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The former allrounder, now president of the ACA, believes outside investment can bring fresh ideas and approaches

Daniel Brettig16-Feb-2021Shane Watson, the Australian Cricketers’ Association president, believes Cricket Australia should re-examine the notion of private ownership of BBL clubs, a decade after the governing body’s initial “float” of stakes in the T20 league met a quiet end.Private ownership of BBL clubs, the tournament model favoured by a large portion of overseas domestic leagues including the IPL, PSL, CPL and BPL, was a contentious issue at the time CA elected to move towards new identities for eight T20 teams, with a prospectus drawn up and a business mission taken to India to gauge private interest in the idea. Some of the initial structures of the BBL clubs, namely the independent boards and chief executives of the Melbourne Stars and Melbourne Renegades, were drawn up partly with private investment in mind.CA’s executives, led by the then CEO James Sutherland and former head of strategy Andrew Jones, were cooler about the idea than some members of the CA board, and the idea fizzled out as the league was launched on a trajectory towards securing a far larger slice of an A$1.2 billion broadcast rights pie in 2018. Three years on, with CA embroiled in a battle with Seven West Media over the network’s campaign for a discount to its fees and Covid-19 affecting events more broadly, Watson reckons the concept should be revisited.Related

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“Yes, it 100% needs a revisit, and it’s a way to continue to get a cash injection as well,” Watson told ESPNcricinfo. “Obviously they’d need to set things up to put things in place to make sure CA still have control that they desire across the franchises and the playing group, but absolutely, it’ll bring in an influx of different people, new money as well, to be able to continue to grow the game. So I think that absolutely would be a big step forward.”There are plenty of other backers of private investment around the ACA board table: chairman Greg Dyer and director Neil Maxwell – also a Cricket New South Wales board member – have both publicly advocated for the concept in the past. Others with considerable knowledge of the area include the NSW Cricket chairman John Knox, who in his former role with Credit Suisse drew up the prospectus when privatisation was first mooted in 2010-11. Much of the opposition to private investment focused on differing priorities between team owners and governing bodies.Other models are emerging however. Private equity investment, as is currently being explored by New Zealand Rugby to exploit the All Blacks brand, presents the opportunity to somewhat tilt the balance in negotiations over a whole range of commercial areas for a club or tournament.”I’ve seen it in a lot of the tournaments I’ve played in, one thing when you have private owners is it brings in a new type of person, a new type of industry, new money streams into a very traditional cricket environment,” Watson said. “It’s the same sort of sponsors, the same people who’ve always been around cricket in Australia for example, so if you open it up to privatisation it means you’re getting some very successful people or business with different ideas on how to be able to expand things, make them better, challenge the status quo.”Not just from a financial point of view but also just from a brand and evolution point of view. I’ve always been very surprised it hasn’t been something that CA have looked at, and gone for. I’ve seen it work so incredibly well in the IPL and the PSL for example, because it brings in new, successful people, new money into something that’s been, in CA’s case, the same sort of status quo for a long period of time.”Speaking on other issues around the game, Watson expressed his disappointment that dressing room questions about the mentoring style of the coach Justin Langer had reached the public domain, but said that it was incumbent on administrators to be “proactive” about how the national team’s leaders were operating relative to the ever-changing nature of the dressing room.”The biggest thing is having the right person at the right time, the right coach or the right captain at the right time,” Watson said. “People retire, people come in and out of the team and as soon as a couple of people move in and out of the team, that can change the whole dynamic of what’s required from a coaching or leadership perspective. That’s where we have to make sure we are really proactive, because when the decision-makers aren’t proactive around what’s required right now, that’s when we can get into trouble.”Watson noted that it was vital for the game’s custodians to be aware also that – whatever might be said publicly – leadership roles in Australian cricket were highly sought-after as prizes with rich rewards for their holders, meaning that it was critical that open discussions were had about whether anyone might be hanging onto them for too long.”That is one of the biggest things – are the people who want to be the captain of Australia doing it because that’s just been their whole goal and that’s all they want, and they’ll do anything they can to get to the top, and that’s not just in the Australian cricket team, that’s leadership in general,” he said.”What are the reasons why you want to be in the top position, is it because it’s all about you and you’ve always wanted that and you’ll just make sure you get there and then you make sure you stay there. For all different reasons, whether it’s sponsorship or marketing, whether it’s just because you love being the main man.Or whether it’s the other side of things: you love helping people, you love getting the best out of them, you weren’t chasing it, but once you got an opportunity, then you loved helping people out and guiding people. The person who stands out straight away to me there is Ricky Ponting; he was never chasing the captaincy, a great team man, but then when he got it, yes he was a leader, but he still cared about others, it wasn’t just about him.Shane Watson has branched out into producing cricket equipment•T20stars

