All posts by n8rngtd.top

Delhi Daredevils batsman Kevin Pietersen, whose hundred helped beat his former team Deccan Chargers by five wickets on Thursday, said that he felt “a little sorry” for Chargers

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Apr-2012Delhi Daredevils batsman Kevin Pietersen, whose hundred helped beat his former team Deccan Chargers by five wickets on Thursday, said that he felt “a little sorry” for Chargers, who lost their fourth straight match in the tournament. Deccan sold Pietersen to Daredevils in the 2012 transfer window after he missed out on the entire 2011 season due to injury. Pietersen said that the thought of playing against his former team didn’t cross his mind during the match, as he concentrated on his batting.”I feel a little sorry for Deccan, but we came out here as Delhi players and had to get the two points. They played very well, they put us under a lot of pressure and could have won. Luckily we came through but they are a very good team that should have won against Mumbai, and [against Rajasthan Royals] the other night,” Pietersen said.Pietersen said though that there is still time in the tournament for Deccan to improve. “You don’t want to play your best cricket in April, if you have a good May. In my first season [in 2009] I played for Bangalore, and we lost five out of our first six games and went on to play the final in Jo’burg [Johannesburg], so nothing’s lost for Deccan at all,” Pietersen said.Pietersen said his innings against Deccan was his best in the Twenty20 format. “It’s my first hundred in T20 cricket so it’s my favourite. I hit one [six] on the top terrace which was good. It’s amazing, you look at guys that get T20 centuries and you envy them. It’s something that I hadn’t done yet, I’ve got Test centuries, ODI centuries and now a T20 century. Although it’s the IPL and not an international T20, it’s still a special feeling.”Chargers, who’ve struggled in the field this season, made matters worse on Thursday by dropping Pietersen three times [on 6, 68, 84]. Chargers coach Darren Lehmann said that poor fielding cost them the last two matches. “I said it the last time, they’ve cost us matches, they have cost us the last two games. You can’t drop a bloke like Pietersen. To give him some credit it’s one of the best knocks I’ve ever seen so when you drop him on six it costs you the game.””We were in a good position at the 12th, 13th over mark and then we lost our way with a couple of poor shots and poor decision making. We are playing at 90%, if we kick off the other 10% we’ll win each game.” Lehmann said.Daredevils currently top the table with four wins and one loss. The team have been performing well [with both bat and ball] and Pietersen said it was a team effort that helped them beat Deccan. “Irfan was good, Yogi [Yogesh Nagar] was good, unfortunately we ran out Ross Taylor and it put a lot more pressure on me,” Pietersen said.”[Shahbaz] Nadeem was excellent, he took three wickets for nine runs in the Chennai game, went to Mumbai and bowled beautifully with the new ball and again he bowled fantastically today. He’s a clever bowler,” Pietersen said. “People were talking about us not having a spinner for this tournament but we’ve turned out to have a little superstar.”

Ernest Hilaire, the West Indies Cricket Board CEO, has said selectors should focus on selecting the ‘best XI’ for the West Indies team, one that was a strong collective unit rather than just comprising 11 star players

