James Faulkner, Australia’s man of the match in the World Cup final, has been suspended for four international matches as he awaits trial on a drink-driving charge

Daniel Brettig14-Jul-2015James Faulkner, Australia’s man of the match in the World Cup final, has been suspended for four international matches and will not be considered for the limited overs matches that follow the Ashes.While playing for Lancashire, Faulkner crashed his car after a night out drinking in Manchester with his Tasmania teammate Tim Paine and was found to have been more than twice over the legal blood alcohol limit.Faulkner spent the night in the custody of Manchester police and will face court on July 21. However, Cricket Australia have acted swiftly under the board’s code of conduct to suspend the allrounder.His ban covers the match against Ireland, plus the Twenty20 and first two ODIs against England. Faulkner had been warned that a suspension would effectively rule him out of the tour.It is another blow to the tourists and a help to England’s chances of maintaining their upward curve in the short formats, begun against New Zealand.Team performance manager Pat Howard said Faulkner had accepted his penalty.”James has acknowledged the seriousness of his actions and has accepted the penalties handed down today,” he said. “He has cooperated fully with the disciplinary procedure and is deeply remorseful.”We have reminded James that his actions had serious potential to cause harm to him and others. Aside from the suspension handed down, he has been formally reprimanded for his behaviour.”In saying that, we do acknowledge that James has been a player with a good track record and we would like to think that this episode is very much out of character.”Howard and CA also expressed disappointment in Paine, who was also in the car with Faulkner at the time.

Mike Brearley, chairman of the MCC’s World Cricket Committee, has apologised to Giles Clarke, the ECB president, after suggesting Clarke would have to “do what he’s told” with regard to the possibility of cricket seeking to become an Olympic sport

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Jul-20155:00

Dobell: The times are a-changin’

Mike Brearley, chairman of the MCC’s World Cricket Committee, has apologised to Giles Clarke, the ECB president, after suggesting Clarke would have to “do what he’s told” with regard to the possibility of cricket seeking to become an Olympic sport.Brearley was speaking at a press conference after the MCC announced its support for cricket’s involvement in the Olympics. Clarke, who was ECB chairman between 2007 and 2015, is understood to be opposed to an Olympic bid.However, Brearley said there could be a change of stance at the ECB, after discussions with the new chairman, Colin Graves, and chief executive, Tom Harrison. Clarke became the ECB’s first president when Graves succeeded him and Brearley said he would have to accept whatever decision the governing body made.”Colin and Tom acknowledged that the view of the ECB has been strongly anti it, but they say they are open to rethinking,” Brearley said. “The president of the ECB is an employee of the board and has to report to the board. He has to do what he’s told.”The MCC has now released a statement from Brearley, clarifying his comments.”I have apologised to Giles Clarke,” Brearley said. “What I should have said was that if the ECB changes its policy regarding cricket in the Olympics, then it would of course be Giles’ job to present that policy to ICC. Giles is not an employee of the ECB board and I did not intend to imply that he was.”The latest gathering of the World Cricket Committee also led to criticism of the ICC’s decision to reduce the World Cup to ten teams, calling it “a handbrake for the development of the sport”. The committee, which is made up of former players and officials and is independent of the MCC, meets twice a year to discuss issues affecting the game.

Warren Deutrom, Cricket Ireland chief executive, is hoping to secure a steadier diet of bilateral fixtures against Full Members after playing just nine ODIs between the 2011 and 2015 World Cups

