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Mukesh Kumar has also been named in the squad; Mohammed Shami has been rested and Umesh Yadav dropped

Shashank Kishore23-Jun-20232:22

Has Cheteshwar Pujara played his last Test?

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Mukesh Kumar have been selected in India’s Test squad for the first time for the tour of the West Indies, while Cheteshwar Pujara has been dropped and Mohammed Shami rested. Fast bowler Navdeep Saini has also made a comeback to the squad in place of Umesh Yadav.It means India will have a new No. 3 for the series after Pujara, 35, scored only 14 and 27 in the World Test Championship final against Australia earlier in June. Unless India move Shubman Gill down to No. 3, Pujara’s spot could be taken by either Jaiswal or Gaikwad for India’s first series in the 2023-2025 WTC cycle.Related

• Time to temper expectations as India enter Test transition

• Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma earn maiden call up to India T20I squad

• Abhimanyu Easwaran: 'Very few people are this close to being picked for India. That gives me confidence'

• What more can Sarfaraz Khan do to get selected for India?

• Gavaskar defends 'loyal servant' Pujara: 'Why make him the scapegoat for our batting failures?'

Ajinkya Rahane, who was India’s highest scorer at The Oval, has kept his place after making a comeback following a 15-month absence from the Test team. He has also been named vice-captain. The rest of the squad, led by Rohit Sharma, includes most of the players selected for the WTC final.Jaiswal had made the trip to London as a stand-by player along with Mukesh, after Gaikwad, who was part of the original list of back-ups, withdrew to get married. While Jaiswal and Mukesh are uncapped, Gaikwad has played ten limited-overs internationals; his most-recent an ODI against South Africa in October last year.Gaikwad, who plays for Maharashtra, has a first-class average of 42.19 from 28 games with six centuries, and his technique has impressed the selectors and team management who have been looking to bring him into the Test team for a while now.Jaiswal has been prolific for Mumbai and has a first-class average of 80.21 in 26 innings. In his most recent first-class game – the Irani Cup – he made 213 and 144 for Rest of India against Madhya Pradesh. That aggregate of 357 is the most for any batter in an Irani Cup game. Jaiswal has the ability to not just open but also bat at No. 3 if required.Mukesh is a workhorse who plays for Bengal. The 30-year-old is a line-and-length fast bowler who has built an impressive body of work in domestic cricket. He was key to Bengal making two Ranji Trophy finals in the last three seasons and has been on the Test radar for a while, having featured in every India A tour over the past two seasons. He has 149 wickets in 39 first-class games.Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer are all still recovering from surgery for various injuries, and with Rishabh Pant undergoing rehab after surviving a car crash last December, KS Bharat and Ishan Kishan have been picked as India’s wicketkeepers in the Caribbean. Bharat has played all five Tests since Pant’s injury, but has scored just 129 runs at an average of 18.42.What next for Cheteshwar Pujara?•Associated Press

On the spin-bowling front, Axar Patel provides back up to R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Jaydev Unadkat, who has been part of every Test squad since the tour of Bangladesh last December, was also retained and is the only left-arm seamer in a fast bowling group that also includes Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Saini and Mukesh, all of whom have fewer than 100 Test wickets each. Saini has not played a Test since the famous victory at the Gabba in 2021.India open their tour of the West Indies with the first Test in Dominica from July 12. The second Test begins on July 20 at Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain. They won their previous Test series in the Caribbean 2-0 in 2019.India’s Test squad: Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KS Bharat (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Kishan (wk), Navdeep Saini

Head coach says team was comfortable with the decision to give ample time for Williamson to recover from elbow injury

S Sudarshanan05-Apr-2022New Zealand head coach Gary Stead has said that although the team missed the services of Kane Williamson for the home season, the move to rest him was the right one and that the team was at peace with the decision. Williamson was ruled out of the Mumbai Test due to an elbow injury during New Zealand’s tour to India and both he and Stead have maintained that surgery would be the “last resort”.”He is one of our great batsmen and he’ll always be missed,” Stead said speaking after the series against Netherlands. “But we still maintain that it was the right thing for Kane and the right thing for us in the long run. The difficulty was and, the catch-22, is Kane comes back early, scores a hundred and his elbow is gone again and we’d be in the same place. We’re still comfortable on the decision that has been made.”New Zealand played two Tests each against Bangladesh and South Africa before the white-ball series against Netherlands. They managed to draw both the Test series, with each of Bangladesh and South Africa managing to win a match each.Related