“For some of these coaches, [Australia] is a huge job. You’re the one who’s pointing the ship of Australian cricket in one direction, you’re making the call, that’s your vision filtering down through all the layers. You’re dealing with the media, with the board, with the playing group to get the best out of them, and then your coaching staff as well. So of course, the coach of Australia does get paid incredibly well, and there’s no question that’s going to be one of the reasons why some people hang in a bit longer, because it’s such a big carrot dangling in front of them.”In addition to his ACA role, Watson has ventured into the bats and equipment game, arguing he is trying to “break the model” of established brands and high overheads with a direct-to-customer model based largely upon online sales under the T20 Stars umbrella with which he has also launched a podcast.”I’ve always been a cricket gear tragic since I was a kid, so I’m very particular about every little detail of my gear,” he said. “When it comes to challenging the pricing model that’s out there, it’s just something that when I really started to dig into it I had the realisation of just how expensive cricket gear has got from when I first started playing in my early years. My parents certainly weren’t wealthy, they just got together enough money for me to be able to feel like I never went without.”But nowadays there’s no way they could’ve afforded the top of the range gear. So when I dug into why things have got so expensive, there is a really simple way to be able to break that model down, which is going direct to consumer…and that means the people buying the equipment because they want to get into the game, can actually get it more affordably, just because it’s going directly to them.”The biggest challenge is that everyone’s used to going to cricket shops to try the gear and feel the bats. Absolutely there has to be a way for people to touch and feel the gear as well. I’m getting some guys I played cricket with around the states to be like the agents to get gear into people’s hands, and in Sydney I’ll be getting out to schools and clubs to allow them to see the products.” Shane Watson’s cricket equipment is available at shop.t20stars.com

The development comes after Narendra Hirwani and T Dilip were chosen as bowling and fielding coaches for India women’s upcoming tour of the West Indies

Nagraj Gollapudi18-Oct-2019Former India women captains Diana Edulji and Shanta Rangaswamy have pulled up the BCCI management over the appointments of ad-hoc assistant coaches for the Indian women’s team, which they pointed out were done without the consent of the women’s selection committee.On Friday, both women sent separate e-mails to BCCI chief executive officer Rahul Johri objecting to the process involved in appointing the support staff. While Edulji called the process a “sham”, Rangaswamy questioned why there were no women being appointed.Edulji is part of the committee of administrators (CoA), which is the supervisory authority of the board till a fresh elected administration takes charge. Rangaswamy will be part of that new administration after being elected as one of the two representatives from the Indian Cricketers’ Association to sit on the Apex Council.The development comes a day after the women’s selection committee sent an email to Johri asking why the five-woman panel was not consulted before Narendra Hirwani was appointed the bowling coach and T Dilip was installed as the fielding coach for India’s forthcoming tour of West Indies.The Caribbean trip comprises three ODIs followed by five T20Is between November 1 and 20. The head coach of the team is former India opening batsman WV Raman, who was shortlisted by an ad-hoc cricket advisory committee that incidentally featured Rangaswamy.According to the , the email to Johri was sent by Hemalata Kala, the chairman of the senior women’s selection committee, and was signed by the four other selectors comprising Sudha Shah, Anjali Pendharkar, Shashi Gupta and Lopamudra Banerjee. Kala and her colleagues wanted to know why they were not consulted before the BCCI management finalised the support staff including the appointment of a trainer, as well as renewing the contract of the physiotherapist.Diana Edulji and Vinod Rai emerge from a CoA meeting•Getty Images

