All posts by csb10.top

Test debuts rarely come in envisaged circumstances. Kuldeep Yadav’s came in the decider of an intense series, as replacement for the injured captain, a batsman. Both sides had thrown everything at each other, and Kuldeep was the ace up India’s sleeve. If some reports are to be believed, there had been a tug of war between the captain and coach over when to show the ace, if indeed it was to be shown. However, with the captain resting, Kuldeep was told the day before the fourth Test in Dharamsala that he was playing. He couldn’t sleep that night.On the morning of the Test, Kuldeep was called upon to to pull Australia back when they were running away with the game at a fast pace. Australia went in to lunch at 131 for 1, but when they came back, Kuldeep got David Warner, Peter Handscomb and Glenn Maxwell to make immediate impact on the series. He hasn’t played Test cricket since, but with Ravindra Jadeja suspended for a match, he is all set to try to make further impact on Test cricket as India’s first left-arm wristspinner.Bigger impact, though, has been made, and Kuldeep has seen it himself. “I think there are a lot of chinaman bowlers around now,” Kuldeep said after India’s training session in Pallekele. “When I started out, there were hardly any. You go to any cricket academy, and there are eight-ten chinaman bowlers practising. People have started bowling like this. That’s one thing that has surely changed after my debut, and I think we will see more of such spinners in the future in not only state and Ranji level, but also, hopefully, at international level. It is a happy feeling that people have recognised this skill.”Personally, too, life has taken a turn for Kuldeep. “If you are playing Test cricket and playing for India, life definitely changes,” he said. “There is no more proud feeling than this that you can give to your family. I feel really proud to represent India, feel happy that the hard work from childhood has paid off.”In between his two Tests – he hasn’t yet been told he is playing but he should if he is fit – Kuldeep has played a whole ODI series under the captain he replaced in the side for the Dharamsala Test. And in that ODI series, in the West Indies, the captain seemed impressed with his sorcery.”If the captain believes in you, then you have done half your work,” Kuldeep said. “Captain’s belief is very important, and Virat supports me a lot. He supported me completely in West Indies, and the way he talks to the players on the ground, the way he spoke to me in the ODIs, it felt very nice because the captain’s confidence is the biggest thing for a player.”The efficiency Sri Lanka’s batsmen have shown in sweeping the ball will pose a test for Kuldeep•Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/ AFP

It will help Kuldeep that the current bowling coach of the team has worked with him at junior levels too. “I have been working with Bharat Arun for the past 10 years,” Kuldeep said, “ever since I was playing in Under-16, in Under-19 also. I share a lot of things with him, and he tells me a lot about bowling as well. He has been seeing me ever since I was a junior cricketer, and he knows what to do and what not to do. It is very easy to work with him so I am happy to continue to work with him.”One of the challenges the duo of Kuldeep and Arun will have to overcome is the Sri Lanka batsmen’s strategy to keep sweeping the spinners. Kuldeep recognises the challenge, but also sees an opportunity in it. “[Kusal] Mendis and [Dimuth] Karunaratne batted very well in the last Test, they played the sweep very well,” he said. “It is difficult for spinners if the batsmen are playing the sweep so effectively. It becomes easy for the batsmen and tougher for the spinner, so my plan is to try and control that shot. But playing the sweep also means a lot of chances, so if you plan even a little bit, it can get you wickets.”Three days out, there seemed to be some grass on the Pallekele surface. Three days is a long time for the grass to survive in Asia, but even if it were to, it won’t faze Kuldeep. “For me, the wicket doesn’t matter,” he said. “I don’t see the wicket at all. In childhood, I used to bowl on cement wickets and there can be no better wickets [for batting] than cement wickets. On grassy wickets, some balls can bounce and some can skid through. So there is still some advantage even if there is no turn.”Kuldeep knows how rare chances for spinners are in a squad that has the No. 1 and No. 3 bowlers in the world. He is mindful he will have to make the most of it. “You cannot walk into the team so easily, and you have to wait; that’s the rule of cricket,” he said. “It is good that I have worked with them [R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja], and I have been in the team with them for last six-seven months. So I have got to learn a lot from them, especially playing Test cricket with them. You gain experience like this and it helps in the future. I try to stay with them mostly and keep talking to them; they help me a lot.”

