Inzamam-ul-Haq, former Pakistan captain, wants to play Test matches for some more time before retiring “in an honourable manner.”Inzamam retired from ODIs after a disastrous World Cup and resigned from the Test captaincy. The PCB is expected to leave out Inzamam from its list of centrally-contracted players, on the basis that he is no longer an ODI player. Further, sounds coming out of the board and selection committee suggest that it may be difficult for Inzamam to find a way back into the team.”I am not going to play for long but I do want to play a few more Tests as I think I can still contribute to Pakistan cricket,” Inzamam said at a function where he was feted for his contribution to the game.”I don’t understand why they (selectors) keep on saying things about my form and fitness. Obviously if I am not fit or not in form I myself will not make myself available for selection,” Inzamam said.”But the selectors should not make such a big issue of these things. I want to play Test matches but honourably and I also want to finally retire in an honourable manner,” he added.Tauqir Zia, the former board chairman, at the same function reminded Inzamam that every player had to go someday, mindful perhaps that few Pakistan players have ever left the game graciously.”What I would advise Inzamam is to accept whatever the board and selectors decide for him. What they decide, will be in the national interest and their decision must be accepted sportingly by him,” Tauqir said.Inzamam, who has played 119 Tests and 378 One-day Internationals (ODIs) for Pakistan, ruled out reversing his retirement from ODIs and said once a player retired, he should stay retired.”It is never easy for a professional cricketer, who has represented his country for 17 years, to forget the past and adopt a new lifestyle. But I have taken my decision on one-dayers,” he said.

Dav Whatmore arrives in Pakistan on Wednesday hoping to push further his credentials as the next coach of Pakistan. Whatmore will be interviewed by the PCB on Thursday as a potential candidate for the position, the third Australian the board has interviewed this week.Earlier in the week, Richard Done, the ICC high-performance manager and former New South Wales fast bowler, and Geoff Lawson, former Test cricketer, were also interviewed. Lawson yesterday visited the national team’s conditioning camp currently underway in Abbottabad, meeting with senior players and officials.One of the three will become Pakistan’s coach though Zakir Khan, director operations PCB and a member of the three-man committee to find a coach, stressed again the decision will not be taken in haste.Khan didn’t confirm that an appointment will be made by July 1, the date set by chairman Nasim Ashraf, to announce a new coach to succeed the late Bob Woolmer. “It is premature to give an exact date right now. After the interviews of the three, our committee will compile a report and present our choice to the chairman, who will take it to the ad-hoc committee. Only then will a decision be made,” Khan told Cricinfo.The board has been tight-lipped about its preferences from the three in recent days. Khan said that the interviews had gone well and that all three had excellent qualifications. “They were shortlisted because of their qualifications and on the basis of past achievements.”Until recently, Whatmore was understood to be the board’s top choice, the only hitch being his interest in the position of India coach. With that now out of the way, the path appears clear for Whatmore to take over. But the board is said to be impressed by Done as well, and he would seemingly fit in with some officials’ wishes that the new coach be a low-key personality willing to prove himself internationally with Pakistan.Meanwhile Javed Miandad, former captain and three-time coach, continued his criticism of the board’s policy for selecting a coach by pointing out that Lawson had not officially applied for the position.Miandad disagreed with the board’s decision to publicly advertise the vacancy and invite applications arguing that no coach of substance would apply in such a way. Lawson made clear before arriving in Pakistan that the board had contacted him and not the other way round.Miandad told , “Now I ask the PCB: where does it stand? Instead of considering the applications of those candidates who have applied for the post, it is contacting those who did not apply.”

Hampshire have beaten off competition from Glamorgan to sign West Indies pace bowler Daren Powell. The deal is subject to approval from the West Indies board, but he is expected to be available for the County Championship match against Durham starting on July 20 and his stay would include the Friends Provident final in August.Powell was one of the key performers during West Indies one-day series win against England, taking 4 for 40 in the deciding match at Trent Bridge, and will join up with Hampshire after completing the quadrangular series in Ireland.”We are delighted to sign an international bowler who’s shown some great qualities in the West Indies tour,” said Hampshire’s team manager Paul Terry. “He’ll add depth and extra fire power to the squad. He’s keen, enthusiastic and willing to come and learn from county cricket, so hopefully it’s set for a win win situation.”Shane Warne, Hampshire’s captain, had initially hoped that Stuart Clark would return following a successful early-season spell, but he is committed to Australia ahead of the Twenty20 World Championships.

