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Allrounder Darren Stevens said that full payments from the Comilla Victorians franchise, made before the due date, had given the team’s players more confidence in their tournament-winning campaign

Mohammad Isam16-Dec-2015Allrounder Darren Stevens said that full payments from the Comilla Victorians franchise, made before the due date, had given the team’s players more confidence in their tournament-winning campaign. Stevens was also hopeful he could recover part of a pending payment from the 2013 edition of the Bangladesh Premier League.Stevens is one of two players – Mashrafe Mortaza is the other one – to have played all three BPL editions. Stevens played for Dhaka Gladiators, who were champions in 2012 and 2013, before turning out for Comilla this season. Dhaka were led by Mashrafe in the last two editions, and he captained Comilla to victory on Tuesday.Stevens praised Comilla for paying the players well before time, and believes this will enhance the image of the tournament in the future. Unpaid player salaries was one of the significant issues the tournament faced in its first two editions. FICA, the international players’ federation had advised against future participation in the BPL after the first two tournaments, because of prolonged non-payment of fees.”Comilla had a very professional management group who looked after the players,” Stevens told ESPNcricinfo. “A huge positive was the fact that the payments were made in full before the tournament ended. The contract stated that we would get the last 25% after the tournament, but they paid us much before the deadline.”I think it is a big thing and, as far as I know, everybody in our team got paid in full. It is a huge compliment to Nafeesa [Kamal] and the Comilla team. Massive thanks to them. It gives confidence to the players and is a bonus for players who will come to the play BPL in the future knowing that the franchises make payments in due time.”The BPL’s policy, like the 2013 edition, is to clear 50% of all player payments before the tournament begins, 25% during the tournament, and the rest within one month of the tournament’s final, which in this case will be January 15, 2016.Stevens wasn’t the only one to note that some franchises had paid their players in time. Barisal Bulls have been known to pay most of their foreign players on time, while Mashrafe shared a similar opinion about Comilla. Shahid Afridi, who turned out for the Sylhet Super Stars, however, suggested some players were not happy and had told him they had not received their payments.Angus Porter, CEO of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, welcomed the news that player payments in this season’s BPL have been done properly.”If Darren’s experience is reflective of those of players across all the BPL franchises, that is very welcome news,” he said.Stevens, however, said he is still waiting for payment from the previous edition of the BPL and stated that he had asked the BCB this time to clear his dues. Sri Lanka batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan had also previously complained of delayed payment of match fees by the Dhaka Gladiators franchise.”It is disappointing for us players who still didn’t get paid by the BCB for the 2013 tournament,” Stevens said. “I am still supposed to be paid $13,000 from 2013. I have been asking about the money when I have been to Mirpur. I am hopeful that I will get the money in time.”Stevens said that being a part of the winning side for the third consecutive time was like a dream to him. He made his second appearance in a BPL final on Tuesday and gave Comilla a breakthrough by removing Seekkuge Prasanna early in Barisal Bulls’ innings.”It was a dream come true. You go through whole careers and you win one trophy at most, sometimes you don’t win at all,” he said. “So to win it three times, that’s what dreams are made of. When you are leaving Bangladesh, it is a special moment knowing you have won the tournament again.”

Rohit Sharma’s team are clear favourites, although they will know not to underestimate a World Cup opposition

Nagraj Gollapudi26-Oct-20224:01

Kumble: ‘Not fair’ to leave Ashwin or Axar out against Netherlands

Big Picture

Thursday will be the first instance of India and Netherlands contesting in a T20 international. While India will enter as clear favourites, they will also be the first to point out the danger that Scott Edwards’ team poses. Netherlands are the only Associates in the Super 12s. They have worked hard to earn their place and now their players want to enjoy playing alongside the big boys, a long-cherished dream. India, Pakistan and South Africa are in their group, and the Dutch want to ensure they push themselves to create an upset.Exposure – that has been the catchphrase Associate coaches and players have holding up outside the gates of the ICC and bigger countries. Playing better teams will make them better has been the punch line. And Netherlands have proved that this season: in 2022 they have played ODI series against England, New Zealand, Pakistan, West Indies and Afghanistan along with the twin T20Is against New Zealand as well as the T20 World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe before arriving in Australia.Related

