All posts by n8rngtd.top

Ntini, Kirsten, Klusener among nine former players who will be ambassadors of the project

Firdose Moonda28-Aug-2020Cricket South Africa will embark on a process of reparations for anyone involved in the game who has been discriminated against in the past as part of their Social Justice and Nation Building (SJN) project. Compensation amounts will be determined after complaints have been heard and mediated by the newly appointed transformation ombudsman Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza, who will also be responsible for setting up the Restoration Fund.”My expectation is that based on the complaints, the ombudsman will be able to categorise them, and based on that, he will be able to determine what percentage goes to which player,” Dr Eugenia Kula-Ameyaw, a CSA Independent Board Director and their transformation chair, said. “If you work in an asbestos factory and they are affected by TB, you get compensated. There’s nothing wrong with compensation when people have lost income.”That means that anyone who believes they were denied opportunities on racial grounds could approach the ombudsman, who will then have to determine the severity of their case and the amount of compensation .The money for the fund has yet to be secured but CSA are hopeful of raising it through corporate involvement and even the South African government. “We’ve got to still raise the funds to see how we are going to restore. There are a lot of companies, even government, that is ready to restore people,” Kula-Ameyaw said. “The money will change hand at some point but the modalities and the formula must be worked out. It could even be after a year because the ombudsman will take a few months to set up and deal with complaints.”While the finer details, including a timeline, have not yet been finalised, Kula-Ameyaw called the launch of the SJN “one brick in this nation-building house,” which seeks to ensure that “everyone will be treated fairly in the game of cricket”. It also comes after several stories of exclusion were revealed in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. Former players and coaches have spoken out in the media and while none have actively asked for compensation (Thami Tsolekile demanded an apology), CSA are seeking to make financial contributions to those who were not able to earn money from the game because of discrimination.As an example, this might mean a player like Aaron Phangiso, who went to the 2015 World Cup and was the only member of the squad who did not play a game even after South Africa qualified for the quarter-finals with a game to spare, may be compensated in match fees or that Geoffrey Toyana, who missed out on the national coaching job in 2017 (which former CSA president Chris Nenzani has now called a “missed opportunity,”) may have a case for reparations.The ombudsman’s functions are not limited to people of colour only and Kula-Ameyaw indicated that anyone who has been involved in the game, at any level, can approach the ombudsman. “If something is fair, it will be fair to everybody,” she said.Potentially, that opens the door for players who see themselves as victims of the current target system, which requires franchise teams to field a minimum of six players of colour of which three must be black African. An example of such is Leus du Plooy, who told the Afrikaans-language publication in February that the reason he signed a Kolpak deal with Derbybshire was because, “the system we have disadvantages young, white players in particular.”Although the SJN will be open to hearing, and addressing, all stories of exclusion, Kula-Ameyaw stressed that CSA still need to accelerate the pace of change and ensure more representation for people of colour. While the work of the ombudsman will deal with historical complaints, CSA will continue its own transformation work, with an emphasis on on-field demographics. “Where we will focus the most, is the actual game. The plans will include building talent aggressively,” Kula-Ameyaw said. “The long-term plan is to make sure there is no racism in sport; no discrimination.”The SJN will be supported by nine former players, who have been named as the project’s ambassadors, and will assist with raising public awareness of the campaign. Some of the ambassadors, such as Makhaya Ntini, Monde Zondeki and Toyana, have already gone public with their experiences of discrimination. The list of ambassadors is: Zondeki, Gary Kirsten, Lance Klusener, Toyana, Ntini, Marcia Letsoalo, Shandre Fritz, Nolubabalo Ndzundzu and Dinesha Devnarain.

Locked I, J and K stands will also be thrown open to the public

Varun Shetty02-Feb-2021It’s official now. Crowds up to 50% capacity of the MA Chidambaram Stadium will be allowed for the second India-England Test in Chennai, as reported by ESPNcricnfo on Monday.The BCCI had informally given a nod to TNCA on Monday, and the clearance was then subject to the approval of the Tamil Nadu government, which has been received. The first Test will be played behind closed doors, as originally planned. This was confirmed via a press note from RS Ramaswamy, the TNCA secretary.The move to allow crowds signals a change in course from the BCCI and the TNCA, who had recently informed its members that the MA Chidambaram Stadium would not allow crowds for the two Tests. But the decision comes in the wake of the Indian government revising its guidelines pertaining to spectators at outdoor sports in the country last weekend.”For outdoor sports events spectators will be allowed to full seating capacity,” the Indian ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports said in a circular updated on January 29. The circular, titled ‘Standard Operating Procedures for opening up of Stadia for sports events’, revised the ministry’s previous guidelines issued on December 26 which had stated spectators can be allowed at 50% capacity for outdoor sports.In another development, the I, J and K stands, which have been locked to spectators for over nine years due to issues between TNCA and the local municipality, will also be thrown open to the public, with necessary clearances obtained by the TNCA.It is understood that media personnel will be allowed at the stadium starting from the first Test, which is another change in flavour for Indian cricket, whose seven venues in the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy had neither spectators, nor media personnel.Tamil Nadu is currently seeing a decline in active Covid-19 cases, and life in Chennai has slowly crawled back towards normalcy in recent months, with movie theatres allowing up to a 50% capacity indoors.