Incidentally, the selectors were asked by the BCCI management to conduct interviews on Friday for the post of the video analyst that would travel for the West Indies series. However, in her email to Johri, Edulji pointed out that Pushkar Sawant, who works as an analyst at the National Cricket Academy (NCA), had already been booked on the flight to the Caribbean after he was chosen by Saba Karim, BCCI’s general manager of cricket.”I am shocked reading the article quoting the email from Women Selectors to you regarding the sham process being followed for selection of the video analyst,” Edjulji said in her e-mail, seen by ESPNcricinfo. “It is even more worrisome that the person Mr Pushkar Sawant, wanted by Saba and NCA is already booked on the flight to West Indies. The whole process looks like an eyewash.”Although Johri is at the top of the BCCI management tree, women’s cricket falls under the purview of Karim, the former India wicketkeeper and former national men’s selector. It is understood that on October 1, the coaching and support staff appointment for the women’s team was discussed at a meeting of the committee of administrators (CoA) along with Karim and Johri. Also present at the meeting was former India captain Rahul Dravid, who is director of cricket at the NCA.According to one of the officials present at the meeting, Dravid agreed with the BCCI management viewpoint that ad-hoc assistant coaches for the women’s team were fine as they could be picked based on the conditions. However, Edulji argued that the BCCI rules dictate that only the selection committee could appoint any support staff. It is believed that Dravid then said that the process should be followed.Edulji noted that Karim had defied “repeated instructions” because he wanted to “place” people in positions without “due process.” Edulji said Karim’s actions amounted to “insubordination” and said that rules had to be followed. If not, Johri was equally “culpable” she pointed out. “This is the National Indian Team that is travelling and such shabby treatment is being doled out to them. I wonder if you would do this to the men’s team.”Edulji also told Johri she had received the email Rangaswamy had sent him overnight saying “established practices” concerning coaching and support staff appointment were being bypassed “deliberately by the powers that be” to “accommodate” the people they had shortlisted.Rangaswamy told ESPNcricnfo that she was forced to write that email after she had a word with Kala on Thursday. “The selectors were not even aware of the appointments,” Rangaswamy said. “It seems they did it purposely to accommodate person(s) of someone’s choice.”Rangaswamy said she also wanted to understand the policy of BCCI appointing men to take lead coaching roles of various women’s teams. “Are they averse to women in coaching? As far as possible they must encourage the women (coaches) with the women’s team. If you don’t have sufficient women capable of handling, but when they are equipped and willing why are we not giving them the opportunities?”Rangaswamy presented two examples of women coaches leading India successfully. In 2005 Sudha Shah, who is on the senior women’s selection panel currently, was the head coach when India finished runner-up at the ODI World Cup. Then former India batsman Purnima Rau was the head coach when the Indian women won the one-off Tests in England (in July) and then at home in November against South Africa. Rau was also in charge when India beat New Zealand to win the ODI series at home in 2015.Rangaswamy said she had nothing personal against any individual in the BCCI. She reiterated that stance when Karim and Johri spoke to her on Friday, assuring her that the process set in the BCCI constitution would be followed.Johri was not available for comment, but it is understood that the management wanted the best qualified hands to oversee the Indian women teams. One official said that as much he agrees with the point that women coaches need to be given exposure, one could just not blindly allow former women players to take key jobs without due consideration.Rangaswamy said that players like Neetu David and Nooshin al Kadeer, who had enough experience and pedigree, could be part of the system and given some coaching roles including at the NCA. “Let them train under Raman or at the NCA zonal camps.”

It will take at least another year for Bangladesh to consider playing day-night Tests. According to BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury, the process will begin at home when they can host day-night first-class matches with some regularity

Mohammad Isam31-Jul-2018It will take at least one more year for Bangladesh to consider playing day-night Tests, according to BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury. The process will begin at home when they can host day-night first-class matches with some regularity. Only after that will the BCB approve playing day-night Tests, starting with home matches.On Tuesday, New Zealand Cricket said the BCB hadn’t agreed to play a day-night Test in February next year. This is the second time the BCB has declined such an offer from NZC, having already done so in 2016.Bangladesh and India remain the only Test-playing nations apart from Ireland and Afghanistan to not have played a day-night Test yet. Zimbabwe became the latest team to join the list when they played South Africa in a four-day day-night Test in Port Elizabeth last December.Chowdhury said the BCB’s decision was based on discussions with the Bangladesh players and team management. “After an approach made by the New Zealand board, we spoke to our team management,” Chowdhury told ESPNcricinfo. “We have been seeing it positively but since our players don’t have an opportunity to play day-night matches in domestic longer-version tournaments, we felt that it wouldn’t be right to play a day-night Test.”The BCB wants to take a steady approach to day-night Tests by hosting one at home, but only after they have introduced it more regularly in domestic four-day tournaments. Bangladesh are following the model of Australia, England, Pakistan and West Indies who played some domestic day-night first-class matches before their first day-night Test.Australia, who have played the most day-night Tests thus far, hosted 15 day-night first-class matches before their first Test against New Zealand in 2015. England hosted 11 County matches under lights before their inaugural day-night Test last year. India have hosted eight day-night first-class games so far since 2016. But Bangladesh have held just one first-class domestic match under lights, back in 2013.South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Zimbabwe didn’t play a domestic day-night four-day game before their first day-night Test. While New Zealand and Sri Lanka have introduced day-night four-day games in their domestic competitions since then, South Africa and Zimbabwe haven’t held one till now, and have only played that one four-day Test.”We are looking to try pink ball at the domestic level first, and then play a day-night Test at home. After that, we want to play day-night in away Tests,” Chowdhury said. “We will hold discussions at the policy level at the board, as well as with the players when they return from West Indies.”The tricky part for Bangladesh is to ensure the presence of their international cricketers in these domestic four-day matches since ultimately the whole idea would be to get them accustomed to the pink ball under lights. The BCB’s centrally contracted cricketers have been criticised in the past for skipping longer-version domestic matches, even when they are available.

