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Arjuna Ranatunga, the former Sri Lankan captain, has responded to Matthew Hayden’s remark of subcontinental batsmen targeting personal landmarks. Ranatunaga said that Australian cricketers were not willing to “absorb” the success of Asian teams and even cited Hayden’s record-breaking innings, when he scored 380 against Zimbabwe, as an example of targeting personal milestones.”The best question you can ask him [Hayden] is why he batted till he got past the world record. They should have declared much before that,” Ranatunga was quoted as saying in a report by the Press Trust of India.”I feel when subcontinent cricketers are doing well, they [Australians] cannot absorb it. And it has been the pattern for so many years. The bottom line is that the subcontinental cricketers are very gifted and talented. It is the way they use their wrists and I think they are more natural sportsmen.”Ranatunga also added that he wasn’t surprised with Hayden’s comments and said, “I am quite used to it. The best thing is to perform with the bat and ball.” He touched upon the Australian tactic of mental disintegration when he said, “Normally they start with the top players and they try to put the mind into a different line.”There was also a mention of the current Indian side and Ranatunga likened them to his victorious team that won the World Cup in 1996. “I have always felt that it [the Indian team] was more like the side we had in 1996 with seven batsmen and four bowlers. Only thing is that they have to work little more on their fielding and fitness. If they do that, I am sure they will have a pretty good chance of winning the next World Cup.”

The Indian team might be a star-studded one, but John Wright, their coach, has warned that a lack of consistency could cost anyone his place.”We don’t want players to rest on their laurels," said Wright, speaking to the press at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore. "You need to be performing consistently all the time, and it’s important for the players who are playing for India to know that young and keen and hungry players will try and force themselves into the top side."Wright’s words were directed in part at the members of the India A squad, currently at the Academy for an 18-day training camp under their newly appointed coach, Sandeep Patil. India A begin a tour of England on June 22, which could be a make-or-break tour for some of them.Wright said: “It is very good from my point of view because I get to work with some of the boys who might have an opportunity to force themselves into the top side. I am looking forward to it.”Both Wright and Patil will work at preparing the team for the six-week tour, but Wright was not apprehensive about dichotomies in coaching styles, pointing out that both he and Patil, after all, had a common goal. “I have played against him (Patil)," said Wright. "I admire him for the job he has done for the Kenyan team. It’s important that coaches learn from each other.”

Former New Zealand captain Lee Germon may return to first-class cricket this summer.Germon, who led the State Otago Volts in last summer’s domestic one-day series, is under some pressure to be available for the four-dayers this year.He will turn out next week for Otago in a four-day match against the New Zealand Academy side at Lincoln next week.The match is important for several reasons. It will give the Otago players a rare early chance to get some match play on grass while from a New Zealand perspective the game is part of all-rounder Chris Cairns’ rehabilitation from knee surgery.Otago coach Glenn Turner is keen for both sides to get the most from the match and there is likely to be flexibility regarding its day-to-day operation. For example, if both sides have been bowled out over the first three days there is then the option to play a one-day game.And Turner will be interested in the form of three of the Academy players as well as his own selection with the McCullum brothers, Nathan and Brendon, and Warren McSkimming all lining up for the Academy XI.The match will be played at Lincoln from October 2-5.The State Otago Volts squad for the game will be: Lee Germon (captain), Martyn Croy, Craig Cumming, Chris Gaffaney, Mike Hesson, Andrew Hore, Nathan Morland, Shayne O’Connor, Craig Pryor, Bradley Scott, David Sewell, Jordan Sheed, Scott Waide. Dick Quirk and Evan Marshall have been bracketed due to fitness concerns.Unavailable due to injury or other commitments are James McMillan, Robbie Lawson, Kerry Walmsley and Mark Richardson, who will be involved in his own programme at the academy.

