Category Uncategorized

The northern beaches cluster has grown to 38 cases, forcing a lockdown of the region by the NSW government

Daniel Brettig19-Dec-2020David Warner and Sean Abbott flew into Melbourne ahead of schedule on Saturday as Cricket Australia worked to ensure they are not caught up in the growing web of restrictions around Sydney residents in the wake of the northern beaches Covid-19 outbreak.The northern beaches cluster grew to 38 cases on Saturday, forcing a lockdown of the region by the New South Wales government, and widening the net in terms of affected residents or recent visitors to Sydney being monitored by health officials in other states.Related

• Sydney and Brisbane Test switch among Cricket Australia contingency plans

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• Cricket Australia on alert after Sydney Covid-19 outbreak

CA quizzed broadcast and media personnel on Saturday morning about whether they had been present in a range of affected Sydney postcodes after December 11, with a number of NSW residents flying home early from their work on the Adelaide Test as a precaution.The decision to move Warner and Abbott south to Victoria was made similarly, to avoid the possibility of them being stranded in NSW in the event of the southern border being closed in coming days, should the current outbreak continue to grow. It is understood that Warner took a private jet from Sydney while Abbott went to Canberra for a commercial flight to Melbourne.Warner is no certainty to play in Melbourne as he continues his recovery from a groin strain, but is making decent progress. Abbott is on the way back from a calf strain he suffered while playing for Australia A against the Indian touring team in a Sydney warm-up game.”Hopefully I can get up and about and start running at a higher tempo,” Warner told SEN radio this week. “I managed to get up to 14kmh so I’ve got to work towards a max of 26 to 30kmh by next week. If I can run between wickets and move laterally and do some ground fielding by the end of next week, I should be ready to go. Fingers are crossed.”Speaking on Friday, CA interim CEO Nick Hockley remained confident of being able to navigate this new Covid-19 outbreak with plans still in place to stage the third Test in Sydney. However, further border restrictions, especially to Queensland where the fourth Test is currently due to be played, could force a change.”We’re monitoring the situation; we’re not panicking at all, staying calm,” Hockley told SEN radio. “Adelaide, a few weeks ago we had that pizza-shop outbreak and through that process we worked very calmly to get the players in Adelaide on a charter plane, out of Adelaide within 24 hours and that really saved the summer.”We’ve got the Sydney Test and the BBL in NSW after that, so the fact we’re here in Adelaide, we’ve got the next Test in Melbourne, it’s really watch, wait and see and I think the governments around the country have handled the pandemic so well, so we’ll watch, learn and stay in touch.”

Seamer wrecks MIddlesex top-order with five wickets after Livingstone half-century

Paul Edwards16-Sep-2019
At just after 4.30 on the first day of this game at Emirates Old Trafford Adam Rossington was caught by Alex Lees for 82 off the bowling of Matt Salisbury. The dismissal took place at Wantage Road, which is 135 miles from Emirates Old Trafford, but news travels fast in cyberspace and it confirmed what had long been virtually certain in any case: that Lancashire would end this season as the champions of Division Two. Northamptonshire’s haul of one bonus point, combined with the two Dane Vilas’s side picked up in their first innings against Middlesex, decided the matter.Lancashire knew they had won the division after they had posted 259 but before they went out to bowl. They celebrated not by larking around but by ripping the heart out of Middlesex’s batting and reducing the visitors to 39 for 6 by the close. Ripper-in-Chief was Tom Bailey, whose accurate medium-quick bowling with all the variations of his craft helped him take five wickets in 24 balls and finish with 5 for 16 from nine overs with power to add on the morrow. Nick Gubbins and Dawid Malan were caught behind; Martin Andersson and Miguel Cummins were lbw; Max Holden was brilliantly caught and bowled, low to Bailey’s left. If Vilas scorns the current fashion and opts to enforce the follow-on, a two-day finish cannot be discounted. This is a pitch which repays tight lines and it was the failure of the Middlesex attack to string enough good balls together that partly explains the strife they are in now.To be sure, Lancashire’s Liam Livingstone batted well for his 84 and would have got a century had he not fallen lbw when playing across the line to a ball of full length from Ethan Bamber; Steven Croft then played cannily with the tail and scored the fourth first-class fifty of what has been a lovely season for him. But both batsmen knew that if they gutsed it out long enough, a half-volley or a wide long hop would come along in due course. Not many, mark you; this Middlesex attack had Lancashire 129 for 5 when Vilas pushed all too firmly at Cummins and edged to Malan at slip for a duck. But there were enough loose ones to sustain the batsmen’s patience and Lancashire’s ability to double that total may well have decided this match.The reaction of Lancashire’s supporters to their side’s success could be gauged almost immediately. Old Trafford’s PA announcer, John Gwynne, is still a newsman to his fingertips and he announced the side’s success to the crowd. There was a warm round of applause although warmth of a slightly different nature may be apparent at the Members’ Forum which is being held after today’s play. We shall see; or rather, we shall hear.But what even the most stubborn curmudgeon surely cannot doubt is that Lancashire have been by far the best side in Division Two this year. They rested Richard Gleeson for this match and have not been able to call on James Anderson since the game against Durham at Sedbergh. But their seam attack is the equal of any in Division One. Their young batsmen, most obviously Josh Bohannon and Rob Jones, are improving with every month. Yes, this is Lancashire’s third promotion in seven seasons. Yet they can go up with greater optimism than in any of the others.And on a day when one issue was finally resolved it was curious to recall the occasion in April when these sides last met in the Championship, nothing at all was decided and optimism was on tap at all counties. That game took place at Lord’s in April and a few saw it as a top of the table clash in the first fortnight of the season. Well, so much for hubris. Northamptonshire and Gloucestershire have a short way with such careless arrogance. Lancashire won that game and did so partly because Jones made a patient century.But another Lancashire batsman also reached three figures at Lord’s and batted outstandingly well. That, of course, was Haseeb Hameed, who was released by Old Trafford last month. Hameed’s hundred against Middlesex was thus his last for the county of his birth. It is sometimes difficult to accept such simple facts; and for those who saw the young batsmen in the wonderful springtime of his career, it is even more poignant this autumn to write them down and know them for the truth.