Guyana successfully defended their West Indies Under-19 Challenge three-day title after a four-wicket win over Barbados at Cayon, St Kitts in the final round of matches. Trinidad and Tobago had to settle for a draw against the Leeward Islands at Conaree to seal a third-place finish.Guyana reached their target of 174 an hour after tea to complete their successful title defence after they won the tournament at home last year. Barbados, continuing from their overnight position of 232 for 9, were dismissed for 245 in their second innings shortly after the resumption.At Conaree, Kieron Powell and Sherwin Peters both reached three figures as the Leewards batted the entire day to finish at 346 for 3, after starting the day at 107 for 1, 84 runs ahead in the second innings. Powell hit 103 in 267 minutes from 192 balls including nine fours and one six while Peters stroked an unbeaten 101 in 361 minutes, from 310 balls with 11 fours. The two shared a second-wicket stand of 110.T&T finished third in the tournament with 27 points while the Leewards finished one from bottom with 18. Jamaica took second spot, Barbados were fourth and the Windwards finished sixth and last.

Kenya’s ambitions to bridge the gap between themselves and the Full Member countries have been dealt a blow by the news that Roger Harper will not be renewing his contract as coach after the ICC World Twenty20.Harper took charge in January 2006 and has had considerable success in rebuilding a side that hardly played in the previous three years. In February this year Kenya won the World League Division One, a success which earned them a place in the ICC World Twenty20. The Kenyan side has also become far more disciplined in his time at the helm.Harper turned down an invitation to continue because of family commitments in the Caribbean.”Roger has been a truly marvellous ambassador for the game of cricket,” Samir Inamdar, Cricket Kenya’s chairman, told Cricinfo. “His steadying influence at a time when our cricket was in pieces has been an outstanding feature of his stay here. It has, I believe, succeeded in bringing our national team together into a cohesive and disciplined unit.”Kenya will look to fill the vacancy immediately after the tournament. Harper’s successor will be appointed for the period ending June 2009.

Nasser Hussain, the former England captain turned TV commentator, has criticised the appointment of Hugh Morris and Mike Gatting as the ECB’s new managing directors.In his Daily Mail column, Hussain accused the ECB of not searching “beyond their backyard” and of indulging in a jobs-for-the-boys approach.”As a member of the group put together under Ken Schofield’s chairmanship to look into English cricket, I feel a sense of huge disappointment,” Hussain wrote. “It smacks of jobs for the boys, of the ECB being desperate not to rock the boat nor bring in anyone who might question how they do things. They just want to retain the status quo.”It was not our brief to find the right people, merely to put down guidelines. But I saw this as a fantastic opportunity for our game to bring in new people with exciting ideas.”Maybe the right type of people did not apply, but were enough efforts made to find the right people? Did a head-hunter seek out the very best talent before reaching the conclusion that Morris and Gatting were the best way forward? I would like an explanation.

Hussain warned that England need someone who will do his job rather than be preoccupied with not losing it. He also said that Gatting and Morris were from a different generation to the current players and that the ECB would have better advised to go with someone younger.”Mark Ramprakash would have been ideal in this job,” he said. “I know that he still has ambitions to reach a hundred centuries and maybe even play for England again. But he is someone who knows all about the domestic and international games and the difficulty in bridging the gap between one and the other. He is also young enough to be in touch with how the game is evolving.”And Hussain concluded with a warning about another area covered by the Schofield Report. “One opportunity appears to have been wasted … will the next one, a chance to reinvigorate selection, go the same way?”

Ricky Ponting claims Sreesanth “chirped” at up to five Australian batsmen while he was 12th man in the fourth ODI and the captain is disappointed match officials have not taken action. Sreesanth denied he had clapped in the face of Andrew Symonds after he was dismissed in Chandigarh, but Ponting outlined more of the strange antics from a player not involved in the match.”It was disappointing the other day to see that happening,” Ponting said in the Sydney Morning Herald. “He chirped me on the way out to bat, as well. When I got a chance to ask him about it when he ran a drink out later on, he ran away and said he wasn’t talking to me at all. He said he was talking to someone else.”Ponting said Sreesanth’s comments came when he was passing Australian batsmen who were coming off the ground. “It happened probably four or five times the other day when we lost wickets,” he said. “But what can you do about it if the authorities aren’t going to do anything about it?”Chris Broad, the match referee, has said he was unaware of any incident involving Sreesanth and Ponting warned the bowler about his behaviour backfiring. “He is doing it for a purpose because he wants a response and we are all aware of it,” Ponting told AAP. “I don’t mind it because generally when our guys get their backs up about something like that, generally our best cricket comes out.”The thing that disappointed us most about it the other day was that it was someone who was not playing the game, so you don’t have any chance to get revenge on him during the game. As we have said all along, we have a few months of cricket left to play against these guys and he is well … if he does actually get picked again, be a big part of that.”

