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Haroon Lorgat, who is set to take over from Malcolm Speed as the ICC chief executive, is open to the idea of revising the Future Tours Programme (FTP) in order to make space for the IPL.”The game is growing and the world is changing,” Lorgat told the . “With the successful introduction of Twenty20 to the calendar, there is more cricket to be played, and as a result the time could come where workloads have to be managed.”The IPL is something that is exciting and can be used to enhance and grow the game around the globe. Cricket is unique in that we have three formats now, and that can be used to attract new fans. If we need to revisit the FTP, we will do that.”The inaugural edition of the IPL will overlap with Australia’s tour of West Indies and New Zealand’s summer in England. “If well managed, I think all three forms of the game are sustainable, Lorgat said. “It’s just about finding the right balance.” Earlier in an interview with Cricinfo, Lorgat had said IPL deserved strong support at the highest level.Meanwhile New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori said though it was unlikely that players would retire to play in the IPL it was difficult to refuse when big offers came one’s way. “I think everybody would like to see some space for the IPL in the FTP,” Vettori told the . “If it is feasible, then it will be great and easy on the players.”But according to a survey by the Australian Cricketers Association, 47% of Cricket Australia -contracted players and 49% of players with state contracts polled said they would consider early retirement to play in an Indian Twenty20 league.

Although still recovering from his recent heart bypass surgery, Reginald Pearman, the Bermuda president, has expressed his disappointment over his country’s three successive defeats to Kenya in the recent one-dayers.”Well as you can imagine I haven’t been much in touch with what went on in Kenya other than getting the news that we lost all three matches,” he told , “and of course that was news that was rather disappointing.”I feel that what the players have to realise is that they have to work harder to acclimatise themselves as quickly as possible when they go to play in other countries. They have to realise that they are on the big stage now and must be prepared for whatever hurdles are placed in front of them.”

El James, the former board president, echoed Pearman’s comments while adding that a level of understanding was needed by the public and media.”The local cricket fraternity has to remember that we are going through something we have never experienced before, the players are going to strange countries far from home, leaving their friends, families and loved ones and eating new foods, adjusting to new surroundings and playing on wickets that are different,” James said, responding to comments made last week by Martin Williamson, Cricinfo’s Managing Editor.”It’s a huge adjustment to their whole lives and it takes a while for them to settle down and deal with these changes – so to be honest it’s unfortunate when a harsh judgement is made,” he said. “We actually need to turn our game around, especially when the thinking of some in the world is that we are going in the opposite direction after qualifying for the World Cup.”We need match-winners – look at Kenya’s Steve Tikolo – he was always playing a spear-header’s role and in return who did we have – nobody really.”We lack a match-winner in bowling and batting, nobody is a threat in these respective departments and this is not good. If we had one or two individuals who can come up with a century and a few fifties and a couple of bowlers who can capture several scalps in a game on a consistent basis then we could look forward to a few successful results. But without any semblance of consistency it’s only going to get harder.”Meanwhile the assistant coach, Herbie Bascome, insists the players desperately need to toughen their resolve mentally if they are to find success.”I definitely feel this team has much more to offer than we’re offering now,” he said. “But what’s happened may have a lot to do with coming to Africa, a different environment, a different culture, because we’re getting more experiences than just cricket,” he said. “The cricket is at the highest level but when you come to Africa you’re coming to a place where you’ve always wanted to visit because you’ve read so much about it. You know, maybe the players weren’t in the right frame of mind to play cricket.”Mentally, if we decide we’re going to play this game we have to get tuned in. The most important thing is being able to think your way out of situations. When we realise the importance of the mental part of the game, then we’ll get better.”

Shane Warne, Hampshire’s captain, made clear his frustration over Kent’s lack of co-operation on the final day of the Championship match at The Rose Bowl.Warne, who is one of the most adventurous county captains, tried to agree a fourth-innings target with Robert Key after rain affected the first two days of the game.”There was a little bit of haggling going on but Keysy didn’t want to know,” said Warne. “We got down to 240 off 65 overs, but they still weren’t interested at all. If I was offered that I’d take it everywhere in the world – no matter what the ground was like – and there was a kiddies’ boundary out there as well.”In the end, Kent were left a far-from-demanding 225 in 48 overs after Warne declared Hampshire’s second innings on 176 for 6. That target was not agreed between the captains. In the end, bad light brought an early end to the match.Warne, however, was clearly irked. “I was disappointed that Kent weren’t really interested in anything – they wanted 60 overs to get 200. I thought we were the only side that really wanted to win the game. Right from ball one I thought they came here with the mentality, their body language and everything, to be very negative about the whole thing. I think they just wanted to come here and basically not lose.”This is not the first time that Warne has been less than impressed with Kent. Last September, he accused David Fulton, Key’s predecessor, of effectively handing Nottinghamshire the Championship title by agreeing to chase 420 at more than six an over. Nottinghamshire won the game, and with it the title, whereas any other result would have set up a decider against Hampshire.

