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Rameez Raja can rest easy. Shaharyar Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, has said that the board had no immediate plans to change its chief executive. Media reports led to speculation that Abu Shamim Arif, a former bureaucrat, was set to replace Rameez. However, reports that a statement issued by the chairman’s office had cleared the air. “The PCB emphatically denies reports that refer to imminent changes in the PCB hierarchy,” it said. “The Board also denies speculations of differences between the Chairman and chief executive.”This comes in the wake of speculation that suggested that Shaharyar was unhappy with the fact that Rameez continued to do television commentary despite being the chief executive of the board. “The Chairman himself wanted to have the situation cleared after several reports on this issue,” said the report.These statements come just ahead of a scheduled hearing before the senate working committee for sports and culture. Shaharyar, Rameez and Wasim Bari, the chief selector, will appear before the committee to explain the reasons for Pakistan’s recent series loss against India. But, the chairman’s office was quick to add that this was a routine exercise. “This also happened after the 2003 World Cup. It is a routine exercise to which the board gives lot of importance.”Meanwhile, it was also announced that the PCB would soon make the budget statement for the Indian tour public. It will also advertise for certain executive posts within the board.

Division OneMiddlesex v Lancashire, Lord’s
Lancashire have another rare opportunity to put James Anderson to gooduse, before England filch him for the rest of the summer. He has recoveredfrom the ankle injury that kept him out of the last two one-day matches,and returns to the team alongside Gary Keedy. Now that Phil Tufnell hasfled to the jungle, Middlesex have struggled for spin options, but theyoung Pakistani legspinner, Imran Tahir, may be the answer to theirproblems. but the young Pakistani legspinner, Imran Tahir, may be the answer to their problems. Tahir plays for Norton-in-Hales in the North Staffordshire & South Cheshire League. Last season, he equalled the league record of 104 wickets, and in the process broke Norton’s old record of 97… as held by a certain Sir Garfield Sobers. He impressed during Thursday’s C&G victory against Northants, and is set to make his Championship debut.Nottinghamshire v Surrey, Trent Bridge
Nottinghamshire may be sitting pretty at the top of the CountyChampionship, but yesterday, had it not been for Paul Franks, they wouldhave slumped to the most embarrassing defeat in their history – againstLincolnshire. Franks, however, won’t be around to bail them out againstSurrey. He has aggravated a calf strain. Surrey have a couple of injuryworries themselves – they are waiting on the fitness of Ian Salisbury(finger) and Alex Tudor (knee). Even so, they remain confident enough toomit Graham Thorpe for the second match running.Warwickshire v Sussex, Edgbaston
Sussex’s Jason Lewry and Tony Cottey have both been passed fit afterinjuring themselves in the field during last week’s win against Kent.Lewry will play despite breaking his nose on Carl Hopkinson, as he ran into take (and hold) a catch, while Cottey’s bruised thumb should not hamperhim unduly. Warwickshire have been in prime batting form this season, butthey will be without one of their linchpins, Nick Knight, who hasundergone knee surgery and is replaced by Jonathan Trott. Watching fromthe Edgbaston stands will be the Kenyan legspinner, Collins Obuya, who isdue to make his debut next week.Division TwoGlamorgan v Gloucestershire, Cardiff
Gloucestershire, top of the table and fresh from a 324-run annihilation ofBuckinghamshire, are in prime form for their trip to Cardiff. They all butthrashed Durham in their last match (only for the weather to intervene)and the arrival of Jonty Rhodes has brought out the best in Tim Hancock,who blasted a career-best 135 in the C&G Trophy on Thursday. Glamorganwill be without their captain Steve James and Darren Thomas, both of whomhave both undergone knee operations. Much will be resting on MatthewMaynard, with two Championship hundreds to his name already this term.Yorkshire v Derbyshire, Headingley
Yorkshire have begun their Championship season in a fury after theirhumiliating relegation last season, and Derbyshire will be hard-pressed toresist them at Headingley. Michael Vaughan, with the grand total of 16runs in three innings so far this season, will be determined to mark hisappointment as England’s one-day captain with a sizeable innings. DarrenGough, however, will be missing after tweaking his hamstring againstEssex. Derbyshire have injury doubts surrounding Michael Di Venuto(hamstring) and Shahid Afridi (finger).Tour matchWorcestershire v Zimbabweans, Worcester
Zimbabwe were eased into their tour of England – by opposition andprotestors alike – with a ten-wicket victory over the BritishUniversities, but the real test begins at New Road. Grant Flower, who hassince spoken out in support of his brother’s black-armband protest in theWorld Cup, scored a century in that opening match, and with the first Testjust two weeks away, the onus is on Zimbabwe’s lesser lights to follow hisexample – Flower is the only man in the party with a Test hundred to hisname. South Africa’s allrounder, Andrew Hall, makes his debut forWorcestershire, after returning from the tour of Bangladesh.National League, Division TwoScotland v Somerset, Edinburgh
Another anticlimax, or a rapid return to the form that saw off Durham intheir inaugural fixture? Scotland were hammered back into their place byMarcus Trescothick in the C&G Trophy, and the sight of him marching out topick up where he left off (103 from 70 balls) may be more than theScottish bowlers can take.

