ECB refer Carberry article to Press Complaints Commission

The ECB have referred The Guardian to the Press Complaints Commission following an interview with Michael Carberry in which he claimed he had been the victim of unfair treatment by England management.

While the ECB do not dispute the words spoken by Carberry in the article, published on March 31, were genuine, they were unhappy with the general tone of the piece and felt more should have been done to reflect their side of the story.

Specifically, they were unhappy with the suggestion that, while the other players in the Ashes tour party were allowed to fly their families to Australia for Christmas, "only Carberry's request that his mother be his invited guest was denied" and the insinuation that Carberry might have struggled for selection throughout his career "for some reason".

The ECB insist that the terms of the flights provided for the partners of touring players is clear and that Carberry was not the victim of inequitable treatment. They are also concerned that Carberry's comment that "throughout my England career, even as a schoolboy, I've always had that shorter rope for some reason," might be interpreted as a suggestion that he was the victim of racial discrimination.

The ECB had earlier threatened to take legal action after an article in the Nightwatchman magazine suggested that Carberry's struggle to gain England selection might have been due to racial discrimination. The magazine deleted the article from all on-line platforms and printed an apology and retraction in the next issue. They also made a donation to Chance to Shine.

It is understood the ECB made several attempts to persuade The Guardian to print a similar retraction, but the newspaper is standing by its story.

The Press Complaints Commission is an independent body which administers the system of self-regulation for the press.

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'Unanimous feeling' against KP - Downton

Paul Downton has claimed there was a "unanimous feeling" within the England camp that the time had come to move on from Kevin Pietersen and suggested the team who lost the Ashes had fallen "into a mindset thinking they were better than they were".

Downton, the new managing director of England cricket, told the BBC's Test Match Special that he talked to every member of the England management on the Ashes tour and quite a few senior players and "couldn't find one supporter" for Pietersen.

"All I know is I and others wanted people purely focused on playing for England," Downton said. "There was an enormous amount of frustration surrounding KP from everyone in the management team. I watched every ball of the Sydney Test and I had never seen anyone as disinterested or distracted on a cricket field.

"The accusation made was that he had too many different agendas and was not 100 per cent focused on playing for England. Who knows if that's right but that was the unanimous feeling. I couldn't find one supporter saying 'we want KP to stay in the side'.

"I'm not saying all that happened in Australia was down to KP. Dynamics disintegrate when you're under pressure. Maybe all the players were a bit distracted in terms of commercial opportunities. Test cricket is hard work and back-to-back Ashes series had an enormous effect on mental energy. We suffered from that point of view."

While Downton reiterated that there was no single incident that led him to conclude that the time had come to drop Pietersen, he accepted that, from a PR perspective, it would have been easier to dismiss Pietersen as a direct result of the "textgate" issue in 2012.

"The public would have understood it more," Downton said. "Andy Flower was trying to back Alastair Cook ahead of the tour to India and a peace deal was brokered. But a huge amount of trust was lost.

"He was brought back, which opened the opportunity up for rehabilitation. In the end that lasted 18 months and we've decided to make a split. The team has to grow and rebuild and can only do it without KP in the side.

"KP had a fantastic career but it was not incident free," Downton said. "There were issues. We managed KP fantastically. He played 10 years of Tests. But there was a strong feeling within the management that team won't grow until we make a decision and move on.

	"We played on wickets that were slow and our batsmen lost confidence and we became too tight. We defended rather than attacked and fell apart under immense pressure." Paul Downton

"We had to rebuild the side. That side, with KP in it, had just lost 5-0. We lost Strauss 18 months ago and never really replaced him. Graeme Swann retired during the tour and Jonathan Trott, who I saw yesterday, is recovering but is quite long way from getting back to playing cricket. So we made a decision on KP. We had to rebuild the side. And we had to decide who we were going to back. Were Cook and Bell going to be backbone, or were we going to back KP? It became a bit of a no-brainer.

Downton also admitted that he, and the ECB, could perhaps have handled the situation better in the days following the decision not to select him for the World T20 which sparked a backlash on social media.

"We told KP 'we won't pick you for the World T20'. From then on he was clear he wanted to come to a settlement to terminate central contract. His team pushed for that. We would have been quite happy to let the contract run out. It was a week before the IPL auction. KP wanted the freedom to play where he wanted to play and he won a big contract because of it.

