England say there was no headbutt, Australia say there was. So we have put our heads together to investigate the world of the sporting headbutt

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Nov-20172:29

Jonny Bairstow has been his normal self – Chris Woakes

Trevor Bayliss, the England coach, has insisted what Jonny Bairstow did to Cameron Bancroft during a night out in Perth cannot be classified as a headbutt, even though he admits there was contact between the two players’ heads. Bancroft, meanwhile, in a bizarre press conference in Brisbane following Australia’s victory in the first Test of the ongoing Ashes series, said it was a butt, albeit a playful one.So why the confusion? In the interests of harmony, as relations between Australia and England become increasingly fraught, we have produced a useful guide.Well, it’s not always easy to judge what is a butt and what’s not. Just ask football referees, who have to make decisions regularly to issue a red card or just view a collision as one of those things. We’ve scoured a list of suspected headbutts from various sports and deciphered that there are four main types of butts.Some are easy to spot, while others leave space for the kind of ambiguity surrounding Bairstow’s. So here we go. Which do you think it was?ESPNcricinfo LtdThe Full-Blown Moving Butt
The most famous example of this type was Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt to Italy defender Marco Materazzi in the 2006 football World Cup final. Zidane, then considered the best footballer in the world, drove his head into Materazzi’s chest and was sent off by the referee. As you can see from the illustration of the event, Zidane prepared for the butt when he was a few feet away from Materazzi, bending his left knee and preparing to spring forward. He then got his whole body into the strike, arching his back and bending forward as he delivered the blow. A moving headbutt is pretty easy to spot, and there’s no questioning that it is in fact a butt.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe Standing Butt
This occurs when two sportsmen are standing in close proximity, often amid a melee of other players, and one makes a slight, surreptitious neck movement towards the other to make contact with his head. There’s no movement of the legs or back in this kind of butt, which makes it harder to detect. Also, it’s sometimes tough to tell whether a player has meant to butt the other or just square up, brow to brow, and say hello. In the incident depicted above, for example, Marouane Fellaini, the Manchester United midfielder, appeared to just slowly lower his head onto that of Sergio Aguero, the Manchester City forward. Whether or not a standing butt is considered a butt at all really depends on the speed and intensity of the neck movement. But it can be confusing. Fellaini was sent off for his slow nod, but when Luis Figo, the Portuguese footballer, made a sharp snapping motion with his neck to deliver a standing headbutt to Netherlands midfielder Mark van Bommel in a 2006 World Cup game, he was given just a yellow card.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe Head Push
This is the kind of thing you’ll often see when two mates are simply joshing around, as Bairstow says he was doing with Bancroft. One person places his head on the other’s and then pushes forward, making it more of a head push than a headbutt. This rarely causes any sort of injury or harm, but can be used as a means of intimidation. Joe Hart, the England goalkeeper, received a yellow card for a head push on footballer George Boyd in a Premier League match. As you can see from the depiction above, Hart starts with his head already touching Boyd’s and then stretches his neck forward.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe Head Uppercut
Some headbutt aficionados on social media have pointed out that Bairstow is shorter than Bancroft and would have had trouble executing a butt. Well, perhaps he employed the uppercut technique, as American boxer Victor Ortiz did in his bout against Floyd Mayweather Junior. As seen in the depiction above, this butt is delivered by a shorter man crouching down and then springing upwards to smash his head into a taller man’s jaw or forehead. Argentinian footballer Ariel Ortega used a variation of this butt against Netherlands goalkeeper Edwin van der Saar, who is almost a foot taller than him, in the 1998 World Cup quarter-final. Ortega was sat on the ground, and when van der Saar bent down to harangue him about diving, Ortega sprang up and smashed his head into the big man’s jaw.So which of these techniques did Bairstow use against Bancroft? Was it a full-blooded head uppercut or just a little head push? Perhaps it was none of them and we need a new category – the Bar Room Butt perhaps.Hopefully, both men will be focused solely on their batting techniques by the next Test, in Adelaide.

Ashish Nehra had a stop-start international career, but ended up getting the grand farewell that eluded some of his more illustrious contemporaries

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Nov-2017

Ed Joyce, William Porterfield and Niall O’Brien have waited most of their professional career for a chance at Test cricket: their first innings were done inside eight overs

