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Cricket Kenya has created a piece of history by electing Jackie Janmohammed as its new chairman

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Dec-2012Cricket Kenya has created a piece of history by electing a woman as its new chairman, the first female to head a national cricket board.Jackie Janmohammed, a Nairobi-based lawyer, was unanimously elected to replace Samir Inamdar, who held the post for seven-and-a-half years.”I take this opportunity to thank the cricket fraternity for placing their trust for leadership under me,” Janmohammed said. “I would like to make a covenant of uniting everyone for the benefit of the sport and my only agenda will be to grow the sport and achieve measurable results.”She served as a legal advisor to the old Kenya Cricket Association and will be responsible for implementing the findings of a comprehensive review that was carried out in the wake of Kenya’s disastrous 2011 World Cup campaign – their worst performance in a World Cup.Kenya were hammered by New Zealand – who bowled them out for 69 – Pakistan and Sri Lanka, handsomely beaten by Australia and, of most concern, swept aside by Zimbabwe and comfortably beaten by Canada – an alarming set of results only eight years on from a semi-final in 2003.”My short term plans are to ensure both the national Under-19 and the senior men’s team qualify for the next World Cup,” she said. “Kenya play Canada in the UAE in March, in a match we need to win to stay in contention for the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.”Kenya currently lie sixth in the ICC World Cricket League Championship, with the top two teams in the group automatically qualifying for the 2015 World Cup. Kenya have six points with two matches to play. Ireland top the table with 13 points, Scotland are second with 11.Should Kenya miss out on automatic qualification, they will still have a route to the World Cup via the qualifying tournament in 2014.

The stereotype that follows sub-continental teams is that they cannot win away from home and South Africa are fast-building an opposite, but fairly accurate pigeon-hole of their own – they cannot win at home.

Firdose Moonda in Centurion 12-Dec-2011The stereotype that follows sub-continental teams is that they cannot win away from home and South Africa are fast-building an opposite, but fairly accurate pigeon-hole of their own – they cannot win at home.The last time they won a home Test series was in 2008, against Bangladesh. Of greater significance, is that the last time South Africa won a Test series at home against a team ranked in the top five, was in 2007 against Pakistan, who were then at No. 3.The opportunity to break the trend presents itself with the upcoming three-Test series against Sri Lanka, who live up to the miserable typecast and have never won a single Test, nevermind a series, in South Africa. The hosts are looking at the tour as a way to rediscover the ability to close out matches consistently and build towards a Test series win for the first time in 18 months.Despite being ranked as the second best-side in Test cricket until three weeks ago, South Africa last claimed a Test series win in June 2010, against West Indies. Since then, they have drawn series against Pakistan, India and, most-recently, Australia – a result which saw South Africa drop to third. For the most part, they have played captivating five-day cricket but have unable to secure results and AB de Villiers said that they have figured out why.”I don’t think we’ve played poor cricket in the last few years but we haven’t played the massive and important situations too well,” de Villiers said at SuperSport Park. “Like in that last Test match against Australia, we were presented with the opportunity to finish it off and we didn’t do that.”After winning an extraordinary first Test at Newlands, South Africa set Australia a tough target of 310 in the second Test in Johannesburg. It required a record fourth-innings chase and Australia stuttered along the way but won by two wickets, a margin small enough for South Africa to feel thoroughly disappointed.Last season, South Africa were locked one-all with India and drew the third Test to leave the series at a stalemate. The season before that, South Africa drew with England. Each side won one of the four matches in the series but the two drawn matches, in Centurion and Cape Town, could easily have gone South Africa’s way. They had England nine down in their second innings on both occasions but could not take the final wicket.de Villiers acknowledged the limp last punch is becoming a concern. “That’s what makes a good team, a great one and we are not doing that at the moment,” he said. “That’s why England are doing really well at the moment; when they get a sniff they finish it off. We haven’t been able to do that for long periods of time.”South Africa will approach the series with the mindset of being in it for the long haul and want to stack up session victories to translate into a match win. The fluctuating shifts in advantage that have become a feature of their Test cricket will even out into a steady flow, in which they dominate passages of play.”Test cricket is all about momentum,” de Villiers said. “When you are going well and you get the opposition on the ropes, it’s a matter of finishing it off and being more aggressive. But, when you are down and out, you have to minimise your weakness. It’s just a case of knowing when to play, absorb the pressure and when to give it back on the opposition.”Against a Sri Lanka side that is reeling from injury concerns and going through a slump in form, de Villiers believes South Africa will emerge convincing victors if they are able to produce steadier performances. “If we play consistent cricket over a few days, we should get ourselves in a good position to win a Test. And we don’t only want to do it for one Test, but for the whole series,” he said.Their home ground advantage is also set to serve South Africa well, although de Villiers said he would prefer fair pitches to green mambas as the series unfolds. “I just want a good cricket wicket. If we get a good cricket wicket and we play good cricket, they won’t be able to stop us.”Just before getting too far ahead of himself, de Villiers took a step back and admitted that South Africa have some work to do before they can announce themselves with authority to Sri Lanka. They have not toured the country in nine years and the two teams last played against each other in 2006. de Villiers said the team will spend a significant amount of time over the next two days studying video footage of the Sri Lankans, some of whom they have never seen before.”I watched them on the telly the other day and I hardly recognised half the team,” de Villiers admitted. “But, the most important thing for us is to respect them and play them like they are the number one team in the world at the moment.”

