Sangakkara and Jayawardene backs Malinga's decision

Kumar Sangakkara says he fully supports Lasisth Malinga's decision to retire from Test cricket.

The fast bowler announced his retirement from the longest form of the game earlier in the week after the Sri Lankan cricket board questioned is continued participation in the Indian Premier League despite having made himself unavailable for his country's upcoming tour to England.

The right-armer cited a desire to prolong his career in the face of a troublesome knee injury as the reason for his decision, and the move has been backed by former skipper Sangakkara.
"We were all well aware of the seriousness of his knee condition and while I was captain we tried to manage him as carefully and sensitively as possible during the past couple of years," Sangakkara wrote in the Times of India.
"We obviously wanted him to play Tests, but when we asked him to play the India tour it took him two months to physically recover from that."
"The truth is that Lasith is our best fast bowler in limited-overs cricket right now.
"If we forced him to play Tests we would be running the risk of losing him completely. That would be a tragedy for Sri Lanka, undermining both the ODI and T20 teams.
"Malinga has always given his best as a national cricketer. Had it not been for his knee problem he would definitely want to play Tests. I fully support his decision and hope that as a result of it we see him playing for a few more years."
Former vice-captain Mahela Jayawardene has also voiced his support for Malinga, stating that the decision was the best one for the bowler.

"Given the state of his knee condition, there is no point in him taking the risk of playing Test cricket," Jayawardene wrote, also in the Times of India.

"If he breaks down then it will be bad for Sri Lanka. We want him playing for us as long as possible. Some people have criticised the decision, arguing that he is being selfish. This short-sighted argument is very unfair given that he clearly has a chronic knee problem.

"Lasith is a human being and, while he is totally committed to Sri Lanka, he also has responsibilities as a husband and, one day hopefully, a father. If his career is ended by injury, who is going to look after him and his family? When he suffered the injury the first time he was stripped of his central contract within about six months and left with no income.

"Any individual in any profession has to consider their personal and family interests when they make big decisions in their life. Why should a professional cricketer be any different? We need to support him and protect him. He is a natural match-winner and a great asset for Sri Lanka. We should be grateful for his services and help him look after himself."

Sri Lanka travel to England for a series comprising of three Tests, one T20I and five ODIs, starting in May.

Misbah Shafiq guides Pakistan to 8 wicket win

Misbah-ul-Haq, Asad Shafiq, and Mohammad Hafeez all coasted to half-centuries as Pakistan clinched a comfortable eight-wicket win over West Indies in the first one-day international.

Misbah hit the top score of an unbeaten 73 from 90 deliveries, and Shafiq supported with 61 not out from 76 balls, after man-of-the-match Hafeez gave the Pakistanis a flying start with 54 from 45 balls in their successful chase of 222 for victory on Saturday.

Shafiq ushered Pakistan over the finish line with 51 balls remaining when he edged a slog at a delivery from Kemar Roach to third man for a single.

The result gave Pakistanis a 1-0 lead in the five-match series, which continues on Monday at the same Beausejour ground.

Wayward bowling from the visitors in the closing overs had let West Indies finish with 221 for six from their 50 overs.

Wahab Riaz was the most successful bowler with two for 62 from 10 overs, but he and fellow left-arm fast-medium bowler Junaid Khan let their side down.

Pakistan's spin bowling triumvirate of Saeed Ajmal, Hafeez and captain Shahid Afridi tied the West Indies batsmen down in the middle overs in particular.

But the two Pakistani left-arm pacers did not have the same control over the home team's batsmen and Darren Bravo hit 67 from 109 balls to lead the way for West Indies.

"I was very happy when West Indies won the toss and chose to bat because I thought the pitch would help our spinners," Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi said.

"I think our spinners have been doing a great job for us in the last few months, and they again set things up for us."

"The way the openers Mohammad Hafeez and Ahmed Shehzad played was also good to see, and then the partnership between Misbah and Asad brought us home. It was good cricket all around for us."

Hafeez and Ahmed Shehzad then gave the visitors a blistering start in an opening stand of 68 before Devendra Bishoo snared both of them in the space of 25 balls to end with two for 48 from his 10 overs.

Shehzad moving down the pitch was stumped for 22 in the 13th over off the leg-spinner, and Hafeez, whose 50 came from 48 balls, was caught at short mid-wicket in the 17th over off the same bowler.

Misbah joined Shafiq and they marched Pakistan to victory with an unbroken, third-wicket stand of 134, a record for any wicket on the ground.

"We put ourselves in a hole when we were batting, and the spinners were bowling, so we really have to come better in the next game," said West Indies captain Darren Sammy whose team also lost to Pakistan in last month's World Cup quarter-finals.

Dilshan named Sri Lankan skipper

Tillakaratne Dilshan will lead Sri Lanka on their upcoming tour to England in May.

The all-rounder takes over the reins from Kumar Sangakkara who, along with his deputy Mahela Jayawardene, vacated his leadership position after the recent World Cup.

It was thought that the captain would come from one of Dilshan or Angelo Mathews, with the 34-year-old getting the nod.

