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.”

Steven Smith seemed relaxed and upbeat ahead of Australia’s third Test against Sri Lanka, highlighting the progress his side is making in adopting a more proactive approach on turning tracks

Daniel Brettig in Colombo12-Aug-20162:02

‘We need to play with courage’- Smith

Two days out from the Colombo Test, Steven Smith wanders into the lobby of the team hotel, and grabs a spot at the in-house cafe and bar. As Australia’s captain, he’s carrying the weight of consecutive heavy losses to Sri Lanka, the first of his leadership tenure, and the continuation of a long and increasingly tiresome theme of Asian underachievement.But there is little sense that Smith is letting all this get him grumpy or sullen. He has not, after all, withdrawn to his hotel room. After a few minutes, he is instead joined for a coffee by young batsman Travis Head, here for a Test squad apprenticeship and then the ODI matches that follow. Smith and Head talk jovially and clearly about the game, the older man conversing easily with his junior amid much cricketing gesticulation.This conversation, like Head’s mere presence, is an investment in the future. Knowledge gained in Sri Lanka over the past few weeks is to be used in pursuit of better results in this part of the world next time around, namely India next year. The looming Colombo Test can be seen in a similar light – not as the third Test of the Sri Lanka series, but the first preparatory assignment for the trip to India.”It has been disappointing,” Smith said of the tour thus far. “We have got a lot of work to do to change the way we play in these conditions. Having said that, I thought we made some good strides in the second innings [in Galle]. The way we were proactive in our thinking, the way we went about it.”As long as we can take that into the first innings of this Test match, and try and make it go a for bit longer – I think looking at the wicket it is going to be another tough one to bat on. It looks like it is going to be pretty dry again, and take a fair bit of spin, so if you can bat for a day, I dare say you will put yourself in a reasonable position.”Australian attitudes have changed over the past few weeks, as best demonstrated by the varying words of the vice-captain David Warner in Pallekele and then Colombo. There are variations within the variations provided by Asian conditions, summed up by the contrasts between the pitches of India in 2013, the UAE in 2014 and Sri Lanka in 2016. Smith reckons these surfaces have more in common with those of three years ago than those utilised so well by Pakistan the year after, meaning spinners could not be allowed to settle.”I think it has a little bit,” Smith said of whether his batsmen’s attitudes had shifted. “I think you still have to try and bat time. I guess that is what Test cricket is all about. At the same time, you do need to be proactive in your thinking, finding a way to get off strike, get down the other end and if you are down there, you can’t get out. Or, you shouldn’t get out!”It’s difficult at any time. In Australia we don’t get wickets that do what these wickets do so it’s very foreign. You almost have to reinvent your game to be successful on these surfaces. In Australia, you don’t get balls that are turning like they are here and skidding on, everything’s pretty consistent. So it’s finding a way I guess and getting outside your comfort zone.”It might be about sweeping or coming down the wicket or getting deep in your crease. Sometimes it’s easy to do in the nets and when you get out in the middle there are guys around the bat, there’s the pressure of the game, it’s a whole different ball game. It’s just having the courage and faith to sometimes take a risk you may not take in Australia and different ways of thinking to get around different situations.”That thinking extends beyond the batsmen to the bowlers, and particularly the spinners. Nathan Lyon and Jon Holland have had to adapt almost as much, from Australian overspin to Asian under-cutters. Another parched surface at the SSC ground means both will get another chance to work on their methods, and Smith has been buoyed by Holland’s progress in a short space of time.”I was watching him bowling [at training],” he said. “In Australia, he’s got quite nice shape on the ball. He gets over it and gets good drop. He’s dropped his arm path a little bit since being here. It’s hard to do just before you play your first Test, when you only come in a few days before the game when you weren’t originally here.”He didn’t have a great deal of time to find the right way to bowl in these conditions and having watched him, he’s certainly dropped his arm down a little bit and he’s getting around the ball which I think is crucial for these conditions. It looks like the seam he’s presenting looks a lot harder to play.”An hour or so later, Smith has moved to another table in the cafe, joined this time by two more senior tour members in Adam Voges and Shaun Marsh. The chatter is jovial again, the attitude that of learning. This tour has shown that Smith the captain can handle the emotions and problems of defeat; Colombo will show how much his team has learned from it.

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.

