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Bangladesh were fearing bankruptcy after New Delhi said cricketingties between Pakistan and India will only resume after thenormalization of political relations between the two neighbors.The director of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Ashraf-ul-Haq,talking exclusively to Dawn, further said he would condemn India’swithdrawal from the Asian Test Championship during the Asian CricketCouncil (ACC) meeting at Lahore on Oct 20 and 21.”Bangladesh will go bankrupt if India continues to run away fromplaying Pakistan. Their decision to pull out from the competition hasbadly affected the budget of the BCB as the profits from thechampionship would have been invested on the development of the gamein Bangladesh,” he said.Ashraf believed that Pakistan and Sri Lanka might survive from thehuge financial setback.”We are the newest Test nation and need funds. We don’t have the moneyrequired to uplift the standard of the game. But if we don’t earnmoney, the sport will die. It would be a tragedy if a Test nation hasto face this fate,” Ashraf said.”The ACC can invest that money in Bangladesh but that would be immoraland unethical as that money is for countries like Singapore, Malaysia,Nepal and others.” he said.Ashraf said BCB had planned a tri-nation one-day series also involvingIndia and Pakistan in Dec and the eve of Pakistan’s two-Test tour toDhaka to cover up for the losses and generate some money throughsponsorships and television rights. But feared that that proposalmight not materialize under the present circumstances.Although India has confirmed to play in the competition but there is apossibility of it withdrawing once again and that too at last minute.Similarly, Pakistan’s position is also not clear.”I think Pakistan will be justified in not playing India in Bangladeshuntil India tours Pakistan. But Pakistan board has always been kindand helpful and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) understands what willhappen to us if money-generating continental events were not played,”he said, “I sincerely hope that Pakistan will show a big heart as theywere the ones who proposed us for Test status and supported all theway.”Ashraf said he would condemn India in the ACC meeting which followsthe eight-day ICC executive board’s meeting in October in Lahore. “Ican’t go there and say India did the right thing. Of course, I willcondemn India,” he said.However, he added the ACC was not in a position to penalize India.”How can the ACC penalize India at this stage? But it is a lesson foreveryone and hopefully there will be a clause to impose penalties on anation which defaults.”He suggested that the country defaulting should be fined 50% from theincome through title sponsorships and televisions rights. Just torecap, Pakistan will host the Asia Cup one-day tournament in Aug-Septin 2002. Besides the four Asian Test playing countries, two qualifierswill also participate.Ashraf disagreed that the game’s governing body could do anything toIndia. He said the Asian Test Championship had nothing to do with theICC as it was a continental tournament.

Ed Joyce has stepped down from the Sussex captaincy a week after the club suffered relegation to Division Two of the Championship. Luke Wright, the T20 captain, is a leading candidate to take over in the other two formats next season although Sussex are yet to confirm Joyce’s successor.Joyce stepped up after Michael Yardy resigned midway through 2012 and oversaw consecutive third-placed finishes in the following two seasons. The Ireland opener passed 1000 first-class runs each time but struggled for form this year, with only one Championship century. He made scores of 2 and 1 as Sussex were beaten by Yorkshire in the final round to fall out of Division One.”It has been an honour to captain Sussex for the last three-and-a half years,” Joyce said. “I couldn’t have asked for a more committed group of players and coaches to work with.”We’ve had a very tough year in 2015 but despite this, we’ve received overwhelming support from the majority of fans and this shows the unity and family feeling that Sussex engenders.”My increasing commitments with Ireland and the stage in my career that I’m at meant that the job this year became more a burden than a challenge to be relished. So the time is definitely right to hand over the reins to a new captain and whoever that is will have my full support. I’m also very determined to get back to scoring lots of runs and helping us back into the first division of the Championship and to performing much better in white-ball cricket.”We have so much talent in the dressing room and so many good people throughout the club that I’m certain we’ll bounce straight back from this season.”Joyce has another year on his Sussex contract to run and his experience at the top of the order should see him retain an important role, particularly after the retirement of Yardy.Wright finished the season as Sussex’s leading first-class run-scorer, with 1220, and also contributed more than 500 in the NatWest Blast as he captained them to the quarter-finals for the first time since 2012.Sussex’s cricket manager Mark Robinson said: “I’d like to thank Ed for all of his hard work and dedication that he has put into the job. He has always led the team with great integrity and commitment, and I’m sure that the new captain will appreciate having a player of the stature of Ed to be able to lean on for advice and support.”

