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Tillakaratne Dilshan, the Sri Lanka captain, has admitted his side are finding it hard to deal with the retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan and said it would take time for them to groom bowlers who could win them Tests. Dilshan also said he would continue batting at No. 5 in Tests, as he did in Colombo, since the additional responsibility of captaincy meant he had more to do in the field.”We’ve gone 11 Tests without a win but we have lost only two Tests; the other nine were drawn. After Murali’s retirement we are still trying to find a bowler to win matches for us,” Dilshan said after the Colombo Test was drawn giving Australia a 1-0 win in the series. “These are hard times for Sri Lankan cricket. The bowlers we have are inexperienced; they have played just 5 to 10 Tests and we have to persist with them for some time and give them the experience before we can start winning again.”If you take the last 10-15 years it was Murali and [Chaminda] Vaas who won Test matches for us. We need to groom bowlers who can at least get closer to that level. I am extremely happy that on this SSC wicket the young fast bowlers managed to dismiss a strong batting line-up for 316 and gave us an opportunity to press for a win.”Dilshan has opened the batting for Sri Lanka in Tests since the home series against New Zealand in August 2009, and averaged 47.20 at the top compared to the 41.75 he averages in the middle order. However, he struggled with the bat during the first two Tests against Australia and dropped down the order for the third, and said he would continue to bat in the middle order.”I am considering batting at No. 5 because I have to do a lot of things in the middle apart from captaining the team [Dilshan bowled 63 overs of offspin in the series]. After just a ten minute break it’s hard to open. I am going to stick to No. 5 in future Test matches. I have scored the majority of my runs in Test cricket as a middle-order batsman. I spoke with Marvan [Atapattu], the batting coach, and he told me that I had performed well with the bat in the middle order at no. 5 and 6. I thought I will bat lower down the order and give another batsman the opportunity to open.”One of the reasons for relinquishing the opening position could be that Dilshan foresees Sri Lanka going in to many of their Tests with just one specialist spinner, meaning he will have to bowl more. “We have spinners whom we can use like Suraj Randiv, Seekuge Prasanna and Ajantha Mendis but we need to give them more experience. Playing against a unit like Australia an inexperienced bowler cannot come and perform. If we are playing a 7-4 combination we can play only one spinner.”Dilshan coming down the order will mean it will be hard to find place for Thilan Samaraweera in the Test side, and 22-year-old Lahiru Thirimanne could become a permanent member of the XI, opening with Tharanga Paranavitana. “We have to discuss with Thilan and the selectors where he will fit in the batting order,” Dilshan said.After being outplayed for most of the first two Tests, Sri Lanka took a first-innings lead in the third, and Dilshan said they did have opportunities to level the series, pointing to the missed chance to run out Michael Clarke on the fifth day, when he was on just 13. Clarke got 112 in the end to help save the Test. “We missed a run out. If we had got that run out it would have been a different story today,” Dilshan said.While Clarke and Phillip Hughes scored centuries in the second innings in Colombo, Dilshan said it was Man-of-the-Series Michael Hussey who was the key man in Australia’s line-up. “He batted in Galle with the tailenders and got 95 and changed the complexion of the match. He did the same in Pallakele and got a hundred and in the third Test he got another hundred. He is the main guy in their batting line-up. They are very strong with him in the middle. They bat around him.”

