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Kohli has indicated that India will be looking to tinker with their XI with the series already decided in their favour

The Preview by Ankur Dhawan30-Jan-20206:10

Bangar: Jadeja has worked well on varying his pace

Big Picture

Are New Zealand the new South Africa? Luck has deserted them in close finishes and Super Overs and, much like big-ticket semi-finals for South Africa, such games are becoming a portent of national heartbreak for New Zealand. They have lost tie-breakers with alarming consistency: three across formats in the last seven months, and six out of seven overall.Although, as Kane Williamson admitted later, the match probably shouldn’t have gone into the Super Over at all.On the upside for New Zealand, they played their best game of the series, even outplayed India for most part. On the downside, they still lost. It goes to show the narrow margin for botch-ups in T20s compared to the longer formats. It also goes to show the gulf between the two sides.India always had the better hand, even if they didn’t always play their cards right in Hamilton. Eventually, their depth came to the fore as they broke out of jail not just once, but twice, through the efforts of Mohammed Shami and Rohit Sharma. With the series in the bag, experimentation is on the cards starting in Wellington. While India would want to give the likes of Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar and Kuldeep Yadav some game time, they may equally want to rest someone like Shami who has by far bowled the most number of overs by an Indian quick since the start of the home season in 2019: 192.3 overs, followed by Umesh Yadav who is more than hundred overs behind.For New Zealand, barring the possibility of an odd change, the onus is likely to be on continuing the good work they put in in Hamilton, and trying to get across the line if they get close again.Virat Kohli is pumped after India forced the match to a Super Over•Getty Images

Form guide

New Zealand LLLLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
India WWWWW

In the spotlight

Mitchell Santner, who played a key role in New Zealand’s World Cup win over India last year, hasn’t had the best series with the ball so far. With just two wickets and an economy rate touching nine, he needs to step up. The one thing in his favour going into the fourth T20I in Wellington is his excellent record at the venue: nine wickets in five matches at an economy rate of under six. He will hope to feed off past success and rediscover his best with New Zealand’s bowling unit struggling to tie down the Indian batsmen.Jasprit Bumrah was miserly as ever•Getty Images

Only four times in 47 innings has Jasprit Bumrah been taken for more than 40 in a T20I, and Hamilton was one of those rare occasions. In addition to the 45 he conceded in four overs of the tied match, he also went for 17 in the Super Over. Most of these runs came from Kane Williamson’s bat, as he cracked the Bumrah code. How Bumrah responds in Wellington will make for compelling viewing, as this match-up gathers momentum ahead of the ODIs and Tests.

Team news

Virat Kohli has already indicated that India will be looking to change things up with the series decided in their favour. The possible changes could include Navdeep Sani coming in for Mohammed Shami and at least one of Washington Sundar and Kuldeep Yadav replacing either Yuzvendra Chahal or Ravindra Jadeja. While there may not be too many changes on the batting front, there’s always a chance that India might tinker with the batting-order to give the likes of Manish Pandey a proper go.India: (probable) 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 KL Rahul (wk), 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Manish Pandey, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Ravindra Jadeja/Washington Sundar, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Yuzvendra Chahal/Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Mohammed Shami/Navdeep Saini, 11 Jasprit BumrahFor New Zealand, the one possible change could be the inclusion of seam-bowling allrounder Daryl Mitchell. He could be a near like-for-like replacement for Colin de Grandhomme, who was only available for the first three matches, and had an ordinary series.New Zealand: 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Colin Munro, 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Daryl Mitchell 6 Tim Seifert (wk), 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Scott Kuggeleijn. 9 Tim Southee, 10 Ish Sodhi, 11 Hamish Bennett

Pitch and conditions

The team batting first has won four of the last five at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington. The average score of the team batting first in the last five matches is 178. Pacers have taken more wickets at the venue since January 2018 but spinners have been marginally more economical.A typically blustery but clear day is in the offing, although that’s usually more of a factor at the open Basin Reserve.

