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Former Sri Lankan first-class cricketer and All Ceylon Captain Conroy Ievers Gunasekera, famously known as ‘CI’, died in Colombo on Thursday at the age of 90. Born on July 14, 1920, he learnt the game when Sri Lanka was under British rule. He was known to be one of the hardest hitters of the ball of his era, and also bowled right-arm legbreaks.Gunasekera played for Royal College, but drew notice with his performances for Singhalese SC. He won his first national cap at the age of 27 against Don Bradman’s ‘Invincibles’, and represented his country against international teams until 1964, with his last appearance also against the Australians, led by Bob Simpson.He was belatedly handed the national captaincy in 1960 at the age of 40, and is remembered for a quickfire cameo he played against Richie Benaud’s touring Australians a year later. He plundered three fours and two sixes in an over from left-arm spinner Lindsay Kline, looting 24 in all, before finishing with 28.Another of his famous knocks was against the MCC at the P. Sara Oval in 1952 while he was playing for a Commonwealth XI. He beat allrounder Keith Miller to his hundred. Gunasekera scored 135 and Miller 106 in a fourth-wicket partnership of 107. The Commonwealth XI went onto amass 517, and beat the MCC by an innings. His highest first-class score was 212 for Ceylon v Madras in the annual Gopalan trophy match played at P. Sara Oval in 1958-59.Gunasekera, who lived alone in his Colombo home, was devastated following the death of his wife a few years ago and became a virtual recluse. His son lives in England.In a recent interview with a Sunday paper, Gunasekera said, “I was a dreadful smoker, at 2 cents a cigarette; I could afford it for 50 years. That’s why my lungs are shrunk. No one knew that it was bad. Even doctors were offering you cigarettes. At the time they didn’t know medical science.”Gunasekera’s uncle was the famous Dr CH Gunasekara, who became the first Sri Lankan to play for a county side – Middlesex (1919-1922). Gunasekara also excelled in tennis and athletics, but he is remembered mainly for his cricketing exploits.

Muttiah Muralitharan, the leading wicket-taker in Tests and ODIs, will retire from Test cricket after the first Test against India in Galle, which begins on July 18. While he will not play the subsequent tri-series, and will pick and choose which ODIs to play in, Murali will be available for selection if the team needs him for the 2011 World Cup, which Sri Lanka is co-hosting.Cricinfo has learnt that Murali met Aravinda de Silva, the chairman of selectors, and captain Kumar Sangakkara over the weekend to discuss his future. He was asked to consider playing the full series against India, but he was unsure about being at his best if bowled heavily throughout the series.”Murali has been thinking for some time about the right time to go,” a source close to the offspinner told Cricinfo. “All along he has been determined to go while he is still performing rather than just hanging on. He made the decision last week after the Asia Cup and met with the selectors and captain over the weekend to explain to them his position. He is really keen to play on to the World Cup but at the same time he does not want to stand in the way of younger talent. So he will see how things go over the next few months.”Kushil Gunasekara, Murali’s manager, said the unscheduled Test series against India had made Murali fast track his decision to retire. “The selectors want Murali to be around just in case they don’t find a suitable replacement for him for the 2011 World Cup,” he said. “They probably want the spinners to work around Murali.”Murali also considered a stint in county cricket, playing for Surrey, but that is unlikely because Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) doesn’t want him to play too much cricket before the World Cup. Cricinfo also learnt that the selectors and management have privately communicated their desire for him to play on until the World Cup, counting on his experience in the big tournament.About a year ago, Murali had announced he would retire after the home series against West Indies late this year, but in last November he said he could advance the Test retirement. “I am 37 years old and I can’t bowl as much as those days because I get tired after 15-16 overs,” he had told Cricinfo then. “But I will try and play a little bit of one-day cricket – that’s only 10 overs to bowl. If I find everything is not going well I might retire from both forms of the game before the World Cup.”Murali has taken 792 wickets in 132 Tests and 515 wickets in 337 ODIs. Galle will be an interesting shot at retiring with 800 Test wickets.