ESPNcricinfo understands the fast bowler will undergo intense rehabilitation for about four weeks at the NCA before the selectors make a call on his fitness for the final two Tests

Nagraj Gollapudi and Sidharth Monga18-Jul-2018Bhuvneshwar Kumar will return to India to recuperate from the lower-back injury that has kept him out of the squad for the first three Tests in England. ESPNcricinfo understands Bhuvneshwar will undergo intense rehabilitation for about four weeks at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru before the selectors make an assessment on his fitness for the final two Tests.According to the BCCI release announcing the Test squad, Bhuvneshwar “aggravated” his lower-back issue while playing the third ODI against England. Apart from Bhuvneshwar, India’s fast-bowling group will also be without Jasprit Bumrah for the first Test at least. Bumrah has been out of action since suffering a thumb injury during the first match of India’s tour, the first T20I against Ireland in Dublin. Bumrah is part of the 18-member Test squad, but the BCCI has confirmed he will miss the first Test.An important member of the side, responsible for 42% of the wickets taken by seamers in their last Test series in England, Bhuvneshwar has been struggling with a back issue since the start of the IPL where his workload was managed. Even before the IPL, Bhuvneshwar sat out of the Nidahas Trophy and the one-off Test against Afghanistan to manage the injury. Bhuvneshwar had missed the first two ODIs, but was selected for the series decider in which he bowled seven overs for 49 runs and no wickets, and also dropped a catch.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

At the toss, Virat Kohli said the decision to bring Bhuvneshwar back for the decider was taken to given him some game time. “Some tactical some because the guys haven’t got a game so far,” Kohli explained the three changes to the XI. “So Bhuvi and Shardul Thakur come in for Umesh [Yadav] and Sid [Siddarth] Kaul. And KL Rahul misses out. Dinesh Karthik replaces him at No. 4. He has done well at that spot, and we just wanted to have a guy in the middle overs who can be versatile and improvise a little. Yeah Dinesh was tactical, and the other two guys because they haven’t got a game yet.”An official present in Leeds told ESPNcricinfo that Bhuvneshwar passed a fitness test before the team management decided to include him in the XI. Bhuvneshwar was the first player to enter Headingley on Tuesday morning and did stretching routines, under the observation of India trainer Shankar Basu. The fact that Bhuvneshwar was in the reckoning for the final ODI of the England series became clear after he bowled for about half an hour in India’s optional training session on Monday afternoon in Leeds.After India were sent in, Bhuvneshwar batted for nearly an hour, first in the company of MS Dhoni and then the tail, to take help raise a modest total of 256. He finished the match wicketless and also dropped a straightforward catch.The official present in Leeds pointed out that the team management had been guarding Bhuvneshwar until then, keeping in mind the freak injury that ruled out Bumrah. Although Bhuvneshwar passed the pre-match fitness test on Tuesday, the official said he was “probably a bit jaded” when he arrived in the UK after the IPL.In the future, the official said the team management had agreed to closely monitor the workloads of key players like Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah to keep them fresh for the World Cup.

