A majority of county chairmen want the Blast to be expanded as part of the changes to English professional cricket from 2020

Matt Roller21-Aug-2018The Vitality Blast group stage could be extended from 14 to 16 games because county chairmen are lobbying to rid the competition of its existing uneven format and maximise revenue in the process.Since 2014, each side has played seven home games in the group stages, meaning that they miss out on hosting one team, and counties are pushing for change both for competitive and commercial reasons.The change would likely come into effect for the 2020 season, when the Blast will become the secondary short-form competition in English domestic cricket after the introduction of The Hundred.ESPNCricinfo understands that the vast majority of counties would support a change to eight home games per season, with a majority of 12 required.For commercial reasons, the game counties miss is not identified as one of their most lucrative with derby matches gaining particular protection.For example, Middlesex play their London derby against Surrey home and away every year, but have missed a home fixture against Glamorgan and Kent every other year since the current format’s introduction.Other traditional rivalries – Lancashire v Yorkshire, Gloucestershire v Somerset, and Sussex v Hampshire – are also played twice every season.The group stage of the domestic twenty-over competition did last 16 games in its previous guise as the Friends Life T20 in 2010 and 2011, when the schedule was widely criticised for being too long. Some games were played in front of extremely sparse midweek crowds in those seasons.However, attendances have continued to rise in recent seasons – over 900,000 people went to a domestic T20 game in 2017 – and counties are keen to host an additional game each.There had been suggestions that the Blast’s group stage would be cut to 10 games, with three groups of six instead of two groups of nine, from 2020 onwards, but it is unlikely that such a change would find support among counties for whom T20 cricket is a vital source of income.The Blast would start in mid-May – around six weeks earlier than it did this year – and run through to mid-July, with the One Day Cup expected to follow, running alongside the Hundred.One competition must suffer a fall in standard when The Hundred raids the country’s best players for the eight-team format and the working party set up to make proposals as to the structure of the game, under the chairmanship of Leicestershire chief executive Wasim Khan, seems poised to conclude that the 50-over competition should take the hit.Meanwhile, the prospect of a conference format being introduced for the County Championship is understood to have diminished sharply.It had previously been reported that counties backed the idea of removing the current system of promotion and relegation in favour of three groups of six followed by play-offs between teams in different groups, but support for the idea has waned.

Alzarri Joseph and Sunil Ambris also on the comeback trail, following injuries, for the two-Test series against India in October

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Aug-2018Jomel Warrican, the left-arm spinner, returned to the West Indies Test squad for their two-match series against India in October. Warrican played the last of his four Tests in January 2016, but was handed a red-ball contract by Cricket West Indies in January this year, indicating that he remained very much part of their plans.Warrican has spent the last two months with the West Indies A team, playing England Lions and India A in England. While his numbers from those games are not particularly striking, he did cause the touring Sri Lankans issues in May, claiming 4 for 81 in a warm-up game in Tarouba. In India, he will offer West Indies a second-specialist spin option behind legspinner Devendra Bishoo.Alzarri Joseph, the 21-year old fast bowler, is also set to return to Test cricket after more than a year. Joseph broke into the West Indies side as a 19-year-old in 2016 and has since played six Tests, the last of which was last August in England. Joseph is returning from a stress fracture in his back, which he picked up in New Zealand in December. He returned to limited-overs cricket in the preceding series at home, against Bangladesh, and was picked in the squad for the second Test of that series. He, however, did not play, making this his first chance at long-form cricket since the injury.Batsman Sunil Ambris is also back for his first Test of the year, having missed out recently due to injury, according to West Indies’ chairman of selectors Courtney Brown. It is not clear what the injury was. Ambris had fractured his left forearm during the series against New Zealand last December – his debut series, where he was hit-wicket twice in two games – but it was believed that he had recovered from that injury ahead of West Indies’ home-summer series against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.Jahmar Hamilton, the uncapped wicketkeeper-batsman, also made the 15. Hamilton was picked for the home Tests against Sri Lanka but didn’t get a game. In India, he will provide back-up with the gloves to Shane Dowrich.

