A round-up of the Ranji Trophy Group A matches on October 30, 2015

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Oct-2015 ScorecardFile photo: R Samarth’s 85-run stand with Mayank Agarwal helped Karnataka recover from a shaky start•PTI

Mayank Agarwal and R Samarth hit half-centuries, but Rajasthan’s bowlers justified Ashok Menaria’s decision to bowl first on a green-tinged surface in Jaipur. The defending champions ended the day on 270 for 8, with Shreyas Gopal (36*) and David Mathias (18*) frustrating Rajasthan with their defiance late in the day.Karnataka lost Robin Uthappa and Abhishek Reddy in the first hour to seamers Deepak Chahar and Tanveer-ul-Haq respectively as Rajasthan did the early running. But Agarwal, playing his first game of the season, looked in fine touch during his third-wicket association of 85 with Samarth before left-arm seamer Aniket Choudhary hit back.Kukna Singh, the left-arm spinner, then got into the act to prise out Stuart Binny and CM Gautam, and trigger a middle order collapse that left Karnataka reeling at 179 for 6. Vinay Kumar, the captain, then made a patient 29 in Gopal’s company to help Karnataka cross the 250-mark. ScorecardHaryana continued the good bowling form they displayed against Karnataka in Mysore last week as they left Bengal’s top order in disarray in Lahli, but half-centuries from Pramod Chandila and Pankaj Shaw helped them claw back. Bengal, tottering at 112 for 5 after being sent in, ended the day on 257 for 8.Allrounder Sachin Rana triggered the slide with three top-order wickets, including that of Manoj Tiwary, the Bengal captain, for 24. Shaw and Chandila then shared a sixth-wicket stand of 65 to steady the innings before legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal broke the partnership. But Bengal were not giving up yet as Shaw found able support from Pragyan Ojha (22*), the duo frustrating the hosts for close to 20 overs in the final session. ScorecardFaiz Fazal’s first century of the season underscored Vidarbha’s dominance in Nagpur. Things could have been better for the hosts had they not lost Shalabh Shrivastava off the last ball of the day.The day began on a bad note as the hosts lost Wasim Jaffer for a duck in the first over to Shrikant Mundhe. Three overs later, Ganesh Satish was removed after he was caught behind off Anupam Sanklecha. Captain S Badrinath held his own for a brief while to make 27, but Maharashtra were firmly in control when he fell shortly before lunch.Fazal and Shrivastava took control from there on to steer Vidarbha out of trouble, adding 147 before Mundhe’s wicket off the last ball gave Maharashtra some relief on a long and attritional day.
ScorecardDelhi made slow progress on a truncated day due to rain in Bhubaneswar, ending the day on 99 for 1 after 48.2 overs. With Unmukt Chand away with the Board President’s XI against the South Africans in Mumbai, Dhruv Shorey, 23, made his debut, and made 42 in an opening stand of 74 before falling to Basant Mohanty. Captain Gautam Gambhir and Nitish Rana then saw Delhi through till the end of the day’s play.

Sunil Narine, the West Indies offspinner, has been reported for bowling with a suspect action during the third ODI against Sri Lanka in Pallekele

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Nov-2015Sunil Narine, the West Indies offspinner, has been reported for bowling with a suspect action during the third ODI against Sri Lanka in Pallekele.Narine finished with figures of 0 for 24 in the Pallekele ODI, which Sri Lanka won by 19 runs based on the Duckworth-Lewis method. The match officials’ report, handed to the West Indies team management after the game, cited concerns about the legality of Narine’s deliveries.Narine will need to undergo testing on his action within 14 days, and will be permitted to continue bowling until the results of his testing are known.This is the first time Narine has been reported in an international game, though he has undergone scrutiny of his action during the IPL and the Champions League T20. He was reported twice in two matches during the 2014 edition of the CLT20, forcing him to miss Kolkata Knight Riders’ final against Chennai Super Kings.Though he was free to bowl in international cricket, West Indies withdrew Narine from their tour of India to allow him “the opportunity to have his action assessed and plan his return to cricket”. West Indies left him out of all their subsequent international assignments until they picked him for the 2015 World Cup. Though he had remodeled his action in the interim, Narine pulled out of the tournament, saying the return would be “a little too much too soon”.Narine endured further trouble with his action during the 2015 IPL – he was first cleared to bowl in the tournament, reported and sent for a re-test, banned from bowling his offbreaks, and then cleared again, with a “final warning”.The Sri Lanka tour was Narine’s first international tournament since August 2014. He picked up four wickets at an average of 18.00 in the three ODIs, while conceding 3.34 runs per over.