Bangladesh have left out top-order batsman Aftab Ahmed from their squad for the Asia Cup, while recalling the out-of-form Mohammad Ashraful for the tournament in Sri Lanka in June. The 15-man team, led by Shakib Al Hasan, also includes medium-pacer Syed Rasel, who missed the ODIs against England in March.Ashraful was not part of the home ODI-series against England, but had made the cut for the ICC World Twenty20 in the Caribbean and the recently-completed Test series in England. He made a half-century and a duck in two innings in the West Indies and had a poor tour of England, averaging 12.50 in four Test innings.Aftab played all three ODIs against England but made only 52 runs at an average of 17.33. He got just one opportunity in the World Twenty20 but was dismissed for 1 against Australia.Nasir Hossain and Nazmul Hossain, both of whom were part of the ODI squad against England but didn’t play a game, were left out.Squad: Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Jahurul Islam, Junaid Siddique, Mohammad Ashraful, Mahmudullah, Mashrafe Mortaza, Naeem Islam, Abdur Razzak, Syed Rasel, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Suhrawadi Shuvo.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were outNuwan Kulasekara’s opening spell significantly damaged Zimbabwe’s chances of victory•Associated Press

On the final day of the tri-series, the clock struck 12 and Zimbabwe’s Cinderella XI ran into harsh reality. Put into bat, they were accosted by top-quality swing bowling from Nuwan Kulasekara and Dilhara Fernando, and the damage done in those early overs was too great to reverse for a resourceful Tatenta Taibu, who swept and hustled his way to 71. Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga were ruthless in finishing Zimbabwe off with a 160-run opening stand.Zimbabwe were also hit hard by their batsmen’s general tendency to not play the full-blooded cut shot. Brendan Taylor, their best batsman of the tournament, and Taibu, the best on the final day, both fell to limp cuts, finding gully and point respectively. On the big day, Zimbabwe displayed muddled thinking too: with five wickets down, both Greg Lamb and Charles Coventry got out swinging, but the batting Powerplay wasn’t taken before the 46th over. Nor did they open the bowling with spin, a move that had worked well for them. By the time Ray Price bowled his first over, Sri Lanka had already reached 38 in six overs.At any rate, even Price’s best effort might not have been enough. They were forced into perennial rebuilding mode by the Sri Lankan new-ball bowlers. Kulasekara swung the ball in, Fernando out, and Zimbabwe hardly looked like challenging the norm of chasing sides winning in the tournament. Kulasekara gave four runs in his first four overs for the wicket of Hamilton Masakadza, and Zimbabwe never really recovered.If Fernando’s bowling – fuller than his stock length, thus getting outswing – was a bonus, Kulasekara’s use of the straighter delivery was just as good. When an asphyxiated Masakadza tried to counter the inswing by walking across the stumps, the ball just held its line and took a healthy outside edge. Taylor struggled against the current, going from 4 off 10 to 19 off 21, but played perhaps his worst shot of the series when he looked to steer Fernando despite the presence of a gully fielder. Thilan Samaraweera went low to his right to complete the catch, and the openers were gone inside the first 10 overs.The change-up bowlers were just as tight, and by the start of the 17th over Tatenda Taibu and Craig Ervine had scored 16 off 51 deliveries between them. The pressure showed in their going for risky runs: an over after Ervine survived a close one, Taibu ran him out, calling for a tight single and then sending him back.Then began Zimbabwe’s recovery. Taibu went on a sweeping spree, of both varieties. He and Lamb ran hard, putting behind them the run-out. One of those stolen singles earned them four overthrows too. In the 24th over, Taibu hit two lovely chipped boundaries over extra cover. From 7 off 24, he had moved to his fifty off just 70 balls, during a partnership of counterattack.Taibu and Lamb had added 90 when Fernando was called back in the 36th over. Taibu got one short and wide, and he went for the cut. The bat face closed a touch early, and he held back a bit too. Instead of going over point, the ball went straight to the fielder.A spell of ordinary cricket from Zimbabwe thereon resulted in a collapse. Lamb found it hard to keep alternating the strike, Elton Chigumbura played a tame chip to straight extra cover, and Lamb and Coventry succumbed to big shots without having opted for the Powerplay. Fernando and Ajantha Mendis made sure there was no final flourish, and only poor batting from Sri Lanka could now save the hosts.Poor batting they were not going to get. Dilshan loved the pace Chris Mpofu and Chigumbura provided. He whipped the first ball he faced through midwicket, and never looked back. By the time Price came on to bowl, Dilshan had hit his way to 25 off 19. Once again, the Zimbabwe bowlers made the mistake of bowling too short to him, and paid the price.With only a small target, the Sri Lankan openers didn’t offer the Zimbabwe spinners the respect they were used to. Dilshan hit boundaries in Price’s first two overs and, as has been the trend, Tharanga took over after the Dilshan blitz. By the 17th over, Tharanga had almost caught up with Dilshan, and brought up Sri Lanka’s hundred with an effortless six over long-on, off the bowling of Prosper Utseya.The only matter of interest then was the race between the batsmen to a century. It was ended when there was misunderstanding over a sharp single to short third man, and Tharanga sacrificed his wicket. With 40 runs required, Dilshan was the likelier man to get to the hundred, and he did, and overtook Taylor as the highest run-getter in the tournament.