Luke Pomersbach has been ruled out of Western Australia’s Pura Cup match against Victoria after being involved in a car accident on Sunday. Pomersbach is not in hospital but has been rested as a precaution as Western Australia’s medical staff wait for the results of scans to determine the extent of any injuries.The Warriors recalled Clint Heron to replace Pomersbach for the match starting on Thursday at Melbourne. However, Pomersbach could yet be deemed fit to play in next week’s Pura Cup game against South Australia. Western Australia also called on Danny McLauchlan, the uncapped left-arm fast bowler, to boost their attack at the MCG as Brett Dorey continues to recover from a toe injury.McLauchlan, 29, moved to Perth from Sydney at the start of the season in an effort to increase his chances of playing first-class cricket. His nine-wicket match for the Western Australia Second XI last week – including 6 for 111 in the second innings – came on the back of a solid season for his club Scarborough, where he has 42 wickets at 19.70.The Warriors also returned Shaun Marsh to their 12-man squad. The game is a vital one for both teams, with Victoria third and Western Australia fourth on the Pura Cup table and only one match remaining for each side after the MCG clash.Victoria have not yet named their line-up but they will be without Jon Moss, who suffered a thigh strain at training on Thursday and is unable to bowl for two weeks. Moss batted in the FR Cup final on Sunday but Greg Shipperd, the Victoria coach, said he would not be risked this week. “He’s an important part of our team so we can’t take any chances with him,” Shipperd said on the Bushrangers’ website.Western Australia squad Justin Langer (capt), Chris Rogers, David Bandy, Shaun Marsh, Marcus North, Adam Voges, Clint Heron, Luke Ronchi (wk), Aaron Heal, Steve Magoffin, Ben Edmondson, Danny McLauchlan.

The ICC has confirmed that its annual meeting will be moved from Lord’s for the first time in its 99-year history and relocated to Dubai. The switch, revealed by Cricinfo last week, was prompted by uncertainty over whether Zimbabwe’s chairman Peter Chingoka would be able to obtain a UK visa in time as the ICC wanted all representatives to attend.”The annual conference week was originally scheduled to be held at Lord’s in London,” said an ICC statement on Monday. “The decision to move the location to the United Arab Emirates was made by the ICC board on the basis that all delegates required to attend would be permitted entry.” The conference week will take place between June 29 and July 4.There was confusion last week as to whether Chingoka’s visa application to enter the UK been obstructed or if he had actually applied at all. It appears that in fact he had withdrawn his latest application in order to use his passport to travel to India.The board’s president-elect, David Morgan, said on Saturday that Chingoka’s visa had neither been granted nor refused. He added: “The ICC at its last board meeting took a decision that if it wasn’t certain that Mr Chingoka was going to be in possession of a visa by April 15 then the conference week would be relocated from here [Lord’s] to Dubai.”

