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Andy Flower will miss his first match since taking over as England team director when he sits out the one-day international against Ireland in Dublin

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Aug-2011Andy Flower will miss his first match since taking over as England team director when he sits out the one-day international against Ireland in Dublin. The match takes place three days after the final Test against India, at The Oval, and Richard Halsall, the fielding coach, will be in charge of the team.When Flower signed his new deal with the ECB in May it was widely believed that the subject of him taking a break from the demands of the job was considered although nothing was written into the contract. In many ways Flower’s role is more intense than the players’ because he has to plot and plan for the next challenge and is involved with all three formats.The only time Flower has missed any of England’s cricket since taking the top job were the second and third days of the first Test against Australia, at Brisbane, when he underwent surgery to remove a melanoma from below his right eye. Halsall took charge of the team in Flower’s absence which gave a clear indication of the contingency plans in place.Flower will rejoin the squad ahead of the Twenty20 international against India, at Old Trafford, on August 31 which is then followed by five one-day internationals. Two additional Twenty20s have now been added to the end of the season against West Indies, to help fulfil contractual obligations following the loss of the Stanford games, before the team fly to India for a one-day series in early October.England then have their longest break of recent times before Christmas when they aren’t in action during November and December. However, after the festive season the demands increase again with a full tour against Pakistan in UAE followed by a short series in Sri Lanka. It remains to be seen whether Flower fits in any further breaks before the start of another full summer in 2012.

Dirk Nannes, the Australia fast bowler, will return to Surrey for their Friends Life t20 campaign this year

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Jan-2012Dirk Nannes, the Australia fast bowler, will return to Surrey for their Friends Life t20 campaign this season. Nannes, who is the leading wicket-taker in Twenty20 cricket, will join Murali Kartik as the overseas players at The Oval.Nannes, a Twenty20 Cup winner alongside Kartik with Middlesex in 2008, took 19 wickets at 20.05 for Surrey in the Friends Life t20 in 2011. Altogether, he has taken 169 T20 wickets, earning caps for both Netherlands and Australia.”As we saw last season in the shortest form of the game, Dirk is still one of the most consistently dangerous and economical bowlers on the world scene,” Surrey team director Chris Adams said. “He did a fantastic job for us and I can speak for the whole club when I say we are delighted to welcome him back for another spell.”Nannes, who is based in the UK, will be contracted for Surrey’s ten group games in the Friends Life t20 South Division, with a provision to stay on for the knockout stages if the county qualifies.

Saha opens up on how Pujara, Shami and he tracked the Ranji Trophy from New Zealand

Shashank Kishore in Rajkot09-Mar-2020Wriddhiman Saha hasn’t played a competitive game in close to a month. His request to play for Bengal ahead of the New Zealand tour was shot down by the BCCI. Then, he played one fixture for India A and didn’t feature in the two Tests that followed. Upon return, he immediately made himself available for the final.There was, however, the possibility of his wife giving birth to their second child around the same time. Saha reached Kolkata on Wednesday and celebrated the arrival of his son on Thursday. He took the day off on Friday and got to Rajkot from Kolkata via Ahmedabad on Saturday night.”I’m feeling good,” Saha told reporters after training at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium. “My wife told me straightaway: ‘go after a day’. But I had to have at least one day’s training before the match. This is a great chance for us, why will I miss out on the opportunity? Wife chance (I didn’t get to hear about it from my wife, but I am sure she will remind me later).”With such a short turnaround, Saha has had to shrug off jetlag, do daddy duty for a night and then travel ten hours, including a four-hour drive, to get to the grandest stage of them all as far as his state team is concerned: the Ranji Trophy final.”I’m lucky to get a chance to play in a Ranji final, it doesn’t come often in a career,” Saha said. “As a kid, you dream of playing here. Manoj Tiwary has played in two, this will be his third. For me, it’s the first, so I’m very excited. I treat every game with the same intensity. Not just Ranji, every game, even a club game, is important to me.”Saha revealed there was good-natured banter between him and Cheteshwar Pujara as they followed the journey of their teams into the Ranji final while on tour with the Indian Test team. “Not just me, but Mohammed Shami also,” Saha laughed. “I was following scores and videos every day. Even Virat Kohli, Ravi Shastri, and others kept asking us about who is doing well, who is scoring runs.”Saha also offered his perspective on what made this Bengal side different from the ones he had been a part of in the past. For starters, he said there was a lot of ” (laughter and fun)”. He also felt having a competent bowling attack helped make matters easy. For the record, no team has managed to score 250 or more against Bengal this season.”Initially I felt the team was hinged on one or two people,” he said. “Ashok Dinda was the only fast bowler picking wickets. At the other end, we didn’t have someone to do that consistently. Now, it’s different. Also, our lower-order batting has improved, bowlers have become better batsmen. Someone is raising their hand up every game.”Saha will be 36 by the time India’s next Test tour to Australia comes around. He was asked about the future, and what he thought of where he stood in the grand scheme of things. Instead, he offered a peek into his mindset. “For me, the future is now. Tomorrow. This Ranji final,” he said. “It’s simple. As a keeper, you follow the ball. It’s the same with batting. Just watch the ball. The basics are what I focus on.”