• Seddon Park crowd bids Ross Taylor an emotional farewell

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Williamson returned to action in the IPL 2022, where he is leading Sunrisers Hyderabad.”Everything is going to plan in terms of how he is feeling and how he is preparing,” Stead said about Williamson’s rehab. “I didn’t see at what he scored overnight but sounds like not too many and he’ll be disappointed about that. But he is going well on track and is where we want him to be as far as getting him ready for the Test match series in England.”We would like him to play everything if he’s available. Any team with Kane Williamson in it looks slightly stronger that one without him in it. Kane, like any of us, needs breaks at certain times and he’s dying to play for NZ again, I can assure you that. But we can’t burn him out in the future and have to be smart about those things.”In Williamson’s absence, although Tom Latham captained New Zealand, Stead was non-committal on whether it is the way forward.”We haven’t talked about that and at the moment Kane’s out of that role because he hasn’t been available for us. It hasn’t been discussed and when Kane comes back I expect him to be captain again.”The home season also saw Ross Taylor on the field for the final time, the third ODI against Netherlands being his last in international cricket. Taylor, who made his international debut in 2006, had announced at the start of the year that the Tests against Bangladesh and the ODIs against Netherlands would be his last.While he picked up a wicket on the final ball of his Test career, he could score only 14, which included his trademark slog sweep, in his final ODI.”We had a great night for Ross as well as Mike Sandle (New Zealand manager) as well, two stalwarts of our team that have been there for a long time,” Stead said. “We had some internal stuff and small presentations to the guys because I am not sure that the time they have put in does justice to any real gift you can give them. I hope they remember it fondly.”I’ve seen it a few time before and been through it in my own career. I guess I have an understanding of what it was like. I have never seen Ross so content and happy in what he was doing and I think that speaks for the decision that he has got to. It’s important that he walks away to a happy place.”Does he see Taylor in a coaching role in the future?”We were having a chat last night just around coaching just about what it might mean and mentoring players in the future and I am sure he will be open at some stage to be able to do that,” he added. “In fact talking to the boys last night he mentioned that he is always there to listen and talk to people and I think that is the mark of the man he is.”

Board officials say cultural sensitivities may make it far more challenging for the women to be able to rise up the rankings in the same manner as the men’s team achieved

Peter Della Penna10-Nov-2020The development of women’s cricket took a significant step forward late last week with an announcement from the Afghanistan Cricket Board who pledged to award 25 central contracts to players from a select talent pool that was invited to a national team trial camp at Kabul International Stadium in October. However, board officials have told ESPNcricinfo that cultural sensitivities may make it far more challenging for the women to be able to rise up the ICC global rankings in the same manner as the men’s team achieved through the last decade.”We need to go steadily and gradually,” said one ACB official to ESPNcricinfo, requesting anonymity due to what he described as “complex” reactions within Afghanistan to the plans for women’s cricket. “We need to be very careful given what is happening in this country because of security. In countries like Afghanistan, it is quite challenging. The first thing is we should not challenge the cultural and traditional norms and principles. We should go ahead understanding the context. We should not copy and paste what is happening in other countries. It’s absolutely not comparable.””So we need to be very careful about moving forward, but the intention is there and the vision is there. You never know. If things improve in this country, if there is stability in this country, we could have some surprises in terms of women’s cricket. But it depends on what is happening in this country in terms of political and social situation. We are in dire need of resources and facilities that people do not question in terms of religion and cultural issues.”Besides those based in and around Kabul, the next biggest group of players who attended the women’s national team camp came from the Herat Province, situated in the western part of the country bordering Iran. It’s an indication of how much cricket has spread across the whole of the country. According to multiple sources, the contracts for the women’s players will be 12 months in length and will be reviewed on a rolling six-month basis, but exact remuneration was not disclosed.At a very basic logistical level, one of the biggest hurdles women’s cricket development faces in Afghanistan is the demand for women’s only facilities. According to an official, the women’s national team camp was organized in a time frame so as not to clash with any activities for men’s national team players that were scheduled to take place at Kabul International Stadium. No men were allowed to be present during the duration of the women’s team camp, an accommodation that can be difficult to organise outside of Kabul.”We have some very good plans for women but the problem is the facilities to accommodate them,” said an ACB official. “Unlike the western countries, here you need to respect the religion and the culture and that requires isolated facilities for the women. That is lacking in Afghanistan. We don’t even have enough facilities for the men in Afghanistan at basic standards, leaving aside international standards. This would be the biggest challenge.”If we have isolated facilities specific to women, I’m sure it will somehow reduce the public reaction because they know there are no specific facilities for women. The morale situation for fighting and war in this country is affecting all cricket including women’s cricket.”At the time of Afghanistan’s elevation to Test status, they were the only one of the 12 Full Member countries to not have a functioning women’s national team. To date, Afghanistan has not entered a women’s team to compete in any ICC or Asian Cricket Council regional tournament. However, the pledge to award central contracts is a move that local officials hope will demonstrate to the rest of the world that they intend to make women’s cricket a meaningful part of their overall plans going forward.”It is not very easy to engage women in education, sports, health or any other sector,” said an ACB official. “What we have seen from the men’s point of view, we have seen some very good progress that the men have done extremely well in terms of the cricket development of Afghanistan. We thought we can also encourage women. We are being careful but the plans will proceed and we will see how the women progress.”

