Pakistan are planning to conduct dope tests on all 30 members of their provisional World Cup squad.The news is not unexpected, after the recent furore surrounding their two fast bowlers, Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Akhtar, who were originally banned from cricket after testing positive for nandrolone, but had their sentences overturned on appeal.According to The Dawn newspaper, the Pakistan Cricket Board has instructed its medical panel to obtain relevant kits from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accredited laboratory in Malaysia.A PCB official said: “Instructions have been issued to the medical panel doctors to prepare for the tests which will be carried out before the World Cup because we don’t want to take any chances before such a major tournament.”Pakistan must submit their final 15-man squad on February 13, but it would only be possible for the tests to be carried out after the team finishes its current tour of South Africa.”But we will get the results before the team leaves for the (World Cup) tournament,” the official continued.”We want to take precautionary measures ourselves and also reaffirm our commitment to a zero-tolerance policy towards any kind of drugs in sports.”The paper also speculates that the PCB might send officials to South Africa to conduct Tests on Akhtar and Asif, due to concerns that nandrolone might remain in their bodies by the time the World Cup is played and they could be targeted for random tests in the tournament by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and WADA agents.

Zimbabwe’s captain Prosper Utseya was impressed by the way his young side leveled their series against Bangladesh with an eight-wicket win at Harare Sports Club.Utseya believes his side are now in an excellent position to overcome their main rivals in the remaining matches after breaking their losing run of 14 games.He made special mention of the two match-winners Vusi Sibanda, who hit an unbeaten 93, and seamer Gary Brent who took four wickets. “That was a very big morale booster for the side and we must keep our guns blazing for the remaining games, we cannot afford to relax,” said Utseya. “Sibanda was outstanding today, as was Brent. But it was essentially an all-round team effort.”Vusi played well up-front, and that is something that has been lacking in our side in the past few games, and it is good that we have our confidence back.”We lost the first game but we came back strongly, showed character and did our homework to correct our mistakes of the past. The trick to winning was that we just stuck to the basics.”Habibul Bashar rued his side’s batting collapse to 153, which left the bowlers with too much to do. “We did not play well enough today and that is why we lost the game. We lost too many wickets in the early stages of the match, we tried all we could but in the end a score of 153 was never going to be enough on that kind of a wicket.”Zimbabwe did well in their bowling today and it is now up to us to do our best in the next game to get a win. We needed to take wickets and get more runs on the board, which today we failed to do.”

Rahul Dravid, the Indian captain, has refused to be drawn in to speculating about the World Cup pitches, most of which have been relaid for the tournament beginning on March 13, and has said that his team was “fully equipped” to deal with any conditions.India, he asserted, were motivated more towards winning their matches. “I don’t want to go there [to the Caribbean] with any pre-conceived ideas that wickets will be slow or fast. I believe that we’ve got the team that can do well in all conditions if we play to our potential,” he told reporters.Dravid said that the Indian team had the talent to take on the big challenge ahead: “Our chances in the World Cup are good. Hope we play to our potential. We have the talent and it’s only a question of our performance now. [The] World Cup is a unique event. If you get on a bit of a roll there you can crack whatever the opposition you are facing like we did the last time. It’s a question of performance in the two months that matters”.Questioned about a certain lackadaisical attitude in the side, Dravid replied: “Honesty is the best way to get the message across to a non-performer. I think we’ve to be honest to people. Not that we’re trying to find a solution for them. We always believe that we try to make every one a better player”.

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A thrilling unbeaten stand of 139 in 18 overs between Kaushal Lokuarachchi and Chamara Kapugedera powered Sri Lanka A to a five-wicket against Bangladesh A at the Colts Ground in Colombo. They were in trouble having lost half their side for 146 in pursuit of 285, but the sixth-wicket pair were so dominant that the winning runs came with 39 balls to spare.After a solid batting effort from Bangladesh, guided by half-centuries from Jahurul Islam and the captain Tushar Imran, Sri Lanka needed a strong start to their chase. Michael Vandort and Dilruwan Perera added 62 for the first wicket in decent time and the total raced to 105 for 1 in the 16th over.Bangladesh then fought back through Farhad Reza, the medium-pacer, who claimed three quick wickets – all lbw – and produced the run out of Perera for 56. Suddenly the momentum had swung, but as quickly as the visitors had gained a foothold they lost it again. Lokuarachchi slammed 11 fours in his 56-ball innings – include four in one over off Reza – while Kapugedera, who missed out on a World Cup place, was slightly more sedate in his vital 63.It had been a day dominated from the start by the bat as the Bangladesh top order set the early running. Islam’s 70 came off 82 balls and Tushar hit four sixes in his run-a-ball 68. But Lokuarachchi claimed three useful wickets with his legspin to keep Sri Lanka in touch; his batting then finished the job in style.