New Zealand coach Mike Hesson has credited captain Kane Williamson’s demeanour and work ethic for the team’s seamless transition from the Brendon McCullum era

Arun Venugopal in New Delhi13-Sep-2016New Zealand coach Mike Hesson has lauded captain Kane Williamson’s demeanour and work ethic for the team’s seamless transition from the Brendon McCullum era. Hesson also felt McCullum and Williamson brought a largely similar approach to their leadership styles.”Kane captained, I think, 36 games before he took over full-time. Even during the time that Brendon was captain, for a number of tours or part of the tours, Kane came in and it was a very seamless change,” Hesson told reporters after New Zealand arrived in New Delhi.”I think the key to any captain-coach relationship is to making sure that we use each other’s strengths. Kane is very thoughtful, methodical, [as a] player likes to plan well, but also likes his own time.”Brendon wasn’t hugely dissimilar to that; he prepared really well. He was probably a little bit more of a high profile, sort of ‘out there’ character, especially in New Zealand. As you see, Kane is probably slightly more of a backseat [type] but within the team they operate in a very similar fashion.”Williamson, for his part, is well aware of the importance of compartmentalising his twin roles as leader and premier batsman. Although he comes on the back of a good run of scores – Williamson finished as the team’s second-highest run-getter in New Zealand’s recent tours of Zimbabwe and South Africa – he recognises the need to pull his weight as one of the team’s better players of spin bowling.”I suppose you take that [captaincy] hat off and you are very much a batsman and you have a role to play in the team. I see them as slightly different things, so that to me is the focus,” Williamson said.”India is a tough place to play, particularly, in more recent years where the pitches have been very tricky. I guess [when] you throw in world-class spinners, the challenges are very tough but at the same time we see it as a very exciting opportunity. [The] previous series’ here, certainly spin played a huge part, and at times batting was difficult.”Hesson said playing on the dry pitches of Bulawayo during the Zimbabwe tour was a useful preparatory exercise ahead of the India series. Both he and Williamson agreed their players had to draw upon whatever past experiences they had of playing in India – either during the IPL or in past tournaments like the World T20.”That [Zimbabwe tour] was very much a spin-dominant series and conditions,” he said. “Although it didn’t spin as much, it certainly was slower and probably similar pace that we are going to face in India. The week between the series has been about rest really and recovery, and obviously the next week-to-ten days is going to be critical to be really specific around individual game plans.”Hesson was upbeat about New Zealand’s “gifted” spin trio – Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi and the returning Mark Craig – making a mark despite their relative inexperience: they have a combined tally of 98 wickets from 34 Tests.”In the last couple of years, a number of overseas spinners have done well, so we certainly back our spinning group [which is] young and inexperienced but gifted,” Hesson said. “The challenge for us is firstly in adjusting to the different ball – the SG Test is going to be completely different to what we have been operating with the Kookaburra. So, there is a little bit of change there, a little bit of changing around seam angles, which are different over here than they are in different parts of the world.”Even though we are not going to bowl like sub-continental bowlers, we do have to make sure that we find a way to create opportunities. All those three are keen learners of the game and certainly we are going to put a lot of faith in them over the coming weeks.”Hesson also believed that the seamers, Trent Boult, Tim Southee and Neil Wagner, would put to good use the time they spent working on reverse swing in Zimbabwe. “It is a huge component of playing cricket overseas,” he said. “We have obviously spent a lot of time in Zimbabwe where we got the ball to reverse, and on surfaces that aren’t responsive in terms of seam movement.”There are many different methods [of getting the ball to reverse] and we certainly are going to have to be working on that over the coming days.”

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.”

