Jagmohan Dalmiya, the BCCI president, has died at the BM Birla hospital in Kolkata, where he was hospitalised after he had suffered a heart attack on Thursday evening

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Sep-20155:09

Bal: Dalmiya was a torchbearer of Indian cricket

Jagmohan Dalmiya, the BCCI president, died on Sunday night at the BM Birla hospital in Kolkata, where he had been admitted after suffering a heart attack on Thursday. He was 75 and had faced concerns around his health since starting his second term as president in March.Dalmiya had been admitted to hospital after complaining of chest pain on Thursday and had to have an angiography. He was reported to be stable but remained in critical care for the next two days. The hospital statement said his condition had become unstable on Sunday morning and he died at 8.45 pm. Dalmiya’s body will be taken to the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) headquarters at Eden Gardens on Monday afternoon for the public to pay their respects.A long-serving cricket administrator, Dalmiya had since 1979 worked his way from the CAB to president of the ICC and twice headed the BCCI. He is widely credited with being one of two BCCI officials responsible for India’s emergence as world cricket’s financial powerhouse and the tributes pouring in from across the globe bore witness to the breadth of his relationships.”As a visionary and a father figure of Indian cricket, Mr. Dalmiya worked towards the development of the game of cricket in India. The cricketing fraternity will miss him dearly,” said BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur. “Mr. Dalmiya played a significant part in positioning Indian cricket at the global level and the astute administrator in him, guided Indian cricket to greater heights. His untiring efforts will be remembered for generations to come and his contribution to Indian cricket will remain unparalleled.”He had initially made a name in the construction business, which he took over from his father at the age of 19, and joined the BCCI in 1979. Along with the then BCCI president NKP Salve and IS Bindra, Dalmiya was the force behind bringing the World Cup to India and Pakistan in 1987, the first time the tournament was staged outside England. It was during Dalmiya and Bindra’s tenures in the BCCI that the television rights for matches played in India were first sold to private television channels.After the successful conduct of the 1996 World Cup, Dalmiya was elected ICC president in 1997 and served in the role until 2000, after which he was elected BCCI president for the first time in 2001. In an acrimonious BCCI election in 2004, Dalmiya’s casting vote helped his candidate Ranbir Singh Mahendra get elected as president; but a year later, Dalmiya was beaten in a BCCI election for the first time in over two decades, by Sharad Pawar. His opponents at the time went after him – Dalmiya was banned from BCCI meetings, and an FIR was filed against him – but Dalmiya bounced back to win the CAB presidential elections in July 2006.Five months later the BCCI expelled him on charges of embezzling funds from the 1996 World Cup and he was forced to step down as CAB chief. After a long legal battle, he was allowed to contest the CAB elections again and he won the presidency in 2008. For the next five years, Dalmiya stayed in charge at the CAB but his influence was diminished at the BCCI level. In 2013, however, when N Srinivasan stepped aside temporarily from discharging his duties as BCCI president, the board turned to Dalmiya to run its affairs in the interim.With the influence of Srinivasan waning because of the corruption and spot-fixing scandals in the IPL under his watch and the board mired in legal trouble, Dalmiya was unanimously elected the BCCI president for a second term in March 2015. His health was already a concern by that time, though, and he had to be assisted at several board meetings. The last BCCI meeting Dalmiya attended was a working committee meeting in Kolkata on August 28, which he adjourned sine die because of confusion over whether Srinivasan was eligible to attend.

Rangana Herath bowled Sri Lanka back into the dominant position achieved by their top order and squandered somewhat by a collapse that cost them their last seven wickets for 59 runs