"The lawyers took three days to argue to and fro and it did leave a vacuum. I'd been in the job a week and I didn't know how best to handle it. I was not aware of social media at the time. It was always going to be noisy. But the sooner people understand that we have cut our ties with KP and moved on and that we're investing in younger players coming in to rebuild the side, the better."

Downton also suggested that the England team that lost the Ashes 5-0 had developed a mindset that overestimated their ability.

"There was a group of players together for a long time," he said. "And, in the words of Graham Gooch, felt they had one more tour left. There was a huge focus to win in India and keep the Ashes, but they were starting to play slightly defensive cricket.

"They had a wake-up call in New Zealand, then struggled over here again in the Ashes and we slowly lost confidence. We played on wickets that were slow and our batsmen lost confidence and we became too tight. We defended rather than attacked and fell apart under immense pressure.

"It's very rare when you have such a settled group for so long and it's very different not to become stale. The preparation and planning was the same in 2013 as it had been in 2010-11 but we couldn't recreate the same sense of urgency. The tanks were empty.

"Maybe, as a collective, the team got into a mindset thinking they were better than they were. No-one was deliberately complacent but maybe success turned out to be a false cocoon around them."

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Only the start of the short stuff

Sri Lanka's bowlers had propelled their World T20 campaign, often bailing out lacklustre batting displays, but when the bowlers had a bad evening in London, the batsmen could not reciprocate

When Graham Ford departed from his role with Sri Lanka, and Paul Farbrace arrived in late January, both coaches issued identical appraisals of the team's chances in the two upcoming global tournaments.

"They have a terrific opportunity to win the World T20 in Bangladesh," Ford said, "there's no doubt about that." But both men were a little less hopeful about the World Cup. "We're not quite there yet," Farbrace had said. "There are some key things to develop, and the England series should give us a fair indication where we are at as a side."

As Sri Lanka faltered for the first time in 11 ODIs, at The Oval, many of their shortcomings on quicker, bouncier conditions were made plain. Sri Lanka's bowlers had propelled their World T20 campaign, often bailing out lacklustre batting displays, but when the bowlers had a bad evening in London, the batsmen could not reciprocate.

Lahiru Thirimanne got late-swinging delivery early in his innings, but several other batsmen failed to account for the bounce and movement typical in England, and surely forthcoming in Australia and New Zealand as well.

Tillakaratne Dilshan failed to put away short balls at his body, early in the innings, piling pressure on himself to explode, as the run rate climbed. He is often a consummate player of the pull - a stroke he executes with typical homespun swagger - but has recently struggled with it on faster surfaces. In the end, it would be a slash through the offside that undid him, as he underestimated the bounce Chris Jordan's hit-the-deck pace would achieve.

Before Dilshan departed, a leaden-footed Kumar Sangakkara had played Harry Gurney on, when the bowler nipped one back. It is unlike Sangakkara to have footwork out of order, but Sri Lanka could do themselves much good if they arrive at the Tests on the back of a big ODI series win. If the visitors are to keep England's spirits low, even uncharacteristic mistakes may have to be omitted by the senior players, who have considerable experience in similar conditions.

Dinesh Chandimal was targeted with the short ball in the T20 match as well, and here departed to it, heaving forcefully at Jordan, to offer thin top-edge to the keeper. The previous ball had been a bouncer, which Chandimal had hooked at and missed - further suggestion that England will persist with this plan to him.

He has flourished in England before, but this uncertainty against the short ball was unearthed by Pakistan in the Test series in January, when Junaid Khan had him caught at fine leg in successive innings. Interestingly, Farbrace, then about to take Sri Lanka's reins, had been in the stands on the second occasion. However England came by their mode of attack, it is out in the open now. Chandimal was already under significant scrutiny when he arrived in this series, and will now be watched even closer, while Ashan Priyanjan awaits his turn in the middle order.

The requirement was too steep even for Angelo Mathews, who lately has grown as a finisher. Perhaps more intent at the top of the innings would have eased the middle-order's burden, and to that end, Kusal Perera may be reconsidered for the coming matches. Kusal has been notoriously inconsistent, but few young Sri Lanka batsmen sustain excellence in the first years of their careers. What is more, when he delivers a good knocks, he leaves the side well in control of the innings.

