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Former India captain Rahul Dravid has been appointed in a mentoring role to the team in the run-up to their five-Test series in England. Dravid will have a few sessions with the players before the series begins on July 9. He is expected to join the team latest by Monday.The move was initiated by the team management, according to BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel. “It was the coach (Duncan Fletcher) who approached us on behalf of the team and said it would be good to have Rahul with his vast experience spend some time with the boys ahead of the series,” Patel told ESPNcricinfo. “We immediately requested Rahul and he readily agreed.”This will be the first time Dravid, who has been mentoring IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals after retiring from international cricket in 2012, will be associated in such a capacity with the national team.In March this year, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar had said that Dravid should take over as India coach, but the latter had declined the suggestion citing lack of time.”Rahul Dravid is one man who is enormously respected and was a successful captain, having won series in West Indies and England,” Gavaskar had said. “When he speaks, the Indian players, some of whom are superstars, listen to him as they know how much preparation went into his game.””I am happy that he (Gavaskar) said I am capable of doing the job,” Dravid had said. “But the job requires a lot of time, almost 11 months a year. I have just retired and at the moment because of time constraints, I have to decline.”Dravid was India’s best batsman on their previous tour of England in 2011, his three centuries the only bright spot in a 0-4 rout. In all, six of Dravid’s 36 Test hundreds came in England, where he made 1376 runs in 13 Tests at an average of 68.80. He also had a successful stint with county side Kent in 2000, scoring 1221 runs in 16 matches at 55.50 with two centuries.

ScorecardAneesh Kapil swings down the ground on his way to a half-century•PA Photos

Halfway through the second innings there was a power surge through SE11. It took the floodlights out for 20 minutes and knocked out Somerset too. Pursuing a revised 275 in 38.2 overs to be sure of going through, their spark faded.Somerset’s equation was dictated by events at Trent Bridge, where victory for Nottinghamshire would require Somerset to overhaul Durham’s net run-rate. The initial task to do so was 285 in 42.1 overs but the loss of four overs for a floodlight failure stiffened the requirement and on resumption they lost their way to lose a third straight game after qualification looked comfortably within reach.It appeared Somerset’s man-made power surge was leading them through. Marcus Trescothick’s renaissance in the County Championship has not extended to the one-day arena this season. His form slipped to such an extent that he was dropped from the T20 side. He chose an opportune moment to regain his touch and bludgeoned 80 from only 54 balls – just his second limited-overs half-century this season.He began with an edged cut over the slips before carving a more deliberate stroke wide of third man for another boundary. The first of his four sixes was a slap over Tim Linley’s head into the pavilion in the ninth over.Nineteen came from the next. He reached outside off stump to heave George Edwards for six over extra cover, took more runs to cow corner and through the off side yet again, before sending a length ball into the seats over deep midwicket.The innings looked to have set his side up for a dashing chase to pip Durham into fourth place in Group B but a jolt of electricity after 24.1 overs had an undesired effect. On resumption, 129 were needed in 14.1 to be sure of going through but as Nottinghamshire suffered a Powerplay disaster, suddenly any victory would send Somerset through. The tenth wicket did their best to at least win the game with a stand of 34 but Nottinghamshire’s eventual victory rendered the effort worthless. And a superb run-out by Aneesh Kapil saw Surrey win by seven runs anyway.Somerset struggled to regain momentum after Zafar Ansari won two lbws against Trescothick and Johann Myburgh in consecutive overs. The lights went on and off. Alex Barrow then swung wildly at Robin Peterson and was stumped. Lewis Gregory became the fifth lbw on the card. James Hildreth kept Somerset in the game with a half-century but when he slapped Ansari to extra-cover, Somerset were slipping out.Surrey could sit back and giggle at the events having not won a single match in the competition – in stark contrast to their T20 form. Jason Roy led their charge to NatWest Blast Finals Day but failed here, following a morning of much media attention. He struck the first ball of the match for four but, to the 11th, was pinned in the creased by Gregory and lbw for 10.Instead, Kapil took his chance to prove why Surrey have offered him a contract until the end of 2015. Released by Worcestershire at the end of last season, Kapil’s capable all-round ability has been recognised at The Oval and here he made a 52-ball fifty in just his sixth game for Surrey.Rory Burns made his way to a steady 40 in 48 balls before falling to a leading edge trying to work Jack Leach to leg – part of a tidy 2 for 55 for the slow left-armer. Gary Wilson was the fourth player to pass forty without making his tally innings-defining. He was smartly run out by Craig Overton from deep square leg.

