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Tamim Iqbal is expecting to take his place at the top of the Bangladesh batting order when the first Test at Lord’s gets underway on Thursday, despite struggling during the tour of England with an injury to his left wrist that may yet require surgery at some stage this year.Tamim first sustained the injury while fielding during Bangladesh’s domestic Twenty20 competition in 2009, but the problem flared up again ahead of the recent World Twenty20 in the Caribbean, in which he played only a minor role during their 21-run defeat against Pakistan in St Lucia and missed the defeat to Australia in Barbados.Upon arrival in England, Tamim sat out Bangladesh’s first two fixtures against Surrey and Essex, but showed glimpses of form with scores of 36 and 19 in the team’s nine-wicket defeat against England Lions at Derby last week, and the lure of a Lord’s Test is likely to persuade him to push through the pain barrier.”I’ve pushed myself five percent more than maybe I would have done on other grounds,” Tamim told Cricinfo. “I’m really excited to play at Lord’s in a Test match. It will be a dream come true and I really want to play, because I don’t know when I’ll get another chance.”Tamim conceded that the prospect of surgery had not been entirely ruled out, but given Bangladesh’s hectic schedule, which includes the Asia Cup straight after the Test series, followed by the one-day leg of the England tour in July, finding a three-month window that will allow him sufficient time to recuperate ahead of the World Cup next February is a tricky balancing act.”I went to a specialist yesterday, and he said you’ve got two choices,” Tamim said. “Either you play with taping and hope there won’t be any harm, or you can have surgery that will take three months. We have a very busy schedule so the team management told me to decide, so I am seeing another doctor today [Tuesday], and if he gives me the green signal, then I’ll play the first match, and think about surgery when I am free.Tamim was the stand-out performer for Bangladesh during England’s tour of the country in March, in which he scored a brilliant century in the first ODI in Dhaka, followed by three free-flowing half-centuries in four innings during the Tests. Whether fully fit or otherwise, his presence at the top of the order will provide his side with vital experience in alien bowler-friendly conditions.”Test cricket is most important, so I don’t want to take any chances, but I’m batting okay in the nets and the pain is getting better day by day,” he said. “This is my third tour to England, and last time I played okay. I scored some runs against South Africa and the county teams, so there won’t be any problem adjusting to the wickets. I am an international cricket player, so I need to adjust to every ground and every wicket.”Bangladesh’s preparations for the first Test have been blighted by illness as well as injury, with their captain, Shakib Al Hasan, being forced into quarantine after contracting chicken pox early in the tour. He took a full part in training on Monday and is sure to lead his team out on Thursday morning, but the disruption is not what Bangladesh needed ahead of such a tough assignment.”I think he’s fully recovered now, he’s running around, batting and bowling, and he’ll be there in the first Test to captain our side,” said Tamim. “We were not allowed to go anywhere near him [last week], he was staying alone, and only the guys who’d had chicken pox before were allowed to go and see him. I asked my mother if I’d ever had chicken pox and she said I hadn’t, but then I did a test and it said that I had had, which was funny.”Assuming Bangladesh can overcome their setbacks to field a full-strength side, Tamim hopes that they can build on the encouraging displays that they showed against England earlier in the year. “We know that we are an improving side, we are doing okay in international games, but we are just not winning games,” he said. “We’ve got to prove to the world that we can play in any conditions.”