In the end the prospect of Mark Ramprakash’s return to international cricket proved a fraction too fanciful for the England selectors, but while his name may have been absent from the 15-man squad that was announced for the tour of Sri Lanka next month, Graeme Swann’s was very much in situ. At the age of 28, and with seven-and-a-half years on the clock since his last appearance in an England Test squad, Swann’s rehabilitation as an England cricketer is more than enough to satisfy the romantics.He’s not the first to have been brought in from the cold – his county colleague, Ryan Sidebottom, spent six years on the sidelines until his recall last summer – but he is perhaps the most notable. He was just 20 years old when he was named in Duncan Fletcher’s very first squad, to South Africa in 1999-2000, and there he festered on the sidelines for three months, getting under his coach’s skin to such an extent that – after a solitary wicketless ODI – he was banished for the remainder of Fletcher’s reign.After his one-day recall last month, however, Swann didn’t remain wicketless for long. Seven key scalps in four games, and vital runs to boot, made his selection for the Test squad a no-brainer. With the hamstring tear that curtailed that trip recovering well, he is ready to resume a spin-bowling partnership with Monty Panesar that began during his Northamptonshire days.”We played together literally five or six times,” said Swann. “Monty at that time was the third spinner behind myself and Jason Brown. He won a game off his own back but he was still very raw – he’d bowl four unplayable balls [an over] and two terrible ones. Thankfully for English cricket those terrible balls have disappeared. His bowling has gone from strength to strength and it would be nice to bowl with him now.”Much the same can be said for Swann’s own bowling. Though he has never bettered the haul of 57 wickets in the 1999 season that earned him selection for Fletcher’s maiden tour, he considers himself a far superior bowler in his second coming as an international player.”I sometimes look back and wonder how [I took wickets], but people hadn’t seen me and didn’t know anything about me,” he said. “I bowled some dangerous balls but a lot of rubbish as well that picked up wickets. I think you find out the more you play and people know you, those rubbish balls go for four and six, rather than get caught at midwicket.”Panesar will begin the Test series as England’s No. 1 spin option, but Swann firmly feels he’s in with a chance of selection. But if he does have to sit on the sidelines, he has the valuable lesson of 1999-2000 to help him through the frustrations. “The main thing I’ve learned is you’ve got to be a lot more humble playing the game of cricket,” he said. “As a cocksure 19-year-old with the world at my feet, I look back now and realise I wasn’t good enough to play international cricket then. These past seven years have given me the experience and skills needed to be a success at international level.”In Swann’s own opinion, his ostracism from the England set-up was harsh but fair. “I didn’t perform well enough at county level after I got back, and if I’d been a selector I wouldn’t have picked myself either,” he said. “I like to think I’ve earned a place more than I did as a 19-year old, when I was handed it on the back of half a good season and a couple of good one-day games. Now I’ve had a couple of good seasons and performed well in all areas, which stands me in good stead.”As an offspinner, Swann’s move to the seam-friendly Trent Bridge perhaps stunted his wicket-taking impact but it has encouraged him to develop his allround game. But there is one ally at Nottinghamshire who he’ll be very glad to have on tour with him. His left-arm colleague Sidebottom, whose followthrough creates some very handy rough on an offspinner’s length. With Chaminda Vaas also set to feature highly in the series, Swann is licking his lips at the possibilities.”In the first game at Dambulla I bowled from the same end [as Sidebottom], and my first ball turned six to ten inches,” said Swann. “But you take any help you can get, you’d be daft not to. I’m more effective as a spin bowler if there’s rough on the wicket, so if Ryan and Chaminda both play, then there’ll be all sorts of mess outside the righthander’s off stump.”Come what may, Swann clearly recognises his role as an ambassador for county cricket. “I’ve been playing [in the Championship] for seven or eight years, and I’ve warranted selection,” he said. “There are some superb cricketers out there who are also good enough to play. There’ll be some people thinking: ‘How the hell’s he there?’, but there’ll also be some thinking: ‘Let’s emulate what he’s done.'””I’m going out there hoping to play,” he said. “Judging by the wickets we played on in the one-dayers, I’d like to think there’d be two spinners [involved]. I’d like to rekindle that partnership with Monty that was at a very embryonic stage at Northampton, and see where’s it’s progressed to.”