Stats and trivia

• Rohit Sharma has played in 99 T20I innings in 107 matches. Only Shoaib Malik, with 105, has played more T20I innings.
• New Zealand have won their last six T20Is at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington, a run dating back to 2014
• New Zealand’s eight wins at this venue is their most at any ground in the world

South Africa seamer made Test debut against England in January but was overlooked for one-day squads

Firdose Moonda06-Apr-2020Dane Paterson, the seamer who made his Test debut for South Africa in the 2019-20 summer, has ended his career in his home country and intends to play professionally in England from this season.Paterson could be left in limbo, however, after an interview to confirm his Kolpak deal with Nottinghamshire, scheduled for March 23, was postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic, amid great uncertainty around the fate of the English summer.ALSO READ: PCA backs move to two overseas players as Brexit pushes Kolpak window shutWhen Kolpak deals become invalid, which is due to happen when the UK leaves the European Union on December 31, Paterson will continue playing in England as an overseas professional, although it is unclear if counties will still be able to accommodate foreign players. Despite the uncertainty over the start of the cricket season in the UK, Paterson has not been re-contracted to his local domestic franchise, the Cobras.Paterson’s decision caught Cricket South Africa off guard, especially given that acting director of cricket Graeme Smith had been in communication with the ECB and the CEO of the Cobras’ franchise, Nabeal Dien, while Paterson was weighing up his options.Paterson was approached by Notts in late February, at which point Dien took the news to Smith, who made contact with ECB chief Tom Harrison. Upon learning that Kolpak deals will cease to exist at the end of 2020, Smith relayed the information to Dien and was then informed Paterson had changed his mind and would remain in South Africa.ALSO READ: England players volunteer salary reduction amid season uncertaintySince then, however, Paterson has had another rethink and decided to pursue his opportunity in England, forcing Smith to remove Paterson from South Africa’s winter training squad. “It surprises me that he made that decision, given all the information he had,” Smith said.However, Ashwell Prince, Paterson’s coach at the Cobras, was sympathetic to the choice his former player had made.”When a player gets to over 30, especially as a bowler, they don’t have that many years left in you,” Prince said.
“I’m sure these guys sit down and calculate what realistic opportunities will they have of playing for the Proteas and if not, they will consider other options. I think this is probably how this came about.”Paterson debuted at Port Elizabeth in January and played in two of the four Tests against England this summer. However, he was overlooked for the one-day leg of the summer against England and Australia, despite already having four ODI and eight T20 caps, a fact which Prince believes may also have forced his hand.”It is disappointing but the player is also asking themselves, ‘if I just played for the Proteas a few weeks ago, why am I not in any one-day squads, any T20 squads?’. He might be thinking maybe he only played in that Test because so many guys were injured. KG [Rabada] was suspended, [Lungi] Ngidi was unfit or injured and then the one-day squads come out, the T20 squads come out and he didn’t feature in any of them.”South Africa endured a torrid home season, losing the Test series 1-3 to England and winning only one out of the five series they played, an ODI rubber against Australia. While their Test campaign was blighted by the absence of Ngidi, who was sidelined with a hamstring injury, and Rabada’s suspension, their limited-overs squads were experimental as they sought to cast the selection net widely.Smith explained that the team management is in the process of working through long-term plans for players, including Paterson, who was among the 40 players earmarked for intense training camps. Although those sessions have yet to get underway, with the country currently on the 11th day of a 21-day lockdown, Paterson will no longer be part of them.Paterson is the fourth player to attempt to take up a Kolpak deal ahead of the 2020 summer. Hashim Amla and Vernon Philander, who have both retired from international cricket, were due to begin deals with Surrey and Somerset respectively while Farhaan Behardien ended his Titans’ career and signed with Durham.Dwaine Pretorius would have been the fifth after he, like Paterson, was courted by Nottinghamshire but Pretorius did not follow through with the deal after discussions with CSA. Pretorius also made his Test debut in the series against England and has since been awarded a national contract.An insider told ESPNcricinfo that Pretorius had not been guaranteed game-time or a central contract as an incentive to stay in South Africa but was provided with reassurance that he was in the selectors’ plans across all three formats. The same cannot be said of Paterson, who was only considered for Tests this summer and who the same source believes “still has quite a lot of work to do on his own game”.

