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Israel will host Croatia in a European Division Two play-off game in November.As part of the new ICC World League structure, the Croatians, as winners of the European Division Three tournament played over the summer, have the right to challenge Israel, who finished second from bottom at the Division Two tournament in 2006, for the right to participate in Division Two in the 2008 tournament.According to the new ICC structure, each regional division is to consist of six teams. Division One consists of Ireland, Holland, Scotland, Denmark, Italy and Norway, who received promotion having won Division Two. Israel will need to defeat Croatia to remain in Division Two, which includes Gibraltar, France, Germany, Jersey, and Guernsey.The match, to be played on either Sunday November 11 or 18, with the Monday set aside as a rain day, is being embraced by the Israel Cricket Association, with chairman Stanley Perlman delighted at the opportunity to host an international match. “We have been trying to host international cricket in Israel for many years now, and hope that the visit of the Croatian team will pave the way for other countries to tour in the future. We will invite the Croatians to play a couple of friendly matches before the game against our national team as well.”Croatia defeated Spain by four runs to win Division Three in August, which included teams from Isle of Man, Belgium, Portugal, Malta, Cyprus and Finland.

Haafiz Majid Jahangir compiled a career-best 156 as Sialkot came from behind to attain a three-wicket win over Karachi Harbour on the final day of their third-round Pentangular Cup match at the Gaddafi Stadium.Chasing a stiff target of 369, Sialkot finally got there for the loss of seven wickets. Starting from their overnight score of 160 for 2, still needing another 209 runs to win their first match in three appearances, Sialkot were put on the right path by a third-wicket partnership of 145 between Jahangir and Ayub Dogar.Dogar followed his first-innings 77 with another invaluable knock of 61 that came off 150 balls with nine fours. The 25-year-old Majid, playing in only his third first-class match of the season, scored his 156 runs off 351 deliveries in almost seven and a half hours and hit 25 fours.Tahir Mughal (42 off just 43 balls with nine fours), the captain, promoted himself up the order and helped add 74 runs for the fourth wicket with Majid. At 351 for 3, only 18 more runs were required for victory.Sialkot then lost four quick wickets in the space of 14 runs but the issue had already been settled. The win was finally achieved with three wickets still standing. As they had earlier surrendered a first innings lead of 99, they collected only six points instead of the full nine.Sialkot, who are the current national champions, have managed to lift themselves up from the bottom of the five-team table after having started the tournament with two straight defeats. They now have only one match in hand and absolutely no chance of winning the Pentangular.In the fourth-round that starts from Monday (April 17), Faisalabad will play against Karachi Harbour at the Gaddafi Stadium while table leaders National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) will face Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) at the Multan Cricket Stadium.

Ireland 222 for 7 (N. O’Brien 72, Botha 42, Haq 3-59) beat Scotland 199 (Watson 83, McCallum 54 ) by 23 runs
ScorecardA tight bowling performance from Andre Botha helped Ireland to beat Scotland, but they could not gain the bonus point needed to share the series title with West Indies. To do that, they needed to bowl out Scotland for 177, but the visitors reached 199. Nevertheless, Ireland will be pleased with their performance after holding their bowling nerve when Scotland were well set.Botha’s tight bowling pegged Scotland back, and he earlier struck 42 to round off an impressive all-round performance in front of a meagre home crowd. His dismissal of Ryan Watson, who made 83, was the turning point of the match as Scotland threatened to overhaul their target. Watson was well supported by Neil McCallum who struck 54. Botha ended with 3 for 27.Niall O’Brien’s 72 lifted Ireland to 222, which was a competitive score on a slow Stormont wicket. John Blain and Paul Hoffman bowled tight first up for Scotland, prompting the dismissal of William Porterfield, attempting to pull, and opening the way for Gordon Drummond to strike to remove Eoin Morgan for 10 in his first over.Ireland recovered from their early losses, though, through the combined forces of O’Brien and Botha as they put on 46 for the third wicket. Botha finally came good with 42 following a promising 27 against Netherlands and a duck against West Indies.Both played patiently at first, picking off the odd loose delivery, before opening up later. A change of ends finally worked for Majid Haq, who had Botha stumped.Kevin O’Brien and Alex Cusack moved the score along steadily, but it was the reliable Trent Johnston who boosted Ireland later, with a 57-run stand that brought Ireland near the 200-mark before he and O’Brien fell in the same Haq over.