A high-quality innings from Neil Fairbrother dominated the day’s proceedings at Colchester. The left-hander underpinned his side’s recovery after an indifferent start against Essex that saw opener John Crawley bowled for a duck in the second over of the day by Justin Bishop after he had won the toss.Then Andrew Flintoff fell for 18 before Fairbrother arrived to mastermind the rebuilding operation and ease his side into a more healthy position with a chanceless century. He faced 189 deliveries and hit two sixes and 14 other boundaries and rarely offered any display of a false stroke.The visitors, who are still threatened with relegation, were indebted to Fairbrother’s third wicket partnership worth 215 with Mark Chilton to provide the substance of their innings.Whilst Fairbrother completed the 46th first-class century of his career, his more watchful partner was dismissed for 98 having survived three chances.Chilton’s first life came with his score on 14 when Ashley Cowan spilled a chance off Ronnie Irani and he then remained at the crease when offering two catches with his score on 97.He was dropped by Stuart Law at slip off the bowling of Peter Such and in the off-spinner’s next over, he drove a ball to Stephen Peters at short leg where the ball rebounding off the fielder before ‘keeper James Foster just failed to complete the catch.However the batsman’s luck finally ran out one run later when Such gained deserved reward with Cowan completing a catch at short mid-wicket to end a patient innings.Irani, having earlier accounted for Flintoff, bowled Joe Scuderi off his pads for 14 and then ended Fairbrother’s vigil when the batsman glanced the bowler down the leg side to give Foster a diving catch.That left Lancashire on 296-5 and two runs later, Such produced a superb low catch off his own bowling to remove Graham Lloyd for nine and give the bottom of the table side their second bowling point.Jamie Haynes and Chris Schofield avoided any further problems easing their side to their third batting point late in the day as they closed on 316-6 wickets.

An interesting final day’s play is on the cards in the Buchi Babu allIndia invitation tournament between ONGC and TNCA President’s XI atthe AC Tech college ground in Chennai on Tuesday. At stumps on thesecond day on Monday, ONGC were 95 for two in their first innings inreply to the home team’s score of 383. A total of 289 runs in a daywith eight wickets in hand is a tough, but not impossible task. On theother hand, it is also possible for TNCA President’s XI to take eightwickets without conceding that many. All in all, it can be said thatthe match is nicely poised for a keen battle for the all importantfirst innings lead.Having resumed at 296 for five, TNCA President’s XI could not havebeen happy at getting only 87 runs on Monday morning. The overnightsixth wicket pair of Badri Attavar and D Dhandapani took theirpartnership to 151 before the latter was out for 62. Attavar wascomparatively subdued but got to 155 before he was leg before to Saif.He batted 426 minutes, faced 306 balls and hit 18 boundaries. Therewas some resistance from the tail but the home team’s total fell belowexpectations. Rahul Sanghvi finished the most successful bowler withthree for 90.ONGC were off a good start with openers Manoj Mudgal and Gagan Khodaputting on 52 runs off 12 overs before the former was out for 25.Skipper G Vadhera (3) did not last long but Khoda continued to go forhis shots. Shortly before close, he reached his half century witheight fours and a six. By close he had faced 67 balls and a lot willobviously depend on him as ONGC continue their run chase on Tuesday.Keeping him company is another run getter with the proper credentials,Virendra Shewag who has started off well, getting 13 runs off tendeliveries with two hits to the fence.

