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The Delhi Capitals allrounder said Avesh Khan was initially supposed to deliver the Super Over

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Apr-20211:57

Axar Patel – I suggested Rishabh Pant I should bowl the Super Over against Sunrisers

Axar Patel, playing his first IPL 2021 game after recovering from Covid-19, revealed following Delhi Capitals’ Super Over win against the Sunrisers Hyderabad that it was he who told the team management that he should bowl in the one-over shootout. Bowling at David Warner and Kane Williamson, Patel conceded only seven runs in six balls, which the Capitals chased down.Patel said in the post-match press conference that the Capitals were planning on having Avesh Khan – who took 3 for 34 in his four-over quota – deliver the Super Over. But at the end of regulation play, Patel approached the Capitals captain RIshabh Pant and suggested that a spinner would be much harder to put away on the sluggish Chepauk surface. The assessment proved correct eventually as Patel bowled two dots, two singles, one leg bye, and one four.”When I was in the dressing room, I was thinking that on this wicket, a spinner would be pretty effective,” Patel said. “When I came out of the dressing room, the coach and everyone were talking. The initial thought was to go with a fast bowler – Avesh Khan – because they would send a left-right combination.Related

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“After that, when we were just stepping onto the ground, I thought a spinner would be more effective. So I told Rishabh that I could also bowl the over. Then he spoke to Ricky [Ponting], and it was decided at the last moment that I would bowl.”Patel also said that the Capitals’ decision to not send both their openers – Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan – in the Super Over chase of eight and instead of going for two left-handers in Dhawan and Pant was based on the dimensions of the ground, which were bigger on one side and, therefore, would allow more twos to be taken. That decision worked out against Rashid Khan, whom the Sunrisers fielded to bowl the Super Over.Patel, who took 2 for 26 in his regulation four overs, said that he was match-ready ever since he came out of the medical facility in Mumbai where he spent nearly three weeks recovering from Covid-19. With the Chepauk surface assisting spinners, and Patel having rejoined the Capitals camp in Chennai on Thursday, he was asked by the management ahead of Sunday’s game if he felt fit enough to play, to which he said yes. The management told Patel that if he was ready, they he would slot into the XI right away. Patel said his confidence was boosted by his stellar returns against England in the recent home series.”Even before Covid I was bowling well, in Test matches, and then I bowled in the T20Is too. So, I was carrying the same confidence,” he said. “I wasn’t thinking much that I have had Covid. After recovering from Covid, if I still keep thinking about it that I lost 20 days…obviously it was frustrating but I wasn’t thinking much about it.”When I was in quarantine, the team-mates used to have a chat with me over calls, so I was thinking only the positive stuff that I would regain my rhythm and won’t think much about how I would do, or if my bowling or batting would be affected. So, I followed the basics, spent some time in the nets, and found the rhythm I wanted in those four days. After that, I was both mentally and physically ready.”

It entered fresh talks with the ACA and states to clarify its finances and assuage fears that it could go broke by August

Daniel Brettig20-Apr-2020Australian cricket’s state association owners have successfully pushed back against a Cricket Australia proposal to cut their annual grants by 45% amid the coronavirus pandemic. The governing body has entered fresh talks with the states and the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) to clarify its finances and assuage fears that it faced the possibility of going broke by August.CA’s chief executive Kevin Roberts sent shockwaves around the organisation and the wider game last week by announcing that all but a handful of staff would have their pay cut by 80% until the end of June, while similarly desperate messages had been directed towards senior players and managers, including grim tidings about apparent dives in the value of CA’s investments, listed as being worth about A$90 million in the most recent annual report.It has since been clarified that from stocks to a value of A$22 million purchased in 2012, CA had seen their value rise to as much as A$45 million before they were pushed back to A$36 million by the financial shocks associated with the coronavirus outbreak.At the same time, CA’s total reserves, augmented by the most recent installment in their six-year A$1.18 billion broadcast deal with Fox Sports and Seven, are far from exhausted. However, there is understood to be some concern about the likelihood of the next payments being made in September.It was on that basis, in addition to worries about the scheduled men’s Twenty20 World Cup in October-November that precedes the India tour and the prospect of the Big Bash League and WBBL being played in front of empty stadiums, that CA proposed a 45% cut to the six states’ annual grants, which totalled more than A$127 million for 2018-19.However a majority of the states opposed the 45% figure, partly on the basis that it would force further cuts to staff pay and employment than had already been made – including the South Australian Cricket Association’s removal of 23 staff and contractors from their payroll – before the end of June.CA’s subsequent offer is for an initial 25% reduction, with inbuilt adjustments that may be made for events such as the cancellation of the India tour that would decrease the grant, or a successful staging of the same tour, which would likely increase it.The states are yet to agree to this new model and further financial information is still being sought from CA, but there is at least the conclusion that a 25% cut would mean minimal need for state associations to immediately reduce their staff numbers and also allow debates to move on to scenarios for 2020-21.In parallel discussions, CA and the ACA have been working on how to build in potential reductions to player pay under the principles of the fixed revenue percentage model that has characterised all collective agreements between the governing body and the players’ union since the late 1990s.Similarly to the states, these changes would likely include a great deal of flexibility related to the possibility of India touring this summer or being compelled to cancel their plans due to the coronavirus pandemic.Either way, it appears unlikely that there will be any improvement to the grim outlook set out by Roberts for shocked CA staff on Thursday last week, when the 80% pay cuts for all but a few staff until at least July were announced.Considerable disquiet remains about this move, not only in relation to CA’s actual financial position, but also the potential savings it brings in – believed to be only around A$3 million – and the lack of forewarning given to staff during Roberts’ frequent video-conference briefings during the coronavirus period.

