Morne Morkel has waited 12 years for a day like this, a day when he could stand out and revel in the highest high of his career

Firdose Moonda in Cape Town25-Mar-2018Morne Morkel has waited 12 years for a day like this, a day when he could stand out and revel in the highest high of his career.”Today was very, very special. I tried to enjoy it as much as possible. The crowd is always amazing here at Newlands. For me, it is the best venue to play Test cricket. Today is the highlight of my life. If I get asked the question again, what is your most memorable or special moment, the answer will definitely be today,” a beaming, emotional Morkel said afterwards.His first nine-for has come in bittersweet circumstances, not only because it could be his last with his retirement now only a week away. It also came on a day when what was happening off the field cast a Table Mountain-sized shadow over what was happening on it, when the opposition were so suitably distracted that they might as well have forfeited their second innings after the first wicket fell and the crowd was more concerned with booing the Australians than celebrating the South Africans.That started to change when the Newlands faithful realised a result could come on Sunday and they could be witness to it, when Steven Smith, public enemy No.1 after the ball-tampering transgression, threw his hands at the third ball of Morkel’s second spell and steered a catch to Dean Elgar at gully. The jeers – and there were jeers aplenty for the deposed Australian captain – turned to cheers. Morkel pulled on Australia’s loosest thread and then it all unraveled.In 32 balls, Morkel took 5 for 14 and put South Africa in a position from which they cannot lose the series. At one stage he was on a hat-trick, after two fierce, fast deliveries to dismiss Mitchell Marsh and Pat Cummins and he was the one to end the innings. As he did, Morkel provided one of his most animated celebrations with enthusiastic waving to a crowd he will not see again. He even shed a tear and then quickly pulled himself so he could soak up the moment.”I am just very happy sitting here right now. Everything happened so quickly out there,” he said. “At one stage I thought it was going to be a grind. Keshav got the ball rolling and from there, there was just a buzz in the field, an edge in the field. I’m just happy we could wrap it up.”Morkel has never been one to take the credit, most of the time because it hasn’t been his to take. He spent a career in the shadows of Dale Steyn early on, Vernon Philander through the middle and Kagiso Rabada at the end. He has spent his career being under-rated and maybe even a little insecure because if a conversation had to be had about who needed to be dropped, it often involved him.Now, as it all comes to an end, Morkel is finally getting some recognition and it has come in the finest fashion, from a captain who has known him throughout his career.”Morne has almost been, for the first six, seven or eight years of his career, the guy that has gone unnoticed. He was the work horse. He got his two or three-fors and I think only captains really appreciate the work Morne does,” Faf du Plessis said. “He is not the guy that gets five-fors. Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada of late, they get the five-fors on regular occasions. Morne does the donkey work. He works hard. He runs in all day. He never says, ‘I have bowled enough.’ You tell him it is enough and then still he wants to bowl more and more. That’s a captain’s dream. As a performer, he is going to be missed.”More so, now that he has found such fine form and that there is a crop of youngsters to nurture. “He has been a mother figure in the team, with a big heart. We are going to miss that,” du Plessis said. “Obviously, his bowling we are going to miss. It is size 13 boots that need to be filled. It’s big shoes. We understand his decision. It’s a decision for his future and his family. He knows that the team backs him up 100%. It’s great to see the fans are so behind him. And I reckon he is going to miss days like these a lot.”Is he? Yes, but it will not cause him to reconsider.”It is tough. Especially leaving a quality group of men in the change room. It is going to be sad but I suppose all good things come to an end,” Morkel said.Even one as good as this.

Kolkata Knight Riders were only in control as long as their spinners were bowling, as Sunrisers dominated the rest of the game to consolidate their position at the top of the table

The Report by Varun Shetty14-Apr-20183:54

‘Teams will struggle to figure Sunrisers out’

Sunrisers Hyderabad panicked and flailed in a chase again, but nowhere near as much as they had against Mumbai Indians on Thursday. Their captain Kane Williamson’s half-century, and his 59-run stand with Shakib Al Hasan sealed yet another win that was set up by their bowlers, who had managed to keep Kolkata Knight Riders to 138 for 8 in 20 overs. It was Sunrisers’ first away match of the season and their third victory in three games put them on top of the points tableKnight Riders had a sluggish start to the game after they were put in, and apart from Lynn’s 49 that stretched across a brief rain interruption, they barely had a foot in the game. That was until they realised their three-pronged spin attack was virtually impossible to score off. For much of Sunrisers’ chase, Knight Riders were calling the shots; but with every over of spin bowled, the Williamson-Shakib alliance grew more confident and a calculated acceleration against pace at the right time put to rest the prospect of a collapse-and-recovery style win.Knight Riders tie themselves up with their tacticsKnight Riders made all the team changes that were demanded of them: Vinay Kumar was left out along with Rinku Singh, and the teenage duo of top-order bat Shubman Gill and seamer Shivam Mavi came in.Sunil Narine did not have a good time against Chennai Super Kings on Tuesday. Robin Uthappa did. So when Uthappa was pushed up to open – for only the second time since the end of the 2016 season – against a vastly superior fast bowling attack, it didn’t seem plausible that Gill and Mavi would end up batting one after the other, at No. 7 and 8.Shakib Al Hasan loops one up•BCCI

