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Wellington Cricket’s draw for the two-day round starting on Saturday is:(Note that in Wellington 4B Grade, 2 games are scheduled in the Hutt Valley due to ground shortages in Wellington)Pearce Cup (11.00); Karori v Naenae, Karori 1; U Valley v Onslow, Delaney 1; EaTawa v U Hutt A Kilbirnie 1; Taita v Petone/Riv, Fraser 1Hazlett Trophy (11.00): North City v Hutt Districts, Linden; Wainui v Easts, B Heath 1; University v J’ville, Kelburn; Colls v U Valley, AndersonSenior 2( 12.00): Brooklyn v Taita, Cobham 1; J’ville v Well Coll, Grenada; Onslow v Karori, Nairnville 1; Hutt Districts v U Valley, Te Whiti 1.Senior 3 (12.00): E’bourne v Colls, H W Shortt; Petone/Riv v University, Petone 1; Karori v Indians, Karori 2; Naenae v Hutt Dists, Naenae 1Womens Senior( 12.30): Easts v Taita, Kilbirnie 3; J’ville v Hutt Dists, Alex Moore; Colls v Onslow, Macalister 2Super 8s Section One (2.00): Taita v Colls, Fraser 3; Naenae v Petone/Riv, Te Whiti 3; J’ville v U Valley, POWSection Two (2.00): Tawa v U Hutt A, Grenada 3A; U Hutt B v University, TMP 3; Wainui v Onslow, R Prouse 3Hutt Valley2A(12.30): Northern Park v Wainui A, Petone 2; U Hutt v Taita Black, TMP 1; Tokelau v Taita Red, Trafalgar; Wainui B v S Valley, R Prouse 12B (12.30): E’bourne v Wainui, Te Whiti 2; Naenae v Trafalgar, Naenae 2; S Valley v Taita Red, Delaney 2; Taita Black v Petone/Riv, Fraser 2; Taita White v U Hutt, Fraser 44A (1.00):U Hutt v Petone/Riv, TMP 2; Hutt Dists v S Valley, Te Whiti 4; Taita v Te Aroha, Fraser 7A4B (1.00): U Hutt v Petone/Riv A, Maidstone; Hutt A v Naenae Soccer, Naenae 3A; Petone/ Riv B v Taita, Petone 4; S Valley v E’bourne, Delaney 3A; Hutt B v Naenae Gold, Petone 34C (1.00): Wainui A vTe Aroha, R Prouse 2; Naenae Green v S Valley, TMP 4; U Hutt v Naenae Silver, TMP 8; Petone/Riv v Wainui B, B Heath 2; Tokelau byeWellington2A(12.30): SLS v Tawa, Kura St; Easts Panthers v Onslow, Kilbirnie 2; Easts Roosters v Colls, Cobham 2; Mana v Univ, Ngatitoa 12B (12.30): Brooklyn v Easts A, Macalister 3; Onslow v Indians, Cobham 3; Easts B v Tawa, Elsdon 1;2C ( 1.00):University v Onslow, Macalister 4; Mana v Tawa , Ngatitoa 3; Colls v Brooklyn, I Galloway 1; Karori bye2D (1.00): Tawa v Indians, Elsdon 2A; Newlands v SLS, I Galloway 2; Easts v Karori., Karori 33A(1.00): Easts A v Newlands, I Galloway 3; Univ A v Univ B, Ben Burn; Brooklyn v Easts B, Churton4A(1.00): Onslow B v Colls A, Liardet; Mana v Thorndon, Ngatitoa 2; Univ v Karori , Grenada 1A; Colls B v Onslow A, Grenada 2A; Easts v Sikhs, I Galloway 44B (1.00): Easts A v Easts B , I Galloway 5; Karori A v Univ B, Te Whiti 6; Onslow A v Colls, I Galloway 7; Univ A v Tawa, C Creek; J’ville A v Karori B, Fraser 6A; Onslow B v J’ville B, I Galloway 6

Shoaib Akhtar is confident that all the hullabaloo over his action is a thing of the past, and now that he has passed the scrutiny of international umpires, especially the Aussie Darrell Hair, in Bangladesh and here in Sharjah, there is no further need to talk about it.