Organisers for a proposed professional T20 league in Canada announced this week that they are seeking a location in the greater Toronto area for a planned $700m, 35000-strong stadium. Roy Singh, the businessman spearheading the project, it is now learnt, was sentenced to prison for four and a half years in 2007 for his role in a multi-million dollar fraud case.According to court documents seen by ESPNcricinfo, Singh, the chairman and chief executive of Canadian Premier League T20 LP, pleaded guilty in 2006 to a charge of “fraud over $5,000.” He was convicted of swindling the now defunct i-Trade Finance Inc., of $8 million ($US 5.25 million) between 2001 and 2003. Roy Singh is an alias for Rohit Ablacksingh, the name listed in court documents. He was released on parole in the summer of 2008, according to news reports in the , despite objections to the parole board from i-Trade’s former president Parker Gallant over Singh’s failure to compensate those affected.”Mr. Singh has been open and frank about his past legal troubles with me,” said Bob Mitchell, president of Canadian Premier League. “What happened occurred more than a decade ago. It has absolutely nothing to do with today. I believe in giving people second chances. Mr. Singh wants the chance to do something great for Canada and cricket. He realises there will always be people who will bring up his past but all he can do is move forward.”The Canadian Premier League web site states that Singh received a 2003 Entrepreneur of the Year award by the Etobicoke Chamber of Commerce and his aggressive entrepreneurial spirit has acted as a driving force for the proposed T20 league and stadium.However, the January 11, 2007 sentence summary for the case that sent Singh to prison, said that he “had no business receiving such an honour,” because Justice A M Gans said Webworx, Singh’s company, “had no business to speak of in the year in question” other than the fraud it was found guilty for.In his capacity as chief executive of Webworx Inc., Singh “through a sophisticated array of paper, faxes, emails and fictional characters, in addition to unseemly acts of ingratiation and self-promotion if not instances of disarming behavior, was able to persuade the executives and employees of i-Trade that Webworx had ongoing and profitable contracts” when in fact no such things existed. Based on false documents through a false identity, Webworx obtained millions in financing from and eventually bankrupted i-Trade. Justice Gans called Singh’s behavior in the case as “Machiavellian in the extreme” and said that time in prison would give him a chance to get “treatment for his seeming sociopathic behavior.”In relation to the Canadian Premier League, Singh and his fellow organizers also stated they were looking for investors in franchises to support a 10-team tournament in Canada, which has been delayed since 2013 and is now targeting an August 2015 start date at a temporary facility until the proposed $700 million stadium plan is approved. According to the press release, each team in the league would have starting line-ups comprised of eight Canadian domestic players and three from overseas.Among those listed on the web site as part of the Canadian Premier League management are West Indian batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Emma Everett, player agent to several West Indian players including Dwayne Bravo. The Canadian Premier League web site and Singh’s social media pages are also flooded with images of Singh posing with public officials and high profile cricket personalities, including Sir Richie Richardson sporting a Canadian Premier League hat alongside Singh, seemingly in an effort to build support for his proposed project.The most recent instance of Canada hosting Test level international players was in May 2012 when a much-hyped exhibition match turned into a major debacle. Local organising group Kat Rose attempted to stage a T20 All-Star game at the Rogers Centre, home of Major League Baseball’s Toronto Blue Jays, with tickets listed at face value from $25 to $199. The projected profits for the event were pinned to targeted gate sales driven by the participation of six Pakistani players, including Misbah-ul-Haq, Saeed Ajmal and Shahid Afridi. The Pakistani players withdrew less than 48 hours before the match when No Objection Certificates could not be secured by the organisers. Brian Lara was also scheduled to play, but pulled out on the morning of the match after he was not paid his match fee prior to the start of the game.Most of the other cricketers who travelled to the event did play, but sued Kat Rose over unpaid match fees as well as reimbursements for flights and accommodation. FICA also attempted to intervene on behalf of 16 international players, including Sanath Jayasuriya, Tino Best, Jacob Oram, Tim Southee, Mark Boucher, Brendan Taylor and Stuart MacGill.

