manner whatsoever and we have not stated anything to question your loyalty to play for the local team nor have we tarnished your image for that matter,” Dharmadasa wrote to Sangakkara. “In so far as SLC is concerned, we took a pragmatic view of the issues faced by us with regard to this matter and accordingly communicated to you our position.”In a reply to Dharmadasa’s email, Sangakkara explained why he had communicated with the media: “The damage to my reputation had already been done in the days preceding my meeting with you and I was left with little choice but to address the media.”In his reply, Sangakkara also told Dharmadasa that an earlier email he had sent to SLC secretary, Nishantha Ranatunga, encompassed his experiences over the last year and a half. In the email to Ranatunga, Sangakkara had written: “You have made me seem disloyal to Sunrisers Hyderebad and also disloyal to my country. In the process, you have quite possibly jeopardised my future in the IPL. It ultimately leaves me to question whether your interest in this matter is more in line with a personal agenda against me rather than a national interest.”I sincerely hope that your comments in the public are your own and are not in any way representative of the collective view of SLC and the current Ex Co. Since you have now set the precedent of demanding and insisting upon local players representing their home franchise over their IPL teams in the Champions League, I will be very interested to see if in the future when the same situation arises that you demand the same of other players.”Dharmadasa defended Ranatunga, stating the latter “commands the respect of the entire membership at Sri Lanka Cricket”.”It is indeed unfortunate and disappointing that you have singled out Nishantha and stated that his conduct in this matter has been reprehensible and not at all befitting the position he holds as secretary of SLC,” Dharmadasa wrote. “As you are fully aware Nishantha was unanimously elected as the secretary of SLC at the last AGM held in March this year and commands the respect of the entire membership at Sri Lanka Cricket. You additionally state that ‘it ultimately leaves me to question whether your interest in this matter is more in line with a personal agenda against me rather than a national interest’, this is an allegation of a serious nature which is unacceptable to SLC.”Nishantha as secretary communicates on behalf of the board in all administrative and cricketing matters which come within the purview of the executive committee. This is one such matter. As president, I need to inform you that all communications sent by Nishantha have been dispatched with the knowledge of the executive committee members who have been copied on such issues in order to resolve these matters in the best interest of SLC. He therefore communicates on behalf of SLC and not in an individual capacity. Your comment in relation to Nishantha is therefore regretted.”

ScorecardOllie Rayner ran through Surrey for a second time•PA Photos

The similarities between Ollie Rayner and Jim Laker are not, at first glance, obvious but on the ground that England’s greatest offspinner called home for many years, Rayner produced a more than passable impression.Rayner, gaining sharp turn and steepling bounce from the sort of pitch spinners dream about, bowled his side to a three-day win over Middlesex’s local rivals Surrey with the sort of figures that bear comparison with Laker’s unparalleled 19 for 90 at Old Trafford in 1956.Rayner’s career-record until now has had something of a journeyman quality to it. A valuable contributor, he has tended to provide more of a supporting than starring role. Before this game, he had taken five five-wicket hauls in a 74 match first-class career and 25 wickets in 10 games this season.But here, following his 8 for 46 in the first innings, Rayner claimed 7 for 72 in the second. Those match figures – 15 for 118 – are the best by a Middlesex bowler since 1955 – when Fred Titmus claimed 15 for 95 against Somerset at Bath – and the seventh best in the first-class history of the club. Rayner also claimed three catches in the match off the bowling of his colleagues, meaning he had a hand in 18 of the 20 Surrey wickets to fall in the match.While the victory sustains Middlesex’s outside hopes of winning the title – more realistically, it sets them up for an admirable top-three finish – the result leaves Surrey bottom of Division One and with four wins in 29 games since they were promoted at the end of 2011.That it took Middlesex so long to achieve victory – the game was deep inside the extra half-hour when the final wicket fell – was largely due to Hashim Amla. The South African batsman produced a masterclass in temperament and technique to negate the pitch and the bowling for more than three-and-a-half hours. He was beaten often, sometimes by deliveries that leaped from a length and passed above his shoulder, and survived a couple of false strokes, but demonstrated the coolest of heads and the softest of hands. Rayner, quite reasonably, rated it “one of the best innings” he had ever seen.Surrey’s batting was much improved in their second innings. Demonstrating an application that was absent on the second day, they simply found that the damage they had already incurred was too deep to repair. Arun Harinath, coming to the crease on the back of a return of 1, 0, 1, 0, 1 in his last five Championship innings, added 44 for the first wicket with the impressive Rory Burns, while Steve Davies helped Amla add 86 for the fifth wicket.Amla’s value to Surrey was demonstrated most clearly when he was out. It precipitated a decline that saw four wickets fall for five runs before Jade Dernbach thrashed a quick 22 to delay the inevitable.It all left Alec Stewart, Surrey’s temporary director of cricket, bristling with indignation. Justifying the pitch – he credited the groundsman with an “outstanding” performance – Stewart insisted that “draws are no good to us; we have to win our home games.” But preparing such a surface, and the resultant importance of winning the toss, was a huge gamble. In this instance, it backfired.”Our performance over the first two days was not good enough,” Stewart said. “Unfortunately, in the first innings, there was no application. There was very little thought process. If you don’t apply yourself, you get punished. Once you go into the second innings 150 behind, you have to play out of your skin to go close.”The way we went about our second innings was much better. It showed that, if you were prepared to bat time, you could bat on that surface.”Stewart refuted the suggestion that, even if Amla had helped Surrey to victory – and a target of 385 was as distant as the moon on this pitch – that it would only have papered over the cracks at Surrey. Insisting that picking youth for youth’s sake would solve nothing, Stewart said he would “pick the sides to give Surrey the best chance of staying up.”But whether seeing the likes of Amla, Vikram Solanki and Zander de Bruyn help avoid relegation progresses this club any more than seeing younger, homegrown players learn from the experience of being relegated is debateable. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that, three months after former director of cricket Chris Adams was sacked because, in part, of the lack of direction his squad seemed to have and the mature age-profile of his teams, that Surrey are making the same errors. To be fair to Stewart, he inherited the squad and a lowly position. Surrey were sixth when he took over.”We’ll probably have to win two of our last three now,” Stewart said. “When you’ve won four out of 29 in the first division, it’s a big, big ask.”Still, this was a match that belonged to Rayner. It speaks volumes for his innate modesty that, moments after the game, he credited Middlesex’s batsmen as the architects of victory. And it is true that, after a couple of poor games, they performed admirably in tough conditions.Dawid Malan, without a Championship half-century this season until Tuesday, now has two, while Chris Rogers followed up his excellent batting with a wonderful piece of anticipation to dismiss Amla – sensing the batsman shaping to glance on the leg side, he pounced to his left from leg slip – and timed a brave declaration to perfection. With rain forecast for Friday, Middlesex did not want to risk the game going into a final day.”We haven’t batted awfully well of late,” Rayner said. “But our batters put Surrey under a lot of scoreboard pressure, so it was a top effort from them.”I went three games without a wicket at the start of the season, so it’s nice to contribute. The pitch has helped me out a lot. Some balls were passing at head height. I hope it shows the Lord’s groundsman, Mike Hunt, what we can do if we have a spinning wicket.”Meanwhile Surrey announced the release of Jon Lewis. The 38-year-old seamer joined the club at the start of 2012 after the best part of two decades with Gloucestershire. A regular in white ball cricket, Lewis has barely featured in the first-class team this season but is currently seeking opportunities to continue his career at another county.By off-loading Lewis and, perhaps, one or two other players – the likes of Zander de Bruyn, who is out of contract, and Gary Keedy, who is not – from their payroll, Surrey could be making room within their salary allocation for new recruits. But on the evidence of recent times, simply signing new names is not the answer.

