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Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine and Darren Sammy will be eligible for selection for upcoming tournaments, including the World Twenty20, despite not being given annual retainer contracts by the West Indies Cricket Board. The only condition the WICB has placed is that the players will need to meet criteria set in place by the selection panel, led by former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd. The six players are not part of the group of 15 who were given retainer contracts for the period between October 1, 2015, and September 30, 2016.According to Michael Muirhead, the WICB’s chief executive, the selectors had shortlisted 15 players for the contracts based on certain criteria that were drawn keeping in mind the future of West Indies cricket. Muirhead pointed out that the aforementioned six players – including Sammy who captains the West Indies T20 side – did not fit into the selection panel’s vision and hence were not given a contract.”The selectors did the retainers based on where they saw West Indies cricket going and the philosophy which they wanted to encourage and adopt, principally being loyal to commitment and really build for the longer form of the game,” Muirhead told ESPNcricinfo on Tuesday. “Lloyd had previously said how and where he was projecting our cricket to go, and how he wanted to build it.”According to Muirhead, the 15 players were shortlisted by the panel and endorsed by the WICB based on the “combination of their performances in the regional tournaments as well as their attitude”.Still, Muirhead insisted the six players should not misread the situation as they would be eligible for forthcoming series, if the selectors deemed fit.Some of the six players have failed to feature in the list of contracted players in the past, for reasons ranging from disputes with the WICB to voluntarily declining the retainer. In January 2015, Gayle and Narine had refused the retainer contracts as they wanted to focus on playing domestic Twenty20 leagues around the world, where they are marquee players.”When Chris Gayle and Narine refused our retainer contracts some years ago it was so that they had the freedom to do what they wanted,” Muirhead said. “But they are eligible to play all our games if they meet our criteria. This not a penalty.”Muirhead said most of the players had made the decision to make themselves unavailable because they wanted to be free to play in T20 leagues to earn more. “And they took that business decision to do so,” Muirhead said.Muirhead also stressed that most of the six players had already made public their intentions of not playing Test cricket. “Many of those players have withdrawn from the long form of the game officially and are not interested in playing for the West Indies in all formats,” he said.In the last two years, Bravo and Sammy announced their retirement from Test cricket. Pollard has never played Test cricket and is seen by selectors as a limited-overs specialist. Although Lloyd has always been keen for Russell to play Test cricket, the allrounder told the chairman of selectors he would like to play only limited-overs cricket due to a bad knee. Narine, who has played six Tests, is busy remodelling his bowling action after he was suspended by the ICC in November last year. Only Gayle, a 103-Test veteran, has openly stated he is still keen to return to Test cricket in 2016.

Zimbabwe Select 155 and 95 for 2 trail South Africa A 542 for 7 (Dippenaar 189, Amla 142, Ontong 70 ) by 292 runs
ScorecardPaul Harris’s five-wicket haul further compounded Zimbabwe Select’s misery on the third day at Bulawayo as they crumbled for 155 in reply to South Africa A’s 542 for 7. Following on, Zimbabwe reached 95 for 2, helped by Tatenda Taibu and the opener Hamilton Masakadza.Play resumed with Zimbabwe on 36 for 3 while Taibu and Timycen Maruma at the crease. Taibu could only add two runs to his overnight score of six before Andre Nel bowled him in the third over of the morning. Nel struck again when he trapped Maruma leg-before for eight.Stuart Matsikenyeri and Elton Chigumbura strived to restore the home side’s innings but they could only put up 26 for the sixth wicket before Chigumbura fell to left-arm seamer Yusuf Abdullah, caught behind by Thami Tsolekile for 18.Harris got his first wicket of the day when he had Matsikenyeri caught at first slip by Andrew Hall for 26. Harris, the left-arm spinner, dismissed Keith Dabengwa for nine.Prosper Utseya and Gary Brent frustrated the South Africans with some resolute batting in an ninth-wicket stand of 59 as they fended off a hostile spell from Nel. Utseya fell for 32 when he skied a Harris delivery and Nel ran in from mid-on to take the catch.Second time around, the openers Masakadza and Brendan Taylor put up 24 before Taylor fell lbw for 13. Vusi Sibanda’s struggle with the bat continued when Hall bowled him for seven.Taibu and Masakadza defended well but at the same time punished the South African bowlers. Taibu dispatched the offspinner Imraan Khan for two sixes in a row as he changed to offensive mode.Zimbabwe Select could still escape with a draw – but their slim hopes rest on some firm resistance from Taibu and Masakadza.