West Indies Test squad

Jason Holder (capt), Sunil Ambris, Devendra Bishoo, Kraigg Brathwaite, Roston Chase, Shane Dowrich (wk), Shannon Gabriel, Jahmar Hamilton (wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope, Alzarri Joseph, Keemo Paul, Kieran Powell, Kemar Roach, Jomel Warrican

Batsman Devon Smith, who made a return this season against Sri Lanka after three years out of the team, and fast bowler Miguel Cummins are the only two to miss out from the squad that played the Bangladesh series.Browne said: “The panel congratulates Jason Holder and his team on the excellent performance against Bangladesh. As the team embarks on a tough tour of India, the successes against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh should hold them in good stead. The panel welcomes back Sunil Ambris, who missed the last couple of series due to injury, along with Jomel Warrican, who adds a second spin-bowling option to the attack.”While West Indies are coming off a convincing 2-0 series win against Bangladesh and a drawn series against Sri Lanka, they have struggled significantly against their upcoming opponents. Their last Test win against India came in Kingston in 2002, while their last Test success in India was a 243-run win in Mohali in 1994.The two Tests in India will be followed by five ODIs and three T20Is.

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.

Glamorgan will look to appoint a new director of cricket after Hugh Morris stepped down from his dual role in order to focus on his work as the club’s chief executive

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Oct-2018Glamorgan will look to appoint a new director of cricket after Hugh Morris stepped down from his dual role in order to focus on his work as the club’s chief executive.The potential change was one Morris flagged in advance when commissioning an external review of Glamorgan’s season. The Welsh county finished bottom of Division Two of the Championship, winning just twice, and failed to make it out of the group stage in either the Vitality Blast or Royal London Cup.Morris returned to the county where he spent his playing career in 2014, having served as England’s managing director of cricket since 2007. The club will start its search for his successor immediately.Huw Bevan, who was strength and conditioning coach at the ECB during Morris’ time with England, conducted the independent review, which was presented to the Glamorgan board this week.”With the disappointing performances on the pitch this season and the need to spread my time more evenly across the business, it has been decided to split the chief executive and director of cricket roles at the club,” Morris said.”Next year we have four Cricket World Cup matches at Sophia Gardens, as well as an IT20 match, followed by the ECB’s new competition in 2020 and the new international calendar. We are also working with Cricket Wales on developing a strategy for cricket in Wales to grow the game across the country.”I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the position but this is the right time for myself and the club to bring in someone with a fresh perspective to lead the department and bring success to Glamorgan on the field.”

Bangladesh’s stand-in captain, however, was relieved to have scored a hundred and broken a lean run with the bat in Test cricket

Mohammad Isam15-Nov-2018As Bangladesh’s stand-in captain, Mahmudullah has had some interesting post-match reactions. After the 215-run loss to Sri Lanka in February, he defended the batsmen’s attacking approach. After the 151-run loss in Sylhet last week, Mahmudullah questioned the same approach. Now, after Bangladesh’s first Test win in 2018, which was orchestrated by a strong first-innings batting performance, he felt his team had found a template for success in Test cricket.”One must be happy winning a Test match,” Mahmudullah said. “I think we have the right to be happy. We feel really bad in the dressing room when we lose. Nobody sees our tears. We don’t tell anyone. There’s no need for comparison, whether it is happiness or relief.”If we keep playing like we did in the first Test, we shouldn’t be playing Test cricket. But we should be playing if we see our performance in this game, and the mentality we showed.”Mahmudullah did, however, concede that sharing the trophy with Zimbabwe’s Hamilton Masakadza was tough. Given that Bangladesh were playing at home, he said that the aim was always to win the series 2-0.”I think we played poorly in the first Test,” he said. “We always try to win the home series, whether we are playing against Zimbabwe or Australia. Our target was to win both matches in this series, so it was tough sharing the Test series trophy.”But there was relief for Mahmudullah on the personal front – he made his first Test hundred after nearly nine years, an unbeaten third-innings 101 off 122 balls.”I am a bit relieved,” he said. “I hadn’t performed well in the last five Tests. I was struggling in this format. A captain has to perform from the front, so I wanted to add value to my position. I want to be more consistent in this format, and contribute more for the team.”Mahmudullah also hoped the confidence of the rest of the batting unit would return, after their best Test in 10 months. Mushfiqur Rahim made a record-breaking, unbeaten 219 and Mominul Haque reached his third 150-plus score. Mohammad Mithun and Mehidy Hasan also made fifties.”It is a good comeback ahead of the West Indies series,” Mahmudullah said. “Not everyone will do well all the time. Sometimes the top order will make runs, sometimes the middle order. Everyone is trying from their position. I think our batsmen would have gained some confidence from this game, having been a worry for some time.”Bangladesh’s focus now shifts towards their next opponents, West Indies, who hammered them 2-0 in the Test series in the Caribbean in July. Mahmudullah said the upcoming series would be different, especially for the visitors’ fast bowlers in Bangladeshi conditions, though he felt their recent tour of India would have helped their preparation.”We know West Indies’ fast bowlers, since we have played them a few months ago,” he said. “There will always be some difference between pitches in Bangladesh and West Indies. Playing in India must be helpful for them. They are a good side. We have to be prepared, physically and mentally, for tough cricket. It is still different conditions here. We can have positive results if we can use our conditions.”