As it turned out, Uthappa’s plan to get his eye in from a familiar batting position didn’t work out. Chris Lynn and Nitish Rana brought the momentum with their second-wicket stand of 39, before a red-hot Billy Stanlake cramped Rana on the cut – his most productive shot of the evening – and had him lift one to Manish Pandey’s right at point. The former Knight Riders batsman took the first of two world-class catches with a lunge to his right and a grab on the second attempt as he fell towards the ground.It was at this point that Knight Riders made the mysterious punt of sending Narine at No. 4. Perhaps the decision was informed by the fact that they were going at less than seven per over, but it was a strange one nonetheless – Narine had only batted at No. 4 once before this innings. In the Pakistan Super League.If quick runs were the requirement, they didn’t come. When Narine well for 9, he had consumed 10 balls and hit only one boundary. It had caused a telling change in the batting order.Sunrisers stay true to characterAs expected whenever they go out, Sunrisers had clearly set roles for their bowlers. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was allowed to find swing early on, Stanlake was given the license to hit the deck hard, and Kaul was the pacer who would then go full. Perhaps the only way it didn’t go right was that Lynn enjoyed the predominantly back-of-a-length bowling that fed his punches through and over the infield as he backed away. But he was stopped on 49, trying to drive off that very same length against Shakib, who held on smartly to his left off his own bowling. The left-arm spinner had a dot-ball percentage of 44% through his spell and his two wickets forced Dinesh Karthik to drop anchor. Knight Riders tried to replicate their full-attack policy that had worked against Super Kings after they’d lost five wickets cheaply, but there was no coming back tonight. Stanlake got Andre Russell to splice one between point and third man, and Pandey was there once again, this time sprinting backwards before lunging to hold on.For the 10th time in 16 matches since the start of the 2016 season, Sunrisers managed to restrict a team to less than 150 while bowling first. And they did it despite Rashid Khan going for 31 and taking no wickets.A laboured chase
Every time Knight Riders had a seamer on, Sunrisers pummelled them. Every time a spinner came on, the scoring dropped drastically.Wriddhiman Saha had Sunrisers scoring at close to 11 an over halfway through the Powerplay, forcing Karthik to call on Narine, whose loosener down leg side found Saha’s edge.Knight Riders then discovered the magical effect of spin on this pitch. Between overs four and ten, Narine, Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav kept Sunrisers down to 30 runs while dismissing Shikhar Dhawan and Pandey. At 62 for 3 in ten overs, Sunrisers desperately needed boundaries. Williamson gave them that with a pull off the toe-end in the 11th over, following it up next ball with a more controlled shot. It seemed like the battle signal; Karthik turned to Russell in the next over and Shakib took his last three balls for 14.The eventual split between bowlers said the story: Knight Riders’ fast bowlers went for 79 runs in seven overs, while their spinners went for 60 in 12.Sunrisers sealed their first win at Eden Gardens with an over to spare, and it was the ninth win for a chasing team this season in ten matches.

Ian Bell completed a memorable return to form with Jonathan Trott again in support as one of county cricket’s best-known double acts proved too much for Glamorgan

