Logistics manager first India Cements employee to be withdrawn

MA Satish, India's logistics manager, has been withdrawn from India's squad in Bangladesh following a Supreme Court directive to not engage India Cements employees in any of BCCI's activities till further notice. Satish, a former Kerala player, will return to India as soon as his replacement joins the squad in Dhaka.

"I would like to inform all of you that Mr MA Satish (logistics manager of the Indian team) will be going back to India as soon as the replacement for him joins the Team. There has been a delay in the visa process for his replacement due to the weekend," RN Baba, media manager of the team, said in a media release.

This is the first bit of action after the Supreme Court directive to cut through the dual roles a handful enjoy in India Cements and the BCCI. BCCI president N Srinivasan is the vice-chairman and managing director of India Cements, which also owns Chennai Super Kings, the IPL team at the centre of alleged betting and spot-fixing controversy.

This conflict of interest has been questioned by the counsels representing Cricket Association of Bihar during the court case against the BCCI in the aftermath of the IPL corruption scandal. In its interim order on Friday, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court said, "We also direct that till we deliver the judgement, none of the employees of India Cements Limited or its associate companies (except cricket players or commentators) will perform any of the duties assigned to them by the BCCI."

On Saturday, Sunil Gavaskar also assumed duties as the BCCI president as part of another Supreme Court directive. Earlier in the day Gavaskar said through a release he had met IPL chairman Ranjib Biswal and the management staff in Dubai, and had been briefed on various aspects of the 2014 season.

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England can hold heads high - Broad

Stuart Broad said England could leave the World T20 with their "heads high" despite going out of the competition after their second defeat in three games. Broad admitted to the wearying effects of a long and arduous winter of touring but was looking forward to the opportunity for rest and recovery before England begin a "new era" in May.

England lost by three runs to South Africa, ending their chances of reaching the semi-finals. A young and slightly experimental squad will play one more game, against Netherlands on Monday, before heading home as the ECB prepares to appoint a new head coach. Broad said he was uncertain about his own future as T20 captain and may miss the start of England's season as he attempts to get over a chronic knee injury.

"We've had a lot of positives come out of this World Cup but we can hold our heads high with some of the performances we've put in," Broad said. "If we had got out of the group there would have been a lot of surprised people. We're disappointed but we've done some good stuff with the squad available to us.

"We lost key men through injury. We can hold heads up high and at the end of the day T20 is an entertainment business and I don't think anybody is going to leave the ground today disappointed with nearly 400 runs scored, sixes, fours, and catches."

The county season gets underway next weekend, with the chance for several players to push for recognition as England look to begin afresh after losing heavily in Australia and following up with mixed results in the Caribbean and Bangladesh. Ashley Giles, the limited-overs coach, is favourite to succeed Andy Flower in charge of England across all three formats, with the ECB expected to hold interviews for the position in early April.

"It's going to be a new era of English cricket isn't it?" Broad said. "It has been a tough winter. We've been away a huge amount of time so there are some fantastic opportunities available for players in the summer. We don't know the shake-up of the Test side but you know the opportunities will arise and that's exciting for players to be involved in. I expect to see some excellent performances this summer, guys really desperate to play, hungry to succeed for England and we'll have to play some good cricket to beat Sri Lanka and India.

"It's an exciting time to be part of English cricket. Change is exciting from time to time. It's been a really tough winter, we've not had a huge amount of success. Australia was a really tough tour, back-to-back Ashes over the past nine months is as tough as it gets for a cricketer, not just on the field but off it too with all the hype that comes with Ashes cricket. So it has been a draining winter and I'll have to be honest, I'm looking forward to a bit of a break come Tuesday."

Broad has been T20 captain since 2011, when England experimented with a tripartite system. He has twice led England at the World T20, both times on the subcontinent, with the next tournament due to be held in India in 2016. Asked about continuing in the role, he said: "I don't know, there's going to be a decision made on coaching staff so there might be a few changes in the next two months or so. I'm probably going to be unavailable for the start of the season in one-day cricket to sort my knee out."