India’s No. 1 offspinner talks to Manjrekar on his form abroad, injuries and more

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Apr-2020R Ashwin has said that he is “fighting my own benchmarks” because his Test performances overseas are being measured against his heroics in India. Despite being the country’s best long-form spinner in this decade, there has been only one instance of Ashwin playing every match of a Test series held outside Asia.Various factors have contributed to this situation, including injury to the player and selection based on horses for courses logic. Take India’s most recent Test tour. Ashwin played the first match against New Zealand in Wellington but lost his spot in the next one to Ravindra Jadeja as the team management sought to bolster their batting firepower.Despite this trend of not being picked consistently for overseas matches, Ashwin said his numbers since the Johannesburg Test in December 2013, where he went wicketless in 42 overs, have “significantly increased.”In an extensive conversation with Sanjay Manjrekar for ESPNcricinfo’s Videocast series, he said: “See, one thing is for sure. I’m actually fighting my own benchmarks in a lot of ways. The number of games that I’ve managed to win for my country and for myself, the number of successes I’ve had and the excellence I’ve shown is always measured up in equal parlance when I travel away from the country, which is great.”

Other topics Ashwin opened up on

His success in Test cricket as new-ball bowler
How IPL was like a “slap on his face” early in his career
How WV Raman helped him build on the carom ball in ‘isolation’
The ‘reverse’ carom ball
Why he has no time for old-fashioned coaching but has time for old-fashioned ways of building discipline
Why Sehwag was “carefree” about his failures and that is why he was brilliant
The future of fingerspin

Ashwin’s numbers outside Asia have certainly become better after the 2016 tour of West Indies, where he featured in the whole series. Since then in 12 Tests outside Asia, he has picked up 44 wickets at an average of 27.65. Eight of those were played in Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand, where Ashwin took 27 wickets at 30.48.Before 2016, he had played nine Tests outside Asia, which yielded 24 wickets at 56.58Since becoming a one-format player after the 2017 Champions Trophy, Ashwin has spent summers in the UK playing county cricket so that he can be a wicket-taker even on unfriendly pitches.”Increasingly the number of games I’ve played in England, I’ve started realising that for a spinner to be bowling in alien conditions and to be able to repeat similar numbers (as at home), you need to be bowling in all the possible right times of the game, first. And, secondly, you do need a little bit of luck. After 2014 [December 2013] when I had that South Africa game, I’ve taken a very serious look at my numbers and those numbers have significantly increased very, very well.”Ashwin also opened up on the hurt caused by critics who questioned him after his injuries at crucial times in the 2018 tour of England and later Australia. Ashwin suffered a hip injury during the fourth Test in Southampton and was again ruled out after the first Test in Adelaide.Ashwin said his body had “let him down” due to the “stop-start” nature of being a single-format player. Asked whether technically he was facing any challenges overseas, Ashwin disagreed, saying he had grown wiser and better with every experience. “For me to able to deliver on a consistent basis abroad there are a lot of factors beyond just me that need to go into it.”

Series will happen in South Africa if government regulations on both sides allow it

