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With the selection of Andy Bichel in the Australian Squad to play three ODI’s against Pakistan in mid-June announced earlier today, Worcestershire have moved quickly to sign a replacement for the period Bichel will be away.Allan Donald will take on the overseas player slot for the period from 4th to 19th June which will include NUL games against Yorkshire, Leics and Durham, a Championship game against Durham, a possible 4th round C & G Trophy game against Ireland or Notts and a potential semi-final in the B & H Cup.Worcestershire’s Director of Cricket, Tom Moody, is delighted to capture ‘White Lightning’ for this critical period of the season, ” Obviously we are sorry to lose Andy Bichel who has started the season so well for us but to have Allan on board for a few weeks will be good for all concerned. His experience and class will enable us to maintain the early season momentum and his presence will be invaluable in the dressing room.”Allan Donald was introduced to the Worcestershire crowd during the lunch interval of today’s Frizzell County Championship match against Essex at New Road.

After scoring a tight win in the one-day competition yesterday, Eagles thumped Tuskers again, by 71 runs in the Zimbabwe Twenty20 competition in Harare. Sikandar Raza, the star of the chase yesterday, scored 63 off 44 balls and shared a century-stand in 12 overs with Cephas Zhuwao (43) to set up a strong base for the Eagles. Regular wickets relatively slowed the Eagles down as 66 runs came off the last eight overs and it was mainly due to a 19-ball cameo by Elton Chigumbura, who hit three sixes in his 35.Tuskers, looking for their first win, lost Charles Coventry in the first over of the chase to Kyle Jarvis. Craig Ervine joined Keith Dabengwa and shared a brief stand of 24 – the highest in the innings – but soon, Chigumbura struck once with the ball and then ran out Sean Ervine as Tuskers limped to 54 for 3 by the tenth over. Tuskers’ innings went down a spiral as they lost quick wickets, Chamu Chibhabha and Tinotenda Mutombodzi sharing two wickets each. The innings folded after 18 overs after No. 11 Keegan Meth didn’t take the field.Eagles, with their third win a row, are at the top of the table, while Tuskers are at the bottom.Mountaineers won their second game in as many matches, on the back of a century from Hamilton Masakadza. Mountaineers were put in to bat by Mid West Rhinos, and the decision didn’t come off as opener Masakadza lasted till the final over, knocking off 103 off 59 balls before being bowled by Ed Rainsford. While there was no much support from the other end, cameos from Kevin Kasuza and Timycen Maruma alongside Masakadza were enough to propel them to 184 for 6.By contrast, Mid West Rhinos lost opener Vusi Sibanda for a duck and had slipped to 52 for 4 in the ninth. They didn’t recover, with the only contribution of note coming from No. 6 Steven Trenchard – he made 40 off 28 and remained unbeaten, but the Rhinos could still manage only 137 for 7, losing by a whopping 47-run margin.

With Sachin Tendulkar set to play his final Test next month against West Indies, possibly at his home ground at Wankhede Stadium, opposition batsmen Kieran Powell and Kirk Edwards believe their side will not be spared from the emotions surrounding the series.”It will be a surreal moment when we get him out for that one last time,” Powell told the . “It’s been a lifetime of Sachin for most of us and his final dismissal will signal the beginning of a new era for our sport.”Even the 199th will be an incredible setting, and I expect the energy to be electric. But we all know that once the flight takes off from there and we head for the last Test, India will come to a standstill for the next eight days, and all you will hear about and see is one Sachin Tendulkar.”Edwards remembered the first time he was involved in a match against Tendulkar, which was also at Wankhede in 2011, when team-mate Ravi Rampaul dismissed him six runs short of his landmark 100th century. Edwards himself had scored a stroke-filled half-century, which had him singled out for special praise.”Sachin walked up to me and said that he enjoyed my innings and he liked the way I batted,” Edwards said. “It was an incredible moment and I was speechless. He was always a true inspiration for me but that day he showed me what true humility is.”Powell’s memory of that Test is also sharp: “Ravi [Rampaul] was the most hated man in India that day, especially in Mumbai. And he told us about being worried to go and field near the boundary rope to face those thousands who had come to see Tendulkar’s 100th century. The kind of noise and the roars I heard that morning will remain etched in my memory. But once he got out, I will never forget how the crowd emptied in that one instant. There were many who were screaming to let him back just for those six runs. I expect it to be crazier this time”

