All posts by n8rngtd.top

“I just tried to remind him to play for that young boy who fell in love with the game way back in the early days”

Daniel Brettig28-Dec-2019New Zealand’s former captain Brendon McCullum has counselled his successor Kane Williamson one-on-one after he delivered stinging criticism of the visitors during his commentary stints on the second day of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG.McCullum had questioned Williamson’s tactics on the second day, notably his use of the very occasional off-spin of Tom Blundell immediately after lunch, claiming that New Zealand had “just rolled over” for Australia rather than searching more keenly for wickets. These criticisms made headlines in New Zealand as the tourists sank to a sorry position in the Test match and series, which has marked the national team’s first Boxing Day Test appearance since 1987.However on the third morning, McCullum went to speak individually to Williamson, and later explained that he was detecting signs that Williamson, a “reluctant” leader at times, was not enjoying the trials of captaincy.”If we look back to the first session of the first day of the first Test match, since then we’ve probably seen a gradual strengthening of Australia’s positions,” McCullum said on commentary for . “I’m one of Kane Williamson’s biggest fans, I really am. I think he’s done a magnificent job with the New Zealand side in his time.”He’s been a slightly reluctant leader at times and I just noticed a bit of a trend where he doesn’t look to me as though he’s really enjoying the role as much as what he has in the past. And that can be a build-up of many things and playing Australia in Australia can be one of them.”I thought tactically there were a couple of plays which he made yesterday which I thought were slightly uncharacteristic of Kane. But our relationship is very strong. He knows that I’ve got his back and it’s just a bit of constructive criticism and he knows that some of those decisions weren’t quite right.”Equally, McCullum wished to point out that for all the yawning gap on the scoreboard, there was still a huge contingent of New Zealand supporters who had travelled across the Tasman to see their team play and were looking for signs that their team was fighting for them, even if the odds were presently overwhelming.”One of the points I was trying to make to Kane this morning was that there were 20,000-odd New Zealanders who have travelled from across the ditch to come and watch New Zealand. And even though New Zealand was under an immense amount of pressure the New Zealand national anthem was being belted out from the stands,” McCullum said. “And it’s just how proud of this team that he’s built that New Zealand is and they don’t expect that the New Zealand side is going to win every game and they can understand that this is a tough place to tour.”But they want to see the team play with a smile on their face, that same positive attitude, and carry themselves in that confident manner and occasionally land a few blows back on the opposition so they know that they’ve been in a contest.”And I just tried to remind him to try and play for that young boy who fell in love with the game way back in the early days when he started playing cricket. Sometimes the pressure and the extremities that you get put under at this top level can take a little bit of that enjoyment away and especially as captain how you portray yourself has such a big bearing on the environment. He looked like he had a bit of a spring in his step this morning, so here’s hoping.”These words contrasted sharply with the disbelief in MCullum’s voice on day two. “I think it’s been a pretty poor session. I don’t understand some of the tactics to be honest,” McCullum told SEN Radio in mid-afternoon. “It’s just staggering. By all means, have a blast, but the game was still in the balance.”To me, it was a submissive move [to bowl Blundell at the start of the session]. I just don’t understand it. They just rolled over.”I would’ve thought you would’ve gone with a [Neil] Wagner, [Tim] Southee, [Trent] Boult combination and have a real dip at it. You knock over the Australians … you can actually get into the game; they’ve just rolled over.”Tom Latham, the New Zealand opener, said that Williamson had the total backing of his team, and noted that he and McCullum had enjoyed a strong and close relationship for numerous years either side of the leadership handover.”Kane’s a fantastic captain, he’s got a lot of experience under his belt, and obviously the leadership under Brendon as well, before that, they’ve got a really good relationship, which is really important, and Kane as a captain is a really switched on guy and he certainly knows what he’s doing. So from the group he’s certainly got our backing, that’s for sure.”

Batsman increasingly confident in middle-order role after returning to Test side in New Zealand

