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Shane Warne’s recent visit to Sri Lanka, a trip designed to raise awareness of the plight of tsunami victims and raise much-needed funds for rehabilitation, has sparked a controversy that has erupted into the public arena this week after Arjuna Ranatunga, the former World Cup-winning captain, accused Thilanga Sumithipala, the chairman of the cricket board’s Cricket Aid programme, of “bullying” Sri Lanka’s national players into boycotting a special fundraising dinner.The 500-wicket dinner was organised in Colombo at the end of Warne’s brief visit to raise tsunami-relief funds for two local charities, the Muralidaran-Vaas-Gunasekera Foundation and Sahanaya. Funds were raised through the sale of Rs10,000 tickets, and several Sri Lanka cricketers had apparently been keen to show their support by purchasing tickets and attending. However, Muttiah Muralitharan was the only contracted player who eventually turned up.When the board held a press conference on Wednesday to review the progress of Cricket Aid, board officials explained their absence by claiming that players and officials were unaware of the dinner. Sumathipala cast doubt on the charitable credentials of the organisers, and claimed that Muralitharan had told him that he was unaware of the details of the fundraising dinner. “The question is who organised this dinner and where has the money gone to?” he asked. “Do they belong to an organisation with a constitution? When I asked [Chaminda] Vaas about it he said he knew nothing and Murali told me he was out of the country and did not know who organised it.”However Muralitharan, who had personally invited Warne to Sri Lanka and was involved in organising the fundraising dinner, categorically denied this in an article in the newspaper on Friday. “I never told anything like that to Thilanga,” Muralitharan was quoted as saying. “I was highly involved in the project and aware of the function.” Cricinfo has also learnt that Vaas, a new partner in the Muralidaran-Vaas-Gunasekera Foundation, was also aware of the dinner.Ranatunga, a deputy cabinet minister and a long-time foe of Sumathipala’s, claimed that the players were being bullied. “I know that the players are scared to come out and say what they have to say,” said Ranatunga in the . “Several players wanted to attend the dinner, but were warned not to and they were scared to speak up. If the players speak up some of the board officials will not be able to show their faces in public.”Ranatunga continued his scathing attack on the administration. “It’s a dictator who’s running the show now, and not just with one puppet but a whole brace of puppets on board,” he said. “The whole thing hurts the present Sri Lanka Cricket set-up, as Warne refused to do the board’s bidding. During times like this, people are trying to promote their hidden agendas. These petty politics need to stop.”Meanwhile, Kushil Gunasekera, Muralitharan’s manager and the driving force behind the Muralidaran-Vaas-Gunasekera Foundation, a charity which focuses on small community-level projects, reacted angrily to Sumathipala’s apparent slur on their credentials.”We were established two years ago and the charity was incorporated under the Trust Ordinance Act in Sri Lanka,” said Gunasekera. “We are a registered trust with a constitution of which is handled by Sudath Perera Associates. Both Murali and Vaas are signatories. What’s more, we do not have any administration expenses because we all give our time voluntarily. Serving humanity through compassion and serving humanity through compulsion are two different things. The people who are making these allegations do not understand the difference.”Sumathipala was appointed chairman of Cricket Aid soon after the tsunami. The job thrust him back into the public limelight after the immigration scandal last year that led to his being held in police custody, a controversy that had threatened to derail his ambitions to become president of the International Cricket Council. After being granted bail, Sumathipala also took up the post of Sri Lanka Cricket’s “international envoy”, and is now their chief negotiator on ICC issues.