Prime Doleshwar came crashing down after four big wins, when Victoria Sporting Club handed them a nine-wicket defeat in the Dhaka Premier League.After deciding to bat first at the BKSP-3 ground, Doleshwar were bowled out for just 85 runs in 26 overs. Victoria’s Sri Lankan pace bowler Shalika Karunanayake and seamer Soumya Sarkar took three wickets each, while Sajedul Islam and captain Nasir Hossain picked up one each.Doleshwar were always going to be in trouble when Tillakaratne Sampath, Mominul Haque and Roshen Silva all failed in this game.Anamul Haque and Karunanayake then added 81 runs for the second wicket to take Victoria to an easy win, completed in 14.3 overs. Victoria join Doleshwar in the top of the table with four wins from six matches.Abahani however remain in tenth position, after suffering their fifth defeat. This time, Prime Bank Cricket Club crushed them by 120 runs at the Fatullah Cricket Stadium.Prime Bank batted first after winning the toss, and despite losing an early wicket, they began brightly. Saikat Ali (59) and Bhanuka Rajapaksa (69) added 82 for the second wicket, before Lahiru Thirimanne struck a breezy half-century.Abahani lost wickets regularly in their chase, never quite finding a rhythm. They missed the in-form Mosaddek Hossain in the middle-order. He has left for West Indies with the Bangladesh Under-19s squad, having been the joint highest-scorer in the league with 320 runs.Prime Bank captain Enamul Haque jnr picked up four wickets while offspinner Fariduddin Masud took three.There was a heavy defeat for Mohammedan Sporting Club too, who went down by 103 runs to Gazi Tank Cricketers. It was their third loss in a row, after having won the first three games.They inserted Gazi Tank at the Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra, and had the early momentum. But Mahmudullah and Raqibul Hasan struck fifties to lift Gazi Tank from 95 for four. The pair added 94 runs for the fifth wicket, with Mahmudullah warming up nicely for the upcoming Test series with 68 off 78 balls. Raqibul was the top-scorer, making 75 off 65 balls with six fours and a couple of sixes.Ejaz Ahmed and Upul Tharanga kept Mohammedan in the hunt for a while. Opener Ejaz smashed three sixes in his 43-ball 42, but Tharanga saw wickets tumble at the other end. He made 56 off 72 balls, but by the time he was dismissed, Gazi Tank had the ascendancy.Ashar Zaidi, the 32-year-old left-arm spinner, took three wickets in seven overs while Mahmudullah picked up two.

When Zimbabwe’s players wanted advice on how to establish their own players’ association, they turned to their big brothers for assistance. The South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) helped the Zimbabwean players with a draft constitution after being asked to look at documentation from previous attempts to launch a union in that country and update it to meet modern standards.”They’ve been wanting to launch a player body for some time and they came and asked us what we thought of the paperwork they had,” Tony Irish, SACA’s CEO told ESPNcricinfo. “We helped them with some ideas and sent them a copy of a constitution they could use. But I was not aware of the situation as it is now.”Irish was not involved with the Zimbabwean players’ sudden decision to launch their body last week as they decided to negotiate match fees and a percentage of World Cup disbursements with their board. However, he was not surprised they did.”There was a burning platform for them with the payment issue and that is how a lot of player organisations start,” Irish said. “There are two things that act as catalysts for players to take action: non-payment or interference in selection and if you look at player associations around the world, this is how they get off the ground.”Seven of the ten Test-playing nations had player unions before Zimbabwe’s was started, which leaves India and Pakistan without representation for their cricketers. England has the oldest, the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA), formed in 1967. SACA was started in 2002, but took inspiration from the PCA and Australian Cricketer’s Association when looking at how to build a union.”We wanted to have a constructive body that could deal with issues facing the players and with the board,” Irish said. “Cricket is a top-down sport, in that the national team makes most of the money and they have to be looked after.”It was exactly that interest which led Irish to start SACA, in the aftermath of the 2002 Champions Trophy when players’ commercial rights were sold off to a global broadcaster but they were not compensated. “Jonty Rhodes and I decided we would start a union then because we believed the players had a right to some of the hundreds of millions of dollars being made off of them. We struck a deal with the board and that same deal still applies today.”South African players have faced very few issues involving payment since then and SACA has evolved into a fully functioning independent body. It has over 230 members, all professional cricketers at national, franchise or provincial level and employ eight people to run the organisation.But it took years for that to happen and Irish cautioned Zimbabwe theirs will need the same amount of time to flourish. “Once it’s formed and you’ve had the big issues, then it’s about creating something that’s sustainable and professional.”Zimbabwe Cricket has struggled for either of those things as they battle debt and a low profile. They last had a functional representative body before the white-player walkout in 2004 and since then their attempts to form another have faced uphill battles for survival and relevance and lost.