Peter Della Penna25-Aug-2015Though Thursday’s ODI against Australia is yet another in a string of one-off matches against Full Members that Ireland have had to make do with, Cricket Ireland chief executive Warren Deutrom expects that being part of the ODI rankings table may enable them to schedule 15 ODIs per year against Full Members ahead of the rankings cutoff in September 2017.”We’re targeting now something in the region of maybe 7-10 ODIs per year at home and hopefully maybe another 2-3 pre and post year,” Deutrom told ESPNcricinfo. “So we’re looking at something in the region of 15-20 ODIs a year. That’s going to be our primary focus alongside trying to be a Test country.”In January, Ireland scored an administrative win after being included in the 12-team ODI rankings table in order to determine the top eight sides to gain automatic berths for the 2019 ICC World Cup in England. However, after going 3-3 in the group stages of the 2015 World Cup, scoring on-field wins has posed a far bigger obstacle simple because of a scarcity of ODIs.Ireland have had just one ODI – a rained out one-off match against England in May – since signing off from the World Cup with a seven-wicket loss to Pakistan in Adelaide. In contrast, Pakistan have played 11 matches since the World Cup in a four-month stretch from April to July – against a combination of Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, and Sri Lanka – which is the same as the number Ireland had scheduled against Full Members in a four-year stretch between the 2011 and 2015 World Cups. Only eight were completed though, with two completely abandoned and just 10.4 overs played against Australia before rain halted proceedings in 2012.In the period between the 2011 and 2015 World Cups, only Pakistan and Sri Lanka played multiple bilateral ODIs against Ireland. Pakistan played a pair of two-match series in 2011 and 2013, while a two-game series scheduled against Sri Lanka in 2014 was cut in half by Dublin rains. As for away fixtures, Ireland only played against West Indies in an ODI along with two T20Is in Kingston.Deutrom, who is hoping to correct that disparity, said he has seen positive signs that may point to Ireland securing a steadier diet of bilateral fixtures, both home and away in the wake of the ICC annual conference in June. The relationship with Pakistan and Sri Lanka was reinforced with Tuesday’s announcement of four ODIs in 2016, two against each team, and Deutrom said Cricket Ireland is close to finalizing a possible tour to Zimbabwe in October.”For the very first time, talking with the ICC, the CEO went around the room and asked all the Full Members what discussions they were having with Ireland, Afghanistan and the lower-ranked Full Members to ensure that they can get enough fixtures,” Deutrom said. “Am I encouraged by the discussions I’m having at the moment? Yes, very much so.Ireland have played just nine ODIs against Full Member nations between the 2011 and 2015 World Cups•Getty Images

“We’re going to be heading down to Zimbabwe in October. We haven’t quite yet announced what that’s going to look like in terms of the fixtures but we’re in advanced discussions with Zimbabwe Cricket. It’ll involve a third nation as well. Next year we’re looking to have a reciprocal arrangement whereby Zimbabwe and that other nation would come to Ireland and we’re also pretty confident of playing at least four more ODIs at home.”In addition to the cramped schedule of fixtures, a perceived lack of revenue-generating appeal seems to be another reason for Full Members being reluctant to schedule fixtures against Associates like Ireland. To help alleviate this issue, the ICC has proposed an ODI fund to defray the costs of such matches and help encourage a series such as Ireland’s tour to Zimbabwe.Deutrom said he is trying to be creative to seek out dates for fixtures against Full Members. Ireland are scheduled to play Papua New Guinea – who have previously used Townsville in Australia to host matches – in an Intercontinental Cup match ahead of the ICC World Twenty20 in March. Expecting the game against PNG to take place in Australia, he is hoping to potentially arrange a few fixtures against Full Members on either side of the Intercontinental Cup match, and not necessarily against Australia.”I’m in discussions with another quite senior Full Member in terms of something prior to the World T20 itself, which is going to be in and around our Intercontinental Cup game against PNG which we’re hoping to play outside of PNG, probably in Australia and that’s something I’ve been discussing with Cricket Australia and with Papua New Guinea at the moment.”So if we think about opportunities at the beginning of the year, then the World T20, then our home series with 7-10 ODIs and then what we’re looking to arrange towards the end of the year through discussions with other Full Members, it gives me great encouragement that we’ll actually be able to achieve those numbers as well. Given the fact that the Champions Trophy is in England in 2017 and the World Cup is in England in 2019, that provides us with many more opportunities.”Despite the ICC confirming their place in the ODI rankings table in January for World Cup qualification, Ireland’s four ODIs against Sri Lanka and Pakistan for 2016 are the first ones agreed to since then. However, they have seen 14 guaranteed ODIs against fellow Associates as part of the WCL Championship disappear. Deutrom did not consider it a likely problem when asked if he was worried about other Associates being better prepared for the 2018 World Cup Qualifier.”I’m fairly confident that’s not going to happen,” Deutrom said. “Afghanistan is also part of the 12-team ODI structure. Now of course, Afghanistan and ourselves don’t want to be playing each other six times a year because let’s face it, the point of both of us being in the structure is not to have to play each other. It’s about trying to play as many of the teams above us. Why? Because it’s about trying to create more competitive teams on the world stage.”Of course, would I be happier if we actually had some guaranteed structured fixtures against all of the Full Members? Yes of course but the world doesn’t work that way and we’re trying to work around it.”

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.”