James Franklin arrived in Wales insisting he is ready for a county season with Glamorgan, his knee troubles now behind him.After being told last week that he required surgery on his knee, Glamorgan began a search for another bowler. But this week, a second opinion cleared Franklin to play this season. And he is keen to show his county that he isn’t just a bowler who can bat; his hundred in the second Test at Cape Town proves, he says, that he is an allrounder.”Being an all-rounder has been my job for Wellington and I know I can bat,” Franklin told . “But I guess getting that hundred in the second Test at Cape Town has opened a few other people’s eyes. When I do start for Glamorgan I want to show I can do an equally good job with the bat as well as the ball.”The chance for a New Zealander to come over and play county cricket has been rare in the past. But now there are a few of us popping up and it’s a chance I’m relishing. I’ve had a little bit of experience in county cricket with Gloucestershire and I’m really happy to be here.”Franklin also spoke of his fears last week after finding out about the knee problem. “It’s been a bit of a turnaround after finding out 10 days ago I was going to have surgery. But now I’m ready to play the rest of the county championship season.”The MRI scan in South Africa showed their was a tear in my knee, so New Zealand Cricket flew me home to see two surgeons. I met them both, but they both said conclusively that they didn’t want to operate.”I know the scan shows a tear, but I did play with it throughout the Test series, and I’m confident I will be able to play on it over here. So, in conjunction with New Zealand Cricket and Glamorgan, I find myself in Cardiff and, hopefully, playing soon.The county will wait to officially register Franklin until he has proved his fitness over the weekend. “Chris Towers (Glamorgan physio) has had a good look at the knee and he is pretty happy with it. I’ll put it though its paces over the next few days and I’m confident I’ll shape up after that. It will be up to Chris and John Derrick (Glamorgan director of cricket) then to see if they want me to play against Worcestershire on Tuesday.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out – Sri Lanka
How they were out – England

Sanath Jayasuriya showed his hunger for one-day cricket hasn’t dimmed with a match-winning display at The Oval. He struck a sublime 122 which, alongside crunching fifties for Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, powered Sri Lanka towards their impressive 319 for 8. While England had Kevin Pietersen there was hope but Jayasuriya struck the key blow in the 32nd over before returning to clean up two more, snuffing out any thoughts of a fightback and, in the process, sealing a 2-0 series lead.Some aspects of England’s play were improved from an effort at Lord’s that was sometimes shambolic, yet the margin of defeat was significantly larger. Steve Harmison was outstanding in his 10-over spell and the ground fielding lifted itself by a few notches – especially the fine catches held by Pietersen and Tim Bresnan. Promising partnerships between Pietersen and Ian Bell then Pietersen and Paul Collingwood shaped a hopeful run-chase but ultimately too much rested on to few.Not all the failings from Saturday were erased, either, with 33 extras being conceded including another criminally high 21 wides. In their current form, Sri Lanka are not a team that need a helping hand and they quickly showed their intent to climb all over England while they are down.Harmison’s early pace brought the wicket of Saturday’s hero, Upul Tharanga, but once Jayasuriya and Jayawardene had assessed the conditions – and found them to be very flat – they set their sights on doing serious damage to England’s bowling figures. Jayasuriya was the first to flick the switch and unleash a volley of rasping boundaries. Sajid Mahmood was brought back following a first two-over spell that cost 26 and proved even more expensive second time around as Jayasuriya put his foot down by taking 17 off Mahmood’s fifth over, including an effortless six over midwicket.Jayawardene lost nothing in comparison to his partner and his fifty was noticeably faster, taking just 50 balls. The partnership raced past 150 and ended in the only way that appeared likely – a mix-up between the batsmen. Jayasuriya ploughed on to his 20th one-day century off 122 balls and continued a fond acquaintance with The Oval after he first signalled his presence to English crowds with a double-century in the 1998 Test. Sangakkara ensured the momentum was never lost and, after a steady start, he showed his own repertoire of boundaries and raced to his half-century from 41 balls with a swing over midwicket off the struggling Mahmood.