Around 11,000 spectators created a festive atmosphere as Younis Khan made his fifth Test double century to leave Australia reeling in Abu Dhabi. It was his third hundred on the trot, and came against the backdrop of his exclusion from the one-day squad last month.The decision to axe him had prompted Younis to stridently question the selectors. He was retained in the Test squad though and while he has broken a slew of batting records, he insisted this wasn’t about showing up the selectors. “I am not here to prove anything to anyone,” he said after another productive day in Abu Dhabi. “I just wanted to show my character and wanted to win the games for my country after Pakistan lost four matches to Australia. So the intentions were never to prove a point but to help Pakistan.”Younis, though, said that the week after being dropped was an important period for him. “I still remember that one week that I spent with my family. I am not able to forget that moment. My family and friends were tense. The media was tense, the entire Pakistan was tense for me, wondering he could retire now, who knows what he could do now after having spoken out. The media has supported me a lot. Each and every moment from that week is with me and [I am] thinking positively from that.”He was also pleased with his preparation for the series. “It was my good luck that I landed here in UAE a week earlier and worked a lot on my batting with the help of the batting coach. The Australians would also practice nearby and whenever I got the opportunity, I would observe their body language and try to learn about them. So that week really made a difference.”During this series, Younis became Pakistan’s highest Test century maker, and reached 8000 Test runs, prompting debates over whether he is Pakistan’s greatest Test batsman. “I don’t think I can become a great… like Javed, Inzamam, Yousuf, Saeed Anwar, Zaheer Abbas, Hanif Mohammad … I can’t compare myself with them,” he said. “The era I am playing in, many things are easy for me compared to the time they have played their cricket. It was so difficult for them. I want to be remembered as a team man who served the team and as someone whose performances made his country proud.”He said he drew energy from the large holiday crowd in Abu Dhabi to complete his double century just before tea. “When I was around 160 or 170, my body’s response started to go down, but when I saw so many fans were coming in, I thought that if I push myself a little more, then I could get to 200…”When I saw so many people coming in for a Test, I felt very happy, I took motivation from the crowd, I wanted to hang in there and reach 200, so that all the people who have come to see me, I shouldn’t disappoint them.”The situation looks hopeless for Australia, but Younis, while hoping to win the Test, expected some tough days ahead. “Obviously when you score runs and contribute a lot in the game you want the team to win comprehensively so I hope we manage to pull off a whitewash.”But it isn’t going to be easy for us, we still have to put in the hard work. Though we have good spinners, Australia have been in this situation several times… they have Warner, Clarke, Smith and Haddin who had played a big role for them to win the Ashes. So it won’t be easy. We aren’t thinking that the contest will be over tomorrow or day after and I think the Australian team is capable of making a comeback.”

Sri Lanka Women West indies Women
ScorecardDilani Manodara top-scored for Sri Lanka with 28•WICB

Sri Lanka Women beat West Indies Women by five runs in a rain-affected game in Colombo to lead the three-match T20 series 1-0.West Indies, after being inserted to bat, put up 109 for 6 in 20 overs. They lost two wickets in the first over, as Sripali Weerakkody picked up Kycia Knight and Deandra Dottin. Stafanie Taylor top-scored with 40, sharing partnerships of 32 with Britney Cooper and 45 with Merissa Aguilleira (28). Other than Maduri Samuddika, all the bowlers took at least one wicket.In the chase, Sri Lanka lost Yasoda Mendis for a duck as she was run out in the second over, but a brisk stand of 46 in 39 balls between the captain Chamari Atapattu (17) and Dilani Manodara (28) got the chase back on track. The match turned again as Sri Lanka lost four wickets in 12 balls, to leave them at 60 for 5. Twenty-two runs were needed to win off 28 balls with four wickets in hand, when the match was interrupted by rain with Sri Lanka five runs ahead of the D/L score .

