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India Under-19 coach Rahul Dravid has said that best message he can give his players heading for the World Cup in Bangladesh is to treat it as a stepping stone on their journey towards the national dressing room. This would be Dravid’s first major assignment in the job, but he is “not trying to win the World Cup” as a coach. Instead, he is focussed on helping the youngsters grow into capable players who can graduate towards playing for the national team in the future.”My message to them is to focus on actually improving, getting better, seeing this as an opportunity to learn and grow as a cricketer, to see this World Cup as another exposure they are getting at a very young age,” Dravid said at the pre-departure media briefing in Mumbai. “They are lucky to get this at a young age. That’s all I tell them about: it is just one step in their journey hopefully as cricketers. Nobody wants to end up being just an Under-19 India cricketer. That is not the aspiration of anybody in that dressing room we are sitting.”According to Dravid, just being consumed by the thought of winning the World Cup would not serve the young players well considering they ought to focus on the long-term goal of working towards earning the Indian cap. “I always keep reminding them there are enough examples of people who go on to play India Under-19, but don’t go on to represent India. Conversely there are very good examples of people who have played at this level and then actually gone on to represent India. The important thing is you have to go on from here, score runs in first-class cricket, score runs in List A games and then get the recognition from the selectors.”As a player himself, Dravid participated in three World Cups with the national team (1999, 2003, 2007), with the last one as captain where India bowed out in the group stages. Dravid emphasised that he was not looking at the Under-19 tournament to cover up for the absence of a World Cup trophy in his career. He pointed out that his impact as a coach would always be limited. Hence it was important the players understood it was for them to work hard and execute the plans drawn by him and his coaching staff comprising Paras Mhambrey (fast bowling coach) and Abhay Sharma (spin bowling coach).”I am not really going into this [tournament thinking] if we win it or if we lose it,” Dravid said. “I know the role of a coach. And I know how much a coach can influence and impact a result. I am realistic about that. I knew how much I could impact the result as a player and I am realistic about how much I can impact the result as a coach. So it is in their hands. It is their opportunity, their team, their World Cup. And it is their opportunity to win the World Cup. Not necessarily mine as a coach really.”I am not trying to win the World Cup as a coach. I am trying to hopefully grow and develop these guys. Winning the Under-19 World Cups is honestly not the be all and end all of anything. In the end I will be happier if some of these guys go on and play for India. That should be their aim and real aspiration.”In the previous edition of the tournament, played in the UAE in 2014, India had finished fifth after failing to make the semi-finals, but had topped Group A with three wins from as many matches. This time Dravid is more confident about what he calls a balanced Indian squad. The other teams in India’s group are New Zealand, Nepal and Ireland, but Dravid pointed out that he would not read too much into the oppositions at this stage.”One of the things about Under-19 [is that] you don’t really know, you don’t have enough knowledge about a lot of Under-19 teams. So I am not really focussed on who we are going to play against. It is really about can we do what we do well. Now I believe there is a lot of talent in the group. We are covered in all departments. We have got good fast bowlers, we have got very good spinners, we have got allrounders, we bat deep upto No. 8. So we have got it all covered. It is about executing our skills and the boys performing under pressure. If they play well and if they perform upto the potential that I have seen over the last two months then I don’t think we need to worry too much what the other teams are like.”India’s 15-member squad will be led by Jharkhand batsman Ishan Kishan. Their first match of the World Cup will be against Ireland on January 28 in Mirpur.

Matthew Hayden has urged Cricket Australia not to adopt a zero-tolerance approach on drugs because he believes the issue needs flexibility. The board is set to announce a new policy and Hayden, who is strongly opposed to drugs in sport, would welcome a “two strikes” rule that would give players one chance at rehabilitation.”I don’t think you can have a zero-tolerance policy on drugs because it’s not as black and white as that,” Hayden told the . “For example, what sort of drugs? Shane Warne was hit with a drugs charge but it was nothing more than a diuretic. Is that the same as Shoaib Akhtar getting caught out with steroids in his system?”There has to be flexibility. When drugs stuff goes public, like Shane went public, he is considered a drug cheat. It is a debate on a human life. I don’t think zero tolerance is the way to go.”The No. 1 aim is to eliminate drugs within any sporting code. As a part of that you have to look at the individual and help them become rehabilitated the most effective and the quickest possible way.”