The Report by Karthik Krishnaswamy15-Oct-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsRangana Herath bowled Sri Lanka back into the dominant position achieved by Dimuth Karunaratne and Dinesh Chandimal’s double-century stand and squandered somewhat by a collapse that cost them their last seven wickets for 59 runs. At the end of an action-packed second day, West Indies were 66 for 2, trailing Sri Lanka by 418 runs.The quick demolition of Sri Lanka’s lower order raised West Indies’ spirits when they came out to bat, and the openers got off to a solid start against the quicks, with three fours coming off the second over, bowled by a Nuwan Pradeep erring generously on the full side. But Herath, introduced as early as the sixth over, pulled West Indies back down to earth with his ability to beat both edges.In his very first over, he had Kraigg Brathwaite adjudged lbw with one that turned sharply from leg to off, only for Hawkeye to rule the ball had pitched marginally outside leg stump. In his next over he sent down the arm ball, which snaked past the inside edge of Brathwaite’s defensive bat and rapped into his front pad. This time the batsman didn’t even review.Shai Hope was next to go, bowled by a beauty. The opener came half-forward in defence, inward drift causing him to open up, and the ball turned past his outside edge to clip off stump.Herath caused Darren Bravo problems as well, beating his outside edge on a couple of occasions and causing him to inside-edge sharply turning deliveries close to short leg. Bravo survived the testing spell in the company of Marlon Samuels, but both of them will have to come out and begin all over again on the third morning.The day began with Chandimal and Karunaratne extending their overnight stand to 238 – the highest by any third-wicket pair in Galle – after which Chandimal added a further 86 with Angelo Mathews. Sri Lanka were 425 for 3, and a 500-plus total looked like a formality. Their sights, perhaps, were set on 600, but they only managed 484.The slide began with tea around the corner, when Chandimal slapped Jerome Taylor straight to cover, against the run of play. In his next over, Taylor straightened one from around the wicket to produce an edge from the debutant Milinda Siriwardana.First ball after tea, Mathews was back in the dressing room. Jason Holder banged one in short, and Mathews, getting into an awkward position while trying to fend the ball into the leg side, popped back a simple return catch. Devendra Bishoo then sent back Dhammika Prasad and Rangana Herath off successive deliveries, before Kusal Perera, looking for quick runs, played on to Shannon Gabriel. The final wicket fell to Bishoo, who finished with four wickets as Nuwan Pradeep miscued a slog to deep midwicket.The tumble of wickets must have left West Indies wondering how good their position might have been had they held their catches. On day one, with Chandimal on 11, Taylor had put down a relatively straightforward chance while backtracking from mid-on. In the tenth over of the second morning, Chandimal cut Shannon Gabriel to backward point, where Jermaine Blackwood spilled the ball after getting both hands to the overhead chance. Chandimal was on 82 at that point.Bishoo had struggled on a slow pitch, the batsmen easily negotiating his legspin off the back foot, often making length balls look like short balls. In the third over after lunch, he managed to draw Mathews forward and find his edge, only for Jason Holder to put him down at slip.Later, Hope dropped Prasad at backward point, taking West Indies’ total of spilled chances to five, including Bravo letting off Lahiru Thirimanne on the first day.Coming in to bat at 339 for 3 – it was the first time since August 2014 that he had walked in with Sri Lanka’s score past 200 – gave Mathews license to play his shots. He hit two fours off Bishoo in the first over after tea – admittedly off bad balls – and continued going after the spinners after Holder dropped him. He pulled Bishoo for another four, ran down the pitch to Marlon Samuels to launch him over wide long-on, and scored his runs at a strike rate of above 100 until he reached 32.Chandimal was a little more sedate at the other end, but got enough scoring opportunities, with Kemar Roach and Taylor both feeding his favourite square-cut, and the latter shot getting him to 150.In the morning session, Samuels dismissed Dimuth Karunaratne 14 short of a double-hundred. The wicket was a result of the slowness of the pitch, which Karunaratne had dealt with expertly till then, picking the right lengths to drive and even then refusing to go hard at the ball. For once he jabbed at the ball, a short one from Samuels that stopped on him, and ended up lobbing a return catch to the offspinner.Till then a double-hundred had seemed inevitable. The ball was only 10 overs old at start of play, but there was little of the seam movement that had been in evidence on the first morning. The runs came at a good clip, with Karunaratne pulling Taylor to the square leg boundary in the fifth over of the morning before driving him through mid-off for another four to bring up his 150.At the other end Kemar Roach, bowling without either the seam movement or the pace he generated on the first day, conceded two fours in two overs to Chandimal. Taylor and Roach went out of the attack, and Gabriel, who replaced Roach, saw an edge from Karunaratne fly through the vacant slip area before Blackwood put down Chandimal. In his next over, Gabriel produced the only other moment of discomfort for a Sri Lankan batsman in the session when he straightened one past Chandimal’s edge.Chandimal was not unduly deterred. Following Bishoo’s introduction, he stepped down the track and whipped him away wide of mid-on, and in the next over flat-batted Gabriel over extra cover to bring up his hundred. It was his second in a row at the venue, after his match-turning 162* against India two months ago.

South Africa’s captain Hashim Amla has said that his team’s approach against spin will not change in the next two Tests against India

Firdose Moonda in Bangalore18-Nov-20153:36

‘Batsmen looking to get confidence under their belt’ – Amla

South Africa will not sink into their shells against spin despite their aggression resulting in a third sub-par batting performance in the series. After limping to 184 and 109 in Mohali, South Africa managed to creep up to 214 in Bangalore but Hashim Amla said the team’s approach will not change in the next two matches.