Twin fifties keep Hants’ hopes alive, despite AB de Villiers’ best efforts

ECB Reporters Network 29-Aug-2019Aneurin Donald thrashed his first Vitality Blast fifty for Hampshire to keep their quarter-final hopes alive by beating Middlesex by eight wickets.Donald, who joined from Glamorgan last year, had previously scored 48 and 44 in the Blast but finally reached the landmark score to club 51 off 33 balls. He put on 96 with captain James Vince – who clocked up his fourth fifty of this season’s Blast, ending on 66 not out, to take Hampshire past the winning post with nine balls to spare.Hampshire’s win, which came despite South African legend AB de Villiers’ fourth fifty of the Blast, sees them leap up to 13 points, level with Middlesex ahead of both sides’ must-win final group fixtures on Friday night.Donald tore into the Middlesex attack from his fourth ball faced, which sailed over the fine leg ropes after a wayward delivery from Tom Helm. The Welshman used his brute power to hit two boundaries over the covers before relying on his technique to cut Mohammad Hafeez.At the other end, Vince manipulated the ball and ran hard, although he couldn’t resist an immaculate back-foot cover drive as the opening partnership rushed pass 50.Donald was given a piece of luck when he was dropped by deep midwicket Nathan Sowter on 47, before a deft glance took him to his milestone in 31 balls. The 22-year-old fell to the next ball he faced as he reversed to short third man to end a 96-run stand for the first wicket – Hampshire’s highest of the Blast.Sam Northeast arrived at the crease and was dropped on 12 before he was bowled by Steven Finn, but Vince passed his half-century in 43 balls and saw Hampshire over the line.Earlier, Middlesex won the toss, decided to bat and reached a par 153 for 5 thanks to de Villiers’ hitting and a series of starts.Paul Sterling and captain Dawid Malan put on 47 for the first wicket in a little over five overs, both striking the ball cleanly. But they departed in successive overs, the former clothing to mid-off and the latter caught on the square leg boundary after the returning Mason Crane had frustrated him with four dot balls.Leg spinner Crane, who missed six games with a side strain, was the pick of the Hampshire bowlers and added Hafeez to his tally, lbw to end with 2 for 22.Eoin Morgan was leg before to Tabraiz Shamsi and John Simpson was caught at mid-on to give Kyle Abbott his 150th T20 wicket before de Villiers accelerated Middlesex to a decent score.De Villiers had been tempered to reach 28 off 25 balls but back-to-back sixes over the leg side off Shamsi saw him hit his gears and a four from the final ball of the innings handed him a 34-ball half-century – the 57th of his career.