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.”

The 35-year old says he has bigger goals beyond the long-awaited feat of becoming South Africa’s most successful Test bowler

Liam Brickhill in Centurion24-Dec-2018Dale Steyn has spent the last six months on the cusp of becoming the most successful South African Test bowler in history, but he has spent even longer within close striking distance of the record. He passed the 400-wicket mark three-and-a-half years ago, but has only played eight Tests since, and ahead of what should be a record-breaking game against Pakistan on Boxing Day, Steyn insisted he had “a bigger goal” than simply the record to aim for.”I’m just looking forward to getting out there,” Steyn said. “I’ve been answering that question about that one wicket for about two years now so we’ve passed that.”Steyn needs just one wicket to go past Shaun Pollock’s 421 Test scalps, a record that has stood for a decade since Pollock played his last Test. Now that he is as fit and hungry as ever, Steyn might be forgiven for putting all his focus into achieving the milestone. But for Steyn, as soon as he takes the wicket that gives him the record, his attention will immediately turn to taking the next one.ALSO READ: Frankly yours, Dale Steyn“I’ve got a lot of wickets in me than just one more,” he said. “I haven’t saved myself to take one more wicket than Polly. There is a bigger goal at the end of the day. It’ll be a beautiful thing to happen for me if it does. These honours are great things to achieve and I’ll be highly honoured. But when I do, I’ll get back to the end of my mark and try and take another one. That’s the plan.”Pollock played 108 Tests to get to 421, while Steyn has reached that mark in just 88 Tests over a career that has spanned 14 years so far. It is Steyn’s remarkable strike rate of 42.0 – the sixth-best of all time among bowlers who have sent down a minimum of 2000 balls – that brought him so quickly to the brink, but that incisiveness was built on bowling express pace, which has brought its own hazards.Steyn was five wickets away from Pollock’s record when he suffered a shoulder injury during South Africa’s tour of Australia in 2016. “Many people don’t know the seriousness of that injury,” he said. “It was a broken arm. You can’t just pick yourself up and start going again. But it was wonderful to have that break. I got a lot closer with my family, something a lot of us struggle with because we’re on the road for so long. I was able to build great relationships with people who are close to me. And travel while I’m still young and come back really excited to play cricket at the highest level. I feel like I’m 23.”Dale Steyn clutches his right shoulder•Getty Images

Incidentally, that’s exactly the age of Steyn’s new-ball partner Kagiso Rabada, who has picked up the mantle of senior bowler while Steyn has fought his way back to full fitness, and is ranked No. 1 in the world among Test bowlers.While the 35-year old Steyn gears up to lead the attack feeling fitter and more fired-up than ever, the injuries to Lungi Ngidi and Vernon Philander have given him and Rabada added responsibility to lead from the front. Steyn warned, however, that no one should forget the impact that the recalled and in-form Duanne Olivier could make.”The onus will be on your bigger players like KG (Rabada) and myself to lead the attack,” he explained. “Duanne has been bowling beautifully, he was the highest wicket-taker in the Mzansi Super League. In the four-day game he played the other days he got a few wickets and even got Faf [du Plessis] out. If he slips under the radar and he comes up trumps with wickets and wins us the game I will not be complaining.”ALSO READ: Bogeyman Steyn returns to claim his recordWhile Rabada and Olivier could be match-winners in their own right, the attention will be on Steyn in Centurion – his former home ground and one at which he has taken 56 wickets in nine Tests at 17.12. Traditionally, it’s a track that encourages fast bowlers, and can be deflating for visiting batsmen unused to South African conditions, and Steyn is happy to be here after the slim pickings of his last Test outing, in Sri Lanka, where he only picked up two wickets across two Tests.”Every time a subcontinent team comes down to South Africa, they look down at the wicket and they’re not familiar with these conditions,” Steyn said. “They look at the wicket and there’s a bit of grass and you feel they’re two down already. It’s definitely not Dubai. I’m the guy that’s going to do that. I’m the guy with the brand-new ball in my hand. So it’s advantage fast bowler at the end of the day.”So I look forward to playing against Pakistan, and I’ve done well against them in the past. I’ve got fond memories of the Wanderers too, where I got 6 for 8. I go through that stuff in my mind to try and boost myself up. But you’ve got to wait till game day to see how this goes.”It’s just nice to have a red ball in my hand again. Sri Lanka was tough conditions for the fast bowlers, but by the looks of things – the way the nets have been playing out in the middle- there is some spice. I am looking forward to getting out there and playing five competitive days of cricket.”

