For the seven specialist batsmen in India’s second-string squad, the Zimbabwe series will be a mini-faceoff for the lone vacant spot in the middle-order

Amol Karhadkar06-Jul-2015A limited-overs tour to Zimbabwe may not garner as much attention as a series against a higher-ranked team, but for the seven specialist batsmen in India’s squad, the next fortnight may prove to be a crucial phase in their career. Ajinkya Rahane, the captain on this tour, Ambati Rayudu, Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, M Vijay, Kedar Jadhav and Manoj Tiwary will be looking to use this series to make a strong claim for the lone spot available in India’s middle order in ODIs.Barring Pandey, the other six batsmen have played ODIs for India. However, only two – Rahane and Uthappa – have enjoyed an extended run in the XI. Rahane was given a long run in ODIs over the last couple of years in ODIs before he was dropped in the series against Bangladesh, while Uthappa enjoyed the team management’s support early on in his international career almost a decade ago. No wonder then that the players attach great significance to the three ODIs and two Twenty20s in Zimbabwe.”It is a good opportunity for all the youngsters to express themselves at the international level. All the players who have been selected for this tour did pretty well in the IPL as well as in domestic cricket,” Rahane said during the team’s pre-departure media interaction on Monday. “I am pretty confident about this bunch of guys, that whoever gets the opportunity will do well. As a team our only motto will be to do well in Zimbabwe and get back our winning habit.”While Rahane played down the competition, some of the other players had no qualms admitting it. “You could say that,” said Uthappa, when asked if the five forthcoming games would serve as a mini face-off between the batsmen. “As a batting unit, we are looking at a No 6 batsman in the country and I believe I have what it takes to perform that role and bring about that flexibility the team is looking for. In case MS (Dhoni) wants to rest, or we need someone down the middle order, towards the end, I am willing to take up any challenge that’s available for me.”While Vijay aimed for a consistent run in limited overs “for the first time in my career”, Jadhav hoped to make the best of the opportunity.”Obviously these five innings are crucial for everyone. For me, it is even more important. This is the best opportunity I could have asked for to score consistently at international level and make a case to the selectors,” Jadhav said. “Otherwise, I will again have to wait and score big on the domestic circuit to get back into contention.”Even Rahane, whose average of 30.63 from 55 ODIs is below his potential, spelt out the target he has set for himself: “I am looking for consistency in ODIs. Whenever I bat in Tests and T20s, I am in a different zone. It’s all about mindset and how I prepare before the ODI series. For me consistency will be the key in ODIs.”

Gary Ballance eased his England disappointment by inspiring Yorkshire to a seven-run Duckworth-Lewis victory over Derbyshire in a rain-affected Royal London Cup game at Derby

ECB/PA27-Jul-2015
ScorecardGary Ballance work hard for his runs on a sluggish surface•Getty Images

Gary Ballance eased his England disappointment by inspiring Yorkshire to a seven-run Duckworth-Lewis victory over Derbyshire in a rain-affected Royal London Cup game at Derby.Ballance top-scored with 69 from 70 balls in Yorkshire’s 239 for 6 from 42 overs and although Hamish Rutherford replied with a 44-ball half-century and Billy Godleman hit 45 off 38 balls, Steven Patterson took 3 for 37 as Derbyshire fell short of a revised target of 197 from 29 overs.The rain which delayed the start by 90 minutes had slowed up the outfield and on a sluggish pitch, boundaries were elusive with only 31 runs coming from the opening nine-over PowerplayIt was no surprise when Alex Lees mistimed a pull to mid-on and although Glenn Maxwell straight drove Shiv Thakor for six, he again failed to build on a promising start and flicked Alex Hughes into the hands of deep midwicket in the 15th over.Mark Footitt had Andrew Gale lbw playing across the line to leave Yorkshire on 91 for 3 after 21 overs but Ballance and Jack Leaning provided the momentum required by working the ball into the gaps to add 83 at a run a ball.Leaning pulled Alex Hughes over deep mid-wicket for six but the runs came mainly from astute placement against disciplined bowling, backed up by fielding which was excellent given the conditions.A top-edged hook by Leaning to long leg ended the stand but Ballance cleared the long on boundary and added 36 from 25 balls with Tim Bresnan before a superb one-handed diving catch by Hughes removed the former England international.Ballance was caught behind trying to slog-sweep Ben Cotton with two overs left but Liam Plunkett’s unbeaten 17 from 12 balls took Yorkshire to a competitive total before more rain delayed the game by just over an hour and left Derbyshire chasing a revised target.Godleman drove and pulled Jack Brooks for two fours from the first over and cut and drove Bresnan for two more boundaries in the second but Wes Durston then pulled Brooks to midwicket where Ballance held on at the third attempt.Godleman drove Bresnan back over his head for four and Yorkshire’s frustration increased when Ballance dropped Wayne Madsen at point on 9 two balls later.Madsen drove Patterson down the ground for four but next ball was bowled attempting a ramp and Derbyshire suffered another setback in the next over when Godleman was caught behind trying to drive Plunkett.A mix-up with Rutherford saw Thakor needlessly run out but 11 came from the 17th over bowled by Plunkett and Rutherford raised Derbyshire’s hopes by pulling Will Rhodes for six.Maxwell took a stunning one-handed diving catch at point to remove Hughes and although Rutherford drove the Australian for six and Chesney Hughes hit him for another maximum, Derbyshire’s hopes ended when Rutherford holed out to long-off for 56 before Cotton and Matt Critchley were dismissed in the final over.