Chasing more than a run a ball from the outset, England needed a rapid platform. Trescothick’s start hinted at the possibility of a Jayasuriya-style onslaught but, attempting a third four, he leant back on a drive and sliced a catch to backward point. With the more orthodox pair of Strauss and Ian Bell together the innings didn’t get the flyer that was needed to exploit the fielding restrictions.Strauss tried to hit over mid-on and only located Muttiah Muralitharan at mid-off but in many ways his dismissal opened up England’s best chance of staying in the game. Pietersen started positively with a couple of crunching cover drives – one from a short-of-length ball that was still rising – and a glorious lofted drive over mid-on off Ruchira Perera, whose first two over cost 21. Pietersen found his range and overcame a painful blow to the knee from Lasith Malinga to crunch a forehand smash off the same bowler. Bell was not overshadowed and slapped a stunning straight six off Chaminda Vaas as England upped the tempo.However, Malinga made the breakthrough for Sri Lanka when Bell top-edged a pull and found Muralitharan at mid-on. With the stand flourishing it was bad timing for England and Malinga had again proved a valuable go-to man for his captain. Pietersen, who eased past fifty off 48 balls, and Collingwood formed another sensible stand and were the ideal combination to bring the required mixture of singles and boundaries.But the day quickly turned into the story of one man of which so much has already been written on tour. Jayasuriya kept firing in his non-spinning, leg-stump bullets and Pietersen fatally showed his stumps as he missed an expansive sweep. Collingwood’s typically energetic half-century came off 55 balls but the task was becoming desperate. He fell to Jayasuriya’s quicker ball and Dalrymple went in similar style with a massive air shot.The last three wickets – varying degrees of laughable run outs – summed up proceedings. Sri Lanka have dominated the two matches from start to finish, England haven’t been at the races. It would be a brave person to put money on this series being alive into next week.

The Indian board’s marketing committee approved sponsorship bids concerning India’s formal wear and accessories, BCCI Ratings and Awards, and the board’s web portal, but rejected the bid on ground rights for the tri-series to be played in Singapore and Malaysia in September.All approved bids will be forwarded to the Working Committee for its ratification. “We had only one bidder for the ground rights – Percept,” Lalit Modi, the chairman of the marketing committee, was quoted as saying in . “But, it was rejected on the grounds that it was too low.” Modi said fresh tenders would be issued, and finalised on Friday in Delhi.The committee approved Accenture’s bid for the board portal. Other issues that were discussed in the meeting were the schedule of the tri-series involving India, Australia and West Indies in Singapore and Malaysia, ticketing for matches in India, and Microsoft’s proposal for software to monitor umpires and non-televised matches.Niranjan Shah, the board secretary, said the working committee meeting on Wednesday was to discuss the agenda for the Annual General Body meeting to be held on September 28.

