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Three former Pakistan captains – Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf and Shoaib Malik – along with fast bowlers Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Shoaib Akhtar have been excluded from the list of those handed central contracts by the Pakistan Cricket Board.

Younis, Yousuf, Malik and Rana were not considered after the PCB banned them – two indefinitely and two for a year – last week in the aftermath of the Australia tour. Shoaib has not played for Pakistan in any format since May last year.

Michael Clarke has had to display a lot of patience over the past fortnight and he applied an unflappable, measured approach as his century steered Australia into a strong position. Clarke showed no lasting effects from the break-up of his engagement, which forced him home to Sydney last week, as he paced his innings perfectly.

His timing was so good he brought up his hundred in the last over of the day as he swung his side to 316 for 4. Clarke entered with Australia at a sticky 115 for 3 and locked down with Simon Katich, whose responsible 79 was also crucial against a disciplined local attack.

India, say hello to the Mongoose, the shorter, thicker bat with the longer handle. You already knew Matthew Hayden, but might have forgotten him momentarily after his ordinary start this year. On Friday, the two combined in a deadly manner. Hayden smacked 93 off 43 balls to almost singlehandedly chase down Delhi Daredevils’ imposing target. Delhi’s innings featured a similarly dominant effort. If Hayden scored 93 of the 142 while at crease, Virender Sehwag pummelled 74 out of 103.

Kevin Pietersen believes he is back to his best form after battling to overcome his technical deficiencies against left-arm spin, but he has nevertheless voiced his criticism of the Chittagong wicket that aided his recovery in the first Test against Bangladesh. Pietersen made 99 in England’s first innings of the series and followed that up with a hard-hitting 32 from 24 balls, but feels that the surface on which the match was played was bad for spectators, and by extension, the five-day game as a whole.

X-rays have confirmed that Graeme Smith does not need surgery for his fractured finger, and the South Africa captain is confident of recovering in time for the World Twenty20 starting at the end of next month.

Smith has had plenty of finger injuries over the past few years, and the latest one has ruled him out of the remainder of the IPL. He broke the middle finger of his right hand while taking a catch in Rajasthan Royals’ match against Delhi Daredevils earlier this week. “Just left the doc, good news don’t need surgery, 4 weeks in a splint,” he said on his Twitter page on Thursday.

Alastair Cook is preparing to stick with the same balance of seven batsmen and four bowlers that carried his side to a comfortable, if somewhat laboured, 181-run victory in the first Test at Chittagong, as he aims to hand the England captaincy back to Andrew Strauss with a 100% record from his first tour in charge.

With two days to go until the second Test at Dhaka, England are still weighing up their options and have not ruled out the introduction of a second spinner in James Tredwell to partner their ten-wicket Man of the Match from Chittagong, Graeme Swann. But in the absence of a genuine allrounder, the likelihood of calling upon a five-man attack seems slim, especially now that England have a 1-0 lead in the series, and therefore no need to gamble with their selection.

Yawar Saeed will continue as manager of the Pakistan side during their defence of the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean from April-May, despite wanting to step down from the post last year after the Champions Trophy. Saeed will be reunited with Shafqat Rana, who has been named associate manager as part of a large, eight-man support structure to Pakistan’s 15-man squad.

New Zealand batsman Brendon McCullum is keen to put the lessons learned from a difficult 2009 IPL into practice during this year’s tournament.

McCullum is in the middle of a home series against Australia. New Zealand lost the Chapell-Hadlee series 3-2 and the teams will meet in Wellington on Friday for the first of two Test matches. With the 2010 IPL successfully underway amongst security fears, McCullum is still waiting on clearance before confirming his involvement but was eager to participate in the competition because of its massive impact on the cricketing world.

Gautam Gambhir will not play in Friday’s match against Chennai Super Kings at the Feroz Shah Kotla, Eric Simons, the assistant coach of Delhi Daredevils, has said. Gambhir pulled a hamstring during Wednesday’s defeat to Mumbai Indians and was forced off the field within the first 10 minutes of the match. In his place the vice-captain Dinesh Karthik has been elevated to the lead the side.

“He [Gambhir] is going for a scan to see how bad it is. Once we assess him, only then we will know how long he will be out for. It’s reasonably serious and he won’t play on Friday,” Simons said.

A superlative bowling performance by Royal Challengers Bangalore, including a hat-trick by Praveen Kumar, decimated Rajasthan Royals to a paltry 92 and set up a huge win. The match lasted just 30.3 overs as Bangalore strolled home by 10 wickets to call it an early night, and also seal the second-most comprehensive victory in terms of ball to spare.

The bowlers stuck to a plan of bowling quick, short deliveries, which contributed to an abject batting performance by a weakened Rajasthan. The batsmen struggled to find a weak link to exploit. Although Praveen hogged the limelight with the first hat-trick of IPL 2010, it was the combined bowling performance that set the platform for back-to-back wins at home.