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has decided to challenge the Pakistan board’s decision to overturn the bans imposed on Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif for testing positive for nandrolone, a banned substance.WADA will approach the Court of Arbitration in Lausanne, Switzerland, and contest the decision on the ground that Pakistan is a full member of the ICC which in turn is a signatory to the anti-doping code laid down by the WADA.Dick Pound, the WADA chairman, said that since both Shoaib and Asif did not ask for their B samples to be tested it meant that they had accepted the result of the initial test. “The Pakistan Cricket Board [PCB] simply did not apply the code,” Pound told BBC Sport.Shoaib and Asif tested positive after an internal dope test was carried out by the Pakistan board just before the Champions Trophy in October. A three-man tribunal banned Shoaib for two years and Asif for one year in November but by December the appeal committee overturned the ban on the ground that neither player had been warned or cautioned against taking supplements.Nasim Ashraf, the PCB chairman, refused to respond saying, “No comment. As far as we are concerned, the matter is now closed.” Pound, responding to a similar comment by Ashraf earlier, said that it was the WADA’s job to monitor compliance with the anti-doping code. “In cases of that nature, there are sanctions that are meant to be applied and in our view they have been improperly applied.”You cannot have in an anti-doping system an individual national federation purporting to act without regard to the rules of the international federation which has adopted the code.”He said that the agency would appeal to the CAS to deal with the case expeditiously but was fairly certain that the two players would get to play in the World Cup in March as such cases took months rather than weeks to be sorted.Pound criticised the ICC for being indecisive about the matter adding that if the WADA managed to contest the ban successfully then it would be considerable embarrassment to the ICC for not acting promptly. “The ICC doesn’t seem to be entirely clear which way it wants to go, so rather than wait and possibly have the thing fall between stools, we’re going to exercise our responsibility under the code – we do not think the proper result has been achieved to date.”

The fate of Chris Cairns will remain in the balance over the weekend after the jury in his perjury trial at Southwark Crown Court were unable to reach a majority verdict before the week’s proceedings were adjourned at 4.30pm on Friday.Cairns, who could face a maximum of seven years in prison if found guilty, must now wait until Monday at the earliest to learn his fate, with more than eight hours of deliberation from the jury having yet to produce an outcome.The defendants, Cairns and Andrew Fitch-Holland, whose charge of perverting the course can only be considered once the principal perjury charge has been resolved, were called back into the dock at 11.44am, but only so that the jury could request that the original requirement of a unanimous verdict be reassessed.Mr Justice Sweeney, the judge, granted the jury permission to return verdicts on which at least 10 of the 12 members agreed after consultation with Sasha Wass QC, the crown prosecutor, and Orlando Pownall QC and Jonathan Laidlaw QC, the respective defence counsels for Cairns and Fitch-Holland.The perjury charge relates to Cairns’ successful 2012 libel action against Lalit Modi at the High Court in London, which arose as a result of a tweet sent by Modi in 2010 accusing Cairns of match-fixing during the now defunct Indian Cricket League.In the course of the libel trial, Cairns stated that he had “never” cheated at cricket, and would never contemplate doing so, a statement that attracted the interests of the Crown Prosecution Service in the wake of leaked testimony given by his former team-mates, Lou Vincent and Brendon McCullum, to the ICC’s anti-corruption and security unit (ACSU).Of the nine witnesses called to give evidence on that count, Mr Justice Sweeney stated that the evidence of two of the three “key” witnesses – Vincent, McCullum and Eleanor Riley, Vincent’s ex-wife – needed to be accepted as true in order for the perjury charge to be upheld.However, he advised caution over the testimony of the first of the witnesses, Vincent, who has already been banned from cricket after admitting to accepting money to under-perform.Although the judge stressed that the jury was under no time pressure to reach a verdict, the prospect of a retrial cannot be ruled out if there is no progress next week.

Trevor Bayliss has been appointed as the new Sri Lanka coach. Bayliss, 44, who succeeds Tom Moody, will begin a two-year term in August after giving up his coaching duties in New South Wales.Jayantha Dharmadasa, president of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), said Bayliss, who was interviewed in Colombo, had made such an impressive presentation that the board had no hesitation in contracting him as the next coach.”Trevor came before a high powered committee comprising Aravinda de Silva, Sidath Wettimuny, Michael Tissera, Anura Tennekoon and Duleep Mendis, who were very impressed with his presentation,” Dharmadasa said.A stroke-playing middle-order batsman and brilliant cover fielder, Bayliss quickly made his mark as the head coach of NSW when he succeeded Steve Rixon three years ago. He became a cricket development officer for the NSW Cricket Association and was a mentor to the second XI for a long time before taking the top job.Kanangan Mathivanan, SLC’s secretary, said: “When we knew how good he was, we signed him up immediately because there are a lot of countries head-hunting for coaches at present.”Mathivanan also stated that a new clause has been included in the contract where either of the parties will have to give three months’ notice if they are quitting or terminating the contract. “We were caught in a tight situation when Moody informed us at the end of the World Cup that he was leaving us. That gave us little breathing space. Fortunately for us we did not have any heavy international commitments at the time.”Bayliss was one of the names suggested to SLC for the position by Moody. The others included Terry Oliver, the Queensland coach, who was also a strong contender. He was interviewed a fortnight ago.SLC’s move to appoint Bayliss so quickly is an interesting development given that Dharmadasa had said last week that his committee was not in a hurry. He will have his first international assignment with the Sri Lanka team when they take part in the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup tournament in South Africa in September.Bayliss becomes the fifth coach from Australia to take charge of Sri Lanka since 1995. Dav Whatmore had two stints with the national side. He was followed by Bruce Yardley, John Dyson and then Tom Moody.Trevor Penney, who was Moody’s assistant, will handle the Sri Lanka team for the series against Bangladesh which starts next week.The board appointed Rumesh Ratnayake, the former Sri Lanka fast bowler, as assistant coach to succeed Penney, whose contract expires in August.