Pakistan opening batsman Salman Butt has been appointed the team’s vice-captain for the upcoming Asia Cup in Sri Lanka and the tour of England, the PCB announced today. The appointment follows that of Shahid Afridi taking over the top job for the same tours in all three formats of the game.”Butt has been appointed vice captain for the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka and for the tour of England,” a Pakistan Cricket Board spokesman told .Butt was tipped by the Pakistan media to be the Pakistan captain after the indefinite ban and retirement of Mohammad Yousuf, who led the team in New Zealand and Australia. However, when Afridi announced his return to Test cricket, the PCB decided to make him captain as he already had experience in captaining the Twenty20 side. Butt said it would be an honour if he was handed the captaincy, but he wasn’t thinking about it and chose to focus on performing as a batsman in the upcoming tours.Pakistan will play India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the Asia Cup from June 15-24 before heading to England for five Tests (three against England and two against Australia), two Twenty20s against Australia, five ODIs and a Twenty20 against England.

The Supreme Court has issued a notice to N Srinivasan, the BCCI secretary, on a petition concerning the latter’s ownership of the Chennai Super Kings IPL franchise and asking whether it constituted a conflict of interest. The petition has been filed by former BCCI president AC Muthiah.Srinivasan is the managing director of India Cements, the owner of the Chennai franchise. Muthiah has challenged the right of BCCI officials to have stakes in IPL teams, stating that it was a conflict of interest. His petition, filed last month, follows the Madras High Court’s decision to dismiss a similar plea filed by Muthiah. He questioned the authority of Srinivasan convening the IPL governing council meeting on April 26, given his dual role of team owner and board secretary.Under its original rules, the BCCI prohibited its office-bearers from having commercial interests in the league, but this rule was retrospectively amended in September 2008, eight months after the inaugural round of bidding for IPL franchises.The court directive comes a day after it served a show-cause notice on suspended IPL chairman Lalit Modi, based on complaints from the ECB chairman Giles Clarke.Modi reacted to Muthiah’s allegations, saying that it was an issue which needed to be sorted. “This is in court for sometime now. What Muthiah has been alleging is something that needs to be looked into,” Modi told the news channel . “I am just starting to look at my paper work and yes I do think there is an issue here. At first glance there is a problem here and I will look into it seriously.”Things have been done out here for sure and I have to see the paper trail that has been created in this case.”