Former South Australia U-19 Steven Crook made an unbeaten 142 against his countrymen as Northamptonshire racked up 396 after put in to bat

Daniel Brettig in Northampton15-Aug-2015
ScorecardSteven Crook thrashed an unbeaten hundred against his increasingly frazzled countrymen•Getty Images

Last week Australia were sent in to bat and were bowled out for 60. This week the tourists sent in a modest Northamptonshire side at Wantage Road and found themselves humbled again, this time by a rollicking effort from Steven Crook, a former South Australia Under-19s player who has latterly found the knack for hundreds in his adopted country.A contemporary of Mark Cosgrove and Shaun Tait among others, this was Crook’s third century in two seasons after waiting more than a decade for his first. Through a combination of intelligent placement and plain old thumping he gave a grateful crowd something to cheer about and Australia’s new captain Steven Smith something to think about. Crook ended a memorable day by snaffling a catch at third slip, as David Warner pushed out stiffly at a Maurice Chambers ball angled across him.Doubtless the Australians would not have been delighted with the day’s proceedings, which saw them play untidily between occasional patches of strong cricket. Adam Voges dropped a slips catch, there were several misfields and, late in the day, Peter Nevill fumbled a stumping that would have ended Crook’s innings at 119.

‘To be part of that generation is pretty cool’

Steven Crook reflected on the generation of Australian cricketers with which he shared Under-19s dressing rooms before striking out as a county cricketer more than a decade ago.
“I left quite a long time ago so it’s obviously looking out from quite a long way away to see how things are going over there,” he said. “They’ve got a good team, a good attack, and against Australia is quality, so I really enjoyed it.
“My Under-19s year had Shaun Marsh, Shaun Tait, Mark Cosgrove, Cameron White, Xavier Doherty, George Bailey, so we had quite a good crop of players. It’s interesting to see how those guys have developed and gone on to play all over the world. To be part of that generation of players is really cool.”
Crook arrived in 2002 to play league cricket then Lancashire offered him a deal as a local player – both his parents were British born.
“I’m not sure how well it went down in South Australia,” he said of the move, “but if somebody says ‘here’s a professional contract’ it’s pretty hard to turn down. I always wanted to be a cricketer and that was my ticket.”

Duly reprieved, he hammered Nathan Lyon’s next two balls beyond the long-off and long-on ropes to go to his highest first-class score. Northants’ last three wickets tallied 123. Traditionally a wrist spinner would have been called on to mop up the tail, but Smith did not dare to use Fawad Ahmed, who gave up 48 runs in six confidence-sapped overs.Smith would have hoped for better when he sent the hosts in to bat, on a pitch that was tinged with green but quickly showed less sign of life than had been witnessed in the Tests at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge. This may have had something to do with the bowlers concerned, for Peter Siddle and Pat Cummins were unable to threaten in the same way James Anderson and Stuart Broad had done.Siddle was economical to begin with, but was unable to break through an opening stand that reached as far as 68 before Ben Duckett’s impish contribution was ended by Mitchell Marsh’s inswinging first ball. It was Marsh who actually looked most threatening of all the pacemen, moving the ball at a brisk pace to bowl Rob Keogh playing down the wrong line and then have Josh Cobb taken at slip next ball.The hat-trick was averted confidently by the 17-year-old Saif Zaib, who showed plenty of poise before his cameo was ended by Lyon’s offbreak. Kyle Coetzer’s dogged stay ended soon after when his patience finally flagged and he was bowled trying to swing Lyon into the Northampton town centre, and at 273 for 7 Warner and Shaun Marsh were starting to think about a few evening overs.Instead they were put on hold by Crook’s brazen hitting, which featured shots all round the ground and a temperament unfazed by the fall of Northamptonshire’s ninth wicket when he still required three for a century. A nifty pull shot through backward square leg took him there, the milestone taking just 77 balls to reach. The entertainment continued against increasingly flustered Australian bowling, with Crook and last man Richard Gleeson adding 52 in a mere 46 balls. Crook hurtled comfortably past a century in the session, ultimately making 123 after tea.When Gleeson was finally out, lbw to be Cummins’ third wicket, the Wantage Road faithful stood to applaud Crook’s boldness. Many of the attendees then promptly left their seats and the ground, leaving Australia’s openers to see out the day’s final five overs in front of a much reduced gathering. They had started the day hoping to be the prime attractions, but ended it as extras in the star turn of a little-known countryman.

