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Cricket Ireland’s chief executive, Warren Deutrom, has said that a decision is likely to be made within the next 24 hours about whether to send a team to Bangladesh for the Under-19 World Cup. Ireland Under-19s have been invited to replace Australia, after they officially pulled out of the tournament due to security concerns.Deutrom said that guidance from both the Irish and UK governments would be central to the decision-making, with Cricket Ireland operating under dual jurisdiction. He described the security plans put forward by the ICC and BCB as “very comprehensive” and said the suggestions from government were that “the risk is outweighed by the mitigation of the risk” but further independent assessments would be sought.

ECB ‘monitoring’ situation

The ECB has confirmed it currently has no plans to withdraw England’s team from the Under-19 World Cup. “As things stand the team is preparing to take part in the tournament but we are continuing to monitor the security environment very closely,” an ECB spokesman said.

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office currently advises on its website of a “high threat from terrorism in Bangladesh” and warns British tourists “to remain vigilant and take appropriate safety precautions”. Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade suggests visitors to Bangladesh “exercise caution”.”From a cricketing perspective, the answer is yes, obviously,” Deutrom said when asked if Ireland would like to send a team. “However our duty of care goes well beyond that for obvious reasons and there is a lot to look into. My feeling at the moment is that the security plan provided by the ICC and the Bangladesh Cricket Board certainly looks very comprehensive; what I’m trying to get my head around is the assessment of that security plan from independent security companies, which is probably of greater interest. Given the short compression of time we have, the more independent eyes we can have on it the better.”The view at the moment from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth office is that the risk is outweighed by the mitigation of the risk. That’s not a ‘Yes, definitely go’, it’s more of, there is a risk – there’s a heightened risk in every country around the world and it’s a question of how well is that risk going to be mitigated. Certainly the impression is that the level of security being afforded to the Under-19s is the same level that would be applied to a senior World Cup, such as the World T20 in 2014. There were some security concerns I seem to recall even in advance of that and it went off without incident.”Obviously there are no guarantees in any walk of life, it’s simply a question of, on balance, what is the expert advice telling you? At the moment that would appear to be: proceed. However, I’m still waiting for a couple of other bits of information which due diligence suggests if important to wait for before making a recommendation to the board.”Ireland had been on standby over the possibility of being called into the tournament but there is only a short window in which to arrange their participation, with the World Cup due to begin on January 27. Ireland originally missed out on a place after finishing second to Nepal at the ICC Qualifier last October.Confirming player availability at such short notice may be a major hurdle, Deutrom said he had already fielded enquiries “from players, parents and staff members” wanting to know what was going on. Cricket Ireland has been working in conjunction with the ECB and Cricket Scotland, both of whom are currently expected to send teams to Bangladesh.”We only got the official notification yesterday afternoon, so I’m busily trying to read myself into the brief, trying to make the logistical plans that we can work behind the scenes to get us into position, whereby if we do press the button we’ll be ready to go,” Deutrom said. “We’re dealing with a number of enquiries, from players, parents and staff members, all saying what’s happening.”There’s an awful lot to digest in a short period of time from a security perspective, we’ve got to deal with our government. Because we’re a dual jurisdiction body we also have to engage with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, although we can actually do that via the ECB and Cricket Scotland, who have been extremely helpful and provided us with the intelligence they have. We’ve been doing our own independent security assessments and we’ve got to speak to our insurers and that’s before we even look at things such as selection – are the players even available, provision of kit, visas.”

