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Nigel Llong will replace Billy Doctrove, who announced his retirement recently, on the ICC’s Elite Panel of international umpires for the 2012-13 season. Llong, 43, is a former Kent batsman and has umpired in 12 Tests, 55 ODIs and 16 Twenty20 internationals.Llong made his international umpiring debut in June 2005, in a T20 between England and Australia in Southampton. He stood in his first ODI, between England and Sri Lanka at Lord’s, in June 2006 and his first Test in January 2008 in Dunedin, in a game involving New Zealand and Bangladesh.As a batsman for Kent, he played 68 first-class games, scoring 3024 runs at 31.17. In List A cricket, he made 2302 runs at 25.29 in 136 matches. He made his last List A appearance in 2000.The ICC have also picked Bruce Oxenford, part of the International Panel of umpires, to officiate in the World Twenty20 in September in Sri Lanka together with the 12 members of the Elite Panel. He also umpired in the 2011 World Cup where he was one of six chosen by the ICC to stand alongside the Elite Panel “after being identified as an emerging and talented match official”.Oxenford, a former Queensland legspinner, has stood in eight Tests, 34 ODIs and 11 T20 internationals.Ranjan Madugalle and Jeff Crowe will be the match referees for the World T20, while Graeme La Brooy will be the match referee for the women’s World T20.

Ireland resume their quest to qualify for the 2015 World Cup next month with two World Cricket League ODIs against Afghanistan. It is their first series since securing a place at the World T20 with victory in the qualifying event in the UAE.Stuart Thompson, a 20-year-old allrounder, has been added to the squad for the two matches on July 3 and 5 at Clontarf. Thompson has been rewarded for his form for Ireland A, scoring 93 in helping his side to a record chase against Gloucestershire second XI and making 71 against Scotland A.”Stuart’s been very impressive this season and has a sound technique which will stand him in good stead at the higher level,” Ireland coach Phil Simmons said of Thompson’s inclusion. “He’s also bowled pretty well at times and gives the squad plenty of options.”These are two vital games – two wins would put us in a fantastic position to qualify but we’re well aware of just how dangerous Afghanistan can be. We’ve had some tremendous tussles with them over the past few years.”Ireland currently lie joint top of the World Cricket League Championship with five wins from their first six games. Afghanistan are joint fifth with three wins from six games. The top two from the Championship automatically qualify for the 2015 World Cup.Ireland also play an Intercontinental cup match against Afghanistan from July 9 to 12 at Rathmines, where Kevin O’Brien will captain a much-changed squad.Fixtures
Ireland v Afghanistan, World Cricket League Championship, Clontarf, July 3 and 5Squad
William Porterfield (capt), Alex Cusack, George Dockrell, Trent Johnston, Ed Joyce, John Mooney, Tim Murtagh, Kevin O’Brien, Niall O’Brien, Paul Stirling, Max Sorensen, Stuart Thompson, Andrew White, Gary WilsonFixtures
Ireland v Afghanistan, InterContinental Cup, Rathmines, July 9-12Squad
Kevin O’Brien (capt), John Anderson, Andrew Balbirnie, Alex Cusack, Trent Johnston, Rory McCann, John Mooney, Paul Stirling, Max Sorensen, Stuart Thompson, Albert Van der Merwe, Andrew White, Ben Wylie