ESPNcricinfo staff06-May-2012Ernest Hilaire, the West Indies Cricket Board CEO, has said selectors should focus on selecting the ‘best XI’ for the West Indies team, one that was a strong collective unit rather than just comprising 11 star players.”For a decade or so the selectors were guided by a process which had them arriving at the eleven best players to take the field,” Hilaire said, during the Barbados Cricket Association Awards ceremony. “With the eleven best players on the park our results went from bad to worse and yet worse still.West Indies have been without the services of Chris Gayle since the 2011 World Cup, owing to his differences with the board, and Dwayne Bravo intermittently, due to his Twenty20 commitments elsewhere.”There has been a paradigm shift. The emphasis is on selecting, not necessarily the eleven best players but the ‘best eleven’. It is not dissimilar to asking whether we prefer a team of stars or a star team. They are decidedly different.”The best eleven may not include the most attractive players but is rather a combination of players who, as a group, are more likely to bring positive results and show a commitment to sustained development.”Hilaire said the West Indies team has been steadily improving and is on the right path. “Though the victories have not been tumbling in, there can be little doubt that West Indies cricket is showing the signs of learning the first characteristic of any successful enterprise – the determination to succeed.””We have seen a greater commitment to fight to the very end, we have seen what was once thumping three and four day defeats in Test cricket now turned into epic final-day battles.”This new approach is not far off from producing the results we all yearn for. Change does not happen overnight, it is a process, sometimes painful, always with mistakes and mis-steps but once on the right path the results are certain.”I implore you to recognise that from the days when our team seemed conditioned to losing we now have a team which is battling to win and believing that it can in fact achieve victories.”Australia toured West Indies recently and the hosts drew the ODI series but lost the Tests 0-2. West Indies are now in England for a full tour.

West Indies coach hails Chris Gayle as the best one-day player in the world and backs his side for success in the ODI series with England

David Hopps14-Jun-2012Chris Gayle was strolling around in Tino Best’s shirt ahead of West Indies’ opening NatWest Series international against England. Best might have the surname but Gayle has the reputation. “BEST” communicated emphatically enough that, after a 15-month absence, West Indies’ most domineering batsman is back in the fold.With Gayle one of a host of destructive batsmen back for West Indies for the one-day leg of the tour and Kevin Pietersen having entered premature retirement from England limited-overs duty, it is possible to present West Indies, after their recent drawn series against Australia, as strong favourites, only for the usual tale of unsettled weather to bring England hopes of swing and seam and a potential get-out clause.England would be well advised to protect their sanity by not studying too many statistics on six-hitting. There might be more to winning a cricket match than hitting a long ball, but the comparisons are striking. Draw up a likely West Indies top seven and they have hit 418 sixes in ODIs. Compare England’s top seven and they barely muster 100. Gayle has hit more than the whole of the England side put together.It is hard to imagine England debating in the bar who hits the biggest sixes; it would probably be frowned on as a sign of immaturity. According to Ottis Gibson, the West Indies coach, they do it all the time. “We have always talked about who hits the biggest sixes,” Gibson said before listing eight contenders for the prize. Not surprisingly, when pressed he named Gayle as the most dangerous hitter of all. “Gayle is the best one-day batsman in the world and most destructive so my money will always be on him when it comes to hitting the biggest sixes.”Gayle’s return has certainly been well timed for Hampshire. Their renaming of the Rose Bowl in a six-year deal with Ageas has been crucial boost at a time of great financial hardship; ticket sales also quickened the moment Gayle made his peace with West Indies, ensuring a near-capacity 14,000 crowd.This is a very different West Indies side than the one that despite its impressive spirit was largely outplayed in the Test series. Gibson expects “about eight changes” adding: “At the start of the tour I said the one-day series provides us with our best chance of success and we still believe that. We believe we have got a great chance of winning games in this series.”Gayle is a world class player and will strengthen us. He has always been a bit of a joker and prankster around the dressing room. He is his normal self and the team has always integrated guys very well. That has not changed. He has fitted in well and is raring to go.”Gayle’s stand-off with the West Indies board has been so prolonged that Gibson would be naive not to recognise that his reintroduction to the squad has needed careful handling. But as England would testify in Pietersen’s absence, if handling a star player can be awkward, compensating for their absence can be harder still.”Gayle has had his say,” he said. “He said what he wanted to say and got things off his chest. He has seen the new environment. He has seen what we are trying to do. I am sure that coming back he will buy into it. We have spoken and he is very much on board with what is going on.”It’s a big thing to lose your best player. KP has been good in the last two one-day series and they were trialling him at the top of the order. It seemed it was going to work but now they have to put someone else in that spot and hope that person has the form KP had. Bell is very different and he is also a very capable replacement. We know we still have to work to get him out.”Nothing KP does takes me by surprise. He is his own man and does what he wants to do whenever he wants to do it. That is his character. I am sort of surprised he is in such good form and chose to walk away from a format he likes.”I kept playing until I was 38 because I loved game so much. It is disappointing to see a great player walking away from the game at a young age. But he is his own man and he makes his own calls. When he is sitting at home watching on TV he might miss it.”Ravi Bopara has rarely looked more hangdog before turning out for England. It could be that his endless run of misfortune makes him fear that, at 27, his international career is slipping away, not that he admits it, or it could just be that he expects to bat No. 4 in the first ODI against West Indies at West End on Saturday. Somebody told Bopara that he was batting in the “glamour position”. Problem position would have been more accurate.With Pietersen’s retirement, England’s 50-over plans are based around a top order of Alastair Cook, Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott, all very fine players, but all unlikely to leave Bopara with too much slack when he comes in to bat. The onus could be on Bopara to play enterprisingly from the outset and his career suggests that he prefers time to settle in.Bell is fulfilling the opener’s role that Bopara himself would have preferred to get: “Opening is not a bad role for him with the field up and his sweet timing of the ball,” he said. “He can pierce those gaps like anyone and we’ve got to back him.”Bopara’s task is to perform ably enough in one-day cricket against West Indies and Australia over the next month to regain his Test place against South Africa. Jonny Bairstow’s troubled start at No. 6 gives him the opportunity. “It would be great if I could score heavily in this series and the Australian series,” Bopara said. “It would put me in a good place. I’m not worried about the players coming through. I know what I’m capable of. My Test career is in my own hands.”