ScorecardFile photo: Tagenarine Chanderpaul struck an important second-innings fifty in Guyana’s victory•WICB Media

Gudakesh Moti, the left-arm spinner who made his first-class debut only a month ago, has taken a fourth five-wicket haul in five matches to entrench Guyana atop the Regional 4-day Tournament points table for 2015-16. He bowled 23.3 overs, allowed a meager 33 runs, and snatched up six wickets to hand Jamaica their second loss of the season, by 117 runs at Sabina Park.Fourth-innings chases are invariably tough, but the hosts’ battling line-up did not do themselves any favours. They had already been bundled out for 146 in their first innings, which was the major reason for their target being 326. In the second innings, as many as six batsmen faced more than fifty balls each, but none of them could reach a score of fifty. That is not to slight the increased determination. Tamar Lambert made 30 off 128, debutant Rovman Powell spent over two hours at the crease for his 23 and Jamaica batted out more than 100 overs in search of the draw, but it wasn’t to be as Motie broke through. The 20-year old dismissed the final six batsmen, including Lambert and Powell to become the top wicket-taker in the competition.That mantle had been with Jamaica’s own left-arm spinner Nikita Miller only a few days ago. He had taken 6 for 46 off 26 overs to restrict Guyana to 189 in their first innings, and claim the top spot. Motie only got one wicket off 11 overs on his first try, but Jamaica didn’t have it much easier as his left-arm team-mate Veerasammy Permaul spun them out with 5 for 25 in 22. 5 overs, an economy rate of 1.09.Guyana claimed a lead of 43, then Tagenarine Chanderpaul became the only batsman with a substantial score in the entire match, a situation his father Shivnarine has come across many a time. Tagenarine made 81 off 249 balls and, with handy contributions down the order, pushed the lead past 300.
ScorecardA string of top-order fifties from Trinidad & Tobago beat a string of lower-order fifties from Windward Islands for the first-innings points in St Lucia.T&T won the toss and their bowlers put on a strong show to reduce Windward Islands to 76 for 5. Then came the rally with Andre Fletcher digging in for 63 off 159 balls and offspinner Shane Shillingford eventually outscoring him with 64 off 161 balls. No. 10 Mervyn Matthew chipped in with 48 runs, including seven fours to drag Windward Islands to 306.T&T had help from the lower order too – No. 10 Marlon Richards whacked 60 off 58 balls with five sixes – but their total of 382 was set up by No. 3 Yannic Cariah’s 70 off 216 balls and middle-order batsman Yannick Ottley’s 99 off 218 balls, with 12 fours. They took a lead of 76 runs, and the subsequent seven points that came with it. Left-arm fast bowler Kevin McClean took 4 for 66.Windward Islands then batted out 81.4 overs and were at 189 for 8 when the match came to a close. It was a slow moving draw, with the run-rate less than three in all three innings Devon Smith made 56 off 186 balls at the top of the line-up and Shillingford again showed his capability to bat by spending 94 balls at the crease for his 34, which included 4 sixes.

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Westley-Bopara partnership tests Australia attack