A typically elegant, clipped on-drive for four off Corey Collymore took Mohammad Yousuf from 44 to 48 on the fourth day of the final Test between Pakistan and the West Indies at Karachi. A modest raise of the bat acknowledged that the drive also took him past one of the longest-standing records in cricket, of most runs in a calendar year.Sir Viv Richards scored 1710 runs in 1976, a memorable run during which he hit two double hundreds against England in England and the closest anyone had come to it since was Ricky Ponting in 2005, with 1544 runs.By day’s end, Yousuf added another century to the eight he had made already this year. He told reporters at the end of the day, “God has helped me break this record and I am extremely happy and proud for my country because whenever the record is discussed now, it will be with the name of a Pakistani batsman.”The day began with Yousuf needing a further 47 runs to break the record and knowing it too. “I was under a little pressure in the morning,” he admitted. “I knew what had to be done and luckily I was able to do it in the end.”Yousuf’s final tally for the year is 1788 runs from 11 Tests, and 665 of them have come from the series against West Indies, the highest tally recorded by a Pakistani batsman in a three-Test series. He began his run with two hundreds in the home series against India. He only played a solitary Test in Sri Lanka, personally an unmemorable one, but a doublecentury at Lord’s sparked off a stunning second half of the year.Two more hundreds came from the remaining three Tests in England, including 192 at Headingley. He ended the year with three hundreds in three Tests against the West Indies at home.During the course of this magnificent run, a few more records fell. His first-innings hundred at Karachi meant that he had scored eight Test hundreds this year alone, going past the previous best of seven, held jointly by Richards and Aravinda de Silva. By scoring five hundreds in five consecutive Tests, he also became only the third man, along with Jacques Kallis and Sir Don Bradman (six hundreds in six Tests) to do so.Yousuf also had praise for Bob Woolmer, Pakistan’s coach, and Mushtaq Ahmed for the part they have played in his game over the last year. “I changed the way I practiced. Mushy really helped during the England tour and in India,” he said. “He made me practice with slabs to be able to play rising deliveries better and that has really helped.”Since Bob has been with us, he has really sorted out my balance. I used to have some problems with it before but he has really helped me set it properly now and it was a big change.”Comparisons with greats were avoided as deftly as bouncers have been over the last year. When asked to compare himself with Javed Miandad, Yousuf said only, “It is difficult to compare. You are either better or worse and anyway, it is for the media to decide. I can’t say anything about it. But he is my ideal.” And when the question of Sir Don Bradman’s record of six hundreds in six consecutive Tests reared its head, Yousuf replied, withsome cheek, “I have six in five Tests, so you decide.”Reactions to the record

Bob Woolmer
It is a marvellous achievement. I have had the honour of playing againstViv Richards and coaching Yousuf. Both are very different in their styles,Viv was a lot more aggressive and Yousuf more sedate but to break Viv’srecord is really an outstanding achievement.Brian Lara
It’s excellent and slightly unbelievable what he has achieved. Ninehundreds in a year and that many runs is just magnificent. He is a verycommitted player and an excellent role model, not just for Pakistan butfor young cricketers everywhere. He’s had an amazing year, though the last600 runs that he has scored I haven’t really enjoyed.Sanjay Manjrekar
The most striking thing about Yousuf at the moment is that it is as if heis batting in a trance. He is so calm at the crease and that mental changeis the most striking change from last year. You know people will say thathe played on flat tracks, against weak attacks at times but that isneither here nor there. He still had to break a big record and he has doneit. What’s good to see, apart from the calm demeanour, is that he is, like all goodbatsmen, cashing in on good form and making the most of that period.”Nasim Ashraf
Pakistan is very proud of his achievements and he will be honoured by thePCB after the match.Hanif Mohammad
We are proud of what he has done and I hope this is the start of ofsomething great for him.Rameez Raja
He’s been absolutely brilliant this year and has done it against goodteams in India, England and the West Indies and has done it home and away.I don’t think he has made any technical adjustments as such, but he is so sound mentally now. Religion has played an integral part in his growth not just as a cricketer but as a person. I used to doubt his ability to see Pakistan through in situations before but he has rescuedPakistan from precarious positions through the year. A superb achievement.