George Dobell in Port Elizabeth14-Jan-2020It remains just about possible – if Jofra Archer makes a late bid for selection on Wednesday – that England could go into the third Test in Port Elizabeth with six players under the age of 25. They have only done that once before*.It is a statistic that underlines the period of transition in which this England side find itself. Whether by design or not – in a perfect world, the side might well contain James Anderson, Rory Burns and Moeen Ali or Jack Leach – England are in a rebuilding phase. An investment has been made into young players. They are likely to be given time to develop.At the heart of this young side is Ollie Pope. While some of the other young players – Zak Crawley and Dom Bess, for example – are taking advantage of the misfortunate of first-choice players, Pope is a first-choice pick. In the eyes of most of the England management, he is the most promising specialist batsman to come into the Test team since Joe Root in 2012. There are whispered hopes he will develop into a 100-Test player.ALSO READ: Botham, Flintoff, Stokes – who is England’s greatest?</aSuch was Pope’s promise that he was first selected for the Test side when just 20. By then he had played 15 first-class games and scored four first-class centuries. That is, in context, only two fewer than Jos Buttler in his 104 match first-class career.But England, bursting with men who could bat in the middle-order, asked Pope to fulfil a role that was unfamiliar to him. Despite batting at No. 6 for Surrey, despite never having come in before the 20th over of a first-class innings, he was required to bat at No. 4 on Test debut. In his first three innings he came into bat in the ninth, 13th and 12th overs. Unsurprisingly, he struggled. Perhaps more surprisingly in these days of continuity of selection, he was dropped after those three innings despite the fact one of his dismissals was down the leg side.But if the use of Pope was wrong, the identification of his talent was surely correct. He has, at the time of writing, an average of 71.31 in first-class cricket for Surrey and 58.06 in all first-class cricket. After 30 games, he had a higher first-class average than any English player in history.But for a dislocated shoulder, sustained while fielding for Surrey last April, his recall would have come earlier than November. But as it is, he has been assured of a run at No. 6 – the position Root started out in Test cricket – and, over his last few innings, started to provide returns on that investment. Two of his three most recent innings have been half-centuries, with the first, in Hamilton, showcasing an improved tightness in his game and the second, in Cape Town, providing something of a masterclass in batting with the tail. He scored 29 of the 35 posted for England’s tenth-wicket and later took the catch that sealed the win.After the Cape Town victory, a small group of the younger players – Pope, Bess, Dom Sibley and Matt Parkinson – hired an apartment in Camps Bay and enjoyed a few days’ beach holiday. But now, back in training with the rest of the squad, it is clear Pope is relishing being part of a young team who are enjoying the new experiences and each other’s successes.”Winning this series would be an amazing achievement for us, especially where we’re at as a side at the moment,” Pope said. “We’re quite young side with a lot of players just coming through.”The Cape Town result says a lot about what we have within the camp, but we also realise that it’s not something that happens overnight. Putting this side together will take time, but if we can win this series will be a great achievement.”The first time I was picked I felt like it was almost a bit of a lottery. I was thinking ‘hopefully I’ll get a score but if I miss out then so be it.'”At the moment I feel like I’m in a good place with my game. I know I’ve got the technique and mindset to do it. To have those scores under my belt is a real positive for me.”Perhaps it says something for Pope’s ambitions that he was inspired by Steven Smith and Virat Kohli when batting with the tail in Cape Town.”The way I went about my innings was just remembering how some of the best players in the world have done it,” he said. “I remember watching Smith and Kohli from when they played against England and how, even when they were nine down, they were trying to face almost every ball. It was pretty new for me.”The way Stokesy did it at Headingley was slightly different because he can just whack every ball out of the park and clear the men on the rope. Us smaller lads have to go about it in a bit more of a smart way and try and find a way of facing as many balls as you can. If you get a boundary option, then great, if not then try and face five balls and get a quick single at the end and get a boundary next over.”If you ask any young batsman coming into the game, Smith, Kohli and Joe Root are the guys you want to be like. They have been the main run-scorers in international cricket over the last however many years and hopefully I’ve got a game where I can follow in their footsteps.”I wouldn’t say I tried to copy their techniques, but the one thing they have in common is having solid foundations. They can build their game around that and that’s what I’m trying to do.”Ollie Pope looks on•Getty Images

While Pope acknowledged the comparisons with Ian Bell – it was Andrew Strauss who first mentioned it to him – he insisted they are accidental. But since his first spell in the side, when his expansive off-side play could leave him looking loose at times, he looks even more like Bell now: more compact; more disciplined outside off stump; more prepared to be patient and make the bowlers come to him. In short, a player who has learned to harness his talent.”I think Bell is an amazing player and I used to love watching him bat but it’s not been anything that I’ve tried to emulate,” Pope said. “But it’s a big compliment because he is a pretty class player to watch. I’ve seen that a lot on social media. He was an amazing player and I loved watching him play.”His favourite players were, instead, keeper-batsmen such as MS Dhoni and Adam Gilchrist and he has not given up hopes of fulfilling a role as keeper in the years ahead.”I still want to keep that going in my game,” he said. “I definitely will be practising my keeping. I’m still the second keeper at Surrey. It’s only going to be a positive if I can keep nailing that side of my game, but I’m also more than happy playing as a batter as well.”With a youthful look to the side, it is probably even more important that the more experienced players provide leadership. And Pope said Ben Stokes had taken him under his wing and demonstrated the fitness levels required to excel at this level.”In New Zealand I realised what was needed,” he said. “I’d go under Stokes’ wing a little bit and, after the warm-up games, we’d run back to the hotel and do a running session the day before the games.”If you can get into those good habits, if you control everything in your power to make sure you are as fit as you can be and you’re training as well as you can, then hopefully good things will happen. It’s good to see the way these guys go about it. Hopefully I can learn from that and keep following in their footsteps.”England’s players were given a day off on Tuesday. While some, including Pope, went on safari, others played golf. Only Root, accompanied by batting coach Graham Thorpe, took to the nets where he had a long session.

