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Ben Duckett and James Vince warmed up for the North-South Series with fluent centuries on a high-scoring day at the ICC Academy in Dubai

ECB Reporters Network15-Mar-2017Ben Duckett and James Vince warmed up for the North-South Series with fluent centuries on a high-scoring day at the ICC Academy in Dubai.Duckett cracked 137 from 92 balls, with three sixes and 22 fours, as the North piled up 416 for 6 against a full-strength but rusty Worcestershire attack in their warm-up match – with captain Keaton Jennings dropping to No.3 to hit five sixes in his 92, his highest score since his century on Test debut in Mumbai last year.That always seemed likely to prove too much for Worcestershire, who are in the UAE for their pre-season preparations and accepted a late opportunity to replace Afghanistan as the North’s warm-up opposition – and despite an opening stand of 128 in 20 overs between Daryl Mitchell (89) and Brett D’Oliveira (65), and defiant lower-order half centuries by Ed Barnard and new captain Joe Leach, they were all out for 345 in the 49th over.The first five wickets fell to the North spinners – Graeme White, Liam Livingstone and Josh Poysden, who ended with three for 42 – before Mark Wood returned after a tidy three-over opening spell to take his first wicket of the year, in an encouraging comeback after his ankle operation last autumn.The South seemed set for more of a struggle on the adjoining oval against the UAE, who made 343 for 9 from their 50 overs with centuries from Rohan Mustafa and Shaiman Anwar.But Dawid Malan, fresh from his triumph in the Pakistan Super League, laid a sound platform with 79 from 71 balls, sharing a second-wicket stand of exactly 100 with Vince – who went on to make an unbeaten 125 from 85 balls with 14 fours and four sixes before retiring to give the South’s middle-order some time at the crease.Mark Wood was making his comeback after ankle surgery•Getty Images

They won by five wickets with 10 balls to spare, with handy contributions from Sam Northeast and Tom Alsop, after Daniel Bell-Drummond had made 37 in an opening stand of 81 with Malan.Neither game had List A status, but both Vince and Duckett look ready to stake their claims for an England white-ball recall in the North-South Series – which will be watched by England head coach Trevor Bayliss and all three selectors.Vince, who turned 26 on Tuesday, was batting for the first time since his farewell appearance for Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash on January 18, while Duckett looked in good touch throughout England Lions’ one-day series in Sri Lanka but was frustrated to be restricted to a single half century.The serious business begins on Friday in the grander surroundings of the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, which will stage the first two matches of the series before it concludes in Abu Dhabi next Tuesday.Tom Curran, the only member of either 13-man squad not to take part in the warm-up matches because of a stiff back, is confident of being available for selection to the South’s coach Paul Farbrace.

Australia’s decision to rest Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood might have contributed to their being thrashed 5-0 in the one-day series in South Africa, but Hazlewood is confident that he will be better for the break this Test summer

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Oct-2016Australia’s decision to rest Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood might have contributed to their being thrashed 5-0 in the one-day series in South Africa, but Hazlewood is confident that he will be better for the break this Test summer.While Steven Smith and his men fly home from their disappointing tour of South Africa, Hazlewood is in Sydney preparing to play in the later stages of the Matador Cup for New South Wales. Friday’s game against Victoria will be his first competitive outing since Australia’s one-day series in Sri Lanka in late August.Australia used three previously uncapped fast men during the South Africa campaign – Chris Tremain, Joe Mennie and Daniel Worrall – and although they all showed promise at times, overall it was a major step up for the trio. But despite the 5-0 result in the ODIs, Australia must now hope the decision to rest Hazlewood and Starc pays off in next month’s Test series against South Africa.”Sri Lanka was a long tour physically and mentally,” Hazlewood told reporters in Sydney on Thursday. “And with a lot of cricket coming up I think the rest was valid.”However, the absence of Starc and Hazlewood did not help Australia’s cause in the ODI series, during which Scott Boland and John Hastings were the senior fast bowlers in the side. Tremain finished as Australia’s leading wicket taker with seven at 36.42, Mennie had a poor debut but bounced back with 3 for 49 in the final game, and Worrall went wicketless in his two ODIs against South Africa.”It is an opportunity to see some younger guys,” Smith said after the final game in Cape Town. “I think with the schedule these days and the amount we play, it’s impossible particularly for fast bowlers to sustain bowling at good pace for long periods of time.”We’ve chosen to give Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood a rest for this series. It’s given an opportunity for a few younger guys to come in and try and impress. It’s been a very tough series for everyone, but I’m sure they’ll learn a lot out of it.””I’ve never played in a one-day series where we’ve lost all five games. It’s been a difficult task. We’ve been outplayed. But the group has stuck together well. We’re always looking at ways we can improve … We just haven’t been able to go out there and do the business. We’ve had a pretty inexperienced side, to be fair.”Smith also highlighted the lack of runs from the batting order, aside from David Warner, as a key reason Australia were unable to win a match. Warner finished as the leading run scorer from either side, with 386 at 77.20 including two centuries, and he is comfortably top of the ODI run list from all countries for the 2016 calendar year, in which he has made five hundreds.”We just haven’t been able to put enough partnerships together,” Smith said. “We’ve had guys who have had starts and not been able to go on with it. Having said that, Davey was magnificent today. To score 170 out of our 290 was remarkable. The rest of us weren’t good enough.”