Simon Kerrigan spent much of Sunday still trying to soak up the “surreal” experience of being named in an Ashes squad after being handed his first senior call-up for the final Investec Ashes Test at The Oval. However, Peter Moores, his county coach, believes he is there by right rather and not because of the difficulties being faced by Monty Panesar.Little more than two weeks ago, Panesar was part of England’s squad for the Old Trafford Test, but shortly after that his season came off the rails during a night out in Brighton, which led to him being fined for drunk and disorderly conduct. The matter is still being investigated by Sussex, but Panesar is on the brink of needing a new county and is seemingly facing a lengthy period away from the international scene.That has led to England needing to reconsider who is their No. 2 spinner to Graeme Swann and there was not really a second option behind Kerrigan despite James Tredwell’s stellar one-day performances this year. Kerrigan, with 47 wickets in the Championship, is far and away the most prolific spinner this season and has been a regular with England Lions. It was a logical progression.It would still be a surprise if he played at The Oval – two spinners, especially in a four-man attack, is rarely seen outside of the subcontinent by England – but even if he does not earn a first cap on Wednesday, he has two days to train in front of Andy Flower and Alastair Cook ahead of their deliberations over the Test squad to Australia later this year.”I found out yesterday when I got a call from Geoff Miller. I’m delighted to be selected, but it was a bit hard to take in when he rang,” Kerrigan told the Lancashire website. “It all felt a bit surreal to be honest. Hopefully I can impress over the next couple of days and be ready if they choose two spinners.”I’ve been inundated with messages of good luck and congratulations. My phone went into a bit of a meltdown this morning, and I’m grateful for all the messages and good wishes.”Moores has overseen the rise of Kerrigan since taking over as Lancashire coach in 2009, during which time Kerrigan had assumed the No. 1 mantle even before Gary Keedy’s departure to Surrey, and he now sees a potential changing of hierarchy in England’s spin options behind Graeme Swann.”Monty’s obviously had an interesting season and also an interesting few weeks and I think the one thing you would say is that Simon has statistically performed much better than Monty has this season, so that’s probably why he’s got his recognition as much as anything else,” Moores told .”The key here is Simon’s earned that right through his own performance and what he does do is get a lot of five-wicket hauls. So when he gets on a roll he seems to really be able to drive that home and make a big difference in a game, and that’s something I think would excite England.””What he does is he spins it hard, not dissimilar to Graeme Swann in that respect. Graeme does give the ball a heck of a rip and gets turn on almost any surface and Simon’s similar, he spins the ball very hard, he’s an aggressive attacking spinner.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Glenn Maxwell combined with Shaun Marsh to plunder 139 runs in 97 balls for the third wicket•Getty Images

India A’s bowlers were clueless against Glenn Maxwell once again as he struck a whirlwind 93, to back up his 79-ball 145 on Thursday, to lead Australia A to the final of the tri-series. Set a target of 311, India failed during the chase again, after being 175 for 2 as Josh Hazlewood and Moises Henriques took three wickets apiece to seal a 25-run win.Maxwell spearheaded a 139-run stand with Shaun Marsh, who composed a solid 96, that set up the 300-plus total. It could have been a lot more had seamer Stuart Binny not nabbed three wickets in three overs to deny Maxwell and Marsh their centuries and slow down Australia.Having chosen to bat, Australia’s openers enjoyed their second fifty-plus stand of the series before left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem bowled Aaron Finch off his fifth ball of the match. Nic Maddinson added 41 with Marsh but fell soon after reaching double figures to offspinner Parvez Rasool. With a foundation set, Maxwell signalled his intent early, striking Rasool for consecutive fours in the 28th and 30th overs before carting Rohit Sharma’s only over of the match for 19 runs on his way to his half-century.Maxwell’s onslaught continued as he raced toward a century, smashing Nadeem for three fours in the 35th over. Marsh, having held Australia’s innings together so long, also opened up slamming Siddarth Kaul for 16 runs in three balls.But Binny instigated a turnaround, knocking back the stumps of both Marsh and Maxwell in the nineties and then Henriques’ for a duck. Maxwell had struck 12 fours and three sixes and Marsh while matching the sixes count. Binny’s burst, 4 for 23 in his third spell, wasn’t enough to keep Australia below 300 as Nathan Coulter-Nile and Mitchell Marsh plundered 60 off the last 34 balls.India laid a solid foundation for the chase, with the openers Rohit Sharma and M Vijay, who took Shikhar Dhawan’s place for this game, scoring half-centuries. Rohit’s 58-ball 61 kept India within sight of the asking-rate but his run-out in the 15th over put pressure on Vijay, who had 16 from 32 balls. He opened up, eventually matching Rohit’s seven boundaries to go with a six off Maxwell. But Vijay, in an attempt to keep up with a required-rate that had swelled to seven, holed out for 60. India were 157 for 2, with over 21 overs and eight wickets left to get the remaining 144 runs.Cheteshwar Pujara struck his first half-century of the series but became one of two wickets in the 37th over as Josh Hazlewood tipped the game in Australia’s favour. Ambati Rayudu did his best to tackle an equation which had risen to nine-an-over, but Hazlewood struck again, removing him for 32 off 28 balls. Needing 60 off six overs, Rasool and Kaul, the ninth-wicket pair, hit 24 in 14 balls but Henriques had Kaul caught behind before picking up the last man Nadeem.The defeat means India need to win their next match against South Africa A to qualify for the final.