Jon Culley at Edgbaston12-Jun-20181:55

Somerset chase down Notts to top Division One

Warwickshire 250 (Bell 106, Trott 57, van der Gugten 4-65) and 294 for 6 (Bell 115*, Trott 67, Salter 4-80) beat Glamorgan 220 (Poysden 5-29) and 323 (Khawaja 125, Cooke 59) by four wickets
ScorecardThe difficult final day Warwickshire might have anticipated turned out to be relatively comfortable as another handsome partnership between the two old stagers, Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott, set them up for a fourth consecutive victory.Bell, who had gone more than two years without a Championship century until two days ago, completed a second in the match, unbeaten in both. A return to Division One of the Championship at the first attempt already looks highly likely.The season is only a third of the way through but already Warwickshire’s points total, from five matches, is 11 more than they garnered from 14 last year, which says quite a lot about the difference in quality between the divisions. Barring two or three changes, this is the same Warwickshire team that suffered nine defeats in 2017 and finished 60 points behind the rest.There are questions to be answered, clearly, about the structure of the Championship, while Warwickshire will know that they may struggle again at the higher level without more changes. But those are for another day.For the moment, their supporters can at least anticipate a decent summer and hope to enjoy watching Bell and Trott turn back the clock just a few more times. Although Bell has not yet given any hints about retirement – he is contracted for another two seasons after this – Trott is finishing at the end of the current year. There will not be many more days like these.Almost 74 years and 170 Test caps between them is the measure of their experience and they drew on it to good effect here, adding 113 runs in 30 overs for the third wicket to take Warwickshire a good chunk of the way to their target of 294 to win. On a used wicket, Glamorgan felt their spinners might give them a decent chance of winning here for the first time in 30 years but Andrew Salter, the off-spinner who is their senior slow bowler in this game, will not have faced many batsmen more adept than these two against spin, certainly not in tandem.Until Glamorgan turned to David Lloyd’s seam at the pavilion end just after tea and Trott, falling over slightly, was leg before trying to work to leg, it seemed unlikely the partnership would end unless, as in the first innings, one of them ran the other out. Indeed, there were a couple of times it nearly happened.Trott fell for 67 but Bell, for the second time in the match, was going nowhere, completing his second century off 160 balls with 14 boundaries, achieving the feat of two hundreds in the same match for the second time in his career. He did it before against Lancashire at Old Trafford in 2004, which was the last time, in fact, that any Warwickshire batsman has made 100 or more in both innings.In the end, then, Glamorgan missed Michael Hogan and Marchant de Lange, sidelined with hamstring injuries, as much as they thought they might at the start and it will be a relief to have both back to face Derbyshire next week.Wickets in the morning session was always likely to be the determining factor in the outcome and Warwickshire lost only one as Will Rhodes and Dominic Sibley compiled their first hundred stand as an opening partnership. There was a brief hint of a wobble when Sam Hain was bowled by Lloyd second ball and another when Salter, who had dismissed both openers, removed Tim Ambrose and Keith Barker in the space of three balls to claim career-best figures, but Bell remained to hit the winning boundary at around ten past five.

An Old Trafford pitch used for its third T20 match in a week was too much for Northants as their poor start to the Blast continued

ECB Reporters Network08-Jul-2018
ScorecardLancashire Lightning’s spinners bowled well on a pitch being used for its third T20 game in a week to set up their side’s very comfortable eight-wicket defeat of Northants Steelbacks in the Vitality Blast North Group match at Emirates Old Trafford.Liam Livingstone’s outfielders also rediscovered their best form as the visitors were limited to 123 for nine in their 20 overs, a target which Lancashire’s batsmen overhauled with 23 balls to spare, Alex Davies making 64 not out, his second T20 fifty in consecutive innings.Steelbacks now have three defeats in a row and are lodged at the foot of North Group, all of which left their coach, David Ripley, frustrated. “Richard Levi fell to a blinding catch but from then on I thought we were a bit naive,” he said. “We should have plotted our way to 150 or 160 and that would have been competitive. Poor batting set us u to lose that game fairly comfortably.We had two lads caught off long hops and that’s poor execution but we were also too defensively minded. We needed to hit the balls into gaps and run better than we did; we needed a more positive intent. We weren’t smart at the beginning, we weren’t smart in the middle and we missed a big finish at the end.”The initial signs were good for Northants, who reached 62 for one off 5.5 overs with Richard Levi unbeaten on 40. Next ball, however, Jordan Clark clung on to a return catch blasted back at him by the South African and that reverse began a spell in which the visitors lost three wickets for six runs in 11 balls.Josh Cobb and Richard Vasconcelos both fell to fine catches by Arron Lilley and Keaton Jennings respectively and none of the other Steelbacks batsmen could dominate a Lancashire attack monopolised by slow bowlers.Apart from Levi, five batsmen reached double figures but no one made more than Seekkuge Prasanna who managed to garner 17 off 22 balls. All but seven of the 20 overs were bowled by spinners with the best analysis being Matt Parkinson’s two for 14 off four overs.Stephen Parry and Livingstone also bowled their full allocation, returning figures of 2 for 19 and 2 for 29 respectively. Lancashire’s fielders supported the attack admirably, taking nine of the ten chances that were offered.In contrast to the Lightning’s performance against Worcestershire Rapids on Thursday, the catching in the deep was faultless and ensured that the Steelbacks innings never recovered the momentum initially established by Levi 21-ball onslaught.Lancashire’s pursuit of their modest target began badly when Livingstone was caught at the wicket off Prasanna for four but Lilley made a sprightly 23 off 14 balls before being caught by Levi at short third man off Graeme White.The remainder of the innings belonged almost exclusively to Davies and Keaton Jennings who steered their side home with an unbroken partnership of 88 for the third wicket in exactly 12 overs. Davies was in particularly fine form, hitting three successive fours off White and reaching his fifty off 36 balls with half a dozen fours and one six.Jennings is currently in fine form in all formats and supported his partner well by making 28 not out. The victory was Lancashire second in three matches but Northants are rooted to the foot of the table.