Sri Lanka Cricket has requested that Galle curator Jayananda Warnaweera step back from preparations for next week’s Test, after he missed a meeting with the ICC’s anti-corruption security unit (ACSU) in Colombo on Wednesday

Andrew Fidel Fernando08-Oct-2015Sri Lanka Cricket has requested that Galle curator Jayananda Warnaweera step back from preparations for next week’s Test, after he missed a meeting with the ICC’s anti-corruption security unit (ACSU) in Colombo on Wednesday. Warnaweera would ordinarily oversee preparations of the surface and the ground for the first Test against West Indies, which begins on October 14, but SLC has instead asked national curator Janaka Sampath to take over at Galle.The board had been prompted to make other arrangements for this Test when ASCU staff alerted them about Warnaweera’s failure to turn up to the meeting. SLC is expected to have a clearer view of the implications of Warnaweera’s absence following a meeting between ACSU staff and SLC chairman Sidath Wettimuny this afternoon. The board is expected to make a statement some time in the next 48 hours. No official suspension of any nature has been handed down.Last Friday, Warnaweera had resigned from SLC’s interim committee, citing personal reasons. His appointment to the interim committee in March had raised minor criticism, because Warnaweera had also been an executive committee member in controversial previous administrations. At the time, then-sports minister Navin Dissanayake had postured the new board as a clean break from the past.Warnaweera could not be reached for comment. SLC officials said they had also had trouble getting through to him over the past 24 hours.

West Indies’ three-day practice match at the SSC has been postponed by one day due to bad weather in Colombo, leaving West Indies with only a two-day gap till the start of the first Test

Andrew Fidel Fernando07-Oct-2015West Indies’ three-day practice match at the SSC has been postponed by one day due to bad weather in Colombo. The match against Sri Lanka Cricket Board President’s XI, led by Lahiru Thirimanne, had been scheduled to begin on Thursday, but will now begin on Friday.The postponement means West Indies are left only two clear days between the end of the practice match and the start of the first Test which is scheduled to begin from October 14.West Indies had arrived in Sri Lanka on October 1, and had largely been forced to practice indoors, thanks to almost daily showers in Colombo. The northeast monsoon brings island-wide rain in October and November, but scheduling difficulties often force Sri Lanka to host international sides during these months.Prior to the postponement, West Indies captain Jason Holder had said the three-day match would be particularly vital to his team’s preparation, as most of the West Indies squad have not played Tests in Sri Lanka before.”The warm-up is our first game since we have been here and we can gauge where we are in these conditions. Hopefully the rain stays away and we can get the practice we want ahead of the Test match. Our batsmen and bowlers need to spend some time in the middle and hopefully we can make use of this match and be ready for the first Test on October 14.”The first Test is set to be played in Galle before the teams return to Colombo to play the second Test at the P Sara Oval.

Mel Cairns, the wife of former New Zealand allrounder Chris Cairns, has denied that an alleged discussion about match-fixing in a Manchester bar ever took place

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Nov-2015Mel Cairns, the wife of former New Zealand allrounder Chris Cairns, has denied that an alleged discussion about match-fixing in a Manchester bar ever took place.The jury in Chris Cairns’ perjury trial had previously been told about a night out in Manchester in 2008, when Eleanor Riley, the former wife of Lou Vincent, one of the main prosecution witnesses, gave evidence that Cairns had said he was confident he would get away with fixing because “everyone was doing it in India”.Mel Cairns, who was appearing via video link, was present on the night, which involved several hours of drinking. Asked by Cairns’ barrister Orlando Pownall, QC, whether there had been any discussion of fixing, she replied: “Absolutely not.”Vincent was playing for Lancashire at the time, having previously been involved with the Indian Cricket League (ICL) alongside Cairns, where he said he was under “direct orders” to fix matches.Chris Cairns is accused of perjury and perverting the course of justice during his 2012 libel case against Lalit Modi. He denies all charges.Mel and Chris Cairns met in 2008, when he was still married to his previous wife. They subsequently lived together in Dubai, where Cairns has said he was looking to get involved in the diamond trade. The couple were married in 2010 and have two children.It was put to Mel Cairns by the crown prosecutor, Sasha Wass, QC, that she was lying to protect her husband. Wass had previously alleged that the money Cairns was paid by an Indian diamond company was “a reward for fixing cricket matches”.Mel Cairns said: “I would never lie to help my husband in court.”An Australian who played college basketball in the US, Mel Cairns works with professional athletes in sports marketing and management. She said she “absolutely would not have a relationship” with Chris Cairns if match-fixing had been discussed after they had first met.Mel Cairns was giving evidence over video from the couple’s home in Canberra because she said they could not afford for her to travel, although she had wanted to be with Cairns during the trial, which began more than four weeks ago.”It broke my heart to watch Chris walk every day, alone to and from court, and knowing he was going home alone by himself,” she said.The trial continues.

