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Kent have been loaned £1.5 million from Canterbury City Council to help fund their ground development. The second phase of the project at the St Lawrence Ground is currently underway.The county have already enhanced the player areas, conferencing facilities and installed floodlights at Canterbury, funded by the sale of land around the ground and through an initial loan from the council. The additional loan will help fund the building of new club offices, three flats and a Sainsbury’s store attached to the ground.Kent chief executive, Jamie Clifford praised the council for their support. “The support from the Council is helping us in our desire to create a long term, financially stable future in Canterbury,” said Clifford. “This news, coupled with the recent signing of a long term deal with Sainsbury’s leaves the project in very good shape. The final piece of the jigsaw is the development of a 130-bedroom hotel, and discussions on this are progressing well too.”The club have also been given permission to develop the county ground at Beckenham which has recently been established as Kent’s second home. Cricket at Beckenham was under threat unless the facilities could be developed.A new all-weather hockey pitch, an indoor multi-use training centre, a health and fitness centre, improved permanent spectator seating and a small conference facility will be built at Beckenham to secure its long term future as a venue for Kent.”We have been determined to secure a long term base in the Greater London area for the county,” said Clifford. “The cricketing county of Kent covers a very big area and we have always been keen to take cricket to all parts of the county.

R Ashwin, who was the most effective of India’s bowlers on day two of the tour match against the CA Chairman’s XI in Canberra, has said that he has worked on his strategy ahead of the Test series.”You have to spin it; for the few days of a Test, I don’t expect the ball to turn,” Ashwin told . “It has to be in the air [have flight], and later [in the Test you can] exploit the rough. For the left-handers you attack the stumps and for the right-hander bowl outside the off-stump.””I have been speaking to a few umpires and they say it spins on day four and five. But I have to look at the match as a whole, keep spinning and flighting the ball, and hoping the batsmen would attack me. Later, probably, if I could sit down with Shane Warne and chat with him [it would help].”Ashwin picked up four of the seven wickets the Indians claimed on the second day, while reducing the Chairman’s XI to 215 for 7. He said that he had expected the batsmen to be more aggressive against him. “I was very surprised that they were not attacking me. I bowled a few bad balls, I wasn’t hit for a six. I am always prepared to be hit for a few sixes anyway.”His victims included centurion Ed Cowan, Phillip Hughes, Tom Cooper and Alex Doolan. He particularly enjoyed Doolan’s dismissal, he said. “It [the delivery] didn’t have much of spin but it just bounced a bit more. The catch belonged to Ajinkya Rahane … I haven’t seen such a good catch for a long time.” Doolan was caught at forward short leg for a duck.

Vinay Kumar, the Karnataka fast bowler, has been picked as a replacement for the injured Varun Aaron in India’s Test squad to Australia. Aaron’s injury was detected on Thursday evening, making him India’s second first-choice fast bowler to pull out of the squad due to injury. Praveen Kumar had been ruled of the Australia tour late last month after suffering a rib injury.Reportedly, Aaron is suffering from a stress reaction in his back, which was diagnosed during the Indore ODI. He will be reporting to the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore next week, to chalk out a rehabilitation plan. Incidentally, Aaron had to sit out of the Ahmedabad ODI only because the nail on a toe of his left foot had fallen out. Abhimanyu Mithun replaced him for that match.Vinay, 27, has been on the fringes of the India’s limited-overs sides for the past year and a half, but has not had a chance in Tests so far. Though he wasn’t a part of the squad for the World Cup, Vinay was the most experienced of the quick bowlers in the side for the current home series against West Indies, until Irfan Pathan was included for the final two one-dayers.He has been a consistent performer in first-class cricket for several seasons. He was the second highest wicket-taker in the Ranji Trophy as far back as 2007-08, a feat he repeated two years later when he spearheaded Karnataka’s attack during their run to the finals.It was only two days ago that Vinay had restated his desire to be a part of the Test set-up, a stage where several younger competitors – Abhimanyu Mithun, Umesh Yadav, Aaron – had already got the chance to show off their talent.