Things aren’t going too well for Johan Botha, the Warriors and South Africa offspinner, as the ICC has termed his bowling action illegal for a second time in his career.Botha had been working on his action since he was called for chucking in his debut Test against Australia at Sydney this January.The ICC had examined his revised action in August and it was hoped that he would soon return to international cricket. But further tests done towards the end of August confirmed that he continued to bend his arm more than 15 degrees.”We’re very disappointed and will do everything possible to get Johan back in action as soon as possible,” Brian Basson, Cricket South Africa’s general manager, told Supercricket website. “It’s not good for cricket or the psychological welfare of the player to draw out the episode.”Botha had started out as a medium pacer for the Warriors, but switched to spin on the advice of Mickey Arthur, South Africa’s national coach. He last played international cricket in the VB series against Sri Lanka at Hobart this February. He played for the Warriors as a batsman the whole of last season.

Inzamam-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, has finally agreed to play in the ICC Super Series one-off Test against Australia in October. The Pakistan Cricket Board released a statement saying Shaharyar Khan, chairman of the PCB, had spoken to Inzamam and explained the background of the genuine misunderstanding regarding his selection for the Super Series squads.According to the statement, Shaharyar told Inzamam that in the interests of Pakistan cricket he should participate in the Super Series. In turn, Inzamam responded positively to the chairman’s advice and agreed to play in the Test match at Sydney.An official at the PCB told Cricinfo that the whole situation was nothing more than a “minor misunderstanding” between Inzamam and the board.Inzamam said he agreed to feature in the Super Test to improve Pakistan’s image. He told reporters, “I did say that I would not go but after being convinced by the chairman that my participation is necessary for the better image of the country, I have decided to tour Australia.”The u-turn follows Inzamam’s decision to snub the Super Series yesterday, after he heard that he was selected only for the Test squad. The PCB had announced on Wednesday that Inzamam would be in both teams, but two days later the ICC said that he would feature in the six-day Super Test squad only, and that too as a replacement for Sachin Tendulkar. He was omitted from the one-dayers, with the ICC instead naming Chris Gayle and Rahul Dravid as replacements for Tendulkar and Herschelle Gibbs.Expressing disappointment over the earlier confusion, the ICC said there had been preliminary discussions between the ICC and PCB to find out whether Inzamam would be available for the Super Series selected.An ICC spokesman clarified to AFP, “Once it was understood that he was available… the selectors discussed replacements for Tendulkar and Herschelle Gibbs of South Africa and selected Inzamam for the Test squad only.”Inzamam said newspaper reports on Tuesday suggesting he was angry at the decision were incorrect. “Newspaper reports suggested that I was angry which is wrong. It was a principled stance that I should be treated with respect and that’s why I was disappointed.”

Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lankan vice-captain, is confident of levelling the series in the second Test in the Bundaberg Rum Stadium in Cairns, beginning tomorrow, and hoped that the match would be played on a fair pitch.Looking ahead to the Test, Jayawardene said, “We have made good scores in the past. It is just that we need to go out there, put all our efforts in the middle, and perform. We have the capability to do that. There’s no doubt about it. We are not demoralised in any way by the result at Darwin. We know that we worked hard and put in 100% effort. We will put in 150% effort on Friday and see what we can come up with.”When asked about the disappointing show by the batsmen at Darwin, Jayawardene pointed out that most members of this line-up were experienced and would make amends for the failure in the first Test. “Most of our batsmen have played enough cricket and they average very high. Hopefully we can put that into practice.”Jayawardene insisted that the batsmen had done their homework before coming on this tour and spent a lot of time ironing out their weaknesses. “No-one can say we didn’t work hard. Even back home we had extra sessions on the bowling machine and some even had private batting sessions. We had long practice sessions doing throw downs, working on bouncy tracks and we put in a lot of effort. You can’t blame the guys for that.”Adam Gilchrist, who stood in for Ricky Ponting as captain in the first Test, had labelled the pitch at Darwin as below Test standard. Jayawardene chose to be less harsh and termed it as one with “an element of surprise for all of us”. He added, “No one expected it to play the way it did. When we played the practice game [against the Northern Territory Chief Minister’s XI], there was a little bit of moisture on it, as on any pitch, in the morning. But in the Test, the moisture remained even on the second day. Every time they put the roller on, the water kept coming up. That made a huge difference. The Australians also said the same thing when we had a chat with them.”On his own batting in the Test, in which he made 14 and 44, Jayawardene said that he was never completely sure of the pitch. “I felt that I wasn’t going to be in on that wicket,” he said, “although I was batting OK. I knew that at any given time a good ball would take my wicket. No-one got any big scores unless they were very lucky to get away with a few shots and survive. The ball that I got out to was one of those deliveries which would have taken anyone’s wicket.”Ultimately, however, Jayawardene pointed to the huge difference in the first-innings score as being the decisive factor. “All in all we fought really hard but the difference was the first-innings score. We didn’t put enough runs on the board. If we had got somewhere closer to Australia’s total on the first innings there would have been a contest. Basically that was our downfall.”It is difficult to score 500 runs as we do in Sri Lanka or against any other country. A total of 250 to 300 will be a very competitive score over here. Our bowlers are doing well. We can exert some pressure on them if we can get a decent score, especially in the first innings.”Jayawardene also put in a word on the metronomic efficiency of the Australian bowlers. Though the Sri Lankans had studied videos and felt confident of playing the bowling, the consistency of the Australians undid them. “They are not like any other bowlers. They are very consistent with their line and length. They hardly give you anything loose to hit unless you create something. We have to be more patient with them. On any given track they don’t do anything different. They have a basic plan. Our bowlers are doing the same thing as well but it is just that Australians do it on a consistent basis. Those three bowlers [Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz] are a class act altogether and they are followed by Warne.”

There is live online ball-by-ball commentary of the Wales-England one-day international taking place today at Sophia Gardens (June 14th). The commentary is available via the BBC Radio Wales website. To listen in, click here

Despite the United States-led military attacks on Afghanistan, the Zimbabwe cricket team’s tour of the United Arab Emirates for the Sharjah triangular series against Pakistan and Sri Lanka is still on.Zimbabwe Cricket Union managing director Dave Ellman-Brown said yesterday that they have not heard anything from the tournament organizers concerning any security fears and therefore the tour is still on.”Whatever decision we are going to make will be guided by the tournament organizers. At the moment we have not received any correspondence from the tournament organizers,” he said.”We will be looking at the situation daily before we decide anything. So at the moment the tour is still on.””We will only cancel the tour when there is evidence that the safety of our players will be at risk as a result of the US-led military action In Afghanistan.” The tournament is scheduled for the end of this month.Sri Lanka has already named their squad for the tournament while Pakistan is reported to have begun preparations for the tournament. Pakistan shares a border with the embattled Afghanistan while the United Arab Emirates has a large population of people from that country.A number of sporting activities have been put in a spin in the subcontinent since the terror attacks in the United States last month. The New Zealand cricket team pulled out of its tour of Pakistan, which was scheduled to start a few days after the terror attack.

Gloucestershire are on the verge of completing a clean sweep of the domestic one-day competitions after a convincing victory over Sussex last night lifted them to the top of the National League.Their six-wicket win and Yorkshire’s defeat by Kent means Gloucestershire will be crowned champions if Somerset fail to beat Lancashire at Old Trafford tonight. Even if they do, Gloucestershire can still complete the treble in front of their own supporters by beating Northamptonshire in their final game on Sunday week.Gloucestershire seemed to have been on the rough end of Duckworth Lewis calculations when they were asked to score 171 in 31 overs after two stoppages for rain had curtailed Sussex’s innings. But Tim Hancock and Kim Barnett launched the innings with a stand of 69 in 15 overs and after Barnett had holed out to long off his partner upped the tempo in partnership with Harvey, adding 66 in ten overs before he was caught at long on for 51 made off 72 balls.Harvey blasted 43 off just 30 balls before he was needlessly run out answering Jeremy Snape’s call for a quick single, but a target of 25 off the last five overs was never likely to trouble a side with Gloucestershire’s one-day pedigree and they got home with 11 balls to spare.Harvey had earlier produced another outstanding performance with the ball, taking 3-23 including dangerman Chris Adams and fellow opener Richard Montgomerie with just 12 on the board. Only fellow Australian Michael Bevan mastered some tight bowling as he made an unbeaten 82 off 87 balls, his eighth half-century in the competition this season.