Ranjan Madugalle, the chief adjudicator in Inzamam-ul-Haq’s ICC hearing, has called for more diplomacy if a situation similar to The Oval Test between England and Pakistan arises again.At the bottom of his lengthy decision Madugalle, who is also the ICC’s chief referee, says that every effort should be made to continue play before the ultimate call to abandon a match is taken. There is a feeling from the Pakistan camp that Darrell Hair was heavy-handed in the way he explained the situation to Inzamam, and his team, at the team interval and would not enter into any discussion.In his judgment Madugalle said: “The umpires would do everything possible to try to defuse tensions in the dressing-room by explaining that a team is entitled to raise any grievance through the ICC but that it is not in their interests, or in the interests of the game, for the team to interrupt play.”And he continued: “The umpires and other officials should do everything possible to ensure the resumption of play. And they should not return to the field of play and then declare the match to be forfeited unless and until they are absolutely sure that the team is refusing to play the rest of the match. All other options should first be exhausted, involving discussions with the team captains and management.”

ScorecardSajeewa Weerakoon, the left-arm spinner, took 4 for 28 to reduce South Africa A to 108 for 6 with an overall lead of just 129 at the Nondescripts Cricket Club Ground in Colombo. Sri Lanka A seized control of the match after conceding a first-innings lead of 21 as they were dismissed for 224.Paul Adams and Monde Zondenki took three wickets each to skittle out Sri Lanka A for 224 after they were 16 for 1 overnight. Kaushal Lokuarachchi remained unbeaten on 53. Ian Daniel (48) and Jehan Mubarak (46) made useful contributions. Thami Tsolekile and Johan Botha will resume the South African innings on the third day.

ScorecardA stubborn innings from Mushfiqur Rahim boosted Bangladesh to 273 on the opening day of their Test match against England U-19 at Taunton. After Bangladesh won the toss and opted to bat, they made a shaky start with Mark Turner taking 5 for 57, but Rahim held things together with 88. England then closed at 33 for 0.Adam Harrison and Ravi Bopara both made early breakthroughs for England, with Harrison removing both openers in the 20s, including Nafis Iqbal, who was called up for the national squad to play in the ICC Champions Trophy in England next month. Bopara then had Aftab Ahmed, who has also been called up, and Dhiman Ghosh caught behind by Steven Davies, the wicketkeeper, in quick succession, and Bangladesh had slumped to 84 for 4.However, Nazimuddin and Nadif Chowdhury forged a recovery stand of 104 to put Bangladesh back on track until Bopara struck again for the third time when he trapped Nazimuddin for 35. Nafid then fell almost immediately when he was caught by Samit Patel off Turner for 36.Turner then pegged Bangladesh back further with two more wickets. Nazmul Hossain and Enamul Haque jnr both fell cheaply, caught by Davis, to leave the score at 167 for 8. But during that time, Rahim was quietly going about his business. He hit 10 fours and three sixes in his innings, which lasted over three hours.He received good support from Shahadat Hossain, who became Turner’s fourth victim for 12, and from Ashim Chowdhury, who hung about until Rahim was lbw to Turner shortly before the close.

Arjuna Ranatunga, Sri Lanka’s former captain, has bemoaned the decision toappoint two separate captains for Test and one-day cricket in a recentinterview with the .

Ranatunga also criticised the selectors for not consulting Marvan Atapattu,the current one-day captain, who they believed would be overburdened by theresponsibility of handling both jobs at the outset.”I vehemently object to having two captains for the national team,” saidRanatunga. “If Marvan (Atapattu) was not good enough for the (Test)captaincy then they should have handed it to someone who could have handledboth. I think the selectors should have consulted Marvan on the issue.””If you look at the last two one-day international championships (in Sharjahand Dambulla), where we failed to make it to the final, the problem was notthe captaincy issue but the fact they were not given a proper team. AvishkaGunawaradene, Romesh Kaluwitharana and even Upul Chandana, who made usefulcontributions in the Caribbean, were not given the nod when they were ingood touch.”

Ranatunga doesn’t doubt the captaincy skills of his former colleague, HashanTillakaratne, but he believes that he should have been given a chanceearlier instead of Sanath Jayasuriya, who was appointed after Ranatunga’ssacking. “I don’t say that Hashan is not fit for the captaincy,” he says.”He should have been made captain in 1999.”Ranatunga only recently lost the race for the cricket board presidency,winning just seven votes compared to the 121 clinched by ThilangaSumathipala. But Ranatunga rubbishes the suggestion that his candidacy was amistake.

“Actually, I am very happy with the way things went,” he claimed. “I cameforward to prove a point, which many people did not want to accept. But theman on the street understood. I chose to bell the cat, which in future willbe an example to BCCSL aspirants.””Experience has shown how an organized group is influencing the BCCSLaffairs. It culminated on June 6 when the election was held. I don’t thinkwith this situation and single good cricketer or administrator would want tocome forward.””The situation is such that even if you led Sri Lanka to five world crowns,you cannot win the BCCSL election. It is very hard to beat them. If RanilWickremasinghe, the Prime Minister, had contested, he would have lost too.”Defiant to the end, Ranatunga pledged to continue his battle. “I think thegeneral public is aware of the corrupted system and I will continue toexpose these things in the future as well.”