Jasprit Bumrah’s best, Punjab’s aggressive scoring rate and Madhya Pradesh’s lead highlights on the final day of the seventh round Group A matches in the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Nov-2016Shreyas Iyer, on 191 overnight, stood between Gujarat and a first-innings lead. His early dismissal for 194 on the final day meant Mumbai fell 15 short of taking three points, despite Shardul Thakur’s half-century at No. 9. Mumbai were bowled out for 417, having begun the day on 328 for 6.The second innings was reduced to a mere formality as Gujarat’s openers scored 82 without loss in 45 overs when the captains shook hands in Hubli. Priyank Panchal, the opener who made 232 in the first innings, was unbeaten on 56. Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah was named Man of the Match for a career-best 6 for 71.Mandeep Singh struck a brisk century, and medium-pacer Manpreet Gony hammered an unbeaten 66 off 26 balls, in the drawn game between Punjab and Tamil Nadu in Nagpur.Punjab had conceded the first-innings lead thanks to Kaushik Gandhi’s career-best 164. In the second innings, they scored at 4.74 runs per over, before declaring for 375. Mandeep Singh’s 128 off 160 balls anchored the innings in which Uday Kaul (65) and Gurkeerat Singh (55 off 45) also got runs, before a promoted Manpreet Gony hit eight sixes.However, the timing of Punjab’s declaration left Tamil Nadu only 37 overs to negotiate in a chase of 306. They lost only one wicket, as Abhinav Mukund (67*) and Gandhi (21*) put on 78 for the second wicket and took them to stumps.Saurabh Wakaskar scored his second fifty of the game as Railways settled for a point after conceding the first-innings lead to Madhya Pradesh at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. MP took the lead early in the day, having begun on 356 for 5, just 15 behind Railways’ 371. Overnight batsmen Devendra Bundela and Shubham Sharma continued their remarkable partnership for the sixth wicket, taking it past 200 and finally being separated with the score on 406, having come together on 164 for 5.Shubham scored 119, his maiden first-class century, while Bundela scored a career-best 188. MP added 104 runs in the last 21 overs, before declaring on 510 for 8. In reply, Railways reached 150 for 1 at the end of play. Wakaskar was unbeaten on 71, after putting on 100 for the opening wicket with Shivakant Shukla, who scored 57.

Mumbai have won a formidable 41 out of 45 Ranji finals, but this will be Gujarat’s best chance after waiting more than six decades to have a shot at the title

Shashank Kishore in Indore09-Jan-20172:26

Kishore: Gujarat used to batting big, batting long

India had not yet recorded their first Test win when Gujarat last had a shot at Indian domestic cricket’s biggest prize a lifetime ago, in 1950-51. Polly Umrigar was their captain then. Chandu Sarvate, Jamshed Bhaya, Madhavsinh Jagdale and Syed Mushtaq Ali, after whom stands are named at Indore’s Holkar Stadium, the venue of the 83rd Ranji Trophy final starting Tuesday, were in the opposition camp. Deepak Shodhan, who until May last year was India’s oldest living Test cricketer, played in the game which they lost to Holkar. Multiple generations of cricketers from Gujarat don’t know what it is to feature in a Ranji final.In comparison, Mumbai have converted 41 of their 45 finals appearances into championship wins. The last time they lost in the summit clash was to Haryana in 1990-91, a game where Dilip Vengsarkar was inconsolable after Mumbai lost by two runs. Since then, they have qualified for the finals on eleven occasions, and have won every single time, the last of which was against Saurashtra, who were crushed in little over two days last year in Pune.

Teams (likely)

Mumbai: Aditya Tare (capt, wk), Akhil Herwadkar, Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Abhishek Nayar, Siddesh Lad, Tushar Deshpande/Akshay Girap, Vijay Gohil, Shardul Thakur, Balwinder Sandhu
Gujarat: Parthiv Patel (capt, wk), Samit Gohel, Priyank Panchal, Bharghav Merai, Manprit Juneja, Rujul Bhatt, Chirag Gandhi, Rush Kalaria, RP Singh, Mehul Patel/Chintan Gaja, Hardik Patel

Yet, this is Gujarat’s best possible chance at glory, for they have shown more than just glimpses of old Mumbai in the way they have set up games, by batting big, batting long and then using the scoreboard pressure to skittle opponents. It was this tactic that worked when the sides last met in Hubli in November. But Jasprit Bumrah, whose five-for snuffed out Mumbai’s quest for a lead there, will be missed; he has been named in India’s limited-overs squad for the England series.That puts the onus on RP Singh, fresh from a nine-for in the semi-final, to spearhead the young bowling attack.They will be buoyed by the return of Rush Kalaria, who didn’t bat or bowl in the second innings during the semi-final, because of a shoulder injury. One of Mehul Patel or Chintan Gaja is in line to replace Bumrah.It’s the batting, however, that is more formidable. Priyank Panchal is on the cusp of an all-time Ranji record – he needs 146 more to beat VVS Laxman’s record for most runs in a season, achieved in 1999-00. With 1270 runs, he’s miles ahead of other batsmen for runs this season.Among batsmen from in this match, Samit Gohel, his opening partner, comes a distant second with 889 runs. Parthiv Patel, the captain, can be a thorn to any bowling attack. The domestic veteran’s grind for more than a decade now cannot be understated. Manprit Juneja and Chirag Gandhi, both of whom played key roles in building a substantial second-innings lead in a crisis during the semi-final, have shown the ability to adapt at different times.Priyank Panchal and Gujarat are both in line to break records of high standing•Sunny Shinde