Somerset 234 for 3 beat Unicorns 233 for 8 by seven wickets
ScorecardA stylish 104-ball century from Zander de Bruyn guided Somerset out of trouble as they recorded a seven-wicket Clydesdale Bank 40 win over the Unicorns at Taunton.The home side were reduced to 9 for 2 in reply to 233 before de Bruyn, whohit 13 fours and a six in his unbeaten 86, Arul Suppiah (36) and James Hildreth, with a 54-ball innings of 84 not out, produced a recovery that saw them to a third Group A victory in as many games with 19 balls to spare.Former Somerset players Keith Parsons (53) and Wes Durston (31) had madesignificant contributions to the Unicorns innings of 233 for 8, in which Michael O’Shea top-scored with 61 off 74 balls. Ben Phillips (3 for 40) and Damien Wright (3 for 43) were the most successful bowlers.Left-arm-seamer Jonathan Miles looked to have set up the possibility of a shock result when yorking Marcus Trescothick for 1 and having Nick Compton caught in the slips for three at the start of the Somerset reply. But De Bruyn looked in tremendous form from the start of his innings andSuppiah helped add 76 for the third wicket to calm any nerves.Hildreth then smashed a 39-ball half-century, with a six and six fours, in an exciting century stand with De Bruyn that featured some brilliant running between the wickets as well as numerous cleanly struck boundaries.The Unicorns innings had been given a fast start by former Gloucestershireplayer Jackson Thompson, who thumped 36 off 26 balls, with four fours and two sixes. The powerful left-hander helped take the score to 57 in the ninth over when pulling the first ball of the match from Alfonso Thomas straight to Suppiah at long-on.O’Shea and Durston then ensured the scoring rate was maintained with a stand of 47 in seven overs, Durston enjoying his return to Taunton with five fours in his breezy 25-ball innings. That laid the foundation for veteran Parsons to come in and remind home supporters of his one-day batting skills. He hit only three fours in facing 73 balls, but cleverly worked ones and twos kept the scoreboard ticking.It was 185 for four when O’Shea was lbw sweeping at Phillips, who had earlier removed opener Chris Murtagh for 12. Former Glamorgan batsman O’Shea had hit a six over long-on off Peter Trego to reach a fluent half-century off 67 balls.Phillips claimed three wickets for the third successive CB40 match,while Wright took two in his final over. But it had been an excellent effort by the Unicorns against some patchy bowling. Legspinner Max Waller proved more economical than the seamers, conceding only 27 from eight overs.

Craig Kieswetter believes his combination with Andrew Strauss at the top of the order for England can be successful after the pair shared a rapid century stand against Scotland.Since coming into the side in February Kieswetter has become a central part of Andy Flower’s limited-overs strategy. His clean-hitting approach alongside Michael Lumb was pivotal to England’s success in the World Twenty20 but he must now forge a new partnership with Strauss, who was rested during Kieswetter’s previous ODI appearances in Bangladesh.Strauss’s return to England’s one-day side was questioned in some quarters, with doubts over his ability to match the powerful hitting that England had adopted so successfully in the Caribbean.In their first outing together, however, Kieswetter and Strauss put on 121 runs in 15 overs, smiting 21 fours and two sixes, which has filled Kieswetter with confidence that the pair can gel.”It was good to get a win and good to get a nice start at the top with Straussy,” he said. “We batted nicely together, got a good bit of banter going and I thought we dovetailed quite well together.”We’d like to think we can [continue in that vein]. It was a really good track to bat on but hopefully it wasn’t quite as easy as we made it look.”Sterner tests await on Tuesday when England meet Australia at the Rose Bowl. For Kieswetter it’s another chance to impress after his man-of-the-match winning performance against them in the final of the World Twenty20 and for Strauss it’s a chance to nail his authority ahead of the Ashes in November.”It’s nice to get runs and for the openers to get a start sets us up well for the Aussies. It’s going to give us a lot of confidence for Australia, who are obviously going to play some aggressive cricket as well. But we’re happy with where we are at the moment and excited about the next five one-dayers which will be a big test for us.”