Delhi survived by the barest of margins at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera, drawing the game with only their last pair standing. They had to chase 157 in 30 overs, but messed it up in the pursuit of runs. It was a surprising turnaround for Gujarat, who trailed Delhi by 216 when they began their second innings. At the end of the third day, they were 205 for 5, still nine runs behind, but today the overnight batsmen, Kirat Damani and Bhavik Thaker, remained unbeaten till the team was 68 runs ahead.Damani scored 86, with eight fours, Thaker was last man out for 95, with 12 fours, and Gujarat had managed to post a healthy total of 372. Soon after, Delhi were in trouble. They were 37 for 2 within six overs, and though they continued to score quickly, they just kept losing wickets. The eighth fell for 90, with eight overs still remaining. Mithun Manhas was out just before the day ended, but Rahul Sanghvi and Amit Bhandari did not fall, giving Delhi the unlikeliest of escapes.Murtaza Lodhgar played a big role for the second time in Karnataka’s 116-run loss to Bengal with another five-wicket haul at the Jadavpur University Campus in Kolkata. Karnataka fell for 226, well short of the target of 343. Sujith Somasunder top-scored with 46, and was followed by Stuart Binny (42) and Vijay Bhardawaj (40). Lodhgar ended with innings figures of 5 for 89, and a match haul of 11 for 117. It was a match keenly watched because Sourav Ganguly’s form had been questioned since the start of the series against Australia; he managed 32 runs in two innings.Tamil Nadu won by an innings and 108 runs against a hapless Hyderabad side that failed to go past 190 in either innings. Ramakrishnan Ramkumar did the damage, claiming 6 for 71 to go with his first-innings six-wicket haul. It gave him match figures of 12 for 128 at the Chidambaram stadium. Hyderabad scored 190, with Daniel Manohar the top-scorer. Tamil Nadu claimed a bonus point for the innings victory, in addition to the regular four for a standard win.The game between Mumbai and Railways petered out to a dull draw after Mumbai sat tight on their first-innings lead, and scored only 219 runs in 86 overs at the Karnail Singh stadium in Delhi. Vinayak Mane remained unbeaten on 111, an effort that consumed nearly six hours, and Vinit Indulkar scored 52. Mumbai reached 221 for 3, and took away two points for the lead.Jyoti Yadav scored 103 to set up a competitive declaration by Uttar Pradesh, who scored 317 for 8, but Punjab preferred to play it safe and not mount a challenge on the target of 279. They ended at 164 for 5, with Yuvraj Singh unbeaten on 41. Reetinder Singh Sodhi brought an end to UP’s innings, claiming 4 for 39 in nine overs.Andhra played at a snail’s pace, drawing their game with Madhya Pradesh. They took away two points for their first innings lead. Venugopal Rao, unbeaten on 60, and Reddy, who scored 56, played patient knocks at the Maharani Usharaje Trust Cricket Ground in Indore. They reached 195 for 3 when stumps were called and the game was drawn. For four days, runs came at the trickle of 2.57 runs an over.Assam continued to pile on the runs on the last day of their game against Baroda, and had two century-makers as the match was drawn. They made their way to 360 for 4 at the Nehru Stadium, with Zuffri (106) and Saravanan (102 not out) running up patient hundreds. However, Baroda were awarded the points for their lead in the first innings.

Scorecard

Clinton Perren played a lone hand for Queensland, scoring 103, but New South Wales were well on top at close of play on the third day at the Bankstown Oval. Perren’s century lifted Queensland to 259, but they were still 207 behind NSW, who chose not to enforce the follow-on. Batting again, they reached 2 for 47, stretching their lead to a comfortable 254.Perren was the only Queensland batsman to reach a half-century. The innings was also propped up by an unbeaten 40 from Andy Bichel.NSW suffered an early setback in their second innings when Phil Jaques, fresh from an unbeaten 240, was caught behind by Wade Seccombe off Joe Dawes for a duck. However, with a lead of 254, they were well-placed to add some quick runs on the fourth morning and then set the Bulls a stiff target in the last innings.