ESPNcricinfo’s preview to the first ODI between Pakistan and Australia in Sharjah

The Preview by Brydon Coverdale28-Aug-2012

Match facts

Shahid Afridi needs three more wickets to reach 350 in ODIs, and he is the leading wicket taker among current one-day international players•AFP

August 28-29, 2012
Start time 1800 (1400 GMT)

Big Picture

Australia’s one-off entrée against Afghanistan now complete, it’s time for the main course in the UAE: a three-match ODI series followed by three Twenty20s against Pakistan. That the series is even going ahead is a credit to both countries, for finding a venue and a suitable time proved harder than anyone could have imagined. Initially, Sri Lanka was to host the matches but the scheduling of the SLPL at the same time scuppered that plan. Malaysia was considered, with the heat in the UAE at this time of year making it unsuitable for day-time play, but in the end the boards agreed to play in the UAE with a 6pm start for the ODIs, to avoid the hottest part of the afternoon.The conditions and the likelihood of turning pitches will give Pakistan a good chance of breaking their ten-year drought without a one-day series win against Australia. Not that Pakistan have been in particularly good one-day form: they lost a series to Sri Lanka in June and to England in the UAE in February. Australia are similarly struggling in the 50-over format; having been soundly beaten by England they slipped to fourth on the ICC one-day rankings, and could fall further if they lose to Pakistan, who are sixth.Both sides are without some senior players: Pakistan have dropped Umar Gul and Younis Khan, and Australia are missing Clint McKay due to injury and Shane Watson, who is being rested to allow him more time for strength and conditioning work ahead of a busy schedule. Pakistan are expected to use a spin-heavy attack in this first match, while Australia have decided to rely on pace, having seen the ball swing in their win against Afghanistan.