Callum Ferguson will captain a South Australia squad lacking experience during this year’s Matador Cup

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Sep-2016Callum Ferguson will captain a South Australia squad lacking experience during this year’s Matador Cup. The Redbacks lost the final to New South Wales last year but this year will be without several key players – captain Travis Head, legspinner Adam Zampa, and fast bowlers Daniel Worrall and Joe Mennie – who are part of Australia’s ODI squad in South Africa.As a result, South Australia’s 14-man group for the one-day campaign includes five uncapped players. Fast bowler Wes Agar, the brother of Australia spinner Ashton Agar, is a chance to make his debut for the Redbacks having signed a rookie contract with them this year, while there could also be one-day debuts for Jake Weatherald, Michael Cormack, Cameron Valente and Nick Benton.The only players with significant one-day experience in the South Australia squad are Ferguson, Tom Cooper, Kane Richardson, Alex Ross and Tim Ludeman. The tournament will mark the return to cricket for Ferguson after he suffered a serious knee injury in December. Remarkably, he has only captained South Australia once before – in a solitary one-day game in 2007.”The team loses significant experience due to four Australian players being absent and we will look to Callum and other senior players to lead the way on and off the ground,” South Australia’s general manager of high performance Tim Nielsen, said. “We couldn’t be more pleased about having our players represent Australia, and it’s a huge opportunity for our squad to compete hard and continue their development from last season.”South Australia squad Callum Ferguson (capt), Wes Agar, Tom Andrews, Nick Benton, Alex Carey, Tom Cooper, Michael Cormack, Alex Gregory, Jake Lehmann, Tim Ludeman, Kane Richardson, Alex Ross, Cameron Valente, Jake Weatherald.

Diana Edulji has said the creation of a players’ association, one of several recommendations of the Lodha committee that was approved by the Supreme Court, will empower women cricketers in the country

Arun Venugopal20-Jul-2016Former India Women captain Diana Edulji has said the creation of a players’ association – one of several recommendations of the Lodha committee that was approved by the Supreme Court in a watershed verdict – will empower women cricketers in the country. Edulji is a part of the four-member steering committee, led by former union home secretary GK Pillai, that has been tasked with the responsibility of setting up a players’ association.Edulji said women players now had an outlet to express their grievances and offer suggestions. “I don’t know about the men’s side, at least from the women’s side some of the players are scared to speak,” Edulji told ESPNcricinfo. “Maybe with me there, they can come to me, speak to me and I can put forward their views to the authorities and see how best they can be benefited.”Edulji felt a women’s representative of the players’ association in the Apex Council, which will replace the working committee, would ensure greater accountability. “People will be more answerable. That will also help because we need somebody to listen to us,” she said. “There is a women’s committee in the BCCI but most of them are not players. Women’s cricket needs a little push and I think this is the right time for it.”Edulji said the players’ association shouldn’t be viewed as an anti-establishment body, and that there was a more positive attitude towards women’s cricket with initiatives like the introduction of central contracts for players. “We don’t want to antagonise BCCI. We don’t want a confrontation, and we want to work together. It is just two parties working together, the players get a little voice in a proper way. [It is] not striking or union types,” she said.”The current lot – I have been with the MCA as well in the cricket advisory committee as well – is favourable towards improving women’s cricket. Even in BCCI, I have had a word with Anurag Thakur and they are quite positive.”Edulji, however, was unsure of when the steering committee was going to meet to discuss the formation of the association. “We haven’t officially got any information. We have to wait because only the day before [yesterday] have we got the verdict,” she said. “We haven’t even been sounded out [by the BCCI] yet.”