If Sri Lanka dismiss Misbah-ul-Haq early on the fourth day, they could go on to win the Sharjah Test, their bowling coach Champaka Ramanayake has said. He also picked medium-pacer Chanaka Welegedara as the key bowler for Sri Lanka on the fourth day.”Misbah is a very good player and if we can get him early, we will have a chance,” Ramanayake said. “The last session of the day was better for us compared to the earlier two sessions. We bowled very accurately in the earlier sessions, though we did not get many wickets.”We built up the pressure and in the end it was nice to get some quick wickets. Tomorrow, we have to get Pakistan out as quickly as possible.”Pakistan finished day three on 282 for 6, still trailing Sri Lanka by 131 runs. At one stage Pakistan were 233 for 3, with centurion Younis Khan and Misbah at the crease, but Sri Lanka picked up three wickets for 44 runs to edge ahead. Misbah, after a typically dogged innings, went to stumps unbeaten on 50, and is Pakistan’s last recognised batsmen.Welegedara had accounted for Younis with his first delivery with the second new ball: he got the ball to bend in sharply, beat Younis and hit off. He also had Asad Shafiq feathering an edge behind on 16 late in the day.”He [Welegedara] bowled brilliantly, giving 60 odd runs in his 25 overs on a flat wicket,” Ramanayake said. “He has done a great job for us and probably he will pick five wickets tomorrow [he has taken three so far]. The way he bowled he deserves five wickets.”Sri Lanka were without their other new-ball bowler Dhammika Prasad – who had strained his thigh muscle on Friday after just four overs – and he isn’t expected to be fit enough to bowl on Sunday. “He [Prasad] will be out of action for a while due to a thigh injury,” Ramanayake said. “It’s a flat wicket and so it is a tough task [being a bowler short].”Mohsin Khan, Pakistan’s interim coach, said Misbah had adopted the right approach in this innings, batting with caution. “It is a pity that we lost two wickets in the last 45 minutes,” he said. “Like Misbah, who is showing full responsibility, Test cricket is all about patience. He is taking the safety route first, and then we will go for a positive result.”Mohsin also praised Younis, saying he had demonstrated once again how important he is to the side. “Younis batted wonderfully well. He is proving himself to be a reliable senior player and today again he has done a great job for Pakistan.”I wish I had seen him not out at the end of the day, that would have been very good. Not to take anything away from him, though, as he has batted very well for the team.”

South Zone

Robin Uthappa destroyed Hyderabad’s attack with a brutal innings, blasting 92 off 36 balls, to set up an 80-run victory for Karnataka in Chennai. Uthappa hit eight fours and eight sixes in his blitz and was out as early as 9.1 overs, with Karnataka on 113 for 3. CM Gautam scored an unbeaten 53 off 38 balls to lead Karnataka to 202 for 8 in 20 overs. Hyderabad fell behind the asking-rate early and were 47 for 1 after 6.4 overs. They then lost four wickets for 13 runs and were shut out of the contest. KP Appanna took 3 for 31, NC Aiyappa took 2 for 14 and Stuart Binny affected two run outs in addition to taking a wicket to dismiss Hyderabad for 112.A half-century from Dinesh Karthik and a 16-ball 37 from Suresh Kumar helped Tamil Nadu chase down Kerala’s 159 for 5 in 19.1 overs in in Chennai. Tamil Nadu were 46 for 2 after 6.3 overs when Srikkanth Anirudha fell for 34 off 24 balls. Karthik was the dominant batsman in a 71-run stand with Abhinav Mukund for the third wicket and then played second fiddle to Suresh to ensure victory. In their innings, Kerala had recovered from a poor start to score 159 for 5. They were 32 for 3 after 5.3 overs but Robert Fernandez and Rohit Prem scored 44 and 48 to steady the innings. Yo Mahesh took 3 for 21 for Tamil Nadu.Goa clinched a tense two-wicket victory off the final ball of their low-scoring match against Andhra in Chennai. Chasing 119, Goa had lost wickets at regular intervals but were well placed to win with only one run needed off three balls and three wickets in hand. G Elaizar, however, set up a thrilling finish by bowling Amit Yadav for 31 off 28 balls, and also bowling Sher Yadav. With one run now needed off one ball, No. 10 batsman Vidyadhar Kamath struck the last delivery, his first, for four to spark celebrations in the Goa dressing room. Sirla Srinivas was Andhra’s most successful bowler, taking 3 for 28. Goa’s bowlers, and Ryan and Robin D’Souza in particular, had performed impressively to restrict Andhra to 118 for 9. Ryan took 3 for 19 and Robin 2 for 16. Manoj Sai, who scored 27 off 21 balls, was the only Andhra batsman to get past 20.