Ross Taylor, the New Zealand captain, has said the absence of formal pre-tour preparation would not be an excuse if his side should under perform in the USA and the Caribbean. New Zealand left for their tour, which begins with two Twenty20s against West Indies in Florida, on Sunday.New Zealand have not played since hosting South Africa in February and March and had no camp prior to departure. They will not have any warm-up games before the limited-overs matches either. Taylor said that wasn’t ideal. “You’ve got to weigh up travelling to rest. There are a few players that have come from England – Guppy [Martin Guptill] and Kane Williamson,” he told . “I guess the IPL players played not so long ago, and there’s other players [who have] been in Australia. It’s not ideal preparation, but it is what it is, and we’ll have no excuses once we get over there.”Taylor said West Indies might be better prepared for the series, having played against England and Australia recently, and expected them to be a tough unit. “They’re coming in from playing cricket, so I guess they will be better prepared than us. It’s still no excuse for us. We’re a professional team and we need to start off as well as possible.”[The West Indies] have got some youngsters who have probably had a lot more experience over the last couple of years. Two years ago, they were a very inexperienced side but [today] they’re a very competitive side on their home track.”The tour of West Indies is John Wright’s last as New Zealand coach and Taylor was keen to end his tenure with success. “We don’t want to make it a swan song. Obviously it’s going to be a little bit emotional for John, but we want to get out there and win. Obviously win for ourselves, but win for John as well. He’s been a good servant for New Zealand cricket.”While he would prefer a New Zealander to succeed Wright as coach, Taylor hoped the best applicant would be chosen. “It would be nice [if the coach was from New Zealand], but it’s not the be all and end all,” he said. “We have Australian assistant bowling, fielding and batting coaches, so I guess if there’s a New Zealand connection in there somewhere, it would be nice. But at the end of the day, we just want the best applicant for the job.”

Pragyan Ojha, the India left-arm spinner, has had a precautionary scan after hurting his neck during batting practice at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. Ojha was hit while trying to pull a ball during throwdowns in the indoor nets at the ground. The extent of the injury was unclear but it is understood to not be serious. Ojha seemed to be in some pain as he walked out of the indoor facility feeling his neck.Ojha has two days to recover ahead of the third ODI against Sri Lanka on Saturday. He played as the second spinner alongside R Ashwin in the first two games of the series in Hambantota, taking a combined 1 for 51 in 6.5 overs. Legspinner Rahul Sharma is the third specialist spinner in the India squad.The five-ODI series is level at 1-1 after India won the first game in Hambantota and Sri Lanka won the second.

Michael Clarke has said that Australia are looking forward to the ODI against Afghanistan on Saturday and he is expecting good quality of cricket, despite the gulf of experience between the two sides. “It’s an opportunity for them to come out with nothing to lose and plenty to gain and I think it will be good cricket,” Clarke said.Australia, who will be playing Pakistan in a limited-overs series in the UAE starting August 28, agreed to play Afghanistan to assist with their cricketing development. However, Clarke is not taking the match lightly.”No doubt Pakistan’s on my mind but our focus as a team has been on Afghanistan,” he said. “After Saturday’s game we’ll sit down then and look at the Pakistan side.”The matches in the UAE during current tour will start at 6:00 pm local time to avoid daytime heat and the late starts and finish are going to be a new for teams, Clarke said. “We don’t really know what it’s going to be like starting a match at six o’clock at night. We haven’t done that before in one-day cricket. It’s a lot different.””You have to ask me after the first match but it’s going to be a big challenge for both the teams, also for Pakistan.”Australia have been inconsistent in one-day cricket lately – they drew the series in the West Indies and lost 4-0 to England in July. They have dropped to No. 4 in the ODI rankings too – their lowest ever – after being the top-ranked side since September 2009.”When we left England, we were still the number one-ranked team in the world but because of other teams playing, we’ve slipped back down to four,” Clarke said. “But to me it’s about playing really good consistent cricket all around the world and I know we’ll get back to being number one.”

South Australia 6 for 209 (Hughes 92, Marsh 2-35) trail Western Australia 9 for 400 declared (Harris 114, Marsh 73, Coulter-Nile 52, Mennie 4-115) by 191 runs
ScorecardAnother aggressive contribution by Phillip Hughes not enough to prevent South Australia from slipping behind Western Australia on day two of the Sheffield Shield match in Perth.The Warriors went on from their overnight 7 for 327 to a declaration at 9 for 400, Mitchell Marsh’s 73 shepherding the tail.SA’s reply developed into a series of starts, Hughes the only man to pass 50 while the likes of Michael Klinger and Callum Ferguson squandered decent platforms as they closed on an unsteady 6 for 209.Marsh followed up his runs with the wickets of Ferguson and Dan Christian, while Hughes was run-out by Nathan Coulter-Nile for 92, leaving him without a first-class century for the Redbacks this season despite going close three times.