A round up of the first match day of the Quadrangular Under-19 Series in Visakhapatnam

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Sep-2011India Under-19s decimated Australia Under-19s in the first youth ODI of the quadrangular tournament in Visakhapatnam. They won by ten wickets and 38 overs to spare in what was the fastest chase of a total more than 100 in U-19 cricket.After choosing to bat, Australia folded for 163 in 41.1 overs. Only wicketkeeper James Peirson offered some resistance with a fluent 51. Offspinner Baba Aparajith claimed five middle-order wickets in 8.1 overs.The India openers, Manan Vohra and Unmukt Chand, were brutal in reply, scoring 167 in 12 overs at a run-rate of 13.91. Vohra’s 79 off 35 balls was studded with 15 fours and two sixes, while Chand made 72 off 40 with 11 fours and three sixes. Australia captain Cameron Bancroft employed five bowlers in the short chase, but none of them could manage an economy-rate of below 10. The opening pair was particularly harsh on spinners Ashton Turner and Shane Cassell, slamming them for 17.50 and 23 runs an over respectively.India take on Sri Lanka U-19s in their next game on September 29, while Australia play West Indies U-19s on the same day.Sri Lanka Under-19 began their quadrangular campaign by beating West Indies Under-19 in Visakhapatnam, a victory that was much narrower than India’s against Australia. Sri Lanka edged home by two wickets and needed their tail to rescue the chase after a top-order collapse.Chasing 147, Sri Lanka had crumbled to 71 for 8. Fast bowlers Justin Greaves, who took 4 for 26, Ronsford Beaton and Kyle Mayers had put West Indies two strikes away from victory. Those wickets, however, never came as Lahiru Madhushanka and Tharindu Kaushal added 76 runs for the ninth wicket. Madhushanka scored 42 and Kaushal 30 as Sri Lanka reached the target in the 47th over.West Indies’ top order had also failed in their innings. They were struggling at 42 for 5 before a steadying half-century from Kaven Hodge and 33 from Greaves led them to 146. Sanitha de Mel took 4 for 14 in 9.1 overs, and Gaurav Deva and Madhushanka claimed two each as West Indies were dismissed in 47.1 overs.

