“I want to be a part of that resurgence. I want to see us get back to the top… It’s so important everyone is involved – the selectors, the public, the administrators, the cricketers – have all got to be moving in the same direction and not fighting each other if we want to move forward…. Who leads the team is not of major importance as long as everybody puts in 100 per cent in a positive manner.”What a difference a week makes.The message from Brian Lara is essentially the same, but how much more encouraging and hopeful were his words in London on Monday compared to the frustration-laced outburst in Kingston mere minutes after his West Indies team had lost the Test and the series to India at Sabina Park.Yet, if the intention was first to violently rock the boat before making it clear he had no intention yet of jumping ship, then the West Indies captain has made his point. The issue now is, will any of it make any difference at the critical decision-making level of the regional administration?As with any other meeting of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), tomorrow’s gathering of members and directors in Barbados is generating considerable speculation as to what visionary, controversial or altogether foolish decisions will be made, especially in the almost immediate aftermath of Lara’s unbridled disaffection with officialdom for their apparent reluctance to give him more direct influence in matters relating to the senior team.Indeed, it is true to say that any one decision by the WICB can generate reactions that are good, bad and indifferent all at the same time, simply because there are so many people with so many different views about what is right, what is wrong and, most importantly it seems, who is to blame for the state of West Indies cricket both on and off the field.The next time you are in the company of cricket fans, just throw out the issue of what is wrong with West Indies cricket and see how many different and highly emotive responses you get, each advocate of whatever issue thoroughly convinced that once so-and-so is done, then it’s only a matter of time before we get back up to the top where we belong.If only it were that easy.