North Zone

A solid all-round performance led Punjab to a 48-run victory against Haryana in Rhotak. Punjab made 169 for 4 after getting sent in, with Sarul Kanwar scoring 53 off 29 balls, an innings that had four fours and as many sixes. Mandeep Singh made 47 off 28 balls to provide a strong finish. Punjab’s new-ball attack of Manpreet Gony and Love Ablish took two wickets each to reduce Haryana to 39 for 4. The chase never recovered and Haryana slipped to 121 for 9 in their 20 overs. Left-arm spinner Bipul Sharma also took two wickets, including that of Haryana’s top scorer, Dhruv Singh, who made 40 off 42 balls.A brisk 72 from Rajat Bhatia set up Delhi‘s 30-run win against Himachal Pradesh at the Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium in Rohtak. Delhi lost two quick wickets after choosing to bat, before Bhatia took charge. He smacked five sixes and two fours in his unbeaten 44-ball knock, and received support from Mithun Manhas, Pawan Negi and Yogesh Nagar, who all scored between 21 and 29 to carry Delhi to 158 for 5. Himachal got off to a quick start against new-ball bowlers Ashish Nehra and Ishant Sharma, but the other three bowlers in the attack – Pradeep Sangwan, Bhatia and Negi – reined in the scoring-rate. While the Himachal’s top six all got starts, none of them could carry on and their side managed only 128 for 5 in their 20.Services‘ bowlers performed impressively to defend a modest total and secure a 25-run win against Jammu & Kashmir in Rhotak. Amrendra Khan took 3 for 14 in 3.5 overs to spearhead the defence while three other bowlers – Abhishek Sakuja, Mohammad Khalid and Sumit Singh – took two each. Jammu & Kashmir lost a wicket in the fourth, fifth and sixth overs and never recovered after being reduced to 28 for 4. Thy were dismissed for 113 in 17.5 overs. Services also had a jittery start to the innings and were 7 for 2 at one stage. They were steadied by their captain Yashpal Singh, who scored 50 off 40 balls to lead his team to 135 for 6.

West Zone

Yusuf Pathan clobbered 86 off 46 balls to help Baroda beat Mumbai by 15 runs in Rajkot. Yusuf began his innings in the fifth over, when Baroda were 35 for 2 after choosing to bat, and proceeded to hit eight fours and four sixes in his innings. He added 53 runs with Ambati Rayudu for the third wicket and then put on 101 with his brother Irfan Pathan for the fourth. Irfan was unbeaten on 38 off 31 balls as Baroda ended on 189 for 3. Mumbai made a strong start to their chase, reaching 94 for 2 in 9.4 overs before they lost Shoaib Shaikh. They suffered a major blow in the 11th over, when Wasim Jaffer was bowled by Yusuf for 57, with the score on 98. Mumbai needed 64 off the last six overs but their lower-middle order could do the job. They finished on 174, with Baroda medium-pacer Murtuja Vahora taking 3 for 27.Maharashtra registered a four-wicket win against Gujarat, with seven balls to spare, at the Khandheri Cricket Stadium in Rajkot. While none of Gujarat’s line-up could get a half-century, contributions varying between 21 and 40 from five of their top six carried them to 144 for 6. Shrikant Mundhe was the pick of the Maharashtra bowlers, picking up 3 for 33. The chase was steered by opener Ajinkya Joshi. He made 52 off 43, and batted through to the 14th over, by which time Maharashtra has crossed 100. There were no standout performers otherwise, but the middle order managed to do just enough to ensure a simple win.