If he is to come in at opener, he will displace Thirimanne, but perhaps that creates an opportunity of its own. Sri Lanka's batting concentrates its experience in the top four, but if Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene were to move down to Nos. 4 and 5 respectively, Thirimanne could remain in the top three where he prefers, and the unit becomes more balanced overall. Jayawardene has long been the most versatile ODI batsman Sri Lanka have, and a lower position may free him to play the finishing innings he has often provided. Sangakkara, meanwhile, has now acquired the aptitude for sustained aggression that might make him a good No.4.

The bowlers' quality and track record suggests they will recover quickly from a poor outing. But if Sri Lanka's tour, and their World Cup preparations, are to go to plan, the batsmen would do well to give their team-mates more cover than they did on Thursday.

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Who is Naved Arif?

Naved Arif, now 32, is not a household name in cricket, but neither is he a nobody. A first-class bowling average of 24.38 showed that he had some skill when it came to his left-arm pace bowling and he reached as far as Pakistan A in 2009 when he toured Australia, playing against the likes of Cameron White and George Bailey, and Sri Lanka.

Now, however, the man given the nickname 'Barry' - as in Great Barrier Reef - while playing league cricket in Lancashire faces being known forever as a match-fixer if the charges laid by the ECB in relation to a county match in 2011 are made to stick.

He joined Sussex in 2011 - ironically, it was announced on the same day as Sussex's signing of Lou Vincent - a process eased by the fact his wife was Danish so he did not class as an overseas player. He had made his first-class debut in Pakistan in 2002, and marked the appearance with figures of 5 for 28 against Hyderabad.

At the time, Mark Robinson, the Sussex coach, said: "Naved is a late developer, and with his background in Pakistan he's had to do it the tough way. His record out there on unhelpful wickets is outstanding and he's got the potential to change games."

His Sussex debut came in April 2011, against Lancashire at Aigburth, and it was undistinguished affair as he took 1 for 68 and made 6 and 0 in an innings defeat. However, a couple of weeks later against the same opposition he scored an unbeaten hundred - his only one in first-class cricket, he does not have another score over fifty - to earn Sussex a draw when defeat had looked likely. Wisden said Arif had mixed "studied defence with attractive leg-side blows". He helped save the match in a last-wicket stand of 90 alongside Monty Panesar.

He played just four Championship matches in the season, but claimed a creditable 15 wickets at 25.86. He was more of a regular in the 40-over team and on August 23 faced Kent in a televised match that has been long under the spotlight despite being cleared by ICC. Arif made 11 off 29 balls as, from a position of considerable strength, Sussex failed to chase down 217. He had earlier conceded 0 for 41 in six overs.

In 2012 he made seven Championship appearances, his last against Warwickshire at Edgbaston in what was also his final first-team match for Sussex. At the end of the season he was released having appeared in just two more 2nd XI fixtures.

In December of the same year he played two matches for Sialkot Stallions and his last professional game of cricket was against Lahore Lions, where he took 1 for 29.

However, he did play club cricket again in England as recently as April this year when he appeared for Little Stoke Cricket Club taking 5 for 26 and making 52.

If found guilty of the charges he faces Arif now faces a ban from all levels of cricket organised, authorised or supported by the ECB, ICC, any other National Cricket Federation and any member of any other National Cricket Federation.

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Fans' goodwill remains - Cook

Alastair Cook believes the English public remain largely behind the team despite the events of the winter and its dramatic fallout.

After a somewhat bitty start to the international season with a rain-effected game in Scotland then the T20 defeat to Sri Lanka on Tuesday, which Cook was not involved in, he now gets hold of the team for his first extended run since the one-day series in Australia, which resulted in a 4-1 defeat and, momentarily at least, led to Cook considering his future.

Others did pay with their positions with Andy Flower and Kevin Pietersen the highest-profile casualties. Pietersen's absence continues to be a source of much debate especially on social media, fuelled by Giles Clarke's recent comments that people need to "move on" from the issue and not helped by England struggling to regain winning form.

That Cook has retained his position, seemingly without too many questions asked, has also caused some consternation from his more vocal critics but Cook insists he has not personally felt any animosity from the fans.

"I'm sure if you live your life on social media it would be slightly different but from the people I've bumped into in the street or the pub the goodwill is still there to English cricket," he said. "That's only what I've experienced and it is slightly different when you meet people face-to-face I'm sure.