• Suryakumar Interview: 'I wanted to do things my way'

• Netherlands relishing challenge that 'dreams are made of'

• India not looking to rest players, says bowling coach Mhambrey

Equipped with that experience, Netherlands believed they could beat Bangladesh in their first Super 12 match on Monday and nearly achieved that aim, if not for a couple of unnecessary run-outs, the reason behind the eventual nine-run defeat. Netherlands know India are on a whole other level and on an almighty high after a dramatic win against Pakistan. While their bowlers have executed the plans every match, Netherlands’ batting has been a virtual one-man show named Max O’Dowd. He needs support from Vikramjit Singh, Colin Ackermann, Tom Cooper and Edwards.The Netherlands captain could tell his players, ‘we have nothing to lose so let’s just enjoy’. Such an attitude, Paul van Meerkeren, Netherlands’ strike bowler, said, has the potential to help players raise the performance bar. And given their history of shocking big teams at T20 World Cups – England in 2009 and 2014 – India will want to be on high alert.Bas de Leede has been turning a lot of heads at the T20 World Cup•AFP/Getty Images

Form guide

India WLWWW
(last five completed matches, most recent first)
Netherlands LLWWL

In the spotlight

As a captain Rohit Sharma has been loud, clear and fearless. He is one of the best tacticians in the game and is more than capable of thinking on the fly too. But Rohit the batter has been flying low recently: in his last five T20Is, Rohit has scored just 64 runs including two ducks at a strike rate of 103. This dip in form is in contrast to the stroke-filled 46 he hit against Australia in the rain-shortened match in Nagpur which earned him the Player-of-the-Match award. His last fifty came in a losing cause, seven matches ago, against Sri Lanka, in the Asia Cup. Rohit knows he needs to dictate with the bat and show consistency.Multiple World Cup-winner Ricky Ponting likes to keep an eye on young talent and he thinks Netherlands allrounder Bas de Leede has something special about him. Ponting feels de Leede has the tools to grow bigger, and his local BBL team Hobart Hurricanes could be thinking about having him on their roster. Other T20 franchise scouts have also tracked de Leede, who was recently picked up by MI Emirates for the inaugural season of the International League T20, starting in the UAE from January 2023. De Leede, who is 22, was also Player of the Match in Netherlands’ two victories in the first round of this World Cup and their second-highest run-maker in the World Cup Qualifiers that preceded it.

Team news

With just one left-hander in the Netherlands’ top eight, India could be tempted to bring in Yuzvendra Chahal, but their bowling coach Paras Mhambrey pointed out on Wednesday that they prefer the balance R Ashwin brings to their batting and may continue playing with him.India (possible): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 KL Rahul, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 7 Axar Patel, 8 Mohammed Shami, 9 R Ashwin/ Yuzvendra Chahal, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 Arshdeep SinghIndia are coming off a massing emotional high from their last game•ICC via Getty Images

Netherlands, too, are unlikely to tinker but remain concerned by the injury to Roelof van der Merwe. Edwards said a final call on would be taken based on how the left-arm spinner holds up after the training on Wednesday.Netherlands (possible): 1 Max O’Dowd, 2 Vikramjit Singh. 3 Bas de Leede, 4 Colin Ackermann, 5 Tom Cooper, 6 Scott Edwards (capt & wk), 7 Tim Pringle, 8 Timm van der Gugten, 9 Fred Klaassen 10 Paul van Meekeren, 11 Shariz Ahmed/Roelof van der Merwe

Pitch and conditions

New Zealand blasted 200 in the tournament opener at the SCG on Saturday. So it is fair to expect runs to flow once again. There was some threat of rain, but it looks pretty clear on match eve.