Truth is, as most us really know deep down, there is no quick fix to a very complex and wide-ranging problem, not a foreign coach, not a new captain, not two tearaway fast bowlers, not even the Stanford 20/20.Those diehard believers in the overnight turnaround have now been waiting 11 years since Mark Taylor’s Australians shattered the West Indies aura of invincibility. That’s a long time to be sleeping.Well, it’s about time the Rip van Winkles – from the boardroom to the dressing room to the lunchroom – open their eyes and take in a Caribbean cricket landscape that, in keeping with our general preoccupation with things irrelevant, has only changed superficially in terms of impressive new structures, constant noise and endless partying.If all of this is intended to maximise global exposure and tourist revenue in the aftermath of next year’s World Cup, fine. But what difference will it make to the long-term viability of the game?It is almost impossible not to believe that too many people are directly involved in West Indies cricket primarily for what they can get out of it. No one is suggesting that only generous benefactors and selfless philanthropists should be involved, but unless the key personnel see the bigger picture, all of the selectorial changes here, and grassier pitches there, will make no fundamental difference.Part of that bigger picture is appreciating that they are all parts of the same whole. From the evidence of the wildly inconsistent performances on the field to occasional administrative bungling to the still unsettled relationship between the WICB and the Players’ Association, it is clear that very few are prepared to step out of their own shoes and consider the challenges from different perspectives.Lara’s comments about everyone moving in the same direction and giving a wholehearted effort in a positive manner essentially sums up what should really be done, except that, again, it all comes down to sometimes sacrificing personal ambition for collective gain.The captain is in the fortunate and, to some, enviable position of having achieved almost all that he has ever wanted to on a personal level as a cricketer. Now, with the western horizon drawing ever closer, he feels no sense of real loss in putting a greater focus on being both a mentor to his players and the globally-recognised spokesman on West Indies cricket.But the same cannot be said of so many others in key positions in the regional game who still have axes to grind, people to cut down to size and points to prove, all for the sake of leaving no one in doubt as to really has the power in their hands.That is why, after all the speculation and heated reaction, nothing meaningful will come out of tomorrow’s meeting in Barbados, never mind who has been jettisoned and who is now on board. Like the performances in the recent series, which fuelled hope only to end in disappointment, the to-ing and fro-ing over selectors and directors are just different waves in the same turbulent ocean.It takes real leadership to chart a course to calmer waters.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Mashrafe Mortaza’s career-best figures of 6 for 26 led Bangladesh to a convincing six-wicket win over Kenya to take the series 3-0. Dismissing Kenya for a lowly 118, Bangladesh knocked off the required runs in just 27 overs with Farhad Reza finishing unbeaten on 41, to hand Bangladesh their maiden series victory on foreign soil.After holding their nerve in Sunday’s cliffhanger to secure an unassailable 2-0 lead, it was Mortaza who made the difference between the two sides with a superb spell of economical bowling. Not only was it his first five-wicket haul, but recorded the best figures by a Bangladeshi bowler in one-dayers. He did, though, benefit from the cloudy, overcast conditions and his captain, Khaled Mashud, correctly decided to field. Syed Rasel responded immediately with a full-length inswinger that beat Kennedy Otieno’s floundering attempt to play across the line. After one ball, Kenya were 0 for 1.Maurice Ouma hung around for nearly 45 minutes, clobbering a four in his 14 and putting on a stabilising 35 for the second wicket with Malhar Patel before Mohammad Rafique crept one through his defences. It was the introduction of Mortaza, however, which turned the match Bangladesh’s way as he cut a swathe through Kenya’s middle-order, also snaffling the prize wicket of their captain, Steve Tikolo, for just 14.Tikolo was threatening to break free, too, lofting Mortaza over the covers for a confident four. But his poise got the better of him as Mortaza’s next delivery, angling down the legside, was lazily mistimed to midwicket. It was perhaps a stroke of fortune for Mortaza and he received a further slice of luck when Collins Obuya was adjudged lbw by the umpire, Krishna Hariharan; replays suggested otherwise but, by now, Mortaza was on a roll.With his side capitulating, Thomas Odoyo rightly went on the attack, slog-sweeping Saqibul Hasan over midwicket for a huge six, one of just two in the innings. And while Odoyo cleverly picked up singles to rotate the strike, something his team-mates failed to do, Mortaza enticed him into an injudicious drive, edging it to the wicketkeeper Mashud to hand the bowler his sixth wicket. It was a brilliant spell from Mortaza, bowling his 10 overs and conceding just 26 runs.Bangladesh set off in pursuit of 119 in a hurry with Shahriar Nafees belting four fours in his 18, but Thomas Odoyo removed him to begin a mini-slide. From 38 without loss Bangladesh slipped to 55 for 4. Peter Ongondo took two quick wickets and produced a cracking delivery to remove Mohammad Ashraful, jagging away and rising awkwardly to take the outside edge and hand Steve Tikolo his second comfortable catch at second slip.However, it was too little, too late. Saqibul Hasan and, in particular Reza, batted aggressively for his unbeaten 41 from 48 balls, clobbering seven fours and a six as Bangladesh sailed home with 23 overs to spare.

The hearing for the disciplinary proceedings against Mark Vermeulen, who was banned from all first-class and league cricket in England for 10 years on Wednesday, will take place at Old Trafford on Monday September 18 at 19.30BST. Andrew Fitch-Holland, a barrister and principal with Line & Length Sports Consultants, confirmed Vermeulen will hold a press conference at the conclusion of the hearing.Following a chain of incidents at a Central Lancashire League match between Werneth and Ashton the league imposed the decade-long ban. Yesterday, Fitch-Holland claimed the league thought the batsman had left the country.”Mark Vermeulen learnt of the imposition of this ban from a news story appearing on Cricinfo’s website on September 14th,” the statement read. “Mr. Vermeulen had received no communication from any official of the Central Lancashire League that disciplinary proceedings were being taken against him and therefore was not present when this matter was considered.”We understand that this action was taken in circumstances where the League believed that Mark was no longer in the country, which is not the case. Mark is devastated to find himself in this position and understands that his behaviour at the match in question was far from acceptable. Naturally he wishes to offer his heartfelt apologies not just to those who witnessed the incident, but to the League and his team-mates.”We have been in contact with the League and have made it clear that Mark wishes to have the opportunity to have a personal hearing as a matter of urgency. At the present time we anticipate that such a hearing will now be held within the next few days.”At such a hearing mitigation will be offered in the hope that the League would then be fully aware of all the circumstances surrounding this incident,” the statement continued.”We would expect that any punishment that might be imposed would then be made with all the relevant factors having been properly considered. In that regard we are actively working with the CLL in a spirit of contrite co-operation to resolve this situation as soon as possible.”Click here to see the video of the incident at bbc.co.uk