ScorecardMatt Coles picked up a six-wicket haul as Leicestershire crumbled for 159•Getty Images

A pitch almost as green as the outfield made Kent captain Sam Northeast’s decision to bowl first a simple one, and he would have been satisfied after his side bowled Leicestershire out for just 159 on day one of their Championship Division Two encounter at Grace Road.Leicestershire’s total could have been even fewer had the visitors held all their chances, particularly during a morning session throughout which the ball seamed and swung, but which ended with the home side on 109 for 4.Ned Eckersley was the only Leicestershire batsman to offer any defiance as he made 41 from 52 balls and, after the rest were skittled inside 52 overs thanks largely to Matt Coles’ six-wicket haul, Kent reached 44 for 2 in reply by the close.Three of the morning-session wickets fell to Coles, and first to be dismissed was Matt Boyce, who pushed hard at a rising delivery and was well held by Adam Ball at second slip, the ball flying quickly and at chest-height.However Angus Robson and Eckersley then added 58 for the second wicket, taking advantage of a series of wide or over-pitched deliveries, before Robson drove loosely at Coles and thin-edged a catch to wicketkeeper Sam Billings. Only one more run had been added when Greg Smith, returning to his former county on a month’s loan from Nottinghamshire, pushed forward at his first delivery and edged a comfortable catch off Calum Haggett to Coles at second slip.Darren Stevens dropped Eckersley off Haggett but Coles, having switched ends, bowled Eckersley with a pitched-up delivery as Leicestershire lost three wickets for just seven runs.They were seen through to lunch by Andrea Agathangelou and Aadil Ali, the latter a 20-year-old academy graduate making his first-class debut for the county. But Kent bowled with a lot more accuracy after the break, and picked up the last six wickets for 65 runs. Coles took three of them, ending with figures of 6 for 55 to take his season tally to 48.Agathangelou led the procession, edging an attempted cut at Stevens to Ball at first slip. Ali had applied himself with determination, going to 13 before edging a Stevens outswinger to Coles at second slip.Lewis Hill and Clint McKay miscued attacking shots off Coles’ bowling, which resulted in their giving off-side catches to Sam Northeast and Joe Denly respectively. Ben Raine was bowled by Coles and Ollie Freckingham top-edged an attempted hook off Haggett to leave Leicestershire all out for 159.To add to their woes, a heavy shower forced the umpires to call an early tea before their bowlers could look to put the Kent batsmen under immediate pressure in reply.When play did restart, only 14 overs were possible before the rain returned to end play. Kent lost the wickets of Denly, caught at bat and pad off Raine, and Daniel Bell-Drummond, leg-before on the back foot to a delivery from McKay that kept low.

ScorecardChris Read’s century put Notts into the lead•Getty Images

Chris Read helped himself to a second century of the season as Nottinghamshire dominated day three against Middlesex at Trent Bridge. Having passed three figures for the first time this summer in the four-day game between the sides at Lord’s back in April, the Notts captain was at it again, this time on home soil.Having been dropped on 54, Read, the 36-year-old former England wicketkeeper, went on to score 108 from 206 balls as Notts built a useful first innings lead.Resuming on their overnight score of 180 for 4, Notts found themselves in a spot of trouble when Samit Patel was bowled, in the third over of the day, at 184 for 5 and Steven Mullaney holed out to Tim Murtagh off Ollie Rayner 45 runs later. At that stage, they still trailed Middlesex by 145. But despite losing 15 overs to rain, Notts pushed on after lunch with Read and Brett Hutton adding 157 for the seventh wicket.Read, who missed six weeks of the season from the middle of May due to a hamstring injury, struck eight fours in reaching his half century, off 101 balls, and posted three figures for the first time since mid-April, off 190 balls. Having been dropped at slip by Ollie Rayner on 54 – a sharp chance to Rayner’s right hand – he eventually fell to Toby Roland-Jones, at 386 for 7.The captain’s job was made all the more easy by Hutton, who batted beautifully to post his highest first class score of 72. The 22-year-old bowling allrounder brought up his own half-century off 121 balls, with seven fours, and looked comfortable throughout against a Middlesex attack that offered precious little as the day wore on.Hutton continued to bat with due care and attention after his skipper’s departure and with Luke Wood, who was dropped on 0 off the bowling of Dawid Malan, he added 25 for the eighth wicket. But he finally departed at 419 for 9 and at that juncture Notts declared with a first innings lead of 45. Middlesex opener Sam Robson and nightwatchman James Harris successfully negotiated the final two overs of the evening and trail Notts by 38 runs with all 10 second innings wickets in hand.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsKeron Cottoy bowled 13 dot balls and took four wickets•Caribbean Premier League