The PCB will end up spending anywhere between US$ 2.5-3 million for the staging of the three-match T20I series against World XI, as it bids to build on unprecedented international goodwill and bring more cricket back to Pakistan.A major chunk of that figure will have been spent on bringing the World XI team to Lahore. Nobody has spoken publicly about how much the players are being paid but it is thought to be in the region of $100,000 each. The rest is made up mostly by the logistic costs involved.The PCB will not, at least, have to pay for the entire costs of the security apparatus for the series. Two international security consultants – Reg Dickason and Nicholls Steyn and Associates – have been engaged, with the $1.1 million cost picked up by the ICC. That is a result of efforts by the PCB over the last year to seek some kind of assistance from the game’s governing body from their projected loss of revenues from the absence of international cricket at home.Although the total spend on the series may appear hefty for a board that hasn’t hosted an India series in well over a decade and has hosted one international series at home since 2009, the PCB’s financial health appears to be better than has been often thought.The board has made a profit every year since 2011 and has, in fact, tripled it in the three years to June 2016 – for the year 2015-16, according to its annual report, the PCB made a profit of $14.5 million dollars.That is one reason a member of the board’s governing body said he would be happy even if they manage to just break even over the course of this week. Since this series was not part of Pakistan’s original FTP schedule, it does not come under the five-year broadcast deal they signed with Ten Sports in 2013, thought to be around $150 million.Instead, the PCB has crafted the same deal they did for the PSL, whereby they buy airtime in bulk and sell advertising space, taking a majority share of the revenues that generates.Ordinarily, the rest of their revenues would come from various series-specific commercial deals and ticket sales. But the talk around Lahore over the last few days has been of disappointing ticket sales, a result of a pricing policy that has not quite worked out. Hours before the game, the PCB chairman Najam Sethi took to Twitter calling on fans to not wait to see how the series develops and instead buy tickets now. Ten overs into the first game on Tuesday evening, the 25,000-capacity Gaddafi Stadium was nearly but not entirely full.What they end up making, the investment, as the board member pointed out, is a longer-term one. If this series goes off without incident, it paves the way for Sri Lanka to play a solitary T20 in Lahore on October 29 and, potentially, West Indies to visit for a three-match series of T20s in November.With more games of the PSL due to be played in Pakistan next season, this period becomes a critical one in determining the future extent of international cricket in Pakistan.

AB de Villiers scored 43 off 50 balls•Getty Images

A CSA Invitation XI headlined by internationals AB de Villiers and JP Duminy comfortably chased 256 against the touring Bangladesh side, who were bolstered by the arrival of Shakib Al Hasan. Though Shakib’s importance to the Bangladesh team was underlined when he top-scored with a 67-ball 68, it was not enough to trouble the South African batsmen on their own turf.Bangladesh showed their strongest sign of being more willing to front up when ODI captain Mashrafe Mortaza chose to bat in Bloemfontein. Test captain Mushfiqur Rahim had made the opposite call on batsmen-friendly surfaces in both Tests and his reasoning was almost justified when Bangladesh slumped to 63 for 4 in the 15th over in this match.The wounds from Test performance still seemed raw as the Bangladesh openers were dismissed by experienced Dolphins campaigner Robbie Frylinck. No. 3 Liton Das was caught behind off medium-pacer Malusi Siboto for 8 and Mushfiqur, who has not suffered further complications from the blow he took to the head on Sunday, fell to left-arm spinner Aaron Phangiso for 22. Shakib and Mahmudullah put on 57 for the fifth wicket before Shakib and Sabbir Rahman shared a sixth-wicket stand of 76 and Bangladesh were back on track.Just when Shakib could have started to push on, he also fell to Phangiso, who only played in the match because Keshav Maharaj was rested. Sabbir went on to score 52 but Bangladesh did not have much more to offer. Their last four wickets fell for 36 runs, they were dismissed with 11 balls remaining in their innings and the CSA XI only needed to score at 5.1 runs an over to win.New Test opener Aiden Markram and national Under-19 player Matthew Breetzke started much quicker than that. Their opening stand was worth 147 inside 26 overs, with Markram blazing a 68-ball 82 to make a case for inclusion in the limited-overs’ sides, and Breetzke proving his potential with a patient 71. Nasir Hossain separated the pair when he caught Markram off his own bowling, bringing CSA XI captain JP Duminy to the crease.When Breetzke was bowled five overs later and de Villiers walked out, Bangladesh were bowling to a pair they will see a lot of in the next two weeks but they did not manage to strike any fear into them. Duminy and de Villiers were together for 64 balls and scored 62 runs between them before Duminy was stumped. De Villiers went on to score 43, his highest score in three innings this summer before he was caught behind. He has only played one first-class game this season, for Titans against Warriors and scored 5 and 32 and is now available across all formats for the national side.Bangladesh will not have to worry about facing de Villiers in whites but have much bigger problems on their hands. Apart from not being able to post enough runs to challenge their opposition, they have also yet to bowl them out once on this tour.