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.

Sussex’s third win in less than a week secured a knockout place but Middlesex gave them a fright before slumping to a last-place finish in South Group

ECB Reporters Network17-Aug-2018
ScorecardSussex were given a fright by Middlesex before reaching the quarter-finals of the Vitality Blast for the first time since 2015 with a 31-run win at Hove.Skipper Luke Wright, returning after missing two games with a back spasm, made 74 and fellow opener Phil Salt hit 66 from just 25 balls in their 215 for 5 after they had been put in.Rapid half-centuries by Paul Stirling and John Simpson, who shared 122 in 8.1 overs for the second wicket, had Middlesex on course for victory halfway through their reply, but leg-spinner Will Beer removed both in successive overs and Middlesex’s hopes of claiming only their second win of the season effectively ended when Eoin Morgan was run out in the 15th over. They lost their last seven wickets for 26 in 5.4 overs and were bowled out for 184 in 19.4 overs, finishing the group with just two wins.Sussex knew only victory would secure a last-eight place and Salt and Wright set the tone by smashing 80 in the powerplay. Salt matched the 19-ball 50 he made against Middlesex at Lord’s as James Fuller’s first two overs were taken for 38. Salt struck four sixes and eight fours before slicing a drive off James Harris to short third-man from the final ball of the sixth over.Eoin Morgan finds something to laugh about on another grim Middlesex night•Getty Images

Wright became the first Englishman to pass 7,000 T20 runs when he reached 12 and he went on to put on 106 in 11.1 overs for the second wicket with Laurie Evans, whose 36 took him to 492 runs in the group stages.Fuller pegged Sussex back by taking three wickets in four balls during the 16th over. Evans drove his slower ball to cover, Delray Rawlins was caught at short fine-leg off the next delivery and Wright mis-timed a drive to extra cover, having faced 48 balls and hit nine fours in his 44th half-century in the format.Morgan used seven bowlers but was unable to prevent Sussex from making their highest T20 total against Middlesex.Middlesex needed to score at nearly 11 an over but after losing George Scott in the first over Stirling and Simpson laid into some wayward bowling, outscoring Sussex by thrashing 90 in the powerplay. Rashid Khan was missing as he prepares for Afghanistan’s one-day series in Ireland next week and it was his replacement Beer who made the breakthrough when Stirling chopped on for 58 from 29 balls (3 sixes, 6 fours).Beer struck again in his next over when Simpson holed out to long off for 62, made off 29 balls with six sixes and four boundaries, but Sussex were only able to breath easily after taking two wickets in the 15th over. Danny Briggs ran out Eoin Morgan (16) off his own bowling when Morgan failed to make his ground going for a tight single and James Franklin was caught behind off a big top edge.Middlesex subsided thereafter and Chris Jordan finished things off when he yorked Nathan Sowter and Tom Barber with successive deliveries in the final over.Coach Dan Vettori was left to reflect on another poor Midedlesex season. “We’ve run the whole gamut of how to lose T20 games this season,” he said. “We were poor at the start with the ball tonight, but managed to drag it back on a small ground with a tiny boundary to defend.”When we batted we had it comfortably in control but losing four wickets in two overs when you have to face Mills, Jordan and Archer at the death… you almost have to kill the game before that happens and instead we killed the game for ourselves.”

Harvey Hosein’s gutsy fifty clawed Derbyshire to a thrilling one-wicket victory over Northamptonshire on an afternoon that ebbed and flowed at Wantage Road