This time last year, Mitchell Johnson was approaching his nadir. He was on Australia’s Ashes tour of England; his mother was in the tabloids back home, claiming Johnson had been “stolen” away from her by his fiancée. The stories were picked up in the London press, and it was an ugly episode that distracted Johnson from his role as the team’s spearhead.At Lord’s, he bowled short and wide and was carved up by England’s batsmen, and finished the match with 3 for 200. The crowds around the country got stuck in to him, he couldn’t swing the ball, and nothing went right. Next week, he returns to Lord’s to face Pakistan in a Test, almost a year to the day after he last wore the baggy green there, under nothing like the same intense scrutiny.”Lord’s was my lowest point, performance wise,” Johnson said in Birmingham, where he was preparing for Monday’s Twenty20 against Pakistan. “Even that, I look at the second innings and I started to feel a little better about my bowling. You look at the whole series and I was one of the leading wicket takers, I just wasn’t really at my best.”I’m definitely more relaxed this time. It’s totally different to last time. I don’t feel those pressures. My game, I feel, has improved a lot since last being here. I had that exposure of what it was like to be the new leader of the attack and getting all the media hype and what you were getting from the crowds as well.”On that front, Johnson is right. The Ashes this series is not, so the media hype will not follow him. And when the return contest comes later this year, Johnson will have the local fans behind him. Even so, he feels he has learnt from his last trip to England, and his focus was tested again earlier this year in New Zealand, when he clashed heads with Scott Styris in an ODI in Napier.”In New Zealand I copped a fair bit as well from their crowds, with the incident that happened over there with Scott Styris,” Johnson said. “I copped a fair bit over there after that, but I showed that I can pull my head together and just go out there and play cricket and not let the emotions get to me. I’ve pretty much shown that I have improved.”His focus is one thing, but Johnson must also find a way to master the English conditions. He finished the Ashes tour with 20 wickets at 32.55 – not a bad analysis, but one that flattered him a little. Part of the problem at Lord’s was the unusual slope, which Johnson had been warned about but which caused him all sorts of trouble, while he also found the English surfaces slower and softer under his feet.Against Pakistan at Lord’s and Headingley, Johnson will be Ricky Ponting’s go-to man in a pace attack likely to feature Doug Bollinger and Ben Hilfenhaus. He doesn’t view the series so much as a second chance in England as an opportunity to fine-tune his game, which has improved dramatically since last July – he has taken 41 Test wickets at 25.90 since the start of the Australian summer.”I did find Lord’s quite different, quite a hard place to bowl because of the slope in it,” Johnson said. “It’s something that I was warned about, speaking to past players and [Australia’s bowling coach] Troy Cooley, who has been over here as the England bowling coach. It was a pretty good experience for me.”I haven’t played county cricket before, and it’s always a good experience coming over here and playing on different kinds of wickets. Whether it’s a second chance or not – I’m not looking at it that way. I just want to go out there and do my best again. Hopefully we can start off with these Twenty20s and then work into the Test matches, which I’m really looking forward to.”Monday’s Twenty20 will be Johnson’s first match back after missing the ODI series against England due to an infection in his right elbow. He had a tattoo on the arm ahead of the World Twenty20 and there has been speculation the two could be linked, but Johnson isn’t convinced that his artwork had anything to do with his soreness.”I wouldn’t have thought so,” he said. “I got the tattoo three weeks before I travelled away, so that ruled that out. I got to the West Indies and I felt like I knocked it on the plane, but I’m not 100% sure. It started off as a little bursa, a little sac of fluid, and then progressed from there. We’re not really 100% sure how it came and got infected. At the moment it’s feeling very good.”So is the rest of Johnson. What a difference a year makes.

Shahid Afridi, the Pakistan limited-overs captain, has said Pakistan’s poor performance in the ongoing Test series against England is partly a result of the lack of players with the “right temperament” for five-day cricket. However, he said the team had plenty of talent for the shorter versions.”I think we have seen the players up close after their performances in England and obviously there will be some changes for the one-day series but I feel we have a good combination for limited overs cricket although we are struggling in Test matches,” he was quoted as saying by . “We are struggling in England because we don’t have too many players with the right temperament for five-day cricket. But in contrast we have talented players for the shorter versions of the sport.”Afridi retired from Tests after his team’s loss at Lord’s against Australia but will lead Pakistan in the five ODIs and two Twenty20 internationals against England following the four-match Test series, which they trail 0-2 after two big defeats.”We have had so many problems in Pakistan with millions being rendered homeless due to the floods. I just want to contribute in bringing some joy to our people who are facing so many problems right now,” Afridi said. “And I am confident we can do that because in one-day and Twenty20 cricket, we have good teams.”