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.”

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.”

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

Mohammed Shami has been ruled out of the Asia Cup T20 after failing to fully recover from a hamstring injury that kept him out of the limited-overs series inn Australia last month

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Feb-2016Mohammed Shami has been ruled out of the Asia Cup T20 after failing to fully recover from a hamstring injury that kept him out of the limited-overs series in Australia last month. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been named as his replacement.Shami sustained the injury at a training session in Australia, and missed two warm-up games before flying back home. While he was originally said to be out for “four to six” weeks, the medical staff have decided to give him more time to recover from the Grade II injury to his left hamstring.Despite the lack of match practice, the selectors had indicated their willingness in waiting for Shami to recover, with Sandeep Patil, the chairman of selectors, saying that he hoped to test his match fitness during the Asia Cup. “We have good time for making a call on Shami. He has been one of our best bowlers. He has recovered, he has started bowling. That’s what I can say at the moment,” Patil had said while picking the squad for the Asia Cup and the World T20.Before the departure for Australia, India captain MS Dhoni had also insisted Shami was part of his plans for the World T20, which for India begins against New Zealand in Nagpur on March 15.Shami’s last international outing was during the World Cup, when he played through injury and pain, after which he underwent surgery and then rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore. He was then named among the 30 probables for a preparatory camp ahead of the South Africa series in October, but could not regain full fitness for the international matches.Once fit, Shami played four matches for Bengal – two in the Vijay Hazare Trophy in December and two in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in January.

India’s limited-overs captain MS Dhoni was careful not to underestimate Sri Lanka despite losing several players to injury

Sidharth Monga in Pune08-Feb-20162:39

‘T20 team well balanced’ – Dhoni

Sri Lanka don’t have a mystery spinner. That should be enough to stop the press, but that is not the end of the story. The cricketing shrewdness of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara has not come close to being replaced. Even Angelo Mathews and Lasith Malinga are not there and Tillakaratne Dilshan will miss the opening game of this three-T20I series. Their coach has only just taken charge. India are thus the favourites going into this World T20-preparation series, but MS Dhoni knows all too well the vagaries of the format. He knows a player can change the game in 10 balls. Win it or even lose it.”What really happens in this format is, the difference between the sides is very narrow,” Dhoni said. “What it boils down to is how good your match winners are playing. You can have only one big hitter in the side but if it’s his day, he can take the game away from you. And it can happen in just 10 or 12 balls.”India have to find a mix between doing what is best for this series and what is best for the World T20. In Virat Kohli’s absence, batting Suresh Raina at his beloved No. 3 is best for this series, but Dhoni is also looking at what is best for World T20.”I think it will be slightly better if Raina bats at the position that he will most likely bat in the World Cup,” Dhoni said. “It will give him that exposure. Also we are not a team that plays a lot of T20Is. Usually we play one game in a bilateral series. So this gives him an opportunity to expose him to No. 4 for a consistent period of time. The opportunity is there to make him bat at three and use some other batter [at four] but I think it will be more appropriate if he bats at No. 4 and gets adjusted.”One of the targets is to watch out against the fatigue and not peak too early, although some might say their 3-0 win in Australia was their peak. “We have quite a few targets in mind,” Dhoni said. “Winning games is important. But at the same time what will be more crucial is, we have to keep everyone fit. It’s almost the same 15 that will play till the World T20. It’s important to keep everyone fit so that the best XI is always available for selection. That will be the key factor.”Dhoni is also aware perhaps that India’s recent record in limited-overs cricket on the slower pitches of Asia hasn’t been great. The batsmen haven’t been as dominant as before and added to that is the slightly unusual sand-based outfield in Pune. It is slower than usual and high balls just sit in the ground. It is just as well that the straight boundaries are short, because during the practice sessions out in the middle, balls hit in the air lost all sting upon hitting the turf.Pandurang Salgaocar, the chief groundsman, said this was a normal outfield and that the well-timed shots will travel. If he is wrong, it may well provide the much-needed balance between bat and ball if only for just one game.Practically in the middle of nowhere, seemingly halfway to Mumbai, in conditions they have not played much IPL cricket in, India will begin their home stretch to the World T20. Shikhar Dhawan at the top of the order, Yuvraj Singh at No. 6 and Hardik Pandya as the allrounder will be the unknowns they will want to know more about.For Dhoni, though, the Maharashtra Cricket Association stadium will now be his IPL home and he has already found comfort factors. Even before he went to the nets, he made his way to the much talked-about dog kennel. Twenty-four dogs here are part of the security team. Dhoni even wanted to adopt a golden retriever back in the day. As he waited on, the dog, Prince, settled down and made this ground his home, Dhoni might not get to take the dog away. Pune, though, has certainly taken to Dhoni.