Mitchell Santner played more of a holding role with the ball, while Patel is a wicket-taking option

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Feb-2020The big news in the New Zealand Test squad, apart from the post-injury comeback for Trent Boult, was the return to the arena for 31-year-old left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel in place of Mitchell Santner. It’s a good change, as far as former batting coach Craig McMillan is concerned, because Patel “can pick up four or five wickets in a Test match”. As for Patel, he is just excited at the prospect of facing off against “some of the best in the world”.”Mitchell Santner, over a period of time, has done a holding role for New Zealand. And that’s down quite often to the conditions in New Zealand that aren’t really conducive to have the ball turning much. It’s the seamers who do all the damage and take most of the wickets,” McMillan, who finished up with the team after the 2019 50-over World Cup, told .Gary Stead, the New Zealand head coach, had welcomed Patel’s inclusion when the squad was announced, saying, “It’s a slight change in role we’re looking in terms of that position being one where we can take wickets and focus hard on that.”McMillan liked what he heard from Stead: “It’s good to hear, because Ajaz Patel is better than being just a holding spinner. He’s got over 230 first-class wickets [235 in 62 matches], so he knows how to bowl in New Zealand. So I hope they use him in an attacking role. They need to have a spinner who can pick up four or five wickets in a Test match. And Ajaz Patel is certainly a guy who could do that. So I thought it was encouraging to hear, and it will be interesting to see how they use him, because that’s one of the keys, when you have spinners in your side, it’s the time to use them and how to use them.”I hope they give him the opportunity to continue bowling how he does at the domestic level at the international level, because I think he can do a really good job, pick up wickets and be really useful in that New Zealand Test side.”Patel has played only seven Test matches since his debut in 2018, five of them in Asian conditions and only two in New Zealand, where the stress has been on pace with Santner trying to keep things tight without really being much of an attacking option. In the last 12 months, Santner has played one Test in Sri Lanka, two at home against England, and two in Australia, and picked up only five wickets in those games at an average of 96.80. The other spinners in the mix have been Todd Astle, who has since retired from red-ball cricket, and Will Somerville, who both played the New Year’s Test in Sydney on the back of an illness crisis in the squad.Back in the scheme of things now, Patel is looking forward to going up against Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and the rest of the mighty India batting line-up.”It’s a fantastic challenge. I suppose as a spinner, testing yourself against some of the best players in the world, it’s a great challenge and it’s something that you should, really, enjoy and cherish,” he said. “At the end of the day, I suppose, at some point in my career, I want to be known as the best in the world. So to be able to challenge some of the best in the world, it’s a great opportunity and a challenge, something that I look forward to.”Mitchell Santner is congratulated on a wicket•Getty Images

Whether he gets that chance or not depends on the Basin Reserve pitch. If it’s green, as McMillan pointed out, “perhaps playing a fourth seamer, which means Kyle Jamieson might get a run”.Patel understands that. “I suppose it depends on the surface and the scenarios of the game,” he said of the role he expects to play. “Either way, I am going to try and contribute in any way that I can, whether it be with the ball, with the bat, in the field. If it requires me to try and take wickets, then I’m going to try to do that, if it requires me to try and restrict runs, then I’ll try and do that. I feel my game’s pretty adaptable. So I’m going to just see what the conditions are and what the scenario and situation is and try to play to that.”The Basin could be quite interesting, I suppose. It depends on what kind of day it is and what kind of week you get. If you get a nice, sunny week, the wicket dries up pretty quickly. Although if there’s a bit of overcast conditions, that can be a bit different as well. And obviously you have the wind factor. There’s a lot of things you’ve got to think about at the Basin, but once again, it’s kind of adapting your game to whatever presents itself, and that’s probably one of the great things about Test cricket. You get different challenges thrown at you and you have to learn to adapt.”What could have gone against Santner, apart from just his own moderate returns, was the fact that even as he picked up just one wicket in two Tests on the December 2019 tour of Australia, Nathan Lyon topped the wicket-takers’ chart with 20 wickets in three Tests, all of which Australia won.Did that show up Santner, as well as New Zealand’s use with their frontline spinner? “I think it did in many ways,” McMillan agreed. “[Santner’s numbers] sort of stands out in itself, because his core role in the side is to pick up wickets as a spinner, not as a batsman. And he was getting picked in the side to do a little bit of this and a little bit of that. And New Zealand, with the bowling line-up they’ve got, need a spinner who can contribute four or five wickets a Test match, which just takes some pressure off the likes of [Tim] Southee, [Neil] Wagner and Boult.”