A dead game, a dud pitch, a soft ball – floodlit cricket was not exactly leaving hearts racing at the Ageas Bowl

ECB Reporters Network23-Jun-2018
ScorecardHarry Brook and Jack Leaning’s half centuries couldn’t prevent Hampshire and Yorkshire from a dour draw during the day-night Specsavers County Championship match at the Ageas Bowl.The pair made sure Yorkshire avoided any chance of losing with a 108-run stand, which stretched over 38 overs, as they both chalked up milestones.Yorkshire and Hampshire both move above Lancashire into fifth placed of the Division One table as they moved level on points – the former taking 10 points to Hampshire’s 11 from the match.Yorkshire had started the day with a slender two run deficit, with two wickets intact – with key batsmen Gary Ballance and Cheteshwar Pujara at the crease.But both departed within the first hour to spark Hampshire’s hopes of starting a collapse, and possibly a route to victory.The pair had added exactly 50, having been joined the previous night, before Ballance edged on loan off-spinner Ollie Rayner behind to Tom Alsop.The England middle-order batsman had only managed to add three runs to his overnight score in 14 afternoon overs.An over later Indian Test man Cheteshwar Pujara was bowled between bat and pad by Ian Holland, the American born Australian’s first wicket of the season.Just as Yorkshire were staring at a slump, Brook and Leaning came together for the fifth wicket to take the game back towards a stalemate.Brook was the more aggressive and actively sought the bad ball to drill towards the boundary, while Leaning set in for the long haul.The completely soft first pink ball offered little chance to bowlers, while making it almost impossible for the batsmen to get value for their shots.Brook accelerated from 35 to his half century in a single Holland over – caressing a quartet of boundaries through the off-side – with the milestone shot his 68th delivery.The 19-year-old had early scored 79 in the first innings to prove his talent as one of the most exciting young players on the circuit.The new ball, taken with a minimum 53 scheduled overs remaining, also failed to take effect as Dale Steyn and Fidel Edwards struggled to get anything out of it the ball or slow pitch.Brook fell in freak circumstances as he was run out at the non-strikers end, after Gareth Berg had pushed Leaning’s straight drive into the stumps.But Leaning continued and completed a second half century of the season in an epic 174 balls.Jonny Tattersall reached 22 before he was bowled by Rayner – the debutant ending with figures of 4 for 54.When Steven Patterson and James Vince eventually shook hands at 7.50pm, Leaning had crawled to 54 from 191 balls – with Yorkshire ending 170 runs in front.

Joe Root admits he was shocked by his first experience of Test cricket in Australia but has promised he will be much better prepared when England return for the Ashes at the end of the year

George Dobell at Headingley29-Mar-20171:05

Taylor tips Root to thrive as captain

Joe Root admits he was shocked by his first experience of Test cricket in Australia but has promised he will be much better prepared when England return for the Ashes at the end of the year.Root, England’s newly appointed Test captain, went to Australia in 2013-14 as a 22-year-old with a growing reputation as England’s finest young batsman. But by the end of the series he had been dropped, England had been defeated 5-0 and he concedes he was “caught cold” by the hostility of the experience.Greeted by abusive crowds, even more abusive opponents and an excellent fast-bowling attack led by Mitchell Johnson, Australia provided a far from gentle welcome. And while Root managed 87 in the second innings in Adelaide, it was the only time he reached 30 and he was dropped, with a series average of 27.42, after the fourth Test.”That first Test match at Brisbane, when I walked out to bat, I think it did it hit me quite hard,” Root said. “It was like I walked into a conservatory door: I was not aware at all that it was there.”For large periods of that trip, I was spending my time and energy working on things that other people said I needed to work on; getting forward; a bigger stride; getting into the ball. But in reality, they were bowling 95mph bouncers, so it was pointless.”But I will be slightly more aware this time. I won’t be caught cold. I know what to expect from what can be quite a hostile environment.”Root is determined that other young players – and Haseeb Hameed would appear to be a prime example – should not be similarly exposed this time.Joe Root: “I won’t be caught cold in Australia”•BRUT Sport Style