Firdose Moonda and Nagraj Gollapudi21-May-2020South Africa have been encouraged by the BCCI’s willingness to play three T20Is at the end of August, provided government regulations on both sides allow the fixtures to go ahead. The series, which is not part of the Future Tours Programme (FTP), was negotiated by Cricket South Africa’s director of cricket Graeme Smith and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly during a CSA executive trip to India in February, and finalised via teleconference yesterday as both boards consider ways to get their teams back on the park.Of course, there remain significant challenges to the series going ahead, with both countries still under lockdown, with their Covid-19 infection rates on an upward curve. South Africa is preparing for a September peak in infection rates, which would make hosting matches in August seem unlikely. In such a case, CSA’s acting CEO Jacques Faul said the BCCI expressed “willingness” to play the matches later in the South African summer.Hosting is crucial to CSA’s finances and hosting India would generate significant profits at a time when the board is bracing for big losses. Ahead of the 2019-20 season, CSA was forecasting losses of R654 million (USD 36 million approx) over the next four-year cycle and the South African Cricketers Association put that figure at closer to R1 billion (USD 56 million approx). Although the coronavirus pandemic has not cost South African cricket heavily yet, the long-term projections are grim and an India series would go a long way to putting South African cricket in a more stable financial situation.From a financial perspective, as long as the India series is played before the end of the financial year, which ends on February 28, 2021, CSA will be able to mitigate some of its projected losses.Arun Dhumal, the BCCI treasurer, confirmed that the Indian board had spoken to CSA on Wednesday but also said the tour would be subject to the travel guidelines at the time. “We are positive. We’ve had a healthy discussion, but it is work in progress as of now,” Dhumal told ESPNcricinfo.According to Dhumal the BCCI would not want the India players to be quarantined. “We have committed that in case there are no travel restrictions, everything is safe, then we would like to work it out. Our commitment is to that level. We have not firmed up any date.”Before that possibly happens, sporting activity would first need to resume in South Africa. The country is on its 55th day of lockdown, which is among the strictest in the world. While individuals are allowed to exercise outdoors between 6am and 9am daily, group activity remains prohibited, which has caused all professional sport to be halted. The country is set to ease some restrictions on June 1, when it moves to Level 3 of a five-stage lockdown (with Level 5 being the most severe), but indications are that sport would only be allowed at Level 2 or lower.CSA, through the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, is seeking an audience with the country’s sports minister to ask for permission to play behind closed doors, if needed.”This will relate to the possibility of the India incoming tour,” Faul confirmed.If government approval is obtained, CSA would then look to create a bio-bubble, similar to what the ECB, which it has been in consultation with, is planning. “It will be a sanitised cricket biosphere with strict entry standards and limited movement out of this cordon, and this will require regular testing of all those in the bubble,” Dr Shuaib Manjra, CSA’s chief medical officer, said. “We will create a cordon sanitaire, where people will not be allowed to leave or come in unless strict criteria are met.”Ideally, a bio-bubble is created at a ground that has accommodation options on-site. If that is the case, the South African venue best suited to this is in the student-town of Potchefstroom, outside Johannesburg. The facility is often used by touring teams in preparation for series because it has a complete sports complex, including accommodation, within one area.As per the FTP, India’s next international assignment is a limited-overs series in Sri Lanka in July followed by another limited-overs series in Zimbabwe in August. Dhumal said the South Africa tour would be “on top of” the latter tour if it materialised. Dhumal said both the Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe series were not yet firmed up but India would “like to” travel provided it was safe for players to do so.Hosting India in late August would impact the rest of South Africa’s calendar. They are scheduled to play two Tests and five T20Is from mid-July against West Indies, but it appears this series will be moved to a later date. “We are working with the West Indies board to try and find a window, post their tour of England, which would shift our dates,” Smith said.West Indies are due to be in England until July 29, and with South Africa hoping to host India at the end of August, they would be looking to visit the Caribbean either in the small window between the end of the West Indies tour of England and the home series against India, or after the India T20Is. With teams likely to have to spend two weeks in quarantine either side of series, squeezing the West Indies tour into August would appear unlikely and South Africa will instead look at playing that series after hosting India, perhaps even outside of the islands.”We are looking at all avenues,” Smith said. “It seems to be Trinidad is their favoured venue from a playing and a health perspective. Or to a neutral ground. Or playing in South Africa. It’s a time for members to work closely together and try and find a way to get cricket going and to support each other.”

Spin coach backs legspinners to shine in fourth innings as Pakistan secure precious lead