Shoaib Akhtar Photo © CricInfo

“Forget about my action, let us get on with the game,” Shoaib said, feeling supremely confident that he had left the controversy behind him. “I’ve been through three examinations by the University of Western Australia’s department of Human Movement, and in each of their reports they’ve said that it is the overextension of the arms and joints which creates the illusion. And the ICC’s circulation of that report has helped my case,” he added, displaying the overextension in both his arms for the benefit of the journalists present at the briefing.He felt reassured because his manager [Yawar Saeed] had spoken to Hair after the second Test against the West Indies, and there was no report against his action. As for Michael Holding helping him, he said he didn’t go through the modification programme because there was nothing to modify.”I’ve never modified my action… It cannot be modified,” Shoaib said. Talking about Holding’s suggestions to him on the nets here, he said that the former West Indian pace ace had pointed out that his left arm was falling away. Holding’s advice was to keep it straight and close to his body, which Holding thought would add to his pace and momentum.”Mr Holding is a very senior cricketer and when he says something, one has to listen to him”, Shoaib said.That was routine stuff compared to the shocking statement that he had never tried to cross the 100-mile barrier. Having captured the imagination of cricketing aficionados all over the world with his express pace in the 1999 World Cup, at around 97 mph, Shoaib had bowled the second fastest recorded delivery after Jeff Thomson’s 99-mile thunderbolt in the late 1970s. Afterwards, he was blamed for sacrificing the team’s interest for personal glory by aiming for the 100-mile mark at the expense of accuracy.But Akhtar, having been through a long and tedious rehabilitation programme after a variety of injuries which resulted from his body not standing his relentless quest for pace, has obviously learnt his lessons. He is consistently more accurate now than he has ever been in his career, and is taking wickets as well.”Now I’m aiming to contribute to the team’s cause. It’s too early for me to think of 350 or 450 wickets. I don’t have such thoughts. I just want to take wickets, and even if I take two or three wickets in every innings, I want them to help the team, to come at a juncture when the team benefits,” he said.He especially thanked the PCB and its chairman, Lt. Gen. Tauqir Zia for standing by him through a very difficult period in his career, when he struggled with twin problems of a spate of injuries and unending controversy regarding his action. “There was nothing personal in it. The PCB chairman thought that I’m an asset to for the Pakistan team, and that is why he backed me up. I am really grateful for all the support that I got from him and the Board”, said Akhtar.

Mumbai were held to a draw by Maharashtra on Thursday at Nehru Stadium, Pune, inthe Vijay Merchant Trophy West Zone League for the Under 16s.Electing to bat after winning the toss Mumbai made 300 all out in their firstinnings. Opening batsman SO Kukreja scored a stroke filled 113 that included 13boundaries to hold the Mumbai innings together. Mumbai innings was propped up byHN Shah who made 45 coming low in the order. PP More and A Sondkar picked upthree wickets each. Arif Sansara with 6/48 helped Mumbai shoot out Maharashtrafor 170 in 86.2 overs. Yogesh Takwale was the best of the batsmen with 62 (8fours). At close of play Mumbai were 133/4 in their second innings. SwapnojThankur made 46 with the help of 9 boundaries. Mumbai took home five points toMaharashtra’s three, thanks to their first innings lead.

Scorecardhttps://www.espncricinfo.com/county-championship-div2-2015/engine/match/804403.html”Ben Duckett’s impressive form continued as he took Northamptonshire into the lead•Getty Images

Kent’s woeful batting display ensured that the opening day of their 164th Canterbury Week – the world’s oldest domestic cricket festival – will not linger long in the memory as visitors Northamptonshire bossed proceedings from start until stumps.After dismissing their LV= Championship second division hosts inside two sessions for a paltry 167, Northamptonshire went in at the close sitting pretty on 172 for 2 after only 44 overs of their reply and with a lead of five going into the second day.Having arrived in the hop county less than fresh from an overnight coach from Northampton following Monday night’s Royal London Cup win over Somerset at Wantage Road, the visitors made light of their fatigue and losing the toss to dominate all three sessions.Despite resting four major players, Northamptonshire looked the fresher and brighter of the two sides from ball one and Kent were made to pay.Kent’s rout started in the first over of the match when Daniel Bell-Drummond marked his 22nd birthday with a fourth-ball duck. Though he survived two leg before shouts, he pushed hard at an Olly Stone leg-cutter and nicked it low to Richard Levi who clung on to a low chance at second slip.Conditions worsened, but few anticipated the mini collapse that saw Kent lose three wickets for one run in the space of 10 deliveries following the introduction of Maurice Chambers at the Pavilion End.The former Essex paceman accounted for Rob Key, then, to the next delivery, Sam Northeast shouldered arms to lose his off stump for a duck. Ben Harmison was also trying to withdraw the bat in the next over from Azharullah, but only succeeded in deflecting the ball onto the stumps to go for 1.Joe Denly and Darren Stevens dug in either side of the break with Denly reaching an attractive 68-ball half-century with nine fours, but with his side’s score on 83 Denly departed and the remaining home batters were unable to even double the total thereafter.Five balls after posting his 50 Denly played across one from the impressive Stone to go lbw and four runs later Sam Billings swished across the line of a full ball to go lbw to the same bowler.After a scratchy start Stevens punished anything loose to reach 34 before he miscued an over-ambitious drive on the up into the hands of Rob Keogh at extra cover before James Tredwell and Matt Coles went cheaply to leave Calum Haggett to save face with a valiant 49 off 75 balls.In a mammoth 44-over final session Northamptonshire’s top order proved there were no demons in the pitch as they cantered along at over 3.5 an over for the loss of only two wickets.Kent made their first breakthrough with 105 on the board when David Murphy miscued a leg-side clip against Tredwell to midwicket for 42, but at the other end Ben Duckett cantered to a 36-ball half-century with 10 boundaries.He lost third-wicket partner Alex Wakely when he feathered a defensive prod against Matt Hunn through to the keeper, but it proved Kent’s final success of the day as Murphy closed six short of a hundred together with Keogh on 11 not out.