East Zone

Bengal put in a disciplined bowling performance to beat Assam by 38 runs at the Keenan Stadium in Jamshedpur, in the first round of East Zone matches in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2011-12. After choosing to bat, Bengal’s batsmen could not infuse much momentum into their innings, but for the most part managed to score at around a run-a-ball to finish with 131 for 5. Their total was boosted courtesy 16 wides from Assam. Dheeraj Jadhav and Pritam Debnath looked to have settled in when Laxmi Ratan Shukla got Debnath to return a catch. That triggered a collapse. Shukla picked up two more, while spinners Arnab Nandi and Iresh Saxena claimed five between them to bowl Assam out for 93 in the 17th over.Biplab Samantray scored an unbeaten 73 off 53 balls to lead Orissa to a match-winning total of 175 for 3 against Tripura in Jamshedpur. After the first-over dismissal of Sumitosh Praharaj, Samantray added 59 with Natraj Behera, who made 38, and 56 with Halhadar Das, who made 37, to set-up a challenging target. Tripura didn’t get close. After a 50-run partnership for the third wicket that took them to 67 for 2 they lost seven wickets for 52 runs and ended on 119 for 9. Jayanta Behera, making his domestic Twenty20 debut, took 3 for 20 as Orissa won by 56 runs.

Central Zone

Rajasthan recovered from the loss two early wickets to post a match-winning total of 156 for 4 against Vidarbha in Indore. From 9 for 2, useful contributions from Pranay Sharma, Vaibhav Deshpande and Robin Bist, along with a half-century from Puneet Yadav, bolstered the innings. Shrikant Wagh took 2 for 21 for Vidarbha. The chase got off to a slow start, and Vidarbha had made only 45 for 2 in the eighth over when the steady fall of wickets began. None of their batsmen made more than Hemang Badani’s 29. Vidarbha needed 26 off the last ten balls but then lost two wickets off successive deliveries. They finished on 142 for 9. Pankaj Singh took 2 for 20 off four overs for Rajasthan.Madhya Pradesh edged home by two runs against Railways, in a high-scoring match at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore. Madhya Pradesh’s total of 182 for 6 was set up primarily by a blistering half-century from opener Naman Ojha: he scored at a rate of 220, hitting six fours and six sixes in his knock of 66 off 30. The rest of the line-up contributed handy cameos. That Madhya Pradesh did not go past 200 was down to tidy spells from spinners Karan Sharma and Shreyas Khanolkar, who claimed four wickets for 50 runs in their eight overs. In reply, Railways were tottering at 6 for 3 after two overs before steady contributions from the middle order got the chase back on track. In the end, Jalaj Saxena’s run out of Ashish Yadav proved to be a big moment, as he had smacked 47 off 20 balls up to that point and looked good to power Railways home.