That Mumbai are a step away from the title without having a single batsman or bowler in the top 10 list this season is as much due to their typical ‘khadoos’ mentality symbolized by Abhishek Nayar. The veteran, who has been a part of five title-winning teams, has often rescued the sides with telling contributions lower down the order – none more important than at the semi-final in Rajkot, where he made 58 and struck vital partnerships with the tail to not just take the lead but also stretch it past 100, which proved decisive. In the quarter-final too, against Hyderabad, he picked nine wickets in a low-scoring game which Mumbai won by 30 runs.The emergence of a young 17-year old opener in Prithvi Shaw, a schoolboy wonder, who stroked an under-pressure century on debut in the semi-final, has given Mumbai a fresh look. He will be partnered by Akhil Herwadkar, who missed the previous four games because of a foot injury. That means Praful Waghela could miss out. Herwadkar, Mumbai’s second-highest run-getter last season, was given an extended workout at an optional net session on Sunday. Shreyas Iyer – Mumbai’s highest run-getter this season without being the intimidating batsman he has been in his first two seasons – Suryakumar Yadav, Aditya Tare, the captain, and Siddesh Lad complete a formidable batting set that has shown capability of rising to the big occasions in the past.On a red-soil surface that promises bounce and has a green cover, Mumbai could possibly have a healthy headache: do they go in with two frontline seamers in Shardul Thakur and Balwinder Sandhu alongside Nayar’s more-than-useful seam-ups, or do they play a third seamer? If they decide the latter, Tushar Deshpande is likely to come in. After the debut season he has had, there can’t be much doubt over the place of left-arm spinner Vijay Gohil, unless he is injured. That means the recalled Vishal Dabholkar, who has tweaked his action after being reported earlier in the season, could sit out.The numbers favour Mumbai – they have lost just two out of the 61 matches against Gujarat, the last of which was in 1977-78. But in a crunch game, where both sides have shown why they deserve to be here, both captains insist no one had the edge over the other. That can’t be a bad thing after all.

Pierre de Bruyn has warned his Leicestershire players that complacency will not be tolerated under his leadership

George Dobell09-Feb-2017Pierre de Bruyn has warned his Leicestershire players that complacency will not be tolerated under his leadership.De Bruyn has ruffled a few feathers at Grace Road since his appointment as the county’s new head coach following the departure of Andrew McDonald at the end of 2016 season. But he is unapologetic about challenging attitudes at a club he feels has been coasting for too long and said he is prepared to deal with some unhappy senior pros as a consequence of producing more opportunities for younger players.”The club has underperformed massively,” de Bruyn said. “The fact is, we’ve been at the bottom of the Championship for a few years and, though we showed some signs of improvement in red-ball cricket, we’ve been very poor in white-ball cricket. We can’t accept that. It’s time to take a look at ourselves. We owe the supporters better.”If we are serious about taking the club forward, we are going to have to have some tough conversations. If any of the senior players are complacent, I don’t mind challenging them and I don’t mind putting myself under pressure.”If you have a squad of 25 players, more than half will not be playing and that means that some of them will be unhappy. But I want to focus on this club producing England players again and, in the likes of Zak Chappell and Ned Eckersley, we have guys with the talent to do that. We can’t be accepting batsmen averaging in the mid-20s any more.”That would appear to be a reference to Angus Robson. He was the club’s highest Championship run-scorer in 2014 and second highest in 2015, but endured a tougher 2016, averaging 27.11 with a top score of 84. As a consequence, it seems he can no longer be assured of his place.”I don’t blame him if he feels his position is under threat,” de Bruyn said. “We have a big squad and competition is fierce. He has played more than 50 games and only made two centuries. He has had more than fair opportunity and there’s no doubt he had a poor season. Averaging 27 in Division Two is not getting us promoted. I told him to go away and focus on making hundreds. I hope it drives him to work harder. I hope he comes back motivated and ruthless.”But it’s not just him. Our top order – the likes of Paul Horton and Mark Pettini – failed to score the runs we needed in limited-overs cricket and we need to do better.”I am keen to create opportunities for younger players. Lewis Hill made a century at The Oval a couple of years ago [in his second first-class game], Harry Dearden is young and promising and we’ve signed Callum Parkinson, who is another who could go a long way in the game.”Senior players will be treated fairly and respectfully, but places are up for grabs and that’s exciting.”Leicestershire’s first-class performances actually improved in 2016. After three successive seasons in which they had finished bottom in Division Two, they rose to seventh (and, but for a late season slide, it could have been better), though they continued to struggled in the shorter formats. They were bottom of the North Group on the NatWest T20 Blast and second from bottom of the North Group in the Royal London Cup.