ScorecardAlex Blake limited the damage [file picture]•Getty Images

Kent slumped to a disappointing 51-run home defeat in the Royal London Cup with more than 12 overs to spare to allow Lancashire – the team they will meet in next Saturday’s NatWest T20 Blast quarter-final at Canterbury – to land a resounding win.In seemingly ideal batting conditions, they made a complete hash of their target of 259 virtually from ball one and but for Alex Blake’s belligerent 89, would have fallen woefully short .Joe Denly was first to go, driving hard at a wide one from Kyle Jarvis to be snaffled at slip without scoring. Daniel Bell-Drummond (30) appeared well set until a Jordan Clark yorker ricocheted via the back pad onto the base of off stump.Sam Billings, driving on the charge at slow left-armer Stephen Parry, picked out Steven Croft at short extra cover then Sam Northeast (36) fenced at one from Clark to be caught behind.A ‘yes, no, sorry’ moment between Darren Stevens and Fabian Cowdrey ended with both batsmen stood at the non-striker’s end and Cowdrey’s run out , with Stevens soon to follow, made matters worse.Matt Coles heaved across the line against James Faulkner to spoon a catch to mid-on, then James Tredwell became the second run out victim when Petersen’s direct hit from point left him short of his ground.Alex Blake moved to 49 by taking 17 off four successive balls from Parry, only for Mitch Claydon to chip back a return catch and leave Kent nine down.After a 41-ball 50 with three fours and three sixes, Blake added a further three maximums in racing to 89 before being bowled when attempting a slog sweep against Faulkner.Batting first after losing the toss Lancashire’s top order struggled on a white pitch that, possibly through early morning dew, offered some early lateral seam movement to Kent’s new ball attack.Ashwell Prince got off the mark with a sweetly-timed push against Mitch Claydon in the third over but, without addition, nicked an ambitious drive against Coles to James Tredwell at second slip.In Coles’s next over Karl Brown feathered a tentative push through to the keeper Billings to leave Lancashire in trouble at 25 for two at the end of their first 10-over powerplay.Claydon gave way at the Pavilion End to Matt Hunn, who, with his second ball, had Alviro Petersen caught down the leg-side by a tumbling Billings as the South African right-hander aimed to glance.Kent should have claimed a fourth victim in the 23rd over when Liam Livingstone’s top-edged sweep off Tredwell sailed to deep mid-wicket where, somewhat inexplicably, Denly allowed a simple chance to slip through his grasp and over the ropes.Livingstone, in form of late for his Lancashire League side and the county second string, took advantage by reaching his maiden 50 for the Lancashire first team from 56 balls and with two sixes and three fours.Livingstone and Croft added 100 inside 20 overs with Croft reaching his half-century from 76-balls with only three fours but their 112-partnership ended soon after when Croft was caught low by a diving Stevens at point to give Hunn a second fortunate wicket.Livingstone was only nine short of his hundred when he toe-ended a return catch to the bowler, Stevens, when attempting a ‘Dilshan scoop’, then Faulkner wafted across the line of a full one from Coles to go leg before.After a cracking 35-ball 50 with eight fours, Alex Davies holed out to deep cover off Stevens and Parry was caught behind against Coles after throwing the kitchen sink at an attempted drive. Coles, the pick of the home attack, finished with 4 for 34.Clark skied to long-off to give Claydon his first wicket in the penultimate over but, given the conditions, Lancashire’s total of 258 for 9 still looked a below par score.Livingstone said : “It’s a massive win for us because we came here knowing we needed victory to keep ourselves in the competition. I’ve tried to change a few things with my technique and it would seem that work is starting to pay off. We know we’re playing Kent again here next week so I’d like to think I’ve given myself the best chance of playing in that one too.”Blake admitted: “Although we were only 50 short it felt like a lot more somehow. We need to win every game we can in this competition and that defeat means we’ll probably need to win our two remaining matches.”

A century from Chirag Khurana and three wickets from the in-form Anupam Sanklecha left Maharashtra in a dominant position against Assam at the IIT-Chemplast ground in Chennai. Khurana, who began the day batting on 14, finished unbeaten on 112 as he helped Maharashtra’s last five wickets add 190 to their overnight total. They were eventually bowled out for 542. Khurana stretched his overnight partnership with wicketkeeper-batsman Vishant More (48) from 25 to 124, and added a further 68 with Sanklecha for the eighth wicket. Abu Nechim Ahmed and Syed Mohammad were Assam’s most successful bowlers, picking up three wickets apiece.Sanklecha – who picked up two seven-fors in his most recent game, against Vidarbha – then came back and ripped out three wickets to leave Assam 13 for 2 and then 56 for 3, before the opener Rishav Das (53*) added an unbroken 76 for the fourth wicket with Kunal Saikia (38*) to steer them to 132 for 3 at stumps, still trailing by 410.Rishabh Pant continued his run of form, scoring a rapid half-century to help Delhi take the first-innings lead against Rajasthan in Wayanad. Resuming on 37 for 0, Delhi were bowled out for 307, with seamers Pankaj Singh and Tanvir Ul-Haq taking three wickets each. Rajasthan ended the day 19 for 1 in their second innings and trailing by 50.Delhi’s openers stretched their overnight partnership to 52 before both fell in the space of four balls, Gautam Gambhir for 10 and Shikhar Dhawan for 38. Unmukt Chand (32) and Nitish Rana (24) added 51 for the third wicket, before Pant walked in at No. 5 and proceeded to score 75 of Delhi’s next 93 runs. He was fifth out with Delhi still trailing by 42, having scored his runs off 59 balls, with nine fours and three sixes. Delhi lost two more quick wickets and were 204 for 7 before Milind Kumar (42) and Sumit Narwal (34 off 25) steered them into the lead with a 54-run eighth-wicket stand. With Vikas Tokas (18) and Nitin Saini (16*) making useful contributions as well, Delhi stretched their lead to 69.Half-centuries from Biplab Samantray and Saurabh Rawat hauled Odisha out of a tight spot and into a sizeable lead against Karnataka at the Palam ground in Delhi. Replying to Karnataka’s 179, Odisha were 140 for 6 when wicketkeeper Rawat joined Samantray. They proceeded to add 106 for the seventh wicket in 34.4 overs before Samantray was out to the legspinner Shreyas Gopal for 58.Shreyas then dismissed Suryakant Pradhan (23) and Rawat, for 85 off 124 balls, to end the day with figures of 5 for 73. Odisha were 318 for 9 at stumps, leading by 139, with Basant Mohanty and Alok Mangaraj adding an unbroken 26 for the last wicket.A 171-run opening stand between Sanjay Ramaswamy and Faiz Fazal moved Vidarbha within sight of taking the first-innings lead against Saurashtra at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi. At stumps, Vidarbha were 242 for 3, trailing by 59.Saurashtra had to wait till the 59th over of the day to taste any success, and used nine bowlers. Eventually, it was the part-timer Prerak Mankad who had Sanjay lbw for 77 to claim his first wicket in his third first-class match. Another part-timer, Amitoze Singh, then dismissed Fazal for 94, before the offspinner Vandit Jivranjani, sent back Ganesh Satish to have Vidarbha 223 for 3. Shalabh Shrivastava (31*) and Jitesh Sharma (6* off 41) saw out the rest of the day, putting on an unbroken partnership of 19 in 13.4 overs.