ScorecardA battling unbeaten 62 from Jonathan Bairstow rescued Yorkshire and earned them avaluable batting bonus point against Kent at Headingley as they aimed to clinchthe County Championship title in their final match of the season.Bad light and drizzle restricted the opening day’s play to 58 overs butYorkshire managed to reach 205 for 7 and pick up a batting bonus point afterthey had been 93 for 5 at one stage.Kent, who also need a victory in order to avoid relegation, were happy to winthe toss and insert Yorkshire on a green pitch which offered plenty ofassistance to the seam bowlers. Adam Lyth and Jacques Rudolph survived together until the ninth over when Simon Cook found the edge of Lyth’s bat and he was caught at first slip by James Tredwell for 17.Anthony McGrath (one) drove loosely outside off-stump in the next over fromJames Coles and was caught by Martin van Jaarsveld at second slip to leaveYorkshire struggling on 31 for 2, but skipper Andrew Gale came to the creasein a positive frame of mind and made good progress while Rudolph continuedcautiously at the other end. The ball before lunch, however, brought about the downfall of Gale who moved in front of his stumps and was lbw to Dewald Nel for 39 off 63 balls with sevenboundaries.That made Yorkshire 81 for 3 at the interval and not long afterwards theydipped to 93 for 5. Rudolph, who had occupied the crease for two hours for his 25, was bowled by Nel and in the following over Gerard Brophy played Coles into his stumps for one.Bairstow and Adil Rashid responded by taking the attack to Kent with Bairstowmoving the score along smartly by helping himself to three boundaries in an overoff Nel before twice finding the rope against Coles.Two short stoppages for the thinnest of drizzle which barely wet the grounddrew some barracking from Yorkshire fans, but when play did resume Rashid droveCook gloriously through the covers for four. Further light rain brought forward the tea interval and, when play finally re-started 70 minutes later, 14 overs had been lost. The sixth-wicket stand moved on to 65 in 13 overs before Rashid drove wildly at Nel and was caught behind by Geraint Jones for 29 off 37 balls with five fours.Another useful stand began to develop between Bairstow and Ajmal Shahzad asYorkshire closed in on a valuable batting bonus point and Shahzad gained inconfidence with a couple of fine cover drives. Bairstow pulled Coles for four to reach a sparkling 50 – his eighth half-century of the season. It contained nine boundaries and came off 81 balls.Although time had earlier been lost when it was virtually dry, play was nowable to continue while rain fell in the near distance and a cheer went up whenShahzad found the square-leg boundary off Nel to secure a batting point at 200for six. The same over saw Ajmal dismissed for 21 as he moved into his stumps and waslbw to bring Nel his fourth wicket, but soon afterwards bad light ended play forthe day.

The current controversy involving Pakistan players in England could have been averted had the recommendations made by the Qayyum Commission been fully implemented, the retired High Court judge, who investigated the findings into match-fixing more than a decade ago, has said. The latest crisis was sparked by the arrest of a 35-year-old man Mazher Majeed, who was allegedly caught claiming to have bribed Pakistan’s bowlers to bowl no-balls during the fourth Test at Lord’s.Malik Mohammad Qayyum was appointed by the PCB in 1998 to examine allegations of match-fixing against suspected players. While many of his recommendations were upheld – two players were banned and several were fined – Qayyum claimed the PCB was not “strong enough” to implement others.”I suggested the Pakistan Cricket Board keep a tight vigil on the players and recommended some of the players should not be given any responsibility in team matters, but some of them are still involved in the team’s coaching,” Qayyum told . Among his recommendations was that players’ assets must be examined annually, though this too remained unimplemented.”It took me two long years and I summoned some 52 players and officials,who all accepted match-fixing existed in cricket.”However, in an interview with Cricinfo in January 2006, Qayyum admitted he been lenient in his verdict on a couple of players, including Wasim Akram. “The quantum of punishment is more of one’s subjective decision, and I was lenient towards one or two of them,” he had said. “I had some soft corner for him [Wasim]. He was a very great player, a very great bowler and I was his fan, and therefore that thing did weigh with me.”