Danyal Rasool07-Aug-2020After squandering much of the advantage following five sessions of gritty batsmanship, breathtaking pace, sublime swing and tricky spin bowling, you could have excused Pakistan’s spin-bowling coach for being somewhat miffed at what transpired in the final session. Mushtaq Ahmed, though, ever a ray of sunshine, insisted there was no cause for irritation, adding that the scorecard, and the first-innings lead, meant he was “very confident” about the direction of the game.”We’re not frustrated,” he said at the video press conference. “It’s been awhile since we played Test cricket. But the guys are now getting back into the swing of things. We are very confident. We’ve got a 244-run lead, and if we get another 20-30 runs, it’ll be a very good score on this pitch. If we bowl and field well, I think this will be a very good Test match.”A scoreline of 137 for 8 may not make for pretty reading, but Pakistan’s overnight lead already means England will have to pull off the second-highest chase in the venue’s history to take a series lead here. And while that should assuage any Pakistani nerves, they will doubtless be ruing some of the unforced errors that allowed England a look-in once more. Shan Masood, a picture of resolute steel for much of Pakistan’s first innings, tickled Stuart Broad down the legside, for a catch so straightforward even the beleaguered Buttler couldn’t fail to hold on to. By his currently stratospheric standards, it was a soft dismissal.Pakistan would give away a few more wickets to poor decision-making, from low-percentage slogs they didn’t need to go for, (a la Abid Ali), to unnecessarily risky singles (in the mould that saw Asad Shafiq run out). With Mohammad Abbas, Naseem Shah and Yasir Shah the only survivors from the innings overnight, there is little confidence Pakistan can add too much to the overnight tally, but Mushtaq dismissed suggestions complacency had played any role in some of the mistakes the visitors made.ALSO READ: Chris Woakes hails ‘miracle-worker’ Stokes in sparking fightback“I don’t think we were complacent,” he said. “The boys are very focused. But whenever we were about to put up a partnership, we lost a wicket. The Asad dismissal was a bit painful because the scoreboard had started tickling along and both batsmen were set. Like I said, the boys are playing cricket after a while so you need to understand the ebbs and flows of the game and that sometimes takes time.”But there isn’t need to worry too much,” he added. “The way Yasir and Shadab bowled, they understand the pitch and the pace you have to bowl to each specific batsman and the field positioning you need to have. I think they’re very confident in the way they bowl. Yasir began with nerves but you can understand that. Both spinners bowled very well in the middle session, and that gives me hope they can play a crucial role as long as they have a decent target to defend.”For all of Mushtaq’s diplomacy, however, there’s little doubt Pakistan will be privately seething at the opportunities they handed England
during a final session that they may yet look back upon with remorse. If the bowling performance in that fourth innings is half as decent as it was in the second, though, then Pakistan supporters, like the implacable Mushtaq Ahmed, may indeed have little to worry about.

Ross Hepburn and Penelope Cleghorn took the two available seats

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Sep-2020The prospect of Earl Eddings being challenged as Cricket Australia chairman has receded following the outcome of the Cricket Victoria board elections.Former Dandenong Cricket Cub president Ross Hepburn and the women’s Premier panel chair Penelope Cleghorn took the two seats ahead of Essendon Cricket Club president Simon Tobin and auditor Amanda Bond.If the latter two had filled the vacancies it could have led to the replacement of Cricket Victoria chairman Paul Barker by the former WACA delegate Peter Williams, a long-time adversary of CA’s independent board and Eddings.Eddings only retained his place as CA chairman in 2019 by moving from his place as the Cricket Victoria-nominated director to one of the three places reserved for independents after his home state withdrew its support.Amid the fallout from Covid-19, with Queensland and New South Wales challenging proposed reductions in state grants, there has been talk of governance reform at CA board level with greater representation handed back to the state associations.Both Hepburn and Cleghorn represent areas that were subject to vicious staff and funding cutbacks earlier this year when Cricket Victoria announced savings measures under the cover of the Covid-19 pandemic, slashing resources to community, women’s and junior cricket while not touching the annual distributions to premier clubs.Those decisions had been viewed as grounds for Melbourne Premier Clubs to question the leadership of Barker and the Cricket Victoria chief executive Andrew Ingleton, when it is all other areas of Victorian cricket that have suffered most grievously as a result.”From the Board’s perspective, our core focus is on putting Victorian cricket on a course to return to play when it is safe to do so and a broader sustainable path for the future,” Barker said following the elections. “A significant volume of work will go into supporting our cricket community in adopting health measures which will require flexibility throughout the season.””That said, there are cautious signs for optimism, and we are hopeful that we will be able to deliver a cricket season which can help re-engage a healthy and active Victorian community.”

The Capitals who had won their first two matches in Dubai struggled to come to terms with the new venue