Indian captain Rahul Dravid today said his team’s emphatic series victory when it last met Sri Lanka would not give it any psychological advantage in the upcoming tri-series in Sri Lanka since the hosts were very difficult opponents at home.India had thrashed the Lankans 6-1 in India in October last year, but Dravid said their Asian rivals had come a long way since then. “I don’t believe in such things as psychological advantage. The 6-1 win was a long time ago and lot of water has gone under the bridge,” Dravid said at a press conference in Colombo ahead of the tournament which has South Africa as the third team.”All three teams start on even footing and it will be a matter of who gets used to the conditions fast and better,” he said.Dravid said India would find their task that much harder as the Lankan team has been on a roll with good performances in England followed by the 2-0 Test series win over South Africa. “Sri Lanka have played well recently and the series in England has given them confidence. They have the momentum going and they are specially formidable at home,” he said.”South Africa are ranked number two in the world. They have some explosive players and in the last two years, if you look at their record, they have been second only to Australia. They even successfully chased a target of 434,” Dravid added.The Indian captain said handling the middle overs in batting would be one of the key areas for India’s success. “We did well against the same set of spinners when they came to India, hopefully we can do well here as well. The key is to bat well in the middle overs. One of the areas where we failed last time was that we did not play bowlers like Tillekaratene Dilshan and Sanath Jayasuriya well.”Dravid, however, warned about the danger of focusing only on tackling Sri Lanka’s spearhead Muttiah Muralitharan. “We have played Murali in the past. He is a difficult bowler, especially at home under lights. So, the strategy for teams coming here has been about playing Murali. But we cannot focus on one bowler. They also have Chaminda Vaas and Dilhara Fernando, and Lasith Malinga has also been bowling well.”Dravid also denied Irfan Pathan was being subjected to “too much workload” and said the hype over his brief loss of form was only because he had raised the expectations of everyone by his performances.Dravid dismissed Pathan’s own reported comments to a television channel that by getting him to open the batting as well as bowling, the team was asking too much from him. “I am not sure if Irfan had said that, but from whatever conversation I have had with him, I could say that he had never felt the workload was too much on him,” Dravid said.”I can say that Irfan had always enjoyed and relished the challenge. People should remember that he missed out only on Test cricket,” he said, referring to Pathan sitting out three Tests on the recent tour of the West Indies.”He hasn’t missed a one-dayer. He is an integral part of our team. At this age (that Pathan is), you want to be given chances to showcase your skills. Pathan has probably had so much success that he has created such expectations of himself.”That happens when you set such high standards for yourself.”

Mark Vermeulen’s ten-year ban imposed by the Central Lancashire League has been declared invalid and he has now been banned for three years – with the second and third suspended – after a hearing of the Lancashire Cricket Board on Monday night.Vermeulen was slapped with the ban last week following a serious altercation during a match between Werneth and Ashton. The league committee imposed the punishment without the player being present as it was widely reported he had left the country. It later emerged he was staying with Andy Flower in Essex.Andrew Fitch-Holland, Vermeulen’s legal representative, told the hearing that his client admitted breaching the ECB Code of Conduct and Spirit of Cricket although mitigating circumstances were put forward. The hearing considered all this and subsequently imposed a three-year ban with effect from April 1, 2007. The second and third years will be suspended.”We are pleased that the board have clearly recognised the substantial mitigation put forward on Mark’s behalf,” Fitch-Holland explained. “However, we are disappointed that Mark remains subject to an effective 12-month ban. Mark is totally focused on fighting for a place in Zimbabwe’s World Cup squad and is obviously concerned as to how this outcome will be viewed. We believe that issues raised by Mark in his mitigation are of great consequence for all professional cricketers and accordingly we feel that it is in Mark’s best interest to pursue his right to an appeal before the ECB.”Fitch-Holland added that Vermeulen had been diagnosed as “suffering from a depressive illness which of course has a significant impact upon his behaviour”. He continued: “For anyone, let alone a professional sportsman, to publically admit to such a struggle is, I suggest, exceptional and worthy of a degree of respect. We offer no excuses for Mark’s unacceptable conduct but ask instead for some understanding. To his credit Mark has aready taken positive steps to seek help, and is trying to remain upbeat about his future in cricket in these difficult days.”Click here to see the video of the incident at bbc.co.uk

Shane Watson feared he was having a heart attack when he was rushed to a Chandigarh hospital with chest pains that turned out to be severe gastritis. He said thoughts of his former Tasmania team-mate Scott Mason, who died last year from a heart attack aged 28, were running through his mind when the illness struck on Tuesday.Watson suddenly felt sick after a team meeting and said he was “just about crumpled up on the floor” of his hotel room before he was taken to a hospital specialising in heart treatment. “We’d had a team meeting and I went back to bed for an hour or so before we were leaving to go to training,” Watson told . “I just started to get really bad pains in my chest and it gradually got worse and worse.”The things that were going through my head were that my Dad has already had a triple heart bypass, so I was hoping my heart was right. I was also thinking about my mate Scott Mason. I’d never had chest pains before, so I didn’t know what it was.”He said Mason’s death last April had deeply affected him. “That was really hard because Dad had a bypass and he was fine after it,” he said. “After Scott had his heart operation, I thought that everything would be fine with him as well, like it was with Dad.”Watson, who has opened in the previous two games, said one positive from the timing of his illness was that he had time to recover before Australia’s Champions Trophy clash with India on Sunday. “There’s no reason why I wouldn’t play,” he said. “The great thing was that it happened a fair way out from the game so I can get a bit of rest and make sure everything is right for the game.”

