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Former Australia Women’s captain Belinda Clark has become only the second woman to be inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame. Joining Clark in the Hall of Fame were former Australia allrounder Alan Davidson, former West Indies fast bowler Curtly Ambrose and the late Australia fast bowler Frederick Spofforth.Clark holds the record for the most matches as captain in the women’s game, and led Australia to victory in the 2005 World Cup. Australia lost only 17 of the 101 games under her leadership. She averaged 45.95 in 15 Tests with a top score of 136. Her ODI figures were better, an average of 47.49 in 118 games. The highlight of her batting career was the unbeaten 229 against Denmark in Mumbai in 1997, which made her the first player, male or female, to score a double-century in one-dayers. Since her retirement in 2005, nobody has beaten her record of 4844 ODI runs in the women’s game.”It is a great honour to be inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame and it has been an amazing five years for women’s cricket globally,” Clark said of her induction. “Recognition of female players in the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame is a great initiative and I am proud to join Rachael Heyhoe-Flint, to become the second female inductee, on a long list of outstanding cricketers.”It means a lot to be recognised by the international organization and I am very proud to be included.”Davidson, Ambrose and Clark will be inducted during the ICC awards in London, while Spofforth will be inducted later next year in a ceremony involving the former fast bowler’s family.

Australian cricket’s newest decision maker, Michael Kasprowicz, joins the Cricket Australia board as an unapologetic advocate of sweeping change to the governance of the game.Kasprowicz is among the most amiable men in cricket, and as a Test match fast bowler was among the most stout hearted and resourceful of practitioners. But he is also a sharp observer and thinker, and little more than three years ago he was out of favour with Cricket Australia as one of the senior players to decamp to the Indian Cricket League.His promotion to the CA board is itself the product of reform, as Queensland Cricket last year revised its constitution to prevent state board members from holding national directorships. Kasprowicz had no hesitation declaring more was needed at CA headquarters.”I don’t think [my views] will change too much,” Kasprowicz told ESPNcricinfo. “At some stages there will be different arguments presented, but one of the big ones is the corporate governance in the game.”Look at what the AFL [Australian football] have done through their consultants in David Crawford and Colin Carter and the way that AFL has just blossomed because of the changes in making an independent commission running the game and looking after the welfare of the game. Now there is a review by Crawford and Carter of cricket, we’re in a position where there are going to be some real benefits for cricket by adopting those kinds of changes.”Walking onto the board from the presidency of the Australian Cricketers Association, Kasprowicz has over the past year augmented his own playing, business and study background with a working knowledge of Australian cricket’s administrative and financial landscape.”One thing I think I can bring to the board is some freshness, freshness of ideas, but also to use the cliché – a blend of youth and experience. That means a lot now,” he said. “In the 19 years I played cricket for Queensland and the years since, being involved as a broadcaster in the commentary box but also as the ACA president, I’ve seen a whole change in Australian cricket. Right from the days when I began to where we are today.”So I’ve been involved with the game the whole way through and I can bring that experience to the board. What I’ve always found is the one thing the game has always had and always needs is passion, passion for the game.”There’s no segment of the cricket community more passionate than the players, the people that have actually represented their state or represented their country because there’s a passion for keeping the game current, keeping it at the top where it needs to be, and that’s what I can certainly bring.”That passion includes T20, but unlike his board predecessor Matthew Hayden, Kasprowicz expressed a more even view of the balance between T20 and the game’s longer forms. Test cricket, he believes, will benefit from new audiences brought to it through T20.”Having played the first season in England when it first came out [in 2003], I’ve been involved in the game and seen where it’s come from,” Kasprowicz said. “I think it’s a wonderful vehicle, a re-branding of the game of cricket and putting it on the shelf to a whole new marketplace. That’s what it is designed to do.”It’s not designed to take over, that’s one thing I don’t think we can do, but what it is going to do is introduce the game to new people, to new customers, so they come along and enjoy the game, enjoy the outing. In that introduction they get to appreciate the skill of the game.”For those lovers of the game of cricket, of which I’m certainly one, we all know the best test of skill in cricket is Test cricket, so ultimately I would hope that [T20 converts] will become customers of the game of cricket in the long term. That’s the challenge cricket has at the moment, is capturing that young market.”Cricket’s task in Australia is to capture the young without losing sight of the old, and Kasprowicz did not hesitate to say the resources provided by former players had been under utilised. As an ICL participant, Kasprowicz was ostracised for some time in a manner similar to Jason Gillespie, and said the loss of that generation of players had contributed greatly to the Australian team’s parlous state today.”Have a look at the times when Australian cricket went through a trough, and how it all correlated to rebel tours, if you like,” Kasprowicz said. “We had World Series Cricket and went through a slump, rebel tours to South Africa and there was a slump, and then all of a sudden IPL/ICL as well.”And I think the reason that happens is you’re still losing your best players but it’s your next rung players, senior players in domestic cricket. I just reckon there’ve been three distinct times when that has happened. The ICL was one of those things where a wealth of experienced players in our domestic game were told not to come back and not to be involved.”One of the greatest resources that our game possesses is the players, and the ex-players as far as experience, coaching and opinions, that’s what we have. From a player’s point of view that’s something that I don’t reckon we’ve captured as well as we could have, or we should.”Kasprowicz has a few plans to re-arrange first but intends to be present at CA’s next board meeting on August 18 and 19, when the findings from the Don Argus-led review into the performance of the Australian team are expected to be tabled.”There’s a number of reviews being conducted at the moment in Australian cricket, one on corporate governance, also the Don Argus cricket review and also one with finances,” Kasprowicz said. “So there’s going to be some findings out of that, and you’d think there’s going to be some good results there and ways to take cricket forward.”