"People were obviously disappointed with the winter, as any cricket fan would be, and the players were disappointed as well, that's a given. We are incredibly lucky with the support we've got, as we always have whether we've won or lost, and as players were are incredible grateful for the support we get."

But a continued struggle to string wins together this summer against Sri Lanka and India will start to test the patience of even the most loyal supporters.

"No-one's got a divine right to win a game of cricket," Cook said. "Sri Lanka are an incredibly dangerous side so we've got to play some good aggressive cricket. We are going to leave it all out there and we are desperate for a good performance. But that doesn't guarantee anything. The fresh start and stuff is brilliant but it's all now down to playing some good cricket."

	"It would be ideal if everything was settled and everyone knew their role. But we don't know the 13 or 14 we'll take out there. They'll be the decisions we start making now." Alastair Cook

In this one-day series there is also a bigger picture to look at with the World Cup now less than nine months away. Cook took on the 50-over captaincy in 2011 following the previous tournament as England began another cycle of trying to overcome their woes in the premier global event, but Cook conceded that they are nowhere near as clear on their line-up as he had hoped they would be.

"I remember in 2011 sitting down when I first started as England captain saying I want this four years to build up and come the World Cup we'll have a settled side leading into it. I'd hoped to have eight or nine months where it would be settled. That was the theory but I probably wasn't living in the world of reality if I'm being honest because a lot can happen in four years as we've seen.

"Of course, it would be ideal if everything was settled and everyone knew their role. But we don't know the 13 or 14 we'll take out there. They'll be the decisions we start making now because of what happened over the last three or four months. We build towards the World Cup from now."

One aspect of the team Cook did seem much more certain of was the continuation of his opening partnership with Ian Bell. There has been much clamour to shake up England's top order, but the continued absence of Alex Hales showed that was not top of the selectors' thoughts and it does not appear as Michael Carberry, who had a poor T20 yesterday, will split the incumbent pairing although he could yet bat at No. 3.

There is logic in retaining the current partnership which is the second-highest scoring first-wicket combination for England: in 33 innings since they came together on a full-time basis in June 2012 they have averaged 42.28 and even in Australia were regularly forming a solid platform which gives Cook the confidence they can work in a variety of conditions.

"If you look back to that Australia one-day series there were five very different wickets we had to play on," Cook said. "So at Perth when it was a belter and we needed a quick start because we knew 300 would be a par score we got off to a really good start. So we have got the power to do that. But there'll be other times in England or say Adelaide when you're playing on a slow wicket and it nips around a bit. You need the guys to adapt their skills to handle those conditions. That's what I'm looking for as a side."

Quite what England will do with the other end of the order was not quite so certain. James Anderson is back to take the new ball which will give the attack an added edge, and greater experience, but the major vulnerability remains at the death. Harry Gurney impressed in the T20 but, two matches into his international career, he will need someone to share the burden. If England continue to haemorrhage runs in the latter stages Cook will find it difficult to secure the wins to ensure the fans remain on side.

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'Follow England's lead on anti-corruption'

Cricket boards around the world would do well to emulate the example of the English game in the fight against corruption, according to Angus Porter, the head of the players' union in England.

While recent revelations relating to Lou Vincent might have painted an unflattering picture of the extent of corruption in county cricket, Porter, the chief executive of the Professional Cricketers' Association, remains confident that methods used to combat the issue in England should be used as a template in the rest of the world.

"The Vincent revelations are largely historical," Porter told ESPNcricinfo. "They may only have come into the public domain in the last few days, but the ECB and PCA had known about them for some time.

"While they are a reminder that there is no room for complacency in the battle against corruption, we wouldn't want people to use them to express outdated concerns about the English game. Much has been achieved in the last few years and the recent news relates largely to a period before many preventative measures had come into place."

There are, in Porter's estimation, six elements to the fight against corruption. Crucially, given recent suggestions about the restructuring of the Anti-Corruption Unit, they require an independent investigative and disciplinary body, as well as national player associations and the full co-operation of the national cricket boards. That is not an environment offered in India and Pakistan, for example, who do not recognise player associations.

Porter's six-point plan:

1) Unity with independence
"It is incredibly important that all stake-holders act together," Porter says. "So in England we have seen the ECB and PCA work together to find the best way to educate those involved, but also investigate and act where necessary." But at the same time it is, he says, "essential that the independence of the investigative, reporting and disciplinary processes is maintained." So while the ECB may fund the ACU's work, they should not limit, interfere or attempt to influence in its work. And, as Porter points out "we need to be certain that it must not just be independent, it must be perceived as independent."