Darren Sammy, the West Indies captain, has said that his team didn’t play as well as he would have wanted them to in the second Test

Sa'adi Thawfeeq in Colombo27-Nov-2010Darren Sammy, the West Indies captain, has said that his team didn’t play as well as he would have wanted them to in the second Test against Sri Lanka. “It’s always difficult when you are on and off the cricket field. Today it looked like we wouldn’t have any play, but the weather cleared up. That’s something as professionals we have to master.”However, he said the team was able to create chances throughout the game and the most important thing is that the West Indies still have a chance to win the series heading in to the third Test. He was also not worried about the number of catches the West Indies have dropped over the first two games.”I know the potential we have as a fielding team. The guys work hard and put a high level of quality on their fielding. In cricket, you drop catches, but what I like to see is half-chances to go in our favour, at least one or two. We haven’t been to capitalize on the half-chances our bowlers created. But all in all, we could work on it and correct it.”Sammy also said he was pleased with the team’s work ethic and that they are taking “baby steps” towards restoring pride in the West Indies team. “You don’t change overnight. You have a process. I must say that our work ethic has been excellent. Even the fight we showed this afternoon, though we lost two wickets, it’s good to see that we are thinking of the fans at home. They are waking up at early hours to watch this game.”From the reports we have got from there they are quite happy to see the fight the team is putting.”

Attention turns to personal battles for the third Test between Australia and Pakistan in Hobart

The Preview by Osman Samiuddin in Hobart13-Jan-2010

Match Facts

Thursday, January 14

Start time 1030am (2330 GMT)The Kamran Akmal affair drags on, with the wicketkeeper staying in the limelight after his awful performance in Sydney•Getty Images