Australia captain Steven Smith has hinted that David Warner could have a fluid batting position in the World T20 despite his recent success at No.4

Arun Venugopal in Kolkata12-Mar-2016Australia captain Steven Smith has hinted that David Warner could have a fluid batting position in the World T20 despite his recent success at No.4. Australia experimented with Warner in the middle order in the T20I series against South Africa and reaped instant rewards. In the second T20I, he smashed 77 off 40 balls in Johannesburg and was involved in a record 161-run stand with Glenn Maxwell as Australia nailed a chase of 205. Warner’s role in the decider in Cape Town was also crucial, as his 27-ball 33 complemented Smith’s knock in propelling the team towards the target of 179.Australia tried out three different opening combinations in South Africa using Aaron Finch, Shane Watson and Usman Khawaja with varying degree of success. Smith also suggested that the batting order could be altered to facilitate a left-right combination in spin-friendly conditions. By Khawaja’s own admission, he isn’t a certainty in the playing XI but Smith asserted that Australia’s batting order wasn’t cast in stone. “We have obviously got a lot of guys that can bat at the top of the order and he [Warner] has fitted in quite well at No.4,” Smith told reporters at his arrival press conference in Kolkata.”That doesn’t mean he’s going to bat at No.4 in this tournament. I think for us it’s about being flexible and summing up the conditions and who we are playing against and try to match up as well as we can. But he certainly did a very good job at No.4 as well.”Australia have tried out a number of players before eventually settling on the fifteen they have for the World T20. There is a fair bit of inexperience in the squad as well with Peter Nevill, Ashton Agar and Adam Zampa having a collective experience of six T20Is. Smith, however, reckoned a “squad mentality” would help overcome such limitations and that the 2-1 series victory in South Africa was perfect preparation ahead of the World T20.”We feel pretty settled. We have got 15 guys that can give this tournament a real shake, and I thought we played some pretty good cricket over in South Africa to win that series there,” Smith said. “South Africa produced some wickets that sort of replicated these conditions as much as they could which was nice and guys have stepped up and are in good form.”We’ve got a good squad together and it’s going to take squad mentality for us to do well in this tournament. Selecting the best XI comes down to a lot of different things – who we think is going to be best suited for each opposition at each ground we play at. I think we’ve got 15 guys that can all do a job in these conditions.”Smith also defended the inexperience in his spin attack and was particularly pleased with Zampa’s evolution as a leg spinner. Zampa is yet to take a wicket in two T20 internationals but he bowled economically in South Africa, giving away only 6.12 runs an over.”I don’t think our young spinners are a weakness at all. They are very confident in the skill sets and they have proven themselves and have bowled really well in the big games,” he said. ” I think he [Zampa] has improved a lot over the last couple of years. I thought he bowled beautifully in South Africa, thought he bowled really well in the ODIs he played in NZ as well.”I’ve seen him play for a long time. I know his skill set very well. That helps a little bit when you’re captaining someone you’ve pretty close to. He’s got a lot of variations, he reads the batsmen very well which is very important in this format of the game and he is very confident in his skill sets. Hope he can have a good tournament for us.”