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Sep-20202:12

Manjrekar: Natarajan showed why Sunrisers persisted with him

After winning their first two games in Dubai, the Delhi Capitals suffered their first defeat in IPL 2020, losing to the Sunrisers Hyderabad by 15 runs in Abu Dhabi. Shreyas Iyer, the Capitals’ captain, said that the lack of game-time at a new venue contributed significantly to their defeat.Iyer, who had opted to chase, felt Sunrisers’ total of 162 for 4 was a par one and said his side was “happy to restrict” them to that score. He also said that the dew they expected in Dubai didn’t set in and therefore batting in the second innings was tougher than what he expected it to be.”We had actually no idea how to play on this wicket because this is our first game here, and they played their last game here,” Iyer told host broadcaster Star Sports after the match. “So they pretty much outplayed us in all three departments.It [the pitch] was really surprising. In the second innings, it was two-paced. When I went into bat, I wasn’t getting the ball well onto the bat. We thought the dew factor would play a massive role in the second innings and the ball would come [on] really well. We didn’t really execute the way we wanted to, but lot of learning from this wicket and also the conditions. The next time we come here, we’ll be very prepared.”Iyer also said that given the bigger boundaries in Abu Dhabi, the Capitals had planned to run more twos on the night and felt they did not capitalise on that aspect of their game. In all, the Capitals ran seven twos in their chase, compared to Sunrisers’ 11 in the first innings.As for the Sunrisers, they earned their first victory after losing their first two matches, and their captain David Warner credited the yorkers bowled by his seamers for that. He also said that the running between the wickets between Jonny Bairstow and him in their 77-run opening stand, under hot conditions, helped them overcome a difficult opening spell of fast bowling from the Capitals earlier in the evening.Warner also spoke of the challenge of finding a balanced XI that allows Kane Williamson, who scored a match-winning 41 off 26 balls, to play.”It is tricky, we’ve always tried hard with that balance,” Warner said. “After Mitchell Marsh got injured, we wondered how we can get some overs out, and young Abhishek Sharma held his nerve, bowled good lines [as the fifth bowler]. But getting an experienced batsman [like Williamson] helps.

The postponement of DPL is another setback for professional cricketers who rely on leagues for income

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Oct-2020BCB director and Abahani Limited coach Khaled Mahmud has said it is “not possible” to go ahead with the 2019-20 season of Dhaka Premier League, which was put on pause after six matches in March due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The board, according to him, is looking at January next year for a possible window, but said they might consider postponing it further if the DPL clubs show reluctance to play should West Indies’ tour of Bangladesh go ahead, which would make several of their main players unavailable for the league.Mahmud said that the BCB wants to complete a proposed T20 tournament by mid-December, after which they have to give clubs the time to prepare, especially under pandemic protocols, which would be a challenge given that DPL is a 12-team List-A competition.”It is not possible this year,” Mahmud said at a press-conference on Monday. “We can only start in January next year. We are already committed to the T20 tournament, which starts in November and will only finish in the middle of December. We have to arrange training facilities for the clubs, and allow them to get the players back to Dhaka, so I think we can only start around the first week of January.”If West Indies are touring in January, we will run the DPL side-by-side. Those playing international cricket won’t be playing domestic cricket. It has happened before. We cannot control every single thing. As simple as that. If the clubs decide they can’t play without those players, then we have to think about the league after West Indies’ tour. We have such a busy schedule next year that it is unlikely that we will get such a luxury. Perhaps we have some time in March or April.”The postponement of DPL is yet another setback for the majority of the country’s professional cricketers who rely on the leagues for their income. In a typical cricket season, the four-tiered Dhaka league (DPL and first, second and third division) and two first-class tournaments are played, along with the BPL.Mahmud said that organising and maintaining a 12-team biobubble is a major challenge, as the BCB has so far only experienced it with three teams in the ongoing BCB President’s Cup tournament.”It is a very complicated, difficult thing. We have three teams in the biobubble currently. Next we will have five or six teams in the biobubble for the T20 tournament. There are 12 teams in the Dhaka Premier League with at least 20 in each side, including the coaches and managers. The big question is where to put up around 270 people in one place.”Even if we hold a single league, there is a lot of matches. So we have to figure out how much time we will need. We are in talks with BKSP about the biobubble, but given how the clubs are such big stakeholders, their decision also matters,” Mahmud said.Mahmud suggested the BCB could give out loans to clubs although he was confident that most of them can manage the costs for the 2019-20 tournament.”BCB is positive because a lot of the players’ financial future is at stake. I think the Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis (CCDM) meeting is important. We have to give utmost importance to the players’ well-being. If one player gets infected – God forbid – it can spread through the team.”The BCB can arrange for a loan for the clubs, who I believe can manage much of their funds. Everything is running now, unlike a few months ago when it was uncertain. I know it will be tough on the clubs but not so tough that they can’t run the teams for the DPL.”