The four-team provincial Twenty20 tournament that replaces this year’s Sri Lanka Premier League will run from August 10 to 17, Sri Lanka Cricket has confirmed. All seven matches in the league will take place at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, and the winning side will earn a trip to India for the Champions League qualifiers in September.The tournament will also give Sri Lanka’s young batting group further leadership experience. Angelo Mathews will captain the Basnahira Greens, Dinesh Chandimal the Uthura Yellows, Lahiru Thirimanne the Kandurata Maroons and Lasith Malinga will lead the Ruhuna Reds. Each team plays each other once, before the two top sides qualify for the final.The selectors have chosen preliminary squads of 17-18 players for each team, with the final 15-man squads to be named in the next two days.The SLPL had been scheduled to be played from August 10 to September 7, but was called off after all eight franchises refused to pay their tournament fee, and also failed to guarantee player payments.Preliminary Squads
Basnahira Greens: Angelo Mathews (capt), Udara Jayasundara, Dilshan Munaweera, Kithuruwan Vithanage, Sachithra Senanayake, Chaturanga de Silva, Kosala Kulasekara, Kanishka Alvitigala, Suranga Lakmal, Lahiru Gamage, Isuru Udana, Janaka Gunaratne, Dimuth Karunaratne, Sameera Soyza, Gihan Rupasinghe, Kaushal Silva
Coach: Marvan Atapattu
Uthura Yellows: Dinesh Chandimal (capt), Mahela Udawatte, Chamara Kapugedera, Ashan Priyanjan, Mahela Jayawardene, Jeevan Mendis, Thisara Perera, Shaminda Eranga, Vimukthi Perera, Ramith Rambukwella, Rangana Herath, Akila Dananjaya, Rumesh Buddika, Chathura Peiris, Alankara Asanka, Madushanka Ekanayake, Chaminda Vidanapathirana
Coach: Ruwan Kalpage
Kandurata Maroons: Lahiru Thirimanne (capt), Upul Tharanga, Shehan Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Chamara Silva, Thilina Kandamby, Milinda Siriwardene, Nuwan Kulasekara, Dilhara Lokuhettige, Dhammika Prasad, Lahiru Jayaratne, Ajantha Mendis, Suraj Randiv, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Dananjaya de Silva, Dasun Chanaka, Malinga Bandara
Coach: Chaminda Vaas
Ruhuna Reds: Lasith Malinga (capt), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kusal Perera, Danushka Gunathilaka, Angelo Perera, Jehan Mubarak, Niroshan Dickwella, Dilruwan Perera, Seekkuge Prasanna, Ishan Jayaratne, Farveez Maharoof, Madura Lakmal, Binara Fernando, Yashoda Lanka, Sadun Weerakkody, Kaushalya Weeraratne, Thilina Thushara
Coach: Romesh Kaluwitharana