MURALI SLAMS SL BOARD over its decision to recall players from the IPL

Sri Lanka great Muttiah Muralitharan has slammed the country's cricket board over its decision to recall players from the IPL to prepare for the tour to England.

Muralitharan, who retired from international cricket after the World Cup, said the player's had been given a No Objection Certificate to play in the IPL till May 20. Sri Lanka cricket has asked the players to return on May 5.

"I think the board has given them permission till May 20. I don't know what happened suddenly. The players were told to come on May 5. It is the fault of SLC because they signed the NOC till May 20 so if they change it to May 5 something must be wrong," Muralitharan, who quit international cricket after the World Cup final early this month, said.

"Players will get demoralised because if they go back on May 5 they play half of the IPL and they are going to miss a lot. SLC should have informed the players earlier, then the IPL franchises would understand and everyone would understand," he said.

Murali also said the friction that could arise from SLC's stance could have serious financial repercussions in the future.

"There'll be a little bit of friction between the board, the players and even the Indian Cricket Board. If the SLC is not going to support them, they are going to miss a lot from India, because when India tours Sri Lanka it is very important and if we are not playing in the Champions League Twenty20 we are going to lose some money. Friendship between India and Sri Lanka will be negative," he said.

"We have 25 million dollars of debt after the World Cup. You don't have to antagonise India because when India comes we make money and survive, so I don't know what's going to happen.

"It might get sorted. These things happen between countries but in the end financially we depend on India, whatever said and done. SLC will have to be careful," he told a television channel.

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The PCB has been in contact with the Indian board over restarting bilateral contests

The Pakistan board has said they have initiated talks with the BCCI over resuming cricketing relations between India and Pakistan, though no decision has yet been taken on when and where to play or the number of matches. "There has been contact with the BCCI with regards to restarting bilateral contests," Subhan Ahmed, chief operating officer of the PCB, told ESPNcricinfo. "We sent them an email and they replied but as they are busy with the IPL currently, talks will begin after the IPL is over." There are no details yet of when and what form the contests will take but they are likely to be a short, bilateral ODI series. "There will be three stages to these talks," Subhan said. "Firstly, the boards will decide when we can actually play. Both sides are very busy with FTP requirements in the near future so finding a window will be the first thing. Then we'll talk about the matches themselves and what kind they will be, a three match ODI series or whatever. Finally we will discuss the venue for the series." The IPL runs till the end of May and India have three overseas tours in the eight months that follow, including high-profile series in England and Australia. India also have a full series home-and-away against West Indies, the Champions League Twenty20 and a home one-day series against England. India has suspended sporting ties with Pakistan since the 2008 Mumbai terror attack. Since then, India and Pakistan have faced each other only three times, in ODIs at multi-lateral tournaments. The last of those meetings was the World Cup semi-final last month in Mohali, which was attended by the prime ministers of both countries. After the Mohali match, and the resumption of talks between India and Pakistan's politicians, India's foreign secretary Nirupama Rao said the government welcomed more sporting contact between the two countries. The BCCI has maintained that it has not received any communication from the government over resuming cricketing ties with Pakistan. While the PCB would like to hold the bilateral cricket series at home, security concerns are likely to rule that out, with the matches likely to be held in India or a neutral country.

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Delhi face buoyant Rajasthan

Can Johan Botha continue to perform at No. 3 for Rajasthan? � Associated Press.

Big picture

Delhi Daredevils were among the pre-tournament favourites in each of the first three seasons of the IPL. They also began each of the first three seasons with victories. This time, though, they have been questions over the strength of their squad, and they started with a big defeat to Mumbai Indians. The only plus from their opening game was the middle-order batting of Venugopal Rao and Naman Ojha; the pair put up some resistance after the crowd-pullers at the top had flopped.

On Tuesday, Delhi come up against an opponent who seemed to have the weakest team on paper, especially in the absence of Shane Watson, who is away in Bangladesh where he broke the record for hitting the most sixes in a one-day innings.

As usual, in their opening game against Deccan Chargers, Rajasthan relied on their low-profile Indian players to provide solid performances. Amit Singh and Siddharth Trivedi delivered, taking three wickets apiece, while Shane Warne showed little sign of being away from cricket for a year with an accurate spell of legspin bowling, which fetched him two wickets.

Team talk

Rajasthan have one injury worry ahead of the game: Jacob Oram has picked up a groin injury, and a decision on including him will be taken only on Tuesday morning. Their opener Amit Paunikar had a difficult time against the Deccan Chargers quick bowlers, and Rajasthan may be tempted to pick Swapnil Asnodkar in his place.

Lasith Malinga's electric display put Delhi out of the game so early that little can be gauged about their players from the performance on Sunday. They may be tempted to retain the same XI for Tuesday's match.

In the spotlight

Irfan Pathan played his first match in a year on Sunday, and showed signs of getting the ball to move back into the right-hand batsmen. It's a skill which he will need to show on a consistent basis if he is to entertain thoughts of making a national comeback.

Till the arrival of Shane Watson, the man Rajasthan will look to for the big hits will be Ross Taylor. He has shown how destructive he can be recently, during his demolition of Pakistan's bowling in the World Cup, but has proved to be extremely inconsistent.

Prime numbers

James Hopes, who is one of Delhi's overseas players, has the sixth highest strike-rate in IPLs: 149.32

Virender Sehwag is only 21 short of reaching 1000 IPL runs. Rahul Dravid doesn't get much credit for his Twenty20 batting, but he too is closing in on the 1000-run mark, just 53 behind Sehwag.

The chatter

"They have some very good batsmen in Virender Sehwag, David Warner and Aaron Finch who are capable of wresting the match away from us. But we want to concentrate on our strengths rather than worrying about the things which we can't control."

Johan Botha knows who Delhi's key players are 

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