It has not taken long for the first parallel with 2005’s storied Ashes series to arrive. A decade after a young Alastair Cook smote the Australians to all parts of Chelmsford, another youthful Essex opener in Tom Westley did much the same to humble a strong touring attack on the second day of their final tour match before the first Investec Test in Cardiff.The comparisons do not stop at Westley’s free scoring either. The bowler to bear the brunt of most punishment was Nathan Lyon, just as Stuart MacGill had been belted by Cook 10 years before. And the batsman who accompanied Westley for much of his afternoon jaunt was the same man who had partnered Cook – none other than the enigmatic Ravi Bopara.Cook is known to rate Westley highly, and his aggression – perhaps the by-product of a career where he has been most successful in Twenty20 matches and less so at first-class level – gave the tourists plenty of food for thought. By day’s end edges were flying through vacant spaces that would earlier have played host to slip fielders, underlining how the mood had changed.In all it was a somewhat sobering experience for Michael Clarke’s team, as neither Mitchell Starc nor Josh Hazlewood could find the cutting edge that had them slicing through West Indies more or less at will in the Caribbean. Starc started with a dirty wide after appearing to get his spikes stuck in a foothole, and Hazlewood was tidy without overly threatening. As the day drew to a close Starc went around the wicket to swerve through Westley and the nightwatchman Jamie Porter, but it had been a long wait.Of all the bowlers it was actually the venerable pair of Peter Siddle and Shane Watson who looked most capable, using their English experience to good effect. Siddle is considered the reserve pacemen behind Starc, Hazlewood, Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris, but the latter’s persistent knee pain means the Victorian is now very much in contention for Test match duty.Watson, of course, had plenty of reason to bowl well, having been stretched for his spot by the brazen batting of Mitchell Marsh, who went on in the morning to 169 before losing his off stump to Matt Salisbury. Pointedly, Clarke turned to Marsh before Watson, but the younger man’s overs were expensive, with three no-balls suggesting he was straining for effect.When introduced to the attack a few overs later for his first bowling of the tour, Watson maintained a nagging line while swinging the ball away – he certainly asked more questions than Marsh and provided a reminder of why two of his three five-wicket hauls in Tests have come in England, against Pakistan during a short series in 2010.Lyon was less able to control the scoring, finding himself set upon by Westley almost from the moment he was called into the attack. The pitch offered little by way of bounce or turn, but it was still somewhat unnerving for the Australians to see Lyon attacked without mercy, ending his first spell with the figures of 5-0-54-0. If later spells were less expensive with a more circumspect field, they were seldom dangerous. A missed stumping by Peter Nevill when Bopara had 35 would have done little to enhance Lyon’s mood.There is little question about Lyon’s place, for he bowled neatly in the West Indies and if anything has put more space between himself and the wrist spinner Fawad Ahmed since the pair flew out together with the rest of the squad in May. The sight of Fawad bowling at a sponsor’s cap placed on a good length during the tea break suggested unhappiness with his consistency – it is reasonable to suggest that both tweakers could benefit from the presence of the absent Cricket Australia spin consultant John Davison.As also demonstrated by a similarly proactive innings by Daniel Bell-Drummond at Canterbury last week, Westley showed that Australia’s strong bowling attack can be reduced in stature by brave batting with intelligent, calculated risks. Whether the sort of freedom Westley showed in 2015, or Cook in 2005, can be replicated under the harsh glare of a Test match spotlight is a question still to be asked.

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Lancashire may have had a wry smile when the fixture list pitted them back at The Oval, the scene of their heartbreaking 25-run defeat last September which handed Sussex the Championship title, for the first match of this season. They weren’t grinning, however, as Mark Ramprakash added to the twin centuries he scored in that game with his 98th first-class hundred as Surrey motored to 242 for 2 and overshadowed the return of Andrew Flintoff.For Ramprakash it was as though 2007 had never finished, but he should have been marching off with a duck. The over after Flintoff struck with his 20th ball Ramprakash edged the lively Oliver Newby behind, but Luke Sutton could only palm a regulation chance through the slips. There will have been a feeling of déjà vu in the Lancashire camp; during the match last September they had a chance to remove Ramprakash twice in single figures. History repeated itself when Ramprakash, on 24, pushed the ball towards mid-off and set off for a single before slipping mid-pitch. Flintoff collected, turned but missed his shy at the non-striker’s end with Ramprakash stranded.From then on it felt inevitable that Ramprakash would reach three figures, and the second half of his innings was markedly quicker. He brought up the hundred off 164 balls with a meaty pull through midwicket. It was just one of a string of imperious shots with his driving a stand-out feature. Before this game Ramprakash spoke about a couple of soft dismissals he’d suffered in pre-season and how it warned him to keep working. Faced with the first real serious challenge of the season it was enough to focus the mind.However, regardless of how many runs Ramprakash makes – and today’s came in front of Geoff Miller, the national selector – an England recall seems to have passed him by. Miller, though, was really here to watch Flintoff, playing his first first-class match since last August and he produced spells of five and four overs before bad light cut short his third stint. Play had been delayed by two hours by heavy overnight rain, but the surface was unaffected and Mark Butcher was happy to bat.Flintoff came on in the 13th over and worked up a decent head of steam from the Pavilion End on a typically true Oval pitch, following through nicely and getting the ball carrying to Sutton at waist height. His first spell ended with the impressive figures of 5-3-9-1 and he remained the pick of a Lancashire attack that struggled to contain except when Gary Keedy wheeled away from the Vauxhall End.The ball that gave Flintoff his first first-class wicket since August 11 was one of his more undisguised efforts as he dragged the delivery down short. Scott Newman quickly latched on with a pull, but didn’t keep the ball down as it spiralled towards long-leg where Newby sprinted in and held a fine, low catch. Newby had taken the opening wicket in the previous over, trapping Jon Batty lbw with a full delivery.Newby should have also been involved in a third wicket and Lancashire were made to pay for giving Ramprakash a life. Butcher joined in an entertaining third-wicket stand of 186 and was actually the more fluent early on. He crunched a couple of pleasing early drives and reached his half-century off 89 balls. His chance to open the hundred account for the season must wait; Ramprakash has already started and the countdown is on.