The overloaded one-day calendar just became even fuller, with news that three of the game’s key superpowers – Australia, India and Pakistan – will stop off in the Netherlands on their way to this year’s Champions Trophy in England.Each side will play each other once with the top two sides going through to a final. The tournament will reportedly run from August 22-29, coinciding with the Athens Olympics.In 25 years of tri-nation one-day tournaments it will be only the second time these three countries have faced off in a triangular tournament. In their previous three-way encounter, the Carlton & United Series of 1999-2000, Australia won nine straight matches.It will be the first multi-nation series to take place in the Netherlands, who staged one World Cup game in 1999.A Cricket Australia spokesman could not confirm the dates but said the Australians are scheduled to arrive in Holland on August 20. The 12-nation Champions Trophy begins on September 10.The Australians have already played 17 one-day internationals this year, more than India (15) and Pakistan (10). The new, as yet unnamed, tournament means they are so far scheduled to play a possible 28 ODIs in 2004 – down from 35 last year and their 1999 peak of 37. But it’s only May.

Tickets
Tickets for the tournament will be available from June 22 through the Dutch agency Top Ticket Line. Book through their website, www.topticketline.nl (beware: it’s in Dutch), telephone (+31) 20 2061084, or write to Topticketline, PO Box 12850, 1100 AW Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Virender Sehwag, who injured his ankle during India Blue’s match against India Red in the Challenger Series on Sunday, is certain to be fit for the Champions Trophy. Dilip Vengsarkar, the Indian chairman of selectors, said that the injury was not a cause for worry, and that a final assessment on his fitness would be made on Tuesday evening.”We have another two weeks to go for our first match in the Champions Trophy and it is not a worry,” Vengsarkar told Press Trust of India. “Sehwag’s fitness condition will known by tomorrow evening.”Opening the innings, Sehwag twisted his ankle while turning around for a second run. He had on-field medical attention but was run out shortly after, for 28. His injury has ruled him out of the final, should India Blue qualify. India play their first match of Champions Trophy on October 15 against England.

What the key players said after the match:Marvan Atapattu Sri Lanka’s captain
We thought 240 was a good score, but the way we finished was not too good getting just 45 runs in the last 10 overs. We did not plan enough at the end, and if we had concentrated on getting ones and twos we would have got around 270-odd.The [Symonds lbw] decision was made and the umpires decided to call him back and they asked me whether I had a problem with that. Our guys knew it was a wrong decision and we didn’t know what to do but when they asked him I was happy to call him back. It’s only a game, after all, and we have to play the game in the right spirit. I said no because we all make mistakes and it was clearly a mistake. I don’t see anything wrong in that.Ricky Ponting Australia’s captain
It was close and a great game of cricket. I was pretty happy with the way wewent about things today. We were behind the eight-ball early in the gameafter a very good opening partnership, but we fought back really well withthe ball. The batting was pretty good – just two runs shy. The guys will take a lot of confidence out of knowing that we can perform as well as we did today on a very worn Sri Lankan wicket.You are always disappointed when you lose a close game, but we are not goingto point the finger at any individuals. If you look back over the game youcould probably pick up half-a-dozen incidents [that cost us the game].We needed one of us to go on a finish it off, as it was not easy getting astart out there. But I played a poor shot and Matty [Hayden] got caught on theboundary and we did not finish the job. He played really well but we have come to expect that from him as he churns out runs in both forms of the game for us.The venue was good but I was a little disappointed that we used the samewicket today. With there not being a lot of cricket here I would havethought there would have been time for the curator to prepare two wickets.Chaminda Vaas Man of the Match and bowler of the fateful final over
Marvan asked me to bowl the final over and I used my experience and tried tobowl six yorkers, and it went nicely. I have played 220-odd matches but Ithink this was the best one that I have played. I have been playing forSri Lanka for ten years and I know exactly what to do on these wickets.

