Relegated Yorkshire to part with coach Clark

Yorkshire expect to confirm the departure of their coach Wayne Clark later this week. He will go by mutual consent, having failed to agree to a change of role, with Yorkshire wanting him to become their bowling coach. He is leaving with a year of his three-year deal to run and the club say they will not breach their contract with the Australian, which means they must pay him up.

The president Robin Smith said: "I've been in touch with Wayne's solicitors, who are based in Yorkshire, today and I'm expecting a letter back from them which I should see tomorrow." That is likely to finalise the terms under which Clark is going, and the termination of his contract will be confirmed at Yorkshire's board meeting on Thursday.

Clark took over from Martyn Moxon after the latter's departure to Durham in January 2001 and the side won the County Championship in his first season in charge. However, things turned sour for the Australian last season when the club finished bottom of the First Division and were relegated.

Clark arrived in Leeds with a good record as coach of Western Australia and his single-minded approach reaped dividends in his first year. Kevin Sharp is expected to be appointed full-time batting coach on 1 February and another former Yorkshire player, Arnie Sidebottom, is likely to become bowling coach.

Australia's cricketers have been warned about improving their behaviour, following Darren Lehmann's five-match ban for racist abuse and several other incidents involving his team-mates.

Australia's one-day captain, Ricky Ponting, said the players were told to start behaving better after a meeting with the Australian Cricket Board chairman, James Sutherland, yesterday. Ponting said. "I suppose with Darren it was just a bit of a wake-up for all of us. You are in the public eye and you've got to be very careful what you say."

The former coach Gordon Greenidge has joined the Bangladesh team's tour of Namibia ahead of the World Cup. The former West Indies opening batsman will work with the team during five one-day warm-up matches but will not travel with them to South Africa.

England's women lost the opening match of their tour of New Zealand yesterday after four of their players lined up against them. The tourists went down by eight wickets in a practice game against the state side, Otago, but Clare Taylor, Claire Taylor, Arran Thompson and Lucy Pearson at least finished on the winning side. The quartet played for Otago after the hosts agreed to allow them match practice.