England closed out a dramatic victory over the No. 1-ranked ODI side to take the three-match series with one to play and hammer home their credentials as Champions Trophy contenders

The Report by Alan Gardner at the Ageas Bowl27-May-2017England 330 for 5 (Stokes 101, Buttler 65*, Morgan 45) beat South Africa 328 for 5 (de Kock 98, Miller 71*, de Villiers 52) by two runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details3:03

‘I thought we had it won’ – de Villiers

England closed out a dramatic victory over the No. 1-ranked ODI side to take the three-match series with one to play and hammer home their credentials as Champions Trophy contenders. Ben Stokes was the catalyst with a 77-ball hundred – as well as a wicket from his fifth ball – and although 98 from Quinton de Kock helped keep South Africa in the chase, England’s bowlers stayed on top of the scoring as the asking-rate rose.David Miller looked to have guided South Africa to the brink of victory with 71 off 51, a six and a four off the first two balls of the penultimate over leaving them needing 10 from 10. But Jake Ball conceded just three from the next four deliveries before Mark Wood defended seven off a nerveless final over to seal a two-run win and extend England’s winning run to eight ODIs in a row.With AB de Villiers also contributing a half-century, South Africa were on course to pull off what would have been comfortably the highest successful chase on the ground. By the time they entered the last ten needing 93 with six wickets standing, Miller had found his groove and, alongside Chris Morris, South Africa’s sixth-wicket pair added 62 in 6.3 overs – only for the boundaries to dry up at the crucial juncture.Stokes’ second ODI hundred had lifted England out of trouble and allowed them to post another impressive total after being put in to bat for the second match running. Dropped twice from his first two balls, Stokes paved the way for England’s recovery, which was capped by Jos Buttler’s explosive, unbeaten 65 from 53. Stokes then took a wicket almost immediately after coming on to bowl but ended up delivering only three overs, as questions about his fitness lingered.South Africa had moved relatively comfortably to 56 without loss when Stokes struck. Having narrowly failed to hold on one-handed to a chance from his first ball given by de Kock, he made the breakthrough when Hashim Amla drove loosely to cover.De Kock had almost fallen in similar fashion to his Headingley dismissal, top-edging a swipe across the line against Ball on 16, but this time it carried over the wicketkeeper and slip and ran away for four. Ball was in the side for Chris Woakes, who had experienced a tight quad after taking a four-wicket haul in England’s victory in the first ODI, and South Africa targeted the least-experienced member of the attack to help keep up with a demanding asking rate of 6.6 an over.Although Liam Plunkett picked up Faf du Plessis via a tickle to the keeper, de Kock was largely untroubled in moving to a run-a-ball half-century. He and de Villiers judiciously milked the bowling during the middle overs, putting on 96 before Plunkett struck again with a well-directed short ball that brushed the South Africa captain’s glove as he tried to limbo underneath.With de Kock closing in on a 13th ODI hundred – and what would have been his third against England from seven innings – he was drawn into a poke at Moeen Ali to be caught behind. Miller showed his power in Moeen’s following over by lofting him casually over long-off and he progressed to a 34-ball fifty, scoring the majority of a 55-run stand with Farhaan Behardien, before Plunkett had the latter taken at mid-off.As at Leeds, South Africa won an apparently useful toss and England were 80 for 3 in the 16th over before a 95-run stand between Stokes and Eoin Morgan helped even up the contest. Morgan was not as fluent as he was during his hundred in the first match, surviving a caught-and-bowled chance on 16 before edging a cut against Kagiso Rabada, but Stokes accelerated after reaching his half-century, adding his second fifty from 29 deliveries to record a first hundred in home ODIs.With the platform constructed, Buttler bent himself upon destruction during the latter stages. Buttler crashed his first ODI fifty since the tour of Bangladesh last year, from 46 balls, during stands of 77 with Stokes and 78 with Moeen. The 46th over, bowled by Andile Phehlukwayo, went for 22 as 111 flowed from the last ten; only Rabada, who picked up 2 for 50, managed to go at less than a run a ball for South Africa.South Africa’s cause was not aided by dropping five catches – three of them off the bowling of Keshav Maharaj, the left-arm spinner playing his maiden ODI. In the penultimate over, Amla failed to even get a hand on a skied top edge from Moeen at fine leg, to cap a poor effort in the field.Stokes, playing with strapping on his knee, was given a couple of early lives but quickly put his scratchy start behind him to turn in the sort of dominating innings that helped win him the IPL’s MVP award earlier this month. Pretorius was swung crisply down the ground for a one-bounce four, then Phehlukwayo mowed over deep midwicket for six; when Morris returned, he was deposited into the Shane Warne Stand off an even more towering blow.After a top-edge off Rabada flew high between keeper and slip, Stokes followed up with a dismissive thump back down the ground and a single to bring up his half-century from 48 balls. Morris was again struck into the crowd before Maharaj did eventually claim his man – and his maiden ODI wicket – when Stokes holed out having reached his hundred.With overhead conditions providing just a touch of assistance for the seamers early on, England had struggled through the initial Powerplay. Jason Roy’s indifferent form continued when he was bowled by Rabada for 8 and although Alex Hales and Joe Root assembled a half-century stand at more than a run a ball, two quick wickets further undermined England’s prospects.Pretorius, one of three changes from the South Africa XI beaten at Headingley, recovered to see Hales smartly held by de Kock, standing up to the wicket, and then had a hand in seeing off Root, who looked in good touch until he was run out backing up: Morgan’s drive deflected on to the non-striker’s stumps by the bowler in his follow-through. It could have been even better, had Pretorius clung on to a tough opportunity off Morgan.By then, Maharaj had confirmed himself in the luckless debutant category. Rabada’s drop of Hales at long-on did not cost South Africa too much (although it added six to Maharaj’s figures) but de Villiers would have been as perturbed as his bowler to see Stokes put down from consecutive balls. Stokes’ first delivery saw Maharaj draw a thick edge, only for Amla to miss it completely at slip; then de Kock could not hold a more difficult opportunity, again off the outside edge of the bat. Two moments of good fortune that Stokes ensured he and England would capitalise on.