A period of rehabilitation will be required for Broad to get over his patellar tendonitis, an injury that has resulted from his heavy workload over the winter, and discussions with whoever is appointed to take charge of England will determine the way forward. England begin their season with an ODI against Scotland on May 9, followed by limited-overs series against Sri Lanka. The first Test of the summer begins on June 12.

"I need a rehab period on my tendonitis, which is generally about an eight-week period so whether I take just four weeks in April to play in May and then take a couple of months after the season I don't know but it's got to the stage where it's really sore and I need it sorting out. You know in international cricket you can't perform at your best when you're carrying an injury. We've managed it pretty well but it's in the hands of the medical staff and a bit of negotiation with the head coach when that's decided."

England made 193 for 7 against South Africa, their joint fifth-highest score batting second in T20s, despite no one scoring more than 38. The total surpassed their record chase against Sri Lanka from two nights ago but England paid for conceding 55 runs from the last three overs, as AB de Villiers scorched his way to an unbeaten 69 off 28 balls. Broad credited de Villiers for a match-winning innings as the bowlers, particularly Jade Dernbach, again came in for punishment.

"We've come up three runs short and there's some pretty clear ways we could have stopped those three runs," Broad said. "We didn't particularly field well, but that can happen in these conditions. We didn't have the one guy going to get the Hales-like knock like he did the other day or 60 or 70 you realistically need in these sorts of chases.

"But sometimes you have to hold your hands up and that knock from AB de Villiers is as good as you'll ever see. He hits the ball 360 degrees and targeted the short boundary with fantastic success. We tried to go for yorkers but in these conditions it's unrealistic to get your yorkers consistent with a bar of soap. He took it away from us in those last few overs. If we'd been chasing 170 it would have been pretty gettable."

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South Africa learn the art of survival

South Africa are in the semifinals and they have already won three tight contests, the latest to eliminate England. Can they survive the pressure this time?

AB de Villiers scores South Africa's fastest T20I half-century

Sssshhh. Nobody tell South Africa this was actually a knockout match. They already know the next one is and they can't handle that sort of that pressure. Or can they?

Twice before in this tournament they sneaked through in tense chases. Another South African side - take your pick from the class of the '99 World Cup to the ones of the World T20 2014 - would have fluffed one or probably both of those. This South African side did not but still they earned very little praise for their efforts.

The armchair critics found fault with everything from the composition of the batting line-up to which bowlers were being selected - and most of it was justified. South Africa relied on a combination of fortune and fumbling from the other side. They did not look convincing and they knew it.

"We hadn't played really well up until tonight," AB de Villiers, who stood as captain for the suspended Faf du Plessis, said.

With that in mind, South Africa had to rectify their issues against England because their would be no second chance. Although the bowlers sent down 10 extra deliveries with nine wides and a no-ball in challenging conditions in which the dew was so dense it could have been mistakes for rain, the batsmen showed what they are capable of when their plan comes together.

A solid start followed by the best batsmen in the side, AB de Villiers, coming in at No. 3 can produce the sparkling results some predicted a South African team with the personnel they have at their disposal should be able to dish up.

Stuart Broad called de Villiers' knock match defining. "The whole game was pretty much reliant on AB's knock," he said. De Villiers called it soul defining. "I've been sitting on the side for the last three games and not doing well. I've spent a few nights lying in bed, thinking about my batting and why it's not going well. I was very motivated to help my team get over the line."

De Villiers is at his best, not when he is batting at No. 3 but when he believes he is representing something bigger than himself. That is what he had to do in this match. "I'm not sure if it's about the position you bat in," he said. "I came in after the 10th over which is what the coaching staff want."

Responsibility was on him to make sure that Faf du Plessis, the man he gave the T20 captaincy to in December 2012, but who was suspended here, could lead in another game.

"That was more of a reason for me to be motivated and make sure we go to the semis," he said. "I wanted to give Faf the opportunity to take the team further."