Stats and trivia

• Former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene is the only batter to have scored 1000-plus runs in T20 World Cups. Jayawardene scored 1016 runs in 31 innings across five World Cups. But that record is set to be surpassed by Kohli, who is 73 runs adrift of the 1000-run mark.
• Kohli, who is playing his fifth T20 World Cup, is currently the third-highest run-maker, but has the highest average 84.3 (min. seven innings played) alongside 11 half-centuries (a tournament record). Oh, and the SCG is his favourite venue when it comes to T20Is as no batter has scored more than his 236 runs which have been cracked at an average of nearly 79 and a strike rate of 146.
• Van Meekeren needs one more wicket to go past Pieter Seelaar to become Netherlands’ leading T20 wicket-taker. Currently, van Meekeren has 58 wickets in 52 innings with an average of 21.5 and economy rate of 6.9

Quotes

“The discussion we always had was every game in a tournament like this is important. Yes, the first game [was against Pakistan and] we knew the hype around it. We knew it’s always going to be a high intensity and big clash, but having such games done and dusted in the first phase itself, it’s good. Had this game been maybe the third or fourth game, it would really sometimes take that effect on the following games, but having this game out of our group, it’s good.”
“Yeah, it’s huge. You always dream of playing World Cups, and the SCG is one of the most famous grounds in the world. And then add in you’re playing against arguably one of the best teams in the world, yes, it’s pretty surreal. The boys are looking forward to it.”
on how keen his team is to face India.

India’s captain Virat Kohli said he had no problem with pitches like the one in Nagpur, calling them preferable to flat decks that produced 500-plus totals

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Nagpur27-Nov-20152:21

Kohli denies ‘undue home advantage’

Spinners have had plenty of help from the pitches during India’s Test series against South Africa, and the extent of the help they have had has been the topic of a fair few debates. Some have felt batting has been a lottery, others that batsmen from both sides have made them look worse than they actually are.At the end of the third Test in Nagpur, India had wrapped up their second straight Test series win, and ended South Africa’s nine-year unbeaten run away from home. They were impressive achievements, but the bulk of the questions posed to Virat Kohli at his post-match press conference were about the pitch.Kohli said he had no problem with pitches like the one in Nagpur, calling them preferable to flat decks that produced 500-plus totals.”It is not a policy [to play on such pitches], it is the conditions that you get in India. Otherwise you will just play Test matches which will get you 500 runs in an innings. You don’t create bowlers like that, you don’t win Test matches like that. The key is to win Test matches.”I have said this before, wherever you go to play in the world, you’ve got to be prepared to face those conditions and tune your game accordingly. Today was a classic example of two guys [Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis] applying themselves and showing that it can be done. I don’t know why is there so much hype created around the issue.”There are a lot of people writing a lot of things about the pitch. ‘It should not be like this’, or ‘it is turning too much’, people sitting somewhere else and speaking about the pitch in India. I think it is just a matter of mindset where people are just giving their opinions and they are free to do so. I don’t feel that way, we have never complained when we had challenging conditions and won’t complain in the future either.”We have tried to improve our game, it is always a matter of us not having the technique or us not having the mental strength to cope with conditions away from home. But when these sorts of things happen, everybody starts talking about how it is an undue home advantage. In the last few years if you see the stats of any team they are dominating at home and that is how Test cricket has gone. Whoever has won away from home is the No. 1 or No. 2 side in the world. I think that takes a lot of character and that won’t happen every time.”South Africa hadn’t lost in nine years and it is very hard to maintain that sort of record. Credit to them, they have not lost an away series for nine years but I would give credit to our boys for putting equal amount of pressure in the course of these three Test matches and actually win the series. I don’t see anything more or less to it.”Virat Kohli – “Wherever you go to play in the world, you’ve got to be prepared to face those conditions and tune your game accordingly”•BCCI