Brendon McCullum described New Zealand’s victory in the first Test in Dunedin as “bloody hard work”, on a surface that flattened out after the second day

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Dunedin14-Dec-20151:09

‘Stepped it up another notch’ – McCullum

Brendon McCullum described New Zealand’s victory in the first Test in Dunedin as “bloody hard work”, on a surface that flattened out after the second day. The hosts were kept in the field for more than 212 overs, before they completed the 122-run victory mid-way through the fifth day.All four New Zealand seamers had heavy workloads in this Test, as the team opted to rely on the left-arm spin of allrounder Mitchell Santner over offspinner Mark Craig. Tim Southee delivered 48 overs across the five days, while Neil Wagner and Doug Bracewell bowled 42 and 40.5 overs respectively.McCullum said New Zealand’s quick scoring rate in their own innings, and a declaration early on day four had both helped give the hosts time to achieve victory. New Zealand scored at more than four runs an over in each of their innings, and had declared at 404 runs ahead with little over five sessions of the match remaining.”We knew 20 wickets was going to be tough especially when we didn’t have the best of the bowling conditions,” he said. “I think day one was the best of the conditions for the seam or swing bowlers – that was why we tried to maintain our scoring on rate on day, one because we knew we were going to have to buy some time later on.”Also the declaration looks a reasonably aggressive declaration, but for us it was really the only way we were going to allow ourselves enough time to not just win the game, but also relieve the pressure of having to win the game. I think sometimes if you don’t leave yourself enough time, then you start chasing wickets and that can lead to not getting wickets that you should.”If Sri Lanka were good enough to chase 400 and run us down in the time that they had then, fair play to them then. We can handle losing if someone else is able to go out and play as well as what they would have had to. But in the end I was pretty comfortable.”Heading into the final day, Sri Lanka had Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal – their two most experienced batsmen – at the crease. They put on 56 together in the morning session, but were dismissed within three overs of each other.”The Sri Lankans are a bloody tough opposition to get results against,” McCullum said. “Angelo and Chandimal are two world-class batters, and we knew that they were going to be key today. We knew we had to spend some resource to keep them out. There were concerns because the wicket was so flat today. They’re going to pose another tough challenge for us in Hamilton.”Sri Lanka have got some excellent young bowlers who I think asked some questions on day one, as well. We’re just thankful that we were good enough at the top of the order to withstand those pressures, and apply some pressure back on them.”McCullum also equalled Adam Gilchrist’s world record for most Test sixes, when he launched Rangana Herath over cow corner in his second innings 17 not out. McCullum said that while it would have been nice to hit one more six in the innings to take the record all for himself, the team had decided they would declare when the lead passed 400. That shot had taken it to 404.”I was hoping someone would ask me about the 100 sixes,” he said. “It’s the only record I actually care about. It’s the only record that Kane Williamson or Ross Taylor aren’t going to break as well, so I should be able to hold on to that one. I’ve been aware of it for a while, as you can probably tell by the way I bat all through my career.”

England bowler targets comeback for Sri Lanka tour after muscular injury is ruled out