Taking note of the continuing decline in the governance of cricket in Pakistan, the ICC has given the PCB a hard rap on the knuckles and decided to monitor closely the running of the game in Pakistan. After a two-day board meeting at the ICC’s HQ in Dubai – the first since the spot-fixing scandal that rocked the world of cricket – the message of the world governing body to one of its leading members was clear: sort out the game’s administration or face the consequences, potentially in the form of sanctions.A wide-ranging series of measures has been approved by the ICC requiring Pakistan to not only toughen its approach to corruption within the game but to also work alongside the ICC’s task force on Pakistan “to carry out any reforms which may be deemed necessary to restore confidence in the administration of the game” in that country.In this statement lies an implicit recognition and acknowledgment of the administrative mishaps in Ijaz Butt’s two-year tenure, as well as the breakdown in relationship between the board and ICC. Under Butt’s administration, the ICC has seen a full member attacked by terrorists in Pakistan, an incident that took international cricket away from the country. That almost led to a legal battle between the PCB and ICC and, though it was averted, the PCB didn’t even file a report on the incident to the ICC until well over a year later.The ICC’s task force, initially set up to examine ways to bring international cricket back to Pakistan and cushion against subsequent financial losses, has been “reconstituted” for this purpose; in effect, it’s brief has been widened to go beyond and look at ways to work with the PCB in improving governance. Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman who heads the task force, is believed to have played a crucial role in the meetings to broaden the force’s role. Peter Chingoka, the ZC chairman who has also extended a helping hand to the PCB by offering his national side as the first tourists to Pakistan since the terror attacks, has been appointed to the team, which also includes Ranjan Madugalle, Ramiz Raja, Mike Brearley and Dave Richardson, the ICC’s general manager.The spot-fixing scandal that erupted during the tour to England this summer has also brought its own specific repercussions. The Pakistan board refused to initially suspend the three players at the centre of the scandal, eventually compelling the ICC to do so. That sparked another war of words between Butt and the ICC, the former claiming the latter had acted with undue haste as the police investigation was ongoing. Matters took a bizzare twist when Butt claimed there was “loud and clear talk” of England’s players taking money to lose an ODI this summer. He was forced to retract the statement after the ECB threatened legal action and the whole affair prompted some within the ICC to consider the possibility of suspending Butt from his ICC directorship.It is against this backdrop that the ICC has told the PCB that “it must act and be seen to be acting to uphold the zero-tolerance attitude to corruption in sport.” Pakistan now has 30 days to conduct a thorough and far-reaching review of their “player integrity issues” and report back to the task force.In the review, the PCB must show that it has introduced a domestic anti-corruption code, in line with the ICC’s own code. Not all member countries currently have a domestic code but the ACSU has only requested all members to implement a domestic code that mirrors the ICC’s, a sign of how seriously it is considering the problem in Pakistan. The PCB has also been asked in that time to implement an education programmes for players, a “proper, accountable and robust disciplinary process for the sport” and a process to deter and detect corrupt elements within the game, “whether it be players, officials, agents or any other individual.”In effect, the PCB has been asked to take measures which should’ve been taken ten years ago after the Qayyum commission report, a decade in which the clouds of corruption have hovered consistently over Pakistan cricket. Failure to do so could lead to sanctions according to the ICC, though the nature of these have not been specified. The worst case scenario – and an extremely unlikely one – is that Pakistan is suspended as a full member, though it is thought a likelier option might be to find ways to deal with officials other than Butt.With Butt’s recent statements in mind, the board has also been told not to take any action “which might put themselves in a conflict of interest position as regards the allegations” that are currently under investigation, or to make “public comments and disclosing confidential information which undermine the integrity, reputation and image of the game and/or any ongoing disciplinary or criminal investigation/proceedings.”All of which is likely to place further pressure on Butt, who has already been facing severe criticism domestically from across the spectrum. Rumours were rife last week that he was about to be replaced, though that has come to nought.