Former Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons has come out in support of Shakib Al Hasan, the recently-sacked national captain. Shakib, Siddons said, has the ‘perfect credentials’ for a captain, but lacked the support required to lead the team.”He [Shakib] is the only person to lead the side,” Siddons, who now coaches Wellington in New Zealand, told Bangladesh newspaper, the . “A captain must be consulted on everything regarding the team and must be listened to when he speaks or raises an issue. This does not happen with Shakib or any other captain at present. He is a great thinker, and is also the team’s best and most-respected player, perfect credentials for a captain.”Shakib and his deputy Tamim Iqbal were axed earlier this week following Bangladesh’s poor performance during last month’s tour of Zimbabwe, with indiscipline being cited as one of the reasons for their removal. Shakib has always had strained relations with the board, having questioned team-selection more than once. Current Bangladesh coach Stuart Law had expressed surprise at Shakib’s removal and said he had the respect of his players.Siddons had coached Bangladesh between October 2007 and April 2010, and moved to the Wellington job after his contract was not renewed following a disappointing World Cup and home series against Australia. Siddons and Shakib worked together in the capacity of coach and captain for close to two years, barring brief spells when Mashrafe Mortaza took charge.The selectors have not named a new captain, triggering speculation about who could be ready to take over. Mushfiqur Rahim, who has played 24 Tests and 98 ODIs, and is one of the few players who is a regular part of the national XI, is tipped as a frontrunner for the job. Siddons, though, said he did not think the players were eager for the post. “Not one other player in the side apart from maybe Ash [Mohammad Ashraful] is willing to take it [captaincy] on. They know there is no support around them and they will be blamed for any results.”Siddons also said he did not understand the need to have a selector or observer in the dressing-room during matches. During the tour of Zimbabwe, Siddon’s successor Stuart Law had reportedly expressed displeasure over selector Habibul Bashar and ‘tour observer’ Shafiqur Rahman Munna’s presence in the dressing room.”I believe a selector should be allowed to visit the dressing-room and sit in there to discuss or chat at times, but should not make it his home during a game,” Siddons said. “I have never understood the reasoning behind having an observer with the team, and especially not in the [dressing] room. This is a blatant mistrust of the coach and players, and is never a positive.”

Roy Dias, the former Sri Lanka batsman, has confirmed he will take over as Oman’s coach. Dias, who played 20 Tests and 58 ODIs in the eighties, has plenty of experience supervising upcoming nations, having spent the past decade in charge of the Nepal team.”I am eagerly waiting to take charge of the Oman national team. The exact terms [of the agreement with Oman Cricket] are being worked out. But as of now, my immediate assignment is to get the team ready for the ACC Twenty20 Cup, which will be played in Nepal in December,” Dias told . “Once I take charge, I would like to get the boys to undergo a proper camp in Nepal in the build-up to the ACC tournament.”Oman won the ACC Twenty20 Cup in 2007, and progressed enough to make it to the qualifying tournament for the 2011 World Cup. However, they fared poorly in that event, finishing 11th to be relegated to the third division of the ICC’s World Cricket League.Dias, 58, said he was familiar with Oman cricket since he had watched the team in various competitions during his time as Nepal coach. “Coaching in Nepal is quite different from coaching in Oman, I am well aware of it. But I will focus on the system that I work in – training the national team while working on building a solid supply line.”I focus a lot on junior cricket, that’s where you get good cricketers from, who you can groom. I tried this method in Nepal. I focused on age-group cricket, and over the years the country began shining in tournaments.”Oman Cricket is expected to formally announce Dias’ appointment next month.