According to Kohli, India’s batsmen could themselves have dealt with the conditions better.”I would not like to comment on what the opposition did not do,” he said. “Us as a batting unit, and I said this in Mohali as well, we haven’t applied ourselves properly. One or two batsmen have but I think to play well consistently you have to apply as a batsman so we are talking of four guys out of six. But that’s not what happened and it has been two-odd guys every innings and that does not get you to a big total.”We have still been able to get to 220-225-odd three times out of four but as I said, if two guys apply themselves and the rest don’t, then things don’t go as planned. I am talking about our batting group. Even on turning pitches, if you apply yourself and if you are determined to dig in and play a game that is not natural to you, you can score runs.”Our batsmen did that in Mohali and Vijay got a decent start in the first innings [in Nagpur]. Pujara played well, in the second innings Shikhar got 40-odd, so everyone showed that runs can be scored. It was more a case of batsmen making mistakes rather than the ball doing some crazy things out in the middle. I think it was more of a mental thing which needed more application.”Playing in similar conditions, Kohli said, would help India’s batsmen improve their game against spin – which some experts felt had deteriorated when they lost the first Test on their tour to Sri Lanka in August.”As I said, these are the conditions that you get in India,” he said. “When we collapsed in Galle, someone was saying that we have improved our fast-bowling play but we don’t how to play spin. And now we are playing on spin-friendly wickets and this is the problem as well. I don’t know where we find the balance.”We as a team feel we have to improve our play against spin as well. These are the conditions we get in subcontinent and we have to play a lot of Test matches [in the subcontinent] in future as well. So, as a team in future, this is a learning phase as well for us. We need to step up our game in order to win Test matches like we have done this time.”Kohli said he did not mind continuing to play on pitches like the one on Nagpur, even if it meant his batting record, and those of the rest of India’s top order, suffered as a consequence.”I don’t mind compromising on [batsmen’s] averages as long as we are winning Test matches,” he said. “I think that’s our main concern, we are not playing for records, we are not playing for numbers or averages. Let’s not get into that matter. Yeah, that’s all there is to it. In Sri Lanka our performances weren’t that great with the bat but we still won the series. It’s the bowlers who are going to win you Test matches, as simple as that.”If you don’t take 20 wickets, you can have an average of 55, it doesn’t matter. These small contributions and team winning are more important rather than having an average of 50 and above and bowlers not being able to take wickets. I think you need to find an appropriate balance and sometime small contributions are more important than the big hundreds that we get in Test cricket.”

A round-up of all the Ranji Trophy Group C matches on October 10, 2015

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Oct-2015
ScorecardFile photo: Jalaj Saxena was unbeaten on 99, and put up 181 for the first wicket with Aditya Shrivastava•MPCA

Baroda opened their Ranji account with a bonus-point win in Vadodara, as the hosts toppled Railways by an innings and 113 runs inside three days. Baroda were already at a commanding 448 for 6 when the day began, and Hardik Pandya’s 85-ball 64 lifted the team to 500, after which they declared. Railways needed to score at least 334 to make Baroda bat again, but just like in the first innings, the visitors lost early wickets to stumble to 44 for 5. Prashant Awasthi (67) and Karn Sharma (51) put up a brief resistance by stroking fifties and stringing together a 108-run partnership, but no other batsman contributed with a significant knock. Pandya capped off a fine all-round display by picking up 3 for 30 – taking his match tally to eight wickets – as Railways were eventually bundled out for 221. Yusuf Pathan, Bhargav Bhatt and Sagar Mangalorkar ended with two scalps each.
ScorecardThere was little to separate Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in Indore, as Tamil Nadu compiled 596 for 9, only for the hosts to make a solid reply, scoring 181 without the loss of a wicket by stumps. Tamil Nadu, who began at 517 for 7, suffered an early setback as their overnight centurion Malolan Rangarajan was dismissed for 131 five overs into the day. However, the visitors’ tail continued to frustrate MP, as L Vignesh, the No.10 batsman, stroked a brisk 50 to take the team close to the 600-run mark, after which Tamil Nadu declared.MP, though, were unfazed, as the openers Aditya Shrivastava and Jalaj Saxena batted together for 65 overs without any damage. Shrivastava stroked 10 fours for his 73 not out, while Saxena was unbeaten on 99, with 17 fours.
Scorecard A brace of middle-order half-centuries from Murumulla Sriram and D Siva Kumar helped Andhra consolidate their strong start and take a first-innings lead of 113 against Gujarat.Having begun the day on 196 for 1, Andhra lost Srikar Bharat early for 127, but Mohammad Kaif went on to score a half-century and take his team towards earning first-innings lead points. He added 66 for the third wicket with AG Pradeed but then there was a slump during which Andhra lost four wickets for 29 runs.Sriram and Siva Kumar, however, took Andhra past Gujarat’s score of 308 during a seventh-wicket stand of 94. Rush Kalaria had taken a five-for for Gujarat, claiming five of the top six wickets, and his team-mates mopped up the tail – taking the last four Andhra wickets for 27 runs. The hosts were dismissed for 421.Gujarat lost Samit Gohel for 1 in reply, and ended the day on 24, 89 runs behind with nine wickets in hand.Mumbai v Punjab – Punjab fight, but Mumbai inch towards win