The Big Picture

It is in dead rubbers that the basis of cricket as an individual sport
becomes clearest. But for the grace of Pakistan everyone would’ve come to
Hobart much happier; the series is gone and with it the prospect of a good
end to summer. Now attention turns to personal battles of form and there is enough to this Test to keep it sprightly.To Pakistan first and who would have thought dropping a wicketkeeper who
dropped four chances in the last Test – and it wasn’t a one-off – would be
so difficult? Not least of the confusion surrounding l’affaire de Kamran,
as it will now be remembered, has come from the Pakistan camp itself; just
as coach Intikhab Alam was definitively ruling him out on Tuesday, Kamran Akmal,
definitively, was ruling himself in to an Australian newspaper.He was finally ruled out as Pakistan, surprisingly, announced their playing XI a day before the Test. But the matter has overshadowed a number of other issues, namely the
continuing failures of Faisal Iqbal and Misbah-ul-Haq in the middle order.
Changes have been made and Shoaib Malik and Khurram Manzoor are back in but sending back Fawad Alam, who represents a future – in whatever form and shape – was a poor choice. Mohammad Aamer is back as well to give Pakistan, finally, it’s first-choice attack and
that is something that just hasn’t happened in recent years. In all, there will be enough new faces from Sydney so that Pakistan are likely to have a fresh, energetic feel to them. They will be keen to prevent a 12th successive loss and a fourth successive
whitewash against this particular opponent.Australia are far more settled. Such messes they don’t often
find themselves in and when they do, they are generally quieter and handle
it with greater grace and coherence. Still, there are little niggling
things that don’t quite sit right about their line-up just yet.A lack of runs from their middle order is chief among them. Ricky Ponting,
Michael Clarke and Marcus North have two fifties each from six Tests this
summer and the first two, at least, should be doing much more than that.
Neither has looked particularly out of form, but that in itself can be a
greater worry than being out of touch, as North appears to be. Some
wickets for Peter Siddle would go down nicely as well, though his presence
has never been a non-threatening one.In the bigger picture this Test may not matter much, but within it there
will be enough players for whom it matters a great deal and that makes for
compelling viewing.

Form guide

Australia WWWDW

Pakistan LLDWL

Watch out for…

Shane Watson was the Test find of the year for Australia in 2009
and he started the new year in style with 97 at the SCG. In his five Tests
this summer, Watson has collected 579
runs at 72.37. His quick scoring at the top of the order has been a
key to Australia’s positive results, even if scores of 96, 89, 93 and 97
have made him a tragi-comic figure. This will be Watson’s first Test at
Bellerive Oval, where he started his first-class career in 2000-01, and it was his home ground until he moved back to Queensland in 2004-05.Who else but the wicketkeeper? Pakistan’s handling of
the Kamran Akmal/Sarfraz Ahmed issue has been abysmal and inept. On
wicketkeeping form alone Akmal, who is 28 today, should have been dropped long ago, but his
batting has kept him alive. Sarfraz is a safe keeper and though not as
game-changing with the bat, he is no mug either, as success on an A tour
to Australia last year proves. His debut tomorrow means it is the first time since October 2004 that anyone other than Akmal has put on
the wicketkeeping gloves for Pakistan in a Test match.

Team news

The only change for Australia is the return of Simon Katich, who missed
the Sydney Test with an elbow problem. Phillip Hughes flew home to Sydney
on Tuesday, having been released from the squad, leaving Clint McKay to
serve as 12th man for the fourth consecutive match. Marcus North retained
his place despite struggling for form this summer.Australia 1 Shane Watson, 2 Simon Katich, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4
Michael Hussey, 5 Michael Clarke, 6 Marcus North, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8
Mitchell Johnson, 9 Nathan Hauritz, 10 Peter Siddle, 11 Doug Bollinger.Pakistan have made four changes to the line-up that
imploded in Sydney. Misbah and Iqbal are out, with Malik and Manzoor the beneficiaries.
Aamer is fit again and has replaced Mohammad Sami, and
Sarfraz has come in for Akmal.Pakistan 1 Imran Farhat, 2 Salman Butt, 3 Khurram Manzoor, 4
Mohammad Yousuf (capt), 5 Umar Akmal, 6 Shoaib Malik, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 8
Mohammad Aamer, 9 Umar Gul, 10 Danish Kaneria, 11 Mohammad Asif

Pitch and conditions

Hobart is renowned as a swing bowler’s paradise and if the conditions are
overcast that is often the case. However, just as often there are big runs
to be had and Ricky Ponting was expecting a surface on which his attack
would have to work extra hard for their rewards. “It looks like a pretty
good wicket now, a fair bit drier than it has been over the last couple of
days,” Ponting said. “As the state games have been this year, they’ve been
pretty good batting wickets and it’s been pretty hard to bowl sides out,
so I’d imagine this might be the same.” The first two days are likely to
provide perfect, mild conditions but there could be showers over the final
three days of the Test.