The Pakistan board has been summoned by a Karachi court on July 26 to explain the continued exclusion of legspinner Danish Kaneria from the national team. The summons comes after the first hearing of a legal petition filed by Kaneria at the Sindh High Court on Saturday against the PCB. Kaneria’s lawyer Mohammad Farogh Naseem told that the court also asked PCB officials to not make any defamatory remarks about Kaneria.Kaneria has not been cleared for selection to Pakistan’s Test side since last October when, following the fall-out from the Lord’s spot-fixing scandal and his own entanglement in a corruption case in Essex, the PCB tightened up its anti-corruption programme.Kaneria was Pakistan’s first-choice Test spinner for nearly seven years from 2003, and has played 61 Tests, taking 261 wickets. He has been excluded since last October, when he was withdrawn from the squad to face South Africa the day he was set to depart for the tour.Last year, he was questioned by police in relation to an investigation believed to centre around a Pro40 Essex win against Durham and spot-betting on wides and no-balls during the match, but was not charged.He has been involved in a long battle with the PCB since his exclusion, appearing before its integrity committee, but has failed to convince it despite providing communications from the ICC, Essex police and the county that he was not found guilty of corruption.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsSteven Finn ended with four wickets as England took a narrow lead•Getty Images

Once again the fourth day of a Test ended with the likeliest result being a draw, but after events in Cardiff last week that can’t be taken for granted as England closed with a lead of 156 at Lord’s. They gained a narrow first-innings advantage by bowling Sri Lanka out for 479, in a steadily improving display, then recovered from the early loss of Andrew Strauss for a duck with Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott added 117 for the second wicket.After half of the third day was lost to the weather more overs disappeared on a damp morning, but the Test progressed at a decent pace with the bowlers finally having a say for the first time since the opening exchanges. Sri Lanka lost their last seven wickets for 85 and their game plan had to change from putting pressure on England with a big lead to trying to give themselves a chance of a final-day run chase. However, while Strauss watched his bowlers rip out the visitors in 24 overs in Cardiff he won’t be putting too much on the line here by dangling the carrot.For a moment, though, Sri Lanka were buoyant when they removed Strauss second ball. In overcast conditions Chanaka Welegedara, the left-arm seamer who claimed Strauss lbw in the first innings, swung the first ball past the outside edge before the second was a touch fuller and squared up the batsman to take the back pad. Strauss opted to review the decision, but he was stone dead, completing a poor match with the bat, and it was the 22nd time he’d fallen to a left-arm paceman.Yet nothing knocked Cook and Trott out of their comfort zone as they set about compiling another century partnership. This time Trott was the aggressor, picking off plenty of runs through the leg side and also driving sweetly, during a fifty that took 66 balls. The only time he looked slightly uncomfortable was when Dilhara Fernando went for a short-pitched approach and struck him on the glove. However, it came as almost a shock to see him play over a full delivery from Rangana Herath that took leg stump.That brought in Kevin Pietersen to face the left-arm spinner and his first two defensive shots were cheered by a small crowd. He wasn’t entirely convincing, although a thumping straight drive provided a moment of release, as he survived until the close on 15 off 44 deliveries. Even for a player of Pietersen’s calibre, the small steps are important. Cook, meanwhile, has far fewer concerns and ticked over to fifty from 86 balls and will have his sights set on atoning for his missed ton in the first innings.In the field it was an improved performance from England’s bowlers, but they were still not at their best with plenty of leg-side deliveries giving Matt Prior a huge amount of work and many of the 25 byes weren’t the keeper’s fault. When Sri Lanka were 407 for 6 the home side will have a sensed a more significant lead, but a counter-attacking stand of 57 between Herath and Prasanna Jayawardene ensured the visitors got close before the last four wickets fell for 13.The start was delayed until 1.10pm after morning rain and Sri Lanka resumed with the intention of batting for most of the day, but that became unlikely when Mahela Jayawardene edged to third slip off Steven Finn for 49. Then, like the London buses that fill the roads around Lord’s, England had another wicket almost straight away. Thilan Samaraweera played a horrid flat-footed drive at Chris Tremlett to give Prior a low catch with the bowlers benefiting from finding a fuller length.Farveez Maharoof didn’t last long when he was beaten for pace by Stuart Broad to give him his only wicket of the innings. Sri Lanka, though, played the right way by taking the attack back to England and kept the game moving forward. Prasanna swept Graeme Swann over midwicket for six and Herath swung himself off his feet repeating the dose.Herath finally went for one big hit too many, charging down at Swann and being stumped, and when Prasanna edged a good one from Finn to slip there wasn’t much left in Sri Lanka’s batting. For Finn it was a landmark wicket, his 50th in Tests, overtaking Ian Botham as the youngest Englishman to reach the milestone. Despite problems with consistency, no one can argue his wicket-taking abilities.Finn bombarded Sri Lanka’s tailenders with a series of bouncers – striking Suranga Lakmal flush on the helmet – but it was Swann who wrapped up the innings and Strauss held a superb reflex catch at slip to remove Fernando. The final day will give us an idea of how attacking England are willing to be in the quest for world No. 1 unless Sri Lanka’s bowlers can pull off a surprise.