Rudi Webster, the Grenada-based psychologist, is currently with the Indianteam for a short stint and is eager to carry on the interaction that beganon India’s tour of West Indies earlier this year.”This is my first visit to India,” Webster told Cricinfo after the team’spractice session at Jaipur in the Rajasthan Cricket Academy, “and I’menjoying it thoroughly. I enjoyed working with a few players when theywere in West Indies and can hopefully get some more time here.”One of the players who Webster closely interacted with during the WestIndies tour was Virender Sehwag, who’d been going through a lean phase atthe time. In his 19 innings before he met Webster, he’d crossed fifty justthree times and his lack of fitness was a serious concern. It’s fair tosay that the three-hour session transformed Sehwag during the tour and hehimself admitted, to at the end of the series:”If I hadn’t met Rudi on this tour, I was struggling. We spent aroundthree hours and I’ve never spoken to anyone so deeply.”It was surprising that Sehwag, who’d turned down an offer to interact withAustralian psychologist Sandy Gordon, felt so strongly about the meeting.”There’s a lot of difference between Sandy and Rudi,” he statedmatter-of-factly. “Rudi played county cricket for many years and workedwith great players. He knows more than Sandy about the game and players.He knows about the way sportsmen think. He’d worked with great playerslike [Brian] Lara, [Viv] Richards, great footballers, golf players . and it helped me alot.”The results were there for all to see. Post Webster, Sehwag spanked 95 inthe final one-dayer at Trinidad, a game when none of his team-matescrossed 30; thundered 180 on the opening day of the second Test at StLucia (reaching 99 in the opening morning and admitting he’d “not hit theball more cleanly than in that session”); chipped in with vital wickets inthe Tests, playing the role of a genuine fifth bowler; startled a few with hisemphasis on fitness; and, most significantly, appeared to settle into amantle of leadership.So what had prompted the change? “I needed to remind myself of some littlehabits,” Sehwag continued, “my thinking before a game, my mindset beforethe bowler bowls. There are certain things I used to visualise when thebowler was at the start of his mark, when he was running in, when he wasabout to deliver the ball. All your routines should be in place, for aparticular bowler, for a particular team, for a particular series.”Rudi was just chatting to me and I began recalling several things – ‘Iremember doing this in Pakistan’, ‘I did the same thing in Australia’. Iunderstood that I need to do these things for a longer time, need to do itcontinuously. He was telling me things I had done in the past, and I’dforgotten that. He told me how important it was to remember these things,said it would help if I wrote it down on a paper and read it over and overagain.”It helped that Webster had been following Sehwag’s career closely. “I’vebeen watching him play over the years,” he beamed, “and have been terriblyimpressed with his ability to hit the ball. Not many players have thatability. Viv Richards, who probably had a few more shots, comes theclosest. All great players have very simple methods and I was veryimpressed while watching Veeru.”Webster admitted that Sehwag had opened out to him. “My track recordprobably helped me to establish a rapport with him,” he revealed, “andonce he found that I was speaking his language, there was a belief that hefound. Once you establish a trust, and he believes in your credentials youwill find you’ll share a very good relationship with him. He discussed thingsthat he would probably not discuss with others.”Usually when people go into a little slump, a simple technique they usegoes through the window,” he continued. “All sorts of negative things gothrough their minds. They doubt themselves because of pressures from mediaand fans. Their thinking becomes negative. They forget some basic routinesthat brought them success.”

