Michael Vaughan will return to county action on April 29, the ECB has announced in a release which listed when centrally contracted players can turn out ahead of the first Test against West Indies. Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen will face each other at The Rose Bowl from May 9 after being given one Championship match before the international summer begins.Vaughan, who was desperately short of runs during the World Cup until his 79 against West Indies in England’s final match, will take on Scotland in the Friends Provident Trophy before his first Championship match on May 2 against Hampshire at The Rose Bowl. He will have a maximum of two four-day games and two Friends Provident outings before leading England in the first Test at Lord’s on May 17.Flintoff and Pietersen have less action with a single one-day match alongside their Championship head-to-head. It will be Pietersen’s first first-class match for Hampshire since 2005 and Flintoff only made one appearance for Lancashire last summer.Of the other centrally contracted players who were at the World Cup, Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood are available for their counties from May 7 until the end of the Championship matches on May 12. Andrew Strauss can turn out for Middlesex from May 6, while Monty Panesar has been given two Championship matches – against Essex and Somerset – but no one-day cricket before the first Test.Alastair Cook, Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Simon Jones and Marcus Trescothick have already begun their seasons, after not being part of the World Cup, although Jones has been left out of Glamorgan’s squad to face Essex as he manages his return from injury.Lancashire pace bowlers James Anderson and Sajid Mahmood have been given two weeks rest despite not being contracted. They are both available to feature against Hampshire alongside Flintoff, while Mahmood can also play against Northamptonshire on May 6 and Anderson against Durham on May 7.
The non-centrally contracted England players’ availability is as follows:Ed Joyce, Jamie Dalrymple, Paul Nixon and Ravi Bopara will all be free for the Friends Provident ties this Sunday. If Stuart Broad passes a fitness test on a minor injury he will also be available for Leicestershire, alongside Nixon.Lancashire will have Saj Mahmood from May 6, when they play Northants in the Friends Provident, and James Anderson will be free the very next day, against Durham in the same competition. Liam Plunkett also makes his county return in that match.
Shane Bond, the New Zealand fast bowler, will return home because of a knee injury that has forced him to miss the remaining two Test matches on the tour of South Africa.”Shane was asked to bowl six overs yesterday as part of his fitness assessment, which he did. But the knee became sore after cooling down and Shane came to the conclusion that he could not take his place in the next two Tests,” said Lindsay Crocker, New Zealand’s general manager.”The medical assessment is that Shane will now need four to six weeks rest for the injury to settle completely, before starting on building himself up again. This will be further assessed when he gets home. Shane will withdraw from his county contract with Gloucestershire, which he was due to take up at the completion of this tour.”Reacting to the news, Bond said that he wasn’t sure his knee would stand up to the rigours of the five-day Test. “If it was a series of one-dayers I may well have played, but we’ve bowled on every day of every Test so far this summer and I don’t think the knee would’ve stood up to that,” Bond was quoted as saying by . “It wasn’t worth the risk. I’d hate to go into a Test and let the team down in those circumstances, and I also have faith in the other members of the squad to go in there and do a good job, as they’ve done in the past.”He admitted that the financial setback of missing a county contract would hurt, but chose to look ahead, especially at the prospect of being fit for the World Cup in 2007. “Financially it’s going to hurt a little bit but my priority has always been to play for New Zealand, especially in another World Cup,” he said. “So I try not to think too much about losing that money and instead concentrate on doing things properly so I can be around for next year’s World Cup and other events like that.”Michael Mason had already been called up as cover for Bond so New Zealand will not need a replacement for the second Test at Cape Town beginning on Thursday.Bond missed the first Test at Centurion because of the same injury. He has been plagued by injury in the last few years, managing to feature in just six Tests since the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.