Pakistan’s National Twenty20 Cup begins in Faisalabad on Friday with Faisalabad Wolves taking on Multan Tigers in the first game followed by Karachi Dolphins versus Rawalpindi Rams under lights.The tournament features the top eight teams from Pakistan’s comprehensive domestic 20-over competition, the 13-team Faysal Bank T20 Cup, and is designed to test the premium Twenty20 talent in the country. The defending champions are Lahore Lions, who play their first game on Saturday against Sialkot Stallions.While Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik, Sohail Tanvir and Mohammad Sami are all captaining sides in the competition, the tournament is still missing some big stars despite Pakistan not having any conflicting international committments. Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq have chosen to play English domestic cricket while Shoaib Akhtar has retired from all forms of the game. Players like Imran Farhat, Danish Kaneria, Faisal Iqbal and Hasan Raza will also miss the tournament, as they are not eligible to play, having represented teams that did not finish in the top eight in the Faysal Bank T-20 Cup last season.Geo Super will be telecasting all the games live in Pakistan.

Sri Lanka’s batting coach Marvan Atapattu has said there is a big gulf between the batting ability of senior batsmen Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene and remaining batsmen in the national side.”Just because a batting coach has been given to a national side it doesn’t mean you are going to be No. 1 tomorrow, “Atapattu told ESPNcricinfo. “We’ve got to work ourselves up and at the same time the batsmen that we have, the two senior-most are one hundred times better than the others. They have been the best for a number of years in the top five.”Atapattu’s first assignment with the team is the tour of England and while he acknowledges there is still “room for improvement” within the Sri Lankan side, he says will look at giving “options” to batsmen to help make them “better players” and work towards “getting their contribution” which is best suited to the team. “What I am focusing on is not to put myself under too much of pressure and more importantly not put too much pressure on the players,”Atapattu, who played 90 Tests and 268 ODIs for Sri Lanka, said it was important to keep a fresh inflow of ideas and constantly innovate to get the best out of the players. “As a unit we’ve got to make the best use of the individuals, to get the best we want and then try and improve the individuals to get the best out of them by way of technique, mental plus skill.”Coaching is not all about how to play a back foot or a forward defence or a cover drive but about knowing somebody’s routines and what is best suited for the individual.”Sri Lanka beat Middlesex by four wickets, in their first tour match. They next play the England Lions in a four-day tour match that begins on Thursday. The first Test against England starts on May 26 in Cardiff.

