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Jake Ball could be forced out of England’s Caribbean tour after suffering an injury to his right knee.Ball, who played all three of the ODIs in the recent series in India, limped off the field after the first delivery of his third over in England’s final warm-up game before the three-match ODI series against Wets Indies. He subsequently broke down when attempting to run in the net area as the England support staff tried to assess the extent of the problem. He will play no further part in the match against a WICB President’s XI.The England management hope to arrange a scan on Ball’s knee in St Kitts today, but may be obliged to wait until the tour party reach Antigua tomorrow. They believe the problem is at the back of the right knee.If Ball is forced home, the tour management may well consider calling up a replacement seamer. Chris Jordan, who has recently been playing in the PSL, would be one obvious option, while one of the Curran brothers might be another. Stuart Broad, who performed well in the BBL and has made no secret of his desire to return to the ODI side, is also a possibility.The England squad is already without Mark Wood, David Willey and Reece Topley due to injury, while Jason Roy was left out of the side for the second warm-up game due to a badly bruised right hand sustained as a result of several recent tough sessions of fielding training.They had better news as regards Alex Hales, though. He will fly out to Antigua on Tuesday and continue his rehab with the rest of the squad following a hand injury. He has not, as yet, been officially added to the squad but that could change in the coming days if the medical team deem his recovery complete.The first ODI takes place in Antigua on Friday.George Dobell is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo. He will be covering England’s tour of the Caribbean in association with Smile Group Travel, specialists in hosted supporters’ packages.

New Zealand’s focus over the next week is trying to win back-to-back ODIs to protect a proud home record, but the Test series against South Africa will approach quickly and they have been boosted by Neil Wagner’s progress after he suffered a fractured finger earlier this month.Mike Hesson said that Wagner was “highly likely” to be available for the first Test in Dunedin, which starts on March 8, having healed well following the injury sustained when fielding off his own bowling for Otago at the start of February.Wagner played club cricket on Saturday and came through “okay” according to Hesson. “He’s done everything possible to ready for the first Test,” Hesson added.He has become a vital figure in New Zealand’s Test attack, following the new-ball pair of Tim Southee and Trent Boult, with an unstinting work ethic and ability to ruffle batsmen with a regular supply of short deliveries.In November he became the second-fastest New Zealand bowler to 100 Test wickets, behind only Richard Hadlee, reaching the milestone in 24 outings. Since the beginning of 2016, Wagner is New Zealand’s leading Test wicket-taker with 51 wickets at 22.33 in 11 Tests.However, New Zealand are covering their bases in case Wagner has any problem between now and the first Test. Matt Henry has been released from the one-day squad to play a Plunket Shield game for Canterbury at the Basin Reserve.Henry has played one Test this home season, against Pakistan in Hamilton, where he claimed a single wicket and overall has an unflattering 17 wickets at 56.11 from seven matches. Due to being regularly with the national squad, Henry has only played one Plunket Shield game this season and in that he was pulled out during the second day for New Zealand duty.”With Neil having had an injury we want to make sure that Matt is ready to go if required,” Hesson said. “We also didn’t think he’d be likely used in Hamilton therefore the opportunity to give him a first-class game.”If a reserve quick is required, New Zealand may also look at Lockie Ferguson who played in the third ODI. While he has proved expensive in ODI cricket, he has taken 18 wickets in four Plunket Shield matches. “I thought he bowled well enough to get two or three last night,” Hesson said. “He’s still developing, but he’s certainly getting better.”BJ Watling, the wicketkeeper-batsman who required rest for a knee problem after the Test series against Bangladesh, has made his return to action for Northern Districts. The Test squad is likely to be named between the fourth and fifth ODIs.