Guyana Amazon Warriors captain Denesh Ramdin steered his side to a slender three-wicket win after legspinner Keron Cottoy rocked their middle order in the chase of 112. After Sunil Narine’s 3 for 6 restricted St Lucia Zouks to 111 for 7, Warriors were reduced from 59 for 1 to 87 for 8 before Ramdin’s unbeaten 39 led Amazon Warriors to second place in the points table, one point behind Barbados Tridents.Amazon Warriors were given a strong start by Lendl Simmons and Ramdin after opener Assad Fudadin fell in the third over. Simmons and Ramdin put on 40 runs to bring the required run rate down to 4.41 but Cottoy struck twice in three balls in the ninth over, having Simmons caught at long-on for 31 and Brad Hodge caught and bowled for a duck. Amazon Warriors were dented further when Umar Akmal was adjudged lbw in Cottoy’s next over despite a very thick inside edge. Cottoy came back in the 13th over to knock over Christopher Barnwell’s off stump with a yorker to finish with 4 for 18 from four overs, his best T20 figures.Amazon Warriors made things worse by inflicting two run-outs on themselves. First David Wiese fell to a direct hit from mid-on, for a duck, and seven balls later Narine ran for an overthrow Ramdin did not want after the wicketkeeper failed to collect a throw from long leg. Ramdin, on 24, was now left with the tail to wipe off the remaining 25 runs in six overs. He found an able partner in Veerasammy Permaul who survived ten deliveries in their stand of 25. Ramdin eased their nerves with two consecutive fours in the beginning of the 17th over and Permaul later sealed their nervous win with a six over the wide long-on boundary, with two overs to spare.Earlier, Zouks were put in to bat and their flow of runs was stalled when Narine came on in the eighth over to dismiss Andre Fletcher and Delorn Johnson off consecutive balls. He also trapped Kevin Pietersen lbw for 24 in his next over. Only Henry Davids’ unbeaten 25 off 34 and Jerome Taylor’s run-a-ball 20 pushed their score past 100 after they were 63 for 5 in the 12th over, but it did not prove to be enough.