Keith Miller, the regal allrounder who impressed everyone in pubs to palaces, has died at the age of 84.An Invincible, a Second World War fighter pilot, a journalist, an elderly recluse: Miller was many things. Above all he was a hero to generations of Australians, even in his old age. “The ladies loved him, and every man wanted to be him,” the broadcaster Michael Parkinson said of his boyhood hero. Boasting film-star looks and a game to match, Miller helped shake the Commonwealth from its postwar despair with his dash and dare.During the war he flew fighter planes over Britain, and survived when the average lifespan was about three weeks. The experience shaped the remainder of his career and helped develop his legend. Cricket was merely one of life’s asides. “I’ll tell you what pressure is,” he once said. “Pressure is a Messerschmitt up your arse. Playing cricket is not.” A crash-landing left a bad back – “Nearly stumps drawn that time, gents” – but he walked away. On one mission he detoured over Bonn on the way back so he could see the city of Beethoven’s birth. Still, the Allies had stolen his early twenties. He entered the forces as a batsman and exited, reluctantly, as Australia’s fastest bowler.Unconventional and his own man, he raised the ire of Don Bradman on his Ashes debut, at the Gabba in 1946-47, by refusing to bowl fast and short to Bill Edrich. “I’d just fought a war with this bloke. I wasn’t going to take his head off.” He bowled cutters instead, taking 7 for 60 in the first innings in the greatest bowling performance of his career. The batting highlight had come at Lord’s the year before, when he played for the Dominions against England.Players from all over the world were selected yet Miller, according to Wisden, “outshone them all”. On those two August days in 1945 Miller scored a magnificent 185 and peppered seven sixes, one landing on to the top tier of the pavilion, another on the broadcast box. Spectators felt they were safer in the bar; Pelham Warner called it the greatest exhibition of batting he ever saw. RS Whitington, the journalist, author and Miller’s great friend, observed, “It is a tragedy that Australians have never quite seen the Miller of 1945.”
Keith Ross Miller was born in Melbourne in 1919, and named after the aviators Keith and Ross Smith. “Nugget’s” first Test came against New Zealand in 1945-46, in a journey that would lead to his being named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1954 and inducted into the Australian Hall of Fame. Capable of batting at No. 4 and opening the bowling, Miller finished his 55 Tests with 2958 runs at 36.97 and 170 wickets at 22.97. The greatest omission was that he never led his country. Richie Benaud regularly described Miller as the greatest skipper he’d played under. “He was the best captain never to lead Australia,” he said. But Miller was not in the Australian Cricket Board’s image and his anti-establishment methods rankled with more straight-laced administrators. Yet his photo was one of only two in the Canberra office of the Australian prime minister Sir Robert Menzies.He was always at his best in a proper contest. As the Invincibles careered towards 721 in a day against Essex, Miller let himself be bowled first ball by Trevor Bailey and headed for the local racecourse via the dressing-room. In Test retirement he became a touring journalist and columnist for the Daily Express, and in later life was rather reclusive, rarely giving interviews but regularly returning to England. Three hip operations, cancer and a stroke slowed him down, and his shock of black hair turned grey. It blew easily in the wind at the MCG in February, when his statue was unveiled and he gently clapped his frail hands. “I don’t take too much interest in the cricket,” he told Australia’s Inside Edge magazine at the time. “There seems to be a Test match on every day. I spent years playing 55 of them, and these blokes run up 190.”Peter English is Australasian editor of Wisden Cricinfo.
As if they needed any reminder of their current predicament, England have been drawn to face Zimbabwe in the opening match of this summer’s ICC Champions Trophy, at Edgbaston on September 10.But where England and Zimbabwe are concerned these days, nothing can be taken for granted. The match is scheduled to take place a matter of weeks before England themselves fly out to Zimbabwe for a full Test tour, but that trip is in doubt because of Britain’s opposition to Robert Mugabe’s disgraced regime. In turn, the ICC have the right to withdraw the Champions’ Trophy from England, and may choose to do so at a meeting of the ten board chairmen in Auckland next month.Although Zimbabwe’s visit to England passed without incident last summer, the same cannot be said of the last time the two teams were scheduled to face each other in an official ICC event. In February 2003, England withdrew from their opening fixture of the 2003 World Cup, after a player-led boycott, a decision that may cost the ECB upwards of £2 million.England versus Zimbabwe is the match with an added frisson, but other notable fixtures include England’s second group match against Sri Lanka at The Rose Bowl on September 17, and India against Pakistan at Edgbaston two days later. The final is scheduled for The Oval on Saturday, September 25, England’s late-summer weather permitting, of course. Fortunately, reserve days have been allocated for all matches, to reduce the need for Duckworth/Lewis calculations in the event of rain.As Australia proved in the VB Series finals this week, they remain the pre-eminent side in one-day cricket. But Malcolm Speed, the chief executive of the ICC, was sure that the tournament would throw up some intriguing results. “Since the World Cup last year, we have seen a number of teams undergo a radical transformation,” said Speed. “The England and Pakistan teams are barely recognisable from the sides that crashed out in the first round, and this tournament will be the opportunity for the cricketing world to see just how far these teams have now come.David Clarke, the ECB’s tournament director, was equally optimistic about the prospects for the tournament. “The ICC Champions Trophy presents a tremendous opportunity for cricket fans here to see the best in the world at close quarters,” he said. “The intensity of the competition will guarantee plenty of top-quality action as the best one-day players in the world go head-to-head for this prestigious title in three of England’s top venues.”Twelve teams will be split into four groups of three for a round-robin group stage, with the winner of each group moving through to the semi-finals.