Matt Nicholson, the Australian fast bowler, will deputise for Mohammad Asif at Surrey for the first half of the season – and possibly the entire summer.Nicholson took 44 wickets for Surrey last season in the Championship, but with uncertainty over Asif’s involvement, he could play a fuller role than was first anticipated. Asif, the Pakistan fast bowler, will be unavailable until June at the earliest, and his board have also expressed concerns about his workload.”The Pakistan board have said they are not going to allow their quick bowlers to play county cricket, which is understandable as most of their first-choice bowlers are on the sidelines at the moment,” Alan Butcher, the Surrey manager, said.”So while we have a contract, it must be said it’s far from certain that he’ll be able to take up that contract. At the end of last season Matt made it very plain that he’d be delighted to come back and play for us, and I know that everyone in the dressing room is really delighted he will be with us for at least the first part of the season.”I would have no qualms at all if it turned into a full season’s contract.”

Worcestershire have signed Fidel Edwards, the West Indian fast bowler, as their overseas player for the second half of the 2008 season. Edwards is expected to join the club in time for their match against Northamptonshire on July 10, subject to clearance from the West Indies Cricket Board.Worcestershire had failed to sign Shane Bond, the former New Zealand fast bowler, after several weeks of negotiations but are confident in the international experience Edwards brings to the club.”Fidel is an International strike bowler with 30 Test matches under his belt who has the ability to bowl at 90 mph. His pace and aggression will suit Worcestershire for the second half of the season when the wickets have dried out,” Steve Rhodes, Worcestershire’ director of cricket, said. “He is exciting to watch and will add even more venom to our bowling attack.”Edwards, 26, said that playing county cricket had been an ambition for some time, and that he was excited at the opportunity to join the club. “I have heard it is hard work but I like it when I am being tested. It’s going to be a learning experience for me and I am willing to give whatever experience I have gained from playing test cricket. I can’t wait to be there.”Edwards has taken 75 Test and 44 one-day international wickets respectively.

Scorecard Naman Ojha struck his second half-century in the match•PTI

Rajat Patidar’s third century in only his fifth match was the centerpiece of Madhya Pradesh’s batathon that has all but shunted Bengal out of the Ranji Trophy quarter-final. He shared stands of 141 and 114 with Naman Ojha and captain Devendra Bundela as MP stretched their lead to 565 losing only five wickets in the day. The 22-year-old Patidar lasted for over six hours before top-edging a sweep to midwicket off Manoj Tiwary’s part-time offspin.Seamers Ashok Dinda and Sayan Mondal had openers Jalaj Saxena and Aditya Shrivastava caught behind inside 20 overs. Then they would endure a caning from Naman and Patidar for more than 40 overs. Veer Pratap Singh produced a fine inducker to bowl Naman, but Bundela’s arrival resulted in further agony for Bengal. And a few half-chances not going their way didn’t help.Patidar and Bundela’s uppish strokes repeatedly eluded fielders and a flustered Tiwary kept the teapot on for what seemed like forever. Patidar, however, was doing a fine job switching between attack and defence, but never preempted a delivery. To the spin of Pragyan Ojha or Tiwary, he swept with conviction and power forcing Bengal to bring back their overworked seamers. He got to his century in 173 balls.Patidar charged out of his crease repeatedly towards the end of the day, but he didn’t get sucked into being overambitious, even when part-timer Abhimanyu Easwaran was brought on to make him drop his guard. His dismissal then, with a little more than half an hour to go for stumps, appeared an aberration.Dinda flogged himself to the crease for 23 overs and Veer Pratap 18, but they came away with very little reward, tangible or intangible. One of Bengal’s few takeaways was Pragyan reaching the milestone of 400 first-class wickets, when he dismissed Bundela. That neither Pragyan nor his team-mates registered the achievement – let alone celebrate it – told Bengal’s story.