2) A distinction between the educational and investigative
In England and Wales, the PCA take on the role of educating players about the dangers of corruption and what to do should they be approached. They are not directly involved in the investigative or disciplinary aspects. "This is a particular challenge in those countries that do not have a players' association to help with the education function," Porter says. "It is very hard to go from the classroom with a player to then investigating them."

3) Start young
The prevention process now starts long before players sign professional terms with a first-class county. Anti-corruption education is given to academy players and ingrained in them as they develop through the system. Ignorance cannot be an excuse.

4) An amnesty
In 2012, an amnesty was declared in England in which players could report historic information. While little of significance came to light during that process, it did provide a last opportunity for those who might have been guilty to come clean and offered them no excuses should information come to light at a later date. "Other countries should follow the lead of the game in England and Wales and declare an amnesty," Porter says. "While our amnesty did not reveal a huge amount of new information, it did clear the conscience of a few people and made it very clear that a line had been drawn. There could be no excuse if anything came to light after that date."

	"Confidence in the integrity of the game is paramount. We have achieved a great deal in the last few years and it would be wrong for people to judge the integrity of the English game on historic cases." Angus Porter

5) Tie-in education with registration of players
It has become mandatory for players to have completed their anti-corruption training before they can be registered to play for a county. "Players cannot take the field of play until they have done so," Porter explains. At times, with some overseas signings, this has only happened a couple of hours before a game, but there have been no exceptions. Not only does the process ensure that the players have been educated, it ensures they cannot use a defence of ignorance should they have been found to have engaged in corrupt practices.

"Cricket in England is, we believe, the only sport in the world that has hard-wired education into registration in this way," Porter says. "Again, I believe other countries would do well to follow this example."

6) Allow the prevention and investigation methods to be intelligence based
Over recent days, England players Ian Bell and Ravi Bopara have made comments in the media suggesting that preventative measures taken in county cricket were not as robust as those taken in international cricket. Notably, both called for the ban on communication devices - mobile phones and the like - in international cricket to be replicated in the domestic game. But, says, Porter that may not address the real issue.

"While we are delighted to see the obvious desire of the England players to see that everything possible should be done to combat corruption, it is important we think these things through," he says. "It may be that there is a place to restrict the use of communication devices in televised games, but while members of the public are still able to access dressing rooms during those games, it would seem to be pointless to introduce such a ban without taking other measures first.

"The danger is that such action will give people a warm feeling of contentment that they are doing the right thing, but that it will actually be no use at all. The evidence we have is that fixing usually takes place away from the ground and not on match days."

Porter also points out that most players involved in the England squads were not party to the pre-season anti-corruption programmes at the counties and might not be fully aware of the extent of the help now offered at domestic level.

"I think James Anderson was the only England player available for the pre-season education," Porter explained. "But the England team's anti-corruption runs parallel to the county teams' so no-one slips through the net. Anderson would have seen Mervyn Westfield give some incredibly powerful testimony on the mistakes he made.

"Confidence in the integrity of the game is paramount. We have achieved a great deal in the last few years and, while recent news reminds us that there is no room for complacency, it would be wrong for people to judge the integrity of the English game on historic cases."

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Somerset thrive without weight of expectation

Somerset 234 and 108 for 0 (Trescothick 58*) require a further 136 to beat Durham 155 and 326 (Richardson 116, C Overton 5-63)
Scorecard

Expectation can be a burden. Following a testing 2013, Somerset, for once, had little of it before this season. Evidently that is suiting the club just fine. Tomorrow brings the promise of Somerset going second in the Championship. It has been a familiar finish in recent years, but now the circumstances feel very different.

There was no better indication of Somerset's quiet buoyancy than the ebullience with which Marcus Trescothick and Johann Myburgh approached a chase of 248 in the evening sunshine. With two golden ducks in his last three innings, Trescothick could have been forgiven for approaching the task with caution. Instead, he swatted the first ball through midwicket for four.