Nic Maddinson scored 123 off 113 balls•Getty Images

A Nic Maddinson century and an even contribution from the bowlers hurried New South Wales to a 93-run victory over the Cricket Australia XI in the domestic limited overs match at Hurstville Oval in Sydney.Maddinson added 132 with his opening partner Daniel Hughes to set the platform for a healthy NSW total, before the left-arm wrist spinner Clint Hinchliffe worked his way through the middle order with some artful variety. Ryan Gibson also offered useful innings to the Blues’ cause.In reply, the CA XI were given a rollicking start by Max Bryant, who careered to 89 off 61 balls with support from Beau Webster.During the course of the match, NSW gloveman Peter Nevill equaled the List A wicketkeeping world record, affecting eight dismissals which included six catches and two stumpings.At 1 for 117 in the 16th over the composite team were in good position to chase down the hosts’ total, but a parsimonious spell from Nathan Lyon played a key role in stalling their momentum – a strong response to his rough treatment by Alex Ross at the same ground on Friday.

Rob Andrew, the Sussex chief executive, says that the club will not be rushed into appointing a new head coach in the wake of Mark Davis’s departure last month, adding that the priority in the close season has been to firm up the contracts of the players whom the management believe can restore the club to its recent glories.Andrew, who took up the reins at Hove in January after a decade at the Rugby Football Union, oversaw a difficult first season, in which Sussex failed to secure a return to the top flight of the County Championship, while slipping out at the group stages of both the NatWest T20 Blast and the Royal London One-Day Cup.That sense of under-achievement was compounded late last month when two club stalwarts left in quick succession – Chris Nash, the veteran batsman, who accepted a three-year deal at Nottinghamshire, and Davis, whose 16-year association with Hove extended way beyond his two years as coach.The twin departures represented a further distancing of the current Sussex squad from the great team of the early 2000s, which won the first Championship title in the club’s history in 2003, then added two more pennants in 2006 and 2007. Andrew, however, was unapologetic about the new direction of travel.”There’s been some changes happening, but that’s the nature of sport,” Andrew told ESPNcricinfo. “I’ve really enjoyed the year. I’ve enjoyed getting to understand the club, and we’ve got a very, very clear direction of where we are going and the next few years will genuinely be very exciting.”It was pretty clear when I looked into the job that the club had maybe been treading water a little, probably for the last two or three years really, with short-term signings – some have worked, some haven’t. But it takes time to rebuild a side, especially when you’ve been on a very successful period.”With that in mind, Andrew would not be drawn on the possible contenders for the role of head coach. Two of the club’s most notable ex-players – the title-winning captain, Chris Adams, and the former England wicketkeeper, Matt Prior – have both been linked with a return to Hove, but beyond insisting that interest in the coaching vacancy had been high, the CEO remained tight-lipped.”I’m not going to get dragged into speculation, but we will make the right appointment as head coach,” he said. “We are not in any great hurry, there’s no timeline on it because it’s a big decision that we’ve got to get right. The club hasn’t really had that many coaching changes if you look back at how long Mark was here [initially as 2nd XI coach], and Mark Robinson before that.”Behind the scenes, Sussex have been identifying the players that they believe will form the core of the team in the future. Luke Wells recently committed to another two years, as did Chris Jordan, while Luke Wright and George Garton – their hugely talented left-arm quick who was last week called up to reinforce England’s Ashes squad – have both extended their contracts until the end of 2020.”He’s very talented, very young, and still very inexperienced,” Andrew said of Garton. “We’ve all got to be a bit careful not to get too carried away.”We have got some very talented young players – George is one of them, Jofra Archer is one of the first names I came across when we first joined, Stuart Whittingham, Abe Sakande … these are very talented young bowlers coming through the system.”But we also need experience around the place, we need our experienced players to step up and with the signing of Stiaan van Zyl and David Wiese, there were signs last season that they were getting used to the club. Luke Wells was the second-highest run-scorer in the country, but we need to be more consistent.”In the longer term, however, Sussex’s hopes for a full-blown regeneration may be hampered by the looming upheaval in English domestic cricket – namely the launch of the new-team T20 competition in 2020.The details of the tournament remain to be thrashed out, but despite Hove’s history as county pioneers – in 1999, they became the first English club to install permanent floodlights – the size of the venue means that they face being overlooked when it comes to the allocation of these new marquee fixtures.”It’s something I’ve tried to get my head round since I started,” Andrew said. “It’s been the big talking point. We are now into the nuts and bolts, the nitty-gritty of what is it going to look like and what impact is it going to have on counties – who will be a host, and who won’t.”From my perspective, I hope it won’t have a negative impact on Sussex, because the whole premise of the new competition is that all 18 counties benefit, and share in the rewards. We all need it to be successful. And we don’t need a split between Test-match and non-Test match grounds.”I’m confident that a club like Sussex can be successful in all formats, just look at what Essex did in the County Championship this year.”As for whether Sussex need to consider finding a new home for a new era of county cricket, Andrew insisted this was highly unlikely, without ruling out the possibility entirely.”I haven’t been here long enough to really understand the politics of the club, but I think it would be very, very unusual if we were to consider moving from here,” he said.”I think we need to improve the ground and that’s something we need to look at, but this is a fantastic county ground. We can be successful from here, we can retain our best young players, which is what we’ve done in the last month, and we’ve proven that.”Cricket’s got into too much debt because of the push to get more and more Test grounds,” he added. “There is possibly going to be less Test cricket but more Test grounds, so us going and building another one is probably not a clever idea.”