Fast bowler was synonymous with England’s famous victory at Headingley in 1981

Andrew Miller04-Dec-2019A bit like the relationship with one’s parents, or the pictures on the walls in your childhood home, some memories are set in stone before you’re even aware of who or what they represent.Take the Headingley Test of 1981. How many people aged 40 or under can say for certain when they first witnessed footage of England’s most storied victory? For this onlooker, it was almost certainly on a rainy afternoon at school in the mid-1980s, and undoubtedly before I was even aware that cricket was the sport that would seize control of my formative years.But by the time cricket’s rules and reputations had begun to take root in my conscience, the towering significance of Bob Willis, England’s mightiest of fast bowlers, was already one of the most fundamental prisms through which I and so many others understood and loved the game – thanks to countless replays, countless newspaper and magazine reports, and countless anecdotes that bounced off the walls that connect the myth to the legend.Willis’s death today, aged 70, is a shattering and irreparable loss to the sport.Willis was a grandee of English cricket in the most absolute sense. Iconic matchwinner, fast-bowling survivor, long-term leading England wicket-taker, Test captain and later manager, and ultimately a titan among pundits – best remembered in recent times for his pantomime savagery on Sky Sports’ Debate and Verdict shows, but a king-pin commentator in his 1990s heyday too. Try to imagine, for instance, the defining moment of the world-record 375 at Antigua in 1994 without “Brian Charles Lara of Trinidad and Tobago” ringing through your mind.But he was too a gentle, knowledgeable, and deeply humorous soul – a man who signalled his independence of thought as a teenager by adding the middle name “Dylan” by deed poll in tribute to Bob of that parish – and a man whose love of the game was absolute, in spite of that distinctive nasal voice and a deadpan delivery that could be all too easy to misconstrue, not least for the players who followed in his wake in the Test team.By his own admission, Nasser Hussain was one of those who initially took Willis’s bombast too literally, and upon scoring an ODI century against India at Lord’s in 2002, he infamously waved three fingers in the direction of the commentary box – one each for Ian Botham, Jonathan Agnew … and Willis, who had been particularly forthright about his place at No.3 in the batting order.”He made you cross because he was so forthright with his opinions and I would go back to my room as a player wondering if he was going to crucify me on TV,” Hussain wrote in his own tribute in The Daily Mail. “But it wasn’t his job to get to know players and he didn’t go out of the way to be nice about them yet when we did all meet him we quickly realised he was one of the good guys.”And for the even younger generations of England player, who had grown up with Willis’s tyrannical commentary and saw him only as a fire-breathing beast, it wasn’t until a series of meetings were brokered by Andrew Strauss in 2015, during his early months as England’s director of cricket, that Willis’s generosity of spirit was able to cut through.It just so happened that his dinner with England’s bowlers came on the eve of that summer’s Trent Bridge Test, and having sampled his choice of wine (Willis was quite the connoisseur – he even launched his own label in conjunction with Botham) Stuart Broad emerged with the opinion that Willis wasn’t “as scary as he had thought”.Whether that had any impact on Broad’s subsequent 8 for 15, who knows, but by the end of that same Test victory, Joe Root (face hidden beneath an Albert Einstein mask) was able to send up Willis’s style in a memorable dressing-room interview on Sky Sports – one that led Willis, teeth baring but humour shining through, to retort that “when your little purple patch comes to an end… I’ll have you back in the dock!”When it came to Willis’s live commentary, Hussain et al probably had a point – as a viewer, let alone as a player, and particularly through the night on another Ashes tour drubbing, the misery of his intonation had a tendency to overshadow whatever point he had been making, however valid. As a post-match pundit, however, with a licence to channel that long run of his playing days into his off-field excoriations, Willis was for a time unequalled.Quite apart from making for compelling television, he rarely missed his mark – whether it was incompetent umpires, shambolic batting or administrative ennui in the high towers of the ECB. It was a fitting tribute to his second innings as a broadcaster that his catchphrase “well Charles…” began trending on Twitter shortly after news of his death was made public – though the man himself would doubtless have sighed wearily at that fact, and mock-grumbled that nobody seemed to have remembered the 325 Test wickets with which he’d truly made his name.Bob Willis took 325 Test wickets without ever getting a ten-wicket haul•Adrian Murrell/Getty Images