Steyn uncertain for Nagpur

South Africa are still sweating over the availability of their premier pacer Dale Steyn, who sat out his first Test in six years after suffering a groin strain in Mohali.
Hashim Amla could not provide clarity on the severity of the injury or how soon Steyn could be back in action, but indicated South Africa would give the matter their full attention in the coming days.
“I’m not 100% sure what the exact prognosis is. But it would be great if he is ready for the next Test. It would be great to have the world’s No.1 bowler back in our team,” Amla said.
“If he was fully fit he would have played this Test. So I don’t think he is fully fit at the moment. I don’t know, I’m not sure, I haven’t touched base with the physio as yet. I didn’t want to until this game is done, which it is now. In the coming days, we will probably have a better idea. “

“You’ve got to be positive in everything you do. If the guys got out playing a positive shot, I am happy because at least he tried to take the game forward and tried to score runs. That’s the name of the game,” Amla saidDean Elgar, Faf du Plessis, Dane Vilas, JP Duminy and even AB de Villiers have all got out attacking this series instead of protecting their positions. Had they shown a bit more staying power, Amla believes South Africa could have made better use of conditions which had nothing sinister about them.”If I had won the toss, I would have batted first anyway. I think it was a good wicket,” he said. “We just didn’t get any partnerships going. AB was exceptional as always. Unfortunately no one stuck around with him long enough to post a big total.”In South Africa’s haste to get runs before getting out, they did not realise that the turn they were trying to get away from was not really there. They were playing for imagined conditions instead of the actual ones, and have already had four days to assess why they let mind get over matter.Now, they have a week to reverse that thought process, but Amla has cautioned against too much thinking before South Africa get to Nagpur. “We’ve had a lot of time to reflect but we don’t want to over-reflect,” he said.”It’s pretty simple: you try and be as positive as possible and sometimes it was the lack of turn that outdid us. You don’t overdo it, you try and keep the game as simple as possible. We’ve had three innings that haven’t gone to our plan and I am sure in the Nagpur Test, hopefully we come good. We have talked about it but you can’t over talk about something and complicate it more than it is.”An obvious complication is the composition of South Africa’s XI. For the first time since the retirements of Graeme Smith and Jacques
Kallis, it seems to lack something, especially as du Plessis and Amla himself are not firing. That leaves the top four shaky, but Amla dismissed any thoughts of change, especially in the top two, just yet.”I’ve always felt opening batting is probably the most difficult job in Test cricket. Sometimes you’ve got to field for 150 overs and then
you’ve got 10 minutes to put your pads on. It is quite a demanding position to be in but Dean and Stiaan are our best openers and they will do a great job for us,” Amla said. “The fact that myself and Faf in this game haven’t got going, we only have ourselves to blame. No one else.”Still, Amla was careful not to condemn his team too much. He even left open the possibility that South Africa could have come back into the Bangalore Test. “Although we got bowled out for 220 odd and India were in a good position at the end for the day, Test matches are not always won on the first day. There was a lot of time left for us to claw our way back into the game. You never know what could have happened.”

Otago’s 18-year old offspinner Josh Finnie ran riot over the Northern Districts batting line-up and dismissed them for 77 in 19.2 overs and set up an eight-wicket thumping

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Nov-2015
ScorecardFile photo: Nathan McCullum picked up 2 for 13 from his four overs•Getty Images

Otago’s 18-year old offspinner Josh Finnie ran riot over the Northern Districts batting line-up and dismissed them for 77 in 19.2 overs and set up an eight-wicket thumping. He had had only two wickets in six matches prior to today, but tripled that tally thanks to a rather inept tail. He did remove the top-scorer Anton Devcich for 33 off 32 balls, before whisking the rest of his three wickets in the space of seven deliveries, although they were spread across two overs. Nathan McCullum who is set to retire from international cricket at the end of New Zealand’s 2015-16 season, picked up 2 for 13.Although Otago did lose their openers Brad Wilson at No. 4 hammered 31 off 17 balls to wrap up the chase with 51 balls to spare. With four wins from five games, they sit at the top of the table with 16 points. Northern Districts, who slumped to their lowest total in the competition (their previous one of 84 was also against Otago in 2006-07), are second with eight points.