‘We have to get the cricketing world to respect West Indies cricket again,’ says veteran allrounder

Nagraj Gollapudi28-Mar-2020Andre Russell is one of the most valuable players in T20 cricket, and now his West Indies team-mate Dwayne Bravo has likened the Jamaican to “our Chris Gayle, our Brian Lara” in T20Is. Bravo’s praise came in the wake of Russell’s impactful return during the two-match T20I series in Sri Lanka, which was also the first series he played for West Indies since being ruled out of the 2019 World Cup due to an injury.West Indies won the series 2-0 with Russell playing a big hand, scoring 35 off 14 balls in the first T20I and 40 off 14 in the second. The latter was, in particular, a whirlwind knock as Russell packed six sixes to add to the four he hit in the first match, enough to fetch the Player-of-the-Series award.”He’s the best in the world,” Bravo, who was part of the West Indies side, said in praise of Russell in a chat with Trinidad-based radio station I955 FM on Friday. “It’s the same I used to say of Chris Gayle when Chris Gayle was in his prime – we are happy to have him representing us, we didn’t have to come up and bowl against him in an international match. It’s the same with Andre Russell. Andre Russell now is our Chris Gayle, is our Brian Lara, in the T20 format. He is the superstar.”The Sri Lanka T20I series was Bravo’s second in the West Indies dressing room after he came out of retirement this January for the home T20I series against Ireland. That series was Bravo’s first international assignment after 2016, the last time he had played for West Indies.ALSO READ: Who is the MVP across all T20 leagues over the last 12 months?Despite being the defending T20 World Cup champions, West Indies have been inconsistent in a format where most of their players have become household names. Last November they lost 2-1 to Afghanistan the T20I series played in India. Another 2-1 defeat followed immediately in the T20I series against India. In January this year, they bounced back in the final game of the three-match T20I series against Ireland to level the series 1-1 with one game washed out. Then they started the Sri Lanka tour losing the ODI series 3-0 before winning the T20I series. According to Bravo, the team management, led by captain Kieron Pollard and head coach Phil Simmons, had acknowledged that there was a lot of work to be done with West Indies preparing to defend their title in the T20 World Cup, scheduled for October-November in Australia this year. Bravo said the team had set itself the bigger goal of making West Indies once again the “dominant” team in world cricket.”Prior to that [T20I series in Sri Lanka], we weren’t really consistent as a team over the years in T20 cricket,” Bravo said. “With the 3-0 loss in the ODI series, we T20 guys had a chat among ourselves along with the management and made a pledge that we want to start back winning series. We said we wanted to be back being the most dominant team in the T20 format.”We have produced some of the best players in the world and when we are together in the same team, we have to stamp our authority, and to get the cricketing world to respect West Indies cricket again and especially West Indies’ T20 team. We said, ‘All hands on deck, let’s start with this Sri Lanka series and make sure we send the message.’ Yeah, that’s what we did.”Bravo said the depth of talent in the West Indies T20 set-up could be gauged from the fact that he, despite being the most experienced player in the squad, had to bat at a position he had never batted at previously. “When the coach wrote the batting line-up, I was down to bat at number nine. I said to the guys, ‘This is the first time I’ve ever been in a T20 team and I’m down to bat at number nine.'”Putting all egos aside, I’m happy with that because at the end of the day, I accept the fact guys like Rovman Powell and Fabian Allen and [Shimron] Hetmyer, the talent and the ability they have to hit the ball, I’m just happy to be like that – father-figure, mentor, guide, to allow these young boys to go out there and showcase their talent to the world. All of us are on the same page, no egos in the dressing room, one common goal to just win cricket games and dominate.”

Tribute during West Indies series to be discussed following health service’s efforts in pandemic

George Dobell09-Jun-2020The England team could wear blue armbands during the Test series against West Indies in recognition of the contribution of NHS workers and other care staff during the Covid-19 pandemic.Tributes to care workers, who have borne the brunt of the virus in their efforts to keep others safe, have been a feature of the lockdown in the UK. Millions joined in a weekly ‘clap for carers’ which ran for a couple of months at 8pm on Thursday nights, while others have been motivated to launch their own charity efforts.Several England players have already expressed their gratitude towards the NHS. Notably, Jos Buttler raised more than £65,000 for the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals when he auctioned the shirt he was wearing when England sealed the World Cup.England’s contracted players also pledged £500,000 to the ECB and various good causes, while Colonel Tom Moore, the World War 2 veteran who raised tens of millions for the NHS with a charity walk, was presented with an England cap and named as an “honorary member of the England cricket team”.While it is understood that no firm decision has been made whether to wear the armbands, discussions on the subject are on-going.