Well, most people with any affinity for Test cricket remember eight of those wickets, no question. For nothing compared to Headingley for the dent it left in the brains of a certain generation – and if it was Willis’s misfortune that the match will forever be synonymous with Botham’s “village-green slogging”, as Mike Brearley later dubbed it, then no-one who witnessed his role, in the flesh or otherwise, will be in any doubt that the truest quality of that contest came in its savage denouement.As legend has it, Willis almost failed to make it to the contest at all. He had missed Warwickshire’s county match the previous week due to a bout of flu, and was dropped from the squad in favour of Mike Hendrick – only for that invitation to be intercepted in the post after Willis had explained he’d been saving his energy for the Test match, rather than merely lying low on his sickbed. In spite of his hefty haul of 899 first-class wickets in 308 matches, Willis could be a reluctant county performer – the legacy of his twin knee operations in 1975 and the daily agonies that his gangly frame had to go through to perform at the very highest level.But even after his Headingley reprieve, Willis had seemed off-colour. He went wicketless in Australia’s first-innings as Australia’s grip on the Ashes tightened, then struggled for rhythm in an abortive opening spell in the second, as John Dyson and Trevor Chappell eased along to 56 for 1, chasing 130.But then, Brearley made his legendary switch to the Kirkstall Lane End, and Willis clicked into his ultimate Berserker mode – eyes glazed over, fury focussed on a distant point way, way beyond the stance of Australia’s rapidly scattered batsmen. The lifter to Chappell, which snapped savagely into his upraised gloves before lobbing to Bob Taylor as the bewildered batsman scanned a full 180 degrees around his crease, was a declaration of war on a previously serene dressing room.ALSO READ: ‘That was abject, Charles, absolutely pathetic’ – Bob Willis’ best quipsThe moment of victory was every bit as iconic – Ray Bright’s middle stump demolished as Willis raised his arms in a robotic fist-pump and stormed for the pavilion before an ecstatic sea of fans could envelop him.And no less iconic, if a more niche search item on YouTube, was his laconically drawled critique of the media during his post-match interview with the BBC. Turning on a mildly startled Peter West, Willis railed against the need to mine “small-minded quotes from players under pressure for their stories” – his point being, of course, “what on earth do you need to speak to me for?”It certainly wasn’t an obvious means by which to audition for his second innings, but then Bob Willis was never one to take the conventional route.But he was right, of course, as he so often was. What on earth could a Willis soundbite possibly have added to the technicolor masterpiece that he and Botham had completed only moments earlier? His instincts served him well, for this was one England victory in which the deeds would do all the talking a team could ever need. Tonight, you can be sure that myriad generations of England cricket fans will be toasting that glory one more time, and this time with extra feeling.

Tight home-Test schedule of six games in eight weeks lies ahead, with questions over red-ball preparation to boot

Daniel Brettig19-May-2021Australia are set to play six matches in fewer than eight weeks next summer, after a gap of 312 days since their last assignment against India in January, meaning an idling Test team will have to re-learn the fundamentals of the longest form of the game in an almighty hurry.A one-off Test against Afghanistan at Bellerive Oval in November-December – Hobart’s first Test match since November 2016 – will be followed by an Ashes series that will take in matches at the Gabba, Adelaide Oval (day-night), the MCG, the SCG and concluding at Perth Stadium in mid-January. It’s the first time Sydney has not hosted the conclusion of an Ashes series since 1995, when the WACA Ground was the scene of the final match in early February.The women’s international calendar is also heavily stocked, with a series against India in September that ESPNcricinfo has reported will include a Test match, before the multi-format Ashes series against England that will take place after the conclusion of the WBBL. The men’s and women’s international fixtures have been devised with virtually no clashes between the two.Covid-19 risk management, combined with a concentration by Cricket Australia on the home fixtures that bring in the vast majority of the governing body’s revenue through broadcast-rights deals, has left the team led by Tim Paine and his deputy Pat Cummins to play just 10 Test matches over the course of more than two years, after going 345 days between Tests in 2020. None will take place away from home between September 2019 and (at least) February 2022 when a tour of Pakistan is very lightly etched into the calendar.Getty Images

The home series defeat to India last summer, in spite of a raft of injuries and withdrawals from the touring team, was put down partly to the difficulties of adapting from cricket’s short formats to its longest without much in the way of preparation in between. CA is looking at re-filling the position of batting coach that sat vacant last summer, in order to give the top six – which underperformed badly against India – greater one-on-one assistance this time around.Equally, the selection chairman Trevor Hohns has spoken firmly of the need to return to a system of squad rotation for the fast bowlers in particular, after the gains made in the 2019 Ashes were abandoned over the past two home summers, much to Australia’s cost against India.”Particularly now, when most Test matches are programmed pretty closely on the heels of each other. We can’t ask them to continually back up, day after day after day,” Hohns said when naming the central contracts list in April. “It’s only natural they are going to get tired. Sure, they might feel okay within themselves, but we’ve really got to monitor that a bit harder.”But the challenge will be all the greater with another year devoid of Test or first-class matches for many of the players, namely those who will also be involved in Australia’s Twenty20 World Cup campaign in the second half of the year. Among established members of the Test team, only Paine, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood and perhaps Marnus Labuschagne can expect to play much Sheffield Shield cricket prior to the Afghanistan Test, which will be left to serve as a sort of Ashes preparation game for the rest.Related

