With three weeks remaining for the start of the Ranji Trophy, Jammu & Kashmir cricket is mired in another controversy with warring factions claiming rights to pick squads for various domestic tournaments

Amol Karhadkar and Nagraj Gollapudi09-Sep-2015With three weeks remaining for the start of the Ranji Trophy 2015-16, Jammu & Kashmir cricket is mired in another controversy with warring factions claiming rights to pick squads for various domestic tournaments.Players are being pulled in different directions by two rival factions, who have been conducting parallel selection trials and preparatory camps over the past month in Srinagar. While the newly elected body at Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association, headed by J&K sports minister Iqbal Raza Ansari, has been conducting preparatory camps at the Sher-e-Kashmir stadium, the Farooq Abdullah group, which has managed to get a stay order on the elections results, has also announced parallel selection trials at the Kashmir University grounds. The confusion has left players concerned over their future.Abdullah, the former chief minister and long-time head of JKCA, was defeated in the election in July, but still managed to get a stay on the election results. The J&K High Court is likely to pass an order on the issue this week, which would clear the confusion.The players, however, are desperate for a clear direction. Samiullah Beigh, J&K’s seniormost player and fast bowler, hoped for the BCCI’s intervention. “It would be better if the BCCI comes up with a statement because players who are missing can then come and join us.”A BCCI official, however, clarified that the board cannot interfere in internal affairs of any of its member units. The BCCI, according to him, can only interfere if any of the aggrieved parties complain to them.Barring two players – wicketkeeper Obaid Haroon and fast bowler Umar Nazir – majority of the players who featured in last year’s Ranji squad have been reporting to the camp organised by the Ansari faction.Beigh said that most of the players had been training at the camp for about a month. “We have been playing trial matches and training and attending fitness camps continuously at the Sher-e-Kashmir stadium for a month or so now.”Beigh agreed that the Abdullah faction had attempted to get players to attend the camp, but did not think the players were confused by the scenario: “No, because the preparations are going as usual at the JKCA headquarters and players are attending this.”Told about the BCCI official’s reaction, one of the senior players, who requested anonymity, asked which faction the BCCI was supporting. “Who are they supporting? If the elections were held and the Ansari group has come to power how can the court overrule this?”He also said that the Abdullah faction was trying to create stumbling blocks that did not exist. “The other faction is trying to create confusion by saying the Sher-e-Kashmir is not ready, and BCCI should displace all the home matches away. But we have played two-day and three-day trial matches for more than a month now. The conditions are perfect. There is no need for shifting the matches.”The Abdullah faction, on the other hand, blamed the Ansari group for creating confusion. “We have got a court order to stay the election, so they don’t have any right to select the team. Just because they want to create confusion, they have organised selection trials and have announced Mithun Manhas as captain-coach. If Manhas wants to play, he will have to attend the official selection trials,” ML Nehru, a member of the Abdullah faction, said.Nehru, also a BCCI vice-president, claimed his group was taking players into confidence. “We have started our selection process and next week, the selection committee appointed by the executive committee will select the team for the Ranji Trophy. No doubt the players are confused but we have been doing our best to help them understand they need not worry about anything. Despite the two factions, there is only one official association and the players should to stick to the body,” Nehru said.Iqbal Shah, the general secretary elected during the July election and the spokesperson of the Ansari group, remained unavailable for a comment.Another question that remains unanswered is who will coach the J&K team. Sunil Joshi, the former Karnataka and India left-arm spinner, was the coach last year. Despite playing all their home matches outside their state due to the preceding floods, J&K produced mixed results under Joshi. In the Vijay Hazare Trophy, J&K managed three wins in five games but finished last in Group A in the Ranji Trophy, winning just one game in eight matches.Joshi, currently playing in the Karnataka Premier League, was also unavailable for comment. It is understood he is still looking forward to continuing his role as J&K coach. However the Ansari faction, it is learned, is looking forward to having former Delhi veteran Manhas play the mentor-cum-coach role. Manhas has been training with the players at Sher-e-Kashmir, but no formal announcement has yet been made about the coach and captain for the season.