“I think it’s very important that the guys that haven’t been there get a good idea of what it can be like,” he said. “They shouldn’t be afraid of it. They should try to embrace it and enjoy it. It’s not always easy to enjoy it, but that tour is a great opportunity for this team.”I think I’ve done all my learning from that tour already. I came back from it and thought: just strengthen all the things that have served you very well for long periods of time and slowly but surely work on the rest of it. From that I gained a lot of confidence. It was a really good way, from being in quite a difficult spot, of feeling good again.”If England are to win in Australia, Root knows that he will have to score heavily. So, odd though it may sound, he says the piece of advice he has most taken to heart since he became captain, is to ensure his own game is in order.”I’ve had a lot of people provide quite similar advice,” he said. “But the one thing that’s really stuck out is ‘just make sure you look after your own game and concentrate on scoring as many runs as possible.'”That might come across as quite selfish. But I think it’s going to be very important for me, mentally as well, to put in the work and set the right example when the opportunities arise.”He doesn’t have to look far to find examples of talented young batsmen who appear to have thrived with the responsibility of leadership. Steve Smith, in particular, has batted exceptionally well in recent times, with Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson also highly impressive.”They are great examples of taking that responsibility and making it a real asset to their games,” Root said. “It’s a good opportunity for me to do exactly the same. Over the last couple of years my consistency has been fantastic. But between 50 and 100 there have been far too many occasions when I have got out.”On a few occasions I have been got out, but the majority of the time it has been a lapse of concentration and that’s not good enough. I’m going to have to make sure that moving forward I set a really good example by going on and trying to make sure I make the most of those good starts and be a little bit more ruthless.”In the past, the more responsibility I’ve been given, I’ve generally responded well to it. Hopefully that will be the same.”Root has enjoyed success in home Ashes series, but his maiden tour of Australia was another story•Getty Images

Root is also confident that, while his England will play tough cricket – “There have occasions in the past when we probably have folded a little too easily,” he admitted – they will be able to retain good relationships with their opponents.”I don’t think there was too much bad blood in our series against India,” he said. “There were a few of our guys who were quite passionate and vocal and Virat and a few of his guys were the same. If you understand and respect that and you don’t take it too far and make it personal then I don’t know what the issue is.”There’s nothing wrong with going and having a beer after the game. It is quite nice actually, if someone has really laid into you for five weeks and then you go up to them with a beer and make them feel really uncomfortable. It’s quite good when you can ask them some difficult questions like ‘how’s the missus? How’s the kids?’ And see how they respond to it.”It is good that we are open to that as a side and hopefully other teams are as well.”Joe Root and James Anderson were speaking on behalf of BRUT Sport Style, the new fragrance from men’s grooming brand BRUT

Samuel Badree has said that he is enjoying his new role of bowling during the middle overs and containing the flow of runs

Nagraj Gollapudi23-Mar-20161:14

Match Day – Badree’s consistency with line terrific

Samuel Badree has already seen the best and worst of himself in West Indies’ first two matches in the World T20. In Mumbai, against England, he had the third-most expensive figures in his T20I career. In Bangalore, on Sunday, he silenced Sri Lanka with a three-wicket haul to record his second-best bowling figures in T20Is.Despite finishing with figures of 4-0-12-3, Badree was pipped to the Man-of-the-Match award by Andre Fletcher who, playing his first match of the tournament, surprised Sri Lanka with a strokefull 84. Fletcher ensured West Indies did not feel the absence of Chris Gayle, who was forced to sit out in the dressing room as a precautionary measure, having suffered a mild hammy in his left leg.Similarly, Badree has made certain that West Indies are secure despite the absence of their premier offspinner Sunil Narine, who opted out of the tournament to work further on his remodelled action. Narine has not played for West Indies since being banned last year during a tour of Sri Lanka.”The absence of Sunil is a big blow to the team. You know how dangerous he is especially in these conditions. Yes, we have talked about someone having to step up the fill those huge shoes. I am happy thus far in the tournament I was able to do that quite competently,” Badree said in Nagpur, where West Indies will play South Africa on Friday in their third Super10 match.Badree, one of the most successful spinners in the Powerplay, said though he was forced to adapt to the new role of bowling in the middle overs, he was enjoying it. “We have seen in the first couple of games that I have started then I am held back for a couple in the middle as well. We have seen how important spin is especially after the Powerplay during the middle overs when the ball is a little bit older.”According to Badree, it will be a big challenge for West Indies on Friday when they encounter the “very powerful batting line-up” of South Africa. But Badree wanted West Indies to take confidence from their dominant performance agaisnt Sri Lanka, where they applied pressure right from the start.”It is all about the start. If a team gets off to a flier it is always difficult. But we were able to pick up early wickets of [Tillakaratne] Dilshan and [Dinesh] Chandimal, two of their more experienced batters. So it was a little bit easier to come to bowl at their middle order who were under pressure. Luckily for me I was able to pitch the ball up and pick up wickets as well,” Badree said.Despite his heroics, Badree acknowledged the contribution from left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn. “He must not go unheralded. His spell of four overs for 13 runs was tremendous especially bowling to a set [Angelo] Mathews and Thisara Perera, who was looking to take the mantle of scoring runs at the end.”Badree, however, would not venture into talking about South Africa’s weakness against spin, which has been a talking point in the tournament. He would not also be drawn into the slow nature of the Nagpur pitch, which became the biggest talking point in India’s opening match against New Zealand. The one thing Badree did concede, though, was the importance of striking early.”If the wicket is turning you obviously want to bowl slow and exploit that and takes wickets early. In T20 cricket sometimes people underestimate how important early wickets are in terms of restricting the opposition,” Badree said.”It is fair to say we are strong in our batting department. We haven’t been tested in defending a total. Luckily thus far the captain has been able to win both the tosses. Here in Nagpur it seems as if the pitch is going to turn so we might want to bat first and set a total and defend that.”You never know. That is the captain’s call. At the end of the day the toss is not guaranteed. Whether we bat first or we bowl first we know that at the end of the day we want to win all our games and send a signal to the other teams we here to compete and we are here to win.”

