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South Africa will join the campaign as a collective but have allowed individual players to make their own gestures of anti-racism

Firdose Moonda09-Jun-2021Almost a year to the day that West Indies became one of the first two international cricket sides to take a knee in support of Black Lives Matter, their former captain Jason Holder has urged athletes to do more for anti-racism. Speaking to ESPNcricinfo ahead of West Indies’ series against South Africa, Holder said he wants the taking a knee to be given meaning again through greater awareness and action.”I had a few discussions about it and I feel as though some people feel it’s now a watered-down action taken before the games. I would like to see some new initiative to spark the movement again,” Holder said. “I don’t want people to just think we’re taking the knee because Black Lives Matter, that’s the tradition and that’s the norm. It has to have some substance, it has to have some meaning behind it.”Although West Indies are likely to take a knee at the start of each of the two Tests against South Africa, as they have done in all of the series they have played since the England tour last year, Holder indicated they may add to the activism by other means. “Maybe, that’s something we can do as a group. Maybe, a video collage and a video message, just to reiterate what the movement stands for and what it’s all about,” he said.South Africa allow individual players to make own gestures
South Africa will join the campaign as a collective but have allowed individual players to make their own gestures of anti-racism, as they prefer.”It’s been quite a journey for our side with regards to this topic,” Dean Elgar, South Africa’s new Test captain said. “We had a meeting with West Indies cricket yesterday – myself, Kraigg Braithwaite and the two team managers. Ultimately what happened is that we approached them to give them our version of going forward with regards to their campaign and us supporting the campaign. We have given the players their right to perform whichever act or gesture they want. If players are comfortable with taking a knee, they may. If a player wants to do the previous gesture that we had, of raising your right fist, they are entitled to do that. If they aren’t comfortable just yet, they’ve got to stand to attention so we can respect the campaign.”West Indies are likely to take a knee at the start of each of the two Tests against South Africa•Getty Images

This is a marked departure from South Africa’s approach in the past, when they collectively decided not to take a knee. Instead, they wore black armbands on their return to play last November against England and had banners against racism and gender-based violence and then raised their fists in a black-power salute before the Boxing Day Test against Sri Lanka. The interim board expressed its disappointment at South Africa’s approach, especially given the country’s Apartheid history.Now, South Africa have changed their stance with respecting their hosts foremost on their minds. “We have come a long way. There are players which aren’t comfortable with serving a gesture but ultimately, we have come to West Indies to respect their campaign,” Elgar said. “We have also come to West Indies on the back of a lot of long chats in our squad and its taken us a year to reach this point, where we feel every player has a right, a sense of belonging in this team and we have have come to the Caribbean not to disrespect the West Indies badge. We have made a massive step with regards to this and tomorrow players will be able to share their gestures.”The subject has become topical in the cricketing world again after recent events in England, where Ollie Robinson has been suspended for historic tweets and other players are under investigation, and Holder recognised that racism remains a problem that needs to be addressed through more than just gestures.”Racism is a big thing in the world and in society at this point in time,” Holder said. “I would like to see some more emphasis, some more thought process going into actually resparking or re-engaging the movement so it can actually hold some substance. Now, we are getting to a point where people are just saying we are taking the knee, but what do we actually take the knee for? Does it have that substance that it had before? To me, racism is something we need to speak out against. More awareness has to be going on around it. And the more we can do that, which could be in a different way rather than taking the knee, the better off we will be around this whole movement.”

Mohammad Nabi credited well-executed plans, an improved fielding performance and a clear thought process for Afghanistan’s tense, two-wicket win against Bangladesh in the second ODI