Both India and West Indies have had on- and off-field issues of late. The visitors are still favourites, provided their batsmen adjust to the slow, low Caribbean tracks

The Preview by Nikhil Kalro22-Jun-2017

Match Facts

June 23, 2017
Start time 0900 local (1300 GMT)

Big Picture

Take out India’s 20-7 win-loss record since the start of their home season last year, and you have a team on very shaky ground. Misunderstandings between captain and coach which led to the coach quitting even as the squad was mid-flight to the Caribbean, a thumping in a very high-profile global final just last weekend, and two middle-order superstars on the wane.West Indies, in the past few years, have seen coaches sacked and players banned. Successes have been scarce – they have won two of nine ODIs this year, and slumped to ninth on the ICC ODI rankings. Both teams’ mindset off the field must be rather similar. Except, they aren’t.The negative forces currently surrounding India are strong enough to destabilise any team, but winning is the most impactful nullifying factor in sports. Despite their issues, in terms of personnel, skills, confidence and form, India have the edge, no doubt. They just made the final of the Champions Trophy; West Indies did not qualify for the Champions Trophy, and while it was in progress they lost an ODI to Afghanistan at home.In the five-match series against West Indies, India’s biggest stumbling block could be the slow nature of the Caribbean pitches. Apart from the occasional turner, India have played their ODI cricket on predominantly high run-scoring surfaces. They last played an ODI in the West Indies four years ago. Here, hitting through the ball or swinging across the line may not be viable options. Instead, opening the face of the bat late and nudging accurate bowling into gaps could be the best alternatives. How effectively will India adapt?West Indies have honed their ODI cricket on such surfaces in the recent past. The lower the scores, the higher are West Indies’ chances. A series win against India is a must as they aim to climb the rankings and get direct qualification for the 2019 World Cup.

Form guide

West Indies WLLLW (completed matches, most recent first)
India LWWLW

In the spotlight

Spinning allrounders may be the most productive asset on low, slow pitches. West Indies picked Roston Chase for the series against Afghanistan, albeit on Test form. He didn’t quite deliver, but still has the best resume for the job. A quick, flat and accurate modus operandi with the ball is well supplemented by his boundary-hitting ability.Virat Kohli will be pleased to get back on the field, given the distractions off it. Fingers have been pointed and focus was temporarily shifted away from the game. All eyes will be on how Kohli leads his team in the wake of the biggest controversy of his captaincy tenure. He is also India’s best and most capable batsman in challenging conditions. A determined Kohli is not what West Indies will want to come up against.

Team news

With Shannon Gabriel unavailable due to injury, West Indies named an unchanged 13-man squad for the first two ODIs. Fast bowler Kesrick Williams and legspinner Devendra Bishoo may miss out.West Indies (probable): 1 Evin Lewis, 2 Kieran Powell, 3 Shai Hope (wk), 4 Jonathan Carter, 5 Jason Mohammed, 6 Roston Chase, 7 Rovman Powell, 8 Jason Holder (capt), 9 Ashley Nurse, 10 Alzarri Joseph, 11 Miguel CumminsRohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah are the two exclusions from India’s squad from the Champions Trophy. Wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant and left-arm wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav were picked in their place, but they may not make the XI initially. Ajinkya Rahane is likely to take Rohit’s opening spot, and Umesh Yadav could be brought in for Bumrah.India (probable): 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Ajinkya Rahane, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 MS Dhoni (wk), 6 Kedar Jadhav, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 R Ashwin, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 Umesh Yadav

Pitch and conditions

In the three T20s played between West Indies and Pakistan at the Queen’s Park Oval – the venue for the first two ODIs – earlier this year, the highest score was 138 for 3 in a successful chase. Run-making is unlikely to get any easier, which could mean both teams’ batsmen face a trial of slow bowling. There is no rain forecast.