Kent’s outside hopes of qualifying for the YB40 semi-finals were ended as floodlight failure caused them to lose their penultimate Group A game to Warwickshire by seven runs under the Duckworth/Lewis method.

15-Aug-2013
ScorecardDarren Stevens was leading the chase until the floodlight failure•Getty Images

Kent’s outside hopes of qualifying for the Yorkshire Bank 40 semi-finals were ended as floodlight failure caused them to lose their penultimate Group A game to Warwickshire by seven runs under the Duckworth/Lewis method.Pursuing 214 for victory at Canterbury, Kent had reached 113 for 4 after 24.3 overs – nine runs shy of the Duckworth/Lewis par score – when generator failure to one of the five floodlights at the St Lawrence ground interrupted proceedings just before 9pm. Talks between the players, umpires and ground officials failed to resolve the issue, and led to the abandonment at 9.20pm due to unsafe conditions.Kent, who needed a seventh win to stay in contention for the knockout phase, had made a faltering start to their pursuit in losing Rob Key for seven to a simple catch to mid-on with their score on 23. Offspinner Ateeq Javid struck again in his next over, having Sam Northeast caught at short midwicket to leave the hosts in trouble at 36 for 2.Brendan Nash and Darren Stevens almost doubled Kent’s total before Nash, backing away to cut a short delivery from Boyd Rankin, edged to the wicketkeeper. With Stevens and Fabian Cowdrey in full flow, Kent posted 100 by the 21st over but soon after Cowdrey was caught behind down the leg side for six when attempting a paddle against Rikki Clarke.With Stevens on 42 and Geraint Jones unbeaten on two the floodlight nearest the lime tree failed after a loud bang and, with half the ground in shadow, the players left the field.Batting first after losing the toss, basement side Warwickshire made a reasonable start through William Porterfield and Varun Chopra, who posted 60 for the first wicket within 14 overs. Kent skipper and England one-day international James Tredwell then disrupted their progress by taking two wickets in consecutive overs from the Pavilion End.Chopra perished when attempting to reverse sweep, only to top-edge to Brendan Nash at backward square leg. Two runs later Jim Troughton slog swept Tredwell to pick out Northeast on the ropes at deep midwicket and depart for just 1.Bears’ veteran Daren Maddy, who is set to retire next month, scored only 4 before his indecisive prod at an Adam Riley arm ball saw him depart leg before to make it 76 for 3 at the mid-point of the Warwickshire innings.Porterfield looked set to anchor the visitors’ innings with a chanceless 70-ball half-century with three fours and a six but, nine balls later, he perished for a well compiled 57. Aiming to drive at former England Under-19 left-arm seamer Adam Ball, Porterfield miscued high to cover where Stevens took a well-judged catch to reduce the visitors to 112 for 4.The Bears regrouped with a fifth-wicket stand of 69 in 8.4 overs between Clarke and Javid until both fell in consecutive overs. Having muscled eight fours in his stay, Clarke drove on the up against Mitch Claydon to be caught at long-off, then Javid’s 44-ball innings ended when he went leg before shovelling across the line to Stevens.Steffan Piolet gifted Stevens a second wicket when he was bowled heaving to leg in the penultimate over to leave Kent facing an asking rate of 5.35 an over for victory.