Scorecard
It was a day where the Assam bowlers wreaked havoc. Arnald Konwar and Anand Katti snared seven wickets between them as Kerala were routed for 109. Following-on, Kerala lost Sadagoppan Ramesh early and trailed by 199 at the end of the day. Assam attacked with spin straightaway, bringing on Anand Katti, the left-arm spinner, with the new ball. Though Katti didn’t pick up any wicket early, he was miserly as ever and paved way for Konwar to harass the top order with his offspin. The spinners were well supported by Abu Nechim, the 18-year old fast-bowler. Earlier, Kerala rallied through the offspin of Sadanandan Anish, who picked up four wickets to restrict Assam, overnight on 247 for 3, to 313.
Scorecard
Railways piled up an imposing 535 on the second day against Goa, boosted by half-centuries by Jai Prakash Yadav, Sanjip Sanyal and Sushant Manjrekar. Shreyas Khanolkar, overnight on 103, added 17 to his overnight score before falling leg before to seamer Saurabh Bandekar, who picked up four wickets. After his dismissal, Goa struck back with two wickets in quick succession, including that of Yadav for 69. Manjrekar and Sanyal added 137 for the seventh wicket till the declaration. Goa began positively, as the openers put on 60 before Kulamani Parida got the first breakthrough. Sagun Kamat was undefeated on 54 at stumps as Goa finished at 124 for 2.
Scorecard
Jammu & Kashmir finished the day at 231 for 5, 23 ahead of Services’ first-innings score. Resuming on 79 for 1, Jammu & Kashmir lost three quick wickets for 17 before Dhruv Mahajan and Hardeep Singh consolidated, adding 61 for the sixth wicket. Mahajan was unbeaten on 49 at stumps and for Services, left-arm spinner Arun Sharma picked up three wickets.
Scorecard
Half-centuries by Shahbaz Nadeem and Sumit Panda propelled Jharkhand to 279 against Orissa. Panda struck seven boundaries in his 58 while Nadeem hit nine boundaries in his 59 – his first first-class half-century. The pair added 61 after Madhusudhan Tantubhai fell to Debasis Mohanthy, who picked up four wickets. Sanjay Satpathy, the offspinner, also picked up four wickets. Nadeem was among the wickets as well, picking up two before stumps. Opener Bikas Pati scored a half century as Orissa ended at 128 for 3.
Scorecard
Powered by a 99-run partnership between Madhusudan Acharya and Alind Naidu, Vidarbha snatched the first-innings lead. The duo came together at a wobbly 56 for 3 and struck half-centuries to lift Vidarbha out of a hole. MP fought back through the pace of Taduri Sudhindra, reducing Vidarbha to 191 for 6, but the tail wagged valiantly for the hosts.
Scorecard
Only 15 overs were possible as foggy conditions hampered play at Dharamsala. Himachal Pradesh added 38 runs to their overnight score for the loss of one wicket.

