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West Indies captain Jason Holder said that the fate of suspended head coach Phil Simmons lay “with Phil and the board” but added that he had been a “wonderful inspiration” during his brief time in charge.Holder hoped for a swift resolution that would allow Simmons to return to the squad in Sri Lanka after his position was put in limbo when he expressed discontent over West Indies’ ODI squad for the tour.Simmons has since apologised for his remarks, but has been asked to answer for “breaches of confidentiality” by the WICB and is currently awaiting at HR hearing.”The comments made by Phil were by Phil, and I can’t comment on those things,” Holder said in Colombo. “It’s down to him and the board. We can only control the cricket because that’s what we came here to do. Whatever his situation, his fate lies with him and the board. Hopefully he can deal with that and be back to us as soon as possible.”The timing of Simmons’ suspension has posed a significant problem for West Indies, coming as it did only days before the squad was scheduled to assemble in Sri Lanka, and less than three weeks before the first Test. Simmons was appointed West Indies coach in March and the Sri Lanka tour would have been his first international foray with the outfit. It is also Holder’s first assignment as Test captain.”No doubt [Simmons’ suspension] is a bit of setback for us, but at this present stage, all we can do is focus on the cricket. I just hope that the situation with him is solved quickly because we would love to have him back. He’s been a wonderful inspiration to our team thus far.”West Indies are scheduled to begin their tour with a three-day warm-up match which now begins on Friday, having been pushed back 24 hours due to poor weather, before moving to Galle for the first Test, which begins on October 14.SLC announced on Tuesday that the two-match Test series will be named the Sobers-Tissera trophy, after West Indies great Garry Sobers and Sri Lanka batsman Michael Tissera, who was among the island’s pre-eminent cricketers in the pre-Test era.”Having the trophy named after Sir Garfield Sobers is something truly special,” Holder said. “He was one of the greatest to play the game and he still makes a major contribution to the game. Only recently he joined us in Barbados and wished everyone the very best for this tour of Sri Lanka.”It is always good to see him and interact with him and it would be great for us to take home the trophy with his name on it. We got some pretty young faces in our squad and a lot of them look up to the past greats who played the game.”

Baroda left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh took his maiden List A five-for as Tripura collapsed for a mere 58 in Delhi. Baroda lost four wickets in their chase – including three in the first three overs – but took only 37 deliveries to complete a six-wicket win.Tripura’s innings lasted only 22.2 overs as Swapnil, Irfan Pathan and Yusuf Pathan cut through the line-up. Manisankar Murasingh, the Tripura captain, was the only player to score in double-figures, reaching 10 before he was trapped lbw by Swapnil. The left-arm spinner ended with returns of 5 for 25, complemented by Irfan’s 2 for 8 off four overs, and Yusuf’s 3 for 24.Tripura left-arm spinner Chiranjit Paul took 3 for 27 in Baroda’s chase.In another low-scoring Group C game, Vidarbha bundled Andhra out for 87 and then achieved the target in the 20th over with ten wickets to spare.Put in to bat, Andhra had a poor start, and were struggling at 31 for 4 by the ninth over. The Vidarbha quicks, Umesh Yadav and Shrikanth Wagh, inflicted the early damage and, after a brief 39-run partnership between Andhra captain Prasanth Kumar and TK Ganesh Kumar, left-arm spinner Akshay Karnewar helped wrap up the innings. Prasanth’s dismissal in the 21st over saw Andhra lose their last six wickets for only 17 runs, with the innings closing in the 26th over. Karnewar, playing only his fifth List A match, finished with 4 for 13, while Umesh took 3 for 16 in 5.3 overs.Vidarbha’s openers, Jitesh Sharma and Faiz struck unbeaten knocks of 47 and 44 respectively to seal the win.Manan Sharma and Pawan Negi picked up three scalps apiece, before Dhruv Shorey and Milind Kumar stroked fifties to lead Delhi to a five-wicket victory against Maharashtra at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Maharashtra, after being inserted, were dealt blows at regular intervals by Manan (3 for 21) and Negi (3 for 38), and soon found themselves floundering at 99 for 6. Handy knocks from Swapnil Gugale (44) and the captain Kedar Jadhav (48) lifted the team, but with no other batsman able to score more than 18, Maharashtra were restricted to just 194 for 9.Delhi’s chase was marshaled by a 59-run partnership for the fourth wicket between Milind and Shorey. Though Shorey was run out for 57, Milind remained unbeaten on 58, with five fours and a six, to complete the win with 10 balls to spare.