Alan Mullally chose a good day to pick up a career best nine wickets, with England playing a test match just 77.4 miles up the road, but, by the close of play Hampshire were still struggling to catch the Derbyshire’s first innings score of 310.Mullally added four wickets to his overnight haul finishing with 9-93, with Peter Hartley taking the wicket of Matthew Dowman who had added just nine runs to his overnight score when his luck finally ran out.Hampshire started their reply badly, and at 53 for four, the follow on target seem a distance. White was lbw to the first ball of the innings, emulating the fate of Stubbings in the Derbyshire innings, a feat that had statisticians and the wonderers asking whether this had been done before. Will Kendall was strangled down the leg-side off Munton and Stephenson was lbw to the in-form Dean pushing forward. Jason Laney then edged Dean to second slip, and the batting horrors of Hampshire’s season were raised again.Robin Smith, batting despite some pain in his hamstring joined Kenway in an attempt to bring things around. Smith grafted well through some indifferent light that forced Derbyshire to bowl their spin attack, rather that persevering with seam. Paul Aldred enticed Smith lbw to a ball that kept low and he departed for only his second half century of the season.Kenway held on with Mascarenhas but much work has to be done to salvage something for the visiting side.

Division One

Points tableA thrilling game ended off the last ball at Southgate as Glamorgan edged past Middlesex to win by three wickets. Robert Croft got the Glamorgan innings off to a brisk start, clobbering 36, while Michael Powell continued his good form with a solid 81. Middlesex fought back in the middle of the innings, however, with Scott Styris picking up three wickets as Glamorgan stuttered to 201 for 7 in need of a further nine runs. James Franklin and Michael O’Shea held their heads and a four off the final ball of Chad Keegan’s sixth over took them home by three wickets. Earlier, Jamie Dalrymple anchored Middlesex with a cultured 82 – on the day he was called up to the England Test squad – while Ben Scott thumped 25 from 14 balls.

Division Two

Points tableA slick bowling display from Leicestershire dismissed Yorkshire for a paltry 96, in chase of 264, as the visitors romped to a comprehensive 167-run win at Scarborough. After Nick Walker and Ryan Cummins had reduced the home side to 19 for 3, Yorkshire were never in the hunt. With the introduction of Darren Maddy, who took 3 for 24 in a tight seven-over spell, Yorkshire collapsed from 70 for 5 to 96 all out in just the 27th over. Earlier, Paul Harrison and Paul Nixon gave Leicestershire a solid foundation in the middle of their innings with a pair of brisk 60s before Jeremy Snape smashed an unbeaten 45 from just 35 balls.James Benning’s crisp 71 from only 51 runs took Surrey to an emphatic six-wicket win over Kent at Guildford after a stuttering innings from the visitors in which they only managed 229 for 9. Though Darren Stevens played confidently for his 81, top-scoring, the rest of Kent’s batsmen started promisingly before throwing away their wickets. Geraint Jones, in a rare outing for his club, creamed seven pleasing boundaries in his 41 and Robert Key (33), the Kent captain, also looked in fine form before Nayan Doshi crept one through his defence. In the field Benning appeared to twist his knee in the latter stages of Kent’s innings, but he showed no signs of any long-term damage in his explosive 71, 15 of which came in boundaries. Mark Butcher eased his way into form with a crisp 52, hitting the winning runs through the covers, and received good supported from Mark Ramprakash (39), Rikki Clarke (23) and Azhar Mahmood (26*).

England’s raucous band of Barmy Army supporters began arriving in Pakistan on Tuesday, dismissing security fears and bringing smiles to the faces of hoteliers in the Test venue cities.One of the first to arrive was veteran supporter Phil Long and his three travelling companions Keith Smith, John Freeman and Jonathon Dyson. All were on their way to the Pindi stadium to watch England take on the Patron’s XI. “We’re the first batch,” Long told AFP. “It’s as important a tour as the Ashes for England, and beating Pakistan in their den could be even tougher than beating the Australians.”Hoteliers are expecting full houses in the three Test venue cities of Multan, Faisalabad and Lahore as England supporters descend on Pakistan. “It’s fun to be in Pakistan,” said Smith, who said he faced no security problems. “There are no fears and we’ve been well received [here].”