When he passed 30 for the first time in ten innings, taking 14 off Jade Dernbach's comeback over, he showed his intent to do that. De Villiers played an astonishing range of shots that included the reverse paddle and a six over the leg-side which left Broad on his knees, almost literally. He said it was not part of a targeted assault on the bowler; just a desire to get going.

"We hadn't had a lot of big overs up until then. I felt settled. I read him well and unfortunately for him his execution wasn't spot on."

Wayne Parnell, the bowler South Africa slotted straight back into the XI following his return from testifying at a Mumbai court, almost had similar problems when his third over when for 11 but by then he had already done the damage. Including him was the second thing South Africa got right after not quite getting the balance of their bowlers correct in previous matches.

Parnell was included at fellow left-armer Lonwabo Tsotsobe's expense and de Villiers indicated they will stick with him as crunch times looms. "He is an absolute match-winner. I would love to have him in my team every day and I think we've seen very little of what is to come from him."

What is to come is what everyone is waiting for because this is where South Africa's real test starts. They are into the final four and the talk they have wanted to avoid will begin. They will be reminded that they have not won a knockout match at an ICC event in 16 years, since their victory in the Champions Trophy predecessor in 1998, just as they have been reminded of their failings at major tournaments at every one after that.

If they approach it with the same nonchalance they have all the chiding they have received so far, the people they may end up surprising the most will be themselves.

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England pay for Dernbach's latest calamity cameo

There were other negatives with the ball and in the field but ultimately 26 runs in nine balls from Jade Dernbach swept England's World T20 hopes away into the Bay of Bengal

England are not out of the World T20 yet. Although that is only because the formality of one last commitment against Netherlands awaits. They lost one rain-affected match, another in superficially close circumstances and in between pulled off their greatest T20 chase. Few expected them to do much better, after the winter they have had.

But there will be regrets about how this game slithered away from them, as another wayward performance with the ball and in the field pushed the batting too far into the red. England had won the toss and, in light of the ever-present dew, seemingly half the battle. Instead, South Africa became the first team to defend a total in the late slot during Chittagong's second-round matches.

It began with Jos Buttler missing a simple stumping but ended most emphatically with the sight of Jade Dernbach, a glass cage of emotion at the best of times, being taken apart by AB de Villiers on his way to the fastest T20 fifty by a South African. As de Villiers unfurled his full range, including an eye-popping reverse sweep off Chris Jordan and a trampoline scoop over deep square leg against Tim Bresnan's attempted yorker, 55 runs cascaded from the last three overs and swept England's hopes away into the Bay of Bengal.

The mitigation for Dernbach usually goes as follows: he bowls in the Powerplays and at the end, he is bound to get some tap. Unfortunately, he no longer seems able to stop the tap running, with England constantly having to deal with an overflowing bath. This was worse than his 0 for 49 in Sydney in January, although the wet ball, which resulted in one chest-high beamer, clearly caused problems. Too much variation is usually the issue but here Dernbach was consistent, monotonously finding the wrong length.

De Villiers sometimes seems to bat like he is a savant, for whom normal limitations such as the pitch or the opponent don't seem to apply. This time, both were to his liking. Dernbach's third over, the 18th of South Africa's innings, did not take much transcending but he could perhaps console himself with the thought that de Villiers has spiked better bowlers - namely Dale Steyn, during an IPL mini-epic for Royal Challengers Bangalore two years ago - and will doubtless do so again.

Two fours, two sixes, two wides, a two, a single and a no-ball was the pared-back, stripped-down, acoustic version, minus the screeching feedback. Nine balls, 26 runs - a number that comfortably encompassed England's margin of defeat. The anti-Jade brigade was in full voice, with even the coach of Hong Kong (an Australian, it has to be said) chipping in. "Has Dernbach got an IPL gig? #deserves" tweeted Charlie Burke.

"It was an important over, with the short boundary," de Villiers said. "We hadn't had a lot of big overs, I felt it was time. The bounce of the ball was in my side, unfortunately for him his execution wasn't spot on. He's a really good bowler but with the wet ball and the short boundary, it was my night."