Mohammad Isam in Mirpur28-Sep-2016After Dawlat Zadran sliced Taskin Ahmed to the third-man boundary to seal Afghanistan’s tense win, there were hugs and handshakes in the camp, a far cry from their exuberant celebrations after defeating Bangladesh in 2014 or West Indies at this year’s World T20.”We will try to win the series and then we will celebrate,” Man of the Match Mohammad Nabi said, before breaking into a smile.Nabi said the win will help people forget Afghanistan’s close loss in the first ODI, where they lost by seven runs.”After we lost the first game, people talked too much: ‘why you lost because you were supposed to win the game. In the end you lost the game,’ they said. From this win they are going to be really happy,” Nabi said.”The win against a Full Member side means big for Associate Nations. Afghanistan cricket is improving day by day. The win will give more energy to the people and everyone watching in Afghanistan will be happy from that win.”Afghanistan executed their gameplans, and stalled Bangladesh’s momentum from the outset. Mohammad Nabi and Mirwais Ashraf were used against Bangladesh’s openers, who prefer pace and width to score their runs.Nabi, who returned figures of 10-3-16-2, credited their coach Lalchand Rajput and captain Asghar Stanikzai, along with an improved fielding performance for the win.”The plan of the captain and coach was that both left-handed batsmen is coming to open and that I would be bowling from the start. The pitch had moisture.”We discussed in the meetings that we are going for the win. It worked a lot in the bowling especially the spinners. We just dropped one catch. The boys worked a lot on the planning which helped us win the game,” Nabi said.Afghanistan were in trouble at 63 for 4 in their chase of 209 when Nabi joined Stanikzai. Nabi said the focus wasn’t on finding the boundary during their 107-run stand despite the asking rate increasing steadily.”The pitch condition was not suitable for batting. It was turning and skidding. The plan was to play until 40 overs and we could just concentrate on singles and doubles, and not hitting boundaries. We knew that in the few overs in the middle when we didn’t hit any boundary, that’s where the partnership was built.”The experience worked a little, not too much. We didn’t finish well. We threw the wickets away under pressure,” Nabi said.

On a somnolent summer’s day at Trent Bridge, Steven Mullaney’s concentration remained unimpaired from first ball to last

David Hopps17-Jul-2016
ScorecardSteven Mullaney recorded his career-best score (file photo)•Getty Images

On a somnolent summer’s day at Trent Bridge, Steven Mullaney’s concentration remained unimpaired from first ball to last. Quite how anybody can concentrate in these strange times, when according to media reports a Pokemon might be lurking just in front of square is a mystery, but he did just that and by the close had an unbeaten 161 to show for his admirable resolve.Somerset’s best chance of dislodging Mullaney on a benign surface would have been for a Pokemon hunter to wander across the pitch, mobile phone outstretched, entirely oblivious to the real world just as Jack Leach landed one on a length. A lad in a white t-shirt did cross promisingly on to the South Bank around lunchtime, but sadly turned down towards Nottingham Forest FC. Even Pokemon – and players of Pokemon Go – prefer to hang out at football it seems.It was an unremitting effort by Mullaney, an allrounder who has quietly demanded more respect with every passing season, a fact emphasised by the fact he has stood in as captain since late May while Chris Read has been absent injured. Read has returned and Mullaney put his thoughts to batting. His selectivity never wavered and the result was a career-best knock in the Championship which has put Nottinghamshire in control.According to the groundstaff, who presumably have a duty of care not to run over a Pokemon with the heavy roller, more’s the pity, some have been lurking at Trent Bridge in recent days: Pidgeys, Rattatas and the occasional Drowzee. “All the rubbish ones,” as an aficionado wisely remarked.Perhaps the ECB should sponsor Ditto to appear at a county match. Ditto, one of the most powerful Pokemon, apparently has the ability to transform its shape, which as the ECB hierarchy is fond of complaining is more than you can say for county cricket.The game is changing. A sizeable minority of county cricket spectators can go puce with rage at the thought that a day’s county cricket could involve imaginary creatures. But while Mullaney steeled himself for an entire day’s monumental concentration, a few within Trent Bridge’s walls sneakily took a look. Letters will be written to the committee asking for them to be banned forthwith. Or at last not allowed in the Members’ area.While the Millennial generation were getting off on blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, Mullaney gave we Kabutos – ancient fossils with no real power, for those not in the know – plenty of languorous pleasure with a big hundred that felt inevitable from an early hour. He was dismissive of Lewis Gregory, a change bowler charged with taking the new ball, from the outset, and also indicated his supremacy over Leach’s left-arm spin by rounding off an introductory over that cost 15 by thumping him over long-off for six.In sharing an opening stand of 196 in 60 overs, Mullaney and Jake Libby did not have to run until the 13th over, settling in instead with extras and boundaries. “We just said to each other let’s try and bat all day, let’s try and do something special,” said Libby. As they took control of the day, picking the gaps in what Pokemon included was an 8-3 field, it felt an achievable objective.Instead, Libby fell 10 runs short of what would have been his first Championship hundred of the season for Notts when he cut Tim Groenewald to gully – a deserved reward for the bowler if not the ball because he was the most demanding of Somerset’s quintet of right-arm seamers – but Mullaney had his bagged in the last over by tea, clearing the boundary against Leach, a shot that crashed into the advertising hoardings which such force that it virtually rebounded back into the bowler’s hands. When a bowler is launched for six it is always a consolation not to have to chase it.We are in the unsatisfying middle phase of the Championship when matches pop up on different days and interest turns to the main Test series of the summer, but this is an important round for all that with the bottom four in contention – not just Nottinghamshire v Somerset here, but Hampshire v Surrey at the Ageas Bowl.It is Somerset, fourth bottom with a game in hand, who are most favourably placed, but their attempt to end a soulless sequence of draws came unstuck last week when they narrowly lost to Middlesex on a Taunton greentop and the general assumption – as last season – is that it is Nottinghamshire who are in a false position. From the moment Read won the toss, nothing challenged that theory.Leach gained some consolation in the final session with a couple of wickets as Chris Rogers, Somerset’s captain, delayed taking the second new ball. Michael Lumb touched one that turned and bounced a little to wicketkeeper Ryan Davies and Brendon Taylor was caught at mid-on. Jim Allenby had Riki Wessels lbw. Wessels, born in South Africa and who controversially made use of an entrepreneur’s visa to play county cricket, now has his sights set on England after securing citizenship earlier this week,Mullaney’s only lapse came two balls after he had passed his previous best Championship score of 139, when Marcus Trescothick put him down off the bowling of Craig Overton. At such times, as Overton stalks off towards the boundary at the end of the over, one half expects him to leave the ground via the nearest exit but he stopped peacefully by the square leg umpire and wisely kept his own counsel. If England Lions are to show an interest, it is a good habit to get into.