When hands were shaken at 5.52pm, both teams, you sense, left sunny Southampton satisfied

Will Macpherson at the Ageas Bowl13-Apr-2016
ScorecardIan Bell extended his innings to 174•Getty Images

When hands were shaken at 5.52pm, both teams, you sense, left sunny Southampton satisfied; Warwickshire, shorn of the services of the injured – although not seriously – Chris Woakes, have shown off their Championship credentials, even if three days was not long enough to force a result.Hampshire, also without the services of an England bowler, Reece Topley – who will miss six to eight weeks with a broken hand – will be delighted to have battled through and survived a considerable test from Warwickshire’s bowling attack. Belief will have grown that they can survive once again.Warwickshire, who ended with 12 points to Hampshire’s nine, always looked they could force a result, and often looked like they would. But Hampshire dug in and, eventually, after Hampshire’s top four fell in an hour before tea, and Sean Ervine gave his wicket away shortly afterwards, Liam Dawson and Adam Wheater proved stoic enough foes.”We can’t do anything about losing nearly four sessions to bad weather,” said Warwickshire director of cricket Dougie Brown. “What we did was give ourselves a really good opportunity, so we can’t ask for any more than that as a side. There was nothing you could actually fault.”In conditions far more benign than on the opening day, and on a pitch still playing true, each of Warwickshire’s four standing bowlers provided utterly distinct threats. The absent crosswind significantly reduced Keith Barker’s inswing, but he still found enough to consistently trouble the batsmen.Rikki Clarke nagged, nagged and nagged again, while Boyd Rankin was awkward as ever, especially when bowling in tandem with Jeetan Patel, who provided a masterclass in probing finger spin, and could twice have had James Vince leg before to go with the wicket of Will Smith. Dawson, who is highly rated by England and scrapped hard with the bat having bowled solidly if unspectacularly throughout this match, will be a better bowler for his front-row seat to Patel, who was simply relentless in his accuracy.The absent fifth member of the gang, Woakes, was kept off the field as a precaution, having, according to Brown, “dived and landed awkwardly on his left knee.” Woakes will have a scan on Thursday to determine his fitness for Sunday’s trip to Lord’s to face Middlesex and beyond, but Brown did not appear particularly perturbed.Earlier, Ian Bell, in adding 44 to his overnight 130, proved that he still possesses all five gears and a considerable degree of inventiveness, too. In reaching his century on Tuesday, Bell scored eight boundaries. On Wednesday morning, however, the ball veritably whistled to the fence the same numbers of times, and in far more varied directions.There were a trio of vintage cover drives and his favourite upper-cut off the seamers, and the full repertoire against Dawson’s consistent left-arm orthodox: a sweep that split too men in the deep, a deft reverse-sweep that beat the sprinting deep-point, a slog-sweep and, finally, the best of the lot, a perfect drive that had mid-on sprawling to his left. Eventually, he rather lost James Tomlinson in the flight, and his swirling slog – pushing for a fifth bonus point – was caught well by James Vince at mid-on.Warwickshire’s innings petered out when Bell departed, with Patel and Rankin falling to slogs as they missed a final batting point and set off on their eventually futile pursuit of a win.Hampshire’s batting is shallow – and Jimmy Adams will not be fit for Sunday’s visit to Headingley – but had the depth to earn them five points here. Tom Alsop dealt dutifully with Patel, and was desperately unlucky to be caught brilliantly at short leg by Sam Hain off Rankin. Vince, with an opportunity to stake a claim for one of England’s middle order spots – as Bell had so emphatically earlier in the match – looked rusty, outfoxed by Patel and falling to the first ball of a new Clarke spell. Ervine took the game to Warwickshire in ugly style, and one wafty swipe outside off too many saw him become Barker’s seventh wicket of the match.Still 55 adrift and with plenty at stake, Wheater joined Dawson and Hampshire’s hatches were battened down. There was rough outside off stump, a hoard of men round the bat, and Dawson’s untroubled half-century, the completion of which saw the end of the game, was a considerable effort. He has proved all week that he has an enviable appetite for a scrap, and Hampshire will need it all season.