As ever with a Dernbach calamity cameo, there was a dropped catch, though Buttler did his best to atone for earlier errors with a full-length dive after David Miller had gloved a pull behind. For all that Dernbach does not seemed to have learned a great deal from his three years as an England player, there is a touching honesty about his performances and his pain; the doleful look in his eyes can be genuinely affecting. Dernbach wears his heart on his sleeve, somewhere among all the tattoos.

Sentimentality aside, though, an economy rate of 8.71 - joint worst of bowlers who have sent down 300 deliveries or more in T20 - is likely to be his epitaph. We may not see England's third-highest wicket-taker in the format in a solar red shirt again.

This match was not a highly buffed spectacle of uber cricket, de Villiers aside. Dernbach and Buttler had the messiest copybooks but there were plenty of other examples. Moeen Ali dropped de Villiers on to the rope for four; Wayne Parnell started with a leg-side wide and then fell over in his follow-through (although he more than made amends); the umpire Rod Tucker even denied South Africa the wicket of Alex Hales by overzealously no-balling Albie Morkel.

Perhaps this is what you get when you play cricket with a bar of soap in a sauna where the lights keep going out and the floor is in a state of permanently being mopped.

There may have been a lot of Kentucky Fried Cricket on offer but only de Villiers was in possession of the special recipe. The crowd had had their fill and the last knockings of England's run chase, completed some four hours after the game had begun, were overseen by plenty of empty seats. Hales had briefly threatened to rain down mayhem again but by the time Ravi Bopara was taking aim at the stands in a by-now-familiar exercise in futility, few were left to worry about getting hit.

"At the end of the day, T20 is an entertainment business," Stuart Broad said afterwards. It brought to mind a line spoken by Russell Crowe in Gladiator as he stands in the middle of a bloodied arena: "Are you not entertained?"

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Mushfiqur hopes for a better tomorrow

Mushfiqur Rahim, the Bangladesh captain, has been the team's mouthpiece for much of their slump, turning up after pretty much every defeat to sum up how badly they have done, defending a selection or two, and appealing to the fans to stay with the team. He has used the word "alarming" a number of times and expressed exasperation at the dropped catches. Even more worryingly, he has been frank on a few occasions about being a bit lost in trying to find out a way to improve his team.

After yet another insipid performance, one wondered just what else could he say.

Against India, Bangladesh made 40 runs more than they did in the last game (98 all out against West Indies). Anamul Haque made 44, Mahmudullah returned to some form with an unbeaten 33 and Mashrafe Mortaza finished his quota of overs without getting injured. But to post 138 for 7 against India's batting line-up was never enough. The team's senior batsmen Mushfiqur, Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal once again failed to contribute significantly. It has been six games now that the No 3 batting position has hardly put a dent to the team's score.

Bangladesh are virtually out of their home World T20 tournament but Mushfiqur, as he has done since the Sri Lanka ODI series, hoped for a better tomorrow.

"We wanted to start well, but we didn't do it in these two games," Mushfiqur said. "There was a bit of improvement today, but we still have lots of areas to work on. We are playing against top teams, we need to play smarter cricket. Hopefully we will come up with good plans tonight and do better in the next two matches."

Given the lack of good starts from the openers and the continued struggle of the middle-order, Mushfiqur said that there is going to be a shuffling of the batting order in the next match. "Our plan was for Shakib to play at three, and myself at four," he said. "But because Nasir [Hossain] and [Mahmudullah] Riyad were not in good form and Sabbir is a new guy, we didn't want to risk Shakib going in very early and expose the middle and lower-order. Shakib plays his shots and could get out early too. The same could have happened with me. But we are going to think about it again."

On March 26, the BCB president had said the team could undergo changes after the World T20. He didn't elaborate on which areas, but Mushfiqur has made it clear that he won't be leaving the job of captain.