As the prelude to the domestic season gathers momentum the talk around the circuit is not merely of players moving states and of when foreign cricketers will play in the Ranji Trophy but also of coaching positions up for grabs. Prime among them is the race to be Mumbai coach – currently being contested by Balwinder Sandhu, Jayantilal Kenia and Ashok Mankad. Pravin Amre has been already been appointed as batting coach.The Mumbai Cricket Association confirmed that they had received letters of interest from these three, but equally denied that they had approached any of the candidates – either officially or otherwise.Of the three candidates in the race Sandhu, the former Indian medium-pacer, and Mankad, who had opened the batting for India, have coached Mumbai in the past. Sandhu was coach of the Mumbai team from 1996 to 1998-99. With his specialisation in the bowling side of things, and Amre already in the saddle as batting coach, Sandhu’s case is a strong one. In the period when he oversaw the side, Mumbai won the Ranji trophy once, in 1996-97.Mankad’s tenure began with the 1999-2000 season and lasted till 2001, and he too tasted victory once, in his first year when Sachin Tendulkar scored an epic double-century to brush aside Tamil Nadu in a hotly contested semi-final.Jayantilal, who played one Test for India when he stood in for the injured Sunil Gavaskar in the West Indies in 1971, and eventually ended as a stalwart for Hyderabad, is an outside candidate to win the job. He has coached Vidarbha in the Ranji Trophy, but came to prominence through his involvement in the BCA Mafatlal Scheme that was in place in Mumbai some years ago.If the whispers are to be believed there is also a possibility that the MCA may decide to expand Amre’s role and make him in charge of the team, instead of restricting his expertise to working with the batting side of things. Amre made his debut for Mumbai back in 1986-87, a time when the likes of Sunil Gavaskar were still on the circuit and when Mumbai dominated the Ranji trophy. It is believed that while Amre has enough of the old Mumbai attitude and pedigree he is also in touch with modern coaching methods, and this holds him in good stead.The final decision will be made on August 21 by the Cricket Improvement Committee of the MCA. The committee comprises Sanjay Manjrekar, Raju Kulkarni, Milind Rege, Madhavrao Apte, Sanjay Patil, Shishir Hattangadi. All members of the committee – barring Manjrekar who is out of the country on a commentary assignment – are expected to attend the meeting that will decide who gets the job.

The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) have announced a 20-member squad for three practice matches against international sides in the build-up to the group stages of the Champions Trophy. Nilesh Kulkarni, the left-arm spinner, will lead the side against New Zealand and South Africa on October 11 and 13 respectively while Wasim Jaffer, the Indian opening batsman, will be in charge against Australia on October 15.The squad includes promising middle-order batsman Rohit Sharma, who played in the Challenger Series in Chennai as well as Zaheer Khan, the Indian fast bowler, who has signed up for Mumbai this season. Fast bowler Kshemal Waingankar, who enjoyed a good stint with the Australian Centre of Excellence in the Emerging Players tournament earlier this year has also been included.The selection committee informed that the Mumbai probables for the Ranji Trophy would be named after the practice games. Mumbai’s opening Ranji Trophy game starts on December 1, against Hyderabad.Squad Wasim Jaffer, Vinayak Mane, Nilesh Kulkarni, Rohit Sharma, Nishit Shetty, Bhavin Thakkar, Vinit Indulkar, Amol Muzumdar, Avishkar Salvi, Vinayak Samant, Zaheer Khan, Wilkin Mota, Abhishek Nair, Rajesh Verma, Omkar Gaurav, Praful Waghela, Kshemal Waingankar, Moondeep Mungela, Iqbal Abdullah, Aniket Redkar