The match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Brisbane Heat was abandoned without a ball being bowled in Ahmedabad

The Report by Mohammad Isam30-Sep-2013The rain began during the T&T-Lions match•BCCI

The match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Brisbane Heat was abandoned without a ball being bowled in Ahmedabad. This puts Sunrisers out of the Champions League after they finished with six points from four matches, winning once and losing twice. This was the third washout in Motera, after the double-header on September 23 took the same route due to rain.Heat were already knocked out having lost their first three matches. This leaves the Titans and Trinidad & Tobago battling for the second position in Group B behind Chennai Super Kings who have already qualified. All T&T need to do is not lose by a great margin against Super Kings in their final group match.The match scheduled for an 8:30pm start couldn’t go through after heavy rain began during the first match between T&T and Titans. That match ended with three overs to spare, the Caribbean side winning by six runs by the Duckworth/Lewis method.The two matches were retained in Ahmedabad, after an earlier game was moved out of the city due to week-long rains. Though there was 60% chance of rain today, the first game was uninterrupted until rain struck 17 overs into Titans’ chase.

ESPNcricinfo’s preview of the second Twenty20 between Pakistan and Australia in Dubai

The Preview by Brydon Coverdale07-Sep-2012

Match facts

Brad Hogg will become the second oldest player in T20 international history•Getty Images

September 7, 2012
Start time 2000 (1600 GMT)

Big Picture

The first game was dominated by Pakistan’s outstanding bowlers, especially the spin of Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Hafeez and the debutant Raza Hasan, although the fast men Sohail Tanvir and Umar Gul were also very effective. They bowled Australia out for 89, their second lowest T20 total of all time, and the chase was a doddle. Again, Pakistan’s bowlers will be a handful for Australia’s long batting line-up. The big boundaries at Dubai won’t help, and Australia will need far more than the three fours they struck in the first game if they are to avoid losing the series in this match. More than anything they need runs from the top order but worryingly David Warner is struggling for form, having scored at less than a run a ball in all three ODIs against Pakistan and the first T20, with a top score of 24.As much as this match is about a series being up for grabs, it’s another chance for both sides to prepare for the ICC World Twenty20, to be held in Sri Lanka later this month. Pakistan can be pleased with where they are placed, although it wouldn’t be a bad thing if their batsmen were either set a heftier chase or given a chance to bat first, to give them a more intense time in the middle.Australia must put their thrashing in the first game behind them and realise that in the shortest format, one piece of individual brilliance can be enough to turn a team’s form around. They have made three changes to the bowling group but it is in the batting order that they need a lift. If they don’t, they risk entering the World T20 ranked tenth in the world – behind Ireland. And what’s below a minnow in the food chain? Krill? Algae?