Matthew Hayden’s century against South Africa was so convincing it swayed the people of St Kitts to make him one of their own. Hayden not only left the ground as the fastest scorer of a World Cup hundred, but he was also granted honorary St Kitts citizenship and a life membership of the Royal St Kitts Golf Club.Hayden’s stay on the island lasted one more night as Australia left for Antigua to prepare for the first Super Eight match against West Indies on Tuesday. However, it was a memorable visit after he thrashed to three figures off only 66 balls. Herschelle Gibbs was also given citizenship by the country’s prime minister after the game for his six sixes in an over against The Netherlands.”It is a tremendous honour,” Hayden said in The Australian. “We have really enjoyed our stay here. It is a bit of a bonus.”Hayden’s early burst of 14 fours and four sixes was crucial in setting up Australia’s total of 6 for 377 on the way to an 83-run win, which earned them two points to take into the Super Eights. A year ago Hayden was not part of the one-day side, but after two record-breaking centuries in his past four innings he is an essential member again.Entering the tournament with a broken big toe, Hayden has scores of 60, 29 and 101 to improve on his previous World Cup in 2003. “In the last World Cup we had a lot of great starts, Gilly and I,” he said. “We had solid tournaments without being exceptional. This time we feel much more experienced cricketers and have seen the highs and lows a World Cup can bring, the weight of expectations.” Hayden said he did not handle the extra pressure well last time, when he scored 328 runs.

Sri Lanka’s captain, Mahela Jayawardene, has played down the decision to rest two of his team’s key bowlers during their seven-wicket defeat to Australia. The former World Cup winners, Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan, were both omitted along with the injured spearhead Lasith Malinga, although Jayawardene insisted the decision had been taken for fitness reasons, rather than tactical ones.”Those two guys have been playing throughout,” Jayawardene said, “and Murali has had a problem with his groin as well – he played with a strap for the last two or three games. Once we realised we’d got the semi-final spot, we realised we needed to give these guys a break. Obviously they have had [fitness] problems over the last six to 12 months, so we had to give them a break in the best interests of the team.”After touring New Zealand at the end of last year, Vaas, 33, rested a sore hamstring during Sri Lanka’s recent tour of India and also missed the team’s warm-up matches against Scotland and New Zealand in Barbados. Murali, who turns 35 on Tuesday, has long operated in spite of a shoulder problem. “You have to play at 100% against Australia,” Jayawardene said. “To play at 50 or 60% is no good for them or the team. We took the decision, but if you think that’s a tactical thing, that’s for you to think.”Up to now we have taken every game very seriously, and this game too. We just had to make a team decision. Obviously Australia haven’t [had a chance to see] Vaas and Murali, but we never thought about it like that. We purely wanted to make sure they didn’t burn out before the key matches.”Jayawardene said the players could be rested again when they face Ireland on Wednesday. “If they want to have a go at Ireland – maybe it won’t be that tough a game – they can easily come back into things,” he said. “But if they feel they need another break we will give them one.”Ricky Ponting, Australia’s captain, said that he “didn’t care” what tactics or otherwise Sri Lanka had used, but added that the decision to hide Muralitharan from his batsmen was a strange one. “That’s one thing I don’t understand,” he said. “This was a good opportunity for him to have a crack at our batsmen, but it doesn’t worry our batters at all.”We have played him a lot, and we’ve got lots of footage on him, so we know the way he goes about things. We play him as well as anyone around the world anyway. This would have been a good opportunity for him to get stuck into us and take some wickets.”Ponting did not expect New Zealand to employ similar methods in the teams’ final Super Eights game on Friday. “They’ll want to beat us and we’ll want to beat them,” he said. “They’ve got a good record against us of late, having won the three games in New Zealand just before we came away.”These sorts of conditions suit their game-plan. They’ve got guys who play spin bowling and slower bowling pretty well. They’ve got guys that take the pace off the ball and cut the ball a lot in their bowling options. We’d like to think we can improve in the New Zealand game, win it and go into the semis with a whole lot of momentum behind us.”