Jarrod Kimber at Malahide13-May-20181:00

‘Wilson’s the one you want in the trenches with you’ – Joyce

Kevin O’Brien’s got no idea where the ball is. He knows Mohammad Abbas has bowled an excellent straight ball, and then he has frantically got some bat on it. The ball is behind him, he can hear the excitement of the Pakistan fielders, but he still hasn’t found the ball. He’s under attack, as are Ireland, and neither know what to do. After much panic, O’Brien finds the ball near his stumps just as he’s about to become the fifth wicket before Ireland have scored ten runs.O’Brien was supposed to be batting at seven. Instead, he was in at the end of the eighth over. This was supposed to be a great chance for Ireland to win a Test. Instead, they are in ruins.**Ed Joyce is the easiest player to link to the history of Irish cricket, as he was around when Irish cricket was an amateur club game, and he is now a Test player. Watching Joyce in the field you realise he is an older player. He still looks fit, but he doesn’t always react quickly, after some robust fielding he walked like he’d been riding a horse all day, maybe all year. He’s had knee and hip problems, and that familiar loping gait looks a little rustier than it used to look.But to get here Joyce has done more than most Test players. He’s played 656 professional games, making over 30,000 runs and represented Ireland 150 times. Ed Joyce wasn’t born in a country that had Test cricket, nor the dream of Test cricket. But it was always his dream. And 21 years after his debut for Ireland, he takes guard in a Test match for his team. And after all that, he only gets four balls, one single, a defensive push, a clip to leg, and then is given out on an lbw that looked to have pitched outside leg.It took Ed Joyce over 30,000 runs to get here; it took Ireland over 50,000 days to get here.After Joyce, William Porterfield who has fought for Ireland on the field and in press conferences and Niall O’Brien, who seems to be friends with everyone in cricket, are out too. Almost five hundred Ireland caps between them, but one Test, and when Niall O’Brien leaves, they are 7 for 4. The three men who have been waiting for the longest, trying the hardest, the best of Irish cricket, are the first to go.**Stuart Thompson played a little nudge to the leg side, it was a controlled shot, trying to be as careful as possible. The only problem was the ball, which was spinning in a different direction, which in cricket terms meant Thompson was in Clontarf, and the wrong’un was taking his off stump at Malahide. At that point Thompson, for the second time this match, stood up. He’d not scored many runs, but by standing out in the middle for a period he looked like one of the more composed batsmen.The problem was Shadab Khan. Ireland have a poor recent history against spin. When they played Zimbabwe at the World Cup qualifiers Zimbabwe used four spinners and embarrassed Ireland. Graeme Cremer, the handy legspinner, took 3 for 18. Cremer is no Shadab.It took two balls for Shadab to work out Tyrone Kane. For the first ball, Kane left it outside off stump. Whether it be a wrong’un or slider, the next one was going to be at the stumps, something Kane realised too late, and all he could do is get an inside edge and get caught in close. Because of Rashid Khan, Ireland have had some experience with explosive teenage legspin, but this time their middle order was exposed, as their top order never showed.

I didn’t want to miss a chance to bat in a Test match, they just drugged me up and I got out there and got on with itGary Wilson on battling through the pain

**Gary Wilson has been told to face as much Shadab as he can, so he takes off for a single that is there, but that requires a dive. Wilson dives on at best a very swollen arm, at worst a broken elbow. When in the nets a ball hit him on the arm. “I went for an X-ray, and there may be a little crack in it.” Ireland had time for a scan, but not enough time to get a formal diagnosis. They were hoping Wilson would have more time to heal or at least some time to rest. Instead, he’s in at No. 9, but only in the 23rd over.Wilson had worked out he couldn’t hit the ball in front of square, and he has an arm guard on inside out, protecting the break. He plays a reverse sweep, but instead of enjoying the four runs it brings, he grimaces. Clutching at his arm, he gets up from his stance and then walks out to short fine leg to take deep breaths.Facing Abbas, he plays and misses before slashing one away over backward point. Again Wilson doesn’t enjoy the shot. They will be the last runs made in the first innings, by a batsman coming in at nine, with a twisted arm guard and a grimace.As he walked off he had to wonder what Ireland’s day might have been like if he had come to the crease fully fit and when he was supposed to. “I didn’t want to miss a chance to bat in a Test match, they just drugged me up and I got out there and got on with it”. Ireland scored more with Wilson out there than they had before.Mohammad Amir ripped out William Porterfield’s off stump•Sportsfile/Getty Images**Paul Stirling is not a quality first-class batsman, he barely averages 30, but he can bat. As a T20 player, he’s got the attention of overseas franchises. And he can strike a ball, like the over when Abbas, who already had three wickets, got it wrong twice, and Stirling smashed balls through point. But then Faheem Ashraf dropped one short and wide. Stirling got caught between a cut and a pull, and he played neither. It was a bottom handed faff, a burp pretending to be a cricket shot, and he had plenty of chance to think about it as the ball floated for an age before finding mid-off.The other white ball specialist was Kevin O’Brien, and despite his nervy start, he looked the best of the Irish batsmen. When he reached forty, he was 55% of the total. He was set, and was playing his shots, when he received one in his wheelhouse.O’Brien leans back and cracks the ball into the off side; he doesn’t get much on it. And from the time it leaves the bat it’s clear it’s only going straight to Imam-ul-Haq, who takes an easy chance. O’Brien stands in his crease for a moment before leaving the ground.As he gets about 20 metres past the pitch, he sees a tiny bit of plastic that has floated onto the ground, and he slows, and kicks at it, hard. Despite his massive feet, the plastic goes only an inch, and he thinks about stopping, but in things like this, you only get one chance.That plastic was not that far from where Sarfraz Ahmed had been caught on day two when Pakistan fell to 159 for 6. Ireland would make it to 130. The best of days, the worst of days.

In a tightly-fought contest, the depth of England’s options proved telling even though the side retains a number of holes