ScorecardSteve Magoffin commanded respect from Yorkshire•Getty Images

From Ranjitsinhji to Mushtaq Ahmed, Sussex supporters have long been blessed by exotic overseas signings. Set against these, Steve Magoffin is a rather less alluring name. But he might just be the most valuable overseas player on the county circuit today.There is nothing demonstrative about him. Magoffin eschews histrionics and bounds in, harassing the off stump at a pace that is sprightly rather than express. But there is a wonderful rhythm to his bowling. Rangy and with a strong repeatable action, Magoffin’s energy is unrelenting even deep into his 35th year. He is still able to extract dangerous lift from wickets as docile as this Arundel track.Magoffin has enjoyed many triumphant days in his three seasons at Sussex, as his outstanding club record – 157 first-class wickets at 20 apiece – is testament to. “He’s as good as anybody there is that does what he does,” Sussex’s coach Mark Robinson says. “We wouldn’t swap him for anyone.”Though he snared only two wickets, few days will provide more emphatic affirmation of Magoffin’s worth.Only the wickets column betrayed him. For consistently defeating groping bats, he deserved plenty more than the two scalps – Alex Lees trapped lbw, and Adam Lyth well caught by Jon Lewis after misjudging a hook – he was restricted to.The absence of more wickets owed much to Yorkshire’s approach. In the absence of Chris Jordan, who may well be detained by England for almost the entirety of the summer, they recognised that Magoffin provided Sussex’s main threat. At times, it felt almost as if two games were being played out simultaneously: Yorkshire against Magoffin, in which maidens came more freely than runs; and Yorkshire against everyone else, when it looked rather more fun to be a batsman.Accord Magoffin respect -that 13 of his 23 overs were maidens shows that Yorkshire emphatically did so. The batsmen reckoned that runs would flow more freely elsewhere.New Zealand’s Test series in the Caribbean has deprived Yorkshire of their regular number three, Kane Williamson. In his absence, Jack Leaning showed the fortitude to excel in the role. Upright in defence, he also displayed the range of shots evident in the best keepers of number three.When Magoffin was given a break in the early afternoon, Yorkshire had reached only 61 for 1 from 33 overs: especially with the sun resplendent, spectators could have been forgiven for having a quiet siesta. Leaning recognised the opportunity to shake his side out of their torpor, hitting four exquisite boundaries – drives through midwicket and extra cover off James Tredwell, and a late cut and pull off Jon Lewis – in six balls. By the close he had reached 75, sailing past his previous highest first-class score, with the promise of more to come tomorrow.He found a fine ally in Lyth, with aggressive running a hallmark of their second wicket stand. Compact and particularly strong off the backfoot, Lyth may have aspirations of pinching Sam Robson’s Test place: his 66 takes his Division One tally for 2014 to 733 runs at 56 apiece.The most eye-catching moments of Lyth’s innings were a pair of sixes, both nonchalantly lofted down the ground, off Tredwell. But Tredwell could still be content with his first bowl in a Sussex shirt: he bowled with good flight and control, and, after having Andrew Gale dropped behind on nought, had the thrill of uprooting his leg stump as he attempted a sweep.After 29 worthy overs, plenty more beckon tomorrow, as Yorkshire look to inflict stress on Sussex’s flaky batting in the game’s third innings.