Tottenham defender Ben Davies has returned from international duty as a precaution after picking up a minor injury, according to football.london’s Alasdair Gold.

The Lowdown: Davies’ importance to Spurs

The Welshman has become a prominent figure under Antonio Conte’s management, slotting in as the left-sided central defender in Spurs’ back three.

Since the Italian arrived at Hotspur Way in November, the 28-year-old has started all but two matches for the Lilywhites.

Consequently, Davies has been very complimentary of his boss, saying: “To have the opportunity to work under a world class manager is always nice as a player.”

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The Latest: Davies withdraws from Wales squad

Davies withdrew from the Wales squad after playing 90 minutes in his country’s 2-1 win over Austria on Thursday evening. However, Alasdair Gold has now revealed the specifics on his withdrawal, claiming in an article for  football.london that it was due to precautionary measures.

Taking to Twitter, he shared the article and captioned the story: “Good news on Ben Davies it seems.”

In the article, Gold shared that the defender had picked up a minor injury whilst on international duty. Due to feeling tightness in one of his quad muscles, the Wales international returned to Tottenham as a precaution.

As a result, he should be available for Spurs’ upcoming clash against Newcastle on Sunday.

The Verdict: Good news

As Gold put it, this will come as “good news” for Conte, who will presumably slot the left-footer back into that left-sided centre-back position against Newcastle.

In the Lilywhites’ last five Premier League games, Conte’s side have won four and lost one, with the Welshman having nearly played the full 90 minutes on each occasion. To highlight how impressively he has been playing, former Spurs centre-back Michael Dawson said that Davies is “perfect” for the Italian’s system.

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Therefore, given his importance to the Tottenham back line, Conte will be relieved to see the 28-year-old come back from international duty relatively unscathed.

In other news: Pete O’Rourke makes Paulo Dybala to Spurs claim

Haroon Lorgat, the former convenor of Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) selection committee, has been appointed the ICC’s next chief executive officer. Lorgat, 47, will take over from the current CEO, Malcolm Speed, following the ICC Annual Conference, scheduled to take place between June 29 and July 4.Lorgat’s appointment, comes days after Imtiaz Patel, another South African, turned down the ICC’s offer and follows a meeting he had with David Morgan, the ICC’s president-elect, in Pretoria on Wednesday.The appointment was approved by the ICC’s recruitment board, comprising Morgan, the ICC president, Ray Mali, the vice-president, Sharad Pawar and Creagh O’Connor, the chairman of Cricket Australia.Lorgat said he look forward to an “exciting and rewarding journey in a game I have truly loved from a very young age.”He takes over at a time when the game, and the ICC, face several difficult decisions. “I am under no illusion about the challenges that await me but those challenges are also opportunities and I cannot wait to start work at the highest level in such a great game.”Mali expressed his delight at Lorgat’s appointment. “I have worked alongside him for a decade in South African cricket and I have seen first-hand what a great team player he is and that is something that will serve both him and the game extremely well in the years to come.”Lorgat previously held several posts in cricket administration. He was chairman of Western Province Professional Cricket and a board member at Western Province Cricket Association.He also served as a finance committee member for the United Cricket Board of South Africa (1999-2004), was a member of the ICC’s World Cup finance committee (2000-2003), was a board director and treasurer of CSA (2003-2004) and a selector (2001-2003). In 2004, he was appointed as chairman of selectors for CSA, a position he held until 2007.

The one-day series against Pakistan at Abu Dhabi will be Tom Moody’s last as Sri Lanka coach © Getty Images