Sussex maintained their slim promotion hopes and denied Glamorgan a title-clinching victory when they won this evening’s NUL Division Two match by 34 runs at Hove.A fourth win in eight days has given Sussex a slim chance of finishing in the top three while Glamorgan will have to wait until their final game against Middlesex on Sunday week before they can make sure of going up as champions.Sussex skipper Chris Adams was the architect of the victory, making an unbeaten 100 as his side posted 225-2 on a slow pitch.Adams had to face the second ball of the innings after the division’s leading run scorer Richard Montgomerie had fallen lbw to left-armer Andrew Davies.He rebuilt the innings, first with teenager Tim Ambrose with whom he added 80 in 22 overs before Ambrose was caught and bowled by Dean Cosker for 46.But they had laid the platform for an onslaught by Adams and Murray Goodwin in the second half of the innings, which brought them 145 runs at over a run a ball.Adams reached his first one-day hundred for 14 months by taking six off the final over from Darren Thomas. He hit six fours and two sixes and faced 122 balls while Goodwin’s unbeaten 67 came off 73 deliveries with a six and four boundaries.Billy Taylor took the wickets of Keith Newell and Robert Croft in successive overs to stall Glamorgan’s reply and the visitors were reduced to 54-4 when Will House trapped Steve James lbw and Mark Robinson bowled skipper Matt Maynard for three.Australian Jimmy Maher (54), Adrian Dale (29), Michael Powell (26) and Davies (24) offered some resistance, but Sussex wrapped up victory with 13 balls to spare.

Dale Steyn has been ruled out of the third Test against England at the Wanderers due to the shoulder injury he sustained during the opening match of the series in Durban.There had been encouraging updates about Steyn’s fitness during the Newlands Test but doubts over his recovery came when he was ruled “50-50″ at the conclusion of that match and required a second opinion from another specialist on the injury. He was not with the South Africa squad in Johannesburg on Monday, instead remaining in Cape Town where he underwent a further scan.”They are doing more scans to try and find something there,” Russell Domingo, South Africa’s coach said. “They are trying to find what the problem is and once they’ve given us that diagnosis we will be able to give you more information.”It continues a significant run of problems for Steyn, who has 406 wickets in 82 Tests, as he misses his fifth Test out of seven. Steyn sat out three of the four Tests in India with a groin injury and will now miss a second successive game against England but Domingo did not believe it pointed to a bleaker long-term future.”I don’t think it’s the end of Dale Steyn’s career at all,” he said. “All players are going to experience some sort of niggles at some stage. He has just had a few of them of late. He is a great athlete, he is as fit as they come and these things happen. He is just going through that phase of his career at the moment and I’m sure he will get through it.”Similarly, South Africa will also have to find a way to cope and Domingo was optimistic about their depth despite his disappointment at losing Steyn. “We know he is a great bowler. He is the best bowler in the world and we haven’t had him since the first Test in India. Not having him has been disappointing but there’s not too much we can do. The game goes on. We’ve got to make do with it. It’s the way it is. There’s nothing we can do about it. It’s an opportunity for somebody else to hopefully make a mark and strive to be as good as Dale Steyn was and is.”That somebody else will have to come out of the other five pacemen South Africa have in their squad. Morne Morkel, a fit-again Kyle Abbott, who has recovered from a hamstring niggle, Kagiso Rabada, Chris Morris and uncapped Hardus Viljoen are competing for places in the pace pack and South Africa will spend the next two days concocting a combination to try and level the series.The first question they will face is whether to include a spinner on what is expected to be a pitch with some life for the quick bowlers. Domingo admitted he would be hesitant to go all-pace even if conditions suggested he should. “I am one of those coaches that likes to have a spinner but the Wanderers is notorious for not having a spinner,” he said. “We need to look at conditions. Once we’ve done that, we will have a discussion with the selectors. It’s not unheard of to go into a Wanderers Test without a spinner. It’s often been done.”If they listen to the groundsman, Bethuel Buthelezi, it should not be done this time. Buthelezi, who is preparing his first Test pitch, has promised bounce, pace, and turn and said if it was up to him, he would play a spinner. That does not automatically mean Dane Piedt, who took three wickets at Newlands, will keep his place. South Africa could also go back to JP Duminy after he responded to being dropped from the Test XI with a career-best unbeaten 260 for Cape Cobras in a domestic first-class game last week although how he would fit into the balance of the side would be a conundrum.”It’s an outstanding performance to go back and get your career best a couple of days after you’ve been left out of a Test match. It speaks volumes about his character and the type of cricketer he is,” Domingo said. “He is in the squad, but the selectors have not decided if he will play. We know he can also offer something with the ball.”Assuming Morkel plays, even though Domingo has mentioned he is in the “red zone” when it comes to workload, that would mean deciding between two out of Rabada, Morris, Abbott and Viljoen and it may come down to who offers more with the bat. Morris stands out after scoring 69 on debut at Newlands.”Chris Morris is definitely somebody we are looking at to fill a role like Shaun Pollock or Lance Klusener used to do for us – a guy who can bowl really well and offer us something with the bat,” Domingo said. “I was pleased with his batting performance and his bowling as well. He is a good package – he also gives something in the field.”For the sake of experience, the remaining place will probably go to one of Abbott or Rabada but Viljoen could edge ahead because of local knowledge. The Lions quick took twenty wickets in two first-class matches at the Wanderers this season which may force him into the XI. “He has got a good chance,” Domingo said. “He has a great record at the Wanderers. He has been on form and there is no substitute for pace. Nobody enjoys facing pace here.”