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Jan-2020James Anderson says that the injury that forced his withdrawal from England’s tour of South Africa was the “most pain I’ve ever been in on a cricket field”, but insists he may yet be fit to take part in the tour of Sri Lanka in March, after being diagnosed with a broken rib.Anderson, who claimed 5 for 40 in the first innings of last week’s second Test in Cape Town, was restricted to eight overs on the final day of England’s victory push, and just two in the final session, after confiding to his team-mate Stuart Broad that he feared he had “ripped a muscle off the rib”.Speaking on his BBC “Tailenders” podcast, Anderson described how he first suspected he had a problem during an exploratory over with the new ball before lunch, but that it was his two-over burst immediately after tea, with England still needing five wickets to force victory, that confirmed his participation in the tour was about to end.”I felt a bit of side soreness from the first Test,” Anderson said. “I felt fine throughout that second Test, bowled six overs on the final morning and felt pretty good. We took the new ball just before lunch and it didn’t feel right.”I didn’t bowl again until after tea. We needed some wickets and Joe [Root] asked if I was able to have a go.”I was in the most pain I’ve ever been in on a cricket field. I couldn’t pull through properly. It was hurting every time I bowled, so I knew there was something not right.”Anderson’s initial fear was that the injury was a torn muscle, which would have entailed a lay-off of up to four months – and given that he was restricted to just four overs during last summer’s Ashes after aggravating a calf injury, that sort of prognosis could well have jeopardised his preparations for this summer’s home Tests against West Indies and Pakistan.”I was saying to Stuart Broad ‘I think there’s something really wrong here’,” Anderson said. “I thought I’d ripped a muscle off the rib, so a broken rib isn’t the worst outcome. A torn muscle would be anywhere from two, three or four months. A broken rib will hopefully be healed in three or four weeks.”The circumstances of the injury were something of a mystery to England’s medical team, who initially assumed he must have been struck in the ribs while batting.”I’d have remembered if I’d been hit,” said Anderson. “They think it is through the constant force of me bowling. The muscles were strong enough, but the bone wasn’t.”They said it doesn’t look like a stress fracture, it’s actually cracked. They said they’d not seen one like this in a bowler before.”It’s just a case of waiting for the bone to heal. I can do anything that doesn’t hurt, so hopefully my fitness won’t drop off too much. I can still do stuff in the gym.”Once the bone has healed, I can get straight back into it. It might be three weeks before the bone has healed properly, then I can get straight back into it.”Anderson’s optimism confirms his hunger to fight back from this latest set-back and extend his Test career – he is currently 16 wickets shy of becoming the first fast bowler in history to reach 600 Test wickets.ALSO READ: Ollie Pope leading the charge for England’s young gunsAnd despite intimating recently that he would be willing to skip the tour of Sri Lanka in March – where he played a bit-part role last year in England’s 3-0 series win – he is now hopeful of putting his name back in the frame, and dispelling any suggestion that, at the age of 37, his illustrious 17-year England career is about to come to an end.”I’m not ruling out being fit for the Sri Lanka trip,” he said. “Obviously I’m absolutely devastated not to be part of the last two Tests, especially having bowled really well in the second Test.”I know a lot does get talked about as you get older, but it’s more knowing within yourself. I thought I could still do it, but you don’t know unless you do it on the field.”That will help me through the next few weeks, knowing that I want to come back stronger and still play a part in this England side.”Anderson still managed to play an important role in England’s victory push, taking the catch at leg gully to dislodge the obdurate Rassie van der Dussen for 17. And he was able to take pride in the progress of a young team featuring four players under the age of 22.”I feel like we progressed as a team in that week and I’m sure they will continue to do in the next couple of games,” he said. “It was a bit subdued from my point of view, but one of the best wins I’ve been a part of.”Obviously it didn’t end well, but it made all the hard work worthwhile, proving to myself that I can still do it.

Having picked up their first ODI win over a Full Member nation, Scotland will now target a maiden ODI series win over a Full Member, while Zimbabwe fight to avoid a series sweep

The Preview by Peter Della Penna in Edinburgh16-Jun-2017

Match facts

June 17, 2017
Start time 10:45 local (09:45 GMT)Con de Lange and Malcolm Waller, who played huge roles for their respective teams in the first ODI, once again figure to be crucial to their teams’ success•Peter Della Penna

Big Picture

The far north of the UK is a place where chilly, damp weather is a common occurrence round the year. Regardless of what Zimbabwe may have read about Edinburgh beforehand, not much would have prepared them for the cold shower they experienced on Thursday in the form of a loss to Scotland in the maiden ODI between the two countries.Losing a pair of home series to Afghanistan is one thing, with the consensus being that Afghanistan’s on-field quality has outstripped their administrative status as an Associate – a view further cemented by Afghanistan drawing the ODI series on their first visit to the West Indies earlier this month. As much as Scotland have improved their on-field product in recent years under coach Grant Bradburn, the bare fact was that they’d never beaten a Full Member in 23 attempts prior to Thursday. But, by the end of the day, Zimbabwe found themselves on the wrong side of history.Less than two days after that wake-up call, Zimbabwe have a chance to save face and level the series. Scotland are currently third in the WCL Championship, three points behind Netherlands, and if Zimbabwe are swept 2-0 in Edinburgh, the prospect of three one-dayers next week in Amsterdam becomes even more daunting.Scotland, on the other hand, have a chance to create a double-dose of history. “Securing a maiden ODI win over a Full Member” has been checked off the to-do list. They have the pen in hand waiting to mark off the next item on their summer agenda: “securing a maiden ODI win over a Full Member.”