Charity aims to address a 75 percent decline in cricket participation by members of the Black community

George Dobell25-Nov-2020England fast bowlers Jofra Archer and Chris Jordan have become the latest players to sign up as ambassadors for the ACE Programme.Archer and Jordan, currently in Cape Town preparing for England’s white-ball series against South Africa, join England all-rounder Sophia Dunkley, former England and Surrey captain, Mark Butcher, and former England fast bowler Alex Tudor in backing the programme.The ACE Programme Charity was set up by Surrey earlier this year, aiming to address a 75 percent decline in cricket participation by members of the Black community. It is chaired by Ebony Rainford-Brent, a broadcaster, Surrey CCC board member and the first Black woman to play for England. The charity recently secured funding from Sport England for the next three years and, having launched in south London, has recently announced a secondary programme to be launched in Birmingham in 2021. The ECB have also pledged funding.ALSO READ: Surrey’s African-Caribbean Engagement programme launches as charity after funding boostAfter 70 young players – male and female – attended trials shortly before the lockdown in early March, the scheme this summer delivered a coaching and match programme for 25 young players, including a game at the Kia Oval alongside members of Surrey’s Emerging Players Programme. One player graduated from ACE to feature in matches for Surrey U18s.”Well done to Ebz for getting ACE up and running,” Archer said from Cape Town. “I’m looking forward to playing my part in encouraging as many kids as possible to get involved in cricket.”Jordan provided a similar message. “I’m really proud to be an ambassador for the ACE Programme,” he said. “I think it’s an amazing initiative and I hope I can play my part in getting as many kids involved in our sport as possible.” Alongside the ambassadors, former West Indies fast bowler, Michael Holding, journalist Sir Trevor McDonald, Roland Butcher, the first Black cricketer to play for England, and Olympic gold medallist Denise Lewis have been appointed Honorary Patrons.”As we look to grow the ACE Programme and accelerate change in cricket, I’d like to thank Jofra and CJ for supporting our work,” Rainford-Brent said. “It’s really important for young players to have role models to aspire to – and with Jofra, Chris and Sophia as ACE ambassadors, it’s very clear what’s possible. We now need to ensure that we create as many opportunities as we can to give young, diverse talent the opportunity to follow in their footsteps.”

Pucovski hurt his right shoulder following a heavy landing while diving on the field.

Andrew McGlashan11-Jan-2021Australia face a nervous wait to see if Will Pucovski will be available for the final Test against India after injuring his shoulder following a heavy landing when he dived in the field on the final day at the SCG.*In the 86th over of India’s innings, Pucovski was trying to intercept a shot from Hanuma Vihari at midwicket and though he briefly stayed on after being seen by the physio, he left the field at the end of the over.He did not return for the remainder of the day and was seen wearing an ice pack on his shoulder during the final session. On Tuesday, a CA update said that Pucovski would continue his rehab over the next two days before a decision was made over his fitness.Pucovski marked his debut with a composed 62 in the first innings, on what he termed the best day of his career, before being caught behind for 10 in the second.Australia will also be watching how David Warner pulls up from his return to the side in Sydney where he was far from at full fitness following his groin injury. He made 5 and 13 in the match, and could not move with his usual freedom between the wickets, although he was on the field throughout India’s two innings.”I am [nervous] and I was. It might have been a bit of different circumstances if we were 2-0 up,” Warner had told ahead of the final day at the SCG.”When you’re doing a fitness test at training, it’s quite easy to get through that. But once you’re out there it is a different intensity, playing the actual game live is where you get nervous.”I’m trying to sprint as hard as I can. It might look like I’m on a treadmill but it’s quite difficult, I’m hoping I can get through this.”Should Australia need to make changes at the top of the order for the series decider, they have Matthew Wade, who returned to No. 5 in Sydney having opening in the first two matches, and Marcus Harris is also part of the squad. No additional players have been added.From a bowling point of view, despite a three-day turnaround to the Gabba, Tim Paine was confident there wouldn’t be any issues for the fast bowlers. Australia have played an unchanged attack throughout the series and currently have Michael Neser and Sean Abbott in reserve. James Pattinson was not part of the squad for the third Test after injuring himself in a fall at home.”They handle the load pretty well,” Paine said. “They know they have a rest after the Gabba and I think they enjoy bowling there, it’s a bit easier on the body, seeing the ball fly through it’s a bit easier for them mentally as well, it’s enjoyable for them up there. They’ll be fine to go.”*5.20pm, January 12: The story was updated with information on Pucovski’s status