The England women’s cricket team have capped a memorable year in which they won the World Cup at Lord’s in a pulsating final against India, by claiming the Team of the Year award at the prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards in Liverpool.On a memorable night for England’s women cricketers, who have for so long lived in the shadows of their male counterparts, Heather Knight’s team topped a shortlist of teams including the British & Irish Lions, Celtic, Team GB’s para-athletics and England’s World-Cup-winning U17s footballers.Their award was richly deserved following a World Cup triumph that could hardly have been a more worthy advertisement for their sport. In a showpiece event in front of a packed house at Lord’s, England battled back from the brink of defeat thanks largely to the efforts of Anya Shrubsole, who claimed five wickets in nine balls to seal an agonising nine-run victory with figures of 6 for 46.Off the back of her efforts, Shrubsole became the first women’s cricketer to be nominated for the individual SPOTY award, which was eventually claimed by the athlete, Sir Mo Farah.The announcement was a timely fillip for English cricket, coming as it did on the eve of what could well be an Ashes-sealing defeat for the men in Australia, when play resumes at Perth overnight. The women’s team were also unsuccessful in their own Ashes campaign in October, although they did emerge with honour intact after battling back from an 8-4 points deficit to square the multi-format series 8-8.Despite still being considered the national summer sport, cricket has been noticeably under-represented at the SPOTY awards in recent years – arguably due to the sport’s invisibility on free-to-air TV. The last player to be nominated for the individual award was Ian Bell in 2013, while Andrew Flintoff was the last winner, following his starring role in the 2005 Ashes victory.”Without a doubt I sense this is a good thing for the sport, not just women’s cricket,” Shrubsole told The Guardian in the wake of her individual nomination. “Anytime cricket gets recognised on something like that – on a national scale, on a huge evening celebrating sport – it’s brilliant. And having a female cricketer shows where the sport is at. A few years ago, you’d never have had that.”