John Wright, the former New Zealand opener and India coach, is strongly tipped to become Tim Nielsen’s replacement as the head coach at the Centre of Excellence. reported that Wright was a late entrant in the race for the Brisbane-based role.The paper said that two weeks ago, Cricket Australia (CA) had trimmed their list down to Trevor Bayliss, the New South Wales mentor, and Tim Coyle, who guided Tasmania to the Pura Cup this year. However, Bayliss has reportedly dropped out of the race so he can stay with the Blues, while Coyle was crossed off the list last week.Wright was spotted in Brisbane speaking to CA officials around the time Coyle was eliminated. If he is given the nod, he will also take over as the coach of Australia A.Wright coached Kent from 1997 to 2000 and India from 2000 to 2005. He was considered a candidate for the vacant Pakistan and Sri Lanka positions but has apparently ruled himself out of the race to replace Tom Moody at Sri Lanka.

Cricket Kenya has delayed the national elections by four weeks to July 22 to allow a few outstanding matters to be resolved.The elections were due to be held on June 24 but the issues with the NPCA, allied to the fact that Samir Inamdar, the CK chairman, needs to be in London that weekend for the start of the ICC’s annual get together in London. It is likely that the AGM will amend the requirement for all meetings and elections to be held by June 30 as this almost always clashes with the ICC meeting. It is believed that a date of July 31 will apply from next year.It also emerged that one of the four provinces – Centrals – has been suspended after investigations showed that there was no meaningful cricket being played there. That leaves three main branches – Nairobi, Coast and Rift Valley.At least one of those – the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association – has yet to hold an AGM and present their audited accounts to members which is a requirement before they can take part in national elections.

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Karen Rolton led from the front with an unbeaten 81, but Australia had to repel a fine New Zealand recovery to snatch the Rose Bowl with a two-run victory in Darwin. Australia’s defence of 198 was going well when the visitors were dropped to 6 for 81 by Sarah Andrews and Emma Samson before Nicola Browne intervened.With help from Rachel Priest (33), Brown edged towards the target and by the time she departed for 61 off 76 deliveries they needed 28 from 4.1 overs with two wickets remaining. Helen Watson chipped in with 16 from 19, Sophie Devine scampered to 11 and the No. 11 Sarah Burke reached six, but only a single to midwicket was managed from the last ball when three were needed.Andrews, who delivered the final over, finished with 2 for 34 from ten while the debutant Rene Farrell impressed with 3 for 36 at a tense situation. Australia’s total was set up by the experienced Rolton, who stayed for 115 balls and hit eight fours and a six. She received support from Melissa Bulow’s 41 while Sarah Tsukigawa provided some middle-order damage with 4 for 43.”It’s great to win the series, especially since we’ve had new players come in and with the injuries we’ve had here,” Rolton said. “It’s been good to play against a great team and have these close matches to increase the experience of the players.” The 3-1 result means Sunday’s final fixture will be a dead rubber.Rolton’s knock also made her the second-most prolific batsman in the history of women’s cricket. Rolton, who won the Women’s Player of the Year award at the ICC Awards in Mumbai last November, eclipsed New Zealander Debbie Hockley’s ODI aggregate of 4,064 runs while scoring her unbeaten 81.

Ben Ackland’s unbeaten 71 guided Ireland to a six-wicket win against Scotland in the European Under-19 qualifier in Belfast and helped his side gain a berth in the Under-19 World Cup in Malaysia.Rain reduced the match to 35 overs-a-side and Scotland posted 157, boosted by Calum MacLeod’s 58, a knock which contained eight fours and two sixes. His partnership with Scott MacLennan (36) helped them recover from a shaky start at 47 for 4. Richard Keaveney, Graham McDonnell and captain Greg Thompson claimed three wickets each to bowl out the opposition in 34 overs.Another rain interruption reduced the target to 150 and the overs to 32. Ireland were rocked early in their chase by MacLeod’s double-strike before Ackland and Chris Dougherty combined to add 99 for the third wicket. Ackland’s knock came off 70 balls and included eight fours while Dougherty played the supporting act with a patient 37 off 77 balls which contained two fours.Thompson said that the senior team’s performance in the recent World Cup in the West Indies, qualifying for the Super Eights, impacted the nation’s cricket in a big way.”The seniors made the country proud in the ICC Cricket World Cup in the West Indies which, of course, was a huge motivation for all of us, while at the junior level we have won all the European titles,” Thompson was quoted in a ICC media release. “The team is shaping well and we look to be heading in the right direction.”Ireland have now qualified for their third successive Under-19 World Cup. Scotland, though, still have the chance to qualify for the 16th place. A play-off, at a venue and date to be confirmed next month, will be held between them and the top team in the Asia group, bar Malaysia. As hosts, Malaysia have received an automatic place – to encourage local support.In the third and fourth placed play-off match at Stormont, Netherlands demolished Denmark for 46 and eased to a nine-wicket win. Olivier de Geus and Graeme Davey led the rout with three wickets each in after rain reduced the match to 41 overs-a-side.