“I think we can leave a few more balls outside off stump to make them bowl straighter at us.”

Mohammad Isam10-Jan-2022Bangladesh have to be “decisive” in whatever they do in Christchurch now, according to batting coach Ashwell Prince. The visitors were bowled out for 126, responding to New Zealand’s 521 for 6 declared, a display which didn’t reflect any of their trust in leaving or even playing the swinging ball.The top five all got out in single-figures, a stark contrast to the first eight batters playing at least 50 deliveries in the first Test last week. They went on to bat for 173 overs in Mount Maunganui, as opposed to a mere 41.2 overs on the second day at Hagley Oval.Prince said that Yasir Ali, who reached his maiden Test fifty, top scoring with 55 in this innings, showed that he was confident in what he wanted to do.”Yasir was solid in defence and decisive in attack,” Prince said. “I think it is that type of a pitch. You have to leave the ball with confidence. You have to be decisive playing a defensive or an attacking shot. The keyword is decisive with whatever option you will be taking.”Yasir and Nurul Hasan added 60 runs for the sixth wicket. Nurul struck the ball well during his 41, but their effort fell way short of bailing out Bangladesh from a difficult situation.”At tea time, we identified the pitch was quite good for batting,” Prince said. “There was value for shots off the surface. The outfield was nice. If we could hang in a little bit, we could get a partnership going. The movement happened a bit quicker off the surface today. I was comfortable thinking some of the balls would go past the outside edge. It is normal for these conditions.”Sohan [Nurul] played positively. Came forward nicely at the bowlers. He got his front foot out of the pitch of the ball. He got his weight over the ball. Yasir, only playing his third Test, was unlucky caught down the leg-side at the Mount. He applied himself well in that game, and today as well.”Prince alluded to how New Zealand batted on the first day, led by Tom Latham, who ended up scoring 252.”We learned from the Kiwis that they left a lot more balls outside the off stump. It comes a little bit more naturally for the New Zealand batters. They play on bouncy surfaces. Our guys play a lot more balls. I thought we left really well and played well off the back foot at the Mount.”I thought we could have left a few more balls today. Hopefully tomorrow we can get off to a good start. I think we can leave a few more balls outside off stump to make them bowl straighter at us.”Prince said that they knew New Zealand would hit back after the defeat in the first Test, and that as soon as they did, it became difficult for Bangladesh. He said that it was similar to how Bangladesh ran away with the game having batted big in the first innings in Mount Maunganui.”Of course we are disappointed [with the top five in the first innings]. It was a massive effort last week. We played 173 overs against a quality bowling attack. I think it is fair to say that we expected NZ to come back with a lot more urgency in this game. If you compare the two games, you can see that it is really difficult to fight your way back, even if you are the No. 1 team.”Last week, we managed to get ourselves ahead of the game. In this game so far, they started really well yesterday, continued it this morning. They also started well with the ball. They made it tough for us to get back into the game. We have to live to fight another day.”