The proposal is a way of defying the ICC’s prohibition of bilateral tournaments comprising any more than three teams

Daniel Brettig24-Dec-2019A four-nation limited-overs tournament comprising India, England, Australia and one other invited nation has been proposed by the BCCI in part as a way of defying the ICC’s prohibition of non-ICC tournaments (apart from the Asia Cup) comprising any more than three teams in current and future Members Participation Agreements (MPA). The Super Series – as announced by BCCI president Sourav Ganguly over the weekend – is proposed to be rotated annually between the boards of cricket’s three major financial powers, starting 2021, and span two weeks.As players and officials around the world reacted to the Super Series proposal, Ganguly toned down his language by telling the that “nothing is confirmed yet” and “nothing is concrete”.However, ESPNcricinfo has learned that, as was the case in the lead-up to the Big Three breakaway move by the BCCI, ECB and Cricket Australia in 2014, a central issue is the terms under which India will be prepared to sign the MPA. Back then, the issue was primarily a larger slice of ICC tournament revenue for the BCCI, and the resultant reshaping of the global scene saw millions of dollars pushed back India’s way, a scenario that remained even after many of the reforms were rolled back after 2015.Nevertheless, Ganguly stated even before he was formally installed as BCCI president that one of his agenda items would be to increase India’s share of global cricket revenue, an uncannily similar ticket on which N Srinivasan vaulted to the top of world cricket’s hierarchy before he was sidelined as a result of the IPL corruption scandal. Srinivasan is now back in circulation as a senior figure behind many of the recent machinations.This time around, the four-nation bilateral series concept has risen in direct opposition to the idea floated by the ICC’s chief executive Manu Sawhney of two “Champions Trophy-style” ODI events in the next tournament cycle to begin in 2023. This would be geared at providing a global event in each calendar year and thereby allow greater and more consistent flows of ICC revenue to nations other than India, England and Australia, all of whom are increasingly reliant on this central funding for their operations.Linked to this is the intention for the MPA to limit the types of tournaments that member boards can stage, in order to raise the value of ICC broadcast rights as the global governing body would be the only source of events that collected all of the game’s most attractive teams and players at once for international tournaments.At the same time, this would serve to raise bilateral revenue for all nations via league structures for Test matches and ODIs that require all nations to at least maintain some pretence of playing each other an equitable amount, rather than the rich nations simply playing off against one another every year or two. Asked recently whether there was any danger of India, England or Australia not signing the MPA as a result of their reservations about an extra ICC event, CA chairman Earl Eddings had said he hoped such a scenario could be avoided.”We’re a long way off – this is post 2023 so we’ve got a number of years to work through it, but you can’t do one thing without the other,” he told ESPNcricinfo earlier this month. “To be able to work on your Future Tours Programme, you need to know where that fits in with an ICC schedule, so you can’t just look at an ICC schedule in isolation, just as you can’t look at a bilateral or Future Tours Programme in isolation.”There has been some anxiety among member nations about the direction of the ICC, pushing aggressively for an increase in global events revenue, since Sawhney took over from David Richardson at the end of this year’s ODI World Cup in England, and Eddings and chief executive Kevin Roberts recently met with Sawhney in Melbourne to discuss the issues of the moment. Eddings and Roberts are due to travel to India to meet Ganguly and the new BCCI administration in Mumbai in January around Australia’s first of three ODIs against India.The ECB confirmed its leaders recently met Ganguly and other BCCI office bearers, during which time the concept of the four-nation event was discussed. “We meet regularly with other leaders from the major cricketing nations to share learnings and discuss topics that impact our sport,” the ECB said in a statement. “A four-nation tournament was raised at a meeting with the BCCI in December and we are open to discussions with other ICC members to see if this concept can develop.”CA has been tight-lipped about the proposal, with some conjecture as to how much of it has yet been shared with the governing body by the BCCI. Australia’s coach Justin Langer admitted that the tightness of the current schedule made any attempts to slot in extra tournaments extremely problematic.”We all understand the schedule in world cricket is really tight,” Langer said. “So I am sure there will be lots of negotiation and there are people, that’s their role to negotiate and get that right. But we all know it is a tight schedule.”Struggles for other ICC member nations have been underlined by the fact that New Zealand’s board has returned a financial loss each of the past three years, while Ireland have recently been forced to cancel a host of matches due to a lack of funds. This after the leaders of the Big Three proposals of 2014 had promised to make all nations better off.