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“Certainly the home summer preparation and particularly the preparation for the home Ashes is front of mind for us so we’re working through our planning for that at a team level but also at an individual level, and exploring a number of different options for the winter,” the head of national teams Ben Oliver said this week. “Fortunately, a number of our players will have competitive cricket either internationally or domestically here and overseas.”So we feel across the players that are likely to feature in that, in the home Test series, that they’ll all be well prepared. Obviously we’ll have a significant amount of Sheffield Shield cricket to assist in that preparation for those that don’t have the opportunity to be part of a World Cup or other overseas competitions.”Paine said that the Hobart match would be critical to Australia’s chances of putting together a cohesive and settled unit for the Ashes matches that would follow so closely afterwards.”We haven’t got any red-ball cricket in the lead-up to the Ashes except that Test match,” Paine said in Hobart. “So from a preparation point of view it’s going to be a really important Test match to set us up for the Ashes and Afghanistan have got some highly talented spinners in particular, which will create a real challenge. Any Test match we play, we want a full-strength side, and it’s not always possible these days, but fingers crossed we can make it happen.”Last summer wasn’t our best in key moments, but I think over the last couple of years we’ve played some pretty consistent cricket. We’re now talking about going from being a good team to a great team, and that Afghanistan Test and the Ashes this year is a really important part of that.”Other men’s fixtures announced on Wednesday include three ODIs and a T20I against New Zealand in late January and early February, and five T20Is against Sri Lanka, who have stepped in for South Africa.

“It all boils down to execution in crunch moments,” says India captain

Nagraj Gollapudi03-Aug-20213:39

A player of Pujara’s calibre and experience should be left alone – Kohli

Having spent two months in the UK, India are “definitely better prepared” for the five-Test series in England, but Virat Kohli believes the visitors cannot cross the line if they don’t find a way to execute their plans in “situations which are not easy”. More than winning the Pataudi Trophy, a feat India last achieved under the leadership of Rahul Dravid in 2007, Kohli said the challenge for his team was to win in “situations which are not ours”.This is Kohli’s fourth tour of England and second as captain. In 2011 he came in as a replacement for Yuvraj Singh during the series, but did not play any Test. In 2014, James Anderson made him feel like the loneliest guy in the world. Four years later, Kohli returned as the best batter across both teams and the only one to make an aggregate of 500-plus runs. India, though, lost the series 4-1 having started on equal footing alongside England.Three years after that, Kohli’s India have been rated as firm favorites by all and sundry against an England side without Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer and Chris Woakes. In a chat with the Indian media on Monday, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar even said India had the potential to win 4-0 if the conditions were dry in August and September.Related

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Kohli, though, was not interested in looking too far ahead. Asked on Tuesday what it would mean to win the Test series in England, he remained impassive.”It is a very relative question,” Kohli said. “I have never really played for any kind of landmark or milestones in my career. Every game in international cricket has been an opportunity for me to test myself and my character and how mentally strong I am and how much skill level I have to be able to sustain at this level for a long period of time. And things are going to be no different this series as well – we are going to play with the same passion, same commitment, same belief that we play every series with.”(The question of) a few series matter more than others – I don’t really believe in these things because then you are really picking and choosing what you want to do. That is not being honest with the game. For us it is all about wanting difficult cricket, wanting tough cricket, and wanting to win in conditions which are not ours. That is the only challenge that I see.”India have been in the country since June 2, arriving early to play the World Test Championship final against New Zealand. They had a three-week break after the final, post which they played a warm-up match in Durham. The time spent has also meant better acclimatisation to the English weather.”We are definitely much better prepared than we have been in the past,” Kohli said. “The situation allowed us to get acclimatised to the weather firstly because it can change quite drastically and quite quickly. At the same time playing under different changes in conditions in terms of weather – whether it is overcast, or it is sunny, how the pitches behave, how the ball travels, how much it swings in the air. All those kinds of things are definitely going to add to our experience which already the team possesses a lot of, having played in England in the past.”It all boils down to execution in crunch moments and that purely comes from belief and how badly you want to be in situations which are not easy. As long as we are looking to embrace that we will find answers to all the questions thrown at us. Otherwise you cannot play at this level for a long period if you are not literally wanting to be in situations which are absolutely opposite to what your comfort zone is.”One of the reasons behind the 2018 series loss was how India lost the key moments to England. Kohli admitted it was an area of concern.”As a team we looked to improve. We haven’t done well and that is one aspect of the game we need to get better, which is understanding when things are not going your way, how to control damage. That’s what Test cricket is all about: you have to go through situations and then eventually capitalise when things turn your way as well. Because you are not going to have all sessions turn your way. When things do not favour you as a team, that’s an area we want to keep improving at and the Test matches that we have done that well we have ended up winning. It all boils down to execution in those difficult moments.”