Stats and trivia

• The previous ODI played at Queen’s Park Oval was between India and Sri Lanka in 2013
• India have lost three of their last four away ODIs against West Indies

Quotes

“We see [Rahane] more powerful at the opening slot and that’s where he can play his game the best, so during the course of all these five games, Ajinkya will definitely open with Shikhar.”
Virat Kohli

Rising Pune Supergiants coach Stephen Fleming did not mince words when he said he was “angry” and disappointed by a two-wicket defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders

Nagraj Gollapudi in Pune24-Apr-20161:15

Our spinners didn’t create enough pressure – Fleming

Rising Pune Supergiants coach Stephen Fleming did not mince words when he said he was “angry” and disappointed by a two-wicket defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders which he called “very poor.” The defeat, Supergiants’ second successive home loss and fourth in a row, has put the Supergiants second to last on the IPL table after five matches – equal with Kings XI Punjab on two points but above them on net run rate.”We are not playing winning cricket and that’s all matters,” Fleming said in an appraisal of his team’s performance on Sunday when the Supergiants failed to defend 160 on a pitch that was slow and taking turn. “I thought today’s performance was poor, performance in the field was I thought very poor.”According to Fleming, his bowlers failed to dominate the Knight Riders especially after the opposition had lost their opening pair of Robin Uthappa and captain Gautam Gambhir inside the first three overs. Instead Suryakumar Yadav and Yusuf Pathan rebuilt the Knight Riders innings, creating a winning platform that was able to withstand a late wobble.”160 was a good to very good score on this surface,” Fleming said. “We saw there was a lot of assistance for the slow bowlers, but we still did not adjust. We did not use that spin to create enough pressure. We kept Kolkata in the game. They hit well at crucial times, but our fielding and the bowling… the slow bowling in particular towards the middle overs was left wanting and that is disappointing. 161 was easily defendable.”Even in the batting, the Supergiants were circumspect during the field restrictions, finishing at 31 for 1 in six overs. In contrast, the Knight Riders were 59 for 2 after the powerplay. Fleming said the Supergiants top order was cautious and tentative about the pitch which was taking turn straightaway and that was one reason for the contrasting approaches to the powerplay.”Their six overs was a mixture of poor bowling and some good strokeplay,” Fleming said. “But apart from that, as I said, at a time they were going 10 an over, and on a ground where it should have been a tight tussle, we gave away too many free runs. And when you are in a positon when you need to win a game, it is unacceptable.”On the eve of the previous match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Fleming had said that he was not fussed about losing as being a new franchise everyone was getting used to the new environment. After four defeats, clearly the Supergiants are in disarray. So how does Fleming intend to raise the morale of the dressing room? At the moment, he is in no mood to be sympathetic.”I was pretty angry with the way things went today so my morale needs a bit of boost,” Fleming said with a wry smile. “I’ve been in the IPL long enough to know that we have to sleep on it, tomorrow we’ve got to travel down and then we are back into it.”So it’s becoming pretty clear that whilst we don’t want to put the onus on getting victories, we have to get victories. We’re using up all those free lives. Even the last two games, we have a good chance of winning. We’ve just got to move on but there’s no doubt as a new team, trying to develop some culture and some camaraderie, but it does take a little bit of work.”Another problem is that Dhoni’s key lieutenant, R Ashwin, is going through a period of low form. The senior India offspinner has just one wicket so far in five matches. Curiously he has not been able to finish his quota of four overs in the last two matches and three of the five on the season. Against Royal Challengers, Ashwin still had one over left and on Sunday, after Yadav hit a six each in Ashwin’s first two overs which went for 21 runs during the powerplay, Dhoni did not throw the ball back to Ashwin. Fleming conceded that Ashwin’s dip in form was affecting the team.”I thought today was disappointing,” Fleming said. “I would have thought that he could have played a key role. But in terms of that line in the first six overs, he just struggled to get to grips with the pace and line he wanted to bowl. So we have to look at that but if we get conditions like that again I think he himself would concede he can be better.”Ashwin got exaggerated turn as soon as he started and even delivered wides spinning down leg in each of his two overs. Yadav said that seeing Ashwin getting adjusted to the pitch and the lines allowed him to settle down. That he managed to dominate the opposition’s lead spinner was not intended but happened as he found balls that he could hit. But Fleming said he would not blame Ashwin for the Supergiants getting off to a poor start in the field.”There were lots of turning points,” Fleming said. “You can look at a lot of scenarios like that where we just let the pressure off. We would bowl two or three balls okay and the next two were not good enough. On a pitch [like this] you should really shut the team down.”You saw the amount of turn and how difficult it was with the pace of the ball. With that knowledge, I would have expected us to shut that side down. With three spinners and a slow bowler like [Rajat] Bhatia we were well suited to do well. But the fact that we didn’t do that is very disappointing.”