Bangladesh Twenty20 squad

• Mushfiqur Rahim (capt & wk), Mahmudullah, Tamim Iqbal, Anamul Haque, Abdur Razzak, Mominul Hoque, Jahurul Islam, Nasir Hossain, Elias Sunny, Rubel Hossain, Mashrafe Mortaza, Sohag Gazi, Ziaur Rahman, Shafiul Islam

Offspinner Sohag Gazi, who claimed Man-of-the-Match awards on Test and ODI debut during West Indies’ ongoing tour of Bangladesh, has been named in the hosts’ 14-man squad for the one-off Twenty20. Batsmen Anamul Haque and Mominul Haque, who also debuted during this tour, have made the squad too.The fourth among Bangladesh’s debutants, Abul Hasan, who scored a century from No. 10 in the Khulna Test, is the only newcomer to miss out: he is yet to recover from the side strain he suffered in the second ODI in Khulna. The injured Shakib Al Hasan, who was advised six weeks rest due to a shin injury, expectedly wasn’t picked.Batsmen Mohammad Ashraful and Junaid Siddique, and allrounder Farhad Reza, who were part of the squad that played the World Twenty20, were not named in this squad.This year, Bangladesh played their most Twenty20s, winning four out of eight games. The match against West Indies is set to be played in Mirpur on December 10.

Kevin Pietersen’s return to the England set-up is likely to be given a final stamp of authority by the ECB with the upgrading of his four-month central contract to a full, year-long one.Pietersen, who was dropped from the squad during the Test series against South Africa after a breakdown in relations with the dressing room, was given a short-term contract at the beginning of October, after England’s exit from the World Twenty20. That would run up until the end of January but Andy Flower, England’s team manager, indicated that Pietersen’s “reintegration” had gone smoothly and a new contract, covering home and away series against New Zealand and the Ashes, will be a formality.”The contract won’t be a problem,” Flower said. “Kevin has been excellent in every way. We don’t all always get on with people all of the time – any of us in any walk of life – and everyone has made an effort to make it work.”The temporary arrangement allowed Pietersen to be selected for England’s tour of India, where they secured a first Test series win since 1985. Pietersen made a crucial century in the series-levelling win in Mumbai and ended as England’s second-highest run-scorer, and Flower was keen to praise his efforts. “It’s been really good fun and he should be very proud of the way he’s operated out here, both as an individual and as a player,” he said.Pietersen, along with the majority of England’s Test squad, has returned home after being rested for the two-match T20 series with India, which begins on Thursday. He will be part of the ODI squad flying back out to India in January and is set to play his first one-day match in almost a year, since scoring back-to-back hundreds in England’s 4-0 whitewash of Pakistan in the UAE.Just a few months later, Pietersen announced his surprise retirement from limited-overs international cricket, setting off a chain of events that culminated in his exclusion from the England set-up but Flower insisted the issues had been fully resolved.”We did move on from it as soon as we had our meetings and everyone made a commitment to do so,” Flower said of the behind-the-scenes process to smooth Pietersen’s return to the squad. “I want to continue that, moving forward. We want to learn from the past, but we don’t want to keep on revisiting it.”While Pietersen has been included for the five ODIs against India, James Anderson and Jonathan Trott have been rested, in line with England’s move towards a more flexible selection policy. Pietersen’s temporary retirement was in part down to a feeling that too much was being demanded of England cricketers and the message appears to have been heeded, and even extended to the management. The ODI series will be Ashley Giles’ first in charge of the limited-overs sides, with Flower taking a more back-seat role.”We want to make this new coaching structure work for English cricket like we did the three captains,” Flower said. “It’s not gimmickry; we want to make the most efficient use of our resources and our personnel. I think we’re lucky to have a coach of Ashley Giles’ quality taking over and we want some of his ideas and energy to assist in taking our limited-overs sides up a notch or two. We believe he can do that.”