Nottinghamshire held their nerve to secure a two-wicket against Northamptonshire at Trent Bridge. They began the day needing 105 with six wickets in hand, but soon lost nightwatchman Andy Harris for 6. Samit Patel reached 50, before Nicky Boje removed him to haul the visitors back in the match. Boje bowled Mark Ealham then Chris Read fell to Jason Brown. However, Nottinghamshire’s batting went a long way down with Andre Adams, the New Zealand allrounder, coming in at No. 10. He played positively alongside Graeme Swann to guide their side across the line.Nottinghamshire’s win means that despite pulling off a 114-run at Colchester, Essex are still well adrift in third place. Leicestershire were set 291 after 14 overs of joke bowling, but it was for the greater good. Andy Bichel struck in his first over and Leicestershire never formed a solid base. Jim Allenby battled to 59 as Danish Kaneria struck against the middle order. The lower order went down swinging rather than blocking and Marc Rosenberg was unable to bat.Gloucestershire survived a potentially tricky couple of sessions at Lord’s against Middlesex after Ed Smith had done his best to find a positive finish. When Gloucestershire were 148 for 8 in their first innings the follow-on was a possibility, but after Chris Taylor (62 not out) had erased that issue time became severely limited. Smith hit a 55-ball 56 as Middlesex scored at six-an-over for 20 overs, leaving the visitors 264 in 60. They began aggressively, but when Alan Richardson removed both openers in the space of three runs put their minds to a draw. Hamish Marshall’s 59 ensured against any late alarms.

Mitchell Johnson, along with Mark Cosgrove and Phil Jaques, would be returning home. It had been decided weeks earlier that after the first two games – the Aussies arrived in Malaysia with a squad of 18 – these three would be sent back.Johnson certainly signed off his second and last appearance in the DLF Cup with a flourish, finishing with 4 for 11 from four overs before the match was abandoned as the drizzle resumed.The National Selection panel had apparently arrived at the decision even before the team left for Malaysia, and the team management was keen to emphasise that it was no reflection at all on the performances of the trio. Ricky Ponting admitted that it was disappointing that Johnson was heading home, but admitted that there was little he could do to reverse a decision that was made much earlier.With these three gone Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey will be restored to the first XI for the match against West Indies on Monday afternoon.

Brighton Watambwa, it appears, has brought his budding international career to a close. One of Zimbabwe’s fastest bowlers, he expressed dissatisfaction with the contract he was offered, and plans to emigrate to the United States later this year.Another former Zimbabwean pace bowler, Everton Matambanadzo, also took that step last year and is now involved in the business world in San Francisco.

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Dion Ebrahim and Brendon Taylor made patient half-centuries as Zimbabwe A inched towards the first-innings lead in their game against South Africa A at Bulawayo. Ebrahim’s unbeaten 84 off 213 balls held the innings together and Zimbabwe A finished the second day on 263 for 7, just nine adrift of the South African total.After Douglas Hondo had helped restrict the South Africans to 272, the top-order batsmen stitched together some useful partnerships. The 72-run stand between Taylor (68) and Ebrahim put them in a comfortable position, but Paul Adams picked up the wickets of Taylor and Tatenda Taibu to peg them back.Zimbabwe A lost two more wickets soon after, and were in trouble at 172 for 6, before Mluleki Nkala helped revive the innings. Nkala, who smashed five fours in his 44-ball 33, added 54 with Ebrahim and the pair helped Zimbabwe A to wrest the initiative by the end of the second day.

It’s amazing what a sporting gesture can do these days. There aren’t many, but Adam Gilchrist’s decision to walk against Sri Lanka in the World Cup semi-final has opened doors for a place in the corporate world.It was announced today that Gilchrist has joined Travelex, the foreign-exchange company, as a non-executive director. Travelex already sponsor Gilchrist and the Australian team, but they said they chose him for this position after he walked despite being given not out.Lloyd Dorfman, the company chairman, said Gilchrist showed strong ethics in a high-pressure situation: “Here you’ve got a guy who is prepared to walk himself out in the critical moment in the semi-final of a World Cup tournament, and in terms of integrity I don’t think you can do much better than that.”Gilchrist’s appointment is believed to be the first of its kind, and he was suitably shocked at the news. He said, “My reaction was, ‘What have I got to offer?’ When I walked in that game I certainly didn’t think it would lead to something like this.””I’m no expert on foreign exchange or the corporate world,” added Gilchrist. “What he has in mind is bringing in someone with a totally open mind, open eyes, fresh ideas, sitting in a boardroom asking the simple and obvious questions, the dumb questions that the experts might overlook.”Gilchrist surprised even his team-mates when he gave himself out in the match at Port Elizabeth last March. On 22 at the time, he tried to sweep Aravinda de Silva and was caught behind by Kumar Sangakkara. The Sri Lankans appealed, but umpire Rudi Koertzen turned them down, only for Gilchrist to head back to the dressing-room anyway. After the game, de Silva hailed Gilchrist as a gentleman, saying “It is very rare to see batsmen walking off. There are still some gentlemen in the game.”