The county career of Phil Jaques, the former Australia batsman, appears to have come to an end after Yorkshire decided to not renew his contract.

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Oct-2013The county career of Phil Jaques, the former Australia batsman, appears to have come to an end after Yorkshire decided to not renew his contract.Jaques’s deal at Headingley expired at the end of the season, following Yorkshire’s draw at The Oval, and he will now take up a coaching role back in Australia with club side Sutherland in Sydney. But he may return to play for Yorkshire for part of a season should an opportunity arise.Jaques, 34, had eight fruitful seasons in county cricket for Northamptonshire, Worcestershire and in two stints at Yorkshire, for whom he was most productive with over 4,000 first-class runs at 51.12.His father was a Yorkshireman and Jaques embraced the family connection, scoring over 1,000 runs for the White Rose in 2004 and 2005. He returned to Headingley in 2012 playing as a British passport holder and made 792 runs at 44.00 to help Yorkshire win Division Two of the County Championship and scored 770 runs at 36.66 this season as they finished runners up in Division One.At the time, his decision to play for Yorkshire with a British passport was a big commitment, changing his status to overseas in Australia. But the tweak made to the eligibility of domestic players by Cricket Australia, the “Robson rule”, means Jaques could now return to Australia as a home-qualified player.”He’s been a great asset to the club during the two spells that he had with us,” Yorkshire director of cricket Martyn Moxon said. “He’s been invaluable not only on the field but off it as well with our younger players; that was one of the reasons we brought him back to help with our young batsmen in particular.”Phil talked about batting and passed on his experience, and the lads picked up bits here and there from him. He talked to us about what he saw technically and whether things needed to change, and I think he fed off us as well with regards to his future career.”Jaques will maintain a link with Yorkshire, with second XI batsman Jack Leaning joining up with Jaques’ club side in Sydney in November. Leaning made his first-class debut this summer and played four matches in the Yorkshire Bank 40.”Phil’s been instrumental in getting that sorted,” Moxon added. “It’s nice to have that connection in Sydney for our young players to get some experience playing over there. I don’t think Phil’s completely given up on the thought of playing, but he doesn’t want to come back to England for a full season. If he does come back it would be for part of a season. Obviously that depends if an opportunity ever arises.”He’s looking to get more into coaching himself. He started last winter back in Australia doing his club side and in the Big Bash. That was a great challenge and experience for him. He learnt a bit from us and he gave our young batsmen some help as well. His nickname is The Pro – and he is. He’s the ultimate professional.”

In-form Durham finished their campaign with a fifth win in six games after beating Sussex by five wickets with a day to spare.

13-Sep-2012
ScorecardMichael Richardson’s half-century saw Durham home•PA Photos

In-form Durham finished their campaign with a fifth win in six games after beating Sussex by five wickets with a day to spare. Michael Richardson struck 58 and Ben Stokes a quickfire 45 as Durham chased down their victory target of 165 after dismissing Sussex for 180 in their second innings.Despite their superb form at the end of the season, Durham had to settle for a sixth-placed finish in Division One after a miserable start to the campaign which saw them fail to win any of their first 10 matches. Sussex, meanwhile, remain 10 points ahead of them and will hang on to the fourth-place prize money unless Nottinghamshire win tomorrow.Durham skipper Paul Collingwood, who took over the four-day captaincy in mid-season, hailed the spirit in his side: “I couldn’t have asked for anything more in the second half of the season. We were in a dire situation but the players have shown a lot of pride and determination. Every single one of them has made a crucial contribution at some point.”Durham seamer Chris Rushworth took the last four Sussex wickets in the morning to achieve career-best figures for the third time this season, finishing with 5 for 38. Luke Wells failed to add to his overnight 51, falling to the 16th ball of the day when he edged Stokes to Phil Mustard, who claimed his 500th first-class victim. Rushworth did the rest, swinging the ball both ways to claim two lbw verdicts and a gully catch before last man Monty Panesar lobbed a catch to mid-on.Durham needed 165 to win and Mark Stoneman got them off to a fluent start, but Keaton Jennings made only one before fending a steeply-rising ball from Lewis Hatchett to second slip. Hatchett also skidded one through Stoneman’s back-foot defensive shot to bowl him for 24 before Stokes emerged at 34 for 2 and immediately cracked him for three fours.Stokes made 45 off 49 balls before lifting Panesar to long-on, then Richardson took over. He pulled Hatchett for his fifth four to reach 50 off 123 balls just before Dale Benkenstein was bowled by Panesar with 27 needed.The target was down to 15 when Hatchett straightened one off the pitch to have Richardson lbw, but previous captain Mustard easily picked off the remaining runs in partnership with his successor Collingwood.”We had a bit of a chuckle as we came off,” Collingwood said. “Phil has been magnificent and the struggle in the first half of the season was not down to his captaincy. It was a blip and it was a shock to us all, but I think the future is very bright.”