Vernon Philander, the South African fast bowler, has been confirmed by Kent as one of their overseas signings for the Friends Life t20*.”I’m really happy to be here, I hope to help the team to create some great chances and hopefully success,” Philander said. “I hope I can use my experience to help the team and also that I can be a good influence in the dressing room.”Philander will join Kent until the end of July and be available in all formats. His arrival is bound to lift an ailing county, which is enduring one of the most nightmarish Championship seasons in its history, two points adrift at the foot of Division Two.Philander tweeted at the end of his 28th birthday on Monday: “Thanks again for all the kind messages. Had a great day. Sad time again packing and saying bye to friends and family. See u soon #kentccc.”But Kent did not initially confirm the news, with chief executive Jamie Clifford saying that details had still to be finalised on only a few days before their opening T20 tie against Middlesex on Friday.Clifford said: “We are about to announce, I hope, an overseas signing. We are just waiting on visa details and no objections from the country the player is coming from. Assuming those things are in place, that player should arrive.”Philander’s Test pedigree is unchallenged, but he is yet to achieve the same level of success in one-day cricket. He has only a handful of international wickets in ODIs and T20I and South Africa omitted him from their squad for the ICC Champions Trophy.*June 26, 1300 GMT – This was updated to reflect Philander’s confirmed signing

Sir Ian Botham has added his voice to those praising James Anderson as one of the leading bowlers in world cricket and suggested Anderson will “sail past” his England record.Earlier in the week, England bowling coach David Saker praised Anderson as “the most skilful bowler in the world”. Botham, England’s leading Test wicket-taker with 383 victims, largely agreed with Saker and also backed Anderson to take well in excess of 400 Test wickets.”He and Dale Steyn are ahead of the competition,” Botham told ESPNcricinfo. “It’s no surprise that the two best sides in world cricket have the two best bowling attacks in world cricket. South Africa have Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander and England have Anderson, Stuart Broad and, at the moment, Steven Finn with lots of competition waiting to get in.”Anderson is right up there with the great England swing bowlers. Right up there. He’s a terrific bowler. He’s only 30 and he’s kept himself very fit so he can easily play another 40 or 50 Tests. If you think that he will take, on average four wickets a match, well, he will sail past my record and he’ll sail past 400, too. I think he can get up to 450 and beyond.”Anderson has his got his own action. They tried to change him, but thank goodness he booted all that into touch and got on with bowling his way. He has his own style. He works on his other skills and fine-tuning his natural skills”There is a lot of skill in what he does. Anyone can bowl an inswinger, but to do it as subtly as he does it with the slightest of movements becomes very difficult for the batsman to pick.”Botham also welcomed the success of Broad at Lord’s and suggested that the Broad-Anderson partnership could yet develop into one of the most challenging in world cricket.”That’s the frustrating thing with Stuart,” Botham said. “He’s very much a rhythm bowler. When he gets it right, he is capable of those spells. You think of that spell against Australia at The Oval. He has height, the bounce and the pace to complement Anderson in the way that Morkel complements Steyn and like other partnerships of the past: like Willis, who had the pace, and Botham, or Lillee and Thompson, who was the one with the outright pace. That’s the perfect combination: swing at one end; pace and bounce at the other.”Such confidence in the bowling attack and a firm belief that Kevin Pietersen will be fit for the Ashes had led Botham to the conclusion that poor weather presents Australia’s best chance of avoiding a 5-0 Ashes whitewash.”I actually do think England, if the weather does stay fine, could whitewash them,” Botham said. “But they need the weather. That’ll be the only thing, I think, that stops them.”I don’t see Australia competing with England for a little while, a few years yet. They appear, to me, to be struggling in quite a few departments at this stage. They’ve brought back players that are 35 years of age; never even heard of in Australia before. They even approached – we believe – Hussey and Ponting to see if they would come back and consider playing. Well, that’s not the Australia I know. That’s panic.”

