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Clive Lloyd has resigned from his position as chairman of the Stanford 20/20 Cup board citing concerns over how the future of the tournament affects West Indies cricket. reported that Lloyd’s resignation followed “a very healthy discussion” with Allen Stanford, the Antigua-based Texan billionaire who spent US$41 million to bankroll the recent tournament, but there are rumours that a looming clash between Stanford and the WICB would have put Lloyd in an uncomfortable position.Lloyd is a WICB director and chairman of the board’s cricket committee, but was one of 14 former West Indian legends who worked closely with Stanford to organise the successful tournament. “I have since had time to reflect on the matters which we discussed and, in particular, concerns for the future of West Indies cricket in relation to the Stanford 20/20 tournament,” Lloyd said in a brief letter of resignation.Stanford’s next venture is a US$5 million 20-over match featuring the Stanford SuperStars – 20 of the best players from the tournament – against South Africa in November. However, a possible conflict with the dates for West Indies’ tour of Pakistan overshadowed the announcement. During a press conference to announce the team, Lloyd emphasised that West Indies cricket should always remain the focus and that replacements for those selected for the Pakistan tour would be arranged for.Stanford is believed to have a different opinion. “We cleared all of this with the ICC and with the WICB in terms of having a clear date in November that would not be in conflict,” he said. “We have this in writing from January. The date for the Pakistan tour was announced after we were told that our one night, 20-over match would not be in conflict. I want to make it very clear that, as someone who has now committed US$41 million, that I went into this with a conciliatory tone and attitude with the WICB. I met with Ken Gordon three times. Now it is unfortunate that they scheduled the Pakistan tour to coincide with our 20-over match with South Africa that was previously agreed to.”The Super Stars’ match is scheduled for November 10 in Antigua, while unconfirmed reports indicate that West Indies are due to arrive in Pakistan on November 7 – two days after the Champions Trophy final.

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.

Mashrafe Mortaza, the Bangladesh fast bowler, has replaced Shoaib Akhtar in the Asian squad for the Afro-Asia Cup beginning next month in India. Shoaib had pulled out two days earlier as he failed to recover sufficiently from a knee injury.”We have picked up Mortaza to replace (Shoaib) Akhtar in the Asian squad,” ASM Faruque, member of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) selection committee told Reuters.Mortaza is the second Bangladesh player to make it to the one-day squad after the inclusion of Mohammad Rafique, left-arm spinner. Mortaza is also a part of the Asian Twenty20 international squad for the one-off match on June 5 in Bangalore. He recently won the Man-of-the-Match award in the first Test against India in Chittagong for his first-innings 79.The three-match ODI series gets underway on June 6 in Bangalore, followed by the next two games in Chennai on June 9 and 10 respectively.

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.

Insights

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:

Adam Shantry, the bowling allrounder who was released by Warwickshire at the end of the season, has signed a two-year contract with Glamorgan.”Adam has had limited opportunities in the past few seasons at first-eleven level,” Matthew Maynard, Glamorgan’s manager told the club’s website, “but from speaking to those who have played with, and against, him, Adam is a bowler with great potential.”His left-arm bowling will add further variety to our seam attack, and I’m delighted that Adam has agreed terms with us for the next couple of years.”It is Shantry’s third club in four years, after making his debut for Northamptonshire in 2003 before joining Warwickshire in 2005. Although his opportunities were limited at Edgbaston, he did impress with 5 for 49 against West Indies A in 2006.

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.

Canada have named a 14-man squad for next week’s Americas Under-19regional tournament. They and Bermuda are expected to battle for theWorld Cup spot at stake.Thirteen of the players, including the captain Abishek Krishnamoorthy,are from Ontario, as is vice-captain Khrishna (Chris) Monohar.Jaskeerat Khalon from Alberta is the other member of the squad.Courtney Gonsalves has been coaching the players, assisted by AbdulMajeed and Pubudu Dassanayake. Most have trained in the GreaterToronto Area over the last two weeks, with Maple Leaf CC providingfacilities.Admission is free for all matches.Squad Abishek Krishnamoorthy (capt), Khrishna (Chris) Monohar,Rustrum Bhatti), Usman Iqbal, Riyazkhan Pathan, Arsalan Qadir, PratikPatel, Asif Manjra, Hasan Raza, Kevin James, Majid Usman, RuvinduGunasekera, Khusal Gangopadhyay (all Ontario) and Jaskeerat Khalon(Alberta)

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.”