Trescothick remains an awesome sight, at moments such as these his game seeming designed around causing maximum damage with minimum foot movement. That his game remains in fine working order even in its 39th year was confirmed when Mark Wood, so outstanding in the first innings, entered the fray. A violent pull to long-on, a booming straight drive and a rasping cut provided three boundaries in one over. Over the wicket, or around the wicket? Wood zig-zagged between the two, but it made no difference to Trescothick in this mood.

In the circumstances it was easy to forget about Johann Myburgh - driving with power through the offside and playing the paddle sweep to great effect, he almost joined Trescothick in reaching a half-century by the close.

Somerset batted as if aware that the forecast for tomorrow is less encouraging than today's. By the close, the opening stand was worth 112 in 23 overs; so violent was the onslaught that, at one stage, it did not seem entirely facetious to ask whether Somerset would get into a position to request the extra half hour and so avoid any reliance on the weather tomorrow. The only moment of anxiety was when Myburgh offered Paul Collingwood a hard slip catch, diving to his left, when he had reached 40.

From this juncture rain seems to pose a bigger challenge to Somerset's victory hunt than the Durham bowlers. Admirably as Chris Rushworth and Wood bowled to limit Somerset's first innings to 234, a repeat performance seemed to be asking for too much, especially with the sun effervescent.

Ordinarily Durham could entrust the new ball to Graham Onions: a back injury means that he is not available. In the fourth innings Scott Borthwick is often a potent weapon. Now, the state of his right-hand rather embodies Durham's season so far: he sustained a flaked fracture on his middle finger in this game, a fortnight after chipping a bone on his index finger, and was only able to bat at No. 11 in the second innings.

And when Durham need a spark it is often Ben Stokes who provides it. They would have envisaged him providing a flying start to their Championship defence before England duty took over, but a locker that felt his wrist's wrath during the West Indies tour ended such hopes. At least there is encouragement on this front: he came through back-to-back T20s for the second team and a Championship return at Trent Bridge on Sunday is hoped for.

Still, there was considerable cheer for Durham earlier in the day. While his father David was busy with the latest corruption scandal, Michael Richardson compiled his second Championship hundred of the season. Mark Stoneman almost joined him but, three balls after dispatching Craig Overton over square leg, he misjudged another bouncer attempting to reach his century with a repeat.

Craig is the less well known of the Overton twins, largely because his 2013 season was ruined by a stress fracture on his back. He bowls slower than Jamie, so is perhaps less intimidating to face. But Craig is also more accurate, and generated dangerous movement away from the right-handers. In docile batting conditions, it was an opportune time to take his first five-for in first-class cricket.

George Dockrell, playing his first Championship game of the season, was a worthy ally. As he got the ball to grip off the pitch while maintaining immaculate control - and adding a sharp catch off Collingwood to boot - it seemed remarkable that he was not yet 22.

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McCullum confident in ICC despite leak

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum has said he has confidence in the ICC's anti-corruption investigators despite his disappointment that his testimony has been leaked to the media.

Details of McCullum's statements to the ICC's anti-corruption unit were published by the Daily Mail earlier this week, including that he had turned down offers of up to $180,000 to underperform in matches. The ICC has reacted by serving an injunction against the paper in an effort to prevent further details of its investigation being published.

But despite the leak bringing intense media spotlight on to McCullum, he said would continue to help the ICC with its investigations and would encourage other players to do the same if they had been similarly approached. Speaking at a press conference in Christchurch, McCullum said he was unable to divulge any specifics regarding his testimony, but he stood by the statements he had made to the ICC.

"I'm obviously disappointed about that but there's nothing I can do about it," McCullum said. "I can't go into the specifics of what's going into the investigation or my involvement in it ... but I will continue to fulfil my role in the investigation. I guess from my point of view the dealings I've had with the group that I've dealt with, I have confidence. How the leak happened, I'm not sure but I have confidence in them."

The Daily Mail reported earlier this week that McCullum was first approached by a former player during the 2008 IPL season and again on New Zealand's tour of England later that year.

"There's still a long way to go. Obviously it had been a number of years and the next little while will probably be a bit tough but my role in the investigation is on-going," McCullum said. "The sport of cricket is a great sport which we're all very privileged to be involved in. Obviously there are a couple of circumstances that have tainted the game but the majority of people uphold the traditions of the game."

Asked what advice he would give any other New Zealand cricketers who came to him to report a match-fixing approach, he said: "There was no hesitancy in my faith in the ICC as such. If one of the players found themselves in the same situation then I would certainly encourage them to go the same route I chose."