leem Dar, the Pakistani umpire, has been drawn into a row involving one of Britain’s oldest cricket clubs, after his sons were persuaded by a rogue club official to pretend to be Scottish in order to play in a league fixture

Andrew Miller and Umar Farooq29-Apr-2016Aleem Dar, the Pakistani umpire who recently officiated in his 100th Test, has been left embarrassed by a row involving one of Britain’s oldest cricket clubs, after his sons were persuaded by a rogue club official to pretend to be Scottish in order to play in a league fixture.Kilmarnock Cricket Club was this week thrown out of the first division of the Western District Cricket Union in Scotland after it emerged that Ali and Hassan Dar, aged 18 and 16, had circumvented eligibility rules by falsely claiming to have been born in Glasgow.The pair were encouraged by Kilmarnock’s vice president, Muhammad Saleem – who has since resigned – to register under the pseudonyms Umer Mustafa and Saleh Mustafa to compete for Kilmarnock during the 2015 season, including one fixture, against Stenhousemuir in August, which was watched by Dar himself.The umpire’s trip to watch the contest in question arose after England’s three-day victory over Australia in the third Test at Edgbaston, which had left him with a free weekend to attend what he believed to be a friendly fixture at Stenhousemuir’s Tryst ground.”I do confirm that I, along with my wife, went to watch the game but it was a friendly game I thought,” Dar told ESPNcricinfo. “I went there to watch my sons and nephew Azeem, but I didn’t know that my sons were playing with different names.”My sons are too young to tamper with the personal details,” Dar added. “Both have Pakistani passports and they are proud to be Pakistanis. We have no doubt about that at any level. This entire story seems to be some kind of misunderstanding”Although no official documents were involved in the subterfuge, Kilmarnock have been punished with relegation to the second tier of the Western District Cricket Union, after it emerged that “Umer” and “Saleh” had actually been born in Pakistan and had not spent enough time in the UK in the preceding months to qualify as full-time residents.A Western Union official declared: “We received information regarding possible breaches of league rules and our investigation proved this to be the case.”It was found that two players were registered with improper details and one, or both, participated in a number of matches during the 2015 season.”The CMC [Cricket Management Committee] has decided to follow precedent by deducting all the points gained by Kilmarnock in the matches in which the two illegally registered players participated.”Kilmarnock have therefore been deducted 49 points and are now relegated.”In a statement posted to the club’s website, Kilmarnock accepted the punishment, but insisted it had been misled by “the fraudulent actions of a single committee member”.In his resignation letter, in which he also withdrew as a member of the club, Saleem apologised for the “distress and harm” he had caused to Kilmarnock CC and to the WDCU for bringing the game into disrepute.However, he claimed in mitigation that the practice had been rife among several teams during the preceding six years, and asked that the WDCU committee tighten its policy to avoid such controversies in the future.”The club denies in the strongest terms that we knowingly provided false and misleading information in the registration of the two players,” Kilmarnock’s statement continued.”Whilst this has been a hugely stressful and ultimately disappointing period in the history of the club, we have fought back from fire, flood and countless other setbacks since 1852.”The strength of any club is its members, and whilst it is galling that the fate of the club and its members has been influenced by the misguided efforts of a few, we as a club can push on again if everyone sticks together.”Kilmarnock, who won the league on seven occasions between 1949 and 1970, were replaced in the top flight by St Michael’s, who had previously been relegated at the end of the 2015 season.Dar, who is presently in Lahore, agreed that the fault for the controversy lay with the club officials.”They should be enquired about this,” he said. “If the club was relegated then that happened for a good reason. One son is 16 and the other is hardly 18. They did play the league matches there, but they had played many friendly games as well.”7.50pm BST: This story was updated with Aleem Dar’s response