"No one wants to leave the captaincy at a bad time, leaving your responsibility," he said. "I enjoy captaincy, it is a big honour. If we do well, nobody thinks of us. But when we do badly, you have to work and come back to good form. The change is up to the administrators. If they make 20 changes and it helps the team, it is going to be good for the team."

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Dhoni credits team environment for success

Cullinan: Bangladesh more confident, but not good enough

The World T20 is increasingly shaping up like the Champions Trophy did as far as India are concerned. They had travelled to England in 2013 amid IPL controversy and won the ODI tournament with an unbeaten campaign. They have travelled to Bangladesh amid controversy again and have become the first side to qualify for the semi-finals, by winning three games out of three.

It is often India's Man of the Match who meets the press after a victory, but because of clamour from some sections of the media at home that MS Dhoni had been avoiding reporters, the captain walked in to take questions but answered only those related to the World T20. He declined to answer whether he had offered to resign as captain, as some reports had suggested.

Dhoni was asked how his side had managed to perform so well in both the Champions Trophy and the World T20 with such grave off-field issues in the background. The captain put it down to the environment within the squad.

"A good dressing-room atmosphere and having belief in yourself and enjoying each other's success," he said. "A lot of things happen around cricket but you have to be focused when you are representing your country. That is one thing that this team has done really well.

"And of course accepting the challenges, enjoying the challenges, trying to prove that you are one of the best when it comes to international cricketers. Once you are in as a batsman you want to take the team through, if you are bowling well on that particular day you want to take wickets for the team, if you are a part-timer the same things applies. It is all about the dressing-room atmosphere and we have kept it really nice."

India haven't had a good time in World T20s since winning the inaugural one in 2007, and this is the first time they have made the semis since that tournament. When asked if the team had talked about reaching this stage in the build-up, Dhoni said they had not thought about anything but had only come in with the knowledge that they would be playing in familiar conditions.

"We do not really discuss all that because one of the facts is you are supposed to play well. That is what the criteria is. If the consideration was just getting into the semi-finals, then what do you do once you reach the semi-finals? You should be happy and just stay there and say okay, we have reached the semi-finals, we don't really want to play it.

"I feel what we did was, we came in with nothing really in mind. Knew the conditions quite well. We play in the subcontinent quite a few games, especially the IPL, so we had the right kind of exposure. We knew the kind of problems we could face when it comes to bowling and batting and we had to work on that. So again we were concentrating on the process irrespective of what format we are playing. I feel it is always the process that is very important. Once you know the problem area, you can work on it and in a tournament like this it is very important you do not expose yourself, your weak link, to the opposition too much."

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KP plans 5,000-mile T20 commute (if he's lucky)

Kevin Pietersen plans to play simultaneously in two Twenty20 competitions in England and the Caribbean as he becomes the ultimate jet-set commuter in his attempts to keep his career alive after his exclusion from the England side.

The age of the itinerant T20 cricketer has been upon us for a few years, but Pietersen has taken it a stage further by seeking to play in England's relaunched NatWest Blast tournament and the Caribbean Premier League at the same time.

‏@KP24 - the Twitter handle which has now carries Pietersen's pronouncements, official and unofficial, on life, the universe and everything - promised: "I will be fulfilling ALL my @surreycricket commitments and just flying into the Caribbean to honour this opportunity."

It remains to be seen, though, if this regular 4000-miles-plus commute has a beneficial effect on his ability to hit a cricket ball in the area to which it is intended, especially as his regular diet of in-flight meals would not be countenanced by the England cookbook. Just think, some people can become disorientated by a daily commute from Paddington to East Croydon.

And, at least if the Kia Oval and the Caribbean are more than 4,000 miles apart that is nothing compared to the distance between England and Pietersen when it came to a meeting of minds.

If Pietersen is fortunate when the draft is finalised in a bar owned by Chris Gayle in Jamaica on Thursday, he will at least have a direct flight. As he indulged in a spot of repartee on Twitter with Gayle about whether they would be team-mates or opponents, it was a decent bet that he had not considered the possibility that he might yet be signed by Guyana Amazon Warriors: now that would add a few hours to the journey time.