Jason Gillespie is eager to start his Glamorgan career after being granted clearance to play by the ECB following his time in the Indian Cricket League.Gillespie retired from Australian state cricket and took a contract with the ICL, which put his Glamorgan place under threat until he was one of a group of players cleared last week.”It was a great relief to me when I heard that I had got the go-ahead from the ECB to play for Glamorgan this season. I can’t wait to get started,” he told the . “I had spoken to a lot of people like Matt Elliott, Mike Kasprowicz and Jimmy Maher, as well as my former state coach Jeff Hammond [also a former Glamorgan coach] and they all said it’s a great place to come and play cricket.”Gillespie said the chance to join the Ahmedabad Rockets was too good to refuse and he found his spell in India an enjoyable experience. “The opportunity came to play in the ICL and it was something I couldn’t turn down,” he said. “I bowled pretty well but unfortunately the team I played for didn’t get very far in the tournament.”The sponsors were over the moon with the ratings, so I think there is a place for both the IPL and ICL in world cricket,” he said. “We are all cricket people and I’m sure compromises can be made with regards their places in the fixture list.”Gillespie will make his Glamorgan debut against Middlesex at Lord’s, a match that will also see Jamie Dalrymple taking on his former county following his winter move.

Bill Brown, who was the only remaining link to Australia’s pre-World War Two Test era, has died at the age of 95. Brown was the country’s oldest living Test cricketer and the third oldest in the world, and his death leaves only four surviving members of the 1948 Invincibles squad – Arthur Morris, Sam Loxton, Neil Harvey and Ron Hamence. His health had steadily declined in the past few months and he died peacefully at an RSL home in Brisbane’s northern suburbs on Sunday.Although Brown’s career was often overshadowed by his better-known contemporaries – he played with the likes of Don Bradman, Bill Ponsford, Bill Woodfull and Stan McCabe – he was without doubt a first-rate opening batsman. His 22 Tests brought 1592 runs at 46.82 and he was given the honour of captaining Australia for their first Test after the war.He formed a prolific combination with Jack Fingleton and the pair averaged 63.75 in their opening stands in ten Tests. They were at their most damaging on the 1935-36 tour of South Africa, when they compiled three century partnerships including 233 in Cape Town, which remains a record for the first wicket in Australia-South Africa Tests.Brown’s personal pinnacle came at Lord’s on the 1938 Ashes tour, when he carried his bat for an unbeaten 206 in the first televised Test, a match that was also memorable for Wally Hammond’s 240. He had already scored 133 at Trent Bridge and he had such a successful tour that he was second only to Bradman in Australia’s list of aggregates and averages, and his 512 Test runs at 73.14 earned him a Cricketer of the Year award for 1939.A cautious opener, Brown took seriously the job description, which he later summarised as: “Stay there until lunch-time on the first day. The pace you scored at didn’t matter a darn.” His adherence to the team request might not have pleased all the fans, who were often left waiting for the appearance of Bradman at No. 3, but it did satisfy his team-mates and Australia won 14 of the 22 Tests in which Brown played.His three tours to England were all memorable for different reasons – he made his Test debut in 1934 in Nottingham and scored 73, which was followed by his maiden century in the next match at Lord’s. The 1938 visit earned him the honour, and ten years later he returned and at the age of 35 played two Tests during the Invincibles trip.By then his best days were behind him but he went on to play one more Australian summer as the captain of Queensland, his home state. Although he was born in Toowoomba in 1912, Brown had learned his cricket in New South Wales and made his first-class debut there in 1932-33.That was the season of Bodyline and in the lead-up to the fourth Test Brown got a taste of his international future when he played against the tourists for a New South Wales side. Brown, who was only 20, enjoyed the occasion by making 69 when Bradman, Fingleton and Alan Kippax all failed. “The grass looks greener, it’s a lovely day, the sun’s shining, I wouldn’t be anywhere else in the world,” Brown said in later years in the book , recalling how he felt when he discovered England were resting Harold Larwood, Gubby Allen and Bill Voce.”Prior to that I’d been lying in bed at night worrying. I had a fairly heavy bat, you see, and I’d thought, God, I’ll never get this up in time for Larwood, he’ll hit me fair between the eyes and that’ll be the end of me.”During World War II, Brown was an air-force pilot and he spent time serving in Darwin and New Guinea, so his recollections of the conflict were markedly different to those of his team-mate Keith Miller, who flew over Germany. “I class mine as a gentleman’s war,” Brown said. “Never got dirty doing anything.”Brown went on to become a selector for Queensland and Australia during the 1950s, and in later years he was known as a gentleman of Australian cricket and as an entertaining public speaker. He presented Adam Gilchrist and Scott Muller with their baggy-green caps in 1999 and repeated the occasion six years later at the Gabba when Michael Hussey debuted. Brown inherited the mantle as Australia’s oldest living Test cricketer from Bradman and that title has now passed to Hamence, who at 92 is one of the four remaining Invicibles.