Former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin will stand for the president’s post of the Hyderabad Cricket Association. On December 22, a lower court in Hyderabad ordered the HCA elections to take place on January 17.Azharuddin, who filed the nomination papers representing the National Cricket Club on Tuesday morning, said Hyderabad cricket was in the “doldrums” and his aim was to develop a flourishing cricket structure that would produce and retain talent. “I want to serve Hyderabad cricket. It is in doldrums now despite the team making it to the Ranji Trophy semi-finals this year,” Azharuddin told the . “The fact of the matter is that there is no development of the game and there are corruption issues in the HCA. I want to ensure that cricket flourishes in Telangana.”Azharuddin played 99 Tests and scored 6215 runs at an average of 45. He also played 334 ODIs and struck 9378 runs at 36.92 in a career spanning 15 years.Cricket in Hyderabad had taken a backseat with the HCA embroiled in corruption controversies. Deloitte, appointed by the BCCI to carry out an audit of all state associations, presented a diligence report last year and implicated HCA of mismanagement of funds and revealed irregularities and anomalies in the functioning and decision-making.Azharuddin, blamed the current HCA administration, which was headed by his former Hyderabad and India team-mate Arshad Ayub, for the issues with Hyderabad cricket. “I have heard stories of nepotism and corruption in selection. In the under-14, six new players are added to the team after every match. This is shocking.’There is no development of the game and there are corruption issues in the HCA. I want to ensure that cricket flourishes in Telangana’ – Mohammad Azharuddin•Associated Press

“Hyderabad lost two very good players to Andhra [Hanuman Vihari] and one went to Bengal [Pragyan Ojha]. How could the HCA allow them to go and play for other states. Cricket sadly has taken a backseat and that is what I want to change,” Azharuddin said.Ayub, having served for more than nine years as HCA office bearer, had to step down as president after the Supreme Court order on January 2. But Ayub said there was confusion over whether Azharuddin could be eligible to run for the president’s post. “As per HCA constitution, Azhar cannot file directly for the president’s post. Firstly he has to file for the executive committee. Once he serves there he has to become an office bearer. Then only he can put in his nomination for the president’s post,” Ayub told ESPNcricinfo.Ayub also said he was uncertain about how the HCA could conduct elections as the Supreme Court was yet to appoint the panel of administrators that would supervise the BCCI. The Supreme Court is expected to do so on January 19. Ayub said although the HCA had told the Lodha Committee that it would implement all the recommendations, the HCA constitution had not yet been amended. “As per our rules we have to conduct two emergent general body meetings to approve the amended constitution. In the first EGM we had decided to adopt the recommendations.”In the second EGM, which has not yet taken place, the HCA is supposed to insert the various clauses from the Lodha Report into its constitution and then approve it.The HCA was also keen to know from the BCCI whether the life ban imposed on Azharuddin for his involvement in match-fixing had been lifted. It is understood that the HCA secretary John Manoj has raised these points in e-mails to the Lodha Committee, which has not yet been responded to.After the 2000 match-fixing investigation conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation found Azharuddin and three others guilty of fixing matches, the BCCI’s disciplinary committee, led by the then board president AC Muthiah, banned him for life on December 5, 2000. According to the CBI, Azharuddin had admitted to accepting large sums of money from Mukesh Gupta, a bookmaker, to under-perform in two matches.Azharuddin, who subsequently moved to politics, challenged the ban but his initial attempts failed. Then, in 2012, a division bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court ruled the BCCI ban illegal.Azharuddin, though, said the BCCI ban could not rule him out of the HCA elections. “I don’t think the BCCI ban on me can be an issue in my contesting for a post in HCA. It may be recalled here that the Andhra Pradesh High Court has set aside the ban four years ago. So, I don’t foresee any issue in this regard,” Azharuddin said after filing his nomination papers.