Form guide (Complete matches, most recent first)

Pakistan LLLWW
Australia WLLLL

Watch out for

It’s nearly 18 months since Kamran Akmal last played for his country in any format, in the World Cup semi-final loss to India. Since then, Pakistan have rotated through four different wicketkeepers in ODIs, including Kamran’s brothers Adnan Akmal and Umar Akmal. Now it is his turn again. Kamran’s batting is always a threat, although in 15 ODIs he has only once scored more than 50 against Australia, but it’s his glovework that often lets the team down. As part of the squad for this tour and the ICC World Twenty20, he needs to find his best form with both bat and gloves over the next month.By promoting himself to No.3, Michael Clarke has said that he is the man to fix Australia’s batting black hole. In the past year, Australia have used Clarke, Ricky Ponting, Peter Forrest, Shane Watson, Matthew Wade and George Bailey at first drop, for a combined average of 23.37. Against Afghanistan Clarke made 75 and it was a positive sign, and he will be aiming to keep that form going against Pakistan. Batting high up also gives Clarke a chance to bat for a long period against what is likely to be a spin-heavy attack, and he is the best equipped of Australia’s batsmen to handle such bowling.

Team news

Pakistan have taken a 16-man squad for the ODIs but there was no room for Umar Gul or Younis Khan, while Kamran Akmal was brought back into the side. The exact make-up of the attack remains uncertain, but the coach Dav Whatmore indicated they would rely largely on the slow bowlers. “We are going to bowl more spin than the quicks,” Whatmore said, “and it’s important that we do that well.”Pakistan (squad) Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Nasir Jamshed, Mohammad Hafeez, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Umar Akmal, Kamran Akmal (wk), Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Aizaz Cheema, Saeed Ajmal, Imran Farhat, Shoaib Malik, Abdur Rehman, Junaid Khan, Anwar AliAustralia have made one change from the side that beat Afghanistan, leaving out their frontline spinner Xavier Doherty. The allrounder Daniel Christian will take his place, meaning plenty of seam-bowling options for Michael Clarke, while the spin duties will be shared by Glenn Maxwell, David Hussey and Clarke himself. It remains to be seen whether Matthew Wade will open or be moved down the order to give him some respite from the heat.Australia 1 Matthew Wade (wk), 2 David Warner, 3 Michael Clarke (capt), 4 Michael Hussey, 5 David Hussey, 6 George Bailey, 7 Glenn Maxwell, 8 Daniel Christian, 9 Mitchell Johnson, 10 Mitchell Starc, 11 James Pattinson

Pitch and conditions

The humid conditions allowed Australia’s fast bowlers to extract plenty of swing at the same venue against Afghanistan, but Pakistan’s spinners should also find the conditions to their liking. The temperature, even late at night, is not expected to fall below 33C.

Stats and trivia

• Shahid Afridi needs three more wickets to reach 350 in one-day internationals; now that Brett Lee has retired, Afridi is the leading wicket taker among current ODI cricketers
• The last one-day international Australia played against Pakistan in the UAE was just over three years ago, yet only one member of that Australia side – Michael Clarke – will take the field in this game
• Should Australia lose the series 2-1 they won’t move on the ICC one-day rankings, but if they lose 3-0 they will drop from fourth to sixth, swapping places with Pakistan
  

  Quotes

  “Australia have had a retirement or two and an injury so I suppose we can have an edge to start with.”
  “Both teams are keen to get some consistency, I guess, back into the one-day game. I think Pakistan are a lot like Australia in the fact that they have a lot of talent – it’s just about performing consistently.”

Lalit Modi, the former IPL commissioner, has settled his libel case with Giles Clarke out of court

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Aug-2012Lalit Modi, the former IPL commissioner, has settled his libel case with Giles Clarke out of court. The case centred on an email Clarke sent to the BCCI in 2010 claiming attempts were being made to set up a rebel Twenty20 league in England.Clarke was responding after representatives of several England first-class counties met with Modi and IMG, a sports-marketing company, in Mumbai as they sought a fresh approach to the marketing of T20 cricket in England.Changes discussed involved a potential reduction in the number of sides contesting England’s domestic T20 competition and were interpreted by Clarke as rebellious and outside their jurisdiction.An ECB statement said: “In May 2010 Giles Clarke, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, sent an email to the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the contents of which were subsequently widely reported in the British and international media which resulted in libel proceedings being issued by Lalit Modi.”This statement confirms that the parties have agreed to settle the litigation on confidential terms.”In February this year Clarke had also settled out-of-court with IMG over the same issue.