Promotion-chasing Surrey need five final-day wickets to claim a win over Essex
to further boost their bid to return to the top flight of the County
Championship. After leaving Essex a victory target of 349, Surrey reduced their opponents to
142 for 5 by t

09-Sep-2011
ScorecardPromotion-chasing Surrey need five final-day wickets to claim a win over Essex
to further boost their bid to return to the top flight of the County
Championship. After leaving Essex a victory target of 349, Surrey reduced their opponents to
142 for 5 by the close.In front of a sizeable Chelmsford crowd, their position of strength owed much
to century maker Zander de Bruyn, and another fine knock from Chris Jordan, who
between them scored over half of Surrey’s second innings total of 286.The pair’s seventh wicket stand produced 119 and arrived amid another
magnificent display of pace bowling from David Masters who finished with six for
93. Yet things did not start too encouragingly for the visitors after they had
resumed, both Jason Roy and Gareth Batty departing for the addition of 24 to the
overnight 104 for 4.The game was evenly poised at that point, before De Bruyn and Jordan seized
control with disciplined aggression allied to shrewd shot selection. Whenever the wayward delivery arrived, they did not waste the opportunity to drive and pull powerfully to progress at a rate of around five and over.The muscular De Bruyn scored exactly 100 with the help of a dozen fours and two
sixes before, fittingly, his 125-ball innings was brought to an end by Masters. He did so with a delivery that sent two stumps out of the ground, a dismissal that signalled Masters’ eighth haul of five or more wickets in an inning this summer. He was later to leave the field to a standing ovation and with 93 Championship wickets to his credit – more than any other bowler in the country.But his season’s final effort did not include the impressive Jordan among his
victims. For the second time in the match, he posted a career-best following up his 71
in the first innings with an unbeaten 79 that included eight fours and a six and
arrived from 106 balls.As he did in the first innings, Tim Linley was soon making an impact when Essex
embarked upon their formidable task. Tom Westley’s promising start was cut short when he was bowled without offering a stroke with 16 against his name, whilst Owais Shah had his defences breached shortly afterwards with the total on 42.Pragyan Ojha, the left-arm spinner, was to turn the screw when he tempted Jaik
Mickleburgh to drive into the hands of mid-off before trapping Adam Wheater
lbw. The return of Linley ended the dogged resistance of Billy Godleman who was
caught behind after making 38 of the 96 on the board.But James Foster and Ryan ten Doeschate lived to fight on the final day
although the former was lucky to survive when he was dropped by De Bruyn at
second slip with only a single against his name. Foster will resume on 35 and Ten Doeschate on 30, their stand so far having
yielded 46 runs.

Legspinner back for third season at Chelmsford as Blast winners look to defend their title

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Dec-2019Vitality Blast champions Essex have re-signed Australia legspinner Adam Zampa for their 2020 campaign. Zampa will return for his third consecutive season at Chelmsford.Although Zampa missed 2019 Finals Day, having already gone back to Australia for the start of the domestic season, he was Essex’s leading wicket-taker during the group stage, taking 12 wickets in as many games with an economy of 8.06. Essex hope to have him available for the duration of their defence, should they progress to the knockout rounds.”I’m really looking forward to getting back to Chelmsford and playing in front of that great crowd again,” Zampa said. “I’ve played there for the last two years now and Essex is a great club to play for. I get on really well with all the lads in the changing room and I feel at home there.”Last year was amazing. We didn’t start too well but once we got on a roll we were unstoppable. Not many people would have had us down to win it, but we knew what we were capable of, and hopefully we can repeat that in 2020.”Zampa has been a regular in white-ball cricket for Australia over recent seasons, and next summer will likely form part of his build-up towards the T20 World Cup. He is currently playing for Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash League, and has also featured at the IPL and the Caribbean Premier League.Essex’s head coach, Anthony McGrath, said: “We all know just how talented Adam is as we’ve seen it the last two summers. He’s one of the best legspinners around at the moment.”He’s been excellent for us the last couple of seasons and he’s a great guy to have around the dressing room, so I’m delighted he’s going to be back with us.”