ECB Reporters Network13-Sep-2018
ScorecardHarvey Hosein’s gutsy fifty clawed Derbyshire to a thrilling one-wicket victory over Northamptonshire on an afternoon that ebbed and flowed at Wantage Road.Set 233 to win, Derbyshire were in control at 94 for 1 through Wayne Madsen and Tom Lace but lost 4 for 24 in nine overs after lunch. Hosein then got together first with Alex Hughes and then Anuj Dal to reduce the target to 37 needed with four wickets in hand.But Luke Procter conjured up two wickets in two overs and when Nathan Buck cleaned up No. 10 Tony Palladino, Derbyshire needed nine runs with only one wicket in hand. Hosein dived across the off stump to paddle-sweep Ben Sanderson for four and worked singles to bring the target to within one boundary.Buck had one delivery at No. 11 Ravi Rampaul, who touched him off his hip to fine leg for four to seal a memorable victory with Hosein the hero, unbeaten on 54.It was the eighth time in their history that Derbyshire won by one wicket and the tenth time Northants have lost by the same margin.The day began in brilliant sunshine and a perfect start for the visitors as Palladino had Buck well caught by Gary Wilson at slip to the fourth ball of the day before he bowled Sanderson second ball to dismiss Northants for 199, adding only one run to their overnight total, leaving Derbyshire 233 to win in 93 overs.The chase got off to a poor start as Billy Godleman was bowled by Sanderson second ball, but Lace and Madsen managed to get through the rest of the session where a wicket looked likely every ball. But having survived countless plays and misses and a huge appeal each for lbw, the pair steered Derbyshire into a commanding position after lunch.Finally Northants broke through as Brett Hutton took out Tom Lace’s off stump after a stand of 94 in 37.2 overs and it prompted a collapse that left Derbyshire needing 111 with five wickets in hand and suddenly the home side were favourites.Sanderson was a big part of the turnaround, sending down 13 overs unchanged from the Wantage Road End after lunch, bowling three maidens and taking 2 for 21 – eventually trapping Madsen lbw for 62 and getting one to bounce on Matt Critchley and take the glove to be well held down low by Ricardo Vasconcelos at third slip. Wilson also ran himself out, sent back trying to take a single to mid-on that was never available.Enter Hosein, who helped add 36 for the sixth wicket to ease the tension before Hughes was caught well by Richard Levi at second slip for 28 in the second over after tea. Dal worked the target down further with Hosein but he was then brilliantly yorked by Procter who pinned Hardus Viljoen lbw in his next over.Palladino helped narrow the target into single figures but it took Rampaul, who survived one more play and miss against Sanderson, to flick the winning runs.

Canada wicketkeeper Hamza Tariq was only 20 years old when he could have fallen prey to bookies had he not reported it to the ACU. Here’s what happened

Hamza Tariq23-Oct-2018Canada’s wicketkeeper Hamza Tariq in action during practice at the 2011 World Cup•AFP