Australia’s usually impeccable preparation ahead of big tournaments has taken a hit after they were troubled by the amount of swing fast bowlers achieved in the warm-up matches for the ICC World Twenty20. However Tim Nielsen, the coach, said Australia’s loss to South Africa and narrow win against New Zealand in the practice games had been valuable learning experiences.”The fact that the ball has swung quite a bit has caught us off guard,” Nielsen said after Sunday’s defeat. “It was good for the batsmen to get out in the middle and there might be some benefits in the fact that the lower order did get a bat because if we need them later in the tournament, they’ve had a bit of a chance to have a hit.”The movement in the air was a positive for Australia in the New Zealand game, when Ben Hilfenhaus’ outswing brought him 3 for 11 from three overs. Against South Africa, however, Australia’s attack failed to have the same impact.AB de Villiers, who blasted 65 from 35 balls in South Africa’s win, said their performance would give them confidence leading into the tournament. “Victory is always important, especially against Australia because they’re a well-drilled side,” de Villiers said. “It wasn’t just a warm-up game. It’s a bit of a psychological advantage to beat the Aussies.”New Zealand’s confidence took a blow after their practice games brought convincing losses to Australia and West Indies. Daniel Vettori, the captain, said it was reasonable to expect his side would take a while to warm up.”We have come out of a winter with two months of not much action and being indoors all the time,” Vettori said. “It’s been good to get some action and whilst we are getting some things right we need to get our game all together to challenge in this tournament.”In New Zealand’s loss to West Indies it was Daren Powell who troubled them the most, finishing with an incredible 3 for 4 from his four overs. Powell said even though Twenty20 was a batsman’s game the early season conditions in South Africa might help the fast bowlers.”Never in your dreams you can think of bowling a dream spell like that,” Powell said. “Basically I went out there to bowl line and length and pick up wickets, the pitch was assisting me with the areas I was bowling but what I also tried to do was vary my length.”

The County Ground at Taunton was today unveiled as the new home of women’s cricket in England.This initiative, the first ever of its kind for women’s cricket, gives the sport a permanent base. One of the key reasons behind the scheme is to assist with the fixtures in the women’s game, for both domestic and international matches. The ECB will endeavour to have domestic finals and key matches at Taunton every season with a view to bringing major domestic tournaments, such as the Challenge Cup and Junior Super 4s to Taunton in the future.At least one women’s international match is guaranteed at the ground every year. Crowds at Taunton have been the best away from Lord’s for women’s internationals ever since it first hosted a match in 1997. Promotion of women’s cricket will be an integral part of Somerset’s advertising and promotional campaign for cricket.Regional events, such as training camps and in particular the South Region winter training sessions, will be held at the cricket school on site at the ground. The regional women’s forums, which take place in October, will also now be hosted there.The new ground development which is planned by Somerset will incorporate suitable facilities for female athletes and the players will have access to all the services on a regular basis. Additionally, the South Women’s Regional Cricket Manager (WRCM) will have an office on site as part of the redevelopment.”Once again England is leading the way with new developments for women’s cricket,” explained Gill McConway, ECB executive director for women’s cricket. “We organised the first cricket World Cup for women and the first ever international Twenty20. We also instigated Super 4s, a competition which other nations are really keen to integrate into their domestic game.”For me this is a huge step for the women’s game – to have a first-class county ground wanting women’s cricket to be an integral part of their future is a definite boost. It’s an especially exciting time as there are stunning new development plans for the ground and to be associated with one of England’s most progressive county schemes can only benefit the game.”It will be the first time the women’s game will have continuity in the grounds where they play as Somerset have guaranteed us an international every year.”Charlotte Edwards, England’s captain, was equally excited. “I’m delighted with the choice of venue,” she told the BBC. “Taunton has always been a favourite ground, both personally and for the team: historically we have always done very well there, so hopefully we can continue that tradition!”I’m really excited about the development of the ground and what that also means for women’s cricket. It’s destined to become a great venue with brilliant facilities and it’s exciting that we’ll be a part of that vision and long-term development.”