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has officially launched the recruitment process for a new head coach for the national team, placing an advertisment on their website. Tom Moody’s term as coach ends after the ongoing one-day series against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi.While negotiations continued with former fast bowler Rumesh Ratnayake about the possibility of him assisting during the Bangladesh tour in July, SLC were seeking applications from interested coaches to be submitted by July 1 so they could secure an international coach to prepare the team for the 2011 World Cup.”The suitable candidate should be a Level III qualified coach and should be energetic, organised and highly motivated with excellent communication skills,” the SLC media release said on their website (www.srilankacricket.lk).”The selected individual will be required to train national squads for the participation of tournaments and tours. He will also be required to work at specialised clinics and harness the selected players to be competitive in the international arena and will be responsible for building a winning team.”SLC also sought the help of Moody, who is set to join Western Australia, to headhunt some select coaches.”Tom has come up with a few names and we are also conducting our own research to have an appropriate candidate who can continue the good work Moody has done with the national team so far,” said Jayantha Dharmadasa, the SLC chairman.The early frontrunner for the position, John Wright, apparently ruled himself out. Other interested candidates include Jamie Siddons, Dave Houghton, Greg Shipperd, Terry Oliver, Trevor Bayliss and Graham Ford.Siddons is assistant coach of the Australian team and a senior coach at the Center for Excellence in Brisbane. Houghton, the former Zimbabwe captain, is presently coaching Derbyshire. Shipperd is the coach of Victoria while Oliver had success coaching Queensland. Baylisss made his mark as head coach of New South Wales and Ford who coaches Kent was a former coach of South Africa.

Injured again, Daniel Vettori will fly home to New Zealand to receive treatment on his back © Getty Images

Having taken an age to sign him, it appears likely that Daniel Vettori’s stint with Warwickshire might be limited to just a single match, after it was confirmed today that he is suffering from a stress fracture to his back. He will return to New Zealand to undergo treatment immediately.Vettori, the New Zealand left-arm spinner, bowled 31 overs in Warwickshire’s draw against Middlesex at Lord’s last week, before his back injury flared up again – the same which has dogged his Test career so far.”Dan was looking forward to being part of a successful [Warwickshire] set-up this summer but clearly now he will need to focus his energies on getting healthy,” Mark Greatbatch, director of coaching, said.”We wish him well for a speedy recovery and share his disappointment at having to return home so soon. We all hope it is not too long before he is back in action.”

John Wright finally came out and spoke about things he would have liked done differently © AFP

John Wright, the former Indian coach, has said that the time for honorary selectors may be up, and has urged the Indian board administration to bring in professionals. “I have no problems with the selectors because they’re all trying to do a tough job,” said Wright in a frank interview with . “What I have a problem with is the system, whereby they’re voted in every year and they’re voted in by a geographical region. I don’t think that situation is healthy.”Wright said he had witnessed several passionate selection meetings, and noted that since selectors performed in an honorary capacity, they would be changed often, regardless of whether they were competent or otherwise. This process, he said, had to change because a large part of a team’s showing depended on the actions of the selectors.”Every year, generally, you have a new convenor and a different make-up on your panel, so the continuity is difficult. Sanjay Jagdale has been an outstanding selector and because his time is up he is no longer in that position. That to me just doesn’t make sense.”I feel that the system of picking your national selection panel may have done its course,” he continued, “and I would urge the BCCI to study the situation. I have a personal opinion that it should be a professional position, the way it is in a number of countries. You can have the best coaching system and your best coaches, but if you don’t get your selections right, you’re making it very difficult for yourselves.”Wright added that a selector who toured with the team could help matters, because he would be in a position to interact with the captain and coach on requirements and decisions. As for feedback on players at first-class level, utilising the services of coaches could be helpful. “I think there are some good coaches out there in the first-class system, and they should be used. I hope they establish a pathway for coaching in domestic cricket. There’s a new group coming through, guys like Paras Mhambrey, Venkatesh Prasad, Robin Singh. If you can get a system going where they feel there’s a career there, then that could be helpful.”Wright added that you could not rule entirely out a situation where coaches became surplus to requirement and the team was “taking responsibility for those decisions.”Which leads us to the Ian Chappell situation, where if a captain doesn’t really want anyone else around, then fine.”

Bangladesh have dropped Javed Omar and included three new faces into their one-day international squad to face England.Omar scored only 50 runs in four innings in the recent Test series against England, and he has been replaced by the young and talented Nafis Iqbal, who England know all about already. He gave them the run-around with a stylish 118 for Bangladesh A, and later called the bowling `ordinary’. Iqbal, 18, also captained Bangladesh in the Under-19 World Cup 18 months ago.Meanwhile, Mashrafe Mortaza was forced to pull out after he injured his knee in the second Test at Chittagong and he has been ruled out for five weeks. Anwar Hossain Monir comes in for cover. Jamal Uddin, an offspinner, was called up in place of Enamul Haque Jr while Mohammad Moniruzzaman, a batsman, was also included.Khaled Mahmud has been retained as captain.The three-match series begins at Chittagong on Friday, while the last two matches are day-night games in Dhaka on November 10 and 12.Squad Khaled Mahmud (capt), Habibul Bashar, Khaled Mashud (wkt), Hannan Sarkar, Rajin Saleh, Alok Kapali, Mushfiqur Rahman, Mohammad Rafique, Tapash Baisya, Mohammad Moniruzzaman, Anwar Hussain, Mohammad Jamaluddin, Nafees Iqbal.