Two former Australia spinners who saw Shane Warne bowl earlier this week said his flippers looked dangerous in the lead-up to the Ashes series beginning on November 23. Warne’s shoulder injuries have made him reluctant to bowl his signature ball in recent years.But Warne sent down a series of flippers for Victoria against South Australia at Adelaide Oval last weekend, including one that trapped the tail-ender Paul Rofe lbw. The Victoria selector Ray Bright, the former Australia left-arm orthodox spinner, said in he believed Warne was bowling from his full repertoire for the first time in years.”Obviously his shoulder must be a lot better because I think that’s what has restricted him in recent times – that his shoulder just hasn’t been able to produce the flipper at a speed that’s going to be workable for him at the top level,” he said. “He tried a few others as well, but certainly the one that got Rofe out was the best one that landed. It’s great for him, and great for Australia with the Ashes coming. I’m sure he gives them enough to worry about without the flipper, as we saw last year.”Terry Jenner, who spent time working with Warne before the South Australia game, said Warne’s confidence must be high in the lead-up to the Ashes. “If the flipper’s coming out, it’s a huge bonus because he hasn’t been that confident with it in recent years,” he said. “He’s made it quite clear he has no shoulder problems.”It’s just such a difficult delivery to bowl and when he was young and carefree, it just came in. Then he had a couple of operations and that sort of stuff and he didn’t have the same confidence in the delivery. He’s got confidence in his wrong’un, as well.” Jenner said the flipper would be in the back of the England batsmen’s minds. “If England knows it’s there, they will be looking for it. If you want to play him off the back foot, you can at your peril.”

Liam Plunkett, the England seamer who is touring with the Ashes squad, will be questioned by police on his return in connection with a drink-driving offence.Plunkett, 21, was breathalysed after allegedly crashing his 4×4 into another car outside the Tall Trees nightclub in Yarm, Teesside.Student Russell Cowan, 19, and his girlfriend suffered minor whiplash and their car was written off. A friend of Cowan’s told The Sun newspaper: “The driver of the 4×4 got out and asked if they were all right. He wasn’t hurt but was very apologetic — he was also shocked and upset.Everyone involved was very lucky not to have been badly hurt. The police arrived and must have told him the test had shown he had been drinking, as he started to cry. It wasn’t very nice to see him like that.”Police then took Plunkett away for further tests, but the results were not available before he flew to Australia, and as a result will not be known until he returns in seven weeks time.A police spokesman refused to comment on the incident.

The third Twenty20 Cup gets underway today in Karachi and in the true tradition of modern events, promises to be bigger, better, richer and more glamorous than ever before. If it can match the success of the previous two editions though, it will be a success enough.Sialkot Stallions will be defending the title, having beaten the Faisalabad Wolves, winners of the inaugural title, last year in Karachi. And from the 13 teams competing, the Stallions will be among the favourites again to retain the title. Their line-up is, on paper, the strongest of any, including captain Imran Nazir, Shoaib Malik and left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman. It also boasts the two bowlers who made the difference last year, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Mohammad Asif.The competition might be tougher this year as most teams are able to call on national team players following a directive from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). The only absentee is likely to be Inzamam-ul-Haq, who would’ve captained the Multan Tigers but hasn’t yet fully recovered from a finger injury he sustained during the recent ODI series against West Indies. Mohammad Yousuf will be available to lead the Lahore Lions for preliminary games before he sets off to Saudi Arabia to perform the Muslim pilgrimage of .Nevertheless, a star-studded six-day event awaits, held across three venues in the city and culminating in the final on December 26, at the National Stadium. Shahid Afridi, a Twenty20 player long before the format was conceived, will captain the Karachi Dolphins, no doubt hoping to send a reminder out to national selectors of his ODI value before an important international season. Other big name leaders include Younis Khan, who will be leading the Peshawar Panthers and Shoaib Akhtar who will continue his comeback as captain of the Islamabad Leopards.Entry to the matches, as always is free, though the PCB are keen to avoid a repeat of the chaos that engulfed finals day last year. Then, the final itself was held up for nearly two hours due to crowd trouble in Karachi and the traditional music concert – a Twenty20 staple the world over – had to be cancelled. But a PCB spokesman has confirmed that there will be tighter security this year to avoid the “mishaps from last year.”As well as greater security, there will also be greater rewards. The winners are expected to receive Rs 1 million as prize money this year, almost double the amount from last year. The remaining cash awards, for individual as well as team honours, have received similar boosts. Like last year, the matches are also being telecast live, although this time on a local sports channel.Group A – Faisalabad Wolves, Karachi Dolphins, Lahore Eagles, Abbotabad Rhinos
Group B – Sialkot Stallions, Hyderabad Hawks, Karachi Zebras
Group C – Multan Tigers, Peshawar Panthers, Islamabad Leopards
Group D – Lahore Lions, Rawalpindi Rams, Quetta Bears