9pm BST, May 1: Further updated to reflect Muhammad Saleem’s resignation

Marvan Atapattu has resigned as Sri Lanka coach, Sri Lanka Cricket has announced. His resignation was accepted by the board

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Sep-20150:42

Quick facts: Marvan Atapattu as Sri Lanka coach

Marvan Atapattu has resigned as Sri Lanka coach, Sri Lanka Cricket has announced. His resignation was accepted by the board. Neither the board, nor Atapattu has offered a reason for the decision.Atapattu had officially held the position since September last year, but had effectively been head coach since April 2014, after Paul Farbrace’s departure. Before that, he had worked as batting coach of the team since 2011. During his term as interim coach, he had overseen Sri Lanka’s first Test series win in England in 16 years. He was Sri Lanka’s first full-time local coach in 15 years.In the past 10 months, however, significant concerns over his coaching style have arisen. Atapattu is reputed to be an excellent technical coach, but is understood to have been less impressive as a man-manager – which was seen by the board as a particularly worrying trait, in Sri Lanka’s transition period.This perceived weakness, coupled with consistently poor results at the top level have likely paved the way for Atapattu’s exit. He has departed of his own volition, but did so after Sri Lanka failed to win a single series this year. The home ODI series victory against England late in 2014 remains the only trophy the team has won since Atapattu was formalised as head coach.The resignation comes two days after the completion after a particularly dispiriting home season. Sri Lanka were defeated in four Tests out of six since June, losing to Pakistan and India. The only other time Sri Lanka lost two home series in a calendar year was back in 1993.Sri Lanka’s next international begins against West Indies in mid-October, but the board is unlikely to appoint a permanent coach before then. Some members of SLC’s interim committee are understood to have a favoured candidate in mind, but the board is likely to field applications. In the meantime, a local coach may take over in a temporary capacity. SLC’s head of coaching Jerome Jayaratne would seem to be the obvious choice.Atapattu’s exit follows the resignation of Chaminda Vaas as fast-bowling coach following the World Cup this year. In his time as batting coach, Atapattu has overseen substantial improvement in Angelo Mathews’ batting, but has had mixed results with other young batsmen. In addition to the Test series win in England, Sri Lanka also won a World T20, and Asia Cup, and a Test match in South Africa during his time with the side.Atapattu led Sri Lanka in 18 Tests during his playing career. He has 90 Test matches and Test 5502 runs to his name.

Pace bowlers Steve Patterson and Mitchell Starc were quick to make their mark on the first day of Yorkshire’s match against Northamptonshire

30-May-2012
ScorecardAndrew Hall’s 79 helped repair some of the early damage for Northamptonshire•Getty Images