Ireland’s warm-up plans for the ICC World Twenty20 have been thrown into chaos after South Africa A pulled out of the remainder of their tour

Ger Siggins27-Aug-2012Ireland’s warm-up plans for the ICC World Twenty20 have been thrown into chaos after South Africa A pulled out of the remainder of their tour due to the threat of more poor weather. The month-long visit of the South Africans ended early after the first of four Twenty20 games was rained-off at Oak Hill on Monday.”It’s not a decision we’ve taken lightly but given the amount of cricket that’s been lost on the trip already and with the further likelihood of further disruption, we felt it was necessary to give the players a chance to prepare for the ICC World Twenty20,” Vincent Barnes, the South Africa A coach, said.”It’s been an incredibly frustrating tour for everyone concerned with the weather, but I’d like to thank Cricket Ireland for their hospitality and understanding in what was a difficult decision for ourselves.”Ireland coach, Phil Simmons, said: “There’s no doubt that it’s a serious blow to our preparations for the ICC World Twenty20.”But we will have two weeks in Sri Lanka before our games against Australia and West Indies, and we of course have warm-up fixtures against Sri Lanka A, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in Colombo.”The decision by South Africa to abort the tour is unprecedented and deeply disappointing to Irish supporters. The last two T20 games of the series were to have provided a gala opening to the new international stadium in Malahide.Cricket Ireland chief executive, Warren Deutrom, said: “We fully appreciate that the priority for Cricket South Africa is to give players that might be involved in the ICC World T20 every opportunity to get meaningful practice beforehand, which we cannot guarantee here, so we completely appreciate their decision.”It goes without saying that we are disappointed for everyone, not least the players of both sides, our sponsors RSA and the hosting venues of Malahide and Oak Hill that have put in so much effort but have been ultimately defeated by the awful weather.”Although the forecast for the second half of the week is much better, the long-range view for Sunday is uncertain, while the inability of the players to train meaningfully before then and risk of possible injury is too big to take.”Simmons was forced into a late rethink of his plans for Sri Lanka, already hit by the injury to allrounder John Mooney.”It’s been a frustrating season for all concerned and the South African tour has been particularly hard hit by the elements,” he said. “If we’re unable to train outdoors this week we’ll look to go to North County and have indoor sessions before we leave for Sri Lanka next Tuesday.”The South Africa A tour was scheduled to provide 15 days of high-class competition for Ireland’s home-based players, but the weather refused to co-operate. Just 490 overs of play were possible before the tour was cancelled.Play was possible on only two days of each of the four-day games, both of which ended in draws; all three 50-over games were affected by the weather – one was abandoned and the other two ended in D/L wins for South Africa A; and the first T20 match was abandoned without a ball bowled.

Former team manager Imran Khan has criticised the USA Cricket Association administration, blaming it for the national team’s failure to advance from ICC WCL Division Three