South African scores first hundred of Bob Willis Trophy to give his side the upper hand

ECB Reporters Network01-Aug-2020Kent 344 for 6 (Kuhn 140*, Robinson 78) v Essex Heino Kuhn became the first player to score a Bob Willis Trophy century as Kent recovered from a morning blip to dominate day one against Essex.Former South Africa Test batsman Kuhn hadn’t made a hundred since his arrival at Canterbury in 2018, but finished on a chanceless unbeaten 140 on a good batting wicket at the Cloudfm County Ground, Chelmsford.He and Ollie Robinson (78) added 150 for the fourth wicket to put Kent to the road for recovery after Sam Cook and Jamie Porter had restricted the visitors to 23 for 3.Robinson and Kuhn’s work was followed up by Darren Stevens and Grant Stewart adding 80 and 53 in partnership with the immovable Kuhn – Kent reaching close on 344 for 6.Before play started, both sides observed a minute’s silence as a mark of respect for those affected by Covid-19, before bursting into applause to celebrate the work of the NHS and key workers during the pandemic.Then after standing umpire Ben Debenham called play both squads to take a knee to promote racial equality.Daniel Bell-Drummond, standing in for England’s Sam Billings, won the toss and elected to bat first with Chelmsford empty other than the two sides, officials, media and a mass of seagulls.That decision appeared sensible with a fine batting deck on show, and would later prove to be correct, but 20 minutes into the season Bell-Drummond may have been questioning himself.He was the first to depart, plumb lbw to Sam Cook, in the fourth over.Jordan Cox and Jack Leaning, making his Kent debut following his winter move from Yorkshire, both departed within four balls.Cox hung his bat down the legside and tickled Porter behind to a sprawling Adam Wheater, before Leaning pulled Cook to debutant Feroze Khushi at midwicket for a duck.But Essex’s roll was halted as Robinson and Kuhn came together to counter-attack – and push the scoring rate comfortably over four an over.Robinson was the more aggressive and that role was typified when he pumped Simon Harmer’s second delivery back over his head – the 2020 Wisden Cricketer of the Year had taken an eight-for against Kent on this ground last season.As such the 21-year-old was the first to his half-century, the sixth of his fledgling first-class career, brought up from his 68th delivery with a fine square drive.Kuhn followed him to the milestone the other side of lunch off 85 balls, made up of nine fours.After the partnership had reached exactly 150, Robinson departed for 78 when he feathered Porter behind. That brought Stevens, in his 24th professional season, to the crease and he continued where his fallen teammate left off.The fifth-wicket compiled 80 in a steady manner, albeit one which ground the Essex bowlers down, and that weariness was perfectly encapsulated in the farcical way Kuhn moved to a century.Kuhn, on 98, flicked off his pads to fine leg for a simple single, but Porter’s fatigued 20-yard throw back to Wheater cannoned into the keeper’s pads and squirted for an additional run.Stevens departed for 36 when he drilled Porter to Nick Browne at point, before Stewart came and went with an entertaining 37, which included a six off Harmer.But it was Kuhn, on his 29th appearance for the county, who had placed Kent in a commanding position with his array of reverse sweeps and daps to third man.

Graeme Smith says South Africa will look to resume playing sometime November onwards

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Aug-2020South Africa men’s tours of the West Indies and Sri Lanka have been postponed indefinitely, CSA director of cricket Graeme Smith has confirmed. The tour of Caribbean was originally slated for July-August comprising two Tests and five T20Is, and the one of Sri Lanka had three ODIs and as many T20Is scheduled for June, but both were postponed earlier because of the Covid-19 pandemic.Cricket West Indies chief executive Johnny Grave had recently said they were looking at September to host South Africa for either five T20Is or two Tests, but there is a slim gap between the CPL, that ends on September 10 in Trinidad, and the IPL, which is set to start on September 19 in the UAE. Smith said in a press conference on Saturday their players “will be needed” at the IPL which ended the possibilities of the bilateral series happening soon.”West Indies has been postponed indefinitely. We are struggling to find a time with the IPL being fitted in,” Smith said. “It looks like our players are going to be needed from the beginning of September, government-permitting, and travel permitting. Sri Lanka also [postponed]. I expect that once things get up and running, our team, on the men’s side, I would say from November onwards, if all goes well, it will be a really busy period for South African cricket, probably playing in times that we haven’t played before and trying to cram in a lot of the missed tours.”Even though Covid-19 cases aren’t as high in Sri Lanka and the West Indies compared to other parts of the world, the rising threat in South Africa has shut their international borders. It meant five South Africans couldn’t make it to the Caribbean for the CPL starting August 18 and the participation of all South African players, barring Imran Tahir, in the IPL also remains uncertain. Tahir had been in Pakistan for the PSL in March when many international borders started closing and is the only South African set to play in the CPL.Whether it’s the men for the IPL or the women for the tour of England, they will all need government permission to get out of South Africa.