ScorecardA match of three comeback appearances with potential for an emotive tale was sterilised by a docile pitch that produced a tame draw as Surrey batted out the final day with ease.Chris Tremlett got back on the road to an international return, Chris Jordan produced results that his former employers could never draw from him and Rory Hamilton-Brown leaped a significant hurdle in his rehabilitation from the horror of last season.A low-key return was perhaps the best outcome for Hamilton-Brown. He made 39 in stylish fashion, fielded well and will be relieved to have got the week out of the way.”Rory and I had a chat before this week,” Sussex’s professional cricket manager, Mark Robinson, told ESPNcricinfo. “We wanted to make sure he had plans for every eventuality that might have happened in this game. There would have been some nerves but some excitement as well. He’s ticked the box now of coming back here and he’s handled himself really well. So it’s another part of the healing process dealt with for him.”Hamilton-Brown would have liked a longer bat on a pitch that refused to yield even into the fourth day. It was very slow and didn’t deteriorate. One ball carried through to the slips in the whole game. Unless the pitches mature through the season, Surrey will struggle to win matches at The Oval.They may have to wait for much joy at home but Surrey have been used to playing a waiting game in recent years. Their promotion in 2011 came from a charge in the latter part of the campaign and last season they rallied late with victories over Middlesex and Nottinghamshire at home to survive.This year is another fresh start for them but they have to be taken seriously. Their bowling resources are unmatched, with Stuart Meaker, Jon Lewis, Matthew Dunn, George Edwards and Gary Keedy left out this week. Their batting stock is less plentiful but Graeme Smith hinted at the form that will make a significant impact, Gary Wilson made a fine hundred and they have young players with potential, plus Ricky Ponting to step in when Smith is away.Vikram Solanki contributed his second half-century of the match on a friendly surface•Getty Images

Dominic Sibley is an exciting prospect. Just 17, he scored 299 runs at 49.83 for England Under-19s in South Africa over the winter and Zafar Ansari, who made 72 for Cambridge against Middlesex this week, will also become available. Arun Harinath missed this game after being hit on the hand by Tremlett in the nets but suffered only bruising and should be fit for Surrey’s next match at Middlesex.Injuring his team-mates might not have been Tremlett’s main aim for his first Championship match since July 2012 but he ran in gamely, looking fit and well, only wishing he had more help from the wicket. He should do at Lord’s, venue for Surrey’s next match.He and the Surrey bowling unit have benefitted from a full-time bowling coach in Stuart Barnes, who joined from Gloucestershire in the winter. Previously Martin Bicknell, now chief scout, filled the role only on a part-time basis.”It’s just nice to have someone around all the time,” Tremlett said of Barnes. “His knowledge of the game is brilliant and he’s always there with his camera and his ideas. We’ve got two batting coaches here, in Chris Adams and Ian Salisbury, so it’s nice to have a bowling coach on your side. He’s added a lot and we’re working well as a bowling unit.”But they were unable to prevent a strong Sussex batting order from compiling a large total that built on their solid opening-round victory at Headingley. That they had a chance to win here, having not triumphed at The Oval for 19 years, was a positive note on the form guide.The addition of Jordan, who took five-wicket hauls in both opening matches, adds bite to the attack and they will get plenty of chances to win matches from a batting line-up that looks as strong as any in Division One.”We have grown a little bit,” Robinson said. “We’ve lost a lot of players in the past few seasons, seven in five years, and big players, the last one being Murray Goodwin. But this group can potentially be together for a while now and they’ve become quite tight as a group. We had a great pre-season and have taken that into the early games.”We’ve felt we’ve had a good batting order for the last few years. They haven’t quite performed as we’d want but these first two games they’ve played really well. We’ve batted well in both innings and they’re all in good nick and now, all batting in the positions they want to as well.”Steve Magoffin is an injury concern ahead of Sussex’s next match, on Wednesday against champions Warwickshire. He only bowled five overs on the final day and will be assessed on Sunday.