“It’s the toughest call I’ve made as a cricketer,” the left hander said

AAP25-Feb-2022Usman Khawaja is leaving BBL franchise Sydney Thunder so he can be closer to his family in Brisbane next summer.Khawaja said seeking a release from his contract with the Thunder was the toughest decision of his cricket career. His wife Rachel is expecting their second child, due in April this year.The 35-year-old, who was contracted by the Thunder until the end of the next BBL season, said he wants to spend more time in the Queensland capital with his family next summer.”It’s the toughest call I’ve made as a cricketer because Sydney Thunder…mean so much to me,” Khawaja said in a statement on Friday. “However, it is for family reasons.”And while I’m leaving, people who know me realise a big part of my heart will always remain with Thunder. I don’t want people to think I’ve cut my ties…because I’ll always care about the club, the players, the entire organisation.”Khawaja’s statement didn’t specify if he wanted to continue his BBL career with the Brisbane Heat.Khawaja, an inaugural Sydney Thunder player, is the franchise’s leading run-scorer with 1818 runs at a strike rate of almost 130.Cricket NSW’s head of male cricket, Michael Klinger, said Thunder had tabled a long-term contract extension to Khawaja.”It’s disappointing … Sydney Thunder and Cricket NSW definitely wanted him to stay and we offered a highly competitive contract,” Klinger said in a statement. “However we appreciate Usman’s decision has been made for his family, and we respect and support that.”Khawaja returned to Australia’s Test team during the 4-0 Ashes series win against England and departs this weekend for a three-Test tour of Pakistan, the country of his birth.

Assistant coach Estwick confirms that WI’s IPL players will fly to Netherlands once their franchises’ seasons have ended.

ESPNcricinfo staff20-May-2022Shimron Hetmyer has not made an international appearance since the T20 World Cup last year, but West Indies remain hopeful that he will make himself available for future tours.Hetmyer has missed all of West Indies’ bilateral series in the last six months, either because of personal reasons or on fitness grounds. He has returned to the IPL for the final stages of the season after leaving the tournament’s bubble to be present for the birth of his son, but made himself unavailable for their upcoming tours to the Netherlands and Pakistan in order to spend time with his family.Related

• No Holder, Evin Lewis or Hetmyer for West Indies' ODI tours of Netherlands and Pakistan

• West Indies coach Simmons: Hetmyer 'keeps letting down himself and his team-mates' with his fitness