Form guide

Scotland: WLLWW (last five completed matches, most recent first)Zimbabwe: LLWWL

In the spotlight

South Africa-born Con de Lange first came to Scotland in 2003 as an overseas pro for Ferguslie CC in Paisley. After marrying a local girl and putting down roots in his adopted homeland, he made his Scotland debut in 2015 and has since become one of their most reliable talents. Named vice-captain in January, he turned in his maiden ODI five-for in the win on Thursday and will look to restrict Zimbabwe once again.Malcolm Waller’s last four scores, playing for Rhinos in Zimbabwe’s domestic competition Pro50 Championship, prior to the Scotland tour were 52, 49, 57 and 113. His 92 off 62 balls in the first ODI was his fifth ODI half-century, and he came within inches of making it a match-winning maiden ton before being snuffed out by a controversial catch. Scotland had few answers for containing him in the first match, and he may be a handful once again in the middle order.

Team news

Somerset’s Josh Davey has been released from the county for the second ODI, and he won’t be making the trip up north just to sit on the bench. Though Chris Sole is the youngest and least experienced of Scotland’s medium-pace unit, his opening five-over spell of 1 for 10 was exceptional. But Sole looked rattled by Waller, conceding 0 for 30 in three overs later in the innings. Safyaan Sharif was also expensive, finishing with 1 for 69, making them the most likely candidates to make way for Davey, with Alasdair Evans staying to take the new ball.Scotland (probable): 1 Kyle Coetzer (capt), 2 Matthew Cross (wk), 3 Calum MacLeod, 4 Richie Berrington, 5 Preston Mommsen, 6 Craig Wallace, 7 Michael Leask, 8 Josh Davey, 9 Con de Lange, 10 Chris Sole/Safyaan Sharif, 11 Alasdair EvansChris Mpofu, who was Zimbabwe’s leading wicket-taker in the five-match series against Afghanistan, was a surprising omission in the first ODI. Richard Ngarava struggled badly, both with the new ball and at the death, to finish with 1 for 96 – the joint second-worst figures for a Zimbabwe bowler in ODIs. A direct swap for the two is most likely on the bowling front, while Chamu Chibhabha might also get a look in after another ODI failure for Ryan Burl.Zimbabwe (probable): 1 Hamilton Masakadza, 2 Solomon Mire, 3 Chamu Chibhabha, 4 Craig Ervine, 5 Sean Williams, 6 Sikandar Raza, 7 Malcolm Waller, 8 PJ Moor (wk), 9 Graeme Cremer (capt), 10 Tendai Chatara, 11 Chris Mpofu

Pitch and conditions

Unlike the on-and-off rain on Thursday that resulted in Zimbabwe’s chase being reduced to 43 overs, Saturday is forecast to be one of the clearest and hottest days of the late spring and early summer in Edinburgh with a high of 24 degrees centigrade and no rain in the area. Expect another flat, bat-first pitch with a 300-plus target in mind.

Stats and trivia

• Con de Lange’s 5 for 60 was just the sixth five-wicket haul in Scotland’s ODI history and the first since Josh Davey’s 6 for 28 against Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi just before the 2015 World Cup.
• Scotland’s 317 for 6 in the first ODI was the fifth time they scored 300 or more in an ODI innings, and their second-highest total against a Full Member, one short of the 318 for 8 they made in a World Cup loss to Bangladesh.
• Zimbabwe’s overall record against Associates in ODIs is 49-20-1 after the loss to Scotland. But since that lone tie, against Ireland in the 2007 World Cup, it has been much less dominant at 25-17. That includes 11 losses to Afghanistan, three to Ireland and two to Kenya.

Quotes

“This is what we’ve been waiting to do for a little while. We’ve taken a little bit longer than other teams have, but we’ve now got a strong squad of players and we hope that we could still keep on challenging and maybe play some of the other Test-ranked teams.”
“They do play good shots and we knew we were going to be up against it, especially in their home conditions, our first game. But we’ve got to jump around. We’ve got to be ready for the next game and make sure that we finish on top.”

