Jayasuriya ready for final hurrah

While Cook has captained England before,this will be the first time he captains at home. He took the job briefly on the Bangladesh tour in 2010-11,making the best possible start by winning all three ODIs and both Tests. However Cook has not played an ODI since taking on Bangladesh in Chittagong on March 5. Following Andrew Strauss’s retirement from ODI internationals after England’s disastrous World Cup campaign,Cook will have time to make the team his own ahead of the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand if he can adapt his test-style batting to suit the shorter format.

Tillekeratne Dilshan is set to return for Sri Lanka after missing the third Test at the Rose Bowl because of a fractured thumb after being hit by Chris Tremlett in the Lord’s test. Sri Lanka has also changed its side because Muttiah Muralitharan has retired and Upul Tharanga is banned for failing a drug test. Allrounder Angelo Mathews returns after a thigh injury.

Law new Bangladesh coach
Dhaka: Former Australian all-rounder Stuart Law will succeed compatriot Jamie Siddons as the new coach of Bangladesh cricket team,the cricket Board (BCB) said on Monday.

Law,who is currently serving as interim coach of Sri Lanka after Trevor Bayliss resigned following World Cup,will join Bangladesh next month when the Tigers tour Zimbabwe via South Africa to play a Test and one-day series in August. “Stuart Law was far ahead on our shortlist for a new coach. He has been appointed the head coach of the Bangladesh national cricket team for two years starting from July 1,” Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) spokesman Jalal Yunus was quoted as saying in the media.

The 42-year-old Law has featured in one Test and 54 ODIs for Australia and served as an assistant coach for Sri Lanka under Bayliss. “I only need to put pen to paper. I have finalised it so the BCB (Bangladesh Cricket Board) can tell you,” Law told a Dhaka newspaper. “I asked the SLC if they would want me to continue after November but they couldn’t confirm anything,so I told them that I won’t continue after the UK tour. The most important thing for me is job security.

“I just have to go back to Sri Lanka to sort out a few things and after I spend some time with my family,I will join the Bangladesh team. I am not sure if it will be two weeks or ten days before the tour to Zimbabwe,” he added.

Law,who captained Queensland for a decade and also led Lancashire for seven to eight years,will replace Siddons,who had taken charge of Bangladesh in November 2007 but following the team’s debacle in World Cup his contract was not renewed.