ESPNcricinfo previews the opening match of the Champions League Twenty20 between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Warriors

The Preview by Siddarth Ravindran22-Sep-2011

Match facts

Royal Challengers Bangalore v Warriors, September 23
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Chris Gayle wowed the Bangalore crowds with his flamboyant batting in IPL 2011•AFP

Big Picture

Royal Challengers Bangalore have a trend to break: they have played the opening games of two IPLs and one Champions League at home and ended up losing all three. They are among the favourites for the tournament, but are up against a side their coach rates highly – South Africa’s Warriors, who were the losing finalists last year.It’s likely to be a straight fight between Bangalore’s batting might and Warriors’ bowling strength. Bangalore have several of the most dangerous overseas Twenty20 batsmen in their line-up, as well as Virat Kohli, who has shown over the past couple of seasons that he can crack the game’s shortest format, and Saurabh Tiwary, who made his name in the 2010 IPL with batting that was unattractive but extremely effective.Ranged against this is the bowling of Warriors. Johan Botha, with his pushed-through offspinners, and the hugely experienced Nicky Boje form the spin department, while the pace attack is filled with players on the fringe of the South African side and a 101-Test stalwart in Makhaya Ntini.One of the big worries for Warriors is that the man who was instrumental in their march to the finals last year, former captain Davy Jacobs, isn’t with them this time around, having chosen to play for the Mumbai Indians. Botha insisted the team could thrive without Jacobs, who repeatedly provided explosive starts in the 2010 campaign.”We’ve known now [that Jacobs won’t be with Warriors] for a few months and we’ve got over it as a team,” Botha said. “Davy did do well in the CL, but after that he was injured quite a few times, and then in our local Twenty20 he had an up and down season, we’ve got young guys who can cover him.” Strong words but at the Pro20 this year, almost all their batsmen struck at a rate below 120, not nearly enough. Can they find a batsman who can turn the game around with a sustained burst of big-hitting?

Watch out for …

His international career may be mired in litigation, but Chris Gayle’s career as a Twenty20 freelancer is going great guns. He was the most arresting presence in the IPL: smashing a league-leading 608 runs at a strike-rate of 183.13. He also chipped in with his flat offspinners, taking eight wickets at the miserly economy-rate of 6.77.Can Johan Botha be the inspirational captain Jacobs was in the previous season? He has shown himself to be a shrewd leader when he got the chance with South Africa. He is also a successful limited-overs bowler, and also made runs when surprisingly pushed up to No. 3 by Rajasthan Royals in the IPL.

Team news

While most of the Bangalore squad have been training since the weekend at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Virat Kohli joined the squad on Thursday morning. They have five world-class players in their team. As captain, Daniel Vettori is an automatic pick; as the man who turbo-charged their IPL campaign, Gayle should start; in the absence of Zaheer Khan, Dirk Nannes should also be in the XI. And in a squad bereft of other wicketkeepers, AB de Villiers should get the nod ahead of Dilshan.In the absence of Jacobs, Warriors will likely open with Ashwell Prince and 23-year-old JJ Smuts. The big question for the management will be choosing the fast bowlers: Ntini was their most successful bowler in the Pro20, Justin Kreusch was their most economical bowler in the Pro20, Rusty Theron is their death overs specialist, and they have two other quicks with international experience in Wayne Parnell and Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

Stats and trivia

• Warriors made only one of the 16 highest totals in the Pro20 this season
• With 70 sixes, Gayle is fourth on the list of most sixes hit in the IPL, though he has played less than half the number of matches of the top three
• Bangalore will become the only team to have played all three seasons of the Champions League

Quotes

“At St George’s Park, we get a nice vibe but we only get 15-20,000 people at capacity. The noise level here [at the Chinnaswamy Stadium] will be different for some of the guys who are experiencing it for the first time.”

“My pace has always been my strength. I’m not thinking of slowing down, perhaps speeding up if anything.”