Match facts

Michael Clarke will be aiming to lead from the front after Friday’s debacle•Getty Images

January 20, SCG
Start time 1420 (0320 GMT)

Big Picture

Just as the Test series between these two teams was decided with one match still to play, the one-day battle could be done and dusted before the teams fly to Hobart for the fifth and final game. Through outstanding swing bowling over the past two matches in Adelaide and Brisbane, Sri Lanka have positioned themselves so that in Sydney on Sunday they can become the first team ever to secure bilateral one-day series triumphs against Australia in Australia. South Africa have done it once, in 2008-09. So have Pakistan, in the winter of 2002. Sri Lanka did it with a 2-1 success in early 2010-11. But no team has done it twice – yet.Sri Lanka were disappointing in the Tests, no question, but a one-day series win would at least allow them to fly home with some pride restored. At the very least they have shown that their pace attack, pilloried during the Tests, is a much more dangerous proposition in the one-day format. The presence of Lasith Malinga helps, of course, but in Brisbane on Friday it was Nuwan Kulasekara, who was here for the Test series, who destroyed Australia with the kind of prodigious swing most bowlers could only achieve with a half-taped tennis ball. It was brilliant stuff, and Australia’s batsmen will need to show more of a willingness to fight through such swing if it is again present in Sydney, although the conditions are unlikely to be as helpfully humid as in Brisbane.For Australia, this match is as much about regaining pride as it is about keeping the series alive. If their 170 in Adelaide looked bad, their 74 all out at the Gabba was as embarrassing as it gets in one-day cricket. Only the final batting pair, Mitchell Starc and Xavier Doherty, reached double figures. It was only due to their 34-run stand that Australia avoided their all-time lowest ODI total. The match was nearly over by 5pm, the time that should have been the change of innings. Those numbers cannot be avoided. Nor can they be repeated.

Form guide

(Most recent first)
Australia LLWWL
Sri Lanka WWLWW

In the spotlight

For most of Australia’s brief innings on Friday, it looked like Michael Clarke was going to be the top scorer with 9. He was one of several men beaten by hooping inswing and as the captain, it is up to him to ensure Australia find a way to combat Sri Lanka’s bowlers on Sunday. Such has been his consistency lately that not since the opening two Tests of the 2010-11 Ashes has Clarke made two consecutive single-figure scores for Australia. Now is not the time to change that.Nuwan Kulasekara‘s 5 for 22 was the best analysis ever achieved by a Sri Lankan in an ODI in Australia and it was a performance built on controlling and directing his inswing, and in many cases swinging it late. The conditions in Sydney won’t be quite as helpful, but after Friday’s performance Australia’s batsmen will be wary of him all the same.

Team news

Jackson Bird has been added to Australia’s squad for this match as cover, just as Ben Cutting was for the Brisbane game. But it’s not Australia’s bowling that has been the problem, and Bird may find himself running the drinks if all the other fast men are fit. Glenn Maxwell will come into contention again after being left out due to the conditions at the Gabba, and might be jostling with Moises Henriques for the No.7 position.Australia (possible) 1 Phillip Hughes, 2 David Warner, 3 Michael Clarke (capt), 4 George Bailey, 5 David Hussey, 6 Matthew Wade (wk), 7 Moises Henriques / Glenn Maxwell, 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Clint McKay, 11 Xavier Doherty.Ajantha Mendis should be reinstated at the SCG after Sri Lanka’s selectors shrewdly judged the Gabba as a venue much friendlier to swing and seam. Shaminda Eranga would be the most likely man to miss out, having replaced Mendis for the Brisbane game. The fitness of Dinesh Chandimal remains a query but with Kushal Perera performing impressively over the past two games, there is no need for Sri Lanka to rush Chandimal back if he is not quite ready.Sri Lanka (possible) 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 2 Upul Tharanga, 3 Mahela Jayawardene (capt), 4 Lahiru Thirimanne, 5 Angelo Mathews, 6 Kushal Perera (wk), 7 Jeevan Mendis, 8 Thisara Perera, 9 Nuwan Kulasekara, 10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Ajantha Mendis.