Namibia continued their domination of the ICC Africa Region Division One Twenty20, beating Nigeria by six wickets at the Kyambogo Cricket Ground with more than seven overs to spare. Choosing to bat, Nigeria struggled for momentum as none of their batsmen could get past 20. Namibia’s bowlers kept things tight – Louis van der Westhuizen picked up two for 13 while Pikky Ya France had figures of 2 for 11 off three – as Nigeria ended their 20 overs on 88 for seven.Namibia got off to a shaky start, losing van der Westhuizen in the second over – but a 17-ball 34 from opener Craig Williams, followed by steady contributions from Sarel Burger and Gerrie Snyman stamped out any hope Nigeria might have had of getting back into the game.In the second game of the day Uganda beat Ghana by 36 runs in a low-scoring match. Choosing to bat, Uganda started off sluggishly but Frank Nsubuga, with an unbeaten 29-ball 48 which included three fours and sixes, provided the much-needed impetus. He failed to receive much support from the other end though, as Uganda reached 119 for seven in their 20 overs.Ghana lost their openers early before Obed Harvey combined with Samson Awiah for a 42-run third-wicket partnership steady the innings. But having taken just under 15 overs overs to get to 56, the required-rate was climbing for Ghana, and the wickets of Awiah and Harvey triggered a collapse as they slumped from 56 for two to 83 all out in the 20th over. Deusdedit Muhumza picked up the last four wickets, including three in the 18th over, finishing with figures of five for 17.There was more disappointment for Ghana when they were beaten by Kenya in a tight chase. Chasing 120 Kenya openers Duncan Allan and Jignesh Hirani added 59 for the opening wicket they lost three wickets for 19 at one stage, the middle order chipped in to seal victory with seven balls to spare. Earlier Obed Harvey top scored for Ghana with 32 in 30 and they were boosted by a quickfire 25 by Isaac Aboagye down the order. However, 17-year-old offspiner Vinit Shikotra picked up three wickets to keep Ghana down to what turned out to be a gettable target.Burger and Snyman starred for Namibia as they beat beat Uganda by 19 runs. Burger top-scored with an unbeaten 56 and was part of three productive stands: he added 51 with opener van der Westhuizen, 46 with Snyman and 35 with Raymond van Schoor as Namibia reached 151 for four. Arthur Ziraba made 48 for Uganda, but failed to received much support from the other batsmen. Snyman picked up three for 20 as Namibia were restricted to 132 for 7.

Shane Shillingford, the West Indies offspinner, has been cleared by the ICC to resume bowling at international level after undergoing remedial work on an illegal action. The ICC notified the WICB of the clearance following a biomechanical bowling analysis conducted by a research team at the University of Western Australia on May 25.”I am extremely happy that I have been cleared to continue playing international cricket,” Shillingford said. “It has been what I always wanted to do and having to overcome this hurdle has made me stronger and more determined to succeed.”I put in a lot of hard work over the past few months and I must thank the West Indies Cricket Board for the support and particularly the Sagicor High Performance Centre where the majority of the work was done.”Shillingford had been reported for a suspect action after the first Test in Sri Lanka in November 2010. The umpires’ report had cited concern over the straightening of Shillingford’s arm while he bowled some deliveries. The ICC had then confirmed the illegality of the action after independent tests in Perth.

The absence of a specialist spin-bowling coach in Australia’s full-time touring setup is not a major problem, according to the offspinner Nathan Hauritz. Craig McDermott is Australia’s new bowling coach and his brief, like that of his predecessor Troy Cooley, includes mentoring the slow men as well as the fast bowlers.McDermott took 291 Test wickets off the long run-up and would seem as qualified to help the spinners as he would be to advise the batsmen. But Hauritz said while it was in theory a positive to have a specialist on hand to assist the slow bowlers, the information overload provided by an extra coaching staff member was not necessarily a good thing.”It is good, it gives you someone else to talk to about fields and tactics, but sometimes it can confuse things,” Hauritz told ESPNcricinfo. “You can have too much. It can be a bit overwhelming at the end of the day.”There’s so much technology these days. Any spin coach can watch the footage or you can sit down and have a chat over the net, Skype or anything like that. Craig McDermott’s experience and record speaks for itself. I think he’ll be invaluable for the side. And he’s going to offer different opinions about spin bowling as well. It’s all going to be worth listening to.”Australia typically don’t take a spin coach on tours, although the Centre of Excellence mentor John Davison has travelled with the side, as he did on last year’s Test tour of India. England, on the other hand, use the former Pakistan spinner Mushtaq Ahmed as a specialist coach, and his former team-mate Saqlain Mushtaq has advised the New Zealand spinners.Australia’s spin stocks are not exactly brimming with world-class talent, and an international expert might be of use to give Hauritz and his colleagues a different perspective. He said when bowling in the nets on a tour, it was usually the batsmen to whom he turned for advice, as they had a good view of how he was performing.”They’ve generally got the best idea of how the ball is coming down, whether they’re getting beaten in flight, the lines, what sort of fields you’d set,” Hauritz said. “That’s what I like to work with. When you’re bowling against those guys, if you’re doing the right thing and the ball is arriving in the right way, they can give you the best response. If not, then you can work on it from there.”