Peter Della Penna16-Jul-2011Former team manager Imran Khan has criticised the USA Cricket Association (USACA) administration, calling its president Gladstone Dainty and the board of directors incompetent and blaming them for the national team’s failure to advance from ICC WCL Division Three to the top echelon of Associate cricket.”The people in charge have completely failed,” Khan, who was USA’s manager from 2008 until the tour to Hong Kong in January, told ESPNcricinfo. “Don’t blame the team. They’re at the low level. It starts right at the top. These guys have proven their incompetence.”Since his return from Hong Kong, Khan claimed he received no communication from USACA despite attempts to reach out to them. According to USACA general manager, Manaf Mohammed, Khan was not invited to be the team manager for the upcoming ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament in Florida because he lived in England and it was not worth flying him in. Khan, however, said this was another indication of how USACA operates because he has been living at his summer home in San Francisco for several months.According to Khan, as team manager, he made it a priority to write and submit detailed reports after each tournament. They covered the organisation of practice sessions, team selection, kits, travel itinerary and evaluations of each player’s off-field behaviour on tour. Khan claimed the administration ignored the reports and any recommendations he made.”The only response I’ve ever had is, ‘Your reports are too long. Nobody reads them’,” Khan said. “What is the point of writing these reports and giving the feedback and analysis when nobody cares? They just want a confirmation the tour happened and that’s it.”The manner in which players were treated by the administration, Khan said, was unacceptable and the selection for the ICC Americas Division One T20 tournament was the latest of several confusing decisions made by the country’s three selectors. Khan said the biggest problem was that the players were not told why they were dropped or where they stand. He claimed this was the case with batsman Sushil Nadkarni – one of 10 players cut after the Hong Kong tour – before he was abruptly brought back into the squad last week at the expense of Nauman Mustafa, allegedly on Dainty’s orders.”They are incompetent and they are not capable,” Khan said. “I’m talking about the president all the way down to all the directors and all the people involved in leadership positions because I’ve met most of them … they don’t have the ability to communicate such a thing.”The communication breakdown was not limited to the players, Khan said, and was responsible for damaging relationships with coaches as well as lost sponsorship opportunities. He said that, on the tour to the UAE and Nepal in February 2010, former chief executive Don Lockerbie had promised Dipak Patel, the former New Zealand spinner, who was with the team as a consultant coach, the position of head coach and the responsibility of building a national development program. After the tour ended, though, Patel did not hear back from anyone. Lockerbie’s presence, Khan said, had also undermined the role of head coach Clayton Lambert and created disharmony among players loyal to Lambert.”In my presence, he [Patel] was promised the main coaching job in the US, responsible for its development,” Khan said. “He was going to take over. Dipak was even talking about moving his family to the US and how he would convey that to his family and how his wife and kids would react to that. A seed had been planted, ‘we want you. Now we’re going to talk about salaries,’ and then once the tour ended, it finished.”Prior to the ICC WCL Division Four in Italy in August 2010, Khan said Mohammed had publicly discussed plans for the team to go to England for a pre-tournament training camp. Khan was organising that portion of the tour through his network of contacts. The arrangements included a day at Lord’s and several warm-up games against representative XIs but USACA canceled everything at the last minute.”That was shocking and embarrassing for me because I unfortunately burnt a lot of bridges in England and [lost] long-established contacts with reputable people,” Khan said. “We talked to Jimmy Ormond who used to play for England and Surrey. They decided to host a Surrey XI, ex-professionals or current professionals, and we had got a Kent XI. We were going to organise a similar thing in Sussex, or up in Henley with a Berkshire XI.Khan also spoke of a deal with Gray-Nicolls – “whose head I knew very well” – who would supply free kits to USA’s first XI in return for the chance to sell merchandise through the USACA website. It needed the chief executive’s signature but that never came.Khan says the people most affected by the administration are those who come through the Under-19 system but fail to get the support necessary to develop their talent. “Dipak Patel offered to take the majority of these kids into club cricket in New Zealand to develop them,” Khan said. “That Under-19 team that went to the World Cup in 2010, that should have been the majority [senior] team now. How many of those kids are in this team?”Let’s look at Ryan Corns. What has he done to be dropped? This is your young, prime talent coming through. He could be a future captain. He’s from a white background, so from a marketing perspective it makes sense. Not only is he a great prospect for the future and a good player, but he also could be a good face for US cricket to sell to the domestic public. It just makes sense and yet you’ve kicked him out for Joe Average players nobody’s heard of. It’s a short-term thing done for votes.”According to Khan, the current administration is locked in a power struggle based on ethnic and cultural alliances that is damaging to all stakeholders. For the organisation to truly succeed, he feels, a wave of young business professionals independent of political influence needs to step up and take control.”There will never be a unified structure until this old guard is completely replaced. This old guard with their back-home mentality is always the problem. I mean they do a lot of good things – they established the thing – but when they try to replicate what they had back home is when the problem begins.”