Haseeb Hameed has been urged not to rest on his laurels following the impressive start to his Test career. While praising Hameed’s “remarkable” second-innings half-century in Mohali, Joe Root also encouraged his young colleague to respond to his early success by working ever harder.Having received widespread acclaim at the end of the Mohali Test – not least from India’s captain, Virat Kohli – Hameed now returns to England for an operation on his hand following a serious break of his little finger. But any danger that he might let the praise go to his head – and, to be fair, it doesn’t seem as if there was much danger – will have been dispelled by Root’s gentle words of warning and encouragement.”The only advice I gave was, make sure you don’t go back to county cricket at the start of the summer and rest on your laurels,” Root said. “Don’t think: I’m a Test cricketer now.”It’s an opportunity to prove to everyone in county cricket that you are there for a reason. You have opportunities to make some really big scores, to keep learning and to keep improving. He has the opportunity to put the good work he has done in India into his game and continue to develop the way he has done.”Root’s words are both well-intentioned and wise. As he found after an encouraging start to his own career, Test cricket is hugely demanding and the pain of being dropped at the end of the Ashes tour of 2013-14 continues to motivate him.So while Hameed’s start has been exciting, Root wants him to be ready for the challenges ahead and to know there is much, much more to achieve. He also warned that more will be expected of Hameed now and that will bring different challenges.Still, Hameed returns to England having made an excellent impression. It is not so much the runs he scored – two half-centuries in six innings does not look so special, after all – but the composure with which he batted under pressure and in conditions in which his colleagues have struggled. Aged 19, he already looks one of the more composed batsmen in the side.”The way he played with a broken hand the other day was remarkable,” Root said. “For such a young lad to show composure, to manipulate the strike and also hit some of the best spinners in the world for boundaries was very, very impressive.”For a 19-year-old lad to come into this environment and be so composed and mature… You watch him practice, and you would think he had played 60 or 70 games. It’s great to see someone come in with that attitude and hopefully, that stays with him for a long time.”He will have different expectations in the future and that might be a different challenge. But he has got a very good head on his shoulders and he should be proud of what he has done so far. Now it is about managing those expectations and being realistic: it’s going to take time to keep developing and it might not always go how he wants. But sometimes you have to have those little tumbles to get right to the top. I’m sure that if he does have some hard times, he’ll get through it.”It is revealing to study Hameed’s dismissals. Of the five of them, one was a run-out (for which he was largely blameless), one came as he tried to up the pace in a bid to set up a declaration in Rajkot, one came when he was the victim of a shooter in Vizag – a truly unplayable ball – and another came when he received a delivery that reared off a length in Mohali. There were one or two signs of weakness, mainly against the short ball, but his figures do not flatter him. He looked assured, elegant and ready.The ECB undertook some research a few years ago that underlined the impression that players who do well do so at the start of their Test career.There are notable exceptions either way, of course – Graham Gooch suffered a ‘pair’ on debut; David Lloyd had an average of 260 after two Tests – but it might be telling that, of the last England side to reach No. 1 in the Test rankings, four of the batsmen (Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss, Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior) made centuries on debut and two others (Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell) made half-centuries. One of the bowlers (James Anderson) took a five-for on Test debut, too, while another (Graeme Swann) too two wickets in his first over.The confidence of those early experiences may well have laid the path to subsequent success. Whichever way you look at it, Hameed would appear to have a bright future.

Cricket Ireland have unveiled plans for the first dedicated outdoor cricket training complex in Ireland, giving top performers of both sexes and all ages the best facilities to help develop their skills on the Sport Ireland National Sports Campus.The Cricket Ireland Performance Centre will mean that cricket becomes the latest sport to join the Sport Ireland site at Blanchardstown in Dublin. The development will feature 14 grass nets, five artificial pull-out bays, a 90m outfield, plus seating and storage areas.The €600,000 development has been made possible thanks to support from the ICC, the Irish Government and Sport Ireland and a personal benefactor, Denis O’Brien.”The development of Cricket Ireland’s first-ever dedicated outdoor training centre is a huge step forward for Irish cricket,” said Cricket Ireland CEO Warren Deutrom.”For the first time, our performance squads – male and female, senior and junior, national, provincial and academy – will be able to train on a day-to-day basis in a state-of-the-art facility controlled by Cricket Ireland.”We are grateful to the Government and Sport Ireland for providing us with the land, and to the ICC which is clearly increasing its support for Ireland’s aspirations – by granting first-class status to our Hanley Energy Inter-provincial competition; through our elevation to the 12-team ODI structure; and by granting an additional $500k in 2016 and 2017 to help us afford the matches.Deutrom also lauded the individual involvement of Denis O’Brien, an Irish billionaire and media mogul.”I would also like to extend our particular gratitude to Denis O’Brien, who continues to play a vital, yet unheralded role, in the growth of Irish cricket,” he said. “For the last 10 years Denis has always been ready to answer our call – from supporting our team in the Caribbean World Cup in 2007 and then our first cohort of contracted players, to helping us stage our major matches and, now, helping us build our first outdoor performance centre. He has played a central role in helping us punch above our weight on the world stage and, for this, we are enormously grateful.”Sport Ireland Chief Executive, John Treacy welcomed the new development saying: “Earlier this year Cricket Ireland launched an ambitious strategic plan which aims to make cricket mainstream, and the development of these world class training facilities at the Sport Ireland National Sports Campus will assist this objective as the sport continues to grow.”Cricket Ireland performance director, Richard Holdsworth, explained the rationale behind the new development, saying: “There is a pressing requirement for such a facility to be built to service our increasing number of performance teams, as we found existing clubs are already overstretched in terms of hosting Cricket Ireland activity due to the impressive growth in participation figures in recent years.The facility will also provide a training venue for touring overseas teams; New Zealand, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and West Indies will visit Ireland in 2017.”We have found that access to high-quality outdoor facilities has been a consistent theme emerging from the last two post-World Cup reviews,” Holdsworth said. “We have previously announced warm-weather outdoor plans for the La Manga Club Development (which is almost complete) and this home-based facility will augment that perfectly.”We already have four ODI-accredited facilities in Ireland, but no quality outdoor training facilities so this will remedy that.”Work on the new facility is expected to start subject to the necessary planning permissions in early 2017 with the artificial area being completed ahead of the season and the grass nets operational in 2018.

Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin have counselled Australia against excessive sledging in the forthcoming Test series against South Africa, querying whether recent efforts to “puff chests out” detracted more from the team’s performances than having any impact on the opposition.The Australia ODI team engaged in numerous verbal battles with South Africa over the course of a 5-0 series defeat on their recent tour, which followed captain Steven Smith’s assertion that a “quiet” team needed to show more “energy” in the field. While Clarke and Haddin were both known for numerous verbal stoushes over their careers, they agreed that forcing the issue verbally would do more harm than good.”I’m probably contradicting the way I captained, because I loved that aggressive approach and while there was a line, I always liked the team I captained to head-butt that line, not overstep it but head-butt it. That’s how I thought we played our best cricket,” Clarke told ESPNcricinfo. “But the more I experienced got I believed it wasn’t what you said it was what you did, so your performance wasn’t dictated by your mouth.”I’m probably contradicting myself and my captaincy style because there were a couple of occasions where I did open my big mouth. The reason I did that with James Anderson was to stick up for George Bailey and the Dale Steyn one was sticking up for James Pattinson as well. But I shouldn’t have said a word, in both situations there was no need for me to say anything.”Clarke noted that numerous players from past eras were particularly talkative on the field because it is what worked for them, not because they felt compelled to do so out of some idealised image of the Australian cricketer. “I think you need to do what’s comfortable to you,” he said. “The team I grew up playing in that Australian team, they had Steve Waugh, Matthew Hayden, Shane Warne, these guys liked and enjoyed that verbal competition.”That helped them perform. So if that helps you, as long as you don’t overstep that mark, then go for your life. There’s a number of players around the world that enjoy that. I remember Kevin Pietersen loved that challenge against Mitchell Johnson or Shane Warne, whomever it was.”So if it helps your game, do it, but I don’t think you should force it. I think that’d be like me trying to bat like Ricky Ponting. The guys have got to work out what they feel is best for them individually and as a team and go for it. But if it doesn’t suit your personality then I wouldn’t try to be someone I’m not.”Michael Clarke on his altercation with James Anderson during the 2013 Ashes: “I shouldn’t have said a word.”•Getty Images

