Citing a desire to be with his family more, Heath Streak, the former Zimbabwe captain, has announced that he will not be returning for another season with Warwickshire.’It has been a difficult decision to call time on my career here in England, ” said Streak. “Edgbaston is a special place to play and I am proud to have been able to call myself a [Warwickshire] Bear. I still intend to maintain an involvement in cricket in some capacity whilst travelling less and spending more time with my family. I am determined to finish the season strongly myself and I hope that the team can put together some good performances to see me off in style.”Streak joined the county in 2004 and took over the captaincy in 2006 after signing a two-year contract. He last played for Zimbabwe in September 2005 but was non-committal about his future with Zimbabwe.He has struggled this season, losing pace, and has taken 11 wickets at 62 in the County Championship. After beginning the season as captain he stood down after the opening weeks and was replaced by Darren Maddy.Commenting on Streak’s decision, Colin Povey, the chief executive of the county, said. “Streaky has been a magnificent ambassador for the game of cricket and he has always given his all for the club.”

England XI 314 for 4 (Bell 131*, Cook 66) beat Sri Lanka Board XI 234 (Kapugedera 75, Anderson 3-43) by 80 runs
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Ian Bell scored England’s first century of their one-day tour of Sri Lanka, and James Anderson starred with three wickets, as the team warmed up for their five-match one-day series by defeating a Sri Lanka Board XI by 80 runs at Colombo’s P.Saravanamuttu Stadium.Bell eventually finished unbeaten on 131 from 121 balls, an innings that demonstrated how valuable his level-headed strokeplay would have been to their disappointing Twenty20 campaign in South Africa last week. He cracked 12 fours and four sixes in all, and was joined in the runs by Alastair Cook, who made a steady 66, and Kevin Pietersen, who needed just 29 balls for his even 50.Despite a flu bug that has swept through the camp, England managed to field a full-strength side with Collingwood winning the toss and batting first. Phil Mustard, Matt Prior’s replacement as wicketkeeper, made a shaky start and required 15 balls to get off the mark, and when he fell for 17 after eight overs, England were struggling for momentum on 33 for 1.But Cook and Bell then took the attack to the bowlers in a second-wicket stand of 89, Cook batting with increasing freedom before he holed out to long-on after an 88-ball stay. That brought Pietersen to the crease, and he wasted no time in picking up the same form he had shown in South Africa last week, cracking 17 in a single over to push England up towards the 300 mark.Pietersen fell immediately after reaching his half-century, caught by Viraj Perera off the legspin of Gihan Rupasinghe, but Bell took up the cudgels in the closing overs, with Ravi Bopara chipping in with a run-a-ball 22 before he became a second victim for the legspinner, Gihan Rupasinghe.In reply, the Sri Lankan innings was never able to get going. Ryan Sidebottom, restored to the side after a side strain, was handed the new ball ahead of Stuart Broad, and struck with the first ball of his second over to remove Viraj Perera for 12. When Anderson followed up with the opposition captain, Avishka Gunawardene (11), England never looked back.The young Test batsman, Chamara Kapugedera, held the innings together with an attractive 75, but wickets fell all around him on a slow and low pitch. Broad had Indika de Saram caught and bowled for 25, before Collingwood removed Thilina Kandamby and Gihan de Silva in quick succession – the latter was caught behind to give Mustard his first catch in England colours.At 150 for 5 with 22 overs remaining, the Sri Lankans still had an outside chance of mounting a challenge, but the return of the new-ball bowlers did the trick. Anderson removed Ranga Dias for 20 before claiming the key wicket of Kapugedera, caught behind after an 87-ball stay, and six balls later Sidebottom accounted for Rupasinghe for 1. The ninth-wicket pair of Ashan Priyanjan and Malinga Bandara kept England waiting with a 54-run stand, but Broad bagged Bandara lbw for 27, and Monty Panesar wrapped up the game with his first wicket of the tour.