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Carberry clanger highlights England muddle

A crucial dropped catch by Michael Carberry was just one example of England expecting things from players that they do not do a county level

It should never be a surprise when Michael Carberry drops a catch. For all his worth as a batsman and for all his fitness, he has never been a reliable catcher.

His drop of Thisara Perera when the batsman had scored 20 at The Oval defined this game and the muddled thinking that currently pervades in the selection of the England team.

It was a simple chance. It was simple like the chance Carberry missed at backward point in the second Ashes Test in Adelaide when Brad Haddin had 5 and went on to score 118; an innings that hammered a nail into England's Ashes coffin. This time Thisara helped Sri Lanka thrash 37 runs off the final 15 balls of the innings of which his share was 28 in 10. It changed the game.

It cannot be put down to 'one of those things.' It happens too often for that. While not exactly the norm - Carberry has taken some good catches in his career - it is not accurate to describe it as an aberration. He dropped chances on his ODI debut in Dublin and was untidy in the ODI series against Australia that followed. He has a reputation at county level for being far from a safe pair of hands.

Equally, England cannot be surprised that Ian Bell looked rusty as a T20 player: he had not played a T20 match of any sort since England last selected him in this format in January 2011. His class as a batsman is beyond doubt and he surely can develop in this role but to expect him to do it against the world champions is asking a great deal. And England only have three T20s in the rest of the year. If they really see Bell as part of their next World T20 squad, they will have to release him from other England duties to play some T20 cricket for Warwickshire.

Nor can they be surprised that Jos Buttler, for all the potential he oozes as a batsman, continues to make mistakes with the gloves. He was not first choice wicketkeeper at his county last season and, only a few weeks ago, was rested from the first game of the county season by the England management when offered a new opportunity to take the gloves full time with Lancashire. Here he missed a tough stumping chance offered by Kithuruwan Vithanage on 30 off Ravi Bopara.

And they cannot be surprised that Chris Jordan is struggling as a death bowler. He has never successfully mastered the art at county level and Sussex, his county, signed Yasir Arafat as an overseas player for their T20 campaign so that he would not be exposed in that role. Yet here was Jordan, bowling the penultimate over of the Sri Lanka innings and conceding 22 runs.

Even Alex Hales, who became the joint quickest man to 1,000 T20 international runs and top-scored in the match, might progress faster if county and country could agree on his role. Hales, who like Kevin Pietersen reached the landmark in 32 innings, has the ability to prosper in all formats of the game but, after a poor first-class season in 2013, is currently unable to command a place in the Nottinghamshire Championship side.

	It is the selection of Carberry that is most perplexing. While his T20 record is decent, it seems odd to select a 33-year-old at the start of the two-year cycle between World T20 tournaments

While that is understandable, if the county game is largely about preparing players for England, then Hales should surely be playing in front of a 35-year-old former Australia international, Phil Jaques, with a view to him learning the skills that could, in time, help England win World Cup and Ashes series. And the fact that it is an England selector, the Notts director of cricket, Mick Newell, who leaves him out just underlines the muddled thinking that continues to hold England back. The England selectors seem intent on asking their players to perform roles which they do not perform for their counties.

But it is the selection of Carberry that is most perplexing. While his T20 record is decent - though not as good as James Taylor's, who is almost a decade younger - it seems odd to select a 33-year-old at the start of the two-year cycle between World T20 tournaments.

The main reason for bewilderment at the selection of Carberry is not his age or the concern over his fielding. It is the rampant hypocrisy it represents. For while Pietersen was dropped from the team in 2012 for exchanging private correspondence with members of the opposition, Carberry has been recalled having publically lambasted the coach (at the time) of the limited-overs squads in a national newspaper.

And while Pietersen was told he would not be selected again because the England team needed "the full support of all players" with "everyone pulling in the same direction", Carberry was recalled despite criticising Ashley Giles in an interview in which he suggested he had been omitted from the England team for non-cricket reasons and giving a highly disputed version of events on the Ashes tour; so disputed that the ECB is understood to be deliberating whether to take further action over the piece.

And while Paul Downton watched two-and-a-half days of the Ashes and concluded that he Pietersen was "disconnected" from the rest of the team - a version of events that has been disputed by the vast majority of the rest of the Ashes squad - he had apparently not watched enough of the series, or of county cricket in the previous decade, to realise that Carberry's catching was an accident waiting to happen.