SYDNEY, Jan 2 AAP – Mark Butcher and Nasser Hussain made Australia pay for a raft of missed opportunities to steady England after a worrying start to the fifth Ashes Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground today.By tea on the opening day, the pair had steered the tourists to 2-150 with an unbroken partnership of 118.Butcher was not out 67 and Hussain was on 57.Both had survived dropped chances in the first session and Butcher was handed another life after lunch.Australian legspinner Stuart MacGill spilled a straight forward caught and bowled chance off Hussain when he was on six with England floundering at 2-63.Butcher was lucky on 13 when Damien Martyn got a hand to what would have been a spectacular catch off Andy Bichel’s bowling.On 43, Butcher edged a Jason Gillespie delivery which bounced in and out of Adam Gilchrist’s gloves as the wicketkeeper stretched to his left.Earlier, Gilchrist managed to hold an excellent catch, launching himself high to his left to dispose of Marcus Trescothick (19) off Bichel.That dismissal left England in trouble at 2-32 after opener Michael Vaughan had been caught by Gilchrist off Brett Lee in the fourth over of the match for no score.Bichel received treatment on the field for what appeared to be a dislocated left index finger after fielding Hussain off his own bowling.
Surrey 227 for 5 (Burns 92) trail Derbyshire 313 (Hughes 96, T Curran 5-71, Ansari 4-61) by 86 runs ScorecardRory Burns made 92 before falling to Wes Durston•Getty Images
After nearly decade without a first-class trophy Surrey hardly need to be reminded how tough county cricket, regardless of the division, can be. But with promotion back to Division One just a handful of bonus points or a few days of rain away, Surrey’s young and ambitious side were given one, perhaps final, reminder that regardless of what higher honours may await, the county game is hard, hard work.There are few counties that contrast so markedly with Surrey than Derbyshire. But despite their obvious differences off the field, such an imbalance was not evident on it. After a second consecutive day of tense, gritty cricket Derbyshire are just about ahead in a fascinating and oscillating encounter.That there was no stand-out performer for Derbyshire is perhaps appropriate on a day in which their lower-order frustrated Surrey with the bat before the same men choked them with the ball. Surrey will resume on the third day still trailing Derbyshire’s first innings total of 313 by 86 and with five wickets in hand to narrow the deficit.A draw would be enough to seal promotion and Surrey could of course, still go onto win this match, but it has already proven harder than many would have initially imagined.The day began with Surrey harbouring hopes of swiftly ending Derbyshire’s innings but, despite Chesney Hughes falling four short of his seventh first-class century, the lower order delayed Surrey long enough to extend the morning session to allow them to take the tenth wicket. An energetic partnership of 50 between Matt Critchley and Tony Palladino, who both scored 31, elevated Derbyshire beyond 300 before Tom Curran completed his second five-wicket haul in three matches.Having lost the toss Surrey would have been happy with restricting Derbyshire to 313 but given the score at the start of the day they would have perhaps hoped for slightly better.Derbyshire continued to confound expectations with the ball as Surrey’s hopes of an easy ride in response were efficiently struck down. Only Rory Burns, who scored a pugnacious 92, passed 36 for Surrey in a display that lacked patience against some probing bowling.Indeed it was undue haste that caused the demise of Arun Harinath, Surrey’s first wicket to fall, when, having outlasted excellent new-ball spells from Ben Cotton and Mark Foottit, he flashed hard at a wide first delivery bowled by Palladino and edged to second slip.Kumar Sangakkara was perhaps associated with the first hack of his career when at lunch he discovered his Twitter account had been broken into and a rather embarrassing photo posted. He could therefore be excused if he had other things on his mind when he became the second wicket to fall, caught behind off Palladino to leave Surrey 48 for 2.It was then that Burns fought fire with fire, abandoning caution he took to Derbyshire’s