After rain ended play early with Somerset tantalisingly close to getting their fifth bonus point from the match against Northants at Taunton, Coach Kevin Shine told me, “We are twenty six runs away from second place in the County Championship which is a fabulous effort and a wonderful achievement for the club.”The coach went on, “The highlight of the day was Matthew Wood’s century. He’s worked hard and shown promise through the season, and played with maturity beyond his years. His century bodes well for him and for the club. Well done for him and well done for Somerset.”

The Lahore City Cricket Association (LCCA) has launched an inquiry into the poor performance and alleged discipline issues during Lahore Whites’ campaign in the Haier Mobile T-20 Cup in Rawalpindi. Lahore Whites finished last in the league and had the poorest run-rate of the 12 teams despite having international players such as Ahmed Shehzad, Azhar Ali, Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Akmal, Wahab Raiz and Mohammad Irfan.The inquiry committee comprises former PCB CEO Saleem Altaf, LCCA secretary Shoaib Dar and former first-class cricketer Imran Bucha.”After watching the matches we have realised they have performed poorly,” Khawaja Nadeem, the head of LCCA, told ESPNcricinfo. “We understand there was lack of cooperation within the team and issues related to discipline, so we have formed an inquiry committee to find out why they haven’t performed to their level. We had the best team and this result is not what we expected.”I don’t see any problem with our other team [Blues], and we are only investigating Lahore Whites to bring all the facts in public,” he said. “The first meeting is on Monday and we will have a report to decide what is in our jurisdiction.”Lahore fielded two teams in domestic cricket because the city’s population is over 10 million. Whites were led by Pakistan ODI captain Azhar while Blues were captained by Adnan Akmal. Players like Nasir Jamshed and Kamran Akmal, who were with Lahore for the last nine years, left the team to join Rawalpindi and Multan. Mohammad Hafeez left Faisalabad Wolves to join Lahore two years ago.

Exactly four weeks after Faf du Plessis predicted South Africa would be presented with “the worst”, that is where they find themselves. With the series lost and the certainty they used to have over their best XI shattered, South Africa face the final Test with a different focus than winning: to reignite the confidence of their younger crop, who have come under criticism for the way they have handled conditions.”I’m a senior player and I’m finding it tough because the conditions dictate the way you play and your performances. It’s important for us to try and keep the younger players positive, and we’ve done that,” du Plessis said.Like his captain, Hashim Amla, du Plessis called the Indian surfaces the most difficult he has faced and cautioned against using them as a benchmark to assess performances. “These have been the toughest conditions that I have played under, it’s also been a challenge for the young guys coming in,” he said “It’s a hard task for them because they get judged by playing Test cricket in these conditions where you have found that even our experienced players have found it tough. We have to keep motivating them and to keep the spirits high.”He had particular praise for wicket-keeper Dane Vilas, who was on his first tour as the frontline gloveman after he travelled to Bangladesh as a reserve, and is already facing the chop after unconvincing performances in front and behind the stumps. “I thought that Dane kept really well on a wicket with spin and bounce and with the ball sometimes keeping low,” du Plessis said. “What we have to try and do is to focus on the positives. Coming and facing this in your first Test series abroad is a challenge.”Like Vilas, Dean Elgar, Stiaan van Zyl, and even du Plessis himself have never played Tests in India before. Although du Plessis has been in the national team for longer than the other three, he is looking at this outing as an education. “The good thing about it is you can learn from this and improve your game. Even I have learnt a lot about my game in the last few matches,” he said, adding some advice for the rest. “I’ve concentrated on my defence against spin in the first 20 balls I face.”But soon after that, du Plessis suggests getting a move on, before either the surface or one of the India spinners gets the better of the batsman. “In South Africa, Australia and New Zealand you can take your time, even if you aren’t getting bad balls but the surface here doesn’t allow that to happen. This is a huge learning curve for us and also something we can take forward.”The extent to which du Plessis applied what had he learnt was evident in the second innings in Nagpur when, along with Amla, he ground out the highest partnership of the match and threatened to stage a rearguard action that could have put India under pressure. None of South Africa’s other batsmen have shown that sort of application yet. If they are able to in Delhi, South Africa may feel that they have conquered some of the worst, even though they have been far from their best.