England 256 for 9 dec and 112 (Arafat 5-31) beat PCB Patron’s XI 211 and 105 (Plunkett 4-16, Giles 4-38) by 52 runs
Scorecard

Ashley Giles and Liam Plunkett dug England out of a great big hole on the final day at Rawalpindi, grabbing four wickets apiece to seal a nervy 52-run victory. Having eased to 50 for 0 in pursuit of 158, the PCB Patron’s XI lost all ten wickets for 55 in the space of 23 overs. It was left to Shaun Udal to complete the formalities after tea, wrapping up the last two wickets to complete a satisfactory bowling workout ahead of the second warm-up match, which begins at Lahore later this week.If the bowlers could be happy with their efforts, however, the same could not be said of the batsmen. Had it not been for the efforts of Marcus Trescothick, who took his match tally to 162 not out with an unbeaten 38 in the second innings, England would have been unable to set the Patron’s XI even the smallest of targets. They had been braced for an embarrassment after resuming on 39 for 6 this morning, but an important eighth-wicket partnership of 56 between Trescothick and Paul Collingwood enabled England to muster a defendable total, and in the event it proved to be more than enough.Thanks to Duncan Fletcher’s pre-match arrangement that all 14 squad members could be used, England’s batting line-up extended way beyond the normal limits. Collingwood and Ian Bell were the overnight incumbents, and both were seeking a big innings to push their claims for a place in the first Test at Multan. Bell, however, cut a sorry figure as Yasir Arafat pinned him on the crease for 1. It was his second failure of the match and, allied to the pair he recorded at The Oval against Australia, it seems increasingly likely to condemn him to the also-rans for this series.The real revelation in this match, however, was Arafat, who completed the impressive match figures of 9 for 76. He hardly needed the assistance of his fielders in producing a performance that recalled the feats of the great Waqar Younis. Seven of his nine victims were bowled, one (Bell) was lbw, and only England’s No. 11, Matthew Hoggard, fell to a catch, at third slip, as he skewed an attempted drive. His two seasons with Scotland have reaped an unremarkable 37 wickets at 29.10, but two days against England could yet have propelled him into the eyes of the Pakistani selectors.

By tea, the Patron’s XI openers, Asher Zaidi and Yasir Hameed, had knocked off 13 of the 158 runs they needed for victory, and when Kevin Pietersen dropped a regulation clip to square-leg when Hameed was on 24, it seemed England would struggle to save face. The pair brought up their fifty partnership in the 14th over, but no sooner had they done so than Giles struck to change the course of the innings.Giles had missed the second day of the match with a stomach upset and had earlier recorded a second-ball duck as England subsided to the wiles of Arafat, but by grabbing two wickets in two balls he turned the Patron’s XI innings on its head. First Hameed clipped a firm chance to a juggling Andrew Strauss at midwicket, and then Giles came round the wicket to trap Bazid Khan first-ball with a quicker delivery (50 for 2).Plunkett entered the attack and sprayed a series of rapid deliveries on both sides of the wicket. But he got it right before the over was out, as Asher chipped a leading edge to James Anderson at mid-on. Three balls later, Asim Kamal flashed hard and was caught by Trescothick at second slip for a duck, and at 65 for 4, the innings was in freefall.Faisal Iqbal didn’t hang around, swishing a rising catch to wicketkeeper Matt Prior, before Giles persuaded Shahzad Malik to chop onto his stumps for 3. Khaled Latif then hoisted a mighty slog straight into the hands of Strauss in the covers, and when the becalmed Misbah-ul-Haq edged Plunkett to Trescothick in the slips for 14, their last recognised batsman had fallen. Plunkett reached tea with the impressive figures of 4 for 13 for five overs, and at 88 for 8, England were just about out of jail.Udal, who had not featured in the first two sessions, then appeared after tea to push his Test claims, and he used his opportunity well, ending the resistance long before the last two wickets could cause England any alarms. It was a mixed performance in a mishmash of a game, and England now travel to Lahore to team up with their two missing talismans, Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison. Perhaps their arrival, and a proper first-class match at Bagh-e-Jinnah, can concentrate a few minds in the England camp.