Scorecard
Middlesex were in sight of victory and promotion at the end of the third day of their County Championship Division Two match against Leicestershire at Grace Road. Gareth Berg hit a career-best unbeaten 130 as Middlesex totalled 502 to secure a first-innings lead of 183 runs.Then their bowlers took over leaving Leicestershire tottering on 222 for 7 by the close. Tim Murtagh dismissed both Leicestershire openers in his first two overs before offspinner Ollie Rayner took three for 32 as the home side crumbled in the evening session despite half-centuries from Greg Smith and James Taylor.Middlesex now look set to clinch the victory that would send them up as Division Two champions. They began the day at 401 for 8 and added another 101 runs in 19 overs with Berg and Murtagh sharing a record ninth-wicket partnership of 172.It beat the previous best of 160 set by Patsy Hendren and Jack Durston against Essex at Leyton in 1927. The runs came quickly against some erratic Leicestershire bowling with Berg reaching the second century of his career off 122 balls with three sixes and 11 fours.Murtagh also enjoyed himself cracking nine boundaries on the way to his first half-century of the season. He finally succumbed, edging a delivery from Wayne White that provided wicket-keeper Ned Eckersley with his sixth catch of the innings, one short of the record held by Neil Burns against Somerset 10 years ago.With a lead of 183 Middlesex made immediate inroads into Leicestershire’s second innings with openers Matt Boyce and Will Jones back in the pavilion in less than three overs for the second time in the match. After striking two crisp fours in Murtagh’s first over Boyce was out lbw to the final delivery.Jones, out for a duck in the first innings, managed two runs before he too was trapped lbw by Murtagh leaving Leicestershire at 11 for 2. But a battling third-wicket stand of 121 in 34 overs between Smith and Taylor put the break on Middlesex’s progress.The two of them showed plenty of determination and concentration with Smith reaching his second half-century of the game with a glorious off-driven boundary against Steven Crook. Taylor also went to his 50 off 89 balls with six boundaries and the pair of them finally began to give Leicestershire some hope of staging a fight back.But Smith was then trapped lbw by a quicker delivery from Jamie Dalrymple for 58 and although Taylor continued to look in good form wickets began falling at the other end.Having reached 80 Taylor edged a short pitch delivery from Crook through to the wicket-keeper and Rayner bagged the wickets of Jacques Du Toit, White and Rob Taylor as the home side lost four wickets for 35 runs in the final session.

Shakib Al Hasan, who was axed as Bangladesh captain on Monday, has said that though he was surprised by the decision, it wasn’t entirely unexpected. Both Shakib and vice-captain Tamim Iqbal were stripped of their leadership posts by the Bangladesh board after the team’s defeat in both the Test and the one-day series in Zimbabwe last month.”I am surprised by the sudden decision but I am not shocked. I can take things easy which is my strength,” Shakib told the Dhaka-based newspaper . “The board definitely took this decision for betterment of the game, so I must accept it.”Shakib, 25, has been Bangladesh’s captain for two years, except for brief spells when the frequently injured fast bowler Mashrafe Mortaza took charge. Shakib was named captain for 2011 after leading the side to an impressive 4-0 one-day series win over New Zealand at home and following it up with a victory over Zimbabwe late last year.It hasn’t been a smooth ride for Shakib as captain. In December 2010, soon after he was named full-time captain, he complained that he wasn’t prepared for the job and that he was not getting a free hand in selecting the team. He also demanded a long run as captain and didn’t want to take over on a “series-by-series” basis as the board wanted him to. He also had a strained relationship with the new selection panel headed by former captain Akram Khan, with Shakib saying he wasn’t consulted when the side to tour Zimbabwe was picked, while Akram insisted Shakib was.The controversies and the loss to Zimbabwe, a team which was making its return to the Test arena after five years, seem to have led to Shakib’s sacking. “As a captain I must take the responsibility for the poor showing in Zimbabwe,” he said. “But still I believe that we had lack of preparation and that was one of the main reasons behind the debacle.”Shakib said the board needs to investigate the reasons behind the Zimbabwe failure. “You see in our country everywhere we make someone scapegoat for any failure because we don’t want to dig deep to find out the real problem and this is no exception,” he said. “This is our system. We always try to solve problems casually.”No replacements have yet been named for Shakib and Tamim.