bowlers, striking 15 boundaries in a superb counter-attacking innings marked by punchy checked-drives and a dominant top hand. Burns’ partnership of 83 with Ben Foakes threatened to pull the match away from Derbyshire.They had other ideas, however. The introduction of spin did for Foakes, who fell for a frustratingly unfulfilled 31. After a handful more boundaries from Burns the match had another turn when he inexplicably chipped an innocuous delivery from Wes Durston to mid-off, leaving Surrey 150 for 4.When Steven Davies fell to the 19 year-old legspinner Critchley less than ten overs later Surrey still trailed by 141 runs with just five wickets in hand. Indeed things could have been worse when Zafar Ansari chipped a full ball to Billy Godleman at midwicket who dropped a straightforward chance.Ansari and Gary Wilson eventually made it to the close unscathed but that Surrey will have been the more relieved of the two teams at stumps said a lot. Derbyshire know better than anyone how hard promotion to Division One is, and they are making Surrey work for it.
It’s not all gone their way this season, but Chelsea still look like a team heading in the right direction.
Sure, they’ve lost to the likes of Leeds United and Atalanta, but Enzo Maresca’s side have also demolished Barcelona and, despite going down to ten men, held Premier League leaders Arsenal to a 1-1 draw last month.
Moreover, the Blues have an incredibly young team stuffed with some brilliantly talented attackers like Cole Palmer and Estevao.
However, one area Chelsea could certainly improve is the defence, which could explain reports linking them to an international who has been put on the same level as Virgil Van Dijk and William Saliba.
Chelsea target world-class defender
Chelsea’s desire to improve their backline is no secret.
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After all, in just the last couple of months, the West Londoners have been linked with some incredible centre-backs, like former academy gem Marc Guehi and Nottingham Forest’s £79m Murillo.
However, it looks like the Blues are now looking further afield, at an international superstar who could be on the level of Van Dijk and Saliba.
At least, that is according to a recent report from Italy, which claims Chelsea are among several teams interested in Alessandro Bastoni.
In fact, the report has revealed that Maresca is crazy about the Inter Milan defender, who played a key role in the club’s Champions League run last season.
However, there are two potential barriers to the move: Inter’s reluctance to lose the player, and the fact that he has supposedly said no to the Blues before.
However, even if it proves costly and complicated to get over the line with reports over the summer suggesting he could be worth £87m, this is a transfer Chelsea should pursue. Indeed, Bastoni has the potential to be a world-class signing in the vein of Van Dijk and Saliba.
Why Bastoni is as good as Van Dijk and Saliba
Okay, so aside from the fact that all three play for a top team in one of Europe’s top five leagues, where has this comparison between Bastoni and the two Premier League stars come from?
Well, it stems from content creator Nieve Petruzziello, who in October of last year claimed that the Italian centre-back is “as good as Van Dijk and Saliba.”
That might sound like a bold take to those unfamiliar with Serie A, but it’s really not.
For example, like his contemporaries, the 26-year-old has established himself as a crucial part of one of the top teams in European football.
Since moving to the San Siro in the summer of 2019, he has made 277 appearances, of which 257 have been starts, scored seven goals and provided 28 assists.
The Casalmaggiore-born monster has also established himself as a core part of the national team, winning 41 caps and scoring three goals.
The final surface level similarity is something he shares more with the Dutchman: his trophy cabinet.
Across his career, the 6 foot 3 titan has won two Serie A titles, two Italian Cups, three Italian Super Cups, and even started a game in Italy’s triumphant Euro 2020 run.
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With all that said, another way to illustrate that the Inter ace is on a similar level to Saliba and Van Dijk is to examine the underlying numbers, in which he ranks closely with them.
