Ravaged:

With the first Test Match interestingly poised after two days, the elements ravaged the third day’s play. Just 28.5 overs were possible, but they may have decided the outcome of only the second Test match between England and the newest Test nation Bangladesh at cricket’s headquarters.

Bangladesh began today’s play on 172 for 2 with high hopes after batting their way back into contention yesterday. They made just 65 runs at the cost of five wickets as rain and bad light took their toll. So was Bangladesh’s batting worse. Not according to James Anderson. “We didn’t give them the opportunities today,” he said. “We didn’t bowl well yesterday.” He looked forward to bowling with Steven Finn, who ought to enter Lord’s Honours Board tomorrow in his first Test here.

Poised:

England had dominated the first day on route to 505 all out led by Jonathan Trott’s 226 – the fifth highest individual score at Lord’s. England captain Andrew Strauss returned to form on his home ground with 83 as England looked to take the match out of Bangladesh’s reach.

But Trott was not the only player destined for an appearance on the Honours Board. The first time that Shahadat Hossain played at Lord’s in a Test Match it was his début five years ago and the then 19-year-old had a match to forget, taking 0 for 101 from twelve overs. He thought he would never play for his country again. His two performances at headquarters sum up his Test career, but despite inconsistency, he is their strike bowler.

Social Responsibilities (Part Two) 

Passion:

Chelsea’s Head of Corporate and Social Responsibility, Simon Taylor is passionate about football, but even more so about making a difference. Chelsea gave him that opportunity last year with their Search for An Asian Soccer Star initiative. The support continued as the club provide another opportunity for boys with origins from the Indian sub-continent. Taylor is concerned about dealing with the issue of under-representation of Asians in football. He doesn’t care who they play for – he just wants them to realise the opportunity is there and for football to give them a chance, but why now?

“That’s an interesting question,” said Taylor. “I think originally for me, I’ve read too many reports; heard too many people complaining about the lack of opportunity for Asian footballers. It’s a very personal issue for me – I’ve only been doing the job two years – and it’s the second year that we’ve done this, so why now? It’s because we can, because we feel it creates a massive opportunity to get young kids from the Asian community playing football – not just playing football, but playing a good level of football.”

The scheme has already expanded from the first Search for An Asian Soccer Star to include younger boys, so will it change again next year? “We’d look at it,” says Taylor. “What I’d like to do is use what what Chelsea are doing for other clubs. I think it’s important that other clubs recognise the talent that may lie on their own doorstep, so what we want to do is use this as a blueprint for successful implementation of similar projects for other football clubs and if any other football clubs want to speak to Chelsea about it, how we do it, we're more than happy to do that.”

So have any other clubs done so yet? Not yet, but Taylor is far from discouraged. “Let’s face it,”he says. “This is only the second year that we’ve done it. It’s only ever happened once before, so what we hope to show in the second year is repeating the success of the first year and then hopefully other clubs will follow suit.”