The second Test between Bangladesh and Pakistan was wrapped up at 2:04 pm on the fourth afternoon. But thoughts remained on what happened 30 minutes before the start of the game on Wednesday.Mushfiqur Rahim, the Bangladesh captain, had opted to bowl on a pitch that did more for fast bowlers in the first two hours of the first day, than it did in the last couple of years. Still, Bangladesh went in the Test with just two pace bowlers. Mushfiqur, however, insisted the team had three seamers.”It wasn’t just the two pace bowlers,” Mushfiqur said. “We took three pace bowlers if you consider Soumya (Sarkar). It was a unanimous decision of the team management. The outcome is showing it was a wrong decision. If it was a correct decision, there wouldn’t be much talk.”Everyone has a say. It is not my team or the coach’s team. This is the Bangladesh team. Everyone has an input. We decide what everything things is good for the team. The selectors, coaches, myself are all there,” he said.Sarkar had to bowl in place of the injured Shahadat Hossain after two balls into the game but he did not have the numbers to back himself as a third seamer in a Test. He had only been used for seven overs in two ODIs while he only bowled one over in Khulna where Rubel Hossain and Mohammad Shahid were the pace bowlers.  In first-class cricket, Sarkar has 19 wickets in 34 matches with a five-for taken in November 2012.Mushfiqur said that had Shahadat been fit, things could have been different. On the first day, Bangladesh took three wickets, two of which came in the first session.”Many of you have said that we should have batted first after winning the toss,” Mushfiqur said. “But it was the team management’s decision; the wicket had a lot of help for the bowlers in the first two hours. We could have taken three-four wickets if (Shahadat Hossain) Rajib didn’t get injured. If we could have bowled them out for a low score and taken a lead, this Test would have been different. But it didn’t happen. The blame is on us.””We decided the playing XI after seeing the wicket,” he said. “We pick a 12-man squad and then decide the XI on the morning of the first day. We decide early whether we want to bat or bowl first. We speak to the curator about what sort of wicket it will be. All of us, including the senior cricketers, read the wicket. It is not a singular decision ultimately.The other issue was in the spin department but Mushfiqur said that had Jubair Hossain not picked up an injury (heel), he would have been picked. Pakistan’s Yasir Shah, the legspinner, found considerable grip on the Mirpur pitch to pick up seven wickets in the game.”We needed to replace (Jubair Hossain) Likhon who got injured on the morning of the first day,” he said. “Otherwise he would have played the game. We thought Shuvagata was the better option. Yasir Shah bowled well so Jubair could have had some benefit from this wicket.”Interestingly, Mushfiqur said the decision to prepare a sporting wicket in Mirpur was a result of criticism of the Khulna wicket. There was discussion about the wicket in talk shows in Bangladeshi TV channels and in the Pakistan media.”There was a lot of talk about how the Khulna wicket was too flat where the bowlers weren’t able to take 20 wickets,” he said. “We wanted to create an opportunity to take 20 wickets while at the same time let the batsmen play freely too. This is what the team management decided.”Mushfiqur, however, said that rather than talking about the pitch, the focus should be on the Bangladesh players’ failure in this game to score runs and take wickets.

WIPA/WICB 2013-14 award winners

• Player of the Year: Sulieman Benn

• ODI Player of the Year: Denesh Ramdin

• Test Player of the Year: Kraigg Brathwaite

• Twenty20 International Player of the Year: Samuel Badree

• Emerging Player of the Year: Jermaine Blackwood

• Women’s Player of the Year: Stafanie Taylor

• Regional four-day Player of the Year: Shacaya Thomas (Combined Campuses & Colleges)

• Regional limited-overs Player of the Year: Dwayne Smith (Barbados)

• Regional Twenty20 Player of the Year: Lendl Simmons (Trinidad & Tobago)

• Regional four-day Team of the Year: Barbados

• U-19 Player of the Year: Shimron Hetmyer (Guyana)

• Regional U-19 Team of the Year: Guyana

• WICB Lifetime Achievement Award: Chetram Singh

• WIPA Lifetime Achievement Award: Renford Pinnock

• Outstanding Performer WIPA in the community: Ronnie Goddard

Sulieman Benn was named West Indies’ Player of the Year for the 2013-14 season in WICB’s annual awards function in Kingston on Tuesday. Benn picked up 28 wickets in five Tests at an average of 25.03 between October 2013 and September 2014 – the period of consideration for these awards.Kraigg Brathwaite was awarded the Test Player of the Year, while Test captain Denesh Ramdin was named ODI Player of the Year. Brathwaite scored 593 runs in the five Tests that were played during this period at an average of 74.12, which included a 129 against New Zealand and a double-century against Bangladesh. Ramdin produced impressive numbers in ODIs, scoring 445 runs in 11 games at an average of 63.57, including two centuries and a half-century, with a career-best 169 against Bangladesh.Jermaine Blackwood, who scored 63 on his Test debut in 2014 against New Zealand, and a hundred and fifty against England recently, was named Emerging Player of the Year and Stafanie Taylor was awarded the Women’s Player of the Year.Samuel Badree was named T20I Player of the Year for his 19 wickets in 12 matches during this period, with an average of 12.36 and economy of five runs per over.