Anil Kumble has said the speed at which teams adapt to the pitches in South Africa will be crucial to their success in the Champions League Twenty20

Siddarth Ravindran04-Sep-2010Anil Kumble, the Royal Challengers Bangalore captain, has said the speed at which teams adapt to the pitches in South Africa will be crucial to their success in a short tournament like the Champions League Twenty20. He also said it was too late to bring in Kevin Pietersen, who has no international commitments during the Champions League after being dropped from England’s limited-overs squads.The tournament will be played from September 10 to September 26 in South Africa. In most countries except England, the cricketing season usually kicks off in September or October, which means many sides will be rusty.”It is the first tournament for a lot of teams,” Kumble said after an interaction with more than 50 Bangalore fans on the eve of the team’s departure from India. “In South Africa, it is the beginning of the season and it is the first game of the season for some of the players in RCB as well. The biggest challenge is how quickly you acclimatise to the conditions and the need to start well in the tournament.”Bangalore reached the finals of the IPL in 2009, when it was held in South Africa, and the team’s coach and several players come from that country, giving them an advantage over other overseas teams. “We can take some confidence going to South Africa having done well there in IPL 2. Our coach Ray Jennings also understands the South African conditions well. With Jacques Kallis and Dale Steyn around, those conditions should suit our bowling as well.”The team’s batting is bolstered by heavy-hitters such as Ross Taylor and Cameron White, but they will miss the services of World Twenty20 Man of the Series Pietersen, who was their big-ticket signing last year. “It’s a bit too late,” Kumble said. “We had to announce our squad about a month ago, which we did.”Most IPL players signed three year contracts in 2008 that come to an end after the Champions League. It has been nearly two years since Kumble, who will turn 40 in October, announced his international retirement and he was unwilling to commit on how much longer he would continue to play the IPL.”Once you retire, you have to take it one step at a time,” he said. “So you don’t plan and say that I am going to play for the next three years. Hopefully I will be in good shape for the six games this month and we come back victorious. That will be a great motivation to get into the next year. To think of the next year is very premature.”A week ahead of the Champions League, the cricketing headlines are dominated by the spot-fixing controversy in London. Kumble was confident the right steps would be taken to avoid such episodes during the tournament in South Africa. “Every tournament, every international match that happens is under a perceived threat,” he said. “I don’t think we need to be worried about these things but we can’t close our eyes. ACSU is there to deal with it.”

Former captain predicts a tightly fought series as two teams in transition go head to head

Andrew Miller30-Oct-2024Jason Holder, West Indies’ former captain, says that England’s third white-ball tour of the Caribbean in as many years is a “massive boost to their survival as an international team”, and goes a long way towards repaying the ECB’s debt to his team after they helped to save the finances of English cricket during the Covid summer of 2020.Holder, 32, led the West Indies squad that played three Tests behind closed doors in Manchester and Southampton at the height of the Covid outbreak in July 2020, enduring weeks of lockdown in bio-secure surroundings to help “keep the lights on”, in the words of the former ECB chief executive, Tom Harrison.It was a tour that helped to mitigate the ECB’s losses during the pandemic, which could have been upwards of £380 million had their entire summer schedule been cancelled. Each of those three Tests was worth approximately £20 million as they helped to fulfil the board’s £1.1 billion rights deal with Sky Sports.Speaking at the end of that tour, Holder had warned that the ECB would be obliged to reciprocate the favour to help out cricket’s “smaller countries” who lacked the financial clout to stage matches during a global lockdown. Now, four years on, he believes that England have been fulfilling their side of the bargain.Related

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“I think it’s a fair way of putting it,” Holder told ESPNcricinfo, ahead of an eight-match tour that will be shown on TNT Sports in the UK. “We’ve obviously had the English coming over for the last three years consecutively. And that has definitely boosted, not only our economy within the Caribbean, but it adds a massive boost to our survival in international cricket.”We rely heavily on series between England and India, our revenues tend to come from those two teams. It’s our biggest series within any calendar year, and, yeah, it’s one that really brings the fans down to the Caribbean and creates a really fun atmosphere.”So, it’s great to have them and to see the fans packing the stadiums as well. There’s always a good banter between the West Indian public and English public. So we’re thankful that we’ve been able to have them so many times in as many years. And long may it continue.”Despite the financial disparities between the two boards, the Caribbean has been a particularly tough destination for England teams in recent years. The Test team, famously, hasn’t won a series in the region since 2004, while the white-ball squads have lost each of their last three series: 3-2 in the T20Is in both 2022 and 2023, and 2-1 in their last ODI campaign in December last year.Jason Holder has been recuperating in the UK after injury and will be a studio pundit for England’s tour of the West Indies•Getty Images