Alastair Cook has confirmed that Chris Woakes will replace the injured James Anderson and that Alex Hales will make his debut in the Boxing Day Test in Durban

George Dobell in Durban25-Dec-2015Alastair Cook has confirmed that Chris Woakes will replace the injured James Anderson and that Alex Hales will make his debut in the Boxing Day Test in Durban.Cook backed Woakes to prove how much he has developed as a cricketer. While accepting the loss of Anderson was “huge,” Cook said that Woakes’s selection would strengthen the batting and that he had shown he was well equipped to deal with the pressure of international cricket.”He’s ready to go now,” Cook said. “He’s learned his trade and it’s about him delivering now on the big stage for England.”He can do it. I know it a Twenty20 game, but that 40-odd he got in Sharjah under pressure to see his side home… he does it for Warwickshire a lot. He’s desperate to be given opportunities.”It’s been quite hard for him to get in the side because of the way that Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad have remained so fit and how long they’ve been around. This is a great opportunity and he’s a really good cricketer.”Hales, meanwhile, is set to become Cook’s eighth opening partner in Tests since the retirement of Andrew Strauss after the 2012 series against South Africa. Instead of letting the occasion get to him, Cook has urged Hales to play his natural game as England seek to achieve “something very special” in the coming weeks.Hales had impressed as a limited-overs opening batsman but, after starting the 2015 County Championship with some high scores, he convinced the selectors that he had the skills required for the longer format. Hales made 236 against Yorkshire, the champions, in April, and hit 141 against Hampshire a week later. Another big century in August – 189 against Warwickshire – reiterated that he was ready for Tests.”It’s absolutely vital he plays the way he plays for Nottinghamshire,” Cook said. “One of the biggest mistakes you can do as an international player is to think you have to play a different way.”The reason he got selected was for the way he plays and the big hundreds when he gets in. Certainly at the start of last year, that made everyone sit up and take notice of him. You can’t change the way he plays, he’s just got to be true to himself and that will be good enough.”Cook also suggested that the selectors will show some patience with Hales in the knowledge that he makes his debut against a top-quality seam attack and that it may take time to find his feet at this level. Adam Lyth and Sam Robson were given seven Tests when they had an opportunity to open with Cook. Both batsmen made centuries in their second Tests to ensure they won an extended run.Alex Hales is all set to become Alastair Cook’s eighth opening partner in Tests since the retirement Andrew Strauss•Getty Images

“Always at the top of the order against the new ball and world-class attacks, you’re going to have low scores,” Cook said. “So it’s about how you handle that and, when you’re in, make sure you cash in and go big to compensate.”Alex isn’t really under pressure. No more than myself or any of the guys; that’s what happens when you play Test cricket.”When you’re picked to make your debut for England it’s a great five days. It’s a culmination of a lot of hard work not just by yourself but all the commitment the family have made, the coaches, your friends…it’s a big occasion for a huge number of people.”But he’s ready to play. He’s earned his selection and been around the squad in the UAE. He knows what it’s about, he’s got a T20 international hundred and an ODI hundred. He can certainly play and I hope he’s looking forward to the challenge, showing people what he can do rather than just being another opener off the rank.”Cook also reflected on a remarkable year from a personal perspective. This time 12 months ago, he was reeling having been sacked from the England ODI captaincy. From a situation where he was looking forward to leading the side in the World Cup, he suddenly realised he would not be at the tournament.Although he admitted that 2014 “wasn’t a particularly fun Christmas,” he has now accepted that the setback was a blessing in disguise and has allowed him the time and clarity of thought required to rediscover his best form in Test cricket. He goes into the final Test of the year having already scored more runs in a calendar year than any other England captain, and requiring 125 more to overtake the England record for a batsman (1,481), set by Michael Vaughan in 2002.”In hindsight, it gave me two months to get away from the game,” Cook said of the decision to relieve him of the ODI captaincy. “It gave me time to practice away from pressure for a period of time and I got to look at my Test-match game as a whole. Sometimes you do need to step out of the bubble and reassess what you need to do.”And the benefit of that is that I scored a few runs this year. It’s been good from a personal point of view. It wasn’t a particularly fun Christmas last year but hopefully this year will be slightly different.”South Africa are a good side. I don’t know if this is a good time to play them: they’re still ranked No. 1 in the world and they’re tough to beat at home. You can’t read too much into both sides’ previous tours because conditions are so different. And always beware a wounded animal.”The bookmakers make us underdogs but we were underdogs against Australia. And the conditions aren’t too dissimilar to England. Playing four seamers and a spinner seems to have worked well for us and we’re comfortable playing with that balance of the side. We could do something very special.”But that’s just talk isn’t it? The guys are ready to test themselves against the best in their backyard. This side like being the underdogs and likes throwing a few punches.”