Surrey, who are heavily promoting their T20 campaign around Pietersen's involvement, were quick to confirm that his ambitious plans have their full blessing.

Richard Gould, the chief executive, said: "Kevin is available for all our T20 fixtures once he gets back from the IPL in late May or early June. There are a couple of windows within our T20 season which coincides with the CPL where he can go out for the CPL, play some games there and still be available for all our games. We thought it was a good grown-up decision.

Everybody knows that grown-ups like flying. Children grow up wanting to be engine drivers.

His journey will be nearly three times as long as the match - although that distinction might lessen if over-rates keep sinking.

Pietersen initially chose Surrey - and the NatWest Blast - ahead of the CPL as he rebuilt his career following England's unparalleled decision to terminate his contract so publically after their 5-0 whitewash in Australia.

He first broached the possibility of playing both tournaments, according to Gould, "two or three weeks ago." He held discussions with Surrey's new head coach, Graham Ford, an early mentor in South Africa, and their director of cricket Alec Stewart.

Although factual enough, that is slightly misleading. He will play in the CPL on a "secondment clause" in his Surrey contract which allows a temporary change or relocation of position and duties. The clause was in there for a reason. It remains unconfirmed whether Surrey will also benefit from the arrangement.

"He is contracted for all the T20 fixtures," Gould said. "His contract allows him to play championship cricket and 50-overs cricket subject to his availability and we will see how that goes during the season."

The CPL is scheduled to run from July 5 to August 10. In that time, Surrey play their final five group matches in the space of a fortnight - all of which Pietersen has vowed to play.

They have a home match against Glamorgan on Friday, July 11, the day after CPL launches (pads strapped on at Heathrow?), further matches on the Wednesday and Friday of the following week and then two games in 24 hours - a derby against Middlesex on Thursday, July 24, and a short trip to Canterbury (a mere bagatelle for a hardened traveller like Pietersen) to play Kent the following day.

Before all this, Pietersen has agreed to captain the Delhi Daredevils in the upcoming Indian Premier League.

It would be difficult to travel further afield to ply his trade. The Times recorded the discovery of a new planet far beyond Pluto today - temporarily answering to the name of 2012 VP113 - but nobody is entirely sure whether the Inner Oort Cloud has yet to catch on to Twenty20.

"I'm delighted to be involved in this year's Caribbean Premier League," Pietersen said. "As soon as I was approached, I knew it was something I wanted to take part in. I have fantastic memories of playing T20 cricket in the Caribbean -- especially when we won the 2010 ICC World T20 tournament -- so I can't wait to play in front of the magnificent Caribbean fans who create a truly unique and thrilling atmosphere."

Pietersen's rejection by England has encouraged such open displays of affection. The love is spread upon all-comers. It remains to be seen whether it will be spread too thinly. If he pulls it off, there will be a few people envious of his air miles.

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Australia fail to walk the talk

Croft: Faulkner woke a sleeping giant

This is not the first Australian team to put down a few catches. Nor is it the first one to struggle against spin. Australian teams, however, do not usually lose a Twenty20 when they need 66 from 51 with eight wickets in hand. Having done that, they then don't end up losing a close game where they have had a go at the opposition with typical pre-match banter. That too in a world tournament.

Against both Pakistan and West Indies, Australia were arguably in winning positions, more so against the former. When it came to the decisive stages of both matches, however, their personnel let them down. Against Pakistan, it was the batsmen who choked, collapsing from a strong position. Against West Indies, it was the bowlers who lost their lines and lengths under pressure from Darren Sammy and Dwayne Bravo. With 42 needed off the final three overs, and 31 off the last two, there would have had to be equal, if not more, pressure on the batting side specially in a must-win situation for both teams. The way Mitchell Starc crumbled in the penultimate over certainly did not exert any pressure on the West Indies pair.

George Bailey, however, did not think their bowling tonight was the major cause for pushing Australia to the brink of an exit from the tournament. The Australia captain said that the side had not cut it in all three disciplines.