Huw Waters, the Glamorgan seamer, has been forced to retire through illness. He has missed the last two seasons and, having been diagnosed with exercise-induced dystonia, has accepted it will not be possible to continue playing professionally.”The last 12-18 months have been very difficult,” Waters said. “We have explored all routes to overcome this and get back playing. After various specialists looking at my case, it has been concluded that no treatment would have allowed me to perform at first-class level.”Waters, 27, has not played a first-class match since April 2013. He has since been battling dystonia, a movement disorder that causes muscle spasms and contractions, thought to be a neurological condition: a problem with the part of the brain that controls muscle movement. There is currently no cure.”Muddy” Waters was a promising seam bowler who came through the Glamorgan academy. A Monmouthshire boy, he made an immediate impact on first-class cricket with 4 for 75 on debut at Trent Bridge in July 2005 as an 18-year-old. A year later he played for England Under-19s in the World Cup semi-final, a match also featuring Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali and Cheteshwar Pujara, who made a match-winning 129 not out.In 2012 he claimed 39 wickets at just 20.46, including a first-class best 7 for 53 against Hampshire at Cardiff, and was named Glamorgan Championship Player of the Year. He was awarded his cap at the final match of the season but it would unfortunately be his final County Championship appearance.”I am thankful for all the support I have received from everyone at the club,” Waters said. “The patience and understanding they have shown is something I am very grateful for. I have to thank them for giving me the opportunity to live my dream to play cricket for Glamorgan and I wish the club well for the future.”I have some great memories to look back on and so many people were a huge part of those memories. I now look forward to the next chapter in my life with great excitement.”Glamorgan director of cricket and chief executive Hugh Morris added: “With the ability to swing the ball from a young age, Huw was a regular for the England Under-19 set-up and without injury would have made many more appearances for Glamorgan.”He was capable of outstanding spells with the ball and stubborn innings at the tail or as a nightwatchman. He has been the consummate professional, capable of leading our attack, and his calm demeanour in both pressure and everyday situations means he will be sadly missed by the team and everyone at the club. We wish him well for the future.”

Injections, massage, exercise and no little motivation allowed Michael Clarke to fashion a remarkable hundred in the midst of a back flare-up at Adelaide Oval, but Australia’s selectors must now deliberate over how sustainable such a combination will be for the remainder of the Test series against India.Scarcely a ball went by without Clarke wincing in pain as he forged on to 128 on day two, more than doubling the 60 on which he had retired hurt. The hundred was believed to be the first ever by an Australian Test batsman having been forced from the field due to injury, but its courage is no substitute for the rest and strength work that Clarke has customarily leaned on whenever his back has complained in the past.Short-term salves for the issue, such as painkillers and constant movement, should be enough to ensure Australia do not go through the difficulties of being effectively a man down in this match, though it remains to be seen how much Clarke can field.Though he said it was unrelated to recent hamstring troubles on the opposite side of his body, the team physio Alex Kountouris conceded Clarke’s injury was a major one, leaving the chairman of selectors Rod Marsh and the team performance supremo Pat Howard to ponder wider plans.”As everyone knows, he has got a chronic back injury and he dived to get back into the crease when David Warner was on 99, he felt it a little bit there and then just tried to get out of the way of a bouncer and it really grabbed,” Kountouris said. “Unfortunately it is quite a significant back injury. He hasn’t had anything like this for 18 months. The last time he had this was in the Champions Trophy in England. It’s poor timing and he is struggling at the moment.”The hamstring injury is on the other side. He has been carrying a left hamstring injury and this is his right lower back. This is his old injury, it’s what he has had in the past with his back. I don’t think it is directly related to his hamstring. You don’t want to be a man down, so he is very determined to give it a go and see how he goes.”Steven Smith, who went on to an unbeaten 162 largely in Clarke’s company, said his captain had made the very best of a bad situation. “He was pretty keen to get out there this morning,” Smith said. “He had a good hit this morning and he just came out and played beautifully. A few shots hurt him but he got himself into as many good positions as he could and manipulated the field a little bit as well. He played beautifully under the circumstances.”In the breaks he was getting a bit of treatment, he was walking around, trying to stay as active as he could – sitting down’s probably the hardest thing for him with his back. He was trying to stay quite active.”Clarke has battled his back and hamstring troubles since he was a teenager, and has often worried about how long his body would allow him to play. Over the past few weeks he has shown extraordinary leadership capacity while staying close to the family of Phillip Hughes, underlining how much Australia’s players would dearly love him to be fit for the remainder of the summer.”He has done amazing over the last couple of weeks,” Smith said. “It has been tough for all of us but he spent the whole time by Hughesy’s family’s side. Just the strength and courage he has shown through those times was unbelievable. He must be mentally drained coming into this game but the way he played speaks the world of that guy. He came out here and tried to do something for Hughesy and he certainly did that.”