Sussex have signed Umar Gul, the Pakistan fast bowler, for this season’s Friends Life T20 competition. Gul, who has the second-highest number of wickets in Twenty20 internationals, joins his countryman Rana Naved-ul-Hasan at the county.Gul’s 47 wickets in Twenty20 internationals have come at 16.00 and his figures of 5 for 6, against New Zealand at the Oval in 2009, remain the best by any bowler in a T20 international. He has been successful in England; during Pakistan’s controversial tour in 2010, he was the leading wicket-taker in the five-match one-day series.This could be the first time Gul takes part in the county season – he was signed by Gloucestershire in 2007 but didn’t play because of an ankle injury. He has twice before played in Twenty20 competitions outside Pakistan – for Kolkata Knight Riders in the first edition of the IPL and for Western Australia in the 2008-09 Big Bash.”Coming to Sussex is a privilege and the chance to follow in the footsteps of other Pakistani greats from Imran Khan to Mushtaq Ahmed, and to Rana Naved in the current team, is very exciting,” Gul said.Sussex won the domestic Twenty20 competition in England back in 2009, but lost in the quarter-finals last year.

Kemar Roach, the West Indies fast bowler, is hoping the traditionally seamer-friendly Barbados track will help him produce a better performance in what is a crucial game for the home team. West Indies trail the five-match ODI series against Pakistan 0-2, and Roach, who’s had a poor series thus far, was eager to revive his fortunes in home conditions.”This is a big match in the series – a crucial match. We know we need a win and we will be coming out to play hard. We have fallen behind two-nil, so here is the time to get things right and get a win and stay in the series,” Roach said. “It’s always good to play at home in very familiar conditions. I’m looking to hit my ‘areas’ and look to make inroads into the batting. I always look for wickets with the new ball – that always puts pressure on the batsmen to come.”Roach had an impressive World Cup, grabbing a hat-trick against Netherlands and good returns in the other games with the exception of the quarter-final. He picked up 13 wickets in six games, but has gone wicketless in 18.3 overs in the two games he’s played this series; he’s also been a touch expensive, conceding 101 runs.”The pitch (at Beausejour) in St Lucia was a bit on the slow side and it was a bit flat. Kensington is usually somewhat faster and offers more to my type of bowling so I will be looking for better returns. You still have to work hard, there are no half measures. Cricket at this level is never easy, so we know we have to keep working hard to reap success.”