ScorecardAdam Wheater scored his highest T20 score (file photo)•Getty Images

Teenage leg-spinner Mason Crane took 2 for 35 on his full debut to help Hampshire to a seventh straight home victory against Surrey.Crane, who was plucked from taking a five-wicket haul for the second team yesterday to replace the injured Chris Wood in the side, claimed the legendary Kumar Sangakkara as his first professional wicket.Adam Wheater had early struck his highest T20 score of 78, beating his previous best of 36, as Hampshire won by 29 to rekindle their quarter-final hopes.After being put in by Gareth Batty, James Vince brought up the first boundary of the night in the second over by dancing down the wicket and slashing through point, before he followed it up with another four through the same region next ball.Michael Carberry took a liking to James Burke’s short and wayward bowling, dispatching him for four boundaries in a row, before he sliced to Jason Roy at backward point.

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This win has got Hampshire’s season back on track following three consecutive losses. Although debutant Mason Crane played an important role in the win, perhaps the key to Hampshire’s victory lay before a ball had even been bowled – in their team. It would have been easy for Hampshire to have made some sweeping changes in light of three consecutive defeats, to lose patience with a formula that has got them to five consecutive finals days. They didn’t. Only one change was made. Only a couple of counties have named fewer players in their T20 squads than Hampshire this season: familiarity breeds success.

Vince, with Wheater, thwacked a stand of 50 for the second wicket off 23 balls before the skipper edged to Tom Curran at short third man off Zafar Ansari for 31.Wheater kept the score ticking along with his textbook reverse sweeps and straight drives, and he reached a deserved half-century from 29 balls – as he and Owais Shah added 84 for the third wicket.Wicketkeeper Wheater continued his assault of the Surrey bowling and just managed to clear the man on the boundary to hit his only six, but departed soon after for a sweet 78 off 49 balls.Veteran Azhar Mahmood returned the pick of the bowling figures – 2 for 19 – including two in two deliveries in the penultimate over, Shah picking out Roy for 37 before Will Smith came and went.Hampshire ended on 186 for six, and Surrey’s reply started in stuttering style as Jason Roy collected a boundary with typical oomph, but opening partner Curran chipped nervously to Vince at extra cover.Jackson Bird made it two wickets in three Hampshire deliveries to comprehensively bowl England one-day smasher Roy for a subdued nine.Sangakkara and Vikram Solanki, who have a combined age of 76, got the visitors back on track to end the powerplay on 50 for two.Spin sensation Crane excelled in his opening over in first-team cricket with four dots and a tough caught and bowled chance. And the 18-year-old had the moment of his life in his second over when Sri Lankan Test star Sangakkara hit a full toss to a sprawling Joe Gatting.Smith trapped Rory Burns in front in the next over as spin turned the game in Hampshire’s favour. Crane picked up an important second wicket with a guileful leg break which beat the outside of Solanki’s bat before Wheater simply stumped him for 34.Zafar Ansari came and went – smartly snatched behind – as Smith ended with impressive figures of two for 17 – before Danny Briggs got in on the act to see off Ben Foakes.The late wickets of Burke and Mahmood completed the Surrey collapse as Hampshire got their T20 Blast campaign back on track in front of a highest Ageas Bowl crowd for two years.

India and Australia have decided to implement the ICC’s proposed one-day international rule changes for their seven-match series, starting with today’s ODI in Bangalore. The modifications, which were supposed to come into effect from October 1, have been advanced to avoid a mid-series adjustment.In June, the ICC had ruled the following changes in ODI playing conditions: