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Zimbabwe Cricket is reportedly exploring the possibility of a tri-series against South Africa and Australia in 2014. ZC managing director Wilfred Mukondiwa also hinted at a four-day matches against Ireland next year, in the . Sri Lanka’s scheduled tour of Zimbabwe later this year, meanwhile, is very unlikely to go ahead, with the newspaper reporting that the two boards have agreed to postpone the tour on Zimbabwe Cricket’s request.”We have proposed a triangular series with South Africa and Australia next year after the World T20, which will be played in Bangladesh,” Mukondiwa said. “We are exploring that option so that it’s more competitive and lucrative. The World T20 and the visit by the two nations are the major events for us next year.”The Future Tours Programme for 2014 has Australia visiting Zimbabwe for a three-match ODI series in July, with South Africa following soon after for a full tour featuring the same number of one-day games, in addition to two Tests and a Twenty20 spread over July and August. ZC are hoping to replace the two ODIs series with a tri-series.Mukondiwa added there could be a “possibility” of hosting Ireland for four-day matches. “It is one of the programmes that have been proposed for Full Members, to engage Associate members. So Ireland is one of them and, depending on the schedule, playing them is a possibility.”We played them a couple of years ago and we would be happy to engage them again, but it all depends on the calendar as to where we can slot that in.”Zimbabwe had enjoyed relative success series during Ireland’s visit in 2010, winning the one-day series 2-1 and drawing the only four-day game.ZC is looking at “more lucrative” options as it has been beset by financial problems. Delays to players’ salaries almost jeopardised the series against Pakistan, and Sri Lanka Cricket had confirmed the Zimbabwe board wrote to it, asking to postpone its team’s tour – hosting Sri Lanka would further hit Zimbabwe’s already depleted finances.Last month, SLC had approached the boards of West Indies, New Zealand, Australia and England to fill the void in Sri Lanka’s calendar should the Zimbabwe tour be postponed.

Umesh Yadav, the India fast bowler, has said bowling as quick as he can is his priority. He didn’t give slowing down his pace a thought, he said, even when he was injured.”As a fast bowler, I need to have a clear mind about what my priorities are. My strength is to bowl consistently at a good pace and that will always be my aim as long as I play for the national team,” Umesh told . “If I have been selected in the Indian team to play across all formats, it is because I have the sheer pace more than anything else.”While he has impressed for the most part in the nine Tests he has played, Umesh has been troubled by a bad back. During the home Tests against England last November, he was the pick of the quicks in the Ahmedabad Test, but was then ruled out of the rest of the series with a stress reaction in his back. He was out of action till the first week of March, and then played the domestic T20 tournament, the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, and the IPL, where he was one of the only bright sparks in a dismal season for Delhi Daredevils. He was not as effective in the Champions Trophy, though, but will remain a key figure for India as they set out on tours to South Africa and New Zealand in the upcoming season.Returning from injury was a bit tough physically, Umesh said, but did not change his approach to bowling. “Even when I got injured last season, cutting down on pace never ever crossed my mind. Agreed, when you come back, your body asks you a few questions but you should always stick to doing what you do best.”In an era when things are loaded heavily in favour of the batsmen, Umesh said it is important for bowlers to stick to their strengths. “Tell me what new [variation] can a bowler bring to the table apart from what we have seen so far? Whether it is the back-of-the-hand slower delivery or a change in pace, there’s nothing new that the batsmen can’t counter. So it’s more important that we do any one thing consistently.”I have a natural outswinger and if I can bowl four to five of them at 140 kmph plus every over, I would be satisfied with my effort.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsZulfiqar Babar, 34, had a dream debut for Pakistan•WICB Media

You get a chance to play international cricket at 34, becoming the second-oldest debutant for your country. You are hit for six second ball. What do you do? You dismiss three key batsmen for just 23 runs. You are then called on to finish the game. With the bat. Understandably, you are tied down. But with six needed off six, you loft over extra cover for four. You think you have more than pulled your weight as a debutant. You have, but it is not over yet. It comes down to the last ball. One run needed. Everyone is in the circle. No sweat. You go big over mid-off, so big that you clear the rope. Zulfiqar Babar, welcome to international cricket.It should not have come down to the last ball the way Shahid Afridi sensibly steered the chase from 86 for 5. After that became 116 for 6, he did it with the tail for company. He made 46 off 27, but barring the 27th delivery, he hardly hit a desperate, reckless stroke. With eight needed off 11 though, he tried to seal it with a straight six, and mishit to long-on.West Indies sensed a chance. Babar played out a few dots. Despite that early boundary in the last over, Saeed Ajmal was run out off the fifth with the scores tied, before Babar roared one final time.The way they bowled and fielded, West Indies were lucky to have taken it down to the last ball. Shannon Gabriel took three wickets, but he crumbled under pressure each time he was called upon to deliver. Umar Amin, who played a blinder on T20 debut, took three fours off Gabriel’s first over, with a flick and two pulls.Amin then took Samuel Badree apart on a turning pitch. Never giving the ball a chance to spin, he repeatedly stepped out to loft Badree down the ground. When the bowler dropped it short, Amin pulled. When he overpitched, Amin drove. Even as Amin was toying with West Indies, the hosts were striking at the other end.The Pakistan top order fell to miscalculated hits, but Amin’s brilliance meant the asking-rate was always under control. That still didn’t stop Amin from walking out to Samuels and getting stumped to make it 86 for 5.Afridi took over now, striking Samuels first ball for six over long-off and drilling the third to the extra cover rope. Thereafter, he settled down into cruise mode, rotating the strike, picking the odd boundary and also lofting Sunil Narine to become the first man to reach 400 international sixes. He did everything right except the stroke on the ball he got out to, but then, it was to be the debutant’s day in the end.Babar, and the other Pakistan spinners, had shocked West Indies initially on the turner but the hosts recovered and then took apart the fast bowlers to post a challenging total. Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard came together at 42 for 4 and put on 56 before Darren Sammy cracked 30 off 14. Pakistan’s slow bowlers did their job, taking 5 for 74 in 14 overs but the fast bowlers, missing the yorkers too often, disappeared for 1 for 73 in six. Mohammad Hafeez, who opened the bowling and dismissed the openers, gave himself just two overs.Babar squared up and bowled Lendl Simmons with his fourth delivery and in his next over, found himself in the way of a powerful hit from Samuels, but managed to hold on. Samuels had been cutting Mohammad Irfan for boundaries amid all the wickets.Bravo and Pollard, although not always in control, rotated the strike, a refreshing thing coming from a West Indies pair. Bravo was quick to hit with the turn through the off side, and Pollard made sure he put away the rare half-volleys for boundaries. Sammy went after the fast bowlers as he and Pollard looted 53 in four overs. As Sammy said after the game, 152 should have been defended on that pitch, but Babar was to have the perfect debut.

Rain stops play; to be completed on Monday

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsWest Indies’ bowlers troubled the Sri Lankan batsmen on a pitch that afforded them consistent movement•AFP

Persistent rain in Port-of-Spain meant play was called off for the day after only 19 overs were bowled during Sri Lanka’s innings. The match will continue from the current state on Monday.West Indies, motivated by the appearance of the pitch, chose to field second time in a row, but unlike the previous match where they failed to make an early strike, this time, the bowlers found the right length on the pitch to topple Sri Lanka’s top order while keeping their run-scoring in a leash. Kemar Roach was the wrecker-in-chief, bowling a menacing spell upfront and was it not for a long and patient vigil by Lahiru Thirimanne and Kumar Sangakkara, the situation could have been far worse for Sri Lanka.While Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic were slugging it out like it was a hard court on the grass at Wimbledon, the pitch at Queen’s Park Oval was offering bounce and expected sideways movement to excite the fast bowlers. Roach’s first ball was certainly an indication of what he thought of the pitch as he ambled in and got a shortish delivery to rear towards Upul Tharanga’s throat. It was harshly called a wide, but it was the tonic West Indies needed after beefing up their attack with three fast bowlers in addition to Darren Sammy.The tall Jason Holder, playing his third ODI, was handed the other new ball and he started by extracting disconcerting bounce off a length, with some deliveries ending up head-high for the wicketkeeper. But he did the smart thing by repeatedly testing batsmen with fuller-length outswingers.It was another full-length delivery that brought him his first wicket as Tharanga, who had been dropped by the wicketkeeper in the previous over, drove him uppishly to cover where Darren Bravo took a good sharp catch leaping to his right. Sri Lanka’s troubles were compounded when they lost Mahela Jayawardene off the very next ball, a brute by Roach. It is seldom that Jayawardene looks ungainly even while getting out, but he was too late on a sharp bouncer and top-edged his pull to the front lid of his helmet and saw the ball popping in the air for the point fielder to take a simple catch.Roach’s best delivery was however the one that got Dinesh Chandimal, who hasn’t been in any form, but even if he was, it is hard to see how he would have tackled it. The ball pitched on a length and cut in sharply to hit the top of off stump. Chandimal, who had gone forward to play a drive, was holding his pose, but the result left him shocked and embarrassed.Sri Lanka limped to 50 for 3 after first 15 overs, with the 17 extras being the top-scorer in the scorecard. The rains came at the end of the 19th over to break West Indies’ rhythm, while in a sunny London, Murray finally ended Britain’s achingly long wait for a Wimbledon winner with a straight-set victory against the World No. 1.

The Islamabad High Court has upheld the suspension of Zaka Ashraf and ordered the Pakistan inter-provincial coordination committee to name an interim PCB chairman to represent the board in the ICC annual conference in London later this month. The next hearing on the matter will be on June 19.The court, at its initial hearing last month, suspended Ashraf from “exercising his power within his incumbency” due to what it called the “dubious” and “polluted” process to elect him. It was responding to a petition filed by a former official of the Rawalpindi Cricket Association against the Pakistan board’s elections that were held in May, through which Ashraf was elected to a four-year term as chairman.The PCB lawyer argued against the suspension order, saying that Ashraf needed to represent the PCB at the ICC annual conference, but the court turned down the request. “In the peculiar circumstances, the inter-provincial coordination committee is directed to appoint some acting chairman [of the] PCB, fully qualified to be appointed as chairman, till final disposal of instant writ petition, with the authority to attend forthcoming meeting of the ICC so Pakistan may be represented in the meeting,” the judge said.However, bringing in an interim chairman will not be a straightforward matter. The PCB, being an autonomous body, isn’t regulated by the government and is directly linked to the president of Pakistan, the patron of the board.The PCB constitution states that, “(i) during the absence of chairman for the period of more than 45 days or in the event the chairman tender his resignation or in case of his death or in the event of the office of the chairman falling vacant for any other reason, the board of governors may elect and appoint an acting chairman from amongst its members, who may only have limited powers during the absence or till the appointment of the chairman; (ii) the chairman during his leave from office or otherwise, may delegate any of his power, in writing to any other member of the board of governors or the chief operating officer.”Given the court’s order, there is no procedure defined in the board’s constitution to appoint a chairman through the inter-provincial coordination committee.Ashraf was elected in the first week of May – the first election of a PCB chairman – under the new board constitution that replaced the system of appointing the chairman by the patron. The process was conducted without any prior announcement, the PCB revealing Ashraf’s appointment through a press release, and Ashraf’s election was challenged in three different courts in the country.

Ravi Sawant, the president of the Mumbai Cricket Association, has said that N Srinivasan, the BCCI president, would be assumed guilty if he resigned now since he did not resign the day Gurunath Meiyappan, his son-of-law, was arrested. Sawant also said that although the issue of conflict of interest in Srinivasan’s case was a valid one, raising it six years after the start of the IPL by some BCCI members was opportunistic.”Today, if he [Srinivasan] resigns, people will straightaway accuse him of being guilty and that is the reason he is not resigning,” Sawant told . “He is saying, ‘I will prove there is nothing against me personally.'”Sawant added that any person shouldn’t be holding two conflicting positions, but the BCCI made an exception when they allowed Srinivasan to hold his position in the board while being the managing director of India Cements, the owners of the Chennai Super Kings franchise. To bring up the issue now, Sawant said, was not correct.”The rules were already in place. First time when buying a franchise, all the rules were applicable,” he said. “That time, he was not the BCCI president. He has gone from treasurer to secretary to president. So someone should have voiced their concerns, because these rules were made to prevent certain things to happen. You are now saying those rules were there and there is a conflict of interest and he should resign. To my mind, we should retrospectively think about it, why didn’t we object to his buying a franchise.””If you are supporting the decision of him buying a team, now to make an issue out of it is not correct. All these people speaking against him now are holding positions in the board, and they have worked with him. How can you raise an issue now?”The president of the Hyderabad Cricket Association, G Vinod, said since Srinivasan was an elected president and did not intend to resign, the matter should be taken up at a working committee meeting so that all board members can discuss their positions. However, Chetan Chauhan, the vice president of the Delhi District Cricket Association, said Srinivasan should step down while Gurunath was under investigation and could return if Gurunath was absolved.

Match facts

May 8, 2013
Start time 0900 (0700 GMT)Bangladesh will need another big effort from Nasir Hossain, the leading run-scorer in the series•AFP

Big Picture

The decider will possibly buck the trend of the tour. Zimbabwe and Bangladesh have both been playing tentatively, neither giving too much away nor taking full advantage. Regardless of the two Twenty20s next weekend, this is the encounter that will break the current deadlock between both teams.Zimbabwe hold the advantage, particularly after their clinical finish in the second ODI. It was their first win after six consecutive losses in the format, and the difference was evident. They recovered from an early wicket with a forceful partnership between Vusi Sibanda, one of the openers, and Sikandar Raza at No.3. After the two were dismissed, captain Brendan Taylor, Sean Williams and Malcolm Waller ensured a smooth ending, the Bangladesh bowlers not once threatening or beating their bat. It was vintage ODI cricket: two batsmen running hard, finding the odd boundary but always in command.The only Bangladesh batsmen to offer such solidity were Shakib Al Hasan and Nasir Hossain. They looked far more comfortable knocking the ball around but met premature ends to their respective innings in the second game. If they can lengthen their stays in the third and final ODI, the Zimbabwe bowlers will have a lot of thinking to do. The visitors will also expect runs from Tamim Iqbal, Mohammad Ashraful and Mushfiqur Rahim.Mominul Haque and Mahmudullah will also be on high-alert in this game, lest they continue to have the question mark hanging over their position in the limited-overs side. But there are no such major concerns in the bowling department, which will be asked to deliver one final blow.Taylor would also hope his bowlers stay on the straight and narrow, quite literally. They bounced back into more consistent lines and lengths after the indiscipline in the first ODI. But ultimately, this has been a series of surprises from both sides. Given how closely fought it has been, one should never expect the conventional at any juncture of this third ODI. There are going to be many tight knots, but the team with the highest mettle will win. This is going to be a nervous game of cricket.

Form guide

Zimbabwe: WLLLL (completed games, most recent results first)
Bangladesh: LWWLW

Players to watch

Whenever a big game approaches, interest in Tamim Iqbal goes up. Although not out of form, he has not been able play a substantial knock in the two ODIs so far. He is expected to fire on such days, especially if Bangladesh bat first, because he has the technique to counter the moving ball at pace. He would only have to guard against the tendency to force the pace too early.It is too early to say whether Sikandar Raza is going to solve Zimbabwe’s top-order conundrum but the signs so far are encouraging. The Pakistan-born batsman made just 23, but was comfortable against pace. He has to conquer spin, which he will encounter a lot against Bangladesh. This upcoming match will be another test for young Raza’s powers of concentration.

Team news

Though Zimbabwe have included Natsai M’shangwe in the squad to replace Michael Chinouya, they are unlikely to make any more changes with most of the components working well for captain Brendan Taylor, especially his bowlers finding rhythm.Zimbabwe (possible): 1 Vusi Sibanda, 2 Hamilton Masakadza, 3 Sikandar Raza, 4 Brendan Taylor (c & wk), 5 Malcolm Waller, 6 Sean Williams, 7 Elton Chigumbura, 8 Prosper Utseya, 9 Shingirai Masakadza, 10 Kyle Jarvis, 11 Tendai Chatara.Bangladesh team management are also unlikely to make changes for the crucial match.Bangladesh (possible) 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Mohammad Ashraful, 3 Mominul Haque, 4 Mushfiqur Rahim (capt & wk), 5 Shakib Al Hasan, 6 Nasir Hossain, 7 Mahmudullah, 8 Ziaur Rahman, 9 Abdur Razzak, 10 Shafiul Islam, 11 Robiul Islam.

Pitch and conditions

There is no particular change in conditions so the toss will again be vital. Both teams will look to bowl first to make use of early swing available.

Stats and trivia

• Brendan Taylor hasn’t scored a fifty in his last five innings, the last one coming in February 2012 against New Zealand.
• Despite his indifferent form, Mahmudullah is still the highest scoring No. 7 in the last five years. During the same period, Bangladesh have tried 10 batsmen at No. 3, none averaging more than 25.
• Prosper Utseya and Elton Chigumbura are the only bowlers in the current Zimbabwe side to take more than 50 wickets.

Quotes

“We didn’t have any fifty from the top four batsmen in both the games. So we will expect that they get to settle and score a lot of runs in this match.”
“The momentum is with us at the moment. We won the last game and we hope we just do what we did in the second game well and look to improve. Hopefully we will be able to finish it off.”

Kim Barnett, the former county stalwart and briefly England batsman, has been found guilty of harassing his ex-wife and fined £380.Barnett, 52, played four Tests for England in 1988 and 1989 and was also man of the match in his only ODI. He pleaded guilty to the charge and was also ordered to pay £250 in costs and a £15 victim surcharge.In September last year, he left a picture of his ex-wife Janet in his car in Leek, where she also lives, alongside a picture of a witch under the slogan “which is witch?” He also admitted driving his car past his ex-wife’s home despite having been issued with a harassment warning in April.Barnett enjoyed a 25-year career in which he scored 28,593 first-class runs at 40.38 for Derbyshire and Gloucestershire. But after his retirement in 2003, his marriage broke down and he and his wife separated a year later.Newcastle-under-Lyme magistrates heard that Barnett was suffering from mental health issues following his divorce in 2010.Defence solicitor David Green told the court that Barnett was an “impeccable” character who found the divorce extremely difficult to deal with. “These incidents occurred in the aftermath of the break-up and everything else that happened as a result of that,” Green said.”We have two incidents on two separate days which are in my submission quite bizarre, but also in some ways quite childish.” Green stressed that Barnett’s actions were “ill-thought out” and did not involve any direct contact with his ex-wife.Barnett captained Derbyshire to the 1993 Benson and Hedges Cup and was a part of the Gloucestershire side that dominated one-day cricket at the turn of the century. In 1989 he was named as one of Wisden’s five Cricketers of the Year.

Match facts

March 14, 2013
Start time 10.30am (2130 GMT)Stuart Broad’s batting form has fallen away sharply•PA Photos

Big Picture

Had the first Test been decided on a points decision, there is little doubt that most judges would have awarded it to New Zealand. After bowling out England for 167 – their lowest first innings score since 2009 – the hosts replied with 460 to take a first innings lead of 293; their third highest against England in completed innings. While a flat pitch and some determined England batting prevented a repeat in the second innings, it was England who benefited most from the first day having been lost to rain.But the fact is that the match was drawn and, bearing in mind the history of England improving after a faltering start, New Zealand may come to reflect that they have missed their best opportunity to strike a telling blow. Worryingly for New Zealand, this pitch is expected to provide more assistance to the England seamers.It certainly proved that way in 2008. After New Zealand won the opening Test in Hamilton, England struck back at Wellington with Tim Ambrose recording his only Test century and claiming the man of the match award as England leveled the series. They subsequently went on to win it by prevailing in the final Test in Napier.It remains to be seen how much the effort in Dunedin took out of the New Zealand side. While they should have taken confidence from some aspects of their performance, the concern is that their three seamers bowled 114 overs between them in the second innings in their pursuit of victory. With so little time to recover between the games, Wellington will offer a stern test of their stamina. The ability of Steven Finn, who went into the Dunedin Test with few pretensions as a batsman, to resist the New Zealand bowlers for nearly five hours in the second innings might also prove sobering for the hosts.Still, any fears New Zealand had over the potency of England’s seam attack should have been eased by the Dunedin performance. Indeed, in three first-class innings on the tour to date, England have yet to bowl out their opposition with the New Zealand XI in Queenstown declaring in their first innings and completing a testing fourth-innings target with three wickets in hand in their second innings.

Form guide

New Zealand DLLWL (Completed matches, most recent first)
England DDWWL

In the spotlight

Had Martin Guptill been fit, it is highly likely that Hamish Rutherford would not have played in the first Test in Dunedin. Rutherford seized his chance with some style, though, and in scoring 171 set a new high for an opener on debut against England. Only Mathew Sinclair, who made 214 on debut against West Indies in 1999, has made a higher score on New Zealand Test debut. Rutherford’s excellent start has buoyed home hopes that a line-up containing Ross Taylor, Kane Williamson, Brendon McCullum and, one day, perhaps, Jesse Ryder, might have the potential to develop into the strongest batting unit in New Zealand’s Test history.Stuart Broad‘s form has been the subject of much debate. But while the focus has tended to fall on his bowling – he claimed his first Test wickets since August in Dunedin – his batting has – arguably – fallen away more sharply. Since he last made a half-century – in January 2012 against Pakistan in the UAE – he has had 16 Test innings, passed 20 only four times with a highest score of 37 and averaged only 13.60. Perhaps more remarkably, in that time the average balls he has faced in a completed innings is just under 20. Such statistics do little to support the claim that he can be viewed as an allrounder and suggests that he may be batting too high at No.8.

Team news

New Zealand will be unchanged and England are likely to follow the same route. For New Zealand, Doug Bracewell has not recovered from the foot injury sustained while cleaning up glass after a party while for England Kevin Pietersen is expected to play despite what Andy Flower described as “a little bit of pain in his right knee.” Flower went on to say: “Most of the players play with something sore most of the time. I don’t anticipate it being a huge problem for us at all.”New Zealand 1 Peter Fulton, 2 Hamish Rutherford, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Dean Brownlie, 6 Brendon McCullum (capt), 7 BJ Watling (wk), 8 Tim Southee, 9 Bruce Martin/Ian Butler, 10 Neil Wagner, 11 Trent Boult.England (probable) 1 Alastair Cook (capt), 2 Nick Compton, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Ian Bell, 6 Joe Root, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Stuart Broad, 9 James Anderson, 10 Steven Finn, 11 Monty Panesar*.

Pitch and conditions

The pitch is expected to have more pace and bounce than Dunedin, with some claiming it is the quickest in New Zealand. The last time England played here, Ryan Sidebottom and James Anderson both gained swing movement and claimed five-wicket hauls and it is worth noting that Chris Martin, with 60 wickets in 14 Tests, is the highest Test wicket-taker on the ground. Bowlers capable of generating bounce should enjoy it.New Zealand have not won any of the last six Tests on the ground. The last two – against South Africa in 2012 and Pakistan in 2011 – have been drawn, though the weather played a role on both occasions.Wind may also play a role. Wellington is a notoriously windy city and some bowlers struggle to adapt to the challenge of running into it. Shane Bond, the New Zealand bowling coach, has admitted it is an experience that all three of his side’s leading seamers are unaccustomed to having developed as strike bowlers running in with the wind behind them.

Stats and trivia

• New Zealand and England have played each other in 10 Tests at the Basin Reserve in Wellington. England have won four times and New Zealand only once, in 1978, when an England side captained by Geoff Boycott were bowled out for a paltry 64 chasing 137 for victory.
• Nick Compton and Alastair Cook are currently averaging 81 per opening partnership. The sample size is small – they have now played five Tests together – but only Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe – who averaged 87.81 in 38 innings – of regular England openers have a better record.
• New Zealand have won four of their last 33 Tests against England dating back to 1986. The last one of those game seven Test ago, at Hamilton in 2008,
• James Anderson needs eight wickets to become the fourth England bowler after Fred Trueman, Bob Willis and Ian Botham to take 300 in Tests. He needs five to draw level with Derek Underwood, currently the fourth highest wicket-taker in Tests for England.

Quotes

“We always knew the guys are fit, and can bowl a lot of volume, we just need to make sure they are fresh and ready to go.”
Shane Bond, the New Zealand bowling coach reflecting on the fitness of his side’s three seamers, Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Neil Wagner, who delivered 114 of the 170 overs in England’s second innings in Dunedin.”I’d rather have been batting for 170 overs than fielding, let’s put it that way.”
Matt Prior.*06.40GMT, March 13: The preview had previously listed Graeme Swann in the line-up.

England players are “substantially underpaid” and require far greater compensation for missing out on the riches available in T20 leagues around the world, according to the chief executive of the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA), the players’ union.Angus Porter is one of the key men charged with negotiating England’s central contracts and he feels there is a chasm to be bridged before the players and the ECB can agree the next deal. The new contracts are due to be issued in October.England’s busy schedule is one key area of concern. With the international team playing cricket almost the whole way around the calendar, the opportunities available to England players to participate in the various domestic T20 leagues springing up around the world are sharply curtailed. As a result, according to Porter, their payment lags far behind their opposite numbers from other countries.The players are also said to be concerned about the integrity of Test cricket. While the format remains most cherished by all current England players, Porter said they are worried that Tests played in May are compromised by the absence of key members of the opposition at the IPL and serve to devalue the premier form of the game.”T20 leagues are very much an issue as we look at the next round of central contracts,” Porter told ESPNcricinfo. “It would be wrong to focus purely on the IPL; the fact is that England players have very little time to appear in any of the highly profitable T20 leagues or even in the Champions League.”It is quite wrong to presume that central contracts are adequate compensation. England players are substantially underpaid even before we factor in the lost earnings from potential T20 appearances. They are paid somewhere around half the amount of Australian players and most Australian players also have the opportunity to appear in the IPL and the BBL. We are asking that England players be given a chance to maximise their earnings.”While helping the players to do that is clearly one part of Porter’s remit, it is not his only concern. “It is very important to the ECB that the integrity of the early season Tests is maintained,” Porter said. “But it isn’t necessarily so important to the opposition. The players are concerned that playing games against half-strength teams does long-term damage to the integrity of the format that all of them feel is the most important and prestigious.”We understand there are complex issues here. We understand why the England schedule is so busy and we don’t pretend there are simple answers. We are not thrusting a stake into the ground and saying our position cannot be moved. We just feel that a bit of flexibility is required and that a negotiated settlement is the answer. The players are certainly prepared to compromise and I hope the ECB are, too. The England players need to have a greater say in the schedule.”Talks between the two sides are at an early stage but it is clear that there are significant problems to be solved before the England team depart for the Ashes at the end of October.As things stand, an uneasy compromise exists between the ECB and its contracted players, allowing them to appear in the IPL for around a month but rendering them far less attractive to franchises due to their partial availability – several went unsold in this year’s IPL auction.The 2013 IPL runs from April 3 to May 26 but the ECB has insisted their players are back in England by May 5, ahead of the New Zealand Test at Lord’s, which begins on May 16. The New Zealand team is sure to be weakened by players who have chosen to appear in the IPL instead.The ECB might have thought it had won the argument after subjugating Kevin Pietersen’s attempted rebellion in 2012. Among other disagreements, Pietersen had wanted to play a whole season of IPL but was forced to back down when the England management made it clear that they were not willing to give any more ground. But Matt Prior is the latest England regular to suggest a rethink of England’s early season schedule, while Owais Shah is believed to be thinking of becoming the first English cricketer to give up a contract in county cricket to make himself available as a travelling T20 professional. The issue is clearly not going away.”There is no question that we are going to see cricketers go freelance,” Porter said. “It may be Shah and it may be someone else. But you can understand players wanting to maximise their earning ability over the last few years of their career and, perhaps, extending that career by managing their workload. It will happen soon.”The involvement of England’s players in the IPL may be academic for a few years, though. Between 2014 and 2016 the dates of the IPL are set to be pushed back a few weeks to accommodate major global events, making it practically impossible for England players to be involved. The World T20 takes place in Bangladesh in April 2014, the World Cup the following year runs until the end of March and the following World T20 takes place in India in April 2016.