George Dobell at the Ageas Bowl02-Sep-20182:00

Compton: India couldn’t find someone to match Curran

It was, in the end, the allrounders who made the difference.So England may have a fragile top-order, an unreliable slip cordon and almost no idea what their optimum batting line-up should be but, so great was the depth in their batting, and so plentiful were the options in their bowling, they had enough to secure a series victory over the No.1 rated Test side with a game in hand.Take the first innings of this game at the Ageas Bowl. England were 86 for 6 at one stage. But whereas they might, in the past, have had to rely on Andy Caddick, Ryan Sidebottom or Sajid Mahmood to come in at No. 8 and try to engineer some sort of recovery, now they have Sam Curran.It was a similar story in Birmingham. England were 87 for 7 and leading by just 100 at one stage in their second innings. But then Curran came out and struck a run-a-ball 63 to help England build the total that helped them to an eventual 31-run win.At other times England were grateful for Chris Woakes, who struck their first century of the series from No. 7 at Lord’s, Ben Stokes, who produced a match-clinching spell at Edgbaston and an admirably defiant effort in the second innings in Southampton and Moeen Ali, who has the versatility to plug holes almost wherever they are found and who made an important contribution in the first innings in Southampton. All of them can be considered fine allrounders; all of them produced key contributions with bat and ball at times in this series.It meant that, whatever inroads India made with the new ball, England were – Trent Bridge apart – hard to kill off. There always seemed to be someone to lead a recovery; someone to eke out a few more runs; someone to do just enough to turn a couple of games in England’s favour. It is telling that, of the three batsmen who have scored 250 runs in the series, two are England allrounders: Curran and Jos Buttler. It’s not really that England’s batting has been better than India’s; just that there has been more of it.Perhaps the same could be said of their bowling. That all-round strength also allowed England an unusual amount of options. Whereas India were hugely inconvenienced when R Ashwin suffered something of a modest game in Southampton, England tended to have another option to make amends for such issues. So when Adil Rashid struggled with his length in this match, they were able to rely on Moeen- who they continue to insist is their second spinner – who finished with nine wickets in the match. And when they needed a breakthrough in the first innings, they were able to turn to Stokes – the seventh choice bowler – to produce a whole-hearted and skilful spell. It meant there was no let-up in the pressure the India batsmen faced. No weak link that could be exploited.”I felt like had huge amounts of options,” Joe Root said. “I had points of difference in our attack. We had the ball spinning both ways, we had some left-arm angle and three fantastic seam bowlers who all do very different things. I felt I always had something different to turn to.”There were other factors beyond England’s control. India’s insufficient preparation at the start of the tour may have allowed England an advantage in the first couple of Tests – the tourists have adapted far better to the conditions now – while Virat Kohli has yet to win a toss in the series. In this Test and at Lord’s, in particular, that was significant.One day, too, he may reflect on his decision not to utilise the heavy roller ahead of either of India’s innings in Southampton as an error. With the pitch starting slightly damp, the ball made a few indentations on the first day. Most captains in county cricket would have seized on the chance to use the heavy roller to flatten those indentations out. Kohli, perhaps reasoning that the surface could break up if he did so, used only the light one and was then subjected to the uneven bounce that accounted for KL Rahul, at least, in the fourth innings. Perhaps, had he had that county stint at Surrey as was originally planned, he might have known that the chances of any pitch in England breaking up under a heavy roller are minimal to the point of non-existence.Graphic: Home comforts•ESPNcricinfo LtdMost of all, it does have to be acknowledged that England were playing in conditions – and with a ball – that suits them perfectly. Despite the dry summer, this Test series has been played on pitches providing a remarkable amount of seam movement, while the Duke’s ball – and the skill of those using it – has also produced plenty of swing. There’s nothing wrong in utilising home advantage, but it should be understood that England have done so to an unusually extreme degree. It doesn’t mean England could be considered favourites – or anything like it – when they next travel to India.So it would be foolish to allow this success to mask the flaws within this England side. While Root has a point when he points out the tough conditions with which the top-order batsmen of both sides have had to contend, he might also reflect that his opening batsmen didn’t score many runs in Australia or New Zealand, either. But for a couple of huge scores on a couple of flat pitches, Alastair Cook hasn’t scored runs in a long time. And but for a dropped catch on debut, Keaton Jennings would be averaging in the teens after 11 Tests. There will still be days – and surfaces – when they require bowlers of greater pace and there will still be days when the limitations of their spin attack – and the manner their batsmen play it – will be highlighted.”Of course you’re always looking to get better and at areas you want to improve,” Root said. “We want to make sure we’re starting well with the bat and that’s going to continue to be a big focus for us as a team.”But you’ve also got to be realistic about the conditions we’ve been playing in. There’s been some fine bowling from both teams. The two seam attacks are very high-class.”All of which is true. But, with the series already won, it might make sense to look at other top-order options at The Oval. Rory Burns really has done everything that could have been asked of him to win a chance instead of Jennings. If Alastair Cook were to take the opportunity to announce his retirement ahead of the game, it might provide a suitable opportunity for him to be sent-off in the style deserving of a man who has scored a record amount of Test runs for England. The team will undoubtedly require far greater contributions from their openers if they are to challenge in Sri Lanka or the Caribbean. Neither Cook or Jennings can say they have lacked opportunity.With Stokes clearly carrying a knee injury and Woakes still recovering from his quad strain, it might make sense to allow them to miss the game, too. The likes of Olly Stone and Jamie Overton could be tried if England want to add some pace to their attack, though it seems unlikely such an option will be taken.Whatever they decide to do for The Oval, England have a chance on both winter tours simply because of that all-round depth. And if they could just find a stronger top-order and start to hold a few catches – the early signs of the re-jigged slip cordon in Southampton were encouraging – they really could rise up the Test rankings quite swiftly.

Cheteshwar Pujara’s hundred propped up India on a day when the other batsmen faltered. His fight earned high praise on social media

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Dec-2018

It was a gritty innings from @cheteshwar1 under the circumstances. Congratulations to you on your brilliant century. Looking forward to many more knocks like this in the series. #AUSvIND #FightOfMight pic.twitter.com/MwhPN8BGW3

— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) December 6, 2018

A innings to remember for a long time from @cheteshwar1 Pujara. Showed what can happen if one applies himself. Hopefully other batsmen can take inspiration from his ability to fight it out !#IndvAus

— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) December 6, 2018

A display of tremendous resilience , grit and fight from @cheteshwar1 Pujara. A really special innings.
India need to bowl well and not let Australia get away with a big lead.#IndvAus

— VVS Laxman (@VVSLaxman281) December 6, 2018

Wonder if Pujara can take little pieces out of his ample grit and patience and distribute to some of his batting colleagues.#INDvAUS

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) December 6, 2018

Pujara was like a sage on this first day. Focussed, determined and gritty . A knock to remember @cheteshwar1 #IndvAus

— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) December 6, 2018

Amongst Australia’s dominance on Day 1, @cheteshwar1 has stood tall with a very fine. Aust have bowled exceptionally well in severe heat! #AusvInd

— Tom Moody (@TomMoodyCricket) December 6, 2018

One the great guys of the game .. What an innings from @cheteshwar1 … Steve as the Yorkshire team call him as they couldn’t pronounce his 1st name … #AUSvIND @FoxCricket #Adelaide

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) December 6, 2018

Pujara you beauty! @cheteshwar1 #AUSvIND

— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) December 6, 2018

Sterling century by @cheteshwar1, among the best he’s played as also among the best by an Indian batsman in Australia. Heavy duty concentration, application and commitment in stark contrast to the airy-fairy profligacy of the others. Kudos! #PujaraCentury #IndiavsAus

— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) December 6, 2018

Australia’s day. Bowlers were good in hot conditions. But that was a serious test match knock from pujara. Patience,application,discipline and mental toughness. Soaked up the pressure early and cash in at the end of the day. Good test match cricket.

— John Hastings (@johnhastings194) December 6, 2018

How the WBBL is cricket’s answer to plugging a hole left by the end of the AFL season, as well as engaging a half of the population that was neglected for too long

Daniel Brettig27-Sep-2018When coverage of the AFL Grand Final winds down on Saturday evening, Channel Seven will switch straight from the MCG to North Sydney Oval and a women’s Twenty20 international between Australia and New Zealand. As a statement, it is quite something when taken in isolation: women’s cricket as the spearhead of the summer, on the free-to-air broadcaster’s main channel at that.As Kim McConnie, Cricket Australia’s head of the men’s and women’s Big Bash Leagues, put it to ESPNcricinfo: “I was jumping up and down for joy when I first heard that – what a sign of commitment. I just take my hat off to them for making this move.”Yet, beyond that single programming decision is a far longer story, and a far more intriguing one. How Australian cricket realised that more needed to be done to grab airtime for the game in the days and weeks before the peak summer months of December-January, and how a parallel effort to build the game for women and girls became entwined with it. In its telling arrives an understanding – that to grow any game requires something more than a flurry of publicity or a cultural wave to ride, a discovery numerous other women’s competitions, notably the AFLW, are currently in the process of making.There are many strands to this tale, and in a way it goes back more than a decade – as distantly as 2004 when Cricket Australia’s then strategy, “From Backyard to Baggy Green”, identified how badly the game had failed to engage with half the population. Among the first steps taken from that point was to start a conversation with cricket’s major broadcaster, Channel Nine, to air matches played by the women’s national team. It was a cause taken up with gusto by the head of media rights, Stephanie Beltrame, who will return to importance later in the story.Out of the 2010 commitment to create the BBL, grew a sense that if cricket were to truly diversify its audience, CA needed to establish an equivalent competition for women. Andrew Jones, then the CA’s head of strategy, and latterly the chief executive of Cricket New South Wales, was among numerous lobbyists for the concept. “To make cricket a game for men and women and boys and girls, you needed the BBL clubs to have women’s teams under the same brand and looking the same,” he said.Discussions began to evolve in 2014, although the tournament was held back by a year due to the extra scheduling pressures created by the 2015 men’s World Cup. Within weeks of Michael Clarke lifting the trophy at the MCG, however, the WBBL was back on the table. There was, in some quarters, hesitance about how it should start. Was this simply the new T20 part of the pathway to the national team that already featured the 50-over Women’s National Cricket League, or something more? And could existing club staff stretch their resources to sell it without taking oxygen away from the BBL? Jodie Hawkins, then the head of communications for the Sydney Sixers, and now the club’s general manager, was adamant in the affirmative, and actively campaigned for the tournament to build immediate profile with a launch in the winter of 2015.”There was concern at CA that we would drop our energy around BBL to deliver the WBBL, and that was probably based on some thoughts and fears they had based on history,” Hawkins said. “But our feeling was that it would actually only enhance the BBL by having the women’s team involved as well, and being under a club banner, so originally they said, ‘let your state teams run it’, which is fine in every state other than NSW and Victoria, given we’ve got double the BBL clubs.”Given that we’d worked so hard to build those BBL brands and give them a real identity that stands complementary to the state, we were really keen if they’re running around in our shirts, we wanted them to be part of our club. Therefore we pushed to launch the WBBL and give it the profile it deserved. The WBBL was created as a visible pathway for young girls, but it wasn’t going to do that if you didn’t shine some light on it, and that was why it was really important to us that we launched it properly, so that girls could see there was a visible pathway.”

“The WBBL was created as a visible pathway for young girls, but it wasn’t going to do that if you didn’t shine some light on it, and that was why it was really important to us that we launched it properly.”Sydney Sixers general manager Jodie Hawkins