Muttiah Muralitharan has been ruled out of the first three one-day internationals against England. Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lanka’s captain, confirmed that Muralitharan’s bicep injury had not healed.”We don’t want to rush him,” Jayawardene said. “He’s almost there, but we just have to make a decision whether we would like to risk him like this soon after injury. We will make sure that we will make a sensible decision.” Sri Lanka’s priority is to get him fit for their trip to Australia which follows almost immediately after the five-match series against England.Such is the shadow that Muralitharan casts over matches that at the press conference today Paul Collingwood, England’s captain, seemed reluctant to believe that he would not be playing. “We’re preparing as if Murali is playing and we will still prepare in this way,” he said.Sri Lanka called Kaushal Lokuarachchi into the squad as a replacement. A legspinner, he has 19 ODIs to his name and can more than hold his own with the bat. The Guardian reported that his inclusion was too much for Trevor Bayliss, Sri Lanka’s new Australian coach, who told the media, with some uncertainty, that Muralitharan’s stand-in was someone called Wakaroochi.Before the first game England take on a Sri Lanka Cricket XI, captained by Avishka Gunawardene, in a one-day warm-up match at the P Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo on Friday. Besides Gunawardene, England’s opponents include seven players with international limited-overs experience, the most prominent among them being Malinga Bandara, the legspinner, who lost his spot in the national squad to Lokuarachchi.Gihan de Silva and Indika de Saram will vie for the wicketkeepers slot. The selection of de Saram, 34, comes as a surprise, considering that he played his last ODI in 2001.Kevin Pietersen is likely to captain England for the first time after Collingwood was hit by a stomach bug. Collingwood, Stuart Broad, Luke Wright and Alastair Cook are all struggling with what their coach, Peter Moores, described as a “stomach illness”. The match will also be a significant moment for Dimitri Mascarenhas, who will play for the first time in his country of origin.Sri Lanka Cricket XI Avishka Gunawardene, Viraj Perera, Chamara Kapugedera, Thilina Kadamby, Gihan de Silva, Gihan Rupasinghe, Malinga Bandara, Nuwan Kulasekara, Ranga Dias, Akalanka Ganegama, Sujeewa de Silva, Ashan Priyaranjan, Indika de Saram (wk), Lasith Fernando.England XI (probable) Kevin Pietersen (capt), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Phil Mustard (wk), Monty Panesar, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, Chris Tremlett.

A leading British newspaper has claimed the London bombers were initially ordered by Al-Qaeda to target the England and Australian teams during the 2005 Ashes series.Quoting a friend of one of the terrorists, said Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer allegedly received the orders at a training camp near Kotli, in Kashmir, during December 2004. The claims have been made by a family friend of Hasib Hussain, the bus bomber who killed 13 people. The friend, who is willing to pass his information to the police, uses the pseudonym Ahmed Hafiz.According to Hafiz, 32, the bombers were instructed to get jobs as stewards at Edgbaston and spray sarin gas inside the changing rooms. The second Test between England and Australia began on August 4.Hafiz, whose family have known the Hussains for 25 years, said he had received details of the bombers’ visit from members of his extended family, who were involved in running the camp. He claimed Tanweer, 22, objected to the plot, possibly because he himself was a cricketer. He was told by a witness Tanweer argued with Khan, 30, and a scuffle between them had to be broken up by a minder.