New South Wales and Western Australia will play a Sheffield Shield game at Bert Sutcliffe Oval in Lincoln, ahead of the Test series between Australia and New Zealand

Daniel Brettig02-Feb-2016Back in October, the New Zealand touring team was hosted for a tour match at Blacktown Oval to Sydney’s west – if “hosted” is the right word. The ground staff had been unable to grow grass after the football season, leaving a pitch of rolled mud that was at first a road before growing progressively more treacherous.Fearing injuries to their batsmen before the first Test, New Zealand pressed successfully for the match to be abandoned, and made a speedy exit to Brisbane. The absurdity of the episode was only enhanced by the fact that Cricket Australia had scheduled a Sheffield Shield match to be held at New Zealand Cricket’s high performance centre in Lincoln by way of preparation for the return trip, and that the centre’s curator was at Blacktown that week discussing facilities with Cricket NSW.Four months on, and there will be no “get square” on the outskirts of Christchurch. The pitch for the Shield fixture between NSW and Western Australia will not suffer for lack of grass coverage, and nor will it force an early abandonment. The flexibility of New Zealand to allow an event without precedent in cricket history – a domestic match played on the shores of an imminent Test match opponent – is rare in an age of administrators protecting hometown results, and may yet have other flow-on benefits for the nation across the Tasman.The concept was first discussed as New Zealand and Australia pieced together a new bilateral agreement in the afterglow of last year’s World Cup. Cricket Australia argued there was insufficient time amid a looming World Twenty20 for the originally scheduled three Tests and a warm-up match, and New Zealand countered that a revival of the dormant Chappell-Hadlee ODI series would be advantageous. The Sheffield Shield match was tossed up as a compromise for cricketers not part of the 50-over series.”The scheduling is a significant jigsaw puzzle at the best of times,” CA head of operations Sean Cary told ESPNcricinfo. “But with the lead-up to the World Twenty20 and Australia needing to play India at home, New Zealand in New Zealand, South Africa away before the T20 World Cup, we had to jockey between the three countries to alter the FTP slightly to fit everything in.”The New Zealand tour match came about because we’d changed the original schedule for a three-Test tour to two Tests with ODIs in a shorter space of time. That meant we didn’t really have enough time to play a fully-fledged tour match before the Test series, so in part of the negotiations around additional matches for the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy series we floated with NZC the idea of playing a Shield match in New Zealand in lieu of the tour match.”We chose a NSW home match v WA because a large proportion of the current Test squad comes from those two states.”As it has turned out, only Peter Nevill, Nathan Lyon and Adam Voges will be taking part among members of the Test side, while Joe Burns, Jackson Bird, James Pattinson, Peter Sidle and Chadd Sayers must be content with a Shield match for Queensland on the eastern seaboard. The likes of Steven Smith, David Warner, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh and Usman Khawaja are part of the ODI series.Even so, the fixture is providing a chance for further cross-pollination between the administrations of the two countries. “Essentially its a NSW home match, so they operationally take their structure from Sydney to Christchurch,” Cary said. “NZC have supported in that they are match managing the contest. There are some little bits and pieces to fine tune like online scoring and that side of it, we need to do a bit of work ourselves with NZC to make sure everything looks and feels as if it’s being played in Australia … but essentially it’s a NSW home game.The pitch in Blacktown, where New Zealand’s tour game was abandoned on their tour of Australia•Getty Images

“NZC are responsible for the wicket. In our pre-tour visit I met the curator, I went out to the ground, he showed me which wicket is being used, it’s right in the centre of the block. They’ve not played any cricket on it this summer until that Shield match so it’s going to be in pristine condition, and the curators these days have a lot of pride in their work. They’ll produce as best quality wicket they possibly can.”As for the Blacktown episode, Cary said there was a strong degree of understanding among the New Zealand ground staff for the problems faced at by those responsible for the ground at the time. He also conceded it had been CA’s error to have the tour game played in Sydney rather than in Brisbane, where Allan Border Field sat unused at the same time the Blacktown match was called off.”There’ll be no tit-for-tat there,” Cary said. “We’re first to acknowledge unfortunately we didn’t make the right decision in terms of venue selection for that Blacktown game. We apologised profusely and gave the best possible solution for New Zealand after that. Funnily enough the curator at Lincoln was actually at Blacktown at that time because they’d been invited over to see what NSW had done with their indoor centre and training set-up and providing their own information.”He saw the situation and was very much feeling sorry for the curator because he knew he didn’t have much to play with in terms of a four-day wicket. They were sharing knowledge about the indoor nets for all seasons that New Zealand cricket are starting to prepare, and they were sharing that knowledge with Cricket NSW.”What is clear about this fixture and its lead-up is that relationships are building between the two countries that may be useful in future. The concept of New Zealand-based Big Bash League teams has been touted in recent times, and such a possibility will be more realistic for all the information sharing that has gone on over the past year or so.”Because of the relationship the curators built up through the World Cup being hosted in both countries, we had the New Zealand curator group here and our curator group went to New Zealand over the two years leading into the World Cup,” Cary said. “They’ve built relationships, they share knowledge and everyone gets along well.”From a high performance perspective it gives guys opportunities to get a taste for international cricket, they travel to another country, they have to go through all the rigmarole of customs and getting acclimatised and all those things. So it helps our developing cricketers, and also shows we can share knowledge and experience in an operational sense and hopefully learn from each other and be better at putting on cricket in our respective countries.”Lincoln’s quiet surrounds will feel a long way from the hustle and bustle of the BBL, but it will also be very distant from those chaotic scenes at Blacktown. New Zealand’s generosity to Australia in this case should not be forgotten.