Not unlike the early work done in 2011 to launch the BBL on a similarly tight budget, Hawkins and others found themselves broadening their role descriptions considerably in the course of preparing for the event. “It was literally down to getting uniforms tailored to girls so we weren’t just sticking a man’s shirt on a female player,” she said. “We wanted to pay particular attention to making sure it looked right and it really gave the tournament and the players the spotlight they deserved.”CA did send up Mike McKenna as the speaker from their perspective. But we found venues, sourced uniforms, organised players, and really drove it, made sure we had content to go nationally, set up a WhatsApp group with all the other communications managers so every team had something to use that wasn’t just NSW-based. Every club had content out of that launch to help promote their team.”There were teething troubles. The initial tournament schedule was imperfect, and logistical issues also reared their head, particularly the extra travel and relocation requirements for players who moved states to join different WBBL teams. But by the end of the tournament in 2016, there was a sense that interest was growing, from broadcasters and sponsors, as well as fans.”In that first year, while it was fan-facing, it didn’t necessarily get the cut of the marketing from our Sixers perspective or a national perspective that it deserved, but we learned a lot in that first season that really allowed us to improve in WBBL 02,” Hawkins said. “By then, CA had really caught up and realised there was a bit of a groundswell among the public for there to be women’s sport to follow, and very quickly everyone changed their focus to make sure we created an elite pathway and a fan-focused product.”At the same time, another part of the story came together – the move to full professionalism among female cricketers. While CA had paid centrally contracted players well for some time, the move to broaden this to state level took a turn when NSW, via a sponsorship with Lend Lease, was able to offer handsome enough contracts for their own players to go full-time. For Jones, this was a case of investment to ensure the quality of the cricket matched the scope of the competition.Getty Images”By that stage, it had occurred to us that to make the product as good as possible. We needed to professionalise it first, not wait for it to be good and then professionalise it,” he said. “To make it good, you had to professionalise it so they could train more and therefore improve and be better cricketers.”We made the point in CA and state CEOs meetings that if we’re not excited about it, why would anyone else be excited about it? We’ve got to treat it like its fantastic and then people will take the lead from us.”For McConnie, the move to professionalism – broadened to all players last year with the signing of a historic first joint MoU, covering both men and women – is a significant show of leadership by cricket. “I’m pretty proud of where cricket has taken a leadership stance on that,” she said. “If you think about the recently signed MoU, the women are on a minimum of A$55,000, and we truly have gender pay equity, which enables them to start to address and look at this as a full-time career.”Cricket has absolutely led the way when you think about gender equity in remuneration for professional players. There are not many leagues in the world, let alone Australia, that can stand up and say that. I think we’ve taken that first step and led the way, and we would highly encourage and want to see the rest of the leagues follow that path. It’s not easy to get right, but we’ve tried to take that leadership position and really show the way.”Part of our vision is to be a sport for all Australians. In order to be a sport for all Australians, you need to appeal to all Australians, it’s quite obvious! We want to be the leading sport for women and girls and that’s our ambition. So it is an investment for us to make sure that it is a sport that appeals to women and girls. If you’re a 14-year-old in school today, it’s very hard for us to encourage her to be a future cricketer if she can’t see that happening around her.”

“We’ve got to think our product is amazing and others will be guided by that. We’re not going to wait for people to find it amazing before we do.”New South Wales chief executive Andrew Jones

Beltrame, and CA’s media rights team, meanwhile, had managed to cajole the Ten Network, BBL rights holders, into going beyond their existing agreement to broadcast a selection of WBBL matches in season two. This decision allowed for further proof to be gained that women’s cricket would rate strongly if positioned in the right time slots, helped too by the common identity link between WBBL and BBL teams. Audiences on Ten in that first season of television coverage regularly outstripped free-to-air broadcasts of the A-League and even some pay television broadcasts of the NRL or AFL.”There was evidence from those broadcast games that it was going to be successful,” Jones said. “There was appetite to watch it, if it was on in the right time slot. People watch a sport, a club and a time slot, and if you’ve got two out of those three things, you’ll be in business. The evidence suggested if we put WBBL on at the right time, such as 7.30pm on a Friday or a Saturday night, then people would watch it.”As this knowledge was being gleaned, another front was opening up for discussion – scheduling. In early 2016, as part of CA’s overarching strategy reviews, questions began to be posed about how to expand cricket’s footprint on the season, particularly given the turf wars that are habitually fought with the football codes for television audiences, spectators and participants. The men’s domestic limited-overs competition, which had been aired on Channel Nine, albeit at CA’s production cost, was not seen as enough of an audience grabber, and, for 2017 at least, the preference was to have the network cover the women’s Ashes instead.This left a hole in the October window in seasons that had no major women’s international series scheduled. Jones, asked to contribute to the brainstorming in March 2016, responded on the first of the next month with something that was no-one’s idea of an April Fool’s joke. “From a long-term point of view, it wasn’t good to not have cricket on at that time of year,” Jones said. “You need cricket on straight after the footy finishes. So I sat down and thought about that for a little bit and worked out the obvious answer was to move the WBBL into that window, because people want to watch T20, they want to watch BBL.”We can’t extend men’s BBL because of the Sheffield Shield, no-one wants to cut the Shield, and rightly so. Fifty-over domestic cricket’s not cutting it, and we can’t have more international cricket. So, when you eliminate all those possibilities, you’re left with the fact that it pretty much has to be the WBBL. So we lobbied and agreed that WBBL would move into its own window from 2019 onwards.”The main conclusion was we need to move the WBBL into its own window to create Friday-night cricket basically, straight after the footy season. Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday afternoon, just like footy. Everyone has had the experience of the first Friday after the Grand Final, realising there’s nothing on. That was the glaring opportunity where we finally put two and two together and said, ‘right, the obvious solution is WBBL’.”When the women’s Ashes matches rated strongly on Nine, while also pulling in decent attendances in Brisbane and Sydney, the plan to move the WBBL to its own window from 2019 onwards gathered speed. It also meant that women’s cricket would be a more major discussion point in negotiations with broadcasters than at any time in the past. The end result, shuffled into an A$1.18-billion-deal with Seven and Fox Sports, was an increase in televised WBBL games from 12 to 23, and the guarantee that all women’s internationals would be aired on Seven, starting with Saturday night.”It was led by our media rights team, but they were very committed to making sure women’s cricket was a core part of the negotiations, and it was a great result to go from 12 games broadcast on free-to-air TV to 23,” McConnie said. “That doesn’t happen without the broadcaster also getting behind it. You could clearly have seen the negotiations end up somewhere in the middle, but it got momentum and traction and we got to 23 because it was really important for the media rights team, but also for the broadcaster.”If you look at the success we had with the women’s Ashes last season, it was just fantastic, and if you look at the numbers overall, women’s sport over the past two years has reached a tipping point, where people are really starting to get involved. The work the AFLW has done is great, the women’s Ashes was really a major milestone when you look at numbers through the gate, broadcast numbers, it was really quite impressive, and that really led to some of the thinking to say it is time for the WBBL to have its own share of voice and its own window.”