Bastoni & Van Dijk & Saliba
Statistics per 90
Bastoni
Van Dijk
Saliba
Non-Penalty Expected G+As
0.12
0.08
0.09
Short Passing Accuracy
95.4
96.2
95.8
Medium Passing Accuracy
92.7
95.4
96.1
Live Passes
74.5
73.2
74.2
Tackle + Interceptions
2.55
2.54
2.46
Shots Blocked
0.49
0.43
0.44
Passes Blocked
0.45
0.30
0.30
All Stats via FBref for the 24/25 League Season
Last season, these metrics included things like non-penalty expected goals plus assists, live passes, shot and medium-passing accuracy, tackles plus interceptions, and more, all per 90.
In other words, the 26-year-old proved that, like the two Premier League stars, he is elite on the ball and off it.
Ultimately, it would be a difficult transfer to get over the line, but Chelsea should be doing all they can to sign Bastoni in 2026, as he could become Maresca’s Saliba or Van Dijk-esque leader.
Big name player has privately said that he would join Chelsea in January
Mohammad Yousuf, the Pakistan batsman, may not be available for the Indian Premier League’s auction on Wednesday because of a legal complication. Lawyers for the Indian Cricket League (ICL) have, in a letter to the owners of the IPL’s eight franchises, said Yousuf’s legal status is currently the subject of arbitration, under which his participation in the IPL has been stayed.”Mohammad Yousuf cannot participate in the tournament organised by the IPL or any other tournament organised by any other league in direct competition with the Indian Cricket League,” ALMT, the lawyers representing the ICL, said in the letter. “Such participation would amount to breach of the order and our client reserve their right to take such other legal recourse against all parties concerned.”Yousuf initially signed up with the ICL after being dropped from Pakistan’s squad for the World Twenty20 last September. Soon after, however, he was convinced by the PCB to turn his back on the ICL, represent Pakistan and also sign up with the IPL, the rival tournament officially sanctioned by the BCCI.The matter went into arbitration where Yousuf’s lawyer, Tafuzzal Rizvi, argued he had “no contract” with the ICL as the money [paid to Yousuf] was “received back by the ICL without any objection”. However the presiding judge passed an order on December 15, 2007, restraining Yousuf from appearing in the IPL or any league rivalling the ICL, and to maintain status quo till further orders.Wednesday’s high-profile auction in Mumbai will see the eight franchises bid for 80-odd players, including several top internationals. Yousuf’s name is included in the IPL’s roster but whether it will be there on Wednesday morning is a moot point.
Riding on a first-innings total of 531, Habib Bank Limited (HBL) dismissed Punjab for 259 and 215 to complete a rousing innings and 57-run victory at the National Stadium.Having reduced Punjab to 185 for 6 at stumps on day two, HBL bowled them out for 259 and gladly enforced the follow-on. Irfan Fazil, the right-arm fast medium with two international appearances, picked up 3 for 50, Danish Kaneria 3 for 90, and captain Shahid Afridi backed his 54-ball 86 with 2 for 35.In their second innings, Punjab fared worse. Only Mohammad Hafeez (40) and Kamran Akmal (37) managed decent scores out of a total of 215, as Pakistan hopeful Abdur Rehman, the left-arm spinner, finished with 5 for 72. Afridi was again in form, with figures of 2 for 32 from ten overs.* * * * * * *Having taken a first-innings lead of 131 on day two, Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) extended it to 300 with a total of 521 for 7 on day three against the combined b>North West Frontier Province (NWFP)-Balochistan at the United Bank Limited (UBL) Sports Complex. Saeed Bin Nasir extended his overnight 101 to 142 and captain and former international Mohammad Wasim made an unbeaten 108. Before stumps, KRL had nipped out three wickets to leave NWFP on 133 for 3, still 167 runs adrift.Bin Nasir and Wasim added 121 for the sixth wicket to extend their side’s lead. The duo had been in form last week, with half-centuries in a hard-fought draw against Habib Bank Limited. Jannisar Khan, the fight-arm medium-pacer, had the best figures of 2 for 56 from 16 overs.Yasir Arafat, the Pakistan allrounder, dismissed NWFP opener Shoaib Khan jnr for 0, but Yasir Hameed (65) and Umar Javed (38*) added 85 for the second wicket. Hameed was dismissed by Saeed Ajmal’s right-arm offspin, before Ajmal picked up Shoaib Khan snr for 15. NWFP have plenty to do to save this match.