The ICC has commenced sale of tickets on its website for the World T20 in India, with less than two weeks for the event to begin

Arun Venugopal24-Feb-2016The ICC has begun the sale of tickets for the World T20 in India on its website, with less than two weeks for the event to begin. The first phase of the sale, which went live at 12 pm IST on February 24, made tickets available for matches in Bangalore, Chennai, Dharamsala, Kolkata and Mohali, but excluded those featuring India, the semi-finals and the final of the men’s and women’s events. The second phase of the sale – for matches in Mumbai, Delhi and Nagpur – will begin at 12pm IST on February 26.Tickets for seven “highly sought after” matches – four India games, the semi-finals and the final – will be sold online through a lottery system, where buyers need to indicate their preferred match after registering themselves. They will then be moved to a draw where the winners will be chosen through an automated process following which they will receive a payment link to complete the booking. The window to register for the lottery will be open only for seven days from February 25. Only two tickets can be purchased per person for India matches, the semi-finals and the final, while for other games a maximum of six tickets per person is allowed.The BCCI appointed as the ticketing agency for the event, and said the entire ticketing process was “monitored and audited by a reputed auditing agency.”A member of the organising committee told ESPNcricinfo that the schedule for the sale of tickets over-the-counter for all matches – including India’s and the knockouts – would be announced by the respective hosting centres. He said the lottery system was to streamline the high demand for tickets.”We had to do lottery system, otherwise when a traditional ticket counter opens up, some 20,000 people queue up,” the official said. “The first 10,000 get tickets and then there is a lathi charge. We have to move away from that culture.”If you put tickets online on first-come-first-serve basis, there will be some 10,000 people who click at 12. After 12:05 pm, the entire system becomes redundant. The traffic for these high-priority games is huge, so everyone must get a fair opportunity.”When ESPNcricinfo accessed the website at 12:01 pm there was a queue of 5907 and it took our staffer 12 minutes to reach the top of the queue. After she selected her match of choice there was another queue of 931 where the waiting time was about two minutes. The whole transaction was completed in 15 minutes.While ticket sales for previous World T20s had commenced three to six months ahead of the event, the current edition has had a number of delays. The ICC had earlier refused to be drawn into any criticism of the ticketing process, stating it would be “inappropriate” to make comparisons. The organising committee member attributed the delay to a combination of factors, including the uncertainty over the status of Delhi as a venue.”The schedule was launched only on December 19 (sic December 11), and only after that our work starts,” he said. “We have to start pricing separately for women’s games, men’s games, the semi-finals and final. Once the ticketing agency is finalised you will have to do backend mapping. Delhi has obviously been a contributing factor for the delay. Till 10 days ago I didn’t know if I had to push those games to some other venue.”The official said other hosting nations in the past had been able to put tickets up for sale early because of the ICC announcing the fixtures “well in advance.” He also pointed to the logistical issues of hosting matches at eight venues – previous editions of the World T20 had only three venues. “As much as it looks like a T20 format, look at the complexity of the whole tournament. This is the first time we are doing women’s and men’s matches together, and we have double-headers,” he said. However, the last three editions of the World T20 had men’s and women’s games together.While such delays hurt the travelling fan the most, the official said ticket sales were almost entirely driven by local public. “Look at this way, India as a destination … it has always been local sale which chews up into the entire volume than people coming from outside,” he said. “That’s not a reason [for the delay], but it’s a comfort in some way.”