“Cricket has absolutely led the way when you think about gender equity in remuneration for professional players [in Australia]. There are not many leagues in the world that can stand up and say that.”Kim McConnie, CA head of men’s and women’s Big Bash Leagues

The seamless transition from AFL to cricket on Grand Final day is also instructive as a reminder of where the two sports sit in regards to their nascent women’s competitions. A recent round of questions from players and supporters of the AFLW about a seeming lack of long-term thinking brought suggestions that a new “vision statement” was being prepared by the league. However, from Hawkins’ perspective, the race is now less about getting established than building permanence – “business as usual”.”You can’t build a league with a short-term view, it just doesn’t work,” she said. “You need to know what’s next and we’ve spent a lot of time at [BBL] general managers’ conferences, talking about what’s next, what do we need to do, how are we continuing to build. But when we’re talking about what’s next, we’re talking five years’ time. We know where we’re going next year, we know the changes we need to make and the differences you want to have. You can’t build tournaments year-to-year and trying to make change as you go.”The fact there’s more and more women’s cricket added each new broadcast agreement just shows that it’s a priority to CA to get it on TV, because that’s how you build a league, making it the most visible you can, but it’s also shown a desire for the network to cover women’s sport, because it is something that people want to see. Sometimes, you just need to tell them and show them in order to get them on board. Channel Ten were brilliant coming to the party with that, but the way that it’s growing and the structure of the new deal is really positive for the growth of the tournament.”The race isn’t now on to set-up a women’s league, the race is on to make it the most sustainable that it can be. That’s what sports are now competing in: it’s how do we make this product sustainable, as opposed to how do we build a league. Everyone’s now got something, but we’re talking about how do we make this a long-term play for us, not a ride-the-wave-and-then-jump-out-at-the-end. This is now business as usual, and to make it business as usual, you need to make it fully sustainable.”Sustainability means profitability, whether measured in terms of individual club finances or the composition for broadcast deals. To that end, Jones articulated a truly ambitious vision. “Our aspiration now is for WBBL to be the fourth-biggest sports league in Australia, behind the big three – BBL, NRL and AFL. We think it will be over a five-to-10-year period,” he said. “It’s extremely exciting and extremely satisfying. I think it’ll be our greatest contribution to the game probably.”And it all starts on Saturday night.

If crease occupation turns itself into a substantial innings, Khawaja’s method is not a problem, but, so far this series, the tactic hasn’t translated into runs

Andrew McGlashan14-Dec-2018In a batting line-up without Steven Smith and David Warner, Usman Khawaja was billed as Australia’s leading light heading into the series against India.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe outcome of the first three innings in the opening two Tests has been somewhat different, with Khawaja rendered scoreless for long periods. Perhaps his truncated build-up, following a knee injury that required surgery, has played a part in him not being in top form, but the upshot is that Australia’s innings have stalled when he has been at the crease.In Adelaide, he made 28 off 125 balls and 8 off 42, and on the opening day in Perth, he collected only 5 off 38 balls. By the end of the first innings at the Perth Stadium, it felt as though he was playing himself out of nick. India have bowled very well at him, but he has not been able to find a release shot – even to rotate the strike. In the 205 balls faced, he has managed a solitary boundary; to jog your memory, it was a tickle down the leg side against Jasprit Bumrah in Adelaide.The pressure has told in his last two dismissals: in the second innings in Adelaide, he carved a lofted drive to deep cover and, in Perth, edged a cut against a ball that probably wasn’t quite wide enough for the shot.In the first Test, R Ashwin claimed his wicket both times but the pressure has also been created by the quicks in both Tests so far, specifically the around-the-wicket line which he has not been able to counter, at least from a position of scoring runs. His inability to find a way around it also brought his downfall against Umesh Yadav today.It could stem back to the 2017-18 Ashes. While he had a reasonably successful series, England’s quicks employed the around-the-wicket tactic repeatedly, to some success. Of Khawaja’s five dismissals to pace, four came when right-arm quicks were angling it into his body from around the stumps, and he averaged just 25.00 when targeted from that angle.In this series, he has faced 121 deliveries from around the wicket by the quicks and made just 15 runs. Some players, such as Adam Gilchrist when England’s quicks troubled him with the same line in the 2005 Ashes, would try to hit their way out, but Khawaja’s attempts had been largely about survival until he slashed at Umesh. As per ESPNcricinfo’s logs, his shot intent is defensive 78% of the time, as compared to just 65% when faced from over the stumps.There was a stark contrast with how Travis Head played on the opening day in Perth. He took a notably attacking option and scored 34 off 47 balls delivered to him from around the wicket, before slashing to third man attempting another boundary.If crease occupation eventually turns itself into a substantial innings, Khawaja’s method does not have to be a major problem, but so far this series, the tactic hasn’t translated into runs. It will be fascinating to watch what he does through the rest of the matches to try and put the pressure back on the bowlers.