Yet it seems there is one rule for Pietersen and another for every other player. And it seems for all the strong words about "support" and "pulling in the same direction" some are allowed to be more opinionated than others.

The shame of this defeat was that England actually showed some admirable characteristics in this game. Harry Gurney, on T20 debut, demonstrated good composure and skill that might see him develop into the death bowler this side so urgently require, while Chris Woakes showed the extra pace and improved skills that could still see him develop into a quality allrounder in all formats. The batting of Buttler, Ravi Bopara and Hales was also impressive.

But if you drop simple catches against the world champions, they are going to punish you.

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Wood continues good impression

Durham 155 and 121 for 1 (Stoneman 60*, Richardson 57*) lead Somerset 234 (Petersen 78, Wood 5-37, Rushworth 4-70) by 42 runs
Scorecard

"You wouldn't want to face Graham Onions on this," one supporter said as Durham tried to exploit an overcast start to the second day at Taunton. But, with Onions missing with a back injury, Chris Rushworth and Mark Wood provided a reminder of the depth of Durham's fast-bowling stocks.

England have already shown an interest in Wood, involving him in the Lions tour to Sri Lanka. Based on this compelling evidence - and a first-class haul that is now 60 wickets at 22 apiece - he may soon be the latest Durham bowler to earn a Test cap.

From an idiosyncratic start, beginning his run-up like a relay runner about to receive a baton, Wood generates distinctly sharp pace: his deliveries invariably arrived in Phil Mustard's gloves with a notable thud. His natural delivery, short-of-a-length, is a little reminiscent of Andrew Flintoff's, though it comes from a shorter and less stocky frame.

After pushing batsmen back, Wood possesses a yorker that can exploit any hesitation coming forward. Twice he earned the satisfaction of removing the batsman's middle stump; few players would have been able to resist the delivery that accounted for Craig Kieswetter. As spectacular as the sight was, most impressive of all was Wood's relentless line outside off-stump: 97 deliveries in the day yielded only 31 runs.

In Chris Rushworth, he had the ideal ally. With a fuller length and longer run-up, Rushworth's style is less distinct than Wood's. But his value to Durham is beyond dispute: he took 57 wickets in last season's championship victory, and a new contract retaining him until 2017 is recognition of his worth.

The scalp of James Hildreth, strangled down the legside to the first ball after lunch, transformed the trajectory of the day. Hildreth, driving with nonchalant ease and timing a pull off Rushworth so supremely that it went for six, had looked serene in adding 79 with Alviro Petersen. When Rushworth disposed of Peter Trego and Alfonso Thomas soon after, it left Somerset stuck in a rut at 154 for 7.

It fell to Petersen to prevent the work of his compatriot Thomas on the opening day going to waste. The judgment he displayed, switching from stern defence at the start of the day to controlled belligerence when Somerset were vulnerable after lunch, was befitting of an established Test player, and a pair of thumping sixes off Jamie Harrison threatened to test the resilience of the press box windows.

But it seemed apt that Petersen's wicket should eventually go to Harrison: Paul Collingwood, who had earlier spilled him in the slips on 30, did not repeat the mistake.

After the first day included the confusion of the Overton twins bowling from both ends, the second brought an even bigger challenge as they batted together. But Craig soon became identifiable by the distance he harrumphed the ball. Three sixes included an astonishing flat-batted pull, reminiscent of a tennis forehand, off Rushworth.

The upshot was that Somerset reached 234. While adding 80 for the last three wickets was commendable, the innings still rather reeked of missing an opportunity to gain a more decisive advantage.

That sense was added to as Durham enjoyed batting in the sunniest conditions of the match. Even with Scott Borthwick going to hospital - he was struck on his right-hand just a fortnight after chipping a bone, and his fitness to bat will be assessed in the morning - Durham lent the first innings scores in this match a new perspective.

Mark Stoneman and Michael Richardson had added an unbeaten hundred by the close - both had reached half-centuries, with Richardson twice dispatching George Dockrell for sixes.

Thomas, who claimed Keaton Jennings with a sharp catch at square leg by George Dockrell, was exemplary again, darting the ball both ways. He deserved more reward, but by the close Craig Overton's drop of Stoneman, 10 runs into his unbeaten 60, had the feel of being a pivotal moment.

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