Former Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik has been included in the squad for the upcoming tour of Zimbabwe. Malik, who was cleared by the PCB’s integrity committee last week, was originally named in the list of standbys for the tour with his inclusion subject to clearance from the board.”His name was already in the reserve list of players for the tour and the PCB integrity committee cleared him last week,” Mohsin Khan, the chairman of the selection committee, said. “After discussions with the team management everyone agreed that with his experience the team would be further strengthened.”Malik, who last played for Pakistan during their controversial tour of England last summer, was involved in a battle with the PCB, whose integrity committee had previously not cleared him for selection since that England tour. The key point of contention was the nature of certain deposits in Malik’s overseas bank account, but the PCB, when announcing his clearance on Friday, said that he was able to provide evidence that the deposits did not originate from any questionable source or activity.Though he was not cleared to play for Pakistan, Malik has been playing domestic cricket. He was the second-highest run-getter in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Division One last season, with 799 runs at an average of 73.57. He also featured for Sialkot Stallions in the recently-completed Faysal Bank Super Eight T20 Cup.Malik, 29, has played 32 Tests and 192 ODIs for Pakistan averaging a shade over 33 with the bat in both formats. He has picked up 21 wickets in Tests and 134 in ODIs, and has also played 32 Twenty20 internationals. He has captained Pakistan in three Tests, 36 ODIs and 17 Twenty20s.Malik said he is looking forward to what could be his best years as a batsman. “I feel that I can play cricket for another six to eight years. I have been training hard and practising with intensity,” he told . “From 29 onwards, the next six or seven years are the best years for a batsman, where you can apply your experience and what you have learnt. I’m at that stage now. What’s happened is history now, it’s time to move on, look forward.”However, he is not considering another stint as captain. “I’m not thinking about captaincy at all,” Malik said. “I just want to see my name in the starting XI. I am just thinking about playing good cricket and giving 100% in all facets of the game. This time around, I want to ensure that I am more consistent for Pakistan.”Shoaib’s inclusion will bolster the strength of the team,” coach Waqar Younis said. “He has lots of cricket left in him and its good that he is again available to play for Pakistan.”Pakistan play one Test, three ODIs and two Twenty20 games against Zimbabwe, kicking off their tour with a two-day warm up game against a Zimbabwe XI from August 28 in Bulawayo.

ScorecardHolland were denied the opportunity to push for a second win in as many days in the Clydesdale Bank 40 when their clash with Worcestershire in Rotterdam was washed out.Heavy rain in Hazelaarweg meant the Group A game was called off shortly after midday, meaning both teams pick up a point apiece. The Dutch will be disappointed to have not been able to take the field after their 40-run victory over Kent on home soil on Sunday.Peter Borren’s side have won three of their eight fixtures, while Worcestershire prop up the rest in the standings having won just once in six outings in the competition this season.

Sri Lanka fast bowler Lasith Malinga has turned down offers to play Twenty20 cricket in South Africa and Australia – including the Big Bash League – in order to focus on his upcoming national limited-overs assignments.”It would have been great fun to play in the new Big Bash,” Malinga said, “but representing Sri Lanka remains my priority in the year ahead and I want to make sure I am as fit as possible.” Malinga recently retired from Test cricket because of a long-standing knee problem. Four Australian and two South African franchises had reportedly expressed interest in signing on Malinga, who plays for Mumbai Indians in the IPL.Australia tour Sri Lanka in August-September this year, where they will play two T20s and five ODIs ahead of the Test series. Sri Lanka then travel to South Africa where they play five ODIs in January next year before heading to Australia for the Commonwealth Bank series. The BBL is scheduled to begin in the middle of December.”Lasith’s had several expressions of interest to play T20 cricket for franchises in Australia and South Africa,” Charlie Austin, Malinga’s manager said, “but he wants to manage his workload carefully ahead of a busy winter for Sri Lanka including tours to South Africa and Australia.”If he played in Australia he would be playing non-stop from mid-December to mid-March and that would be a risk given his degenerative knee condition.Sri Lanka are currently touring England, where, after the completion of the ongoing Test series, they are scheduled to play five ODIs and one Twenty20 game. They then head to Scotland to play two ODIs againsts the hosts and Ireland