Centuries from Nakul Verma and Soumya Ranjan Swain went in vain as Punjab won by three wickets in a thriller to secure their quarter-final berth. Services posted an imposing 323 for 7 courtesy a 186-run stand for the fifth wicket between Verma and Swain. But the knocks were consigned to being second-best on the day as Punjab rode Yuvraj Singh’s 83-ball 98 to chase down the steep target with six balls to spare.Jiwanjot Singh (41) and Pargat Singh (49) added 82 in just 10.1 overs to set up the chase that was then driven around Yuvraj’s knock, with Mandeep Singh (45) and Mayank Siddana (46) chipping in with vital contributions. The winning runs were hit by Harbhajan Singh, who finished 16 not out courtesy two fours and a six.Tamil Nadu bossed their way to a fifth win in six matches courtesy centuries from Dinesh Karthik and B Aparajith and a six-wicket haul from Rahil Shah. Rajasthan, who were chasing 385, were bundled out for 132 in 26.2 overs.Rajasthan’s decision to field backfired as Karthik (108) and Aparajith (137) added 199 for the second wicket to set the platform for a final onslaught. M Vijay, batting at No. 5, provided the final flourish by smashing six fours and three sixes in his 44-ball 74 as TN smashed 161 off the last 15 overs.Rajasthan lost the top three inside the third over, and from there on, it was simply a procession as Shah, the left-arm spinner, finished with 6 for 37, his best List A figures. Rajat Bhatia, who made 94 in Rajasthan’s thrilling win over Mumbai on Thursday, was the lone ranger with the bat. He was unbeaten on 29 when the last wicket fell. Rajasthan finished sixth in the group with three wins and as many losses.Mumbai cruised to a seven-wicket win over Hyderabad, but Punjab’s win meant they were eliminated from the knockouts despite winning four out of their six matches. Hyderabad’s 217 for 8, achieved largely on the back of Hanuma Vihari’s 95, was chased down quite easily in 44.2 overs, with Akhil Herwadkar (85) and Shreyas Iyer (84) hitting the high notes. Their 134-run stand flattened Hyderabad, even before Ajinkya Rahane made a sprightly unbeaten 31 to take Mumbai home by seven wickets.

Tatenda Taibu’s return to the Zimbabwe cricket team is almost complete after he was included in a select side for two four-day matches against India A at home.Cricinfo revealed last month that Taibu’s comeback was imminent, although he was recently quoted saying his lawyers were still in negotiation with Zimbabwe Cricket, possibly over outstanding payments still owed to him by the board.The former captain however will now play under the current leader, Prosper Utseya.Wicketkeeper Brendan Taylor was also named in the side although he is yet to return from the Netherlands and may miss the first four-dayer at Harare Sports Club. Sean Williams, who is recovering from an injury which kept him out of training for six weeks, was also included.Allrounder Keith Dabengwa meanwhile misses out on selection, but will captain the A side on a tour of South Africa at the same time the Select will be facing India A. The batsmen Chamu Chibhabha has also been relegated to the A side, where the only other senior players are the pace bowler, Blessing Mahwire, and the former Zimbabwe A captain, Alester Maregwede.Zimbabwe Select Prosper Utseya (capt) Terry Duffin, Tatenda Taibu, Vusi Sibanda, Brendan Taylor (wk), Hamilton Masakadza, Sean Williams, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Tino Mawoyo, Elton Chigumbura, Graeme Cremer, Ed Rainsford, Chris Mpofu, Gary Brent, Trevor Garwe, Tawanda Mupariwa.Zimbabwe A Keith Dabengwa (cpat) Chamu Chibhabha, Eric Chauluka, Tafadzwa Kamungozi, Bornaparte Mujuru, Forster Mutizwa, Alester Maregwede, Regis Chakabva, Alois Tichana, Taurai Muzarabani, Prosper Tsvanhu, Timycen Maruma, Admire Manyumwa, Tendai Chisoro, Blessing Mahwire, Patient Charumbira.