Pakistani speedster Waqar Younis will touch down at Sydney Airport tomorrow, in time to face University of NSW star and former Test foe Michael Slater this Saturday. The two will go head-to-head at North Sydney Oval, rekindling old rivalries stretching back to Karachi in 1994/95. Younis will be a welcome addition to North Sydney’s bowling strength, but has only claimed Slater’s wicket once in the Test arena. Slater was part of Mosman captain Trent Johnston’s hat-trick last round, and will be looking for some much-needed runs this time out.For all prospective Speedblitz Blues players, only three match days now remain before the State Selectors name their team for the Blues’ first match, on Sunday 26 October in Bowral. This weekend will comprise Round 3’s first day on Saturday, followed by Round 2 of the First Grade Limited-Overs competition on Sunday.On Saturday, Michael Bevan will make a rare Grade appearance for Many-Warringah, against Parramatta at Manly Oval. Bevan will be looking to play himself into form, while team-mate Shawn Bradstreet returns from injury.Speedblitz Blues team-mates Mark Waugh (Bankstown) and Simon Katich (Randwick Petersham) will be attempting to outdo each other at Bankstown Oval. Katich is in white-hot form, with a batting average after two matches of 172.00.At Howell Oval, Australian one-day bowler Nathan Bracken will partner former Australia A paceman Neil Maxwell in UTS-Balmain’s clash with last year’s finalists Penrith. The Panthers are winless after two rounds, and will be hoping that their batsmen can overcome the Tigers’ strong bowling attack.All Round 3 matches (Saturday, commencing 10.00am)- Bankstown v Randwick Petersham at Bankstown; Eastern Suburbs v Western Suburbs at Waverley; Gordon v Sydney University at Killara; Manly-Warringah v Parramatta at Manly; Mosman v Campbelltown-Camden at Rawson; North Sydney v University of NSW at North Sydney 1; Northern District v Hawkesbury at Waitara; Penrith v UTS-Balmain at Howell; St George v Fairfield-Liverpool at Hurstville; Sutherland v Blacktown at Caringbah.All Limited-Overs Round 2 matches (Sunday, commencing 9.30am)- Eastern Suburbs v North Sydney at Waverley; Gordon v University of NSW at Killara; Hawkesbury v UTS-Balmain at Owen Earle; Manly-Warringah v Campbelltown-Camden at Manly; Parramatta v Mosman at Old Kings; Penrith v Northern District at Howell; Randwick Petersham v Blacktown at Coogee; St George v Western Suburbs at Hurstville; Sutherland v Bankstown at Caringbah; Sydney University v Fairfield-Liverpool at University 1.