"Your mind tends to track back to the most recent thing, the bowling. But once again I don't think we batted particularly well," Bailey said. "All of the top six probably played pretty ordinary shots or shots at inappropriate times, so I think [the fact] that we scraped to 178 was pleasing given that we didn't bat particularly well.

"And again we probably let ourselves down in the field with some chances and that comes back to bite harder in T20 than in any other format; the repercussions are so immediate. I am sure there are things we would like to do differently in bowling and the guys would like to have their overs again and do something different. But you cannot lay the blame just on the bowlers. All three disciplines were not up to the standards that we set."

Bailey did not think there were any issues with the balance of the team combination, and said it wasn't that Australia had suffered heavy defeats.

"We have lost two games, but it's not like we have been knocked over for 120 in each game," he said. "We haven't batted very well, and we have scored a 180 and whatever we scored the other night. It's not a glaring weakness. It's the same with bowling and I'd say the same about our fielding. We have just lost two close games in a tournament where you cannot afford to do that."

You can say that as much as it was about Australia succumbing at the climax, it was also about Pakistan and West Indies doing the exact opposite. They thrived at the death and outplayed Australia. That is what is glaring about these two losses. Australia knew they could not afford to go down, they had their chances, but they failed to take them. The West Indies loss will hurt them more, for what James Faulkner said before the game, and for how West Indies responded to it - by winning a sharp contest and with their in-your-face celebrations targeted at the Australians.

"Talk is cheap," Sammy said. "Cricket is a game of action, you can talk all you want, but it is the action that matters. West Indies acted today."

The Australians talk a lot, of course, but it is only rarely that they fail to walk it. Bailey and his men will be smarting, but unfortunately for them, their chances of hitting back in this tournament are all but over.

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USACA chief Darren Beazley resigns

USA Cricket Association chief executive Darren Beazley has resigned after just 14 months in the role. USACA announced in a press release on Tuesday that Beazley was stepping down in order to return to his native Australia where he will take up a position as the chief executive of Swimming Western Australia.

Beazley's initial contract was for three years, but his tenure was six months shorter than his predecessor Don Lockerbie, who lasted 20 months before being fired in November 2010 for reasons USACA has never stated.

"I wish all involved with US cricket the very best for the future and look forward to watching the progress of the sport in the coming years at all levels," Beazley said.

Sources have indicated that the lack of support from the USACA board of directors to implement sweeping governance changes to USACA's administrative structure played a role in his seeking to leave USACA and return to Australia. Beazley went on a nationwide tour in October 2013 along with ICC global development manager Tim Anderson to campaign for support to back recommendations from an independent governance review by TSE Consulting.

Key recommendations from the review were to reduce the size of the current USACA board, cut their power in half and give that 50% to independent directors. There were also recommendations for establishing term limits for board members, redefine membership categories and introduce athlete representation on the board.

However, a decision was taken at USACA's AGM in November to postpone any move to implement the changes. Instead, a governance implementation committee was announced with any changes being delayed until at least the summer of 2014.

Beazley's resignation also comes in the wake of damning financial data made public last month that USACA was more than $3 million in debt at the end of the 2012 tax year. The returns showed a 47% decline in membership revenue from 2011 as member leagues revolted after the controversial 2012 USACA elections in which 32 out of 47 member leagues were disenfranchised.

USACA is also under increasing pressure from the American Cricket Federationn (ACF), which was formed in the wake of the 2012 election. Many member leagues have defected for the ACF including the largest league in America, New York's Commonwealth Cricket League.

Beazley had strong ties with Anderson and ICC top brass in Dubai but his departure may be the last straw for USACA in a series of administrative missteps. USA now faces the very real threat of a third administrative suspension by the ICC in the last decade.