A vice-captain has not been named because "the prospective candidates are nursing injuries, and their availability for the forthcoming tour is still in question," suggesting that Mathews, who is nursing a calf injury will take the role of vice-captain.

Dilshan does have some experience leading his country, having taken charge in two T20 games and a five-match ODI tour of Zimbabwe last year.

PCB pushes for series against India

The Pakistan board has said it has initiated talks with the BCCI over resuming cricketing relations between India and Pakistan, though no decision has yet been taken on when and where to play or the number of matches.

"There has been contact with the BCCI with regards to restarting bilateral contests," Subhan Ahmed, chief operating officer of the PCB, told ESPNcricinfo. "We sent them an email and they replied but as they are busy with the IPL currently, talks will begin after the IPL is over."

There are no details yet of when and what form the contests will take but they are likely to be short, bilateral ODI series. "There will be three stages to these talks," Subhan said. "Firstly, the boards will decide when we can actually play. Both sides are very busy with FTP requirements in the near future so finding a window will be the first thing. Then we'll talk about the matches themselves and what kind they will be, a three match ODI series or whatever. Finally we will discuss the venue for the series."

The IPL runs till the end of May and India have three overseas tours in the eight months that follow, including high-profile series in England and Australia. India also have a full series home-and-away against West Indies, the Champions League Twenty20 and a home one-day series against England.

India has suspended sporting ties with Pakistan since the 2008 Mumbai terror attack. Since then, India and Pakistan have faced each other only three times, in ODIs at multi-lateral tournaments. The last of those meetings was the World Cup semi-final last month in Mohali, which was attended by the prime ministers of both countries.

After the Mohali match, and the resumption of talks between India and Pakistan's politicians, India's foreign secretary Nirupama Rao said the government welcomed more sporting contact between the two countries. The BCCI has maintained that it has not received any communication from the government over resuming cricketing ties with Pakistan.

While the PCB would like to hold the bilateral cricket series at home, security concerns are likely to rule that out, with the matches likely to be held in India or a neutral country.

Lalit Modi to sue England board chief Giles Clarke

London: Giles Clarke, the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), is being sued by former IPL chief Lalit Modi for libel over an email he sent last year to Indian cricketing authorities warning of a plan to set up a rebel Twenty20 league in England.

"Clarke faces two separate libel actions: one from Modi, the founder of the Indian Premier League, and the other from IMG, the international sports marketing firm, both of whom deny they were involved in any plan to set up a rebel Twenty20 league in England," according to a report in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday.

The alleged plan called "Project Victoria" worth £1.2 billion ($1.87 billion) will be a key part of a libel case to be heard in England's High Court this summer between some of the most powerful figures in the sport, the report said.

The libel claims will be heard at a high court trial in July, which is set down for a month and expected to cost £2 million.

Documents lodged at the high court show Clarke's defence will allege IMG and Modi held discussions with leading English counties over a secret plan to introduce an IPL-style Twenty20 competition involving franchises rather than counties.

Modi and IMG counter that defence by claiming Clarke has lied in court documents in a "desperate attempt to exculpate himself," a claim Clarke denies.

The email that provoked the libel claims was sent by Clarke to the president of the Indian cricket board, Shashank Manohar, although IMG contends it was also copied to members of the ECB board and other officials. It was subsequently leaked to the media. Clarke denies being responsible for the leak to the media.

Imran Tahir's Reaction on Pakistan's defeat to Newzealand

Pakistan's 1992 World Cup winning captain Imran Khan fears that their

crushing Group A defeat against New Zealand on Tuesday could lead

to the team self-destructing in this year's tournament.

Here are his thoughts as told to Reuters on Wednesday:

What should captain Shahid Afridi do now after this 110-run defeat?

"I just hope that they don't press the panic button. If they panic they will

destruct and their World Cup campaign will be in tatters. You could see the

players were nervous and tense.

They need to recover quickly."

So what went wrong?

"I say it is good that this defeat has come at this stage of the tournament.

The management must now rethink their team combinations

and define new roles for the players. The batting order has also been wrong.

You can't have your two best players, Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq,

batting low down the order."

How big a setback is it?

"We shouldn't panic. The format is such we have made the quarter-finals

and it is the knockout matches that will matter. The team must now start

preparing for the quarter-final."

Should wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, who twice missed match-winner

Ross Taylor early in his innings, be dropped now?

"There is no other choice right now so the management must persist with

Kamran, make him train hard and shore up his confidence.

Any more experiments will only trigger more trouble."

Irish bat gone missing

Bangalore police confident of locating cricket bats belonging to Ireland's World Cup batsman Niall O'Brien

Police in Bangalore say they are confident of returning six bats belonging to Niall O'Brien after they went missing during Ireland's five-wicket loss to India on Monday morning

The left-hander, whose brother Kevin was the hero in Ireland's win against England, reported the bats as missing when they failed to arrive at Ireland's hotel with the rest of the team's equipment after the match.

O'Brien travelled back to the M Chinnaswamy Stadiumto check for the bats before he reported it to police.

"The case is being investigated and we hope to trace the bag soon," said a Bangalore police spokesman.

The missing bats is an unwelcomed distraction for Ireland ahead of Friday's crucial match with West Indies in Chandigarh.