Dividing teams into two clusters also being mulled, with less than three weeks to go

Shashank Kishore30-Aug-2020IPL 2020 is less than three weeks away, but the tournament’s schedule – which some believe may be dynamic to account for unforeseen situations, like members of a team testing positive – hasn’t been announced yet. The news of several members of the Chennai Super Kings contingent testing positive for Covid-19, including two players, has potentially further complicated the scheduling challenge.”We’ll see if they [Chennai Super Kings] can start as per schedule,” BCCI president Sourav Ganguly told the . “I hope the IPL will be conducted well. We have a long schedule for the tournament, and I sincerely hope everything will go on just fine.”Brijesh Patel, the IPL governing council chairman, and Hemang Amin, the IPL chief operating officer, are believed to be discussing the matter with UAE government officials and health authorities. While they work it all out, we take you through a number of scheduling scenarios that have emerged as potential options over the last three weeks.First part of the tournament in Dubai?
Six out of the eight teams are currently based in Dubai and have been allowed to train at the ICC Academy. Most sides won’t be training at the stadiums till match day. One of the proposals doing the rounds is to have at least the first 20 games in Dubai. This would mean only two teams – Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians, who are based in Abu Dhabi – would have to change emirates for matches, negative test reports in tow. That’s a simpler option compared to the six Dubai-based teams having to head to Abu Dhabi – or even Sharjah – for their matches.There has been a spike in infection cases in the UAE, and mandatory checks have increased at the Abu Dhabi-Dubai border, making travel into Abu Dhabi more time consuming than before. Each crossing into Abu Dhabi involves testing 48 hours before the journey to account for the more stringent requirements of that emirate.Teams will likely have to undergo a PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) test and/or a DPI (Dye Penetration Inspection) test before being permitted to enter at the border. Similarly, if the Abu Dhabi-based teams have matches in Dubai, they will likely need to be tested in the 48 hours leading up to their return from Dubai.It is to minimise these lengthy procedural delays that the idea of having the first leg in Dubai alone is being discussed. While IPL officials have obtained certain clearances after discussions with local officials and the Emirates Cricket Board, a full withdrawal of protocols for a cricket tournament is unlikely.Cluster scheduling?
One of the ideas is to have two unofficial groups with simultaneous schedules, possibly on a weekly or fortnightly basis. If a situation arises where a team in one of the groups isn’t able to take the field because of infections or isolation protocols, the other group can continue to play out their matches undisturbed.If a player tests positive during the tournament, he will have to go into quarantine for 14 days as per the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and will be allowed to re-enter the bio-bubble only after clearing two tests after the two-week period. The other members of the team and support staff will have to be quarantined for six days and go through three tests – on days 1, 3 and 5 – and can get on with their business only upon clearing these tests.Cluster scheduling will allow at least half of the tournament to move forward in such a scenario, with the team that is missing out having to catch up with their matches in their group after coming through testing and quarantine regulations.Should cluster scheduling be sanctioned, it is as yet not clear what the protocol will be for the other three teams in the infected team’s group – whether they will continue to play among themselves, or if the whole group’s matches will come to a halt while these other teams are also tested as a precaution.While such a possibility will throw a team(s) off gear, given they won’t be allowed to train outdoors during quarantine, it’s a reality everyone has to be prepared for.Question mark over double-headers?
Some teams are understood to have reservations about playing games in the extreme afternoon temperatures of the UAE summer – the early game in a double-header is scheduled to begin at 2pm local time, and ten double-headers had tentatively been penciled in by the IPL governing council when it announced the decision to shift the tournament to the UAE. Whether that is still a concern or not remains to be seen.

Essex and Somerset prepare to do battle for the one-off Bob Willis Trophy final at Lord’s