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Debutant offspinner Mohnish Parmar took five second-innings wickets to help Gujarat to a thumping 248-run victory over Assam. Resuming on 15 for 2, Nishanta Bordoloi and wicketkeeper Rajdeep Das defied the Gujarat bowling for nearly 20 over but once Das was caught behind off Timil Patel, Assam’s resistance was broken. There were not too many meaningful contributions and Assam could manage only two more double-digit partnerships. Sridharan Sharath, the captain, hung around for his 27 and was last man out, falling to medium-pacer Siddharth Trivedi. Gujarat got five points for their efforts while Assam took home none.
ScorecardHaving skittled out Jharkhand for 139 on day three, Madhya Pradesh went one up on day four, bowling them out for 117 to win by 170 runs at Jamshedpur. Rahul Bakshi followed his first-innings 56 with an unbeaten 66 in MP’s 203 for 5 declared before the bowlers turned it on. Jatin Saxena, who scored 125 in MP’s first innings, and Asif Ali spun out 4 for 54 and 4 for 35 respectively, with their brand of legbreaks. No batsman got going and MP needed just 49.4 overs to bowl Jharkhand out. MP took a full five points from their outright win, placing them equal with Goa in the Group P table.
ScorecardHaving conceded a first-innings lead to Goa, Haryana failed in their bid to chase down 241 with nine wickets on day four at Margao. Instead, the hosts dismissed Haryana for 220, 26 runs short of their target, and took five points from an outright win. Slow left-arm spinner Shabab Jakati backed his first-innings 6 for 52 with 4 for 94 and Robin D’Souza fetched 4 for 59 with his medium-pace. Goa began the day 30 for 3 but made it to 221 courtesy opener Sagun Kamat’s 92-ball 60 and wicketkeeper-batsman Ajay Ratra’s 86 from 117 balls. Only Sachin Rana (67) crossed fifty in Haryana’s attempted chase.
ScorecardTripura escaped with a battling last-wicket draw against Services at Agartala, finishing on 202 for 9 in their attempt to chase down 226. Hari Prasad, Services’ opening bowler, took 4 for 50 and the other bowlers chipped in with wickets but Services failed to take that last wicket. Vineet Jain, with an unbeaten 3 from 36 balls, and Jayanta Debnath, with 13 from 37, added 25 valuable runs in 11.2 overs for the final wicket to stave off defeat. From an overnight 308 for 7, Services managed 321 with Yashpal Singh getting to his tenth first-class hundred. Tushar Saha picked finished with 4 for 89 with his slow left-arm spin. Tripura got with three points and Services one.

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Justin Langer and Shaun Marsh sparkled with half-centuries as Western Australia cruised to an eight-wicket victory over Tasmania in Perth. The Warriors controlled the match from the middle of the first innings and were rewarded with a bonus point as Langer and Marsh finished in a flurry.Langer started cautiously and waited until well after Luke Ronchi departed for an enterprising 27 before he lifted his rate. Once settled, he began to sprint and pounded four sixes in his 75 from 99 balls. Marsh also looked comfortable after a tough opening – he brought up his fifty with a six over long-off – and hit seven fours before slipping to Brendan Drew on 66.The Tigers needed a tail-end recovery from Xavier Doherty (29) and Brendan Drew (33) , who put on an unbeaten 61, to reach 8 for 181 after a horrible mid-innings collapse. Western Australia sent Tasmania in and it proved to be the right decision, even though they had to wait for their rewards.Tasmania had cruised to 1 for 75 when Michael Dighton was run-out taking on Luke Ronchi, but his dismissal for 38 started a dramatic slide to 8 for 120. The captain Adam Voges, bowling left-arm orthodox spin, was the most successful with 3 for 33, which included the fine diving caught and bowled of Mark Divin the ball after George Bailey (21) was run-out in a similar way to Dighton. Aaron Heal was also impressive with 2 for 18 off ten overs as the spinners dominated.Dan Marsh, who fell to Heal for 34, was upset his batsmen failed to adapt to the conditions. “The pitch was much slower than we normally expect here and the ball was sticking in the wicket a bit, making it harder to score,” he said. “A few of us got starts but no-one got a big score, so that was a bit disappointing.”