Luke Pomersbach is set to make his first-class debut for Western Australia fresh from a century against the England XI last weekend. Pomersbach has been included in the Warriors’ 12-man squad for the Pura Cup match against Tasmania at Hobart starting on Tuesday.He top-scored with 101 not out in the tour match against England and has also impressed in his first two Ford Ranger Cup games this season. Pomersbach will be joined in the squad by Darren Wates and the allrounder David Bandy.Tim Macdonald, Shawn Gillies and Aaron Heal have been left out. Heal can consider himself unlucky – he leads the Western Australia bowling tally in Pura Cup games this season with 16. Bandy and Wates have also been promoted to the Warriors’ FR Cup squad for Sunday’s match against Tasmania. The Tigers have made no changes to their FR Cup squad.Western Australia FR Cup squad Chris Rogers, Luke Ronchi (wk), Shaun Marsh, Adam Voges, Marcus North (capt), Luke Pomersbach, David Bandy, Brad Hogg, Sean Ervine, Darren Wates, Steve Magoffin, Brett Dorey.Western Australia Pura Cup squad Chris Rogers, Clint Heron, Shaun Marsh, Marcus North (capt), Adam Voges, Luke Pomersbach, David Bandy, Luke Ronchi (wk), Brad Hogg, Darren Wates, Steve Magoffin, Ben Edmondson.Tasmania FR Cup squad Michael Di Venuto, Tim Paine (wk), Michael Dighton, Dane Anderson, Travis Birt, George Bailey, Daniel Marsh (capt), Luke Butterworth, Xavier Doherty, Brett Geeves, Adam Griffith, Ben Hilfenhaus.

Kolkata’s Eden Gardens is likely to host the first of the four-match series between India and Sri Lanka on February 8 after it was found that Pune, originally meant to host the match, was facing problems.The Indian board (BCCI) requested the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) to replace Pune as the venue with Eden Gardens as according the board’s rotation policy Kolkata is scheduled to host a match after Pune. Interestingly the request came a day after the CAB elected Prasun Mukherjee, the Kolkata Police Commissioner, as its new president following the resignation of Jagmohan Dalmiya who was banned for life by the BCCI for misuse of funds.Dalmiya and the current BCCI administration had been on opposite sides at the last board elections in which Sharad Pawar, the current president of the BCCI, came to power. The BCCI stopped all subsidies and grants to the CAB after Dalmiya’s alleged misappropriation of funds.Mukherjee confirmed that Shashank Manohar, the BCCI vice-president, had asked the CAB whether they were prepared to host the match and that the CAB had requested the board to forward a formal offer in this regard. “Then we can take a decision,” Mukherjee told PTI. “Time is too short. If we indeed host the match here, then we have to start work on a war footing,” he said. The CAB members met soon after the BCCI forwarded the offer and the association has called for a meeting of its working committee on January 27.Niranjan Shah, the board secretary, added: “As far as I know, the Maharashtra Cricket Association were having some problems with the local corporation, to which the ground belongs. Maybe that has forced the BCCI to ask for a venue change.”Eden Gardens last hosted an ODI in November 2005 when South Africa beat India by 10 wickets.