Pitch and conditions

Both teams would be pleased the Sydney match was scheduled for Sunday instead of Friday, because while they were competing in Brisbane, the temperature in Sydney reached an all-time record of 45.8C. The forecast for Sunday is a much more pleasant 25C, with a shower or two possible.

Stats and trivia

• Sri Lanka have not only won their past two ODIs against Australia at the SCG, they have also won four of the six the teams have played there this century
• Ajantha Mendis needs two victims to reach 100 ODI wickets and if he reaches the milestone during this series he will be the quickest Sri Lankan to the mark
• In the four games (Tests and ODIs) Australia have played in 2013, they have used 23 players; Phillip Hughes is the only man to have taken part in all four matches

Quotes

“Our batting performance was very poor. We have no excuse for that … If we bat like that in any conditions, we’re not going to make many runs.”
“What happened in the last two games is fantastic but we need to start all over again in Sydney, have that intensity, have that energy.”

When it started on Wednesday afternoon, the final Super Six match of the Women’s World Cup looked set to decide which of England or New Zealand, the 2009 finalists, would face Australia in Sunday’s final. The third contenders, West Indies, had been bowled out for 164 in a morning start and surely Australia would chase that down. Which is why Charlotte Edwards, in the midst of providing her side a solid base, didn’t believe a New Zealand fielder who told her that Australia had in fact fallen short.It was only when her partner Sarah Taylor walked up to Edwards and broke the news that the England captain realise that her side’s tournament was all but over. For those watching the match, the excitement had drained as soon as online updates showed Australia had been bowled out for 156. But Edwards had to swallow her disappointment and get on with the game in the middle. She went on to score a vital half-century.”I looked at the big screen to see the result,” Edwards said. “I didn’t actually take in what the information was telling me. I assumed Australia had won the game because when I went out to bat they were going pretty well. [I was] pretty heartbroken really. For three overs after that I didn’t know what was going on. It was disappointing for both teams. It was kind of an anti-climax. I’m very proud of how both teams stuck to it out there.”New Zealand captain, Suzie Bates, also spoke of how the sides had played a competitive game but said intensity levels weren’t the same after the dispiriting news came in. Bates felt it would have been better to have not known the result of the other match.It was a particularly shattering end for the holders England, who went out of the tournament without having had a single really poor game. Their defeats to Sri Lanka and Australia were by one wicket – off the last ball – and two runs. Edwards, however, refused to offer any excuses and said England had paid for their “slow start” to the tournament, beginning with the shock loss to Sri Lanka.”We had come here to win this tournament and we haven’t. We haven’t even got to the final,” Edwards said. “That is disappointing for us as a group of players. We were very inconsistent in the first phase of the tournament and are probably now playing our best cricket, which is too late. We prepared well. We have no excuses. We didn’t play well. We didn’t hold our catches against Sri Lanka.”Edwards said there would be time for reflection on England’s performance in this tournament, and also over a “disappointing” previous 18 months, after they return home but ruled out any immediate decision over her own future. The 33-year-old Edwards, who is now in the 17th year of her international career, said she hadn’t even thought about retirement.”That is a long way off. I am not going to make any rash decisions,” she said. “I am going to enjoy my cricket. I am loving my time with this group. We have got a big summer. There is a World Twenty20 next year. I can’t say if I am going to be there in four years’ time [at the next World Cup] but the only thing that will keep me going is that it might be in England. But four years is a long time.”