A round-up of the Ranji Trophy Group B matches on October 30, 2015

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Oct-2015
ScorecardFile photo – Jiwanjot Singh was the only batsman to pass 50 on either side•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Seventeen wickets fell on the opening day in Patiala even as Punjab secured the first-innings lead.Electing to bat, Andhra were shot out for 80 in 45 overs, with only opener DB Prasanth (33) passing 20. The visitors slumped to 22 for 3 and never recovered from the poor start, as Punjab’s spin trio of captain Gurkeerat Singh (11-5-14-4), legspinner Sarabjit Ladda, who took five wickets in the last game, and left-armer Rajwinder Singh picked up eight wickets between them. Seamer Siddarth Kaul claimed the other wickets to fall.Punjab started well in their reply with opener Jiwanjot Singh and Uday Kaul putting on 58 runs for the second wicket. But after Uday was trapped lbw by Prasanth, who took three wickets with his leg breaks, Punjab slid from 73 for 1 to 119 for 7. Jiwanjot resisted for more than two and a half hours before being bowled by Prasanth with less than four overs to go for stumps.Andhra vice-captain Prasanth said the surface was “underprepared”, but wasn’t particularly difficult to bat on. “It’s rank turner obviously, but if you have confidence on your defence you can easily negotiate,” Prasanth told ESPNcricinfo. What the pitch did today it will do the same thing tomorrow. There is not much cracks… it is not opening at all. We will fight hard tomorrow to get into the game.”
ScorecardB Indrajith’s second first-class hundred held Tamil Nadu’s innings together after they were inserted in Delhi.Tamil Nadu didn’t have the best of starts, as opener B Aparajith was bowled by seamer Anureet Singh in the seventh over with the team’s score on 6. But, captain Abhinav Mukund and Dinesh Karthik put on 61 runs before seamer Ranjit Mali dismised him
Abhinav fell one short of his 50 and then Vijay Shankar was dismissed by Anureet to reduce the visitors to 101 for 4.Indrajith, coming in at No.5, first put on 79 runs for the fifth wicket with R Prasanna before raising 78 runs in the company of J Kousik. Indrajith remained unbeaten at stumps while Anureet picked up three wickets.Tamil Nadu vice-captain Indrajith said the pitch was even-paced and good to bat on despite some movement off the surface throughout the day. “It tends to ease out once you settle down and is good for the batsmen. [A total of] 350 is ideal, but we would like to get more than 400,” he said. “Whenever they bowled short, the run-scoring opportunities opened up and it made things easy for me.”Indrajith said there were a couple of “soft dismissals”, but credited Anureet with bowling consistently well through the day.
ScorecardUttar Pradesh recovered from a wobbly beginning to post a decent total after electing to bat in Valsad.After the visitors were reduced to 87 with 4, with Umang Sharma and Mohammad Saif being dismissed in the space of two overs, Himanshu Asnora and captain Eklavya Dwivedi added 61 runs. After Dwivedi and Ali Murtaza were removed by Jasprit Bumrah, Asnora put on 58 runs. Asnora then went on to raise 43 runs for the ninth wicket in the company of Saurabh Kumar, and remained unbeaten.Rush Kalaria picked up three wickets for Gujarat.
ScorecardBaroda’s bowlers stifled Madhya Pradesh after the visitors opted to bat in Vadodara. Madhya Pradesh were reduced to 4 for 2 in the fourth over after both the openers, Aditya Shrivastava and Jalaj Saxena, were dismissed for ducks.Captain Devendra Bundela and Rajat Patidar, however, added 73 before Bhargav Bhatt had Bundela lbw. Patidar and Harpreet Singh added 50 runs for the fourth wicket. Swapnil Singh then struck twice to reduce Madhya Pradesh to 127 for 5 before the middle-order showed some resistance.

Spinner’s over-step is a symptom of wider problems in the England camp

George Dobell in Manchester05-Sep-2019It looked, for a moment, like the perfect delivery. Not just a perfect delivery, but a perfectly executed plan.Jack Leach, bowling round the wicket, had drawn Steve Smith forward and, having found just a little drift into him, gained just enough turn away from him to see the ball take the edge of the bat and carry to slip. Smith had already scored 118 by then but, such is his form and so great his dominance, England might have settled for that. Besides, Australia were 273 for 6 and England could, perhaps, anticipate bowling them out for little more than 320.But then came the replays. And after that came the realisation. Leach, despite the most gentle of run-ups, despite bowling at a 51 mph, had over stepped. Smith was reprieved and England’s joy turned to despair. We may look back on it as the tipping point in this series.Maybe that’s unfair on both Leach and Smith. Certainly Leach, at times, bowled really nicely. His misjudgement was, it its way, tiny: no more than a rash shot from a batsman or a dropped catch from a fielder. But the consequences were significant and it was avoidable. An unforced error, as they say in tennis.Jack Leach with his team-mates after his dismissal of Steven Smith of Australia is shown to have being a no ball•Getty Images