Andrew Miller22-Sep-2020

Big Picture

There’s an unmissable irony in the ECB’s decision to name their emergency first-class competition after the late, great Bob Willis. For Willis was not exactly the most enthusiastic defender of the ancient county system. As a player in his international heyday, he was renowned for phoning in the occasional Warwickshire performance to save his best for England, while in 2003, he was at the forefront of the Cricket Reform Group, a body which argued for the abolition of under-performing counties, and a subsequent reallocation of the game’s limited resources.And yet, when the trophy bearing his name, and adapted from a cubist painting by his widow Lauren, is presented – at a suitably social distance – to the winning captain at Lord’s later this week, you can be pretty certain that Willis would be looking down on the occasion with approval.For this has been a competition to savour in spite of the invidious circumstances. A short, sharp shock of first-class intensity that has satisfied the cravings of county cricket’s die-hards, while giving a platform for the sort of conference system that Willis himself might have advocated. Certainly the notion of less-is-more is one that has traditionally been associated with Australia’s Sheffield Shield (six teams, ten matches, one final) – not least during Australia’s years of Ashes dominance in the 1990s and early 2000s – and while it would knee-jerk to suggest that the Bob Willis Trophy has provided a clear vision for the future of county first-class cricket, it would be remiss to ignore the buzz of interest that the format has created among those who find the marathon nature of the traditional league structure a touch too archaic for the 2020s.Yes, it’s been an imperfect competition, devised to fit a limited timeframe and featuring a messy qualification process in which three into two didn’t go very easily, especially once the Covid-influenced cancellation of Northamptonshire’s match with Gloucestershire had complicated the permutations. And yet, there was a pleasingly meritocratic thread to the available results – with a defiant upending of preconceptions in the first instance, as just one Test-hosting county, Yorkshire, finished in the top two of any of the three groups, followed by a worthy progression of the era’s two outstanding teams to the showpiece final at Lord’s.Essex and Somerset, the cream of the crop, were involved in last summer’s de facto showpiece too – a Championship final-round arm-wrestle on a Ciderabad special in Taunton, in which Essex did just enough to prevent their hosts from leapfrogging them to the title, with Alastair Cook reprising the dour survival methods honed at Ahmedabad and Mumbai to close out the contest with 83 preciously hewn runs in two innings.Somerset’s subsequent penalisation for a substandard pitch may have rendered that performance moot, but even that slap on the wrist – and their 12-point penalty, deferred to 2021 – comes with a curious footnote. Despite attracting opprobrium for tailoring their tracks to turn square (and in the process producing England’s two frontline Test spinners – yes, you are welcome), their path to this year’s glory-shot has been carved by their outstanding battery of fast bowlers – which suggests they may just be a quality outfit, irrespective of conditions.More’s the pity, therefore, that in a summer which was meant to offer a reconnection of cricket to its ostracised fans, it has not been possible to find a place for this contest in the TV schedules. The fact that Lord’s is a building site, amid the reconstruction of the Compton and Edrich Stands is a further factor. Sky Sports’ YouTube channel will have to suffice.For Essex in particular, this week offers their squad a shot at county immortality, a chance to confirm a dynasty to rival the heyday of their Gooch-Fletcher era in the 1980s, and to take its place in the recent county pantheon, alongside Jason Gillespie’s Yorkshire squad of the mid 2010s, and the Durham and Sussex outfits that won three Championships in quick succession since the turn of the Millennium.And at a time when the ECB is casting an understandably beady eye on its counties’ connections with their grass-roots, there can be no quibbling with the quality of Essex’s homegrown credentials. Seven members of the first-team squad were born in the same Whipps Cross hospital as the club grandee, Gooch, while 70 percent were educated at state school too. Their two key imports, Ryan Ten Doeschate and Simon Harmer, have rapidly assumed legend status in and around Chelmsford. They are advocates for a system that works, no matter what the naysayers may believe.As for Somerset, there would be few feats more typical of the county than finally claiming that elusive first-class crown in the one season that is destined to carry an asterisk.Every year that goes by, it seems less and less likely that Somerset will be able to land the prize that torments them the most – especially given the quality of the players they have lost since they first rose to become true contenders ten years ago. Marcus Trescothick and Peter Trego, local legends both, have moved on, to retirement and to Nottinghamshire respectively, while next season their bowling stocks will be shorn of both Jamie Overton and Dom Bess.And yet, Somerset too draw a strong local thread through their playing XI – the captain, Tom Abell and senior spinner, Jack Leach, are Taunton born-and-bred, while one of the brightest stars of the current campaign, the young opener Tom Lammonby, has been rustled over the border from Devon. They’ve got a West Country catchment area that promises recruitment and renewal for as long as their standards remain as high as they have been. But there’s little doubt that some silverware wouldn’t go amiss.Aaron Beard gets a celebratory foot bump•Getty Images

Form guide

(last five completed matches)
Essex WDWWW
Somerset WWDWW

In the spotlight

Simon Harmer‘s impact at Essex has been nothing short of talismanic in the four years since he arrived at Chelmsford. He’s amassed 251 first-class wickets at 19.32 in that time, with 20 five-wicket hauls and five ten-fors, to provide the final stamp of class in the county’s two Championship-winning seasons in three years. And that’s excluding his starring role as captain of last season’s T20 Blast-winning outfit. In this truncated BWT campaign, however, he’s been more incisive than ever, his 34 wickets including a best of 8 for 64 against Surrey that was completed in spite of an abductor strain. In another era he would surely be a fixture in South Africa’s Test team – and at the age of 31, he claims not to have given up hope of adding to his five Test caps, in spite of several smouldering bridges in his wake – but this opportunity to play a high-stakes five-day match at Lord’s will stoke his competitive fires like few other challenges.His brother Jamie is reputed to be the fastest bowler in the family, but there’s something about Craig Overton’s spirit for a scrap that has nudged him ahead in the pecking order – both at county level, where Jamie has been forced to seek pastures new at Surrey, and for England, who value the tenacity he has shown in four under-rewarded Test appearances to date, and clearly have him earmarked for a spear-carrier’s role in next year’s Ashes. But in Somerset’s romp to the BWT final, Overton has shown himself to be more than just a willing toiler. His 28 wickets at 10.71 have provided the pointy tip of a spear that has conceded more than 200 just once in five games.