Several insiders have said that CSA asking Russell Domingo to reapply for the South African coaching job is an administrative formality

Firdose Moonda31-Jan-2017After overseeing South Africa through one of their toughest transitions, Russell Domingo will have to reapply for the coaching job if he hopes to continue beyond August this year. Does that really mean, however, that his position is on the line? No, according to several insiders who say the application process is an administrative formality and not a judgment on Domingo’s work.”I don’t think there is anything sinister about it,” one official told ESPNcricinfo. “Cricket South Africa is just making sure that if Russell’s contract is going to be renewed, it comes out of a proper process.”The reason lies in the number of extensions Domingo has been granted in his tenure. His contract has already been extended three times, and because he is on a fixed-term deal CSA cannot risk creating a reasonable expectation that his contract will be renewed in perpetuity, because that will put them at risk of legal action should a termination occur.Domingo was initially contracted as head coach on a two-year deal from May 2013 – after the Champions Trophy that year when Gary Kirsten stepped down – until the end of April 2015. In September 2014, however, he was given a year’s extension until April 2016 to guarantee him his position irrespective of the result of the 2015 World Cup.In June 2015, Domingo was given another year to take to him to April 2017 and then in October 2016, despite a string of poor results that included South Africa failing to reach the final of a triangular series in the Caribbean, Domingo’s deal was topped up by four months to last until the end of the England tour in August 2017. At that point, Domingo was informed that there would be no further extensions in order to follow protocol.”With contracts like this, a decision also has to be made depending on certain tours or when the most logical time to put out a call for applications might be,” one official said. “The timing can get a bit awkward because you can’t have uncertainty over the coaching position before a major tournament or series but at the same time, the contract has an expiration date. It’s important that CSA does not create the expectation that the contract will just roll over. They are trying to avoid that reasonable expectation by making sure that if they choose to appoint Domingo again, it will be through a procedure that involves other applicants.”CSA has already confirmed that Domingo can apply if he wishes but he has not given indication of whether he intends to. The last time Domingo addressed the media was at the conclusion of South Africa’s T20 series defeat against Sri Lanka, when he discussed plans for the Champions Trophy this year.Prior to that, Domingo had spoken after South Africa’s Test series win over Sri Lanka and admitted there were times during the slump in 2015 and 2016 – when South Africa lost five out of eight Tests, were booted out of the World T20 in the first round, and failed to reach the final of the of a triangular series in the Caribbean – when he thought he would lose his job despite having the support of the players.”I could go tomorrow. Nothing is certain. I by no means look too far ahead in my coaching career. I take it one series at a time,” Domingo said in mid-January. “You never know what’s around the corner in coaching. I’ve always felt that the support that I’ve got from the players is the most important thing.”Domingo continues to enjoy that backing. When the South African team found out about the need for him to reapply for his job, they were playing Sri Lanka in the first ODI in Port Elizabeth. Afterwards, ODI captain AB de Villiers said it was a “bitter pill to swallow” because Domingo was “like family” to the players.De Villiers’ contract with CSA will also come up for discussion soon. He is currently on a two-year deal but after announcing that he has made himself unavailable for Test cricket for most of 2017, it is understood CSA’s top brass is tempted to revisit the terms of the deal. However, South Africa players are contracted on a rankings system which means that their value, rather than the frequency with which they appear, determines the value of their contracts.”The selectors decide the player rankings and it depends on how they view that players’ contribution, be it in one format or in many,” one official said. “So it is possible that de Villiers could be viewed as the most important player even though he won’t be playing Test cricket but it is also possible that could affect his ranking. At the end of the day, that could make a difference to his salary.”Despite his Test hiatus, de Villiers remains South Africa’s one-day captain and has made it his priority to take them to the 2019 World Cup.