Form guide (Complete matches, most recent first)

Pakistan WWLLL
Australia LLWLL

Watch out for

In his first international match for two and a half years, Imran Nazir scored 22 from 26 balls in Pakistan’s small chase. He slapped a couple of boundaries away through the leg side and showed glimpses of the form that helped him force his way back into the side. Pakistan will be keen for Nazir, who opened the batting with Mohammad Hafeez, to have a couple of good hits in the next two matches ahead of the ICC World Twenty20.More than 16 years after he first played for Australia, Brad Hogg is enjoying a renaissance brought about by T20. A revelation in the Big Bash League for the Perth Scorchers last summer, Hogg was recalled to the national side with the specific aim of taking him to the World T20 in Sri Lanka’s spinning conditions. Hogg is 41 but still has his ability to turn the ball and uses his canny variations effectively, and he will enjoy the challenge of taking on Pakistan’s batsmen.

Team news

Pakistan’s bowlers did the job on Wednesday and there seems little reason to change the winning side. Shahid Afridi appears likely to miss again due to his thumb injury.Pakistan (possible) 1 Mohammad Hafeez (capt), 2 Imran Nazir, 3 Nasir Jamshed, 4 Kamran Akmal (wk), 5 Umar Akmal, 6 Shoaib Malik, 7 Abdul Razzaq, 8 Sohail Tanvir, 9 Raza Hasan, 10 Umar Gul, 11 Saeed AjmalAustralia responded to their loss in the first match by making three changes, with Glenn Maxwell, Xavier Doherty and Ben Hilfenhaus all dropped. The allrounder Daniel Christian has been included, along with the spinner Brad Hogg and the fast bowler Mitchell Starc. It was the batsmen who let the side down in the first game but they played such a long batting line-up that there were no back-ups in the squad, and the selectors clearly believe the best policy is to give the batting group as much game time as possible ahead of the ICC World Twenty20.Australia 1 David Warner, 2 Shane Watson, 3 Michael Hussey, 4 David Hussey, 5 George Bailey (capt), 6 Cameron White, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 Daniel Christian, 9 Brad Hogg, 10 Pat Cummins, 11 Mitchell Starc.

Pitch and conditions

Dubai’s pitch is again expected to assist the spinners. “There’s no doubt that the wicket is only going to turn more,” Shane Watson said ahead of the second game.

Stats and trivia

• Australia are only fractionally ahead of Ireland on the ICC T20 rankings and could slip below them into 10th place if Pakistan sweep the series
• Among Australian bowlers, only Dirk Nannes and Shaun Tait have more T20 wickets than Daniel Christian’s 82 at an average of 24.90
• Brad Hogg will become the second oldest player ever to play a T20 international in this match; only Sanath Jayasuriya was older, by 145 days
• The three leading wicket takers of all time in T20 internationals are all part of Pakistan’s squad: Shahid Afridi, Saeed Ajmal and Umar Gul. By contrast, no members of Australia’s squad are in the top 30
  

  Quotes

  “In terms of the group we’ve got together and what we’re capable of, it certainly hasn’t altered my thoughts that we can still be a very good team.”

Greg Smith and Ned Eckersley both hit centuries as Leicestershire recovered from a nightmare start to put the brake on Middlesex’s promotion charge