A commanding performance from Shane Watson delivered a handsome opening World Twenty20 victory for Australia over Ireland

The Report by Daniel Brettig19-Sep-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Shane Watson had an impressive day, and the O’Briens were among his victims•AFP

A commanding performance from Shane Watson delivered a handsome opening World Twenty20 victory for Australia over Ireland, as George Bailey’s team showed aggressive intent to pursue the one trophy missing from the national team’s display cabinet.Ireland had fancied their chances of upsetting Australia, but were left with their odds of progression diminished and their ears ringing from a few verbal barbs delivered by opponents in no mood to be accommodating to a team they had briefly been ranked below on the ICC’s T20 rankings earlier this month.Watson influenced proceedings from the first ball of the match, a bouncer Ireland’s captain Will Porterfield hooked to fine leg. He returned to the bowling crease to snuff out a mid-innings revival, then smashed 51 to ensure a modest chase that never assumed anything more than nuisance dimensions.Mitchell Starc and Hogg also delivered telling spells to help keep Ireland quiet, their 20 overs devoid of sustained momentum save for a rearguard stand of 50 between Kevin and Niall O’Brien from the depths of 33 for 4. Kevin O’Brien hinted at the mastery he had shown against England in the 2011 World Cup, but both he and his brother were out-thought by Watson in the same over.Aside from Watson’s all-round prowess, the other hallmark of Australia’s display was their aggression, manifested in a series of verbal stoushes with their opponents. The umpires intervened more than once, and no-one was left in any doubt about the Australians intent to make life as uncomfortable as possible for their opposition.Australia’s pursuit needed to be dogged by early wickets for Ireland to have a chance, but Watson and David Warner played with plenty of sense. They were helped by a wayward Boyd Rankin, who gave away four wides on the way to conceding 12 runs from the third over. Trent Johnston was taken for 19 in the fourth, and from that moment the result never seemed in any great doubt.George Dockrell accounted for Warner, who punched to deep midwicket, and Paul Stirling almost grasped a one-handed return catch from Watson. Having failed to take the half chance, both Stirling and Dockrell were to feel the brunt of Watson’s power, Australia’s vice-captain posting a half century from his 28th ball. An overly languid run through to the non-striker’s end was punished by Johnston’s direct hit, but by then Watson had done more than enough to put victory within sight and also underline his importance to Australia’s campaign.Michael Hussey was lbw to Kevin O’Brien, and Cameron White offered a difficult chance that Johnston put down off Rankin, leaving Australia to conclude their chase with less certainty than Watson and Warner had started it.Watson had taken the new ball for Australia, a move Ireland’s captain Porterfield would have noted from the warm-up games. What he did not expect was a first-ball bumper, as Watson tested the bounce to be extracted from a flint-hard Premadasa pitch. The ball was well-directed, Porterfield’s hook shot was hurried, and Mitchell Starc sauntered in from fine leg to take the catch.There were runs to be found in the pitch, Stirling cracking the final ball of the over to the cover fence to prove it, but Australia’s bowlers were sharp and varied enough to prevent Ireland from finding any sort of rhythm. Starc found a little swing but it was bounce that did for Stirling, his top edge sailing high for Watson to make a testy running catch look routine.Bailey introduced Maxwell’s off-breaks for the sixth over, and was rewarded when Ed Joyce toe-ended a drive to mid off. Brad Hogg’s introduction followed, and he too struck in his opening over when Gary Wilson played around a delivery pitching in line and straightening to win Aleem Dar’s lbw verdict. None of Ireland’s batsmen looked entirely capable of reading Hogg’s variations.Ireland were stuck in the T20 predicament of early wickets, the halfway point passing at a wobbly 46 for 4. The brothers O’Brien were left to fashion a salvaging partnership, Kevin O’brien hinting at his potential for destruction with a handful of boundaries. He responded to taunts from the Australian fieldsmen by clattering Starc through midwicket and cover, and the 50-stand was raised. But Niall O’Brien was unable to follow suit, bowled by Watson’s slower ball when trying to heave across the line.Watson was delivering a keynote spell, and he made it more so by coaxing Kevin O’Brien to touch a shortish, sharpish delivery on its way through to Matthew Wade. Called on to deliver the last over of the innings as well as the first, Watson allowed the innings’ only six to Nigel Jones, but the concession of 12 from the final six balls still left Australia’s batsmen with a chase they were always likely to negotiate in some comfort.