Michael Klinger described Gloucestershire’s Royal London Cup win as “fantastic for the whole club” and said it was something for them to build on

Alan Gardner20-Sep-2015Romance and drama. Gloucestershire’s Royal London Cup victory had great big dollops of those two vital ingredients. As they inexorably undermined Surrey’s run chase to secure the prize in the final over, it was tempting to imagine that the competition had regained, if only temporarily, some of the prestige the domestic one-day cups enjoyed during Gloucestershire’s period of dominance between 1999 and 2004.There were stories aplenty on both sides. Jade Dernbach’s hat-trick and career-best figures, the bowling of 40-year-old Azhar Mahmood and, at the other end of his career, 17-year-old Sam Curran’s valiant attempt to get Surrey over the line. For the victors, Geraint Jones’ fairytale send-off, the all-round contributions of Jack Taylor – who was banned from bowling two years ago and faced the uncertainty of having to remodel his action – and the stunning triumph of an unheralded collective.Gloucestershire had been glibly characterised as a one-man team in the build-up, dependent on their captain and opening batsman Michael Klinger. The Australian’s personal tale is also a stirring one but his dismissal in the first over of the match meant Gloucestershire had to win their ninth Lord’s final out of ten the hard way.The manner in which they scrapped their way to a par score, based around the nous of an old-stager in Jones, and then throttled their opponents in the field was reminiscent of the Gloucestershire teams led by Mark Alleyne more than a decade ago. Klinger, who has agreed another two-year contract with the club, now has the chance to try and create a dynasty of his own.

Victory ‘surreal’ admits Dawson

Gloucestershire head coach Richard Dawson said it would take a while for his team’s dramatic victory over Surrey to sink in. Gloucestershire held on in a tight finish to win by six runs and claim their first trophy since 2004.
“It is brilliant, it is an amazing feat from the players,” Dawson said. “They take a lot of credit, in fact they take all the credit.
“It was one of those things where you get on a roll and you think get past the quarter-final, get up to Yorkshire, get past Yorkshire and you end up here. It is all a bit surreal. I’m sure it will sink in the next few days.
“There is a lot of talent in the changing room. Being led by Michael especially, leading from the front with the bat and showing commitment coming back from Australia. We have had to call on the squad when there was injuries and people stood up and performed.
“That has been the best thing about the whole tournament, we have asked people to do a job and they have come in and nailed it away.”

“You don’t want to look too far ahead but it could be the making of something special,” he said. “Each team will get better and we need to get better so there is a lot of hard work to do. In this comp, unlike sometimes in the T20, we’ve performed really well under the pump.”Knowing we can win in high pressure situations will serve the team well. It’s fantastic for the whole club – the supporters, the members, those who work in the office – 11 years without a trophy, this will lift everyone going forward. It’s a big achievement for the club and proud to be part of it.”Although Gloucestershire finished second in Group A, behind Surrey, their lack of recent success in limited-overs knockout competition meant they were largely unfancied. A narrow victory over Hampshire – winners of the 40-over Clydesdale Bank trophy in 2012 – in the last eight was followed by a more emphatic, Klinger-led triumph at Headingley against county champions Yorkshire to send them back to Lord’s.Success has come in Gloucestershire’s first season under the new coaching team of Richard Dawson and Ian Harvey, and while Klinger admitted it was perhaps ahead of schedule he sensed it was something the group was ready for.”You could probably say it’s come a little bit quicker, but I said to the boys before the quarter-final sometimes you win them before you are ready – sometimes it’s your time. I tried to put that message across, that it’s our time. Now it’s a great opportunity to build on that over the next couple of years and hopefully it will be a stepping stone. The previous coaching group worked really hard and now Richard Dawson and Ian Harvey have been brilliant and taken us to another level. The players have a willingness to work. It’s a very proud moment to see how we’ve progressed.”Despite making a duck Klinger still finished atop the run-scoring charts, as his players successfully muzzled Jason Roy, Steven Davies and, after a clinical half-century seemed to have put Surrey on their way, Kumar Sangakkara. Without his runs to rely on, it made Gloucestershire’s victory all the more impressive.”I was just disappointed I didn’t contribute at that stage,” Klinger said. “I pride myself on scoring runs in big games, but not today but that’s how cricket works. I was still very confident the boys would get the job done. They showed that 220 was just enough. To be honest I don’t think anyone would have cared who did well today, so long as we finished on top.”He also had special praise for Man of the Match, Taylor, whose punchy innings helped Gloucestershire up to what turned out to be a winning score. He then took the crucial wickets of Sangakkara and Rory Burns in his 3 for 43 and held on to the final catch as Lord’s erupted in an outburst of west country pride.”Not only today, but all year in all formats – particularly the T20 and one-day stuff. He’s won us games with the bat, his bowling has been very consistent and his fielding has improved a lot in the last two years. He’s a serious all-round package. Today, under pressure, he got the job done. That cameo he played got us a total we needed. Then to bowl like he did was fantastic.”