12-Sep-2011
Scorecard
Greg Smith and Ned Eckersley both hit centuries as Leicestershire recovered from a nightmare start to put the brake on Middlesex’s promotion charge in their County Championship Division Two clash at Grace Road.Leicestershire lost three wickets in the first two overs of the game but Smith (108) and Eckersley (106) helped the home side recover to 319 all out by the close of the first day. Top-of-the-table Middlesex needed 12 points to clinch promotion when play began and they pocketed three of them with seamers Tim Murtagh, Corey Collymore and Gareth Berg claiming three wickets apiece.Wicketkeeper Eckersley, looking to earn himself a contract with Leicestershire, recorded his maiden first-class century while Smith posted the third championship ton of his career. The two of them shared a fifth-wicket partnership of 131 to keep the Middlesex attack at bay for 42 overs.All this came after Middlesex made a flying start after winning the toss and putting the home side in to bat in windy conditions on a pitch with tinges of green in it. It took the visitors just two overs to pick up their first bowling point as Leicestershire lost three wickets without adding to the four runs scored by Matt Boyce off the third ball of the morning from Murtagh.Boyce then edged Murtagh’s final delivery to second slip where Ollie Rayner took the catch. Will Jones, on his Championship debut, was trapped lbw by Collymore who followed that up by bowling James Taylor with the last ball of his over.It left Leicestershire staring at another batting debacle having been bowled out for 34 by Essex and 48 by Northants earlier in the season. But between them Smith, Eckersley and Jacques Du Toit showed real grit and determination to haul their side back from the brink.Smith and Du Toit, who have both been struggling for runs this summer, began the fightback with a fourth-wicket stand of 84 in 22 overs. They rode their luck at times but punished anything loose to the extent that 52 out of 75 runs came in boundaries.Du Toit’s brisk knock of 42 was ended when he chased a wide delivery from Berg and was caught by Andrew Strauss at slip. That brought in 22-year-old Eckersley to join Smith in the middle and the two of them showed great resolve and concentration to steer the home side towards respectability.Smith reached his 50 – only his second of the summer – off 96 balls with seven fours and the century stand came up in 34 overs. Eckersley’s 50, which included four boundaries, came from 118 deliveries and the next landmark was Smith’s 100 arriving off 186 balls with a glorious cover drive that brought him his 12th boundary.The two of them batted throughout the afternoon but in the second over after tea Smith flicked at a ball down leg side from Collymore and was caught behind.Eckersley continued to battle on even though wickets fell at the other end and he reached an excellent 100 that included 12 boundaries. He was finally ninth out at 308 bowled by Berg, who then had Nathan Buck caught behind off the final ball of the day leaving both sides with three bonus points.

Essex players Tom Westley, Billy Godleman and Grant Flower have been punished by the club for breaches of discipline

Cricinfo staff19-Jul-2010Essex players Tom Westley, Billy Godleman and Grant Flower have been punished by the club for breaches of discipline.All three players reacted excessively to being given out, with Westley and Godleman both damaging property at Coggeshall Cricket Club in a Second XI match and Flower, the former Zimbabwe batsman, smashing his stumps down after being dismissed in a Friends Provident t20 game against Sussex.”The club takes these incidents extremely seriously and all the players have been severely reprimanded and fined,” said David East, the Essex chief executive. “In addition they have been warned regarding their future conduct and reminded of their responsibilities as ambassadors for Essex Cricket wherever they are playing.”

Pressure grows on Group B participants and ICC amid Taliban ban on women’s sport

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Jan-2025South Africa’s sports minister, Gayton McKenzie, has added his voice to the growing backlash at Afghanistan’s participation in next month’s ICC Champions Trophy, comparing the Taliban regime’s treatment of women in the country to Apartheid, and saying it would be “hypocritical and immoral to look the other way”.McKenzie’s intervention comes with South Africa due to face Afghanistan in their tournament opener in Karachi on February 21, and follows similar political pressure on fellow Group B participants, England. Earlier this week, a group of 160 British politicians called on the ECB to boycott its fixture against Afghanistan in Lahore on February 26.”If it was my decision, then it certainly would not happen,” McKenzie said in a statement from South Africa’s Ministry of Sports, Arts and Culture. “As a man who comes from a race that was not allowed equal access to sporting opportunities during Apartheid, it would be hypocritical and immoral to look the other way today when the same is being done towards women anywhere in the world.”His intervention comes after Peter Hain, the renowned anti-apartheid campaigner and former British government minister, wrote to Cricket South Africa to voice his own concerns about the ban on women’s and girl’s cricket in Afghanistan, which has effectively been in place since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.In a subsequent statement, CSA acknowledged receipt of Hain’s letter, but echoed the response offered by the ECB, saying that, as the Champions Trophy is an ICC event, “the position on Afghanistan must be guided by the world body in accordance with international tournament participation requirements and regulations”.This stance has also been taken by the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, who urged the ICC to “deliver on their own rules”, which state that all Test-playing nations must also have in place a national women’s team and a programme of women’s cricket.However, an ICC spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo that the Afghanistan Cricket Board could not be held responsible for policies set out by its national government.”The ICC will not penalise the ACB, or its players, for abiding by the laws set by the government of their country. We will continue to constructively use our influence to assist the ACB in developing cricket and playing opportunities for both men and women in Afghanistan.”Both the ECB and Cricket Australia – who complete the four-team Champions Trophy Group B – have refused to engage Afghanistan in bilateral contests, with Australia having indefinitely postponed a T20 series that had been scheduled for last March.South Africa did, however, face Afghanistan in a three-match ODI series in the UAE in September, with CSA stating at the time that it would continue to schedule bilateral engagements as there was “no justification for subjecting Afghan cricket players – both male and female – to secondary persecution for the actions of the Taliban.”