Stats and trivia

• It’s 20 years since Bellerive Oval first hosted a Test but this is
  the first time the venue has had a Test in the post-Christmas period

• In eight Tests at the venue, Australia have won six and drawn two –
  they have never been beaten

• The ground hosted one of the most memorable Australian Tests in the
  modern era, when Adam Gilchrist and Justin Langer rescued Australia from 5
  for 126 to chase down 369 against Pakistan in 1999-2000

• Faisal Iqbal, Pakistan’s No.3, has scored more runs (97) in this
  series than his opposite number Ricky Ponting (80)

• Nathan Hauritz is the leading wicket-taker in the series so far with 12 wickets
  

  Quotes

  “What we have to do down here is not let them get back into the game like
  we let them start in Sydney. There’s still a lot of mystery around about
  them.”Ricky Ponting on the riddle that is Pakistan”There is no doubt that Sarfraz will play.”
  
  Intikhab Alam, Pakistan’s coach, puts an end to all speculation regarding
  Pakistan’s wicketkeeper in Hobart

Batting coach Thilina Kandamby said Sri Lanka had initially hoped to play three seamers, but changed their minds when they saw the pitch

Andrew Fidel Fernando25-Jun-2025Pitches at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) in Colombo tend to come in two varieties. There were the mega run-fest flatbeds of the late aughts. Since then, they have tended to be be big-turning dustbowls.But the track for the second Test between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh is unusual, as Bangladesh batter Shadman Islam and Sri Lanka batting coach Thilina Kandamby agree. Shadman is playing his first Test at this venue. Kandamby played domestic cricket here for more than a decade. But they’ve both arrived at roughly the same conclusion: this pitch is unexpectedly difficult to bat on.”It’s a two-paced wicket, when it usually has even bounce here,” Kandamby said after the first day’s play. “This is an unusual wicket at SSC because I’ve been playing here for almost 15 years. This is a totally different wicket. With the uneven bounce, even we were surprised by it.”Related

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Shadman, who is currently top-scorer for Bangladesh with 46 off 93 balls, also said that run-scoring was not easy. At least four of Bangladesh’s top seven batters were out playing aggressive strokes, including Shadman himself.”I think the wicket was a little bit slow,” he said. “You cannot score runs without playing shots. We played shots [during the first Test] in Galle too where those ended in boundaries. But unfortunately, maybe it was not our day today.”Having batted longer than anyone on this track, Shadman felt that 270 or 280 would be a good first-innings score for Bangladesh, who ended day one at 220 for 8. He also said there was enough juice in this pitch for Bangladesh’s own bowlers to exploit during Sri Lanka’s innings.”It’s very different conditions to Galle,” Kandamby said. “It was more batting-friendly than previous Galle wickets, and Bangladesh batted brilliantly. But here, we planned a few things about how to get them out, and some of those plans worked. We’d actually been hoping to play three seamers, but decided not to after coming here and seeing the wicket. For me, it’s an unusual SSC track.”

The extent of Healy’s injury is not yet known but she could face an extended period on the sidelines