“We got the email from Hetty saying that he is unavailable for selection because of the birth of his child,” Desmond Haynes, West Indies’ lead selector, said earlier this month when the squad for the upcoming tours was announced. “That is all the information we received so we acted that way; we had considered him for selection and the note stated he was unavailable.”Roddy Estwick, West Indies’ assistant coach, said on Friday that Hetmyer “will be missed” on the twin tours after his excellent IPL season for Rajasthan Royals. Before their game against Chennai Super Kings on Friday, he had scored 291 runs at a strike rate of 166.28, but Estwick said that the squad selected would have to cope without him.”If someone like Hetmyer’s not playing, you’re obviously going to miss his talent,” Estwick said. “He’s having an outstanding season for Rajasthan Royals. He’s doing very, very well. He’s playing well.”He will be missed, but at the end of the day, he’s not there. He’s asked not to be selected for this tour so we have to get on without him and we hope that he will make himself available for future tours.”Estwick also confirmed that West Indies’ IPL players would fly straight to the Netherlands once their respective franchises’ seasons have ended.Nicholas Pooran and Romario Shepherd [both Sunrisers Hyderabad] will travel after the group stage, Kyle Mayers [Lucknow Super Giants] and Alzarri Joseph [Gujarat Titans] will both be involved in the playoffs, while Rovman Powell’s itinerary will depend on whether Delhi Capitals beat Mumbai Indians in their final group game on Saturday.”Our expectation is to win all three ODIs [in the Netherlands] but it’s not going to be easy,” Estwick said. “Remember, a lot of the players won’t have played in conditions like the ones we’ll encounter in the Netherlands.”It’s about how quickly we adjust to conditions. We’ve only got a couple of days’ practice before we go into the first ODI so it’s all about adjusting and getting used to the conditions and then executing plans as well as possible.”West Indies’ series in the Netherlands comprises three ODIs in Amstelveen on May 31, June 2 and 4, while the tour of Pakistan involves three ODIs in Rawalpindi on June 8, 10 and 12.

New Zealand will have another week of training in Somerset before moving to Birmingham in time for their Commonwealth Games opener

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Jul-2022Amelia Kerr, the New Zealand spin-bowling allrounder, has tested positive for Covid-19 while on tour to England. The squad is travelling to take part in the cricket event at the upcoming Birmingham Commonwealth Games, starting July 28.The positive result came out after a round of Rapid Antigen Tests conducted on the team members on Saturday. Following the positive test, 21-year-old Kerr is in isolation at the team hotel.Related

• Down, Jess Kerr out of NZ's CWG squad

• Tahuhu hopes to put low phase behind

A NZC media statement said that Kerr was the only player from the touring party to test positive, while “the rest of the group will continue to be monitored and tested, as required”.The entire New Zealand contingent had travelled for England from Lincoln on July 12. New Zealand are scheduled to play their first match of the competition against South Africa on July 30.But first, they will have another week of training at Millfield School in Somerset – including two practice matches against England A – before moving to Birmingham towards the end of July.Kerr has been an integral part of the New Zealand set-up, having picked up 41 wickets in 41 bowling innings in T20Is at an economy of 5.94. With the bat, she has scored a total of 234 runs in 24 innings.Women’s cricket will feature at the Commonwealth Games for the first time at the upcoming edition, and cricket as a whole for only the second time after a men’s ODI competition was held in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, won by South Africa.

A sequence of events starting from the IPL 2013 spot-fixing scandal reached its conclusion when the three-member Lodha panel submitted its report on the functioning of the BCCI to the court on January 4, 2016. Here’s what the panel recommended

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Jan-2016January 4, 2016
News – Lodha panel recommends severe BCCI shake-up
News – Manohar, Thakur in potential conflict situations
News – Lodha panel recommends forming players’ association
News – Selection panel to be smaller, more empowered
News – For transparency and oversight, RTI and independent watchdogs
News – IPL COO Raman let off due to lack of ‘cogent evidence’
Quotes – The most damning bits of the report: ‘No caution taken to protect the sport from the orgy of excess’

Video – Amrut Joshi, sports law expert: Potentially game-changing recommendations
Video – Joshi: Players’ association not just for collective bargaining
Video – ‘Restricting state association voting rights good move’
Video – ‘Recommendations on conflict of interest well considered’
Video – Ugra: Test record doesn’t amount to selection pedigree
January 5
Ugra: What the Lodha panel has done
News – Former India selectors question Lodha proposals on selection
January 6
News – Lodha report could change cricket’s TV economy
January 7
News – BCCI silent in public but starts internal response
Video – Ugra: A familiar way for BCCI to tread

Surrey ran through Derbyshire in the extra half hour, with Gareth Batty taking four wickets, after James Burke and Dominic Sibley contributed important innings