Match facts

Friday, April 29, Jaipur
Start time 1600 (1030 GMT)Shane Warne v Sachin Tendulkar: Delighting cricket fans since 1992•AFP

Big picture

Just for a moment, abandon all affiliations and consider the sheer magic in the following line: Tendulkar c Dravid b Warne. If that happens, irrespective of the runs against Tendulkar’s name, it will be the most poetic entry to ever make its way into a cricket scorecard. The beauty of the IPL is that it offers the possibility for something this special. The tragedy of Twenty20 is that it offers a really miniscule window of opportunity for the stars to align.
Will Warne get to bowl even a single ball at Tendulkar in Jaipur? Will he entice Tendulkar with loop and guile? Will Tendulkar just play him out and look to go after the faster bowlers? Or will Warne play defensive and bowl outside the leg stump? Will Tendulkar respond with those murderous slog sweeps against the spin, that made headlines when Australia toured India in 1998? Will Tendulkar perish first ball, edging a sharp legbreak, hurtling fast past the lone first slip? Will Dravid leap across and snap it one-handed the way he has done so often to Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh? Even if you are the biggest critic of the IPL, this is not a game you want to miss.And now for a moment, take your minds off the legends who will clash on Friday. The teams are not evenly matched. Mumbai Indians are muscling their way through the group stages, crushing opponents with their unmatched depth. Kochi Tuskers had to play out of their skins to hand them their only defeat, and Rajasthan Royals will have to do likewise if they are to shock Tendulkar’s men. In Shane Watson and Ross Taylor, they have players capable of producing the kind of high-impact performances on which Twenty20 upsets are founded. Johan Botha and Dravid are the prime-movers of the side, soaking the pressure and ensuring things go according to Warne’s grand plans. But if Rajasthan are to make a dent on Mumbai’s record, they will need their unknowns – Siddharth Trivedi, Ajinkya Rahane, Ashok Menaria and co. – to stand up.

Form guide (most recent first)

Mumbai: WWWLW (first in points table)
Rajasthan: WLLLW (fifth in points table)

Team talk

Mumbai might have finally moved past their James Franklin obsession. Davy Jacobs adds spark to balance Sachin Tendulkar’s stability at the top of the order. T Suman might come in for R Sathish, who has struggled to fit with the side’s requirements. Rajasthan are expected to stick to their winning combination.Predict the playing XIs for this match. Play ESPNcricinfo Team selector.

In the spotlight

Ajinkya Rahane, like fellow domestic giant Cheteshwar Pujara, has struggled to make an impact in the IPL. Their teams have also been guilty of wasting their abilities, by pushing them too low down the order. Elsewhere, S Badrinath has been prolific for Chennai thanks to getting opportunities at Nos. 3 and 4. Will Warne promote Rahane against Mumbai, incidentally his Ranji side and former IPL team?Abu Nechim has the ability to surprise batsmen with an extra yard of pace. He also has the knack of producing extra lift from a length. Will Shane Watson look to tame him with his emphatic pull shots?

Prime numbers

• In six matches, Kieron Pollard has got to bat in only three innings, has faced only three balls, and is yet to score his first run
• Shane Warne has moved past Pragyan Ojha and is now second in the all-time highest IPL wicket-takers list. RP Singh, with 56 wickets, is three ahead of him

The chatter

“This will be the first time I’ll play against Sachin. I’ll try to have a word with him. It would be great, if I can pick up some tips from him.”

Having had their World Cup quarter-final spot confirmed by South Africa’s victory over Bangladesh on Saturday, England spent the second half of their weekend at a holding camp in Delhi waiting to see where they would begin their knockout campaign and the identity of the opposition. However, having lived on the edge throughout their campaign, they aren’t really bothered about the finer points.There are two worthwhile comparisons to make surrounding England’s current position. The first is last year’s World Twenty20 when they scrapped out of the group stage after a washout against Ireland, before embarking on five consecutive victories to claim the title in Barbados. Then, going back more than a decade, there are similarities with Australia’s position at the 1999 World Cup.After defeat against Pakistan, at Headingley, they had to win every match to take the title and it was a mission they achieved. As one-day international teams go, this current England unit doesn’t match up against that Australia side, but it’s a valuable lesson in building tournament-winning momentum. One point, though, is undeniable. England are going to have to play much more consistently than over the last month”It’s been pretty incredible, tiring and a little bit frustrating that we haven’t quite put it all together,” Ian Bell said. “We’ve played six games here and still haven’t got it all right at the same time. If we win all three matches, we’ll be able to look back on one of the best [northern hemisphere] winters of all time. Three games, and we can win a World Cup.”Bell believes the fact that the tournament now switches to knockout cricket will suit England, who began their elimination matches earlier than some with the must-win meeting against West Indies. After England’s defeats to Ireland and Bangladesh, talk of tiredness after a hectic six months has been common, but Bell insists there is plenty left in the tank.”We saw that in the last game against the West Indies, that even after a long winter the guys are desperate to keep progressing in this tournament. The belief has always been there, and still is, that we can beat anyone on our day.”In the last 12-18 months, when we’ve had matches we’ve got to win, we’ve come out well. It’s very clear to us what we have to do, and I’m sure there are a lot of teams around that don’t really want to play England – because they don’t quite know what they’re going to get at the minute.”One of the key areas England need to improve is the opening partner for Andrew Strauss. Since Kevin Pietersen was forced home with his hernia, Matt Prior has returned to the role but managed uncertain scores of 15 and 21 in his two innings. The management will be reluctant to make another change, but Bell is a tempting option to partner the consistent Strauss in the quarter-final.”I’d be as keen as anything to do it,” Bell said. “If I had to stay at four and keep to my role for the team, I’m happy to do that as well. It’s something I’ve been asked to do in this World Cup. One of my strengths is going out there and playing spin, so I feel very confident and comfortable batting in that position.”But one of my strengths is in being quite flexible. I haven’t really had one position with England in one-day cricket; I’ve been up and down the order. I’d like to be able to nail one place and stay there for a while. But if I have to move up and down, I’m willing to do that as well.”