Haddin expressed the view that teams could make life uncomfortable for opponents without resorting to verbal abuse. Areas like aggressive fielding, running between the wickets and banter among team-mates – sometimes referred to as “talking across” the batsmen – could have the same effect without becoming a distraction from the primary goal – to win the game.”I don’t think it’s about what you say on the field,” Haddin said. “The best Australian teams I’ve been a part of have been able to create an uncomfortable environment for the opposition with your body language, your movements around the game, and creating an atmosphere with each other where the opposition feels like they’re the only two people out there, or he [the batsman] feels like he’s stuck out there by himself.”It’s the environment you’re trying to create with your presence. That can be having the most athletic fielding team so the opposition feels uncomfortable there. It’s about creating the environment to make the opposition feel they can’t play their best. The best way you can do that is to create an environment where the opposition try to do something they don’t normally do.”Sometimes the best form of that is not to say anything – you wouldn’t say anything to a Kevin Pietersen for example because he’d dig his heels in and start taking it personally to hit us all around the park. One of the best things for him was to stay away from him.”Conversely, Haddin felt that talking too much to opponents invariably led to a change in the power dynamic, as the “sledgers” revealed more about their own discomfort than those they were targeting. “Talking too much to the opposition … you’ve got to earn the right to play the way you want to play,” Haddin said.”Sometimes if you’re just focusing on talking and trying to get a reaction it can have a negative effect on your team. The reason you create that uncomfortable environment there is to make the opposition do something they don’t want to do. If it starts detracting from what you’re trying to do then that’s a problem.”Asked to provide an example of a player who struck the right balance, Haddin mentioned Andrew Symonds. “Andrew was one of the best team men I ever played with,” he said. “He didn’t say a lot to the opposition, but his presence in the covers or when he had the ball he was always up for the contest.”You knew if Andrew was there, the way he dived in the field and chased, the tempo he set running between the wickets, the opposition could look at him and says ‘Hang on, the Australians are up for the fight today’ and that then puts doubt in their change room.”

West Indies Women 223 for 6 (Taylor 85, Quintyne 41) beat England Women 181 (Beaumont 57, Winfield 51, Taylor 3-29) by 42 runs
ScorecardStafanie Taylor produced a superb all-round performance to defeat England•Getty Images/ICC

The batting frailties that have dogged England’s women throughout their tour of the Caribbean resurfaced with a vengeance once again in the fourth ODI at Sabina Park, as West Indies squared the five-match series at 2-2 with the decider to come at the same venue on Wednesday.Chasing 224 to win after Stafanie Taylor’s 85 from 129 balls had laid a strong total for the hosts, England appeared to be well placed on 133 for 1 in the 29th over. However, they lost their next nine wickets for 48 runs in 16 overs, five of them to run-outs, to slump to defeat by 42 runs.England’s chase could hardly have started with more intent, as Lauren Winfield and Tammy Beaumont added 95 for the first wicket in 19 overs to break the back of the run-chase.However, Beaumont was caught and bowled for 57 by Taylor to inject a hint of anxiety, and when Winfield followed nine overs later, run out for 51, England’s momentum shuddered to a halt.Nat Sciver departed six balls later to become Taylor’s second victim, and before the over was out, England had lost their third wicket for four runs in the space of 10 balls.After a brief rally through Heather Knight and Georgia Elwiss, the second wave of England’s collapse was even more dramatic – four wickets for four runs in 19 balls – with Taylor’s second caught-and-bowled accounting for Knight for 36 and ending England’s meagre hopes.Hayley Matthews chipped in with two wickets to account for Amy Jones and Jenny Gunn, and fittingly it was left to Taylor to wrap up an astounding allround performance with her second run-out of the innings to remove Laura Marsh for 13.Earlier Taylor’s innings of 85 had featured six fours and two sixes, and included a second-wicket stand of 69 with Shaquana Quintyne, who made 41.

England women will conclude their busiest-ever year of international cricket by taking on Sri Lanka in the final round of ICC Women’s Championship in November.The three-match ODI series was today confirmed by the England & Wales Cricket Board, and will take place at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on November 12, 15 and 17.England are currently third on 19 points in the Championship standings, which serve as the qualification tournament for the 2017 World Cup, with Sri Lanka lying in eighth, having won just twice in their first five rounds of the competition.

England women in West Indies and Sri Lanka

• 1st ODI, Florence Hall, October 8
  2nd ODI, Florence Hall, October 10

• 3rd ODI, Kingston, October 14
  4th ODI, Kingston, October 16
  5th ODI, Kingston, October 19
  Training camp, Abu Dhabi, November 1-7
  1st ODI, Colombo, November 12
  2nd ODI, Colombo, November 15

• 3rd ODI, Colombo, November 17

Arguably the bigger test of England’s credentials will come when they travel to Jamaica next month to play West Indies in the penultimate round of the ICC WC. Stafanie Taylor’s team are one point ahead of England in second place on the table, meaning that the result from that series will have a significant bearing on the final qualification standings.”The tour to Sri Lanka will mark the end of the busiest ever year for the England women’s team and the conclusion of the ICC Women’s Championship,” said Mark Robinson, England Women’s Head Coach. “It will be another good test to mark how we are progressing as a squad, as we bid to overcome a passionate home team in the heat and humidity of Sri Lanka.”As always, it will be a challenge that we will relish, as we keep building for the future and look ahead to the ICC Women’s World Cup on home soil next year.”Prior to arriving in Colombo, the squad will take part in a six-day training camp in Abu Dhabi from November 1-7.

ScorecardBilly Godleman defied his former county•Getty Images

Billy Godleman staged a one-man roadblock but Essex remain on course to boost their promotion chances after Derbyshire were forced to follow-on in the Division Two match at Derby. The former Essex batsman frustrated the bowlers for 55 overs to score 100 and Wayne Madsen completed 1000 Championship runs for the season but the home side closed day three facing defeat on 213 for 5, still trailing by 152 runs.Essex would have fancied their chances of wrapping up victory with a day to spare after Graham Napier, with 4 for 28, and Ravi Bopara had polished off Derbyshire’s first innings before lunch.The home side had showed fight from the first ball of the morning, with Alex Mellor and Matt Critchley taking their seventh wicket stand to 70 in 25 overs before Napier broke through. Mellor had been dropped by Tom Westley at second slip in the previous over but failed to add to his 44 when he edged a ball that moved away enough to give James Foster the first of two victims before lunch.Napier produced an unplayable inswinging yorker to bowl Tom Milnes first ball but Critchley negotiated the hat-trick ball before he steered Bopara to gully. When Bopara defeated Callum Parkinson’s defensive push, Essex had run through Derbyshire in less than 66 overs but they encountered greater resistance after enforcing the follow-on with a flat pitch and cloudless skies assisting the home side’s rearguard.Godleman and Ben Slater negotiated a tricky five overs before lunch and then batted well into the afternoon before Napier, who switched to the City End, had Slater taken low at second slip by Westley. But Essex had to wait another 30 overs for their next success as Alex Hughes joined Godleman, who cut Jamie Porter for four to reach 50 and then drove Westley over long-off for six.Hughes concentrated on survival, facing 99 balls for his 23, before he chased a wide one from Paul Walter, and the wicket Essex most wanted came three overs later. Godleman cut Walter for three to reach his third hundred of the season but, in the next over, he was lbw to Napier and Essex struck two more blows in the closing overs.Madsen had pulled Bopara for four to reach his milestone but was squared-up by Will Rhodes and snared at third slip for 37 and, without addition to the score, Bopara forced Neil Broom to play on for 13 in the penultimate over.