An exemplary fielding performance and a perfectly executed 19th over help Australia eke out a narrow win

Valkerie Baynes24-Feb-20232:45

Baynes: Australia’s death bowling the difference

India needed 18 runs off nine balls when Ellyse Perry sprinted to her right from deep-backward square leg, threw herself into the air and flicked the ball back before tumbling over the boundary rope to save two runs. That moment epitomised what makes Australia tick. Every piece of effort is given at 100% and forms part of the whole juggernaut, which even when pushed by India in the T20 World Cup semi-final prevails by five runs.At the time, left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen – who hadn’t played since their opening match as Australia opted for legspinner Alana King for the next three games – was in the middle of executing the perfect 19th over, conceding just four runs when India needed 20 from 12 balls, and pegging Sneh Rana’s leg stump back with the last ball.With India left to get 16 off the last over, the eventual Player of the Match Ashleigh Gardner gave away only ten and claimed her second wicket as Perry again held her nerve and settled under a skier, by Radha Yadav, at long-on to allow Australia to snatch a berth in their seventh successive T20 World Cup final.Related

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After the win, Gardner said the victory ranked “pretty high” on Australia’s unmatched list of triumphs.”I think at the ten-over mark in India’s batting innings, everyone had probably written us off, but I think that just shows our character within our side and that’s why the best teams win in those types of positions,” she said.”What we speak about is when our backs are up against the wall, we always try and find a way, and today we probably had no right to win at one point there. They were cruising and then we found a way to get some wickets and ultimately came out on top.”It was similar to last year’s Commonwealth Games gold-medal match, which Australia had won by nine runs. That, combined with Thursday’s performance at Newlands, suggests the gap might be closing somewhat compared to the 85-run thumping they had dished out to India in the final of the T20 World Cup back in 2020.India, on the other hand, squandered their chances with crucial drops of Beth Mooney and Meg Lanning, Australia’s two biggest run-scorers on this occasion, as well as leaking runs through numerous misfields and overthrows.”We showed our class today in the field and we always speak about as a group being the best fielding team in the world, and I think today really showed that,” Gardner said. “Ellyse Perry was elite on the boundary. Whether it’s dropped catches, [or] missed opportunities in the field, those ultimately add up to quite a lot of runs and I think we took those moments when we really needed to.Player-of-the-Match Gardner contributed 31 off 18 balls with the bat and followed that with two wickets•ICC/Getty Images

“I certainly think Pez is probably the blueprint for our side going forward – certainly on the boundary. At the end of the day, that could have been the difference between us and them.”Gardner, who had also contributed an excellent 31 off 18 balls with the bat, revealed it was no accident that Australia are so strong in the field.”We have KPIs and there are markers that show us whether we’re positive or negative in the field,” she said. “So there’s a pretty clear indication of how we’ve fielded. We just know how to push each other. In our training sessions, there are always really high-pressure situations, and as athletes, we all push each other – whether it’s on the field or off the field, whether it’s in the gym, running.”That’s something we really pride ourselves on is being fit, being strong, and ultimately that’s one of the things that has an impact in the field.”India captain Harmanpreet Kaur, who overcame illness to put her side in a winning position before being run out when her bat got stuck in the pitch, acknowledged that the difference in fielding was the key.”The Australian side, they always field very well; and from our side, we made some mistakes,” Harmanpreet said. “But again, we have to just learn [from] whatever mistakes we have made. But obviously, the Australian side is better than us. They always field well, and today also, after I got out, their body language completely changed. The way they stopped two-three boundaries, that also made a huge difference.”Jemimah Rodrigues, India’s second-highest run-scorer on the day, agreed: “When you lose, you always find a lot of reasons. You can blame anything… but yeah, that is one aspect. As an Indian team, we know that we need to improve our fielding and our running between wickets. Today the running between was really good but I think there’s so much to learn from.”Gardner, Jonassen and Mooney all said that competing under pressure in franchise tournaments such as their own WBBL and England’s much-newer Hundred had contributed to Australia’s strength, which is encouraging for India ahead of their inaugural WPL season, which starts next month.”It probably comes back to the exposure of those sorts of situations,” Jonassen said. “Having such a quality domestic set-up, having the WBBL, having some of the best international players coming over every year – that plays a significant part. Then we’re almost primed for those same situations on the international stage.”We’ve had a few young players making debuts in different formats this season as well that have come from those competitions, and we’re always looking to try and improve, and try and push each other to that next level and try and get the most out of each and every person because ultimately we know if we can gain an extra one or two percent individually, then the team’s collectively going to be better off.”And such is Australia’s depth that Jonassen jokingly revealed her disbelief when head coach Shelley Nitschke told her after training on match eve that she was back in the side.”I had to get her to repeat it because I had walked about ten laps after training yesterday, sort of getting my head around how I would mentally deal with if I missed out again,” Jonassen said. “I’ve got my partner and my mum who have flown over, so I was pretty disappointed up until today that I wasn’t able to play a game in front of them. Hopefully one more and it’s another successful one.”One more will mean a contest for the trophy against either hosts South Africa or England. Besides India at this World Cup, only England have looked capable of threatening Australia. Whoever it is will need to do more than just threaten, as India found out.