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England discover map through uncharted waters

Having tossed away opportunities in the field with reckless abandon and slumping into negative territory at the start of their chase, England found the courage to make amends

Crowe: Hales innings best of the tournament

It wasn't quite the shot heard around the world but Alex Hales' bludgeoned six high over midwicket to seal victory for England against Sri Lanka should reverberate round the World T20. How a team that had seemed stricken by bad form and low confidence at the halfway point managed to perform such a volte face, pulling off their highest run chase with six wickets and four balls in hand, is a question only the T20 gods can answer.

Just when it appeared England had lost their way irretrievably after stumbling in circles for months, they discovered a map to guide them safely, resplendently through unchartered waters. T20 is about the outsized, the extraordinary, the odds-defying and the synapse-shredding. Hales provided plenty of that in his soaring crescendo of an innings but, like his partner Eoin Morgan during a record third-wicket stand, the calmness inside was just as important.

Sri Lanka had accepted England's generous largesse and gambolled their way to another new high score on the ground. England had dropped four simple chances in the field and missed a run-out too. Shoulders had slumped, eyes appeared hollow. Few had high expectations of the team's World T20 chances but this had the look of a tired farce. Indignation at an early decision not to award a catch that looked to have been clearly taken was gradually eroded by dismay at each successive, basic error.

What to do? Perhaps, during the ten minutes the teams were off the pitch at the interval, Ashley Giles and Stuart Broad merely passed around a photocopy of the serenity prayer:

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference."

Michael Lumb's supreme effort to remove Mahela Jayawardene first ball had gone unrewarded. England's poor catching had gifted an advantage graciously received by a formidable opponent. So inauspicious was the start of their reply that they effectively moved into negative territory after the first over, a double-wicket maiden. None of these things could be changed but Hales and Morgan showed the courage required to make amends.

The required rate rose above 12 an over even before the halfway stage. In the tenth, Morgan hit the first six of the innings. The crowd's response to a steady, if initially unthreatening, flow of boundaries was a mixture of curiosity and wonder; as the tempo increased and outrageous possibility coalesced around the two batsmen in the middle, the cheering became more fevered. By the end, as Hales finished off Sri Lanka with a barrage of sixes, the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury was rapturously receiving the 2014 tournament's first centurion.

Hales, who had previously been dismissed on 99 and 94 in T20 internationals, punched the air and removed his helmet upon reaching three figures, the first England player to do so. He finished the job in the next over, raising his hands aloft as the ball sailed towards the stands again. He may never crack first-class cricket but he is first-class at T20.

Victory not only changed the complexion of the group and revived England's chances of reaching the semi-finals but it allowed them to make some significant gains after the slow regression of recent times. At the last World T20, Sri Lanka ended their participation at the Super 8 stage, with Lasith Malinga filleting them for a five-wicket haul. On this occasion, he was blunted and Ravi Bopara, who had talked of his plans to deflect Malinga's yorker, demonstrated the extent of England's learning by twice doing just that to pick up consecutive fours at the start of the 18th over.

Morgan played his first significant knock in more than a year, passing fifty for the first time since England's failed World T20 defence in Sri Lanka two years ago. These two teams have met at each of the last two tournaments and the winner has gone on to the final. England will exceed expectations if they make the knockouts but, having beaten the No. 1-ranked side, may now feel that circumstances favour them for a Dhaka rally.

For almost the entirety of Sri Lanka's innings, it seemed as if England's malaise would continue. They have talked stoically about pulling through but looked most likely to be rolling out of Chittagong on a gurney after a wretched performance in the field. "Whatever it is, it's not catching," as Richie Benaud used to say. England feel like they have been trying to catch a break for weeks but they did not show any proficiency at the skill during Sri Lanka's innings, tossing away opportunities with reckless abandon.

Ironically, the most difficult take of the night was the spark for what followed, as England disintegrated in the wake of Jayawardene's non-dismissal quicker than you could said "foreshortening". There was irony, too, in Jayawardene's drop of Hales. Jayawardene was the chief beneficiary of England's litany of mistakes but by the end his isolated gaffe had proved to be more costly. Wisdom in T20 can be as simple as knowing what you can and can't affect. Taking catches is a good place to start.

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