Tasmania 4 for 120 (Cosgrove 41*, Harris 3-50) v Queensland
ScorecardRyan Harris has two Test caps and would love some more•Getty Images

Ryan Harris delivered a timely reminder of his form to Ricky Ponting as Queensland had Tasmania 4 for 120 at the end of a rain-interrupted first day. Ponting, who made a start with 32 in a rare Sheffield Shield appearance, was the only wicket Harris didn’t manage as he claimed 3 for 50 from 18 overs on a lively Bellerive Oval surface.However, Ponting got a close-up view of Harris’ recovery from knee surgery and will pass on his notes to the Australian selectors as they prepare for Monday’s announcement of the opening Ashes squad. Harris is an outside chance of rejoining the side, which he represented in two Tests this year before succumbing to the injury.Harris had Jon Wells lbw in the opening over and thought he had Ponting with an lbw appeal early in his innings. Ponting was dismissed instead by James Hopes when he edged to Chris Lynn at third slip after collecting five boundaries. The conditions were tricky for the locals, who were sent in, and Ponting will chase more batting practice for the Ashes in the second innings.Tasmania were 3 for 56 when Harris bowled George Bailey and he struck again after a three-hour rain delay, removing Ed Cowan (30) before bad light stopped play. Mark Cosgrove finished unbeaten on 41 while Travis Birt was 11. Queensland are desperate for a strong showing after being dismissed for 75 and 96 by New South Wales in their previous Shield match.

Daniel Vettori said he was “happy” with the performance after his side batted through a potentially testing morning session to ensure the series remained level, but stressed that New Zealand were neither “satisfied” nor “content” with the 0-0 scoreline going into the final Test in Nagpur. Mark Greatbatch, the New Zealand coach, had said in anger in the aftermath of the Bangladesh debacle that he would settle for two draws in India but Vettori said that was never the plan.”It was never our intention to come here and draw. If you get into that frame of mind you take a backward step straightaway,” Vettori said. “So we’ve come here to win a Test series and at times we’ve put ourselves in those positions. We still want to push, try and put ourselves in winning positions because not many New Zealand teams have come over here and won. It would be such an amazing achievement for us, for this side.”New Zealand began the final day in Hyderabad 115 runs ahead and with six wickets in hand. All that stood between them and the safety of a draw was the first hour and the threat of the second new ball. Kane Williamson began aggressively, scoring three fours in the first over from Sreesanth, while Brendon McCullum continued his solidity from the fourth evening. The Indian challenge died when Zaheer Khan left the field after bowling three overs to prevent a groin injury from getting worse.”The previous mornings, when it swung around a little bit, the new ball’s been the most difficult time,” Vettori said. “We wanted to get through that first hour, hour-and-a-half, and see where we were at. Brendon and Kane played so well, so positively. But the fact that India were down a bowler probably made it quite difficult for them.”MS Dhoni, the India captain, laid a lot of the blame for India’s inability to force a win on the pitch and Vettori, while not as scathing, agreed it was difficult track to take 20 wickets on. “The wicket had a little bit of pace in it, I think the thing that you want is for it to deteriorate and I think it stayed relatively similar,” Vettori said. “The footmarks didn’t come up and that didn’t allow the spinners to really get into play.”New Zealand were forced to save the game on the final day but on the third, they were well placed to limit India’s lead and surge ahead with a strong second-innings performance. Their chances of taking the upper hand, however, slipped away as Harbhajan Singh swung his way to a century and added 105 with Sreesanth for the last wicket. Vettori said that that period, during which Harbhajan became the series top-run-scorer, was possibly the only disappointment for New Zealand in the Test.”If we look back on it, that’s always going to be the disappointing aspect of the Test,” Vettori said. “To fight so hard before that partnership, I think we had 200 for 7 on the day and Harbhajan played so well and so aggressively and took the game to us and really put us on the back foot. If we manage to get through the Indian middle-order again, we’ve got to be ready for Harbhajan and go pretty hard at him because he’s played so well in these two Test matches.”