Pakistan Customs were headed towards a big defeat as they finished the third day of their Patrons Trophy match against Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) at Karachi on Sunday, still needing 298 runs to win with only five wickets remaining.After having dismissed them for a poor 97 in the first innings, ZTBL left Customs a whopping target of 395 to achieve an improbable win. By stumps yesterday, Customs were tottering at 97 for 5 in their second innings. Mohammad Khalil, the left-arm seamer, who was at the centre of the ball-tampering controversy on Saturday, followed his figures of 4 for 38 with 3 for 14 in eight overs on Sunday. All his three victims failed to open their account.In their second innings, ZTBL raised a total of 238, thanks to a 103-run stand for the sixth wicket between Inam-ul-Haq (52) and Adnan Raza (55). The Customs bowlers acquited themselves well, with paceman Rizwan Akbar taking 4 for 62 and Junaid Zia polishing off the tail, ending up with figures of 3 for 50. Kashif Siddiq was the lone fighter in Customs’ second innings, batting on 59 as his side ended the day at 97 for 5.National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) required another 113 runs to beat Habib Bank with five wickets in hand, as they ended the third day of their Patrons Trophy match at Karachi on Sunday.Mohammad Sami gave the national selectors another reminder as his 4 for 79 restricted Habib Bank to a second-innings total of 217. He finished with a match-haul of nine wickets for 167 runs. Habib Bank had earlier gained a 41-run first innings lead over NBP, who were then left with 259 to register an outright victory. At stumps yesterday, they reached 146 but lost five wickets on the way.A quickfire stand of 53 for the eighth wicket took Habib Bank past the 200 mark. Captain Shahid Afridi hammered 35 off 41 balls with six fours while wicketkeeper Humayun Farhat, in his characteristic aggressive style, needed only 36 balls to make 38, with seven boundaries.NBP were rattled by former Pakistan seamer Irfan Fazil, who ended the day with 3 for 34, as four wickets were gone with only 32 runs on the board. Naumanullah, the captain, then lifted the team’s morale with an unbeaten 69, off 145 balls with 10 boundaries. He was involved in a 47-run stand with Naved Latif and with Qaiser Abbas, he added an unbeaten 67 for the sixth wicket.Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) restricted Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) to a first innings score of 253 and, then, finished the third day of their Patrons Trophy match at 17 for 1, at Sheikhupura on Sunday.After having been put in, SNGPL reached 154 for 5 in 44 overs in the opening day, hit by poor weather. The second day was then completely washed out. Yesterday, SNGPL added another 99.Azhar Shafiq missed a well-deserved hundred by just eight runs, after having staged a tough battle against the PIA bowlers. His 92 came off 183 deliveries with 11 fours and a six. For PIA, left-arm fast-medium bowler Najaf Shah chipped in with four wickets. Legspinner Imran Tahir dismissed the lower order, with figures of 4 for 58.With both Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) and Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) having already qualified for the quadrangular stage of the Patrons Trophy, WAPDA utilised the entire third day for batting practice, at Rawalpindi on Sunday. WAPDA resumed at their overnight score of 108 for 1 and finished at 355 yesterday with one wicket remaining.After the first day on Friday was completely washed out and only 53 overs was possible the following day. Sialkot’s Masood Asim top-scored for WAPDA with 83 off 294 balls with ten fours. His second-wicket stand with Aamer Sajjad (45) produced 73 runs and the third-wicket partnership with Jahangir Mirza (46) fetched another 82.Aamer’s 45 took only 88 balls with four fours and a six while Jahangir made his 46 off 102 balls with five fours and a six. Later, the in-form Bilal Khilji chipped in with 49 off 85 deliveries with eight boundaries. For KRL, seamer Abdur Rauf and offspinner Saeed Ajmal captured four wickets each for 59 and 114 runs, respectively.Although points are of no consequence in this match, the two teams might try to infuse some interest on the final day today trying at least to gain a first innings lead.

Ricky Ponting was “shocked” and “saddened” when Shane Warne decided to retire, but he is stunned by talk of Glenn McGrath also walking away. In his first comments since Warne’s announcement, Ponting revealed he did not try to change his team-mate’s mind.”I was a bit shocked and a bit saddened like everybody else was – not that he made the decision, because he’d obviously thought long and hard about wanting to retire,” Ponting said. “But because of the fact I played with him for so long and he’s a really good friend of mine and I’ve learned a lot from him about the game.”Warne told Ponting he was stepping down after Sydney during the Ashes-winning celebrations at Perth. “Whenever you lose someone you’ve been close to for a long period of time it’s sad,” he said. “But he’s obviously made that decision on other things he wanted to do in his life so I didn’t at any stage ever try to talk him out of it.”Speculation is also high that McGrath will make a similar decision, but Ponting said he sat next to his team-mate on the plane to Melbourne on Friday. “He can’t believe some of the attention and some of the things that have been written in the paper, particularly today,” Ponting told reporters. “I certainly haven’t had the conversation with Glenn that I had with Shane the other night so that would to me indicate that he’s thinking about playing a bit longer yet.”