The next IPL auction will have a salary cap of $7 million for each franchise, it has been announced. The auction, due to be held later this year, is likely to see all players available for signing for the first time since the inaugural auction in 2008.”This would mean $70 million for the 10 teams every year and $210 million in three years,” Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman was quoted as telling PTI. “This will be the single largest auction in sporting world, you see even in art auctions the bids are for a few million and that too for total ownership. In IPL, the amount that the teams would spend on players would be huge for having the contract for just three years.”Modi said the enhanced cap for auctioning would be for three years, starting with the fourth season of the IPL in 2011, and that the details of the increased ceiling and the auction programme would be announced after the current tournament.Like in the initial auction for the 2008 season, Modi said there would be a three-year lock-in period for players acquired in 2011 as well, and that there would be “separate trading windows for the purpose”, in case players or teams wanted to make changes.The decision came on a day Subroto Roy, the Sahara Group chief who won the rights for one of the two new franchises added to the IPL, suggested an increase on the cap. Roy acquired the Pune franchise while Rendezvous World Sports bagged rights for the Kochi team, taking the total number to 10.

Shoaib Akhtar has hit out at the Pakistan board’s decision to deduct Rs 7 million ($82,353) from his annual earnings as punishment for a contested misdemeanor under the previous PCB regime.Shoaib was banned for five years by Nasim Ashraf’s administration in April 2008 for what it claimed were several violations of the players’ disciplinary code of conduct. After an appeal, the ban was reduced in June to 18 months and the fine remained.But Shoaib went to the Lahore High Court to appeal against that and the court immediately suspended the ban, but deferred judgment on the fine. Since then the current PCB administration said it sent reminders to Shoaib about the fine; having not received a reply, they deducted the entire amount last month from his annual earnings, which included his central contract payments, match fees and win bonuses (from January 2009 to November 2009).Shoaib was due to earn Rs 7,044, 971 ($82,882) in that period but was instead sent a cheque for just Rs 44,971 ($529). He will contest the decision to deduct the fine. “I didn’t even speak badly about a chairman, I just spoke about how wickets were poor in Nasim Ashraf’s time [he had actually criticised the administration for demoting him in the central contracts category], so why has my money been deducted?” Shoaib said at the National Stadium in Karachi. “That is a lifetime earning for most people. I am just saying why has my money been deducted, on what basis? If they wanted to cut it, don’t give me a central contract.”The court did not give any such verdict that the board is saying that he can play but cut his money. The case I did was not just on playing but on the fine as well. All of that was suspended. I am appealing it now. I will take it further and I will not let it finish like this.”Shoaib recently returned to action after another lengthy lay-off due to major knee surgery. He led the Islamabad Leopards side in what was a virtual quarter-final against the Faisalabad Wolves in the RBS Twenty20 cup. His side was comprehensively beaten but Shoaib bowled his four overs on the trot, an impressive spell in which he picked up one wicket as well.Though he hasn’t represented Pakistan for almost a year and hasn’t played a Test since December 2007, he refused to rule out a comeback to any of the formats. He will not, he insisted, go the route of an increasing number of fast bowlers, who have chosen to step away from five-day cricket to prolong their career in the limited-overs format.”There is nothing on my mind about retiring from any formats,” Shoaib said. “I will play Test cricket, ODI and Twenty20 as well. You have seen my pace today. This is my first match in five months and I had a big operation on my knee. No fast bowler makes a recovery so quickly but I have done and you can see it. Brett Lee has been unfit for seven months, Shaun Tait plays T20s, or the Champions Trophy or the World Cup. All the fastest bowlers in the world, Flintoff, Tait, Lee, we cannot play all year constantly.”Though Shoaib was not named in the 30 probables for the World Twenty20 in April, he retained hope that he could make his way in as a “wildcard” option. The arrival of a former fast bowler, Waqar Younis, as coach, he believes, might prove a boon.”Pakistan should have a wildcard with them. Even Abdul Razzaq went last time like that. I don’t know what the board wants or wants to see. I am bowling, I am fit. Playing me is up to the board, coach and selectors. Hopefully the PCB will realise this and bring me back in the 30 probables. For the first time there is a fast bowler coming in as coach who will understand fast bowlers. He can deal with fast bowlers properly, save them and help them excel.”