A desire to protect his bowlers convinced Ricky Ponting to bat again as Australia looked to seal a 14th consecutive Test win. The home team had a lead of 296 after dismissing Sri Lanka in the final session, but Ponting chose not to enforce the follow-on as early as the fall of the eighth wicket.”It was just the fact that it was back-to-back Tests and back-to-back innings,” Brett Lee said. “He was just making sure the bowlers were looked after.”Lee, who was again impressive as the attack leader, was one of the main beneficiaries of the break after collecting his third four-wicket haul of the series. “Without saying it or thinking it, I’ve stepped up to the mark and really enjoyed that role,” he said. “I’m really happy with way the ball is coming out.”He opened with two breakthroughs in his first spell of the morning to deflate Sri Lanka and finished off the innings by removing Dilhara Fernando and Mahela Jayawardene, who steered his team with 104. The most spectacular dismissal was his yorker to Michael Vandort that sent the middle stump tumbling.”It’s always nice when a plan comes off,” he said of his opening success. “You get to the top of your mark and visualise, and sometimes you can see it going through and missing the batsman. When it comes off it’s sweet.”At stumps Australia had reached 1 for 111, a lead of 407, and they are aiming to maintain their charge at the record of 16 wins achieved by Steve Waugh’s side in 2001. “It would be lovely to get 16 or 17 straight, but if we worry about the stats and the record it’s not going to be the best thing for us,” Lee said. “We’ve got to win here first, it’s going to take a lot of hard work, and it’s a pretty flat old track.”Andrew Symonds did not field today – Lee was hopeful he would return from an ankle problem in the morning – and there was also a problem with Stuart MacGill. “He fell on his arm and at some stages was finding it hard to grip the ball,” Lee said. “He bowled some great legspinners, the one he bowled to the left-hander was great.” Sanath Jayasuriya was beaten trying to sweep MacGill and he finished with 2 for 81 after picking up Chamara Silva when he edged to Adam Gilchrist.

England’s players could face contractual gagging orders in the aftermath of Duncan Flecther’s warts-and-all autobiography.A number of other sports impose such conditions in contracts of international players and coaches, although, as shown by Mike Catt’s recent comments about the England rugby management, those are only effective while the player is still contracted.Speaking to Wales on Sunday, Hugh Morris, the ECB’s managing director, said that it was an issue he would be reviewing. “Part of my new remit is to look at all issues, weigh up both sides of the argument and come up with an agreement that is suitable to both the organisation and the player. Gagging orders raise all kinds of issues with freedom of speech.”Censorship is not on our agenda, but we don’t want players or members of the coaching staff, for that matter, fearing that anything they say or do in the sacred confines of the dressing room is revealed in a book months later.”While any gagging clauses would prevent current players and coaches from speaking out, they would make no difference to someone like Fletcher who was no longer bound by any contract when he released his book.Asked if he had read Fletcher’s observations, Morris said: “I’ve not read the book so I can’t comment on its contents.”

Shoaib Malik’s initiation in to the captaincy has been a mixed one. He begansmoothly in May last year with an ODI series-win over Sri Lanka, and led ayoung side to the final of the ICC World Twenty20 in September.Since then, the going has been rougher, with four consecutive series losses (ODI and Test) to South Africa and India cranking up the pressure on him. Talk of newcaptains hasn’t been far away, despite the Pakistan board appointing him captainuntil December 2008.But as he prepares to lead Pakistan in their first assignment of 2008, againstZimbabwe, he is hoping a new year might bring new results. “I am more confident nowas captain,” he told reporters days before the first ODI in Karachi.”The senior players are supporting me and I’m happy the board has placed itsconfidence in me. I don’t worry about how much time I have. I admit mistakes weremade in the last seven months, but this year there will be no repeat.”Poor results bring their own pressure, often putting personal performances out ofcontext. Malik’s ODI numbers since taking over as captain aren’t bad – from 13matches he averages four runs more than his career average of 34 – yet he was stillasked about a dip in form.”I don’t think my recent record is that bad if you look at it. In my last match inJaipur, I was player of the match [for an all-round performance]. I just want to makesure that the consistency is there,” he said.Malik also asked for more time to be given to Geoff Lawson, who took over as Pakistan’s coach last August, stressing that this was his first international assignmentin that role. Though not overtly criticised, Lawson’s impact has been repeatedlyquestioned and some officials have been privately underwhelmed by his contributionso far.”Bob Woolmer had his own skills, Geoff has his own,” Malik countered. “Bob came with a lot of top experience with South Africa and Warwickshire while this is Geoff’s first international role. It takes time to settle in to that and we should give him that.”There was doubt over Malik’s participation in the run-up to the Zimbabwe series dueto an ankle injury sustained in India, but he believes he has now fully recovered.”I am fit. I came through my rehabilitation, passed a fitness test and am doingeverything the others were at the camp.”With Australia scheduled to arrive soon – to provide the sternest test yet to hisleadership – Zimbabwe offers Malik the perfect platform to chalk up somemorale-boosting wins, ideally on the back of some impressive personal contributions.”This is a good opportunity to try out some young talent and to work out plans aheadof the Australia series. You can’t underestimate Zimbabwe, but we will put all ourefforts in to it.”

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