Bangladesh’s tour of India next October looks set to be postponed for the second time in six months, according to the Daily Star newspaper in Dhaka, because it will clash with the International Cricket Council’s new fixture, the Super Series.The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) received a letter on Sunday from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), in which it was stated that the scheduled time was not feasible. Bangladesh had originally expected the tour to take place in April, after India’s visit to the country in December last year.”The Indian board informed us that it would not be possible to arrange the series in October due mainly to the Super Series and as well as their two big festivals in this month [Diwali and Dhashara] ,” said BCB president Ali Asghar on Monday. “But it is an ideal time for us as we also have international commitments with the other countries.”Asghar added that the ICC had requested all the respective boards to avoid any kind of clash with the Super Series if their players are involved. The Bangladesh board, however, is worried that the tour could be postponed indefinitely, as India has busy international schedules from next November, which begin with a five-match one-day series against South Africa.”It is a very important tour for us considering financial and other aspects but there is actually hardly any vacuum to reschedule the series,” added Asghar. “I will discuss the matter with the Indian authorities when I attend a function in Kolkata on July 16.”Asghar also informed that he would visit England next August during the Bangladesh A tour to create opportunities for the Bangladeshi players to play county cricket. “We had a preliminary discussion with our English counterparts during the ICC meeting and hopefully it will be finalised this time. We believe that it would create real exposure for our cricketers.”

Jehan Mubarak will lead Sri Lanka A against England later this month in twounofficial four-day Tests. The national selectors, who met on Tuesday,picked a squad of 15 players for the two games, which are to be played atCCC Grounds from March 7-10 and at the NCC grounds from March 13-16.Mubarak, a 24-year-old left-hander, has been retained after a glowing tourreport in England last year when he led Sri Lanka A to victory in eight outof ten matches against the English Counties, who admittedly did not playfull-strength teams. They only lost one game to Somerset, the last match,and drew one match with the West Indians.Mubarak’s success in England prompted the selectors to fast-track him backinto the national side against Pakistan in October, a controversial movethat led to Tillakaratne Dilshan being ousted from the team against thewishes of Marvan Atapattu, the national captain. Under intense pressure,Mubarak was unable to clinch his opportunity but clearly remains in theselectors’ thoughts for the future.Thilana Kandamby, who has been in scintillating form for Central province inthe last two weeks, has been appointed Mubarak’s deputy for the tour. He has rattled off two centuries and his average before the current tournament final was 98.66. Kandamby also toured England with the A team in 2004, as did a total of 10 players selected in the squad.The new faces include fast bowlers Nandika Ranjith and Chanaka Welagedera,both of who are left-armers and play for North Central Province. Malinga Bandara , the legspinner, and Sajeewa Weerakoon, an orthodox slow left-armer who wasthe leading wicket-taker in last year’s Premier League with 50 wickets, plusbatsman Anushka Polonawita are the others given an opportunity to press fora place in the senior squad.Selection sources have also revealed that there is a chance that a handfulof the squad will also be selected for Sri Lanka’s postponed tour of NewZealand which starts at the end of the month. That team is expected to benamed next week.Squad Jehan Mubarak (capt)(CCC), Thilina Kandamby, (Bloomfield), Avaishka Gunawardene (SSC), Ian Daniel (Bloomfield), Shantha Kalavitigoda (Colts), Anushka Polonowita (CCC), Malintha Gajanayake (Chilaw Marians), Gayan Wijekoon (Chilaw Marians), Prasanna Jayawardene (NCC), Thilina Thushara (NCC), Nandika Ranjith (Tamil Union), Chanaka Welagedera (Moors SC), Malinga Bandara (Galle CC), Sajeewa Weerakoon (BRC), Suraj Mohamed (SSC).