Chris Gayle believes that that Twenty20 cricket is West Indies’ best chance of achieving major international success and sees the world tournament at home this year as a big opportunity to take a step up. Gayle won the Cricinfo Twenty20 batting award for 2009, but he is far from the only star West Indies have in a format in which they made last year’s ICC World Twenty20 semi-finals before Trinidad & Tobago stormed into the Champions League final.The powerful allrounders, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo, are well suited to Twenty20 and even Lendl Simmons emerged in England last year as a dangerous batting allrounder. This year’s World Twenty20 in the Caribbean begins in late April and Gayle will be aiming to take his side one stage further than last year.”When you look at our team we’ve got a lot of allrounders in our team so the shorter form of the game definitely can suit us and we can be a bit more dangerous in the T20 games,” Gayle said. “The guys have been playing more T20 cricket so they’re getting more experience which is very good.”It should be easier to go out there and chance their arm and take it to international level,” he added. “All the guys are making good progress at this point in time and we have a World Cup coming up, so we’ll see how well we can do in that.”West Indies’ hopes will soar if Gayle produces another innings like the 88 against Australia at The Oval that won him Cricinfo’s award. It was a display of strength, timing and judgment the likes of which The Oval had rarely witnessed. Brett Lee finished with 1 for 56 from his four overs and watched one of Gayle’s six sixes land on the roof of the Bedser Stand.”I remember it quite well,” Gayle said. “It was a good innings. I’m happy to be the winner of the award and hopefully in the future I can get a few more. Also I heard that Jerome Taylor has won the best Test bowling as well so I must send my congratulations to him.”Up against the best team, the attack was very good as well. It was Mitchell Johnson from the other end, Bracken, Brett Lee, so it was a good strong bowling line-up. To get the runs against such an attack is good. That’s the format of the game. When it’s early it’s good to capitalise on. From a batting point of view I won that battle against Australia and Brett Lee got hammered but he came back and got me out, so that’s the game.”Nobody handles the Twenty20 game better than Gayle, who remains the only man to have struck an international century in the format. Once he starts firing he can be nearly impossible to stop and he said the way he begins an innings is the key to how well he will perform.”The start is very important and it’s more a momentum thing,” he said. “Once you’re on the go, sometimes as a batter it doesn’t matter what comes at you, you can close the eyes sometimes and play a particular shot when things are going your way. It’s just a matter of time before you get another century. Dilshan went close in the semi-final with his 96 and Herschelle Gibbs got 90s and Smith and those guys.”Gayle was speaking after West Indies’ loss in the fifth ODI against Australia and despite a record low crowd for MCG one-dayers between the teams, he said five ODIs was not too many in a series and it would be hard to squeeze in many more Twenty20 internationals. However, he is keen to see a separate window created for the IPL.”It’s jam-packed at the moment,” he said. “We’re not playing a lot of T20s, most tours you get one or two T20s. More international and Test matches take over. I don’t know what will happen in the future but it’s up to the ICC to debate what they can fit in.”It has been said since the first IPL that there should be a window for that, so everyone can take part in it. Maybe that’s something they will look in to. All players should be able to participate in that so I’m sure they can work with the boards and come up with something.”

In a financial year in which many counties have struggled as a result of the downturn in the economy, Leicestershire have recorded a small profit of £689 for 2009. This is the first time the county has recorded a profit since 2003, and heavy financial losses were suffered in 2007 and 2008.”I am expecting difficult trading conditions to continue throughout 2010, with sponsorship and advertising revenue streams in particular continuing to be under pressure,” said Leicestershire chief executive David Smith. “But we are hopeful with three Friday night Twenty20 matches in June and July to see an increase in our corporate hospitality revenue.”Despite the financial difficulties faced, Leicestershire have decided to substantially increase their investment in the cricket playing budget for the 2010 season, recruiting former England bowler Matthew Hoggard as club captain, and Brad Hodge as a second overseas player – to go with fellow Australian Andrew McDonald – for this year’s domestic Twenty20 competition.”Non Test match cricket clubs will face many challenges over the next few years but I believe that after a difficult few seasons, as we move forward, the club has genuine reasons for optimism,” Smith added.