The inquest into the death of former Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer entered its seventh week with coroner Patrick Murphy summarising the statements of five more witnesses on Monday. Murphy had been unwell last week and unable to complete his summary.The inquest in Kingston, Jamaica, heard evidence from 57 witnesses and statements from seven other persons. The 11-member jury is expected to deliver its verdict within this week. In the event of the jury failing to agree, the court would accept a majority verdict.Woolmer died hours after he was found unconscious in his Jamaica hotel room on March 18, a day after Pakistan suffered a humiliating defeat to Ireland at the World Cup. Dr Ere Seshaiah, the government pathologist who conducted the post mortem, declared that Woolmer was murdered but three independent pathologists all concluded later that Woolmer died due to natural causes.

As the final session of a gripping Test match unfolded, Michael Vaughan allowed his thoughts to drift back to the last time England were in Kandy. Then, as now, a great escape had been in the offing, as England ground agonisingly towards sunset, the only thing that could spare them from their Muralitharan-induced fate. They managed it on that occasion, inching across the line with three wickets still in hand. This time they were not so fortunate, slumping to defeat with approximately 20 minutes of serviceable daylight still remaining.It was a gut-wrenching result for a side that had grabbed the ascendancy with five cheap wickets on the first morning of the match. But by the time an immobile Matthew Hoggard had his stumps detonated by a Lasith Malinga yorker, England had long since relinquished their superiority. “Gameplans, gameplans,” had been the mantra in the build-up to this Test, but regardless of the guts displayed by Ian Bell and Matt Prior in an uplifting 109-run stand for the seventh wicket, England’s naivety was their defining characteristic.Even Vaughan accepted that to be the case. “I can’t ask any more in terms of character and fight, just a little bit more expertise I guess,” he admitted after the match. This is Vaughan’s third visit to Sri Lanka, but never has he come here as part of such an inexperienced squad. In 2000-01, he was the rookie as Nasser Hussain’s generation achieved their defining result, and three years later, many of the same characters were still on show, particularly among the batsmen.This time, there are just three veterans in a squad of 16, which has meant a lot of learning-on-the-hoof out in the middle – particularly, and predictably, against Muralitharan. On England’s last visit, it was his newly acquired doosra that ultimately did for the visitors, but now – having reclaimed his world record from Shane Warne – he seems to have adopted some of Warne’s kidology as well. Like Warne and his mythical zooter, Murali’s deadliest weapon in this match turned out to be the offspinner that didn’t actually spin.England did astonishingly well to repel Murali for as long as they did. For 32 overs he toiled without reward, on a track that he had predicted – through decades of cricket on his home ground – would get slower and lower as the match progressed. England’s batsmen did as they had done four years earlier, and rocked onto the back foot to watch the slow snaking of the old ball right onto the middle of their bats.But the defining moment of the day came when Jayawardene called for the new ball. At a subconscious level, England’s incumbents, Bell and Prior, possibly believed they had done what Collingwood and Sidebottom managed in the first innings, and repelled the threat at least temporarily. Not a bit of it. Murali continued unchanged with a shiny, hard ball in his fingers, and within 14 deliveries he’d wrecked England’s hopes with both the big wickets. The doosra did for Prior and the offbreak for Bell, but neither ripped as they had been doing all day long. Instead they bounced and almost seamed, much in the manner that Anil Kumble has collected his tally of 578 wickets.”That’s why he’s a world-champion performer,” said Vaughan. “At six-down after lunch, we were realistically looking at losing mid-afternoon. But the way those guys played Murali, and the way they played the reversing ball, they showed a hell of a lot of character. We played him well for most of the day, but when you’ve got bowlers like him in your armoury it only takes a split second to change the game. That’s the mystery of the guy and it makes him so difficult to face.”For Bell, the failure to close out the game will have been particularly galling. The extent of his talent as a batsman is no longer in question. He is beginning to rack up runs against all opponents and in all conditions. But it is as if he has yet to receive the advice that Kumar Sangakkara spoke of after his massive performance in Sri Lanka’s second innings – the obligation to see your innings right through to the end. When Vaughan suggested that the turning point of the match had come with England’s failure to build on their start in the first innings, he might have had Bell’s dismissal for 83 at the forefront of his mind. He had played the seamers with such assurance that to hole out off Murali’s bowling seemed a dereliction of duty.Vaughan vowed that England would take this defeat on the chin and move on to Colombo with a positive intent. But the three-day turnaround is going to be an tough one. They are already facing up to the fact that Hoggard is a non-starter because of his back problems, and other problems exist in all facets of their game. Alastair Cook looks horribly out of sorts against the swinging left-arm delivery – a legacy of the working-over he received from Zaheer Khan in the summer – while Monty Panesar seemed palpably unsuited to the pace of this Kandy track. If Murali had to struggle so hard for his breakthroughs, it’s not exactly surprising.As the team boards their bus for Colombo, there’s more to ponder that just a spirit-sapping defeat.