I was probably the last player at the 2011 World Cup who would have expected to be approached by someone attempting to involve me in corrupt activity. I was only 20, had just played at the ICC U-19 World Cup a year earlier, and was not well established in the Canada team. I never thought someone would approach a Canada player, and if they did then, in my own mind, I thought they would want to go after a star instead of a reserve player like me.But it happened.When I’ve told people that I was approached, the first thing they ask is, ‘How much money did they offer you?’ No one is really worried about the entire story, how you get into it, and how you get out of it. That’s where a lot of players make mistakes. In my experience, one doesn’t have to be offered money for there to be an attempt at corruption.I was excited to be at the World Cup, only my third overseas tour with the men’s team. We began in Bangladesh for warm-up matches before taking on Sri Lanka in Hambantota for our first match of the tournament. In both places, there was nothing unusual. When we went to Nagpur for our next match against Zimbabwe, that was the first time I was introduced to a cricketer named ‘Raghav’.In November and December 2010, Canada had played 10 matches in India during a preparation tour. Several of the players of Pakistani origin, myself included, had missed the tour because of trouble securing visas. Raghav, who was from Nagpur, had played for one of the opposition sides during these matches and made friends with many of our team-mates.During the World Cup, we had seven days of downtime in Nagpur before the Zimbabwe match. One night Raghav met me and two of my team-mates at the hotel bar. He offered us drinks – I don’t drink – then invited us out to a club afterwards, which I also declined. But I remember him saying to us, ‘All the drinks are on me. You guys are guests. We’ll go out to another place and everything will be taken care of.’ He looked like a normal guy, friendly and treating us with a lot of respect. He was a cricketer and so were we, so there was nothing out of the ordinary about our chats.We lost our next two matches, to Zimbabwe in Nagpur and to Pakistan in Colombo, before returning to India for our fourth match against Kenya in Delhi. On March 6, the night before that match, one of my team-mates came to me and said, ‘Hamza, Raghav is coming with his three uncles. They want to meet us and take us out for dinner so I’ve asked them to come to the room for a few drinks.’I said sure. It was early in the evening and within half an hour they had arrived. They were very normal looking guys, in normal clothes – jeans, t-shirts and not too much jewellery. The first one’s name was Sunil. I don’t remember the second one’s name, though he said he ran a cricket academy in Hyderabad, and the third one barely spoke a word and never gave us his name.At one point, when I think back, they did ask a very specific question but I never looked at them with any suspicion. ‘Are you in the playing XI tomorrow?’, they asked, and I said, ‘No, I’m in the reserves and only come in if [captain] Ashish [Bagai] gets injured because I’m a wicketkeeper as well.’ That was it, their only question in the time while we were in the room.Soon afterwards, we headed out for dinner at a Hakka restaurant, a combination of Indian and Chinese food. It was me, two team-mates and Raghav in one taxi to the restaurant, and we met the three uncles there.I had no clue what any of the menu items were so the uncles called the waiter and said, ‘Just bring everything you have. You’re our guests right now but when we come to Canada, you make sure you treat us well.’We spent about an hour and a half in the restaurant, chatting normally with this nice guy and his three uncles who we thought just wanted to take care of us while we were in their city. My two team-mates then went back to the hotel in a taxi with Raghav. But I wanted to stop off to have , a street food wrapped in betel leaf, so I got in a second taxi with the three uncles.On this trip, they asked me if I knew what the playing XI would be, but not like a direct question. It was more like, ‘Hey, so who do you think is playing?’ Even then I was like, ‘I’m not sure. I’m just a junior player in the team and I don’t know these things.’ One of the uncles put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Hey Hamza. You’re young, you’ll be back. We’ll always be here for you.’ I was just enjoying my and didn’t really pay attention to what he said.As soon as we got back to the hotel, they said, ‘Go up to your room. We’ll call you in a bit. We have something for you.’ When I started walking into the hotel, I saw someone in a long trench-coat taking pictures. I didn’t think anything of it, I thought it was a reporter or something, and just went into my room.A good hour or so passed before they called. It was after 10.30pm. Sunil called me on my cell phone in my room and told me to come down to the lobby. When I got there, Sunil, the third uncle who didn’t speak much, and a girl were waiting for me. She was probably around the same age as me, very young, 18-21, and very beautiful. They said, ‘You can take this girl up to your room and after tomorrow, when you guys go to Mumbai [ahead of playing New Zealand on March 13], she’s going to stay with you there for the entire week and we’ll take care of everything.’At that point, it was a red flag. I had only met them a few hours earlier, but they were already offering me a girl to take up to bed, and now the questions they had asked earlier in the taxi were slowly coming back to me. But even then, I didn’t think they could be bookies or even bad people that I needed to stay away from. It was simply that they were offering me something and I had an option to take it or refuse, and I decided to refuse.I said to Sunil, ‘Hey, I’m not comfortable doing this. Thank you for the offer but I’ll pass.’ There was a lot of security in the hotel that night, as the Indian team had just arrived, and he said that if I was scared about being spotted, he knew a back staircase to my floor. He even offered to take us to a different hotel just down the street. I said, ‘No, I’m okay. I really appreciate the offer but I just don’t feel right doing it.’They weren’t aggressive, but they were definitely trying to find ways for me to accept her. But I told them, ‘Look, if I want a girl, I will definitely contact you so don’t worry.’ That’s when they backed away and said, ‘Okay, no problem.’ I was in the lobby for a good half-hour with the two uncles and the girl before they finally relented. We said goodbye and I went back up to my room.Hamza Tariq bats at the ICC World Twenty20 Americas Sub Regional Qualifier A in 2018•Peter Della Penna