The PCB is set to introduce 10 day-night matches, to be played with the pink ball, in its forthcoming domestic first-class season starting September

Umar Farooq14-Jun-2016The PCB is set to introduce 10 day-night matches to be played with the pink ball in its forthcoming domestic first-class season starting in September. The idea will be implemented in Quaid-e-Azam (QEA) Trophy matches, including the semi-final and final, to ensure every top team is acquainted with the new conditions. The governing board of the PCB approved the idea recommended by the domestic cricket committee as Pakistan are set to play their first pink-ball Test against Australia in Brisbane in December.The format of the Quaid-e-Azam trophy has been retained from last year; it had changed almost every second year on average, and last season’s revamp was the third such change in the last five years. There has been a change in the one-day structure though. The National One-Day Cup, which featured 16 teams divided into two pools last season, has now been split into two tournaments – one with eight regional teams and the other with eight department teams. The Pakistan Cup, which replaced the Pentangular Cup recently, will continue to have five provincial teams. The domestic season will kick-off with the National Super Eight T20 Cup in the last week of August.

PCB increases match fees across formats

The PCB has increased the match fees of all players across formats by 100%. Each international player who is centrally contracted with PCB will get 50% of the international match fee of the same format in domestic cricket, to encourage them to play domestic competitions. Players for all the national limited-overs tournaments will be picked through a draft process, relinquishing the traditional way of selecting players.

The QEA Trophy will be played by 16 teams, and 12 of those – six regional and six departmental – will gain automatic qualification on the basis of their performance last season. The last four places will be filled through a qualifying round introduced by the PCB, which will be played between 14 teams. The top two regional and departmental teams will qualify for the main tournament.The day-night first-class schedule has been designed with a focus on the top teams, to give ample exposure to national cricketers ahead of the Brisbane Test. The PCB has been encouraging the pink-ball trial for the last six years, though they did not extend the experiment beyond a few games. In 2010-11, the final of the QEA Trophy was played with an orange ball in Karachi and the 2011-12 final was played with a pink ball. Earlier this year, the QEA final between Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited, led by Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq, and United Bank, captained by Younis Khan, received mixed reactions.Though the PCB was pleased with the trial, the major concern among the players was the visibility of the ball and its quality once it got older. Most of the players backed having more games with the pink ball to get familiar with its behaviour.

Root put his side’s failure down to their first-innings collapse when they went from 74 for 2 to 112 all out

Valkerie Baynes25-Feb-2021Joe Root says England’s 10-wicket defeat to India inside two days of the third Test won’t define his team, who also fell out of contention for a place in the WTC final as a result.On a day when 17 wickets fell in a match described by his opposite number, Virat Kohli, as “bizarre”, Root, the England captain, claimed 5 for 8 with his part-time offspin as India, resuming on 99 for 3 were bowled out for 145, a first-innings lead of just 33.But his first Test five-for was small consolation when England managed just 81 in their second innings as Axar Patel claimed another five-for and 11 for the match and R Aswhin passed 400 Test wickets with his seventh for the match.Related

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“It sums up the wicket up slightly, if I’m getting five wickets on there, then you can tell it is giving a fair amount of spin,” Root told the host broadcaster after the match. “It’s nice to contribute but disappointing it’s in a losing cause.”That left India needing just 49 runs in their second innings and they got there with ease, Rohit bringing up the winning runs with a six off Root.While debate raged long into the night about the state of a pitch on which scarcely more than five sessions constituted a match, Root put his side’s failure down to their first-innings collapse when they went from 74 for 2 to 112 all out, having won the toss and chosen to bat first.”A week like this doesn’t define us as a team, we know what we’re capable of doing and we’ll come back and use the hurt of this week as motivation going into that last game,” Root said.”It was a very challenging surface,” Root added later in his press conference. “We are bitterly disappointed we have missed an opportunity more in that first innings than anything, having been 70-odd for two we had a real chance. In hindsight, if we had even got 200 that would have been a very good score on that wicket and the game would have been completely different.”It is frustrating and something we have to learn from – we have to get better and we have to keep finding a way to score runs on surfaces like this but it is very challenging, you could see that from the scores throughout the whole game – even guys that are more used to playing on turning wickets.”Joe Root claimed career-best figures•BCCI