Brendon McCullum will miss New Zealand’s pink-ball preparations ahead of the first ever day-night Test due to his role as a witness in the Chris Cairns perjury case

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Oct-2015Brendon McCullum will miss New Zealand’s pink-ball preparations ahead of the Test series in Australia, which is scheduled to include the first ever day-night Test, due to his role as a witness in the Chris Cairns perjury case. The New Zealand captain will be in London to testify in the case, for which proceedings begin on Monday, while the rest of the team has a two-day training camp under lights with the pink Kookaburra ball in Hamilton.Opening batsmen Tom Latham, speaking to , said the team will not lack direction in McCullum’s absence. “We’ve got plenty of leaders in the group, there’s plenty of senior players so we’ll go about our business as if we would if he was there,” Latham said. “Kane [Williamson] has captained us a little bit in the past, and there are plenty of other senior players.New Zealand play three Tests in Australia, starting on November 5, the final of which be a day-night match in Adelaide from November 27.The case against Cairns has been brought by the Crown Prosecution Service in the UK, stemming from what it believes to be criminal acts committed by Cairns during the 2012 libel case against former IPL chairman Lalit Modi. Cairns has been charged with perjury – effectively lying in court. Apart from McCullum, other high-profile witnesses called up to give evidence include former New Zealand players Stephen Fleming, Shane Bond and Andre Adams, and New Zealand Cricket CEO David White.

A groundsman at the Shahid Kamruzzaman Stadium in Rajshahi has been allegedly assaulted by a senior Rajshahi official

Mohammad Isam25-Oct-2015A groundsman at the Shahid Kamruzzaman Stadium in Rajshahi has been allegedly assaulted by a senior Rajshahi official. The BCB has condemned the incident, saying it will investigate into the matter and take action.ESPNcricinfo has learned from multiple sources at the ground that Mahmood Jamal, the Rajshahi divisional sports association’s secretary, had asked the groundsman Russell to come to his room at the end of the first day’s play of Rajshahi Division’s NCL match against Barisal Division, on Saturday. Jamal had then allegedly asked Russel why he had repeatedly sprayed water on the pitch. Russell denied doing so, but Jamal, supposedly irked by Rajshahi’s dismal batting performance during the day, got angry at the denial and allegedly slapped him. Jamal is also alleged to have held Russell by his neck until the latter escaped from the room and informed the other groundsmen. One source, however, claimed that Jamal only “threatened to hit” Russell and grabbed him by the neck.When contacted, Jamal, a former BCB director, said he had “no recollection” of such an incident, while Russell’s phone was switched off.”I don’t know what you are talking about,” Jamal told ESPNcricinfo. “I went to the ground to see the match but I have no recollection of such a thing happening. The team management is there. They will deal with the pitches and what not.”Jalal Yunus, the BCB’s media committee chairman, said that the incident was uncalled for and that any complaints about the pitch should have been directed at the appropriate committee.”This is very unfortunate,” Yunus said. “One cannot manhandle anybody. This is against human rights. He [Jamal] could have lodged a complaint to the tournament committee. He cannot take the law in his hand. We condemn it very strongly. The board is very much aware and the board will further investigate the issue and will take action.”Akram Khan, the BCB’s tournament committee chairman and the person in charge of the first-class competition, agreed with that statement and said he will investigate the matter on Monday. Jamal, however, declined to comment on the BCB statement.Abdul Baten, the BCB national grounds manager, said that he only heard about the incident on Sunday, while the venue manager Saifullah Khan, who played 30 first-class matches for Rajshahi, said only the match referee Mujibul Haque could report the incident and not him. When contacted, Mujibul told ESPNcricinfo that he too had no idea of such an incident taking place.Sources have said that the Rajshahi team management had reported the allegation of watering the pitch to the BCB, and that the board’s anti-corruption officer present at the ground took Russell’s statement following the alleged incident.

Chadd Sayers and Daniel Worrall picked up four wickets each as South Australia consigned Tasmania to their third loss from four Sheffield Shield matches this summer

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Nov-2015
ScorecardChadd Sayers picked up 4 for 41 (file photo)•Getty Images and Cricket Australia

Chadd Sayers and Daniel Worrall picked up four wickets each as South Australia consigned Tasmania to their third loss from four Sheffield Shield matches this summer. The Tigers were chasing an unrealistic 502 for victory; their main aim was to bat out the day for a draw, having started the morning in trouble at 3 for 42.Half-centuries to Jake Doran and Beau Webster were encouraging but there was not enough resistance to prevent the Redbacks running through the order. Doran made 50 and Webster was lbw to Sayers for 59, with George Bailey’s 37 and Hamish Kingston’s 24 the only other double-figure scores of the day.Sayers finished with 4 for 41 and Worrall ended up with 4 for 59, adding two of the last three wickets after picking up two in his first over of the innings on day three. Tasmania were dismissed for 199, handing South Australia a 302-run win.