Shane Jurgensen has been made the interim Bangladesh coach for next month’s series against West Indies

Mohammad Isam24-Oct-2012Shane Jurgensen has been made the interim Bangladesh coach for next month’s series against West Indies, the BCB announced on Wednesday. The bowling coach will take over the position vacated by Richard Pybus who notified the board of his unwillingness to continue over differences with the board pertaining to his contract and alleged interference in team matters. The board has refuted Pybus’ allegations and has asked its head of cricket operations for a detailed clarification statement by November 1.”Richard Pybus, through his agent, informed us on Monday that he will not be returning to Bangladesh,” Nazmul Hassan said after conducting his first meeting as BCB president. “Bowling coach Shane Jurgensen will take up the responsibility of the head coach for the upcoming West Indies series, but we will advertise for the newly vacant position soon.”Pybus told ESPNcricinfo that he will not be continuing as Bangladesh coach after a major fall-out with the BCB regarding his contract which he ultimately never signed. He also made allegations of interference by board directors as well as being constrained by the board’s cricket operations department on issues such as the Bangladesh players’ diet, availability of a game-analysis system and the training programme ahead of the series against West Indies.Hassan said the head of cricket operations, Enayet Hossain Siraj, will prepare a clarification document which will be presented to the board on November 1. “I have seen the Cricinfo interview where he has accused us of many things. We have given Enayet Hossain Siraj the responsibility to prepare a response by November 1. We will address all the allegations he’s made. He mentioned a few particular things like bringing meat from Australia. Such things can’t be done overnight.”We also have to consider whether our players will become fit after having such food for 7-10 days and having a different diet for the rest of the year. We want more in-depth information, what his complaints were.”Pybus also spoke of interference from board directors but Jalal Yunus, the BCB media committee chairman, said the former coach had complete control of the team’s affairs. “We don’t agree [with his accusations of interference],” Yunus said. “He had 100% control and we always lent him a hand in support.”We just wanted him to come to the country and complete the West Indies series,” Yunus said. “We preferred one-on-one negotiation in person rather than through e-mails. We have no grievances against him, but what he had asked for to be in charge of the West Indies series, we couldn’t agree on principle.”Hassan said the board will learn from the mistakes made while dealing with Pybus and the next coach will be fully informed of what is expected from him.”From what I have heard, Pybus was one of the best coaches we have had so far,” Hassan said. “Maybe we were too happy about that. But without a written contract, we will face similar problems in the future. I am assuring you such things will not happen.”We want a full-time coach, not someone who would be with us only during matches and leave whenever there’s a break in play. Whoever we hire next, will have to be informed of all this in writing.”

Bangladesh batsman Shahriar Nafees has said he is keen to make the most of the Tests against the West Indies; his team hasn’t played a Test this year