Root also defended England’s selection of just one frontline spinner in Jack Leach, who took 4 for 54 in India’s first Innings as spinners accounted for all but two of the 30 wickets to fall in the match, with Moeen Ali sent home to rest and Dom Bess overlooked for this and the previous Test.”We looked to try and play our best side in terms of utilising that pink ball,” Root said. “We thought the wicket would hold together better than it did. Throughout all the practice days it seamed around, it swung prodigiously and seam looked a threatening option.”It’s easy in hindsight to select a different team but we wanted to play our seamers, which we feel is a big strength of ours, give them the chance to exploit those conditions, unfortunately it was a slight misread in that regard.”Root believed that the pink ball was a considerable factor for both batting sides, with Kohli also rating the batting overall in this match as not “up to standard”.”I honestly think the ball had quite a big factor in this wicket, the plastic coating on it, the hardness of the seam compared to the red SG ball, meant it almost gathered pace off the wicket,” Root said. “Credit to Axar, in particular, he exploited that exceptionally well and found a very good method, a very repeatable method, on that surface.”Pressed on the pitch conditions and whether host nations should lose WTC points should a pitch be rated poor by the ICC, Root said “I’m sure off the back of this things will get looked at” and “I’m sure they’ll look at other wickets around the world at different times”.”I think that this surface is a very challenging one, a very difficult one to play on,” he said. “It’s not for players to decide if it’s fit for purpose, that’s up to the ICC. As players we have to try to counter it as best we can.”Let’s not hide away from the fact that we’ve been outplayed here. On this surface we’ve still been outplayed and we have to accept that. It’s a real shame because it’s a fantastic stadium, there’s 60,000 people come to watch a brilliant, iconic Test match and I feel for them… the fact of the matter is it was a challenge for both sides and as a player you can only play what’s in front of you and credit to India, they outplayed us on that wicket.”Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma walk off the field with England following suit•BCCI

Now leading the series 2-1, India go into the last match starting on March 4 also in Ahmedabad, albeit in the morning as opposed to a day-night match, needing only a draw to reach the WTC final against New Zealand at Lord’s in June. England needed to defeat India 3-1 to reach the final.Root said it was important his side went into the final match of this series without any “baggage” from losing two on the trot.”We can’t have any scars going into the last game,” he said. “We’ve got to keep looking forward and we’ve got to keep remembering we won six on the bounce away from home coming into the last two games and won six on the bounce in the sub-continent, so you don’t become a bad team overnight.”We go into next week with a very good attitude and we take the hurt from this and apply it in our performance and use it as motivation to come away with something.”

It is likely that Rishabh Pant, the Delhi Capitals vice-captain, will lead them until Iyer returns

Nagraj Gollapudi24-Mar-2021Shreyas Iyer has been ruled out of the remaining two England ODIs after hurting his left shoulder in the field during the series opener on Tuesday night in Pune. ESPNcricinfo understands Iyer, who dislocated his shoulder, is set to miss the first half of the IPL where he is the captain of the Delhi Capitals.On Tuesday Iyer was taken for scans immediately after he walked off the field during the eighth over of England’s chase. In a flash medical update at the time the BCCI said Iyer had “subluxated” (partially dislocated) his left shoulder. Although the BCCI is yet to announce Iyer’s exit from the England series, it is understood that the injury will take several weeks to heal, putting in doubt Iyer’s return for the IPL. It is understood that Iyer is likely to undergo surgery on the left shoulder which he has injured thrice since the 2020 IPL. In case Iyer does undergo surgery, his recovery period could stretch to a few months. Iyer’s absence is unlikely to hurt India’s gameplans for the remaining two matches in the ODI series considering there is more than one option on bench in Suryakumar Yadav and Shubman Gill.It is the Capitals who will feel the pain of Iyer’s injury considering he is not only their leader but also a key batsman in the top order. It is likely that Rishabh Pant, who is the vice-captain, will lead the Capitals until Iyer returns.This is the second time in the last six months that Iyer has suffered a shoulder injury, having picked one during the white-ball segment of the Australia tour. Before joining the India squad for the limited-overs series against England, Iyer had played in just four of the eight 50-overs matches in the Vijay Hazare Trophy for Mumbai, in which he scored two centuries.The timing of his injury will also concern Lancashire, who had signed Iyer for the Royal London Cup (50-overs tournament) in the summer. Iyer was meant to join Lancashire from July 15.