Paul Edwards at Derby23-Jun-2015
ScorecardJames Burke’s maiden first-class half-century helped set up a three-day victory for Surrey•PA Photos

Much has been made of the players who are unavailable for selection by Surrey at the moment, rather less of the opportunities their absence affords to others. If Graham Ford, their coach, had been given a full-strength squad from which to choose, it is almost certain that neither Dominic Sibley nor James Burke would have got the nod for this game against Derbyshire, which Surrey won when they took three wickets in the extra half-hour as the home side’s later batsmen seemingly lost all contact with their powers of resistance or competitive spirit.Surrey captain Gareth Batty took the last four wickets in 6.5 overs on an evening when straight balls suddenly became lethal. From 78 for 6, when Wayne White was plumb as you like lbw to Tom Curran for 23, Derbyshire lost those last four wickets for 44 runs with Mark Footitt slogging 20 before he holed out to Burke at deep midwicket, thus ensuring that Surrey’s defeat to Glamorgan last week at Guildford could be consigned to the “blip” category much beloved of coaches everywhere.”We needed a reaction and we got it,” Batty said. “I think the boys to a man were magnificent and all of them should be really proud of themselves.”Yet the Surrey hierarchy should be careful. They will rarely encounter batting quite as gutless as some of Derbyshire’s was in the closing stages of this game. In his Daniel Defoe enthused that he found “a great deal of good and some gay company” in Derby. Well, Derby folk remain cheerful and welcoming in the 21st century but Defoe would have been hard-pressed to find the city’s cricket community in a sunny mood after they had watched the tripe their players served up on Tuesday evening. “Here we bloody go,” said a local, when Billy Godleman played on to Curran for 10 in the fifth over. The trouble was the old boy had it dead right. Thirty-five overs later the players were shaking hands.Yet when one’s shock at the craven submission of Derbyshire’s middle and lower order had subsided, it was clear that the challenge of scoring 348 in the fourth innings had proved far too much for Madsen’s batsmen. Perhaps this was hardly surprising given that the county have never scored so many to win a game in their history and that not since 1985 have they more than 300 for victory in the fourth innings.But in this chronicle of poor cricket, we are in danger of forgetting the excellent stuff served up by Sibley and Burke, and that will never do. It was the contrasting innings played by these talented young cricketers which seized a decisive advantage for Surrey on the third day before loanee Luke Fletcher’s accurate seamers rammed home the visitors’ superiority with the scalps of Hamish Rutherford and Wayne Madsen. Both batsmen edged catches to the slips and both, it should be noted, were got out; they did not present their wickets to the bowlers.Burke and Fletcher’s contributions will be fairly plain to anyone glancing at the completed scorecard in next year’s Wisden. In only his third first-class appearance, the 24-year-old Burke recorded his maiden first-class fifty and his 73 was the highest individual contribution of a match in which, irony of ironies, batting was particularly difficult until the third afternoon He then dismissed Chesney Hughes and Ben Slater as Batty’s bowlers ran amok in the sunlit evening.But the smooth ease with which Surrey asserted their dominance on the third afternoon and evening should not obscure the hard work done by Sibley to build his side’s winning position. When the morning session began, Surrey’s No. 3 had already batted for 88 minutes, almost all of it in Monday evening’s murk and drizzle.Sibley then gritted it out for another 95 minutes, adding just 26 more runs before he was fourth out, unluckily leg before to White for 46. By then, though, Surrey were 143 for 4 and their lead was 175. Foundations had been laid. Burke was able to make hay when the sun shone because Sibley had gritted it out when it had rained.At first, though, Burke did not have things all his own way. Rattled on the helmet by Footitt, he scored most of his runs behind the wicket before he grew in confidence. After the loss of Ben Foakes and Gary Wilson, both of whom were bowled by Derbyshire’s left-arm spearhead and England hopeful, Burke added 83 for the seventh wicket with Batty, whose savvy company probably helped him as he reached his fifty. The pair’s stand was the highest of the match and it broke Derbyshire.”Burkey copped a few in the chops from Footitt but he just kept battling through,” Batty said. “He played a magnificent innings and I think it turned the game.”As for Footitt, while he bowled all four of his victims and is undoubtedly rapid, he also sent down 11 no-balls and three wides. Nearly a quarter of the runs he conceded therefore required the batsmen to do no work at all. Charity runs are rarely a characteristic of Ashes Tests but then there can rarely have been a team quite as charitable as Derbyshire were on a remarkable Tuesday when 18 wickets fell. Happily for the club’s many supporters, Madsen and his players did not find their coach Graeme Welch in a particularly forgiving or benevolent mood when they returned to the pavilion. The doors remained locked for an over an hour while Surrey’s players celebrated both their win and an unexpected day off just a few yards away.