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Oct-2023Alyssa Healy could face an extended period on the sidelines after undergoing surgery on her hand following a domestic accident at home.As of Sunday evening, the nature of the injury and how it happened had not been confirmed by Sydney Sixers or Cricket Australia.Healy posted a photo of herself on Instagram with her left hand heavily bandaged and in a splint. There is no timeframe for her recovery as yet. Australia’s tour of India is less than two months away and Sixers still have 13 WBBL matches, plus finals if they qualify, before then.”It was a very freak accident, I guess,” Ellyse Perry, Sixers’ captain, said after the defeat to Thunder. “I’m not across what it was. It was something at home. We’re just sending lots of thoughts and best wishes to her, because she’s going to have a recovery period. It would have been really awful situation.”I had a few chats with Midge last night. A couple of the girls have been in touch with her. She’s had a big day and she’s recovering. She certainly knows that the whole group’s thoughts are with her. We’ll hopefully get to see her in the next little bit, and give her a big hug.” Speaking on Channel Seven, Lisa Sthalekar said Healy had been in touch. “I have heard from her, she’s given me the thumbs up, although a little bit bandaged,” she said.Perry added that Healy’s injury was a blow to the wider competition as well as Sixers.”It’s a huge blow,” she said. “It’s not just a blow for us, it’s a blow for the tournament, because she’s one of the most exciting and mercurial players in the world.”It’s been wonderful to have her playing in the competition over the last nine years. Whenever a player like that’s missing for a period of time, it’s going to be a blow.”For our group, she’s a huge presence. She’s of fun, she’s a big character, and the lifeblood of the team. For however long we miss her for, it’s going to be a bummer. We’re just thinking of her and hope she gets better soon.”A Sixers statement said: “No further details of the accident or injury are clear at this time, with further details to be communicated in due course. She has not been replaced on the Sixers’ roster.”Healy, Australia’s vice-captain who has led the team for their last three international series in the absence of Meg Lanning, has already suffered two broken fingers this year while playing during the Ashes series and missed the Hundred in England as a result.Healy’s absence meant Sixers need a new wicketkeeper with 17-year-old Kate Pelle taking the role after she kept for Australia at the Under-19 T20 World Cup earlier this year.

Zimbabwe could not come back after losing five wickets in the first seven overs in Harare

Mohammad Isam31-Jul-2022Mosaddek Hossain’s stunning opening spell set up Bangladesh’s series-levelling win against Zimbabwe in Harare. The part-time offspinner completed his maiden five-wicket haul in just the seventh over of the innings, and became only the fourth Bangladesh bowler to take a five-for in T20Is, after Elias Sunny, Mustafizur Rahman and Shakib Al HasanWith Zimbabwe in tatters, Sikandar Raza scored a fighting half-century – his second of the series – but a total of 135 proved inadequate. Opener Litton Das spearheaded Bangladesh’s chase with a half-century and the target was achieved with seven wickets in hand and 15 balls to spare.Five wickets in seven overs
Opening the bowling for the first time in T20Is, Mosaddek struck with the first ball of the match – Regis Chakabva edging the wide, innocuous delivery to the wicket-keeper. Wessly Madhevere, who had struck a fifty in the first T20I, slammed one straight to cover-point where Mahedi Hasan took an easy catch off the last ball of the over.In his second over, Mosaddek had captain Craig Ervine caught at slip while attempting a reverse sweep, reducing Zimbabwe to 6 for 3. Sean Williams was next to go, chipping one back at Mosaddek in the fifth over, with the bowler having to jump to complete the return catch.Mosaddek completed his five-for when Milton Shumba dragged one towards deep midwicket, only to see Hasan Mahmud run hard and complete a diving catch. Mosaddek became the first Bangladesh bowler to take the first five wickets to fall in an innings, and 31 was the lowest score for which Zimbabwe had lost their first five wickets in a T20I.Sikandar Raza struck 62 off 53 balls and added 80 for the sixth wicket with Ryan Burl•AFP/Getty Images

Raza leads the recovery
Raza and Ryan Burl stopped the slide with an 80-run stand for the sixth wicket. Raza scored his second half-century of the series, hitting fours through cover and deep third, and also sixes over the leg-side boundary. He struck 62 off 53 balls before falling to Mustafizur in the 19th over.Burl had fallen in the 18th, when Hasan Mahmud bowled him for 32. Towards the end of the innings, Luke Jongwe struck a late six, as Zimbabwe tried to capitalise on the recovery that Raza had led.Litton starts quickly
Litton got Bangladesh’s chase off to a quick start when he struck Tanaka Chivanga for two sixes and a four in the third over. But he lost his opening partner Munim Shahriar cheaply for the second game in a row when Richard Ngarava bowled him through the gate.Litton added 41 for the second wicket with Anamul Haque but got out shortly after reaching his half-century – his 56 off 33 balls included six fours and two sixes. Anamul struck two fours in his 16, but once again got out soon after getting set.The final act
Afif Hossain was unbeaten on 30 off 28 balls and Najmul Hossain Shanto made 19 off 21 balls to take Bangladesh to the target. Their unbroken 55-run stand for the fourth wicket ensured there were no more hiccups for Bangladesh, who had lost their previous two wickets in the space of four balls.The seven-wicket victory brought Bangladesh level at 1-1 in the series, with the decider on Tuesday in Harare.

Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza to oversee process as ombudsman of Social Justice and Nation-Building committee

Firdose Moonda08-Apr-2021Cricket South Africa’s Social Justice and Nation-Building (SJN) committee will hold public hearings as the country seeks to address issues of racial discrimination in the game, with the discussion around the national team not taking a knee still ripe.The SJN, formed in response to a letter from more than 30 former players and current coaches of colour during last year’s Black Lives Matter (BLM) resurgence, had yet to begin its work until now. On Thursday, CSA unveiled advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza as the SJN ombudsman tasked with adjudicating the testimonies of various cricket stakeholders to understand the history of exclusion and make recommendations to CSA on mediation. The body has, so far, not committed to reparations as was the case last year under the old board.CSA is currently operating under a ministerially imposed interim board, which, through its member Andre Odendaal, confirmed that there has “never been a formal budget for such a [reparations] fund, neither have we created a budget for one.”Odendaal reiterated the interim board’s stance over the national team’s response to BLM, specifically to them not taking a knee. “We are little disappointed that our team did not take the knee, which we explained to them at the time,” Odendaal said. “We supported the taking of the knee as the interim board and the chairperson wrote to the team and to the director of cricket (Graeme Smith) and the answer was that while the team supported the stand against racism and it had been through a pre-season course of bonding and discussing these matters, they decided on a slightly different approach which the group as a whole had bought into.”While England, West Indies, New Zealand and Bangladesh have all taken a knee, Australia formed a barefoot circle to acknowledge the Aboriginal ownership of land and South Africa opted for a banner against both racism and gender-based violence when they played England in November. They subsequently raised their fists ahead of the Boxing Day Test against Sri Lanka, but have yet to take a knee as a national team (all those involved in the experimental 3-Team Cricket [3TC] match last July took a knee), and this is something the board continues to be concerned about. “The board, while maintaining its own position, given the strength of the BLM and take-the-knee action throughout the world, we felt in a country with our history that would be most appropriate, [but] it was not something for us a board to decree should happen,” Odendaal said. “It brought across to us that CSA should have a broad policy that all components buy into and that we would continue to talk this through with the players and the team going forward.”With the interim board and the players on different sides about the ways in which South African cricket should show support for anti-racism, developing a centralised policy on anti-racism will be one of Ntsebeza’s tasks. He will only be able to do that once he has heard from those who have faced discrimination, those who have perpetrated it and even those who don’t understand why it is part of the cricket conversation. He indicated that the hearings would take place on a platform like Zoom to give members of the public access to testimony. So far, several former players of colour, including Makhaya Ntini, Ashwell Prince, and Thami Tsolekile, have told their stories on media platforms.”I want to meet with all cricket stakeholders – former players, current players, the player representative body, administrators, employees, educators, sponsors, the whole gamut. I also want to meet with government, the sports ministry, non-governmental organisations and business. All of these entities are critically important because at the root of it all, the aim which is intended, is to unite this nation behind this sporting code,” Ntsebeza said. “Once people are given an opportunity to say in their own words the things that hurt them, that process has the magic of restoring to them their dignity.”Ntsebeza has six months to conclude both the hearings and a report with recommendations, and he hopes by the middle of that period, in July, CSA will be ready to host a transformation conference, which will inform his recommendations. “We hope to have a whole range of cricket stakeholders together, who will seek to discuss the main issues that will have been raised in the hearings and what remedial action is required going forward.”

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.

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.