Forget the big picture for a moment and focus instead on this riveting question that fans will be looking forward to being answered on Wednesday: can Virender Sehwag last long enough against Netherlands in his home city to crank up a double century? In the first match of the World Cup, in Dhaka, he nearly became the second batsman after Sachin Tendulkar to reach the milestone, before succumbing on 175. Still, he had lasted for 47.3 overs and if not for cramps, could have batted through the innings. But will Sehwag use his (home) advantage against a featherweight like Netherlands and go for the double? One Dutchman wants it to make it difficult for him, even if Netherlands lack an incisive bowling attack.”For the opening batter to face us, it is quite tricky because there is no pace on the ball, which is very different to what they are quite used to,” Ryan ten Doeschate, Netherlands’ best player, told ESPNcricinfo. ten Doeschate was not being cocky, he was simply basing his thoughts on the experience of bowling to Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers, a devastating pair of batsmen who both possess similar ability to Sehwag to rip apart a bowling attack. Gayle faced the Dutch at the Feroz Shah Kotla, but could only manage a sedate 80 off 100 balls even though he lasted till the 36th over. Then de Villiers blasted South Africa out of misery from 58 for 2 in the 16th over, but even he could only rake up 134 in his 30-over stay.According to ten Doeschate, even if the Dutch lack real quick bowlers, their trundlers have actually posed more problems for opposition line-ups with their lack of pace. “We have actually conceded two centuries in the last three games so that is not actually that bad,” he said (both those hundreds were scored in the South Africa match by Hashim Amla and de Villiers). “So we are a difficult team to score hundreds against. Yes, there has been a few times when there was a real possibility like Chris Gayle or AB [de Villiers] going for the 200. But we are little better than conceding a double hundred to anyone in 50-over cricket.”He was not entirely ruling out Sehwag achieving the landmark feat if the Indian decided to bat out the innings. Sehwag has shown in the recent past that he can bide his time in the first ten overs before opening up. “That can only be bad news for me as I am the one-change bowler,” ten Doeschate said with a big laugh. Still, he was confident. “Our starts have been pretty decent barring the England game where the guys have smashed us. We have conceded runs, but not big.” The numbers don’t quite confirm that, however. The West Indies racked up 95 for no loss in the first 15 overs (England were 90 for no loss), but Netherlands did manage to restrict South Africa to 58 for 1.In the absence of an experienced fast man, the Dutch have found it difficult to get breakthroughs early, which has allowed their opponents to steadily establish a platform and then accelerate over the last 15 overs. West Indies raised 140 in their final 15 overs while South Africa plundered 166. “We have not taken wickets upfront. That is what really is hurting us,” ten Doeschate said.So what are the mistakes he would not like the team to repeat against India? “In the first game we got a lot of things right. Sometimes it is very easy look at the result and judge your performance by the result. But we have not done too much wrong. Unfortunately that is the way we bowl, we don’t have express pace, we don’t have guys who turn the ball miles. We have conceded 330 twice in a row, but there is nothing much we can do.”On the batting side we have been done by pace twice. Again that is not something we can learn overnight how to play guys who play at 150kph. So I don’t think we can put a finger and say this is what we need to get better that.”Like many Associates, the Dutch also do not want to go back empty handed. And they do not want to waste the opportunity of playing the bigger countries. Hence, they are not afraid to be part of the Group of Death. “This is definitely the tougher group,” ten Doeschate said. “Our intention was to sneak a result out of one of the big teams and then beat Bangladesh and Ireland. From the experience point of view to play South Africa, India, England and West Indies is an awesome teams to play against.”Tomorrow, the Dutch will have the unique experience of playing the second-best one-day team in the world in front of a full house. The biggest match the Dutch have played in front of a virtually packed stadium came on June 5, 2009, when they shocked England in the World Twenty20 at Lord’s. But playing India in India in front of a raucous crowd is like being on a different planet. Little wonder ten Doeschate was eagerly looking forward to getting on the field.”We are under a bit of pressure not to make fools of ourselves, but that is obviously a different pressure to perform consistently and make sure you progress. I genuinely believe it is more about something to look forward to than to fear. As a cricketing experience it can’t any bigger than that. It is a tremendous privilege.”

Netherlands captain Peter Borren and allrounder Wesley Barresi have been given full-time contracts by the Dutch board for 2011. Another 16 players are on incremental deals as Netherlands prepare for a busy year which has started with the current World Cup and includes qualifying for the next global T20 event.Borren, 27, is set to lead Netherlands against England in their opening World Cup match on Tuesday while Barresi is a highly-rated top-order batsman. Netherlands’ professional players – Ryan ten Doeschate, Tom Cooper and Alexi Kervezee – have been offered joint-professional contracts alongside their county and state deals.Tim Gruijters, the 19-year-old allrounder, will be added to the incremental list once he completes his recovery from a back injury while seam bowler Ruud Nijman, another injured player, has decided to take time away from international cricket to recover.”On the eve of such a big series of matches in the World Cup and the forthcoming summer season we are delighted that all of the players are secured for the 2011programme of World Cup, CB40 matches and other international cricket,” Richard Cox, the Dutch CEO, said. “There is a lot of ongoing speculation at present as to the future format of cricket for the Associate members and the number of incremental contracts represents our commitment to the programme in this interim period.”