The state associations want the CEO suspended pending inquiry, and want the panel investigating allegations against him to include their nominee

Sidharth Monga25-Oct-2018Seven state associations of the BCCI have written to the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) and the office bearers asking them to immediately suspend the board’s chief executive Rahul Johri pending inquiry into anonymous allegations of sexual harassment against him that emerged a fortnight ago. They want the allegations to be probed by an independent panel of three individuals, one each of whom should be nominated by the state associations, the office-bearers, and the CoA.Hours after these letters were sent, the CoA announced that an independent panel will look into the allegations against Johri. There is no input from the states in the constitution of the panel. The states, the general body of the BCCI, don’t have any powers to act until the new constitution as mandated by the Supreme Court is adopted and general elections are held. The CoA runs the BCCI until such time.The state associations are Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Haryana, Gujarat, Saurashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Goa. Two of them – Gujarat and Tamil Nadu – have also informed the CoA that Johri will not be allowed inside their premises. The TNCA, for example, has banned Johri from the MA Chidambaram Stadium pending inquiry.Each of the letters – accessed by ESPNcricinfo – has expressed concern at the lack of transparency and due process in the handling of the matter and the absence of communication with the BCCI’s stakeholders. They have raised a concern that the BCCI lawyers – with whom only Johri is empowered to deal – are not in a position to provide the CoA independent legal advice on how to handle allegations against Johri.”Have the steps taken/procedure followed by the CoA or the office bearers in this matter been taken on the basis of legal advice?” the Haryana Cricket Association has asked. “Who has given the advice? Does Mr. Rahul Johri interact with these lawyers who have advised the CoA on this matter? On account of the various directions issued by the CoA, do these lawyers not essentially depend upon Mr. Rahul Johri’s decisions to some extent? We would like to see a copy of the advice from the lawyers and their details and the number of cases and dates of hearing on behalf of the BCCI that Mr. Johri has interacted with them on.”What assurance can be given to the members that the legal advice being given by the lawyers in this matter is in the best interest of the organisation rather than in the best interest of Mr. Johri? How many times has Mr. Johri interacted with these lawyers by phone or by email since the allegations saw the light of day?”The anonymous allegation against Johri first appeared in a tweet on October 12, after which he was given a week to explain himself. There had also been an anonymous email to the BCCI in January 2017, alleging “sex harassment” by Johri at his previous employment.The letters from the state units contend that the CoA’s response was not consistent with how the CoA has dealt with other matters. Mohammed Shami’s contract was withheld pending enquiry when his wife accused him of domestic violence. In October 2017, the board “dismissed” the Pune curator Pandurang Salgaoncar on an allegation of pitch fixing based on a sting operation, which is not permissible evidence in court, without any investigation. In July 2018, an Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association official was suspended immediately after a sting operation involving bribery for selection. He has subsequently been cleared by a panel.The state associations have also brought up another internal complaint of alleged harassment – following which the complainant, a BCCI staffer, was transferred within the organisation – that has been reported in the media but neither acknowledged nor explained by the BCCI. These allegations first appeared in letters written by the petitioner who originally took the BCCI to the Supreme Court, Aditya Verma. The letters say the allegations haven’t been discussed with state units either.The Saurashtra Cricket Association referred specifically to this case. It asked:”a. Is there any truth to the allegations that an employee had complained of harassment?
b. Was an employee made to write a letter of apology?
c. Was the employee who complained of harassment made to write a letter stating that all was ok?
d. If there is any truth in the set of facts, what was the procedure that was adopted by the office bearers/ CoA/ Management in this matter?”It is worth noting that the BCCI’s Internal Complaints Committee was set up two months after this alleged incident, in April this year. In the absence of such a committee, such matters are referred to the Local Complaints Committee under the district administration.

Players and their families will not be required to serve out a mandatory quarantine upon arrival in India

Shashank Kishore01-Jun-2022In a change from what has been the norm in the last couple of years, the BCCI has decided to do away with stringent biobubbles for India’s upcoming T20I series against South Africa starting June 9. ESPNcricinfo understands that players and their families will not be required to serve out a mandatory quarantine period upon arrival either.The Indian team is expected to link up in New Delhi, the venue for the series opener, on or before Saturday. The South African team, led by Temba Bavuma, is expected to arrive in the city on June 2. Their touring contingent includes as many as ten players who featured in IPL 2022.The change in regulations also means that player movement in and out of the hotels and stadia would not be restricted. However, everyone has been advised to remain cautious and avoid large gatherings, as far as possible. It is understood that Covid-19 tests will only be carried out if someone reports symptoms, as against the policy of regular testing earlier.Related