Justice AP Shah, who was recently appointed ombudsman by the BCCI to deal with conflict-of-interest cases in the board, has said that an issue like conflict of interest must be understood within the context of the organization and it does not have a “stra

Raunak Kapoor11-Nov-2015Justice Ajit Prakash Shah, who was recently appointed ombudsman by the BCCI to look into matters of conflict of interest in the board, has said that an issue like conflict of interest “cannot have a straitjacket definition” and, in the case of the BCCI, must be understood in the context of the organisation. Shah said that the BCCI seems to have acknowledged that it faces “structural problems” and saw his appointment as an opportunity to support the reforms.”Generally, conflict of interest is a situation where someone has multiple interests, which could potentially clash with each other, and which could possibly affect how you operate in specific circumstances,” Shah told ESPNcricinfo. “However, the context will change the colour of the definition. You cannot have a straitjacket definition for all circumstances.”BCCI’s challenges as a large sports organisation are unique, and conflict of interest must be understood in its unique context. This is not an answer that is easy or which can be obtained immediately.”Shah’s appointment as the BCCI’s first-ever ombudsman is part of president Shashank Manohar’s reformatory agenda to have an independent authority look into problems relating to conflicts of interest among the BCCI’s administrators and employees, as well as current and former players on its payroll.”In a large sports body like the BCCI, there are several challenges of management and organisation,” Shah said. “The BCCI itself seems to have acknowledged that it has structural problems. My role is to help them to avoid such issues in the future. Reforms are being introduced, and the Supreme Court has also intervened. This is a welcome step. The appointment is an opportunity for me to support the reforms.”Shah also highlighted that the effectiveness of the ombudsman will depend on how an organisation uses the role. He suggested that using an ombudsman in the right way could help the BCCI preempt many of the issues it faces today.”The idea of having an ombudsman to address complaints in an organisation is not new,” he said. “Ombudsmen already exist for various sectors, in both government and the private sector. In India, for instance, you have ombudsmen for the banking and insurance sectors.”How an organisaton is likely to benefit depends on how they use the ombudsman, what kind of complaints the ombudsman receives, and what actions that ombudsman can take. Used in the right way, an ombudsman can help a large organisation like the BCCI preempt many of the problems it faces today.”Shah, a former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, admitted that he is a keen follower of the game and his decision to accept the BCCI’s appointment stemmed from his desire to contribute towards maintaining “the purity of the game”.”I am a keen follower of the game, but not an expert. I try not to miss a single one-day international, and even watch Tests if I get the time,” he said. “I accepted the appointment because I thought this was one way in which I could contribute to maintain the purity of the game.”

South Australia made light work of their chase of 145, cruising to an eight-wicket victory on the third day against Victoria at the MCG

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Dec-2015
ScorecardJoe Mennie has 24 wickets so far this Sheffield Shield season (file photo)•Getty Images

South Australia made light work of their chase of 145, cruising to an eight-wicket victory on the third day against Victoria at the MCG. In a low-scoring game on a greenish pitch, the target could have proven challenging but opener Tom Cooper set up the innings with 54 from 64 deliveries and Callum Ferguson (43 not out) and Travis Head (24 not out) brought it home.The only two wickets to fall were Mark Cosgrove, caught behind off Chris Tremain for 19, and Cooper, who was caught at gully off John Hastings. The Bushrangers had started the morning at 6 for 123 and added 40 runs for the loss of their last four wickets, with Joe Mennie (4 for 55) and Chadd Sayers (3 for 61) finishing off the tail.The win was not enough for South Australia to bump Victoria out of top place on the Sheffield Shield table, though the teams remain in the top two positions. Mennie also moved to the top of the Shield wicket tally, with 24 at 18.87 so far this summer.