A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court has delivered a split verdict on a petition challenging BCCI secretary N Srinivasan’s right to hold a position in the board while also holding a stake in an IPL franchise

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Apr-2011A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court has delivered a split verdict on a petition challenging BCCI secretary N Srinivasan’s right to hold a position in the board while also holding a stake in an IPL franchise. The petition, filed by former board president AC Muthiah, questioned the motives behind the board amending their regulations in order to allow Srinivasan to have a dual role of board member and part-owner of Chennai Super Kings.Justice JM Panchal dismissed the petition, while Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra allowed it, holding that a BCCI officer bearer cannot have a stake in an IPL franchise. The split verdict means the petition has been referred to the chief justice for allocating it to a larger bench.The BCCI had amended clause 6.2.4 of the regulations for players, team officials, umpires and administrators in September 2008, shortly after the first season of the IPL. Before the amendment the clause read: “No administrator shall have, directly or indirectly, any commercial interest in the matches and events conducted by the board.” After the change, it read: “No administrator shall have directly or indirectly any commercial interest in any of the events of the BCCI, excluding IPL, Champions League and Twenty20.”Muthiah’s argument was that the exclusion of IPL and Twenty20 events was made specifically to benefit Srinivasan. In September 2010, Mishra had suggested Srinivasan resign from his position in the board .”You introduce an amendment where the IPL will be an exception. You are a prominent industrialist holding a key position in the board and have a stake in the bidding,” Mishra had told Srinivasan. “In order to avoid suspicion and be above board, you should have got your membership suspended.”Our nagging question is: can you continue in a dual capacity? That is the core issue.”Following those statements, Mishra allowed Muthiah’s petition on April 28, 2011, but Panchal’s decision to dismiss it means the amendment to the BCCI regulations will stand for the time being.

Virender Sehwag, who is yet to fully recover after undergoing surgery on his shoulder, has made it to 17-man India squad for the Test series in England, but will miss the first two weeks of the tour to give him time to recuperate further

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Jul-2011Virender Sehwag, who is yet to fully recover after undergoing surgery on his shoulder, has made it to 17-man India squad for the Test series in England, but will miss the first two weeks of the tour to give him time to recuperate further.Sachin Tendulkar returned to the squad after skipping the West Indies tour to rest, while Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth made comebacks from injury breaks. Yuvraj Singh, who missed the West Indies tour with a chest infection, also forced his way back into the Test plans following his excellent performance in the World Cup. M Vijay and Virat Kohli, who have so far failed to impress in the West Indies Tests, were dropped, while Suresh Raina’s strong show in the same series helped him retain his place.Abhinav Mukund, who made a dogged 48 in Barbados on Friday, will travel to England as the reserve opener. Wriddhiman Saha was included as the back-up wicketkeeper, edging out Parthiv Patel. Cheteshwar Pujara is yet to recover from the knee injury he picked up in the IPL, and misses out once again.Munaf Patel made the squad despite missing the first two West Indies Tests with fitness issues. Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar, who have been among the wickets in the Caribbean, round off the pace attack, while Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra make up the spin department.The tour begins with a three-day warm-up match on July 15, with the first Test starting on July 21 at Lord’s.The squad: MS Dhoni (capt/wk), Gautam Gambhir (vice-capt), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Abhinav Mukund, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar

Currently the Victoria coach, he is expected to be allowed to keep his roles in the Hundred and the IPL