South Australia will host their first Sheffield Shield final in 20 years after a Cameron White rearguard secured Victoria the most unlikely of draws to foil New South Wales

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Mar-2016
Scorecard Nathan Lyon finished with a match haul of five wickets•Getty Images

South Australia will host their first Sheffield Shield final in 20 years after a Cameron White rearguard secured the most unlikely of draws to foil New South Wales in the last match of the regular season at Traeger Park in Alice Springs.Victoria faded in the second half of the season to surrender a vast lead at the top of the Shield table to a fast finishing SA, but White’s performance – with help from Scott Boland – denied NSW their own home final, after the Blues seemed certain winners early on the final day.White, who has spent time out of the Victoria side over the past two seasons as his domestic career seemed to be winding down, played the most stubborn of innings. This meant Victoria were lifted out of a deep hole, which had worsened from the unpromising overnight score of 3 for 20.When Victoria captain Matthew Wade was pinned lbw by Nathan Lyon at 5 for 56, White and the lower order were left with the faint hope of surviving no fewer than 74.2 overs to secure a draw and a place in the final.However White was not disheartened, and a stand of 62 in 24 overs with Dan Christian took the Bushrangers somewhat closer before the allrounder fell to Lyon’s wiles.The tall paceman Chris Tremain then offered staunch support for a further 20 overs, and took Victoria to tea with four precious wickets in hand.A second new ball loomed on resumption, and Trent Copeland used it effectively, coaxing Tremain to drag the first delivery he faced after the interval onto the stumps.From that position the Blues looked to be favourites, but Boland steadied after a nervy start to provide vital support as White proved more or less impassable at the other end.NSW tried no fewer than seven bowlers including the captain Nic Maddinson and Ed Cowan, but could not find a way to disturb White’s concentration, nor his sturdily straight bat.Boland’s sense of security grew, and in the closing overs White even allowed himself the extravagance of a late flurry to reach a most deserved hundred. Having led the Shield table for most of the season, the Bushrangers ultimately stumbled over the line.Their reward will be a final match up against a young SA team, that has confounded expectations plenty of times already this season, and now have the advantage of needing only a draw to secure the Shield, as they did in 1996 by a mere one wicket against Western Australia.

Suriname’s withdrawal from the ICC World Cricket League Division 5 due to violations of player-eligibility guidelines was the culmination of a five-month investigation sparked by documents submitted by Vanuatu Cricket Association president Mark Stafford

Peter Della Penna04-Mar-2016Suriname’s withdrawal from the ICC World Cricket League Division 5 due to violations of player-eligibility guidelines was the culmination of a five-month investigation sparked by documents submitted by Vanuatu Cricket Association president Mark Stafford. According to an ICC statement announcing Suriname’s withdrawal from Division 5, disciplinary charges were brought against the Surinaamse Cricket Bond with respect to player-eligibility regulations following the ICC’s own investigation into the matter.”We believe the material we have collated is more than sufficient to create a ‘reasonable suspicion’ that breaches of the Regulations have occurred and that the Head of Legal should carry out a detailed investigation in which copies of all passports, entry visas, employment records, playing records and related documents should be furnished to the Head of Legal to enable him to verify the claims made as to eligibility,” Stafford wrote to ICC head of legal Iain Higgins in a 15-page document on October 7, a copy of which has been obtained by ESPNcricinfo; the document was submitted along with a 19-page supplementary evidence document.Vanuatu had finished third after losing to eventual champions Suriname in a semi-final at WCL Division 6, held between September 7 and 13 in Essex, and Suriname was promoted to Division 5 at Vanuatu’s expense. Following Suriname’s withdrawal, Vanuatu will now replace Suriname at Division 5, which will be played from May 21-28 in Jersey.Stafford’s letter on behalf of the VCA included detailed notes from Vanuatu’s own investigation and asked for Higgins and the ICC to take the matter further with their own investigation. Stafford’s submission cast doubts pertaining to the eligibility of at least six members of Suriname’s squad including star allrounder Wasim Haslim, WCL Division 6 leading wicket-taker Muneshwar Chris Patandin, and Player of the Tournament Gavin Singh, who all originally hail from neighbouring Guyana.The ICC announcement claims that the SCB has now accepted that “it failed in its duty to ensure the provision of accurate residency information to the ICC in respect of a number of players.” Prior to participating in any ICC tournaments in the future, the SCB “will be required to satisfy to the ICC that it has put in place robust processes for maintaining accurate residency records and ensuring the compliance of all Suriname teams with the player eligibility regulations.”According to ICC eligibility guidelines, non-citizens must be residents of the country they are aiming to represent for a minimum of 183 days per year in the four years prior to the start of a tournament in order to qualify. Much of the evidence compiled and submitted are links to scorecards from various club matches played by the players outside of Suriname, demonstrating their participation in club seasons in the UK, Guyana, Canada and the USA.Stafford’s letter made a case that the evidence demonstrates the improbability of each player being able to fly back and forth to Suriname in between matches during the club cricket season, therefore reducing the likelihood that they satisfied the 183-day residency requirement. The scorecard evidence was also complemented by other documents including numerous time and location stamped social media posts made by the players or their family members showing them consistently outside Suriname for lengthy periods of time, as well as public property records showing players owning and operating residences and businesses in the USA.Another point raised by Stafford is that ICC eligibility criteria also states a player needs play in “50% of the domestic league matches that his club was scheduled to play within the relevant domestic structure in any 3 of the preceding 5 domestic league seasons”. Vanuatu’s letter contends that a traditional season runs for 15-20 weeks but that Suriname allegedly manipulated this by scheduling a five-team round-robin domestic tournament in which each team played four games, meaning that a player would only have to play two games in Suriname to meet the 50% stipulation.Stafford wrote that concerns over the eligibility of many of Suriname’s players were brought to his attention prior to the start of the Division 6 tournament. Stafford served as the team’s tour manager at the tournament and writes that Vanuatu team management tried to raise the issue with ICC officials at an ICC technical meeting on September 6, the night before the first match of the tournament, but says that his attempt was unsuccessful.The VCA’s 19-page supplementary letter with appendices also states that they received supporting evidence from Botswana Cricket Association, whose national side also played at Division 6, to demonstrate that Suriname fell foul of the eligibility rules. Among the other pieces of supporting evidence were press conference and interview transcripts from cricket officials in the Nickerie district of Suriname, who claimed that local players were losing interest after being passed over in favor of Guyanese players that were suspected of being ineligible to represent Suriname due to their foreign residency.