The grade-one strain has also left the Sri Lanka seamer doubtful for the South Africa Tests, that follow close on the heels of the Australia tour

Andrew Fidel Fernando20-Jan-2019Sri Lanka seamer Nuwan Pradeep has been ruled out of the series against Australia, after scans revealed he had sustained a grade-one strain in his left hamstring. He is also doubtful for the South Africa Test series that follows close on the heels of the Australia tour.Pradeep had picked up the injury on day one of Sri Lanka’s warm-up match against a Cricket Australia XI in Hobart, on Thursday. He immediately left the field, having bowled only two overs in the match, and underwent scans over the weekend that confirmed the severity of the injury. Pradeep’s career has been plagued by leg injuries – particularly hamstring complaints – and this is largely why he has not played a Test since October 2017.Although a fit Pradeep did not get a game during the two Tests in New Zealand, he may have been a good option for Sri Lanka at the seam-friendly Gabba Stadium, as he is often capable of generating appreciable movement off the deck.Despite his being one of the most experienced members of the pace-bowling battery, and although no replacement has been officially named yet, Sri Lanka are still left with a serviceable seam-bowling contingent in Australia. Suranga Lakmal, Lahiru Kumara, Kasun Rajitha and Dushmantha Chameera all remain fit and available, with all four of those bowlers having played at least one Test over the past six weeks.Sri Lanka’s first Test begins in Brisbane on Thursday.

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.”

It does not take much to get fans excited about a possible return to form for the Lancashire prodigy

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Apr-2019It may have been against a bunch of students, and in a match lacking first-class status, but it does not take much to get England fans excited about a possible return to form for Haseeb Hameed. Having reaching his double-hundred on Friday, Hameed was finally dismissed on the second morning of Lancashire’s warm-up match against Loughborough MCCU for 218.The Loughborough attack had a grand total of 11 first-class wickets between them, but Hameed showed the commitment to ruthless accumulation that marked him out as a teenager, batting for more than six hours and facing 336 deliveries after coming in at No. 3.Picked by England at 19, Hameed’s form subsequently fell away dramatically. After a dreadful 2018 summer, when he averaged 9.70 from 17 innings for Lancashire – with a top score of 31 – his efforts at the university ground in Loughborough will encourage the hope that he can interest the selectors again.England’s Test team remains unsettled, with little certainty around the likely top three to face Australia during the Ashes later this summer. Keaton Jennings, Hameed’s Lancashire team-mate, was dropped in the Caribbean, before making an unsuccessful return in the third Test against West Indies, while Rory Burns averages 25.00 and Joe Denly has only played two Tests. Any signs that Hameed could push his case would doubtless be welcomed.Hameed was seemingly destined for great things when he broke into the Test team in 2016, becoming the fifth-youngest man to debut for England. He scored two half-centuries in six innings against India before a hand injury ended his tour early, but then suffered a prolonged slump that saw him slip out of contention as Jennings and then Mark Stoneman stepped in to partner the now-retired Alastair Cook.Lancashire are due to open their Championship campaign against Middlesex at Lord’s next week, when Jennings will also be looking to hit the ground running against an attack that could feature a pair of potential Ashes candidates in Steven Finn and Toby Roland-Jones.