About 10 minutes later, I came back to the lobby to talk to my family in Canada (the reception was better downstairs than in my room) and I was approached by someone else who I thought was sketchy. He was offering equipment and said, ‘I’m part of a company. We want to support teams such as Canada. If you want to get some gear, cricket stuff, I’ll hook you up.’ For some reason, I thought he was the sketchier person.I was still on the phone when I noticed the man in the trench-coat who had been taking photos earlier on. Wherever I went, he would follow and sit as close to me as possible. Not right next to me, but within view so he could see what I was doing. At one point, I went to the reception desk to ask about sightseeing; the man immediately followed and asked the receptionist what we had been talking about.So I went to the man and said, ‘Hey, I saw you taking pictures of me when I came back from dinner. May I know who you are?’ He asked me who I was, and when I told him, he said he knew I played for Canada, and wondered why I was up so late. I told him I was just hanging out. That’s when he told me he was with the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit. At that point I was scared. He was straightforward and told me, ‘Go to bed’.Shortly before noon the next morning, we went down to the lobby to catch the bus for our match against Kenya. The Anti-Corruption officer was waiting to speak to us all. He said there had been some emails and messages regarding our match and added, ‘If there’s anything that any player wants to speak about, it’s best if you share it with us before the game starts rather than after the game.’I sought him out and said, ‘There was someone who approached me last night who was offering me equipment’. In my head, that was sketchier than the three uncles and the girl. A few other Canada players were approached by the guy offering equipment and they also reported it to the ACU officer. I remember him asking me, ‘Was there anyone else?’ I said no and he said okay, and that was it.We were at the ground, about to begin our warm-ups, when it hit me that the uncles might be suspicious too. I waved over to Johnny Bujan, our assistant team manager, and asked if I could talk to the Anti-Corruption Unit guy. It was about an hour before the match was due to start. Five minutes later, Johnny brought him over and the first thing the ACU officer said was, ‘I knew you would call me.’I said to him, ‘I met these three guys through someone. I don’t think there is anything wrong or suspicious there. We met him through a friend named Raghav.’ He asked me, ‘Do you know where they’re staying?’ I said, ‘Yeah, they said they’re staying down the road at another one of the hotels.’ But he said, ‘No. They’re staying at the same hotel as you guys are.’ That’s when I knew something was wrong.I told the ACU officer everything: how I had met Raghav through my team-mates; how Raghav took our players out for drinks ahead of the Zimbabwe match; how Raghav introduced us to the three uncles; how the three uncles had asked me questions about the Kenya match, how they took us out to dinner and how they had offered me the girl. The ACU officer asked me for the names of the uncles. When I told him I didn’t know the name of the third uncle who barely spoke, the ACU officer asked me to call them up.I told him, ‘Look, you can take my phone and call whoever you want. I don’t want to get involved in this.’ But he said, ‘No, you’ve got to call because you’ve been in contact with them.’ I said, ‘If I call, they will know something is up because they know I’m not supposed to have my phone on me once I’ve got to the ground and during the game.’ At this point the toss was not more than 10 minutes away. But he said, ‘You’re old enough. Figure something out.’So we went outside the stadium and he gave me my phone. I called Sunil’s phone number but it was Raghav who answered. I said, ‘Raghav, can I talk to Sunil?’ He asked why and I told him, ‘I just want to talk to him about something.’Raghav gave the phone to Sunil. I was supposed to get the phone number of the third uncle. I asked Sunil, ‘Hey, the guy who brought the girl last night with you. Can you give me his number so I can try to get that girl again for tonight?’ He said, ‘Is that why you’re calling me?’ I said, ‘Yeah’.He said, ‘Aren’t you supposed to be at the game?’ I said, ‘I went to bed late last night so I couldn’t get up on time and I’ve missed the bus. I’m actually in the lobby trying to get a taxi to get to the ground.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry. If you want a girl, call me after the game.’ I said, ‘Okay’. Everything was on speaker and the ACU officer was listening.Then Sunil asked, ‘Do you know who is opening today?’ That was the first time he had asked me a direct question. I told him, ‘I’m not sure. I’m a junior player and I don’t know such things in the team.’He followed up with another straightforward question. ‘Do you guys think you have a strong enough team to beat Kenya today? Should I put some money on it?’ We were speaking in Hindi. His exact words in Hindi were, ‘?’ At that point I was like, ‘I don’t know. It’s your money. You can take that decision yourself.’ He said, ‘Okay. Call me after the game.’I hung up and we went back inside the ground, where Canada beat Kenya by five wickets for our first win of the tournament. The Anti-Corruption officer joined us for the ride back to the hotel and, as soon as we pulled up at the hotel gates but before we got off the bus, he asked me to call Sunil. It was around 11pm. Sunil answered and I said, ‘Hey, I’m just calling you about the girl.’ He said, ‘So you’ve reached the hotel?’ I said yes and he replied, ‘I’ll call you back in a bit.’ It was a very short call, not even 30 seconds.I remained in the lobby with most of the Canada players, celebrating our win. But an hour had passed since the call from the team bus and Sunil still hadn’t called back. The ACU officer asked me to call him again. He picked up and said, ‘I’m at the temple. I’ll call you back.’ I didn’t even say anything before he hung up. The call lasted not even five seconds. I never heard from him again.At that point, I was very frustrated with how the whole day had gone. I told the ACU officer, ‘Listen, I’ve given you everything. I don’t know anything. You can take my phone if you want but I just want to go enjoy our win with the team.’ He told me to go ahead and enjoy the night and I went back to my team-mates in the bar. For rest of the World Cup, nothing unusual happened.Thinking back to the whole experience, I never thought as a younger player in the team that I would be approached by such people. I used to think that bigger players in the team or bigger teams would get approaches from people like Sunil, Raghav and his uncles.Associate games are definitely a target. Associates play a lot more cricket now, and a lot more cricket on TV. With that, the attraction and attention is there. A normal person would think that matches with bigger teams will be targeted but the reality is anything and everything that’s on TV can potentially be targeted.I’m more aware of my surroundings now when I’m on tour. One mistake then could have cost me my career. The moment you feel that something is wrong, report it right away. Never take that chance.