Pace bowlers Steve Patterson and Mitchell Starc were quick to make their mark on the first day of Yorkshire’s County Championship match against Northamptonshire at Headingley.Patterson, who received his first team cap before the start of the game, responded by firing out both openers. Left-arm paceman Starc, on his Championship debut, also picked up two early wickets as the visitors slumped to 45 for 5 in this Division Two contest after winning the toss.However, captain Andrew Hall, led a spirited rearguard action with a rugged 79 which boosted his side’s score to 253. In five overs before the close, Yorkshire reached 27 without loss.Offspinner Azeem Rafiq, replaced the out-of-form Adil Rashid, for his first Championship outing since last May, and wicketkeeper Gerard Brophy made way for Jonny Bairstow – who had been given permission to play by England.Patterson shared the new ball with Ryan Sidebottom and in his third over dismissed Stephen Peters, who edged low to Phil Jaques at third slip. Patterson struck again two overs later when he trapped former Yorkshire all-rounder James Middlebrook leg before wicket.Starc got his chance when Sidebottom was rested and his fifth delivery comprehensively bowled Alex Wakely. The Australian was then struck for three legside boundaries in one over by Rob White but quickly gained revenge by trapping him lbw, leaving Northamptonshire 35 for 4.The slide continued as Sidebottom returned to the attack and had Kyle Coetzer caught behind with a ball which held its line. However, Hall and David Murphy teamed up move the visitors to 62 for 5 at lunch – and continued the revival in the afternoon.Hall, after an uncharacteristically slow start, played Starc through midwicket for four and in the same over slashed a boundary to third man, but Murphy had an escape on 35 when the Australian had him put down by Adam Lyth low at second slip.Murphy, having greeted Rafiq by driving his fifth ball for six, soon afterwards edged Sidebottom to Bairstow for 40 to end a 76-run stand in 27 overs with his captain. Northamptonshire continued their fightback through Hall and Con de Lange although Hall, on 25, survived a chance when he slapped Patterson to midwicket – where Anthony McGrath could not hold on to the catch.Hall’s fighting half-century came off 138 balls with seven boundaries but at 163 he lost De Lange, who was lbw on the back foot to McGrath. The scoring accelerated with the arrival of David Willey until both departed quickly when the new ball was taken.Hall was bowled attempting an expansive drive at Patterson for 79 from 179 deliveries with 10 fours and in the next over Willey fell lbw to Sidebottom after umpire Peter Hartley had spent a long time raising his finger. Pattinson pulled up with cramp in his 19th over and left the field for treatment and the innings was wrapped up by Rafiq, who bowled Oli Stone to claim his only victim.Yorkshire began well with Lyth taking two boundaries from Willey’s opening over and the left-hander stood on 14 at the close with Joe Root 7.

Stuart Broad began impressively, but centuries from James Hildreth and Craig Kieswetter made it Somerset’s day

Jon Culley at Trent Bridge11-Jul-2011
Scorecard
James Hildreth eventually fell to Stuart Broad, but not before he’d made 137•Getty Images

Sometimes, county cricket’s chaotic fixture list can be a blessing. The latest round of four-day games sits in peculiar isolation in the middle of a three-week block of Twenty20 matches, which is less than ideal, in particular for batsmen faced with the demands of adjusting style to suit the format. Without it, though, Stuart Broad would have to concede that his place in the England team to face India in the first Test on Thursday week would be in serious doubt.It is in some doubt anyway, given the loss of form that led him to him being left out of Saturday’s decisive fifth one-day international against Sri Lanka. But the brief resumption of Championship cricket at least gives him a chance to put in some overs for Nottinghamshire in the hope of eradicating his current shortcomings. With his card marked by the England selectors, he rang Mick Newell, Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket, last Friday, emphasising his eagerness to play.”He is certainly not playing under duress,” Newell said. “He knows his place is under threat but he has responded in the right way. He has not been looking like someone who is thinking ‘what am I doing here?'”You would guess that it is a three-way race between him, Tim Bresnan and maybe Steven Finn to be third seamer at Lord’s and he is eager to make that place his. For us it is a bonus because I didn’t think we would see him again this year.”Newell sympathised with Broad’s predicament in the face of sustained criticism in the media, which has been fanned by his disciplinary problems. Some of his team-mates suspect he has been identified as a ready scapegoat whenever the England team put in a below-par performance.”As a cricketer he is still learning,” Newell said. “But he barely plays county cricket, so he is having to learn in Test matches, on flat pitches against good players. And the way he bowls depends on what kind of bowler England want him to be.”When appropriate, Newell is as keen as anyone to see Broad to use his height to frighten batsmen, particularly the way he did in the corresponding fixture last year, when he gave Craig Kieswetter a classic ‘going-over’ and bowled Nottinghamshire to victory with five second-innings wickets.Indeed, on a day that began with a fine spell with the new ball, followed by a couple of less impressive stints, Broad wound up by taking a wicket with a short-pitched delivery in a clever piece of bowling around the wicket to James Hildreth to a loaded leg-side field.Hildreth could not resist the temptation to hook — although he had scored 137 by then — and duly made a hash of one. Wicketkeeper Chris Read, running full pelt towards fine leg, took a fine diving catch.But Trent Bridge tends to encourage bowlers who pitch the ball up and let it swing, especially in the warm, muggy atmosphere that prevailed on the first day here. Nottinghamshire prepared one that was scarcely less green than its uncut neighbours, tailor made for Andre Adams, who bowled them to the title last year. Yet Broad showed he could make the conditions work for him, too, in an opening spell Newell rated as “excellent”, by taking a wicket with his seventh ball, pitched up and nudged to second slip by Arul Suppiah.It began a difficult morning for Somerset, who were put in. Luke Fletcher quickly had Nick Compton out to another fine catch by Voges, diving across Alex Hales at first slip, from a similar delivery, before Adams struck twice, uprooting Marcus Trescothick’s off stump with a peach of a ball before a tricky maiden Championship innings for 20-year-old Durham University student Chris Jones ended with a wide ball edged again into the safe hands of Voges.At 48 for 4 Somerset looked ripe for demolition. Broad took eight wickets when they ran into him here last season, in April and one wondered if he might be warming up for a timely repeat. But the remainder of the day belonged not to Broad, who had his left heel padded and has gained a sore right ankle for his troubles, but to Kieswetter and Hildreth, who have put Somerset in control with a mammoth partnership of 290 for the fifth wicket.Given the conditions, which eased but were never without a lurking threat, it was a performance of considerable merit. Kieswetter rode his luck early, surviving a succession of edges that fell short of ride of the slip cordon, but is still there on 151, needing only three to surpass his previous highest first-class score.Hildreth, though guilty of the odd streaky stroke, made few errors. He has not had a productive season so far, which probably explains why Somerset have fallen short of expectations, and will feel much better for this effort. He is further back in the England pecking order than Broad or Kieswetter but made good strides as England Lions captain last winter and national selector Geoff Miller, while ostensibly present on Broad-watch, cannot fail to have been impressed.