“I’m looking forward to the contest,” Holder said. “Both teams are in a transitionary phase, so it’s going to be keenly contested. England have obviously got a point to prove, and they’ll be trying a few different combinations to see what works. And likewise, with West Indies, we’ve got a lot of youngsters within our cohort, and it is important for them to just gain experience, gain confidence and gain knowledge. I think these series will go a long way to developing our base at a rapid rate.”The youngest player of the lot will be Jewel Andrew, West Indies’ 17-year-old rising star, who made his ODI debut in their most recent match against Sri Lanka in Kandy on Saturday. He has played only a handful of professional fixtures, but having impressed at the Under-19 World Cup, he has been fast-tracked into the international set-up on the back of a breakout first season in the Caribbean Premier League.”The first time I saw him was when I played against him, quite recently, in the CPL,” Holder said. “He definitely stood up. He looks a very easy-going player. He’s got time, and any top-order batter who shows signs of having time is promising.”It’s important for him to learn and work hard, but the sky’s the limit for him. He’s scored runs at the levels below, and he’s coming in with some confidence. We all remember when we first came into international cricket, when we had that freedom to express yourself. And the more he expresses himself and gains knowledge and confidence, that will put us in good stead in years to come.”We’ve never been short of talent,” Holder added. “It’s just a matter of harnessing the talent and making sure that we make full use of it. There’s no doubt that he’s one for the future, and I hope that West Indies put things in place to keep him in and around the system, and make sure he develops a steady rate so that we can utilise him in years to come.”Holder himself hasn’t been involved in West Indies’ white-ball set-up since pulling out of their T20 World Cup plans through injury in June, and will instead be a studio pundit for TNT in the UK throughout the eight-match tour.”I haven’t retired, that is still a long way off,” he said, with an eye on the next 50-over World Cup in 2027. “We’ve still got a few more series to play before then. So I’m just working myself back to full fitness, to get back on the field and be able to play at full capacity.”Looking back on the T20 World Cup, in which England’s Super Eights victory in St Lucia proved critical to West Indies’ hopes of reaching the last four, Holder acknowledged it had been a missed opportunity for a strong squad to do something special in front of their home fans. But, with players such as Evin Lewis – fresh from a comeback century in Sri Lanka – and Shimron Hetmyer set to face England in the coming campaign, he’s confident there will be other chances for this team to compete for global trophies in the coming years.Jewel Andrew, 17, could feature in the series after his ODI debut last week•CPL T20 via Getty Images

“When you look at our overall performance, we probably feel a little bit disappointed that we fell short. But the beauty of this squad is it’s not too old. We’ve still got a quite young-ish side that can stay together for the next two years, to fight for another trophy in 2026. So I don’t think is all is lost. We need to understand our strengths and weaknesses, and just keep improving.”In the meantime, he anticipates another high-scoring showdown between two aggressive white-ball outfits, one in which the Caribbean’s notoriously fickle winds could once again play a big part in the tactical battle that unfolds.”It’s a really crucial point,” he said. “The wind factor has always been a massive contributing factor to whether teams bat or bowl in the Caribbean, because it plays a massive part in the actual game. It tends to sway your tactics a little bit, in the sense where you feel more comfortable chasing because by then you know you’ve got a big side and a small side, for hitting with and against the wind.”It’s always 50/50 in the Caribbean when it comes to that wind factor, because you can set up a team with left- and right-handers, and just continuously use your power throughout the entire innings.”Obviously, in one-day cricket, it’s a bit longer so it’s more strategic, where you have to actually build an innings. But when it comes to going hell for leather, it’s a matter of being as spot on as possible with the tactics, because the ball can travel in the Caribbean.”England, clearly, will be no strangers to the conditions after three bilateral tours plus the T20 World Cup in recent times, and Holder acknowledged that Antigua in particular will be something of a home from home, after four matches there in the past 12 months alone.”The English have been frequenting the Caribbean as much they possibly can. They’ve got a young side, but the majority of their senior players have been to the Caribbean multiple times, and they’ll be able to guide the younger players within this squad as to how to how to get around the conditions in the Caribbean.”Tune in to England’s tour of the West Indies, starting with the first ODI live on TNT Sports 1 from 5.30pm on 31st October. Sign up to TNT Sports and discovery+