Team news

Essex’s squad is broadly settled, with ten of the first-choice XI having played four or more of the five group-stage games. This includes the bolter in this season’s campaign, Paul Walter at the top of the order, who took his initial chance when ten Doeschate succumbed to injury, and has latterly cemented his role as Alastair Cook’s partner in the absence of Nick Browne. Browne’s experience may count for something come Lord’s, but so do Walter’s numbers – an average of 49.00 and a top-score of 46 point to admirable consistency, especially against a seam attack of Somerset’s quality.Essex (possible) 1 Alastair Cook, 2 Paul Walter, 3 Tom Westley (capt), 4 Dan Lawrence, 5 Feroze Khushi, 6 Ryan ten Doeschate, 7 Adam Wheater (wk), 8 Simon Harmer, 9 Aaron Beard, 10 Sam Cook, 11 Jamie Porter.James Hildreth’s absence with a hamstring injury is a grievous loss to his county, not to mention a cruel turn of events for one of English cricket’s great forgotten batsmen. At the age of 36, this might have been the closest to a Lord’s Test that he was ever going to come. Jack Leach’s availability post-England bubble means that, of the 13 players named in their squad, Roelof van der Merwe is liable to be squeezed out despite featuring in four of Somerset’s group-stage games. Dom Bess, England’s No.1 spinner but Somerset’s No.2, may also miss the chance to say an on-field farewell to his club, ahead of his permanent move to Yorkshire next season.Somerset (possible) 1 Ben Green, 2 Tom Lammonby, 3 Tom Abell (capt), 4 George Bartlett, 5 Eddie Byrom, 6 Steven Davies (wk), 7 Lewis Gregory, 8 Craig Overton, 9 Josh Davey, 10 Jack Brooks, 11 Jack Leach

Pitch and conditions

As the ground’s first and only first-class fixture for 2020, there will be an inevitable sense of the unknown to this surface, even if Lord’s wickets have tended to be predictably flat in recent seasons, influenced no doubt by the extraordinary moisture mainlining of the under-soil drainage system. The central strip, reserved for last summer’s Ashes Test, has been allocated, and Somerset’s captain, Tom Abell, was excited about what it would offer. Either way, it is a venue where teams have traditionally looked up, rather than down, when assessing their prospects. On that score, the first two days of the match promise typically autumnal mixtures of sun and showers, although the weekend outlook is more settled.

Stats and Trivia

• Essex are aiming for their fourth first-class trophy in five seasons, after winning the second division title in 2016, followed by County Championships in 2017 and 2019.
• Somerset are one of three counties, along with Northamptonshire and Gloucestershire, never to have won the County Championship. They have finished as runners-up five times since 2010, including in three of the last four seasons.
• Somerset were the victors on the previous occasion that a trophy was at stake at Lord’s – the 2019 Royal London Cup, in which they beat Hampshire by six wickets in the tournament’s final staging.
• Sam Cook is one wicket short of 100 first-class scalps.
• The final will be staged in association with Prostate Cancer UK. Willis died of the disease, aged 70, in December last year.

Quotes

“”The best two teams in the country have reached the final. As things stand, Essex are the number one red-ball team and we are number two. It would be great to reverse those standings and that is the aim.”
“We believe if we play the way we know we can, we can beat any team in the country. I think the statistics have shown that over the last few years we have been the best red-ball team. And hopefully that can continue into this week.”

Tom Westley, Essex’s captain, is ready to defend his team’s status as top dogs.

Former Pakistan cricketer was sentenced to 17 months in prison for role in spot-fixing

George Dobell28-Oct-2020Nasir Jamshed will be allowed to fight deportation proceedings from his home in England having won his release from prison.Jamshed, the former Pakistan batsman, was imprisoned in February for his part in a spot-fixing conspiracy.While his sentence for that offence is now served, he was recently informed of the Home Office’s decision to progress with deportation proceedings. Although Jamshed was legally in the UK on a spousal visa – his wife is a doctor in Birmingham – any non-citizen who is sentenced to more than 12 months in prison is liable to deportation. Jamshed was sentenced to 17 months, of which he has served around half.Although the Home Office contested the bail request at a hearing on October 28, the judge decided Jamshed, who is understood to have lost more than 10 kgs while in prison, was neither a flight risk nor a danger to others. He was released a couple of hours later.Deportation proceedings are expected to take several months.