Faf du Plessis’ team is all about breaking stereotypes, and if that means going into a Cape Town Test without a spinner for only the third time in 25 years, so be it

Liam Brickhill in Cape Town03-Jan-2019Castle Lager picked up the sponsor’s tab for this Test series against Pakistan, and the outfield at Newlands is adorned with the beer company’s #SmashTheLabel campaign ads. The gist is to break down the stereotypes South Africa’s disparate groups and peoples have created for each other, and using the hashtag you can nominate someone on social media to win a free ticket to the cricket, provided they’ve never been to a match before.Castle, and Cricket South Africa, are trying to attract people other than the stereotypical cricket fan to the ground. The common or garden Capetonian is pigeonholed as a laidback, dope-smoking, driving-slowly-in-the-fast-lane-on-the-way-to-the-beach, knocking-off-at-3-o’clock-on a-Friday-to-go-surfing, cooler-than-thou hipster. An afternoon stroll around the ground showed that a lot of the people attending this match still fit the cliche. But a whole lot didn’t, and South African cricket is slowly but surely stretching beyond its traditional boundaries. The recentMzansi Super League was a signifier of that transformation, and South African cricket crowds – Newlands included – are increasingly diverse.That wasn’t the only label smashed today. The stereotypical Newlands track has a bit of wobble and a five-for for Vernon Philander in it, and starts to turn on day four. Three quicks and a spinner is the standard arrangement for both visiting and hosting teams here, and examples of any deviation from that formula are few and far between. South Africa had no specialist spinner in their XI here five years ago against Australia, but that plan backfired as JP Duminy and Dean Elgar bowled a combined 61 overs in that game, and South Africa lost by 245 runs.You’d have to go back to well before the turn of the millennium to find another Newlands Test that South Africa played without a specialist spinner – or someone like Nicky Boje or Robin Peterson, who perhaps weren’t quite ‘specialist’ in the truest sense, but were the next best thing in the South African context. So conducive can the Newlands track be to spin that Paul Adams once opened the bowling here, against England way back in 2000. Paul Harris won a Player-of-the-Match award here, for goodness sake.South Africa thus broke down a major stereotype at this ground when they decided on four fast bowlers this morning, which is a combination normally reserved for the Wanderers or Centurion. Indeed, Philander has played 55 of his 56 Tests with either Dale Steyn or Kagiso Rabada to share the new ball with, but day one at Newlands was only the seventh time all three had operated together, and the very first time that they had all been together in an attack wholly centered around pace.Dale Steyn made the opening incision•AFPThe decision to go against the grain in selection clearly worked. Steyn and Philander. Rabada and Olivier. Rabada and Steyn. Philander and Olivier. No matter which way South Africa’s four quicks were combined, there was no let-up in the pressure exerted on Pakistan, and they were blasted out by tea.Philander is regarded as the undisputed King of Cape Town, but perhaps that’s not a label that fits either: Steyn, Makhaya Ntini and Shaun Pollock have all taken more wickets here. Or maybe it does: Philander took his 50th wicket in his 10th Newlands Test this morning, while Pollock took 51 in 11 and Ntini 53 in 13. Steyn has 70 but has played five more Tests than Philander here, and Philander has, by far, the best strike rate of the four, taking a wicket every 35.7 balls under the mountain.Philander is part of a South African squad that is embracing change, and smashing labels along the way. Indeed, they’ve come a long way since the aloof, burly-man clique of the noughties that had a reputation for making the team rookie feel like a fuzzy-lipped 13-year-old being hazed into his first day of big school.Things have changed. The world has moved on. And the label no longer fits. Current captain Faf du Plessis welcomed the uncapped Zubayr Hamza to the Test squad with an invite to come and stand in the slips if he gets a chance to take the field as 12th man.”I’m looking forward to him coming on to the field as 12th man and getting one of those high ones that just test you as a youngster, just to see where you are with a bit of swirl in the wind here in Cape Town,” du Plessis said of Hamza. “Hopefully he takes it. He’s a good fielder. I made a joke with him yesterday, to say is he ready to come and field in the slips there with the big boys. And he said yes, he’ll come, he’s ready for it.”One doesn’t like to stereotype, but it’s hard to imagine the Smith-Kallis-de Villiers cordon inviting a fresh-out-the-box greenhorn into the slips with them.But I digress. Life is different under Faf. As a captain, he is not above a bit of 21st century PDA to thank his players for a good performance, as when he said he’d give Steyn a kiss on the cheek to congratulate him on the Test bowling record, or when he enveloped Dean Elgar – lying prone having held a blinder at third slip – with a bear hug this morning.Tabraiz Shamsi, who was not at Newlands but was clearly watching, tweeted: “U will know you’ve found ur soul mate when u find somebody who hugs u the way @faf1307 hugs his bowlers when they take an important wicket lol.” Du Plessis is willing to experiment, smash labels, and be different. Hell, he’ll even play four quicks on a pitch that traditionally has something for the spinners if he needs to.

India’s Test No. 3 on emulating Williamson’s T20 game, and the need to play without trying to prove a point

Nagraj Gollapudi21-Feb-2019
How special is this century?

It is special. This was expected because I have done well whenever I have got the opportunity in white-ball cricket. I am not surprised by this century, but I am sure many people are. I knew this one would come at some stage in my career, and this is the right time. I have been really batting well. Good form in Test cricket can help you bat well in shorter formats. It helps you get into good positions, you pick the ball early so I am really happy. Although it came in a defeat, but it was a close game where Railways needed 12 off the last over and they pulled it off.It has been 12 years since you first played in T20 cricket. Clearly your hunger has been as strong it was back then?

I have not played T20 games consistently. At times the wickets have been tough and matches have been low-scoring. But when you play on a good pitch, you can always express yourself. I was confident today (Thursday). I have worked hard over the last few years on my white-ball cricket, adding a few shots. Honestly, it was a flat pitch, which you expect in this format. But when you score a 100 at an international venue it feels good.You mentioned adding a few shots. Did you play the ramp or any such stroke?