The number of women’s centrally-contracted players will rise from 18 to 25, with their salaries increasing by 15%

Danyal Rasool24-Jun-2022Pakistan’s men’s cricketers will have red and white-ball contracts separated in a revamp of the way the PCB central contracts are handed out. PCB chairman Ramiz Raja announced the move was necessary to incentivise and reward the efforts of players in each format. The number of centrally-contracted men’s cricketers will also rise from 20 to 33 when the contracts are next handed out next month. In addition, the number of women’s centrally-contracted players will rise from 18 to 25, with their salaries increasing by 15%.”The thought process behind splitting red and white-ball contracts is to recognise the importance of white-ball cricket in the growth and development of the game,” Ramiz said. “We have four international events in the next 16 months, including two World Cups. This recognition of offering contracts to white-ball specialists will help us to eventually develop two separate squads, which could simultaneously be engaged in white and red-ball cricket. This will also allow us to have a bigger spread of talent to showcase to the world.”The number of women’s central contracts has been increased to 25 from 18. You saw the performance of the women’s side against Sri Lanka, where Tuba [Hassan] became the first ICC Player of the Month. We won a Women’s World Cup match for the first time in 13 years. We executed a talent hunt of the women’s side across the country for the first time.”Related

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There was also an emphasis on shielding Pakistan’s frontline cricketers from fatigue by disincentivising them from playing too many overseas leagues. As a result, Ramiz announced “a substantial pool of funds” that would be made available to compensate them.”To discourage our elite players from signing up for additional off-season events, we have allocated substantial pool of funds. This amount will be used to compensate them for their potential loss in earnings and will also manage their workload and ensure that they remain fully fit, fresh and ready when required on national duty.”Another one of Ramiz’s signature projects, the introduction of drop-in pitches to Pakistan, is yet to see significant progress, but the PCB chairman announced that logistical and financial hurdles had frustrated his efforts, and that things were moving quickly now.”Drop-in pitches are extremely expensive, and transporting them from Australia is problematic,” he explained. “We’ve imported soil from Australia, which is coming in July. An Australian curator is coming here. We all learn lessons, and what I learned was the pitches against Australia were useless. We assumed we’d beat them with spin and reverse swing, which didn’t happen. So I had the pitches on the squares changed immediately.”These announcements were the most salient developments across a press conference after the PCB’s 69th Board of Governors (BoG) meet, where Ramiz re-emphasised his primary aims and intentions as chairman, talking up the need for financial independence, and the importance of on-field results to grow the influence and brand of Pakistan cricket. There were salary and fee increases announced across the board, too, with a 10% increase in match fees across formats. Moreover, non-playing members will earn 70% of the match fee that playing cricketers receive, up from 50% previously.”Since September 2021, the Pakistan men’s cricket team has achieved an impressive 75% success rate across all formats, which is the highest amongst all the Test playing nations. This has contributed in Pakistan improving its rankings, which now stands at fifth in Tests [up by one], third in ODIs [up by three and the highest since January 2017] and third in T20Is [up by one].”With this background, and in line with our philosophy that revolves around acknowledging, appreciating and rewarding high-performing players, I am pleased with the enhancements in the 2022-23 central contracts. I remain committed to looking after our national cricketers who bring joy to the fans and laurels for the country. These players are our pride, and always need to be well looked after and properly valued so that they can continue to flourish in their field of expertise.”