Most of all, when we come to reflect on this series in years to come, we’ll almost certainly conclude that the difference between the sides was one man: Smith. England have thrown pretty much everything they have at him in not just this series but the previous couple. The fact is, while most other batsmen have struggled, Smith has gorged on runs. Yes, the pitches might have offered England more assistance. And yes, James Anderson’s availability might have tested Smith more. But to a large extent, England just have to accept he has been too good for them.There will be nagging irritation, however, that England did not do themselves justice. For there were moments on the second day when they became more than a little ragged in the field. Tim Paine was also reprieved twice – he was dropped on 9 and 49, once at slip by Jason Roy and once at mid-on by substitute fielder Sam Curran; both relatively straightforward chances – with Jofra Archer also missing a tough caught and bowled chance offered by Smith when he had 65. England keep dropping catches. Leach’s no-ball is a symptom of a wider malaise.Most of all, England didn’t seem able to build or sustain pressure in the field. With Ben Stokes, suffering from a sore shoulder, unable to replicate the match-shaping spell he produced in Leeds and Smith managing to manoeuvre the ball into the gaps with his unique skill, England leaked 124 runs in 32 wicketless overs after lunch.Archer, only five months into his England career, already looks as if he is in danger of being ruined – news that he required a pain-killing injection after normal play in the World Cup final and before the super-over should have alarm bells ringing – with his pace dropping by the match. Not for the first time in this series, it seemed England’s captain, Joe Root, had no way of lifting his team and no answers to the questions raised by Smith. It was agony from an England perspective; a session where you could feel their Ashes hopes slipping away.And then there’s that no-ball. Spinners – certainly finger spinners with a gentle approach to the crease, shouldn’t be bowling no-balls. Ravi Ashwin, for example, has never bowled a no-ball in Test cricket. And while Moeen Ali has, they have all been head high full tosses rather than front-foot no-balls. In all, finger spinners have, on average, bowled one no-ball – including head-high no-balls – every 1,236 deliveries in Test cricket since the start of 2010.So while we must be careful not to pin too much blame on Leach – he’s not responsible for England’s enduring inability to bat, or catch, after all – we can’t just dismiss it as ‘one of those things.’ That’s too cosy; that’s too laissez-faire. For we know that, in ODI cricket, England went more than 10,000 deliveries without conceding a front-foot no-ball. We know that, if there are free-hits at stake and they make it a priority, it can be done. But in training in recent days, England’s bowlers have regularly over-stepped in the nets without any of the coaching staff acting as umpires and notifying them of their error. As a consequence, instead of good habits becoming ingrained, bad habits can take root. It seems just a bit sloppy and just a bit unnecessary. The team management have to take some responsibility.England’s issues extend beyond playing matters. At some stage, if England are to make any meaningful use of home advantage, Ashley Giles, the director of England’s men’s cricket, will have to improve the communication between the team and the groundsmen.England turned up in Manchester expecting to find a hard pitch offering pace and carry. Just as they turned up for the World Cup final expecting a batting paradise. On both occasions – and several more in between – they have been disappointed. Indeed, one member of the England team management noted that this surface – offering little of the grass coverage that might have encouraged England’s seamers – would have delighted Australia. If England are to have any hope of dismissing Smith, they require lateral movement and the carry to ensure nicks make it to slip. They didn’t really have either here.Everyone understands that the job of groundsmen is desperately tough, with poor weather and an unrelenting schedule combining to reduce preparation time. But at some stage it would surely make sense for the left hand to know what the right hand is doing in English cricket. It would surely make sense for Giles to make it clear what groundsmen are expected to provide and hold them accountable if they do not.England’s Ashes hopes aren’t over yet. Not quite. They only need to escape with a draw here to make it to The Oval with their chances alive and it may well be that poor weather comes to their aid. But, for the second Test in a row, you get the impression they’re going to require something special to keep them in it. They can’t keep expecting Stokes to bail out their substandard batting and fielding.

Sarfraz Ahmed backed his batsmen to come good as he ruled out changes or the inclusion of an allrounder