Not really. The prime example I could give you is of Kane Williamson. If you look at his T20 batting – he even got an Orange Cap in the IPL (2018) – most of his shots are cricketing shots. That is what I look up to. I like to make runs similarly. If I have to play unorthodox shots, if need be at some stage, then I will work on it if the format requires that. I am not against that, but my success has been with cricketing shots and I will stick to that as long as I can. But if the field is set in such a manner that I need to play the paddle or scoop, I can do it.What are your favorite scoring areas?

I cannot really tell you. Having said that you can’t have a favourite area. You just have to play according to the field. If the third man is up or if the fine leg or square leg are inside, you have to clear them. You cannot just keep scoring as per your strengths. Sometimes you read the situation, read the bowler and bat accordingly. You have to be really open. That is what I learned from AB de Villiers. He plays all the shots and he scores everywhere around the field. Obviously I cannot replicate what he does, but I am also trying to play into the gaps.How much of your T20 batting is instinctive?

It is very much instinctive. The reason is, you need to be really up for it. Sometimes you have to pre-plan strokes. If you see a ball and if you feel like going for it, you just have to go with the momentum. You have to be fearless. Basically, if you have any fear you just have to remove it and start playing your shots. Sometimes you make an error, which is fine in this format, which is accepted. In Test cricket it is not. That is the difference.You did not play many dot balls. Is it okay to leave or defend some balls in T20s?

Very rarely you look to leave or defend the ball. Not at least on a flat pitch. Most of the times you are looking to score. Dot balls are not something you try and play in this format. The format demands you have to look to score at all times.

“If I have to play unorthodox shots, if need be at some stage, then I will work on it if the format requires that. I am not against that, but my success has been with cricketing shots and I will stick to that as long as I can.”

You came into the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy after the record-breaking Australia tour and runs in the Ranji Trophy knockouts. How much did that help?

That helped me a lot. If I am able to pick the ball early, I am seeing the ball well. Even in Test cricket, like in Adelaide where I was batting with the tail and had to accelerate, I had to play strokes like the pull, upper cut or go over the top, I was able to do that. It is very tough to do that in Test cricket. But after that when you play against the white ball, which does not swing much, does not spin much, and also travels further, you have a lot of advantage. You can play through the line. Your confidence level is on the higher side. If you can play some shots against the red ball, then (against the white ball) it is a piece of cake.For a batsman, the strike rate is the most important metric in T20 cricket. Yours was 163.93 against Railways. Is that added pressure on you?

It is not about my strike rate, but it is about how the team’s run rate is. You have to play to the situation. You assess the pitch and if you are batting first, you figure what is a good target you want to set as a team. It does not matter (whether you score) nine or ten runs an over.Does this century prove a point in any way – not to anybody in particular – because there is a perception that develops about players?

I agree (on the perception part) and understand your point, but I never play to prove a point to someone else. This innings gives me a lot of confidence. Things will get better from here. Once you can trust your game, once you work on something and it pays off, then you know this is a method you can follow.You played through the innings. Did you opt to open?

Yes. It gives me enough time, especially in this format, I can score runs with cricketing shots. This is where (in the top order) most of the good players who have played all three formats have batted – Kane Williamson, Virat [Kohli], Mike Hussey. You always need one player who can play cricketing shots, which gives you more results.You played in the IPL for five seasons from 2010-14 with three sides (Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab). However, in the last few years you have entered the IPL auction and gone unsold. Why do you keep putting your name in every year?

I think twice for sure (gone unsold). I put my name in because somewhere down the line I am very confident about playing white ball, whether it is ODI or T20. If I am not picked, I am not picked. But with such results, if I can carry on like this, people will start noticing. Even franchises might take notice. If I am still not picked I will carry on doing things I am doing. I don’t want to change anyone’s perceptions.

According to ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats, Trent Boult and Kane Williamson had a combined contribution of nearly 60% to New Zealand’s thrilling five-run win

ESPNcricinfo stats team22-Jun-2019New Zealand’s nail-biting five-run victory was set up by two players, and it shows in ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats numbers. Kane Williamson came in second ball, and stayed on to score a magnificent 148 off 154 balls, scoring 52% of New Zealand’s bat runs; Trent Boult took 40% of New Zealand’s wickets, and went at only three runs per over when the match run rate was 5.8. According to Smart Stats, Boult’s impact to New Zealand’s win marginally pipped Williamson’s.Smart Stats takes into account not only the runs scored or wickets taken, but also the context in which these contributions were made, in terms of match situation, relative strike rate/economy rate, and the quality of batsmen dismissed and the match situation when those wickets were taken. Bowlers get extra value for dismissing batsmen early in their innings, before they can cause damage. All of those factors are quantified, with batting and bowling performances put on an equal scale, and player impact is calculated by summing up the batting and bowling values.ESPNcricinfo LtdBoult dismissed Shai Hope and Nicholas Pooran for 1, derailing West Indies’ run-chase early, and then returned to dismiss Ashley Nurse and Evin Lewis. All four batsmen fell cheaply, giving Boult a Smart Wicket value of 4.11 (which means his four wickets were actually worth 4.11). To add to that, his economy rate was almost half the match run rate, and he bowled five overs in the Powerplays and two more in the death (44th and 46th), conceding only eight runs in those two overs.Putting a percentage to Boult’s numbers compared to the total contribution value of all players to the win, his impact is an extremely high 30.6%.WATCH on Hotstar (India only) – Williamson’s brilliant hundredWilliamson’s contribution was outstanding too. He batted almost throughout the innings, scoring 148 off 154 while seven other batsmen combined to score 135 off 147. This, after New Zealand lost both openers for golden ducks, only the third such occurrence in one-day internationals. The fact that the combined contribution of Boult and Williamson was almost 60% of the total of all the players to New Zealand’s win illustrates just how much of a two-man display this was.