Mohammad Isam in Mirpur11-Nov-2012Bangladesh’s last Test, played almost a year ago, was a memorable one for batsman Shahriar Nafees. Though Pakistan defeated them, he scored 97 in the first innings. The long break from Test cricket will end when they take on West Indies on Tuesday, but Nafees, 26, doesn’t want to say much about the skewed FTP. Tackling the West Indies bowling attack, which offers enough variety to keep the free-stroking Bangladesh batsmen on their toes, is more important to him.”I don’t want to bring up the FTP and use it as an excuse,” Nafees said on Sunday. “If I don’t do well, nobody will remember what I did or didn’t do in the last year. If I do well, people will say that I have made a successful comeback.”We played well against West Indies last year and did well individually against Pakistan. So if a player can continue playing cricket that would only be a good thing. The players don’t have control over the FTP, so we have to make the best use of opportunities.”After that Mirpur Test against Pakistan, Nafees was left out of the centrally contracted players’ list. He, then ran into trouble in a tournament in Bangalore playing for Bangladesh A, when he showed dissent at an umpiring decision and was sent home. He was handed a suspended ban by the Bangladesh Cricket Board, but was later picked for the A side in SeptemberHe hasn’t been scoring prolifically in domestic cricket and hasn’t performed exceptionally for the A team. In 23 matches in first-class, one-dayers and Twenty20s, he has scored only 528 runs. But Nafees has 2011 in his mind, a year in which he struck five fifties, which included that knock of 97 against Pakistan.”I am happy, I played well in ODIs last year and got runs in Test cricket. I played regularly in 2011 so I was pretty happy. But I haven’t played after a gap, so I have to do well,” he said.But to do well, Nafees will have to come out on top against a strong bowling attack. Sunil Narine is the most talked-about bowler in the West Indies attack but the pace attack will be a challenge to face as well. “They are in good form. Ravi Rampaul, Fidel Edwards and Tino Best are their strike bowlers and they also have some good spinners. We can’t just work on one bowler because they are on a high note. We have to take everyone seriously,” he said.Nafees was hit on the face by Edwards in the first Test against West Indies last year (and was struck on his eye by Shahadat Hossain two months ago). Rampaul said short-of-length deliveries will be used depending on the batsmen’s weaknesses.”It’s too early to say how the wicket will play, we have some good quick fast bowlers who bowl at 90 miles an hour, and if we put the ball in the right areas we will do well. As a bowling unit we tend to look at the batsmen and at their weakness, if the short ball is one of their weaknesses then we will exploit it,” Rampaul said.Rampaul has toured Bangladesh a couple of times in the past, including in the 2004 Under-19 World Cup, so he should adapt quickly to conditions, which he knows will assist the slow bowlers.”From past experience, I can say that the wicket in Bangladesh is slow and it helps the spinners. It’s basically a wicket where you’ll have to use your variation. We have played in all parts of the world. We will just try to stick to the basics and bowl well,” he said.

Tasmanian cricket’s chairman Tony Harrison has scoffed at the suggestion that Hobart might be in any danger of losing its share of Australia’s home Test matches