Danyal Rasool in Cape Town02-Jan-2019For all the pressure on the Pakistan batsmen, they will get at least two more innings to cement their places in the side after Sarfraz Ahmed confirmed an unchanged top six for the second Test at Newlands.In a week where speculation about a number of changes to the personnel and batting order had been rife, Pakistan have instead opted for stability. And the pressure on the batsmen to score runs increases further after Sarfraz, Pakistan’s captain, also ruled out selecting allrounder Faheem Ashraf, deciding to go instead for four specialist bowlers.”We will go with the same batting line-up,” Sarfraz said. “I’m very hopeful of my batsmen doing well here. They are working really hard in the nets and playing very well, so hopefully we will bounce back in this Test match.”We are going with six specialist batsmen for this match [and not Faheem]. We need to try and score some runs because we know if our batsmen score runs, we have the bowlers to put the pressure on the opposition.”ALSO READ: Knee injury forces Haris Sohail out of South Africa tourThe fallout after the second-innings collapse in Centurion, where Pakistan lost nine wickets after tea to slump from the relative riches of 100 for 1 to 189 all out, was dramatic enough that an unchanged top six was something of a surprise. It began with leaked reports of an outraged Mickey Arthur having harsh words with his senior players, leading to intense scrutiny around the position of Asad Shafiq in particular, and saw strong words from batting coach Grant Flower about Fakhar Zaman’s approach.But with Haris Sohail ruled out of the tour, Pakistan’s reduced options from the bench eased the pressure on the incumbents somewhat, though with Mohammad Rizwan waiting in the wings, batting positions are not exactly nailed on.”When Asian teams come to South Africa, it’s very challenging,” Sarfraz said. “We’re used to playing on low-bounce pitches, but when we come to Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, every Asian player struggles. But those players who are good enough, like many of ours, make it work. Our batting coach talks to the players so hopefully we will get better.”Sarfraz was candid about his team combination, also disclosing they would go in with a combination of three seamers and one spinner. Faf du Plessis, on the other hand, had been much more guarded in how South Africa would line up for the New Year’s Test.”When we looked at the pitch today, it looks a lot different from how it looked yesterday,” Sarfraz said. “The look is completely changed. I believe we’ll go in with three fast bowlers and one spinner.”With Mohammad Abbas coming in and slotting straight into the side, Pakistan will have to drop one of the three who featured in Newlands. Sarfraz wouldn’t be drawn on which one – Hasan Ali is the likeliest to make way – but said any fast bowler would enjoy playing in these conditions.”It’s not just Abbas, every fast bowler will like bowling here because the way they prepare the pitches here at the moment. If you see the Centurion pitch, every fast bowler likes that kind of pitch. I know this is [Vernon] Philander’s home town, so he will enjoy bowling here. Hopefully Abbas will also enjoy himself.”He singled out Shaheen Afridi for particular praise for his performance at Centurion, suggesting if he continued to bowl like that he would “soon become the best fast bowler in Pakistan”, and expressing full belief in his side to bounce back on a tour that has begun somewhat shakily.”If you talk about the third day [in Centurion], if we took one catch or the umpire gave Dean Elgar out, the situation would be very different. Maybe that would have triggered a collapse, so who knows? We are really hopeful and our bowling gives us a lot of confidence. If we have runs on the board we’ll give them a hard time.”

Two months before the second edition, Salman Iqbal has distanced himself from the tournament and warned Pakistani players against taking part in it

Umar Farooq19-Sep-2018Salman Iqbal, the president of the T10 League, has stepped down from the position two months before the second edition of the tournament, citing “lack of transparency” and lack of “proper systems and monitoring”. He has distanced himself from the venture and warned Pakistani players against taking part in the league.Iqbal, owner of the ARY Group and the Pakistan Super League’s second-most expensive team, Karachi Kings, was a major investor and partner in the T10 League with the UAE-based businessman Shaji ul Mulk. The second edition is set to run from November 23 to December 2. Prominent players like Rashid Khan, Chris Lynn, Brendon McCullum and Andre Russell are among those who have committed to taking part this season. On Monday, the eight franchises – up from six last season – gathered in Dubai for a mini draft to pick their icon players and choose four players to retain from their 2017 squads.The T10 League, a 10-overs-a-side format introduced by private cricket organisers in Sharjah, made its debut late last year, and the success of its opening season has led to an increase from six teams to eight and from a 13-match tournament held over four days to a 28-game event over ten days. The organisers have also hiked the franchise fee from USD 400,000 to USD 1.2 million for the two new teams.”I am resigning from my the position of President T10 league and disassociating myself from all its operations,” Iqbal said in a statement issued on Tuesday. “The reason for my resignation is lack of transparency, unprofessionalism and no proper structure of the league which I have been persistently asking for and can no longer continue without the same.”Private cricket leagues that are not controlled by ICC and have independent players monitoring system, added with lack of policies and procedures may lead to numerous misconducts. I had joined the venture as I felt the need to represent Pakistan in this new format and promote cricket and Pakistani cricketers at different platforms.”Iqbal’s presence was a major factor behind the participation of top Pakistani players in the inaugural season of the T10 League. Originally, PCB wasn’t willing to allow their players to take part since the league directly clashed with the commercial interests of the PSL in the UAE. But Iqbal, despite having a stake in PSL, managed to convinced the then PCB chairman Najam Sethi to let them participate.The PCB thereafter defended the league publicly despite resistance from other PSL teams and went on to allow its 10 highest-paid contracted players to participate. The board also levied a fee of USD 400,000 from the league, and said it would be spent on game development in the country. Sethi also involved the PCB board of governors to lend their support for the T10 league following a request from the Emirates Cricket Board, which runs cricket in the UAE. ICC had also sanctioned the league conditionally.”My prime objective for the league was to safeguard the interest of Pakistani players and promote Pakistani cricket,” Iqbal’s statement said. “With current standing of the league, it is obvious that the league is heading in wrong direction and we can not allow Pakistani players to be misused for vested interests of foreign individuals. Proper systems and monitoring should be in place and controlled by ICC, which safeguards all players and sanctity of the game. I believe it is better for me to part ways with an unsupervised T10 league.”Shaji Ul Mulk, the T10 League chairman, has not responded to ESPNcricinfo’s attempts to contact him for a comment.