Rob Newton and Steven Crook hit centuries to bat Northamptonshire to a draw on the final day of the County Championship match with Gloucestershire at Bristol

ECB Reporters Network25-May-2016
ScorecardSteven Crook played a defiant innings at No. 7•Getty Images

Rob Newton and Steven Crook hit centuries to bat Northamptonshire to a draw on the final day of the County Championship match with Gloucestershire at Bristol. Newton, unbeaten on 58 overnight, went on to make 108, off 234 balls with 18 fours, while Crook hit 103 not out before Gloucestershire called off their bowlers in the evening session.The visitors closed on 399 for 8, leading by 157, having batted with far more application than in the first innings. Adam Rossington contributed 39, despite clearly feeling discomfort from the finger injury he suffered while wicketkeeping on Monday, and Richard Gleeson a valuable 31.David Payne (3 for 72) was the pick of the Gloucestershire bowlers, but in general they erred on the short side. The hosts took 11 points from a game they had high hopes of winning at the start of the day, while Northants claimed seven.The visitors began the day on 120 for 3, trailing by 122. After the early loss of Richard Levi for 23, caught behind dabbing at a wide ball from Payne, Rossington helped Newton add 60 for the sixth wicket. Rossington,looked in pain against the quicker bowlers, but played well before miscuing the medium-pace of Kieran Noema-Barnett to mid-on where Payne took a good diving catch.Crook appeared to survive a chance to Roderick, standing up to Noema-Barnett, before he had scored and was unbeaten on 7 at lunch, while Newton headed off on 99 with plenty of time to contemplate his century, having looked untroubled.He brought up three figures by pulling the second ball after lunch, a juicy long-hop from left-arm spinner Graham van Buuren, for his 17th boundary. It was a chanceless hundred, but Newton then fell to the second new ball, which was taken with Northants 241 for 5, still one run behind.Five had been added when Payne found a way between Newton’s bat and pad with a full, swinging delivery, which rattled into his stumps. That brought in Seekkuge Prasanna, on his Championship debut. He immediately went on the counter attack, blasting 26 from 23 balls, including four fours and a six, before holing out to deep backward square, top-edging a short delivery from Payne.At that stage Northants led by only 52, but Gleeson then joined Crook in a match-saving stand. Crook was unbeaten on 82 at tea, with his side 357 for 7 and leading by 115.The final session produced more frustration for Gloucestershire on a pitch offering little assistance. Crook reached a brilliant hundred with successive boundaries off Josh Shaw, having faced 127 balls and hit 17 fours. By the time Gleeson fell lbw to van Buuren for a hugely valuable 31, the partnership with Crook was worth 101 and Northants led by 153. Soon afterwards the players shook hands.