Daniel Brettig at Bellerive Oval16-Dec-2012Tasmanian cricket’s chairman Tony Harrison has scoffed at the suggestion that Hobart might be in any danger of losing its share of Australia’s home Test matches. He also proffered a slogan in response to media criticism that seems likely to end up on a bumper sticker: “If you don’t like Tasmania, don’t come here.”Granted the opening match of the series in mid-December before the Boxing Day and New Year’s Tests in Melbourne and Sydney, Bellerive Oval has been host to attendances of just 6221 on day one, 3810 on day two and 4388 on day three. This is against Cricket Tasmania’s budget estimates of around 9000 on the first day and about 7000 on each of Saturday and Sunday.Harrison admitted that 23 years after hosting its first Test, also against Sri Lanka in 1989, Tasmania was still to develop a strong “Test match culture”, something not helped by the five-day game only making periodic visits to the island state’s capital.Among various mitigating circumstances for the slim turnouts, Harrison cited the fixture’s close proximity to Christmas, ticket prices that outstripped those on offer for popular Twenty20 BBL matches at the ground, and Hobart’s changeable weather, which was overcast on day one and caused rain breaks on each of days two and three. By way of a concession, Harrison said general admission tickets for Monday’s fourth day would allow the bearer to sit in the southern stand, rather than simply to stand on the hill.However he flatly rejected any potential for the state losing its share of Australia’s home Test matches, typically receiving the sixth match of the summer when two touring teams make the journey down under.”I think that’s a ridiculous suggestion quite frankly,” Harrison said. “I’ve heard that said, and that is nonsense. We are one of the owners of Cricket Australia and CA has a philosophy in its programming to spread the game around the country, and Test matches [in Hobart] are not in question, not in doubt.”There are no guarantees, we don’t know what the programme will look like in three, four, five years’ time. But at the moment our philosophy is to share the game around the country, to give people around the country the opportunity to see Test cricket. Our job as Cricket Tasmania with CA is to promote the game and get more people to come along to it. That’s problematic when you get a fixture so close to Christmas and the weather interferes.”Another issue for Tasmania and Western Australia in particular is the lack of a set position in the calendar for their Test matches. While residents of Melbourne and Sydney know instinctively when to clear room in their calendar for the annual Test, other states have less certainty, something commonly reflected in oscillating crowds depending on the time of year and the touring team.”We can’t always be certain when teams will come and play, but one year we’ve got a Test match in the second week in November, and the next week it’s the third week in December,” he said. “So it’s not like Sydney and Melbourne where on Boxing Day you know its the Test, doesn’t matter who plays, and it’s an event. Similarly in Sydney you have the New Year’s Test.”Adelaide doesn’t have it always, Perth doesn’t have it, Brisbane gets the first Test of the summer but dates vary … so that’s an issue too. We need to develop a Test match culture.”As for some unkind depictions of Tasmania on the ABC radio broadcast beamed live around Australia, Harrison was pugnacious. Happy with how the local media had promoted the fixture, he more or less raised the drawbridge to those not expressing great enthusiasm for being in Hobart.”I should pay tribute to the local media because I don’t think the promotion could have done anymore,” Harrison said. “But I’m a bit disappointed at some of the comments I’ve heard on the radio in the last two days, not only critical of the crowds, but they’re critical of Tasmania. What I’d say to the commentators who do that, if you don’t like Tasmania, don’t come here.”Unless Tasmania can find a way of developing a greater affinity for Test matches, there remains a chance that in future years they won’t have to.

Medium-pacer Ashish Nehra has been declared fit to play in Delhi’s Ranji Trophy group match against Haryana, which begins in Lahli

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Nov-2012Medium-pacer Ashish Nehra has been declared fit to play in Delhi’s Ranji Trophy group match against Haryana, which begins in Lahli, a town outside Rohtak, on Saturday. Delhi coach Vijay Dahiya said Nehra had bowled for an hour and fielded during a training session, and was looking in good condition.Nehra played two of Delhi’s four Ranji games so far – the season opener against Uttar Pradesh in Ghaziabad and against Baroda, where he bowled only six overs before a hamstring injury sidelined him from that match and the next two. His presence in Lahli was meant to bolster Delhi’s pace attack on a pitch that helps seam bowling and in weather that can aid his abilities.Haryana lost their previous three matches in Lahli and according to Dahiya, the pitch was not the grassy heaven that bowlers dream of. The surface may be the same one used in the previous game against Baroda and, after a three-day gap, it was looking “bare and brown”. Dahiya said it was possible that Delhi would play two spinners, “with a call on the fast bowlers to be taken tomorrow.”Delhi’s choice of spinners is from offspinner Manoj Chauhan, left-arm spinner Pawan Negi and their frontline spinner Vikas Mishra. Negi is a bowling allrounder who gives Delhi the option of going in with five bowlers, if he is to replace Sumit Narwal. His selection would allow Delhi to field three seamers in Nehra, Parvinder Awana and Pawan Suyal. However, both Mishra and Negi in the eleven would mean Delhi playing two left-armers.Delhi have 11 points from four matches so far with one outright victory, while Haryana are yet to win a point after three matches.