Mashrafe Mortaza has conceded that Bangladesh’s effort was scratchy, but said that his side will draw confidence from sealing their second-highest chase in T20s. Despite some hiccups, Bangladesh reached the target of 164 in 18.4 overs, after having overhauled West Indies’ 164 in the World T20 in 2007.”We were not up to the mark,” Mashrafe said. “We had that early run-out [of Soumya Sarkar] and if Mushfiqur [Rahim] or Sabbir [Rahman] didn’t get out at those points, we could have finished it in 17-18 overs. But good thing was that we didn’t panic at any stage, which we used to do in the past.”It is helpful to play in such wickets though I thought it was a scratchy performance. I think chasing this big total will give us more confidence. It is one of our biggest successful chases in T20s so the win is quite a relief. It wasn’t easy chasing 165 so I hope we can hold on to this effort.”Mashrafe was also pleased with the performances of Al-Amin Hossain and Mustafizur Rahman. They shared four wickets and gave away only 10 runs in the last two overs of the first innings. Zimbabwe were given a strong platform for a final push by a 101-run opening partnership between Hamilton Masakadza and Vusi Sibanda, but Al-Amin and Mustafizur pegged the visitors back.”Al-Amin was our best T20 bowler before his action was reported,” Mashrafe said. He is one of our best death bowlers. I have been saying that Mustafizur is unplayable. I think we have good balance at the death with Shakib and myself also there.”Mashrafe also said that he made a mistake by not using debutant Shuvagata Hom in the middle overs. Mahmudullah and Sabbir Rahman bowled four overs during that period while conceding 36 runs. Shuvagata was then sent into bat at No.4, ahead of Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan, but managed only six runs.”He is playing as a bowling allrounder. I could have brought him on instead of Mahmudullah or Sabbir. I sent him to bat at No 4 because I wanted to see him bat in these situations,” Mashrafe said.

Watching the Indians bat today reminded one of the wretched times they endured while touring abroad during the ’90s. The storylines were mostly the same: top-order crumbles to swing and seam, Tendulkar stands alone, lower-order support arrives before India stage some sort of recovery. Through the previous decade Tendulkar was India’s Atlas Abroad, constructing masterpieces amid the surrounding wreckage.There was an eerie familiarity when the scoreboard read: 2 for 1, 2 for 2, 14 for 3 and 65 for 4. It’s when you usually asked yourself “Is Tendulkar still batting?” (In the last five years you’d probably first ask about Dravid but he was rested for this encounter and that wasn’t an option). Luckily for the large crowd of Indians who’d landed up at Chelmsford the answer was a reassuring one, until he fell twenty minutes before stumps.Tendulkar’s wasn’t a flawless century, as two dropped chances indicate, but the beauty lay in its construction. The early salvos were emphatic – a feather-touch down the ground here, a delicate flick through midwicket there, a crackling square cut here, a dab to fine-leg there. It was a most assured counter-attack against a pumped up bowling attack making the most of the new ball. Tendulkar possessed the mastery that the rest lacked but he also displayed tremendous application under pressure, something the other batsmen fell short on. He was to later term the pitch as a “good” one and said it was mainly the wind factor that one needed to be wary of.It was his first first-class match in nearly two months but he paced his innings superbly. “Having been around for reasonable time,” he said with a particular emphasis on the word reasonable, “I know when to accelerate and when to hold back and be patient. I read the situation and it’s a lot to do with the way my body is moving, the way I’m thinking as well. You can’t go out everyday and try bang, bang, bang and say it’s my natural game.”Some good scores in the recent one-dayers have no doubt helped but a break of two weeks seemed to have produced not a jot of rust. “Till yesterday I was a little apprehensive, I wanted to go out and spend some time in the middle. I had reasonable net practise but in the match situation I wanted to be out there. Conditions are going to be different. I’m relieved I managed to play more than 200 balls.””It was important especially because after Ireland we didn’t play cricket at all, it’s almost a couple of weeks now. It puts you in a different frame of mind and it was important that I get back to reality with the Test matches just 4-5 days away. Scoring runs in Ireland really helped. The conditions were adverse and wickets were helpful. That South African attack is quite good and I managed to score runs there. I had a couple of big sessions at Hove, practising indoors and that helped.”A nudge to point, shortly after tea, took him to hundred and his reaction was instructive. On completing the run he began a big swing of the bat but stopped half-way through the motion. It’s just the start of a long tour, he seemed to be saying, and there will be plenty more bat-swings to come.