ScorecardJames Harris now has 53 first-class wickets•Getty Images

Middlesex took just one session on day four to complete a comfortable nine-wicket LV= Championship victory against Hampshire at Lord’s and strengthen their third-placed position in the Division One table.Hampshire, resuming only 41 runs in front on 195 for 7 in their second innings, were bowled out for 227 in 13 more overs, with Middlesex’s in-form seamer James Harris finishing with 4 for 80.Middlesex captain James Franklin said: “We had to win this game to stay up with the leaders of the division. Seeing Yorkshire beat Durham earlier in the day means we are right up there in the mix.”The bowlers were excellent in this match, led by James. I knew him as a teenager when I played at Glamorgan, and he has always has a lot of talent. It’s been well documented that he’s had a tough couple of years, during which time his bowling technique was changed a little, but now he’s back doing what he did before and the results are there for all to see.”I’ve no doubt that he can go on and play for England. He just needs to keep taking the numbers of wickets he has been taking this season – with another eight in this game – and then that sort of thing tends to look after itself.”It took Middlesex just 17.4 overs to knock off the 74 runs they needed for a 22-point win, their fourth in the championship this season. The lunch interval was delayed to enable Middlesex to score the 13 runs they still required, with the result confirmed at 1.15pm when Sam Robson hit Will Smith’s offspin through the covers for four.Paul Stirling hit four boundaries before being bowled by Gareth Berg for 16, but Robson and Nick Compton then added an unbroken 39 to deny Hampshire’s bowlers any further successes. Robson ended on 36 not out, and Compton – whose first innings 87 was so valuable to his side – was unbeaten on 16.Hampshire, for whom it was a fourth defeat, go bottom of the division and the threat of relegation is very much hanging over a team who have won just one of their nine matches to date.Danny Briggs, one of Hampshire’s not out batsmen overnight, took early fours from both Harris and Tim Murtagh, who opened up with a second new ball still only four overs old.Briggs, however, had added only 14 runs to his overnight score when he edged Toby Roland-Jones, who had replaced Harris at the Pavilion End, and was superbly held by a diving Ollie Rayner at the first of two gullies.In the next over, the ninth of the morning, Murtagh had Berg leg-before for 25 and the last moment of Hampshire defiance came when Jackson Bird, the No 11, pulled Harris into the Grand Stand for six.Harris had the last laugh, though, by trapping Brad Wheal lbw for 1 to take his match analysis to 8 for 128 and his season’s tally to 53 first-class wickets and, just after noon, Middlesex began their second innings in search of the modest victory target.

Twenty-five West Indies players have been named in the Stanford All Stars squad for the $20million match against England on November 1.The squad will eventually be whittled down to 12 – each of whom stands in line to win $1million – and Richie Richardson, the former West Indies captain who is now on the Stanford board of directors, believes that each of the names in the squad has a very good chance of earning a shot at the big money.”We believe with the talent that we have and the team we’ve picked, if the guys really put their minds to it and work hard, they can beat England,” Richardson told . . “After all, it’s one match, 20 overs. It’s how well you play on the day for three hours.”The coaches are virtually chosen, too. “We’ve selected about 25 players and some extras in case of injuries and other things,” said Richardson. “We haven’t quite decided exactly who but we are probably going to use some of the same coaches that we have been using. We have Eldine Baptiste in place, we have Roger Harper [but] we have not finalised who is exactly going to be responsible.”The squad will get together for training a few weeks before the match.

The Western Australian Cricket Association congratulates Damien Martyn on his 100th first-class game for Western Australia.Martyn will be the 10th player to make 100 first-class appearances for Western Australia, when he plays against Victoria at the WACA Ground this weekend.The recently turned 31-year-old made his first-class debut, ironically against Victoria, in the 1990-91 season as a 19-year-old. He made 24 and 27 in that match.As well as his 99 first-class outings for Western Australia, Damien has also made 29 Test appearances. His resurrection as an international player of outstanding quality in recent seasons has been well documented as one of world cricket’s fairy tales.He is the incumbent Australian Test team number four batsman.For Western Australia he has scored 7062 runs at an average of 45.56, with 20 centuries and 35 scores of 50 or more. He has also claimed 32 wickets with his nagging right-arm seamers.Martyn joins a distinguished and decorated band of past West Australian greats in the elite `100 Club’.

Player                    Career             GamesTM Moody             1985-86 – 2000-01         145MRJ Veletta          1983-84 – 1994-95         127GM Wood              1976-77 – 1991-92         125RJ Inverarity        1962-63 – 1978-79         119TJ Zoehrer           1980-81 – 1993-94         117GR Marsh             1977-78 – 1993-94         112TM Alderman          1974-75 – 1992-93         111IJ Brayshaw          1960-61 – 1977-78         101KH MacLeay           1981-82 – 1991-92         100