Shaun Tait will return from injury for South Australia’s Twenty20 match against Queensland at Adelaide on Wednesday, nearly a month after he was diagnosed with tendinosis of his left hamstring. Tait will be keen to impress at every opportunity, having been named in Australia’s preliminary 30-man World Cup squad.He will replace Gary Putland, who has strained his left quadriceps, in the Redbacks’ line-up. South Australia, who have only one win from their three games this season, have dropped Callum Ferguson and Paul Rofe, and included Simon Roberts and the batsman James Smith, 18, who has been rewarded for his outstanding form in Adelaide grade cricket.Brendan Nash has been called into the Queensland line-up as cover for their stand-in captain James Hopes, who is in the Australia squad to take on England at Sydney on Tuesday.New South Wales have stuck with their controversial selection of Andrew Johns, the rugby league player, for Wednesday’s match against Tasmania, despite the move contributing to their loss against South Australia on Sunday.The Blues, who are now out of contention for the KFC Twenty20 final, lost to the Redbacks after Simon Katich refused to put Johns on strike in the last over of their run-chase. But Cricket New South Wales maintained the decision to play Johns as a crowd-puller paid off, with 10,652 spectators flocking to the game at Newcastle.Nathan Hauritz will miss the game with a calf injury and has been replaced in the 12-man squad by Jarrad Burke, the top-order batsman who played all three Twenty20 games for the Blues in 2005-06. Tasmania, who have only one win on the board, have included Ben Hilfenhaus in their 13-man outfit, although his availability is uncertain after he was named in Australia’s Twenty20 squad.Western Australia, who travel to the MCG for a top-of-the-table clash with the Bushrangers, have made no changes to their line-up. Victoria’s 13-man squad includes Cameron White and Shane Harwood, both of whom could play in the match against England. The winner of the game at Melbourne should host the final on Saturday, although a big win for Queensland could see them take the honour.South Australia squad Daniel Harris, Darren Lehmann (capt), Mark Cosgrove, Nathan Adcock, Ken Skewes, James Smith, Graham Manou (wk), Ryan Harris, Trent Kelly, Dan Cullen, Simon Roberts, Shaun Tait.Queensland squad James Hopes (capt), Craig Philipson, Brendan Nash, Clinton Perren, Nathan Reardon, Aaron Nye, Michael Buchanan, Chris Simpson, Steve Paulsen, Chris Hartley (wk), Andy Bichel, Ashley Noffke, Nathan Rimmington.New South Wales squad Ed Cowan, Phil Jaques, Brad Haddin (wk), Simon Katich (capt), Daniel Christian, David Warner, Jarrad Burke, Dominic Thornely, Aaron O’Brien, Tim Lang, Scott Coyte, Andrew Johns.Tasmania squad Michael Di Venuto, Dane Anderson, Travis Birt, Daniel Marsh (capt), George Bailey, Michael Dighton, Tim Paine (wk), Adam Polkinghorne, Damien Wright, Xavier Doherty, Brendan Drew, Matthew Wade, Ben Hilfenhaus.Victoria squad Brad Hodge, Aiden Blizzard, Michael Klinger, Cameron White (capt), David Hussey, Robert Quiney, Andrew McDonald, Jon Moss, Adam Crosthwaite (wk), Shane Harwood, Gerard Denton, Mick Lewis, Darren Pattinson.Western Australia squad Luke Ronchi (wk), Shaun Marsh, Adam Voges, Marcus North (capt), Luke Pomersbach, David Bandy, Theo Doropoulos, Sean Ervine, Peter Worthington, Aaron Heal, Tim Macdonald, Ben Edmondson.