Pakistan’s limited-overs captain Shahid Afridi and other senior members of the team may be rested for the upcoming West Indies tour that begins on April 18

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Apr-2011Pakistan’s limited-overs captain Shahid Afridi and other senior members of the team may be rested for the upcoming West Indies tour that begins on April 18.”I am yet to decide on the West Indies tour,” Afridi said at a press conference following Pakistan’s World Cup exit. He also hinted at rest for other seniors in the side, but the PCB is yet to respond.Pakistan have had a draining schedule in recent times, starting with the World Twenty20 in April 2010 followed by the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka and a tour of England, which included full series against Australia and the home side. Next was another full-fledged bilateral series in the UAE against South Africa, and a long tour of New Zealand, before the team returned to the subcontinent for the World Cup. In addition to their gruelling on-field commitments, the Pakistan team also hurtled from one off-field controversy to another, including the spot-fixing scandal and Zulqarnain Haider’s mysterious exit from the team hotel in UAE.The West Indies tour includes a Twenty20, five one-dayers and two Tests, and allows the players less than three weeks for rest.

The ECB have given Glamorgan a partial refund on the staging fee for the second Twenty20 international against Pakistan in September

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Oct-2010The ECB have given Glamorgan a partial refund on the staging fee for the second Twenty20 international against Pakistan held in September.The SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff hosted two Twenty20 matches in the immediate aftermath of the spot-fixing scandal and suffered poor ticket sales as the rumours surrounding the Pakistan players led to uncertainty over whether or not the matches would go ahead.The effect on walk-up sales at the ground was clear as a crowd of just 6,000 attended the second match on September 7 – a drop of around 5,000 on the first encounter 48 hours earlier. Glamorgan claim they have been given half of their staging fee back but, while an ECB spokesman confirmed that a rebate had been granted, no figures have been confirmed.Glamorgan chairman Paul Russell told BBC Sport: “We have come to an agreement with the ECB because we were faced with a set of circumstances that were not entirely of our making to put it at its mildest.”[The second match] was still in doubt the day before the game because of rather silly statements and claims that were being bandied around,” he said. “Because Pakistan, more than any other nation, attracts a following that turns up on the day, of course all of the shenanigans led to us having a [poor crowd].””The way it works is that you pay the ECB fee for the game. What we suggested was that it was unfair that we should be charged a full fee on the Tuesday because of the circumstances which affected the crowd which were beyond our control. The ECB have agreed with us and reduced the fee accordingly. They reduced it by 50%. As a result we have not made a loss on the international Twenty20.”