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting will return to the IPL this season, this time as head coach of Delhi Daredevils. Hemant Dua, the chief executive of Daredevils, made the announcement on Twitter.Ponting takes over from Paddy Upton and former India captain Rahul Dravid, who had stepped down after the previous season owing to BCCI’s conflict-of-interest regulations. While Upton’s contract wasn’t renewed, Dravid chose to coach India A and India Under-19 teams over the IPL franchise.Delhi were in contention for a playoff berth last season, only to taper off towards the end of the group stage. They eventually finished the season sixth, with six wins in 14 matches. The franchise is yet to win a title in 10 attempts.Ponting had coached Mumbai Indians to their second IPL title in 2015, but the franchise chose to not renew his two-year contract when it expired in 2016. He had joined the franchise as a player in 2013, but stepped away midway through the tournament due to poor form.Ponting also worked with Mumbai Indians in an advisory capacity in 2014. Prior to that, he was briefly part of Kolkata Knight Riders for the inaugural edition in 2008.

The future of the MCC Universities (MCCU) scheme has been put in further jeopardy by the withdrawal of a major sponsor.The scheme, already the subject of a review involving the ECB and the MCC, had benefitted from around GBP180,000 of funding over each of the last couple of years from Deloitte. But with that deal having expired there is fresh doubt as to the long-term viability of the programme.In an attempt to cut costs, the MCC have decided they will no longer field an MCCU team in the 2nd XI Championship and have told ESPNcricinfo that their funding of the remaining aspects of the programme – understood to cost the club around GBP375,000 a year – should be considered “finite.” The club had previously announced (in early 2016) that they intended to cut their funding by 50%, though the short-fall was partially mitigated by the Deloitte deal.While an MCC spokesman reiterated their commitment to the scheme for the next three years – a move designed to reassure students who may have made university choices based on the accessibility of the programme – there is increasing nervousness among those involved in implementing the scheme over its future.The MCCU project, founded by former England opener Graeme Fowler, allows young people to avoid having to choose between an education and a career in sport. By providing good-quality facilities and coaching at six centres (based in Cambridge, Cardiff, Durham, Leeds, Loughborough and Oxford) around England and Wales, students are able to complete their degrees (or similar) while sustaining their dreams of a playing career. Around 25% of current England-qualified players in the County Championship have come through the scheme with Heather Knight, Andrew Strauss, Sam Billings, Zafar Ansari, Tom Westley and Toby Roland-Jones among the obvious success stories.The ECB do not currently provide any direct funding for the MCCUs. But they are conducting a review into the programme’s place in the overall make-up of cricket in England and Wales. With some worried that games involving the students dilute the standard of first-class cricket and others worried about funding, it is possible that the MCCU centres may play combined teams – perhaps two instead of six – in both first-class and limited-overs cricket. It is also possible that the scheme is, in some ways, extended to further centres, with Southampton an oft-repeated potential location. Either way, it seems likely the ECB will need to agree to fund it if it is to survive beyond the next three or four years.The role of the MCCUs extends far beyond on-field success. By ensuring more young sportspeople have an extensive education behind them, it helps avoids some of the pitfalls inherent at the end of sporting careers while some of those who do not go on to enjoy on-field success continue to serve the game as coaches, club secretaries and the like. And, at a time the game is keen to extend its training and support programmes to players leaving the game, it seems odd that such an obviously preventative approach is so vulnerable.The timing of the news is also intriguing. Coinciding with revelations that Chance to Shine could be forced to cut some operations due to a funding shortfall it underlines the impression that, for all the cash flooding into the game at the top level – the ECB recently agreed a new broadcast deal worth £1.1 billion and the remuneration package of at least one ECB official exceeds £660,000 a year – the sport at a developmental level appears to be facing something of a crisis.