Alastair Cook retired an England record-breaker in September but could be in line for even higher honours after being proposed for an early knighthood

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Nov-20181:10

What was it like when England last played a Test without Cook?

Arise, Sir Alastair? He was England’s hero in whites for more than a decade, a record-breaking run-scorer and distinguished former captain, but Alastair Cook could be in line for even higher honours after being proposed for an early knighthood.Cook retired from England duty in September, having amassed 12,472 Test runs and 33 hundreds – both records for England. In his final Test, against India at The Oval, he signed off with innings of 71 and 147 amid widespread acclaim for his impact on the game.Now the wheels have been set in motion that could one day see him knighted. Last month, a member of the House of Lords tabled a parliamentary question, “to ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to recomending Alastair Cook for knighthood”.Lord Tyrie has also written to the authorities in charge of the honours list, according to a report in the newspaper. “It is not just that Alastair Cook is unquestionably the best batsman England have produced in recent years but that he can make a massive contribution as an ambassador for cricket at home and abroad,” Tyrie said. “Nobody would be more deserving.”Ian Botham is currently the only living English cricketer in possession of a knighthood – although his was awarded for services to charity – while the likes of West Indians Garry Sobers and Viv Richards, and New Zealander Richard Hadlee have received the honour.The government has unsurprisingly remained tight-lipped about the possibility – but if 33-year-old Cook were to be singled out, it might raise an eyebrow in Yorkshire, where many believe Geoffrey Boycott is long overdue a knighthood for his services to the game as a player and commentator.

Australia’s first international match under the new terms of the broadcast rights agreement with Fox Sports will not take place entirely behind the paywall due to the fact the network’s flagship sports streaming app has not yet launched

Daniel Brettig04-Nov-2018Australia’s first international match under the new terms of the broadcast rights agreement with Fox Sports will not take place entirely behind the paywall due to the fact the network’s flagship sports streaming app has not yet launched.One of the key planks of the $A1.18 billion deal with Fox Sports and the Seven network was that all of Australia’s home ODIs and Twenty20 matches would be exclusive to the pay TV provider, meaning that a subscription would be required to watch these matches.However, this was also contingent on streaming being provided via a new digital sports streaming app, aimed at being considerably cheaper than the prices of sport packages on Foxtel’s existing digital box and streaming services.Due to the fact this app has not yet been launched, viewers are able to watch Sunday’s Perth ODI between Australia and South Africa for free on Cricket Australia’s Cricket Live app, requiring only to sign up to the app – without paying a fee – to do so. It is not yet clear how long this arrangement will last, depending on when the Foxtel sports app is launched.After that time, users of the CA live app will have to subscribe to Foxtel’s streaming serve to be able to watch those same pictures via the app. Under the previous deal with Nine and Ten, users paid CA directly for this streaming service.CA has faced criticism for taking a significant portion of international and Big Bash League cricket behind the paywall, but the outgoing chief executive James Sutherland has argued that the decision was based around a combination of changing viewing habits among fans and the need to reach a desired level of broadcast rights funding for the game in coming years.”The significance of it is more to do with the way of the world and the way people are consuming media today than anything else,” Sutherland told ESPNcricinfo on his final day in the job. “It’s also a reflection of the way in which the landscape’s changing and perhaps the economics of free-to-air television and all of that, but through other means we’re continuing to try to broaden the access to the game, or to complement that access with digital media platforms and other access.”It’ll certainly be a change, but by and large it’ll be a huge positive for the game, because of the way Fox will provide huge bandwidth and promotion of cricket that we haven’t been able to enjoy previously to that same extent, and the way that AFL and NRL have enjoyed for a number of years now.”The deal struck in April essentially doubled the amount of money being paid by broadcasters when lined up against the A$590 million deal signed by the Nine and Ten networks in 2013.”I was very open throughout the process talking publicly and to our media partners that the preferred outcome was to land in a free-to-air environment and that we were prepared to take a significant discount for everything to be on FTA,” Sutherland said. “But there was a point there where that discount became too great, and as a Board we talked about that, and the Board gave us guidance as to what premium we needed in order to go down a slightly different path, where we were on FTA but some went behind the paywall.”So it wasn’t a conscious decision to say this is where we’re going, it was just how it turned out. We were very close to a different outcome, but it never quite got there.”