Spinners Zulfiqar Babar and Sohaib Maqsood shared seven wickets to seal a 127-run for Baluchistan against Sind at the Lahore City Cricket Association Ground. Set a target of 363, Sind had lost two wickets by stumps at the end of the second day, and on the third, their batsmen, despite getting starts, failed to press on. Six batsmen scored above 20 but the highest among them was Fawad Alam’s 43. Babar, along with the seamers, made timely breakthroughs while Maqsood targetted the tail. Sind were bowled out for 235; not a single stand, despite seven batsmen getting double-figures, reached the 50-mark.

Shahid Afridi wasn’t an entirely happy man after orchestrating “a very bigwin” over Sri Lanka at the R Premadasa, a result likely to havesignificant repercussions on Group A as the tournament progresses.Afridi was at the centre of the triumph, picking up four key wickets asPakistan overcame a late implosion in the field to sneak out with an11-run win. The haul included his 300th ODI wicket, the third Pakistani todo so and only the second player after Sanath Jayasuriya to complete 300wickets and 4000 runs in the format. With nine wickets in two games, he isfor now the leading wicket-taker in the tournament.But Pakistan’s inability to finish off games over the last year hasworried coach Waqar Younis and tonight’s performance, deservedlytriumphant ultimately, would not have eased those concerns. Sri Lanka losttheir top order with less than 100 on the board, so by the 22nd overof the chase, the game seemed done.Pakistan relaxed and proceeded to spill three catches, fluff two stumpingsand miss a host of run-out attempts over the next 20 overs, allowingChamara Silva, Kumar Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews to fight back. Amid thebedlam, they swiftly wasted two referrals and totted up 29 extras andthough Afridi felt that “80%” of the task was done by then, he warned thatimprovement was needed.Shahid Afridi is now the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with nine scalps in two games•AFP

“It’s a very big win for us, beating Sri Lanka before a capacity crowd,their own people and a strong team which has been playing very wellrecently,” Afridi said. “I think when we go ahead in this tournament ourdestination will get tougher and tougher and if we commit the samemistakes, then we will return to Pakistan very soon. We must improve. Ourfielding has been improving since the New Zealand tour, but I don’t knowwhy in this match we dropped catches and failed to take run-out chances.”The win was built on the back of contributions from older players; fiftiesfrom Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan set up the total and two wickets fromShoaib Akhtar, as well as Afridi’s haul, helped defend it. Given the blendof youth and experience in the squad, it was an important contribution.”I’m happy that seniors have taken responsibility,” he said. “Younis andMisbah are the backbone of the team, and it’s important that the captainperforms well as it sets an example for others.”Pakistan have a couple of days off now before their next game againstCanada on March 3, also at the R Premadasa. There are likely to be changesfor that game, to rest some players, but also for strategic reasons.Pakistan took an unchanged line-up into today’s game, which meant theywere using just three specialist bowlers and again not fully exploitingAbdul Razzaq: he faced four balls at the death and bowled five tidy overs.Another specialist bowler is likely to be considered. Misbah also pickedup a hamstring strain during his innings and though it is not thought tobe serious just yet, it might impact on the line-up for the Canada game.”I will sit down and plan, I will take advice from my coach and from mysenior players as it is everyone’s team,” Afridi said. “Winning is veryimportant for us, it is a good habit and we should try to win every matchand play hard with our strength. I think we will give rest to some of ourplayers but definitely we want to win each and every game.”