Eoin Morgan defended Ian Bell’s understated role as he shared a record-breaking opening stand for England in World Cups, describing his stand of 172 in 30.1 overs with Moeen Ali as “a perfect platform”. As Moeen played freely for a second ODI hundred, Bell was more circumspect, needing 85 balls for his 54, but nevertheless England were able to point at a decisive victory as they saw off Scotland by 119 runs in Christchurch.”There were a lot of positives to take from today: Ian’s innings is one of them,” Morgan said. “I thought he and Moeen faced reasonably tough circumstances. The ball held up a bit and nipped around early, and I thought they held their composure really well.”It was Moeen, nevertheless, who introduced the first signs of optimism to England’s World Cup campaign with a second ODI century to follow the one he made in Sri Lanka before Christmas. His hundred came only four balls after Bell had reached 50.”Moeen struck the ball really well, as he has been, and for him to set a platform like that was absolutely ideal,” Morgan said. “I rate him really highly. He’s an allrounder which we haven’t had for a very long time, somebody who opens the batting and plays in the fashion that he does, and the purchase he gets on the ball. I think we’re very privileged to have him.”England had designs on a total approaching 350 when Bell was the first batsman to fall, but they were encouraged into a more restrained approach as wickets tumbled. Morgan put that down to a surface, also used during West Indies’ defeat of Pakistan, lacking in pace.

Moeen seeks to banish ‘negativity’

Moeen Ali hoped that his matchwinning hundred against Scotland would help England banish the negativity that he feels is surrounding their World Cup challenge.
@It feels like everybody is against us and everything is negative,” he said. “It’s very important we take all of that away. Teams do lose but we have to stay together.”

“You always think you should get more than you should, but having been there for the last five overs, the wicket slowed up the older the ball got, and with the wind as well, it made it difficult to find the boundary,” Morgan said. “That gave me more confidence that 300 was an above par score.”England’s World Cup challenge has been rubbished after heavy defeats against Australia and New Zealand – the two toughest sides in the group, but Morgan claimed that pessimism had not taken hold in the dressing room.”I don’t think there’s ever a state of panic. Obviously we had two hard games, and the fact we didn’t perform was the most disappointing, but a win just puts things a little more at ease, and it gives guys a little bit of confidence. Even the guys who didn’t perform today, talking to other guys who have had a little bit of success today will be good for them.”Morgan justified England’s decision to retain an unchanged side against Scotland, in defiance of two thumping defeats, on the grounds that they had played too poorly to enable any conclusions about the make-up of the side.”We came to the conclusion that we haven’t performed in the first two games, so you couldn’t really argue the balance of the side was wrong because we hadn’t seen guys perform. I was very confident going into the first two games that we had the strongest side to win those games, so reinforcing our confidence going with the same team today was very important.”In your head, I think you can be guilty of building up a tournament, of having to play your best throughout the tournament and hammer every side in order to win it, but the games that I’ve watched haven’t shown that at all. Strong sides have been beaten. It’s about getting points on the board; how you do it doesn’t really matter.”

Aaron Finch was taken to hospital after been hit on the chest by a delivery while playing for Yorkshire’s 2nd XI on Monday.Finch, the Australia limited-overs opener, was part of the side taking on Worcestershire seconds in Barnt Green, south of Birmingham, when he was hit while attempting a pull shot off the seamer Chris Russell.While Finch walked from the pitch unaided, he was clearly in some pain and, after spitting up blood, was quickly taken to hospital. At hospital he underwent a series of tests and X-rays to ascertain the extent of the injuries, with Yorkshire suggesting that his condition had eased considerably. He was not required to stay in hospital.A club spokesperson later told ESPNcricinfo that he would take no further part in the game. He returned to Leeds on Monday evening and expects the result of the scans on Tuesday.While Finch had been expected to play for the Yorkshire first team in their fixture against Nottinghamshire starting on Monday, the club instead decided he could do with some red-ball cricket before coming into their Championship side.Finch was due to join Yorkshire immediately after a spell in the IPL but suffered a hamstring injury while playing for Mumbai Indians that kept him out for two months.