All Today’s Yesterdays – September 28 down the yearsSeptember 27 | September 291946
Birth of the regal Majid Khan, cousin of Imran, who was picked primarily as a bowler when he made his Test debut aged 18 but who was soon ensconced in the middle order by virtue of his scintillating strokeplay. He became the first Pakistani and the first person for 42 years to make a Test hundred before lunch against New Zealand at Karachi in 1976-77. But his most celebrated knocks came at a lower level: he led Punjab University to victory over Karachi with an unbeaten double-hundred after they had been 5 for 4, and he smashed 147 in 89 minutes for Pakistan against Glamorgan – who he later represented with distinction – in 1967, an innings that included 13 sixes, five in one over from the offspinner Roger Davis. A Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1970, Majid made almost 4000 runs in 63 Tests before becoming an ICC match referee and later Chief Executive of the PCB.1960
Birth of the little West Indian wizard Gus Logie. A brilliant short leg and a dangerous counter-attacker at No. 5 or 6, Logie specialised in the punchy, initiative-seizing cameo. In tandem with Jeff Dujon he was a regular pain in the neck for England, most notably at Lord’s in 1988 (when West Indies were 54 for 5) and at Trinidad in 1989-90 (when they were 29 for 5). A glorious, impish batsman of just 5 ft 4 ins, Logie played his last Test at Edgbaston in 1991 and finished with 2470 runs at 35.79.1971
Whatever happened to Matthew Elliott, who was born today? The top scorer on either side in the 1997 Ashes series with 556 runs, the tall, long-nosed Elliott looked a class act who was here to stay. But within a year of becoming a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1998, Elliott had played what may well be his last Test. Poor form certainly contributed to his demise – he made three ducks in six innings in the West Indies in 1998-99 – but he did himself few favours by getting on the wrong side of Steve Waugh during that tour. A gifted left-handed opener or No. 3 with all the shots in his locker, Elliott made three hundreds in his 20 Tests, including 199 at Headingley in 1997, when he was infamously dropped by Graham Thorpe off Mike Smith. He also played for Glamorgan in 2000, and, with great success, for Yorkshire in 2002.1996
In Nairobi, Muttiah Muralitharan and Romesh Kaluwitharana rained on Kenya’s parade. In the first official one-day international there, Murali took 4 for 18 and Kalu thrashed an 89-ball ton as Sri Lanka eased home by seven wickets, with almost 20 overs to spare, in the first match of the Kenya Centenary Cup.1973
England’s leading female legspinner was born. At the age of six Kathryn Leng, who was born today, informed her primary-school teacher that she would play cricket for England, and she was true to her word. Also a fine middle-order bat, Leng made history in 1999 when she became the first woman to play in the men’s Bradford League. She also became the first woman to play in a university match, for Leeds/Bradford UCCE, before earning a recall to the England women’s winter training squad ahead of their tour to India in January.1984
The first floodlit one-day international outside Australia took place at New Delhi, and Kepler Wessels broke the habit of a lifetime by playing some shots. His 107 – the only ODI hundred of his career – led Australia to a comfortable 48-run victory over India in the first of a five-match series.1999
Opening the innings, Lance Klusener smashed an unbeaten 101 as South Africa romped to a nine-wicket victory over Zimbabwe in their LG Cup match at Nairobi with 15 overs to spare. Apparently the ultimate pinch-hitter, Klusener has opened only nine times in ODIs. The reasons? As an opener, his 101 was preceded by a third-ball duck and followed by two first-ballers, a fearful waste of South Africa’s most lethal weapon. Unsurprisingly, he hasn’t opened since.1988
In the second Test in Faisalabad Javed Miandad was given out lbw for only the fourth time in 63 Test innings on home soil. But by then he had made 107, his 19th Test hundred, and denied Australia’s attempts to square the series. In all Miandad was given out leg-before only eight times in Tests in Pakistan and 25 times overseas.Other birthdays
1964 Irfan Bhatti (Pakistan)
1973 Colin Stuart (West Indies)

In the wake of the death of David Hookes, Australia’s coach, John Buchanan, has expressed hope that Darren Lehmann will be able to put his grief to one side and focus on re-establishing himself in the Australian Test team.Lehmann, a close friend of Hookes’s ever since they played together at South Australia, was visibly distraught when he faced the media on Friday. He had been present when Hookes was assaulted by a bouncer outside a Melbourne hotel, and was one of eight pall-bearers at his funeral on Tuesday.”I spoke to him today and asked how he came through it,” said Buchanan. “I’m sure he’s going to have emotional swings but the biggest thing will be actually getting back and playing and captaining South Australia.”It’s tragic and it’s sad,” added Buchanan, “but life moves on and so does [Lehmann’s] life, and his family and his cricket. That’s what’s important to him. I would see this as maybe a little bit of a stoppage in it for a period of time. I think he’s pretty philosophical, he’s a pragmatist, he’s a realist and he enjoys playing cricket.”Lehmann may now be 34, but he is still seen as an integral part of the Australian set-up. In particular his prowess against spin will be vital in the coming months, as Australia take on Sri Lanka and India in away series. But Lehmann has been out of action since October with an Achilles injury, and has plenty of fitness work to catch up on.”I’m pretty sure he’s nowhere near as fit as he would like to be,” said Buchanan. “But he’s got a few games on the horizon that will help the cause. He was obviously a fixture in the side before the injury, both the one-day side and the Test side. I know the selectors are just monitoring his fitness. For me, as soon as they assess that he’s fit enough to be playing either four-day cricket or one-day cricket then his name just comes straight back into the selection picture.”

Colin Coxon (Fordingbridge)First elected to the committee in 1995. Served on the marketing sub-committee and Bournemouth and New Forest area. A qualified coach and former Southern League player.An established businessman in Hampshire for over 20 years in computer services, telecommunications and finance.50 year old Colin has two sons. He was brought up in Essex and played for the counties Cricket Association before moving south.He likes all sports with a particular interest in horse racing.