Harbhajan Singh has been temporarily suspended from the Indian Premier League following his spat with Sreesanth at the end of the Mumbai-Punjab game in Mohali on Friday.His suspension is pending the inquiry into the incident on Monday, which means he would not be able to play Mumbai’s home match against Deccan Chargers on Sunday.”Based on prima facie video evidence as seen and reviewed by the match adjudicator and referee Farokh Engineer from the tapes provided by Sony & TWI a decision has been reached to suspend Harbhajan Singh pending the inquiry into the incident on Monday, April 28th 2008,” a release from the Indian board said.Engineer will conduct a hearing on April 28 inquiring into the Harbhajan-Sreesanth row in Delhi. Both Harbhajan and Sreesanth will be present and video evidence, if any, will be used during the hearing which will be conducted as per the ICC Code of Conduct.Ratnakar Shetty, the chief administrative officer of the board, said Harbhajan was answerable to both the IPL and the BCCI. “There will be separate inquiries from the IPL and BCCI,” he said.Engineer was the match referee of the game between the Kings XI Punjab and the Mumbai Indians, after the completion of which Harbhajan allegedly slapped Sreesanth, reducing him to tears on the field. Although both players sought to play down the incident, the Punjab team lodged a formal complaint against Harbhajan Singh to the BCCI. The Indian board took a serious view of the incident and asked him submit his explanation before April 28.”The inquiry date has been fixed for Monday in New Delhi. We are not going to sweep things under the carpet. The complaint has to be carefully examined before any decision is made,” Engineer said. “Everything possible will be done to adjudicate it immediately.”The complaint made by the management of the Punjab team has been referred to me by Lalit Modi, chief commissioner of the IPL, for immediate adjudication under the ICC Code of Conduct. I have already started the process and will be summoning all concerned and will also seek any video evidence recorded by the host broadcaster.”Since the process has started I will request the media not to seek any further clarification or information. I will furnish my report to chief commissioner of IPL, keeping in view the ICC code of Conduct and interest of cricket.”The Mumbai Indians are hopeful the issue will be resolved amicably. Reacting to the news that Harbhajan has been temporarily suspended till the hearing on Monday, a top team official of the Mumbai Indians said, “The incident involving Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth of the Kings XI Punjab was most unfortunate.”The [IPL] governing council has set up an adjudication panel to inquire into the incident. The Mumbai Indians are confident that the decision taken by the panel will be in the best interests of cricket and the Indian Premier League.”IS Bindra, the Punjab Cricket Association president, said they would provide logistical support to Engineer to conduct the inquiry. The hearing will take place at the Maurya Sheraton, New Delhi on April 28th, after which Engineer will announce his verdict.