Shamsur Rahman’s unbeaten century helped Mohammedan Sporting Club to their first win, as they beat Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club by five wickets at the BKSP-3 ground.Shamsur struck nine fours and five sixes as he made 123 off 124 balls. He was involved in two key partnerships: 119 runs for the second wicket with Salman Butt and 112 runs for the fourth wicket with Raqibul Hasan.Butt made 81 off 75 balls with 12 fours while Raqibul hammered three sixes and five fours in his 49-ball 63. Shamsur scored 27 of the 29 runs during the unbroken sixth-wicket stand with Irfan Sukkur.Earlier, Dhanmondi Club put on 287 for 9 in 50 overs with fifties from Nurul Hasan (77), Rakin Ahmed (64) and Shykat Ali (50). Left-arm spinner Taijul Islam finished with 2 for 40.Mohammad Shahid, Asif Hasan and Mosaddek Hossain starred with the ball to help Legends of Rupganj to a 24-run win over Prime Bank Cricket Club in Fatullah. They took three wickets each as Prime Bank were bowled out for 215 in response to Rupganj’s 239 for 6.The victory was built on Abdul Mazid’s 110 off 122 balls; the innings included eight sixes. He added 135 runs for the fourth wicket with Naeem Islam, who made 51. Pace bowler Delwar Hossain took three wickets.Dhiman Ghosh and Salman Hossain struck unbeaten fifties as Agrani Bank Cricket Club beat Shinepukur Cricket Club by five wickets at the BKSP-4 ground. The pair added 143 runs for the unbroken sixth wicket stand, with Dhiman finishing on 85 off 76 balls and Salman 65 off 67.Earlier, Towhid Hridoy’s unbeaten 122 helped Shinepukur to 264 for 6 in 50 overs. He struck eight fours and three sixes off 125 balls and shared a 134-run third wicket stand with Uday Kaul, who made 77.

Peshawar Zalmi 176 for 3 (Akmal 107*) beat Lahore Qalandars 172 for 4 (Devcich 70, Akhtar 30*) by seven wicketsPeshawar Zalmi piggy-backed on Kamran Akmal’s fourth T20 century – and second fifty-plus score in as many days – to brush aside Lahore Qalandars by seven wickets and storm into the Playoffs. Opening the batting, Akmal’s undefeated 61-ball 107 was instrumental in Peshawar pulling off the highest successful chase in this year’s tournament so far. Lahore elected to bat and made 172, but on a good batting surface, it wasn’t going to be adequate, as Peshawar strolled to the target with two overs to spare.Right from the time Peshawar scored 20 runs off Anton Devcich, who had been responsible for Lahore’s strong batting display, in the first over of their chase, things appeared ominous for Lahore. The dismissals of opener Riki Wessels and Dwayne Smith – in the second and seventh overs respectively – were the only bright spots for Lahore’s bowlers, who copped a hammering at the hands of Akmal. Right from the start, Akmal maintained a steady flow of boundaries – he scored 11 fours and seven sixes in all – and raised a century off 59 balls, as the chase proved a walk in the park for Peshawar.Had it not been for Akmal’s numbing assault, Devcich could have possibly emerged the match-winner for Lahore with his 42-ball 70, which included two fours and seven sixes. While admittedly a chancy effort, Devcich struck some mighty blows when he wasn’t using the pace to deflect the ball to the shorter boundary on the leg-side. After Devcich departed in the 15th over, Sohail Akhtar, who smashed an unbeaten 30 off 16 balls, and Gulraiz Sadaf (26* off 21 balls) helped Lahore sustain the momentum, as they amassed 52 runs in the last five overs. All that would ultimately prove futile.Where the match was wonWhile it would be fair to say that Akmal had the chase covered for the most part, there was a phase where Yasir Shah and Shaheen Afridi successfully slowed down things – overs seven to 10 yielded only 24 runs. Akmal, along with Mohammad Hafeez, took on the bowlers and piled on 54 runs in the next five overs to reduce the target to 38 in the last five overs. With the cushion of wickets, Peshawar had no problem in polishing off the required runs in the next three overs.The man who won itComing into the game, Akmal had three half-centuries in the tournament. The 36-year-old knew this was a must-win game that needed him to do even better, and therefore, having reached his half-century in the 12th over, Akmal marched on. Despite a bout of cramps, Akmal was unrelenting with his cuts, pulls, step-out-and-drive strokes, and slog sweeps. By the time the game came to an end, Akmal had ascended to the top of the run charts.Where they standWith this win, Peshawar have climbed to second place in the points table and have qualified for the Playoffs. Lahore Qalandars slumped to their seventh defeat and finished last in what has been a forgettable season for them.