Conscious of the need to compete with other T20 leagues, Cricket Australia will explore having separate funds to encourage the biggest names to sign up

Daniel Brettig18-Feb-2019A ring-fenced marquee fund to attract overseas players to the Big Bash League is under strong consideration by Cricket Australia as the governing body begins its debrief of a tournament that expanded enormously in 2018-19 while also raising numerous red flags in terms of crowds, broadcast audiences and scheduling.BBL clubs and broadcasters are both adamant that more needs to be done to bring in major names such as AB de Villiers, Eoin Morgan and Andre Russell in an increasingly competitive global T20 marketplace, with each group raising the issue in recent weeks.ESPNcricinfo understands that CA will explore the option of creating a separate marquee fund for overseas players, outside the general BBL salary cap of AUD1.77 million and similar to that used by the A-League in concert with Fox Sports. This would serve to close the yawning gap that has opened up in terms of potential remuneration for players coming to Australia relative to the Bangladesh Premier League and Pakistan Super League, to name but two of the competitions on the circuit.ALSO READ: Big Bash team of the tournamentWhile any such fund is unlikely to be large enough as to compete dollar for dollar with other leagues that are defined by privately-run franchises and the deep pockets of many of their owners, the ability to offer international marquee names a contractual figure somewhat closer to those available elsewhere will bring in other pull factors such as Australia’s weather and lifestyle that had attracted numerous high profile players in the past.The questions of how the marquee fund would work, and how players would be distributed among the clubs – perhaps via the use of a draft based on finishing positions from the previous tournament – remain to be answered. CA’s previous use of extra marketing funds to sweeten deals for the likes of Shane Warne and Kevin Pietersen has been raised by clubs, with the qualification that any new fund must apply more equitably to all.

The BBL debrief

How to attract more of the best overseas players
Length of the tournament
The best structure for the finals
Ensure high-quality pitches

Other areas in which the BBL will be the subject of plenty of review discussion will include its 60-day running time, a stretch that many players and coaches thought too long relative to the number of matches, not least the coach of the champion Melbourne Renegades team, Andrew McDonald.”I think I have formed some strong views around it,” McDonald told Radio. “I think it went too long in terms of time frame. We saw it sort of peter out coming to the business end. I think it lifted again for the Grand Final but the semi-finals I think were sort of somehow lost. If you weren’t probably working in the industry you didn’t realise that they were on.”I think the 14 games was magnificent. I think the opportunity that creates for the younger players, we see it in the IPL as well, where younger Indian players get an opportunity throughout a 14-game season, I think we saw that with the younger Australian players coming in, the Sam Harpers, the Mackenzie Harveys for us, and I think that’s great that those guys are getting opportunities and that will accelerate their development and fast track them where they need to get to.ALSO READ: Renegade Boyce atones for unceremonious Hurricanes exit“I think there’s a lot of positives that go with 14 games. We had a couple of seven, eight-day breaks that didn’t make a lot of sense at the back end and made it difficult really to be fair. We sent players home, guys were going back to their home states for three or four days and coming back in. So we would have liked that accelerated a little bit at the back end.”Kim McConnie, the head of the BBL, said ahead of a final watched by 40,816 spectators and a combined average broadcast audience of 1.14 million that the Sydney and Melbourne markets both needed more attention. “The reason we shifted to a full home and away season was to make sure we are a sport for all Australians, and in order to be a sport for all Australians, you need to play in all parts of Australia,” McConnie told .”We also knew that it wasn’t going to be about average attendances. We also knew that it was going to take fans a while to catch up…that we’d end up with smaller crowds at some games. And we’re OK with that. It’s going to take us a couple of seasons to push that back up. Because this is only our eighth year, we’ve got the luxury of time.”The challenges we see are in our two-team markets. As we look at it, there are a couple of isolated areas where in big major cities, we’re just competing against so much more, it’s a little bit harder for us to pick up that momentum. There’s a little bit more work to do in Sydney and Melbourne to build the fan base back up again.”There is also a strong lobby by numerous clubs to change the finals series format from two semis and a final to a system whereby the top two teams get a double chance. “The finals is one of the things that we’re going to review first,” McConnie said. “We’re going to see if this finals structure is the best structure. There’s definitely momentum for the top team getting a second chance.”