Sri Lanka Cricket and Muttiah Muralitharan have traded caustic verbal blows following an altercation between Murali and the Sri Lanka team manager. SLC has made a formal complaint to Cricket Australia over the altercation, and has also contended Murali had conducted centre-wicket training at the Pallekele ground without permission.With consternation about Murali’s role as spin-bowling consultant with Australia already high at SLC, a rumour began to circulate that Murali had influenced the preparation of a turning pitch at the P Sara Oval for Australia’s practice match last week. Having represented Tamil Union Cricket Club for much of his career, the P Sara Oval was effectively Murali’s home ground. It is a venue where he commands substantial respect.Sri Lanka would have preferred Australia to play their practice match on a seaming deck at odds with the surfaces that would be prepared for the Tests. Yet, Australia spinners Steve O’Keefe and Nathan Lyon shared 12 scalps in that game, on a surface that had begun to take significant turn by day three.Having caught wind of the suggestion that he was responsible for the nature of that pitch, Murali said he confronted Charith Senanayake, whom he believed to be the source of the accusation. Murali denies having had any influence over the preparation of the P Sara pitch. Senanayake denies having sparked the rumour.”Charith has accused [me] and told the media that I have cut the grass on the pitch to help Australia’s spin bowlers to take the wickets in the three-day game. That’s a lie,” Murali said. “When I met him I asked him: ‘We played together and respected each other, why are you telling lies?’, he told me that they have just made an inquiry.”The Tamil Union wicket was made at the time by Janaka Sampath, who is the SLC board curator. They should clarify from him what actually happened, rather than going on rumour.”Tempers are understood to have spilled over during the exchange. SLC was eventually notified, and on Monday, its president Thilanga Sumathipala said the board was “deeply disappointed” by Murali’s actions and had lodged a complaint with CA.”There are two problems here,” Sumathipala said. “The first is that Charith Senanayake has made a complaint that he had been berated. The second is that a certain training session for the Australia players at Pallekele had been carried out without permission.”We’re very disappointed because Murali is a player the board spent a lot of effort saving. We saved him three times. From a professional standpoint, there is no problem with him working with the Australian team. But the issue here is an ethical one. We’ve named the trophy the Murali-Warne Trophy.”And I remember once when we went to Kandy with Murali, he was on a truck and there was so much support for him that it took four hours for him to get home. Kandy is his hometown, and he’s now had to coach an opposition team at Pallekele. Regardless of professionalism, we’re very hurt by this.”SLC vice-president Mohan de Silva attempted to calm tensions, stating the board had not lost respect for Murali, but others within the cricket establishment had continued to express their dismay. When Sri Lanka’s sports minister also expressed “disappointment” over him taking the Australia job, Murali reacted by admonishing the board for casting aspersions upon his “ethics”, and drew attention to his substantial body of humanitarian work.”About two years ago, the board headed by Nishantha Ranatunga asked me to do some work with the spinners and I said yes, and I went and worked with the Sri Lankan spinners for 10 or 15 days,” Murali said. “Since then no Sri Lankan board has asked me to do any job. If they had asked me before the [Australia] series to be a consultant, I would have said yes. They didn’t want me, and someone else wanted me. How could I be a traitor to this country? Australia asked me to coach for the entire series, but I told them I can only do 10 days because I don’t want to be in the opposition dressing room during the match in Sri Lanka, that’s not ethical.”Sri Lankan people have done a lot for me, and I think I have done a lot for them as well. Along with a friend I’ve opened the Foundation of Goodness, where every year we help 50,000 families. We built 1000 houses after the tsunami. Cricket-wise, through the foundation, we made about 30-40 wickets in the Northern and Eastern provinces. We hold an annual reconciliation tournament. We do more than what Sri Lanka Cricket does, with our own funds.”Murali said Sri Lankans pursuing coaching opportunities with other countries was a result of their being unfairly treated by the SLC.”These people who are accusing me should go and look in the mirror [and compare] what they are doing to the country and what I am doing. The other fundamental wrong is that when our players become brilliant coaches, the board chases them off. I’m talking about Chandika Hathurusingha, Chaminda Vaas, Marvan Atapattu, Mario Villavarayan, and Thilan Samaraweera, who went to Australia. These people are all working in different countries where they are valued more than they are here.”What we do is bring all the top coaches from abroad when we already have the talent. We are not using it. Am I the traitor or are they the traitors? When they pay also – the foreign coaches are paid so much more than the Sri Lankan coaches.”Murali was also incensed by how much had been made of his association with Australia in particular, a role which he felt offered personal vindication given his travails in Australia during his career. He had initially worked with the Australia spinners during a series in the UAE in 2014, before being approached again ahead of this series.”I know in ’95 and ’96 I had problems against Australia, and the whole of Sri Lanka backed me. I thought that when Australia asked me to coach, that’s them saying that I don’t do anything wrong – that I am correct and they were wrong at the time. That’s their proving it by asking me to train their spinners.”Does SLC think that just because I coach Australia for 10 days, Australia will win? If that’s the case I am the best coach in the world, and Sri Lanka should hire me every time, and we will win every time.”Former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara tweeted in support of Murali on Monday evening. “Murali is a great son of Sri Lanka and he doesn’t have to defend himself. He loves his country,” Sangakkara wrote. “He is free to consult or coach anyone. If SLC had ever asked him to coach Sri Lanka, he always will. His consultancy with anyone is a way he can give back to the game.”He has given his best to his country on the field and off. He is always available for his country, all they have to do is ask. We [should be] proud of him. If any Sri Lankan spinner walks up to [Murali] and asks him about bowling, he will be the first to spend as much time as needed to help. Free.”