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The BCCI’s decision to open up multiple venues for the same series is encouraging. It’s a practice they have slowly embraced over time, since last November, when they hosted New Zealand and Sri Lanka at multiple venues.For a brief while in February, they reverted to hosting an entire leg in one city due to the omicron threat when West Indies toured. The ODI leg was played in Ahmedabad before Kolkata hosted the T20I leg. This time around, players will travel across five venues – New Delhi, Cuttack, Visakhapatnam, Rajkot and Bengaluru – across 12 days. There will also be no cap on crowd attendance at any of the five venues either.The decks have also been cleared for all state associations to begin the sale of tickets, allowing 100% attendance, across all venues. Sunday’s IPL final in Ahmedabad witnessed possibly the biggest crowd at a cricket match in India, with the official number pegged at 104,859.India’s declining number of active Covid-19 cases have led to the easing of restrictions. The country recorded 2745 active cases on May 31; the corresponding numbers for the same date in 2021 stood at a whopping 127,510 cases.Most cricket boards around the world have moved on from stringent biobubble measures to managed environments, with minimal restrictions. For example, Bangladesh’s recent home Test series against Sri Lanka was held without any bubble restrictions. The upcoming England vs New Zealand Test series, starting June 2 at Lord’s, will also be hosted on similar lines.However, New Zealand Cricket has asked its players to “avoid mass gatherings and events of high exposure”, while making masks mandatory when indoors with people from outside the environment and unable to socially distance. They will also carry out immediate testing in case of symptoms and five days of isolation if there is a positive case. The ECB has specified no such restrictions on their part.

Leading the two-Test series 1-0, Sri Lanka may once again go in with the three-pronged spin-attack that fetched them 17 wickets in the first game

The Preview by Firdose Moonda19-Jul-2018

Big Picture

Soon, Sri Lankans might be making jokes about how the captain, the coach and the manager should be banned more often. Dinesh Chandimal, Chandika Hathurusingha and Asanka Gurusinha will miss four of the five ODIs against South Africa, after the ICC meted out its most severe punishment earlier this week since the demerit points system was introduced, but that is not a concern for the next five days.The trio is also out of this second Test but, even sans their engine room, Sri Lanka had trounced South Africa so soundly in Galle that they can confidently say they don’t need the big three back just yet. Rather, it’s the other three Sri Lanka will rely on: the three spinners.Rangana Herath, Dilruwan Perera and Lakshan Sandakan made South Africa look like amateurs on a surface that was challenging but nowhere near a minefield, and they will look to do it again in Colombo. It’s difficult to imagine South Africa’s batting line-up doing worse, but stranger things have happened.For a start, South Africa have to decide on their approach against spin. Are they going to attack, with the mentality that they have to get runs before the ball gets them – something Ottis Gibson said was a tactic on seamer-friendly pitches – or are they going to show patience, bat time and trust that runs will follow? The latter sounds more sensible, the former more desperate, and desperate is what South Africa are.In 2014, South Africa reached the SSC 1-0 up in the series and were dogged in their determination not to lose the advantage. What followed was a blockathon that made the rain breaks more entertaining than play. Four years on, Sri Lanka are 1-0 up at the SSC and will want to turn the screws. South Africa will be happy to draw the series, but whether they are capable of that is the real question.

Form guide

Sri Lanka: WWDLW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
South Africa: LWWWL

In the spotlight

While Dimuth Karunaratne scored more than the entire South Africa team in the first Test, he also made more runs than any of his team-mates, which puts the onus on Angelo Mathews, among others, to step up. In absence of Dinesh Chandimal, Mathews is the senior-most batsman in the line-up and will want to show that. He was their second-highest run-scorer, behind Chandimal, when they visited India last year, before missing two of the three Test in the West Indies for personal reasons. He has not got past the 30s in his last five innings, numbers that simply won’t do for the man who should be leading with the bat.On his first tour of the subcontinent, Aiden Markram already showed improvement from one innings to the next in the first Test and will want to leave his mark on the series in Colombo. Markram faced 46 balls in the second innings, six times more than what he faced in the first, and, though he was stumped trying to charge the spinner, he showed a little more patience and a little more finesse the second time. Batting coach Dale Benkenstein expects Markram’s ability to adjust quickly to bring more rewards in the second Test.