Cameron Bancroft’s first experience of county cricket proved to be a galling one after he was penalised under the ECB’s discipline code for dissent on his Gloucestershire debut

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Apr-2016Cameron Bancroft’s first experience of county cricket proved to be a galling one after he was penalised under the ECB’s discipline code for dissent on his Gloucestershire debut.Bancroft showed his displeasure after he was adjudged caught at the wicket off Essex’s pace bowler Jamie Porter for a third-ball duck – his second single-figure score of the match while opening the batting in Gloucestershire’s opening Specsavers Championship match.He was reported by umpires Michael Gough and Jeff Evans for a Level One breach of the code (showing dissent at an umpire’s decision by word or action).Although Bancroft escaped with a reprimand, the penalty remains on his record for a period of two years and the accumulation of nine or more penalty points in any two year period will result in an automatic suspension.Bancroft, the Western Australia wicketkeeper-batsman, has signed for Gloucestershire for the first two months of the English season. He made his Australia debut in the final T20 against India in Sydney earlier this year.He is one of three Western Australia players signed by Gloucestershire. Michael Klinger, captain in limited-overs cricket, returns towards the end of May, alongside the T20 specialist Andrew Tye.Surrey’s Tom Curran was also reported by umpires David Millns and Tim Robinson for a Level One offence during Surrey’s Championship match against Nottinghamshire.

Steven Smith has aired his concerns about playing a pink ball Test at the Gabba, despite the fact the Brisbane match against Pakistan is locked in while Adelaide Oval’s fixture remains unresolved due to South African hesitance

Daniel Brettig23-May-2016Australia’s captain Steven Smith has aired his concerns about playing a pink-ball Test at the Gabba, despite the fact that the Brisbane match against Pakistan is locked in while Adelaide Oval’s fixture remains unresolved due to South African hesitance.Casting an eye towards the Gabba match against Pakistan next summer, Smith said he expected the faster pitch and subtropical conditions to pose multiple challenges for the competing teams. This is particularly true for batsmen on both sides, as they will have to cope with a ball that is likely to swing and seam even more than it did in Adelaide.Representatives of the PCB were present for the inaugural day-night Test between Australia and New Zealand in Adelaide last summer, and agreed to play the match in Brisbane notwithstanding the markedly different conditions likely to be at play. South Africa, meanwhile, have baulked at a pink-ball match even though Adelaide is Smith’s preferred venue for it.”I think it worked well last year, playing the one Test at Adelaide Oval,” Smith said of the move towards multiple day-night matches. “I personally believe that’s the best place to play a day-night Test match. We’ve got one game at the Gabba this year so it will be interesting to see how that goes. I still think we need plenty of development with the ball.”I think it’s just a little bit different with the ball and the humidity that is quite often around in Brisbane. [It] Could be very difficult for the batters, particularly if there is to be grass left on the wicket so I guess there is only one way to see how it’s going to go and we have an opportunity to do that against Pakistan this year.”It worked well in Adelaide last year. We were [playing on] 2mm of grass away from it being a four-day game instead of a three-day game. I think it’s certainly a place that it can be successful and I’d be happy to play another pink-ball game at Adelaide Oval.”Smith’s mixed feelings about the pink-ball Test reflect those of many players, who agree the spectacle witnessed in Adelaide last year was on a scale worth pursuing while retaining reservations about the ball and the variation in conditions. The concept’s momentum has grown in recent months as other countries become interested; most recently the ECB chairman Colin Graves expressed an eagerness to host day-night Tests in England.”Cricket Australia is keen to get as many pink-ball games in as possible,” Smith said. “You only have to look at the spectacle last year at Adelaide, it was absolutely remarkable the amount of viewers at the game and on television as well so I think it’s certainly a step forward and we have to keep improving as much as we can to make sure that the game can survive. I think it’s a great game of cricket and we have to just continue to get it right as much as possible.”I think the players have to buy into it as well. In the end, we are the ones out there doing the job and it is our job so we have to make sure it’s right for us and we want to win as much as possible and we have to find a way to do that with the pink ball. There was obviously an amazing Test match last year and we were able to get over the line at the end, which I think is the most important thing from my aspect and we have to keep looking at ways to be successful with the pink ball.”