Daniel Brettig30-Oct-2019Victoria coach Andrew McDonald is the new senior assistant for the Australian men’s team coach Justin Langer in a ground-breaking deal, though doubt still surrounds the new man’s starting date amid protracted negotiations.In a first for Cricket Australia, McDonald will be allowed to continue his overseas short-form roles as the coach of Birmingham in England’s new Hundred competition, in addition to being coach of the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL. These concessions will allow McDonald the sort of freedom to add to his earning capacity denied to other assistant coaches in the past, one of the major roadblocks to senior figures working alongside the likes of Langer and his predecessors.ALSO READ: McDonald appointed Rajasthan Royals coachNews of McDonald’s appointment with the Australian season already well underway will be an issue for Victoria and also the Melbourne Renegades in the BBL, in some ways mirroring how Langer himself left Australia to join Western Australia and the Perth Scorchers in late 2012, having served as an assistant coach for more than three years.Nonetheless, it will be a major advantage for Langer to gain from McDonald the assistance of one of the best regarded coaches in world cricket, having put together an enviable record with Leicestershire, Victoria and the Renegades in recent years. Equally, McDonald’s temperament and strength as a communicator who has also experienced the crucible of international cricket will aid the balance of the team at home and on tour.”We are excited to have Andrew join the Australian Men’s Team,” the CA national teams manager Ben Oliver said. “As a player, Andrew was an outstanding all-rounder, tactician and competitor and a popular teammate. And as a coach, he has demonstrated great leadership and enjoyed remarkable success in all formats.”We are confident our playing group will grow under Andrew’s mentorship. We are also proud that our world-class domestic system is providing a pathway to international coaching ranks. We were fortunate to have a strong list of candidates to choose from and I would personally like to thank all those who applied for the position of Senior Assistant Coach along with Cricket Victoria for their support of Andrew.”Langer told ESPNcricinfo last week that CA needed to be “creative and agile” to secure the services of the right person for the job, and also added that he would prefer to wait extra time if it meant finishing up with his preferred candidate, and following confirmation of McDonald’s appointment described him as the “perfect” foil for his coaching leadership.”Andrew complements our coaching panel perfectly. I have no doubt his all-round knowledge and man management skills will be a positive addition to our team,” Langer said. “The coaching success Andrew has enjoyed around the world in a relatively short period of time is testament to his skill, dedication and knowledge of the game.”He is also a wonderful competitor, which Australian fans saw first hand throughout his career with the national team, Victoria and South Australia, as well as the Renegades, Strikers and Thunder.”McDonald had been touted as a possible coach of England to replace Trevor Bayliss earlier this year, before Chris Silverwood took the role. Australia’s limited-overs captain Aaron Finch said in June that it was inevitable in his mind that McDonald would eventually take on an international role.”I think he definitely at some point in his career will coach an international team,” Finch said at the time. “The great strength of his – the ability to communicate with every player in a list, thinks through every situation really well, doesn’t make emotional decisions on anything, which I think is a huge plus as a coach, to be able to take that time to reflect and see what’s best for the group in every decision that you make.”He’s tactical – the tactical side of his coaching is second to none, and I think that he’s as well-planned as a coach as I’ve ever seen. I’ve, obviously, known him a lot longer and dealt with him for a huge amount of time, so I’m a little bit biased in my opinions at times, as well, because he is such a great coach when it comes to all facets of the game.”Various coaches and mentors have spent time around the national team over the past 18 months, including David Saker, Brad Haddin, Troy Cooley, Adam Griffith and in recent days Ryan Harris and Michael Hussey. Ricky Ponting was part of the support staff for the World Cup and Steve Waugh for the Ashes, but all understood that these were short-term arrangements.Andrew Ingleton, the Cricket Victoria chief executive, said that while McDonald would be a loss to the state, he went with the association’s blessing. “Naturally we’re sad to see Andrew leave after completing such a great year for Victorian cricket but we understand his desire to challenge himself at the highest level and have no doubt he will be a significant asset to the national coaching unit,” Ingleton said. “It’s testament to Andrew’s achievements with our teams that he has been given this opportunity.”