Australia captain Steven Smith said he was “in the zone” in Pune and hopes to bring the same to Bengaluru during the second Test

Melinda Farrell in Bengaluru03-Mar-20171:34

Crucial to post big first innings total – Smith

A man possessed. Eyes glazed, moving in a trance, reaching the zen of batting enlightenment, if you will.On a crumbling pitch against the game’s best bowlers of spin, Steven Smith went to another level. Team-mates had never seen him quite like this. Sure, he’d made bigger scores, played innings with less chances, and bossed bowling attacks. But the focus, intensity and determination of Smith’s Pune century was something he’s rarely achieved. And, with a confidence that should sound a warning to India, he believes he can go there again.”I was, I guess, what they call ‘in the zone’ out there,” said Smith. “I was doing things that I probably haven’t done before. My eyes were sort of spinning and I was in a bit of a trance – I think I’ve been there a couple of times in that kind of mindset.”For me it was just such an important period of the game and I knew if we could get to 300 or over that, we’d be a real good chance to win. That afternoon I was very determined and focused on the job at hand to try and get as many as we could, and I guess if it calls for it again, hopefully, I can bring that next level out, and next gear out. It was pleasing to know I had that level in me.”It’s not the first time Smith has found another level in his evolution as a batsman. His overall batting average after 51 Tests of 60.34 is impressive enough but doesn’t reflect the way he successfully changed his technique in the Perth Test of the 2013-14 Ashes, and dramatically improved as a result.Pre-WACA, Smith averaged a modest 33.00, but heading into the third Test he made a key change in adopting his back-and-across trigger movement.It triggered plenty of runs. From the start of that Test, in which he made 111, he has averaged 72.55. Now that IS impressive.But Smith knows he and his teammates must aim much higher in batting-friendly Bangalore if they are to go two-nil up in the series. England passed 400 three times in their first innings in the five Tests they played here recently, posting 537 in the opening Test at Rajkot. Even that could only secure them a draw.”England batted reasonably well and got 400 pretty consistently but that wasn’t good enough,” said Smith. “You had to bat for longer and get your 550, 600 to be in the game. That’s what India did. That’s what we were expecting when we first came over here but that first wicket wasn’t one where you needed to score that many runs, so we had to reassess our plans, we thought 250 was a very good score.”That was that wicket. Now we have to sum it up again with this wicket. I think this one is more likely going to be one where we are going to have to go really big, but it could be totally different, it could play totally different to what we think at the moment. It’s about being able to sum it up and being adaptable and being able to communicate straight away what we think the wicket is like.”There has been a huge amount of scrutiny on the pitch preparation at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, sparked in part by the widespread criticism of the Pune surface, rated as “poor” by the match referee, Chris Broad.But for all the talk of cloak and dagger tactics and mystery substances, many of those who are accustomed to conditions here – including Virat Kohli – have described it as a typical Bangalore wicket. The square, which has been mowed in an unusual chequerboard pattern, is pristine and the wicket appears vastly different to what was offered at Pune.Smith doesn’t expect as much turn early in the match, something Australia’s batsmen coped with better than India in Pune, happy to play and miss at Ashwin and Jadeja balls that jagged too sharply to take an edge. For all the turn on offer it was often the straight delivery that took the wickets, and Smith believes that remains the danger ball for Australia.”I think it’s part of batting, you’ve got to be willing to sacrifice certain things and willing to get out certain ways,” said Smith. “In these conditions, I think that’s really important. We don’t want to get hit on the pads. That’s been an issue for a while with this group, where we’ve been getting hit on the pads. I think if we’re willing to edge it to the slips then we’ll live with that. We’re OK with that.”It’s hard to imagine Smith ever being “OK” with losing his wicket but even if he is out lbw, if Australia has a winning total on the board he probably won’t even mind.