Team news

The major decision South Africa have to make is whether or not to leave out Vernon Philander – who, despite his efforts with the bat, bowled only 11 of the 112.1 overs they delivered in the Galle Test – and finding a suitable replacement. If it’s an extra batsman they’re looking for, Theunis de Bruyn will slot in. If it’s a bowler, Lungi Ngidi could come into contention.South Africa: (possible) 1 Dean Elgar, 2 Aiden Markram, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Temba Bavuma, 5 Faf du Plessis (capt), 6 Quinton de Kock (wk), 7 Vernon Philander/Theunis de Bruyn, 8 Keshav Maharaj, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Tabraiz ShamsiHaving had success with a three-pronged spin-attack against Australia at the SSC in 2016, Sri Lanka will probably go with a similar strategy.Sri Lanka: (possible) 1 Dimuth Karunaratne, 2 Danushka Gunathilaka, 3 Dhananjaya de Silva, 4 Kusal Mendis, 5 Angelo Mathews, 6 Roshen Silva, 7 Niroshan Dickwella (wk), 8 Dilruwan Perera, 9 Suranga Lakmal (capt), 10 Rangana Herath, 11 Lakshan Sandakan

Pitch and conditions

The SSC surface is expected to take substantial turn in the latter half of the Test, but it does also tend to be conducive to seam bowling on the first morning and generally has more runs in it than the Galle pitch.Some rain is forecast for every day of the match. However, the second day is the most likely to be affected, with an 80% chance of showers.

Stats and trivia

• Hashim Amla needs three more runs to become the third South African, after Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith, to 9000 Test runs.
• Angelo Mathews is eight runs away from 5000 runs. He will become the ninth Sri Lanka batsman to reach the milestone.
• In Galle, South Africa lost 17 of their 20 wickets to spin. In Colombo in 2014, they lost the same number of wickets to Rangana Herath and Dilruwan Perera, but managed to draw the Test and win the series.
• Irrespective of the outcome of the series, both South Africa and Sri Lanka will remain in their current positions – No. 2 and No. 6 respectively – on the ICC rankings table. If Sri Lanka win 2-0, they will gain six points, and South Africa will lose six. If the series is drawn 1-1, Sri Lanka only gain two points and South Africa lose two.

Quotes

“It is very important that we win a series, and that we win at home. They are the No. 2-ranked team. We need a victory to gain confidence, so it’s a very important game.”
“I will give him a kiss on the cheek.”

Chris Liddle and Tom Smith claimed three wickets each as Gloucestershire skittled Surrey for just 88

ECB Reporters Network17-Apr-2019Chris Liddle and Tom Smith claimed three wickets each as Gloucestershire skittled Surrey for just 88 to win their opening Royal London One-Day Cup match at Bristol by 147 runs.The home side were bowled out for 235 after winning the toss, having been 156 for one, with Chris Dent and Gareth Roderick the main contributors, while Rikki Clarke and Tom Curran shared seven wickets. It looked a below par total. But Surrey turned in a hapless batting display, Jason Roy top-scoring with 19 as they were bowled out in only 24 overs.Liddle finished with 3 for 17 and left-arm spinner Smith 3 for 7 from two overs. Tightly as Gloucestershire bowled, it was an abject display by the visiting batting line-up.The game was played in bright sunshine on a slow pitch. Surrey made a quick breakthrough when George Hankins chased a wide delivery from Clarke and edged through to wicketkeeper Ben Foakes.The best batting of the day followed as, having taken time to assess the pace of the pitch, Dent and Roderick played with increasing freedom.
Skipper Dent was first to his half-century, off 62 balls, with four fours and a pulled six off Clarke, and Roderick soon followed, off 65 deliveries, having struck seven boundaries.The pair were making batting look easy, Roderick having lofted Liam Plunkett over midwicket for six, when they fell in quick succession. Dent skied a catch to mid-on off Clarke to end a stand of 152 in 25 overs and the next over saw Roderick miscue to mid-off to give Curran his first wicket.The collapse that followed was a major surprise. Soon Gloucestershire were 171 for 5, with Ian Cockbain bowled off stump by Gareth Batty and Jack Taylor stumped attempting to swing Will Jacks’ offspin into the leg side. Benny Howell and Ryan Higgins added 43 for the sixth wicket before falling to Clarke and Curran respectively and there was little contribution from the tail as Gloucestershire were bowled out inside 48 overs.Tom Smith appeals for a wicket•Getty Images

Surrey looked strong favourites at halfway, but never recovered from losing Mark Stoneman to the third ball of their innings, bowled by Dan Worrall with a ball that nipped back off the seam. It was the start of a sorry procession, Liddle removing three of the top five in Roy, Rory Burns and Foakes, while Jacks, on 17, dislodged his leg bail attempting to pull Worrall as Surrey slumped to 61 for 5.There was simply no resistance as Howell had Ollie Pope caught behind down the leg side for 13, Clarke was bowled by Higgins and Smith polished off the tail by sending back Curran, Batty and Plunkett in the space of 11 balls.The speed with which the match ended caught everyone by surprise and Surrey – three times finalists in this competition between 2015 and 2017 – were left to reflect an opening group performance that was little short of embarrassing.Surrey head coach Michael Di Venuto was disappointed by his side’s performance.”It would be nice to start this competition well, but we have made a habit of doing the opposite in recent years,” Di Venuto said. “It was a particularly disappointing batting performance. We had a bit of bad luck with a few of the dismissals, strangles down the leg-side and a hit-wicket, but in general we didn’t adapt to the sort of pitch we were playing on.”Hopefully, we have got this out of our systems early and we will be looking to put things right quickly against Sussex at Hove on Friday.”