“When I asked him before the third Test, his body was sore. And I need to look after him more than anything”

Danyal Rasool06-Jan-2024Team director Mohammad Hafeez has defended Pakistan’s decision to line up without spearhead fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi in the third Test, saying he had a duty of care to the Pakistan players that extended beyond individual games and series. He also said it was the team management – and not the player – that had made the final call.Speaking after Pakistan’s eight-wicket defeat against Australia at the SCG,, Hafeez said he had to prioritise Afridi’s long-term career. “He bowled really well in those two games and bowled the most of any bowler,” he said. “When I asked him before the third Test, his body was sore. And I need to look after him more than anything.”Afridi’s omission further weakened an already depleted Pakistan bowling attack that had begun the series without the injured Naseem Shah, the unavailable Haris Rauf, and the unfit Abrar Ahmed. Pakistan’s reliance on Afridi in such circumstances was evident in the frequency with which Shan Masood turned to him in the first two games, with Afridi bowling just shy of 100 overs in two Test matches. No fast bowler from either side – even those who played three Tests, bowled anywhere close to that number, and by the end of the second Test, the second-busiest bowler was offspinner Nathan Lyon, having sent down fewer than 70 overs.Related

'Jamal should have bowled earlier' – Hafeez says it was Masood's call

'A real shocker': Wasim and Waqar slam Afridi's Sydney omission

The short turnaround time between the MCG and SCG Tests proved a bridge too far for Afridi. “If someone thinks their body is sore and they can’t deliver the best, we need to look after the career of the individual. I will never make a decision where a player can lose his career for six months or a year. It was a tough call but we made that decision for the betterment of the players. Because we cannot make that decision at the cost of a player’s career.”The call to sit Afridi out provoked intense debate, with accusations that the PCB was prioritising T20 cricket at the expense of the longer format. That criticism was most fiery from former Pakistan fast bowlers Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, with Wasim rejecting the claim that the management had rested Afridi, believing the player had made himself unavailable.”Let’s not pretend this has anything to do with the management,” Wasim said on Fox Cricket. “It is solely Shaheen’s decision. “Straight after this there are five T20s in New Zealand, and Shaheen’s the captain. But T20 cricket, who cares? It’s there for entertainment and it’s there for financial gain for cricket boards, for players, but cricketers should know that Test cricket is the ultimate.”Waqar said Afridi’s absence “made me laugh”, calling it “a real shocker”. “I was expecting him to be a part of this Test match because he looked good in the previous match. He started feeling like the old Shaheen Afridi and started to swing the ball and the pace was getting better.”Afridi was appointed captain of the Pakistan T20I series in November, and the vice-captain of the Test side ahead of the first Test in Perth. He has yet to take charge of a match, with his first assignment a five-match T20I series in New Zealand from January 12 to 21. It is followed by the PSL, where Afridi is captain of Lahore Qalandars, whom he led to successive T20 titles in the last two years. The T20 World Cup takes place in June in the United States and the West Indies.

Wrexham have agreed personal terms with free agent Josh Windass, with the former Sheffield Wednesday striker pencilled in for a medical on Monday.

• Windass' contract with cash-strapped Wednesday terminated
• Talks between the player and Wrexham held remotely
• Norwich and Coventry could still push for deal

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  reports that Windass and the Red Dragons have held remote talks over the past 72 hours, as manager Phil Parkinson is in Australia and New Zealand for the club's pre-season tour. The 31-year-old is unattached after Sheffield United agreed to terminate his contract in light of their financial struggles.

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  The Red Dragons may still face some competition for Windass' signature. It is believed both Norwich City and Coventry City are hoping to sign the player, despite Wrexham closing in on a deal.

• DID YOU KNOW?

  Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney's side have been very active in the current transfer window, as Wrexham prepare for their first season in the second tier for 40 years. The Red Dragons have already snapped up Welsh international keeper Danny Ward, forward Ryan Hardie and defender Liberato Cacace this summer. Picking up Windass on a free would represent another brilliant bit of business, as Wednesday reportedly slapped a £10m price-tag on the striker last season, to ward off interest from clubs including Leicester, Norwich and Derby, as well as Brazilian club Santos. Windass scored 46 goals in 163 appearances for the Owls after joining from Wigan in 2020.

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  WHAT NEXT FOR WINDASS?

  Unless other suitors can table an otherworldly deal in the next few hours, Windass will complete his medical and prepare for life in north Wales. Wrexham are once again proving their high-profile project can attract highly sought after talent as they progress up the leagues.

Ravi Shastri, meanwhile, has been conferred the lifetime achievement award

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Jan-2024

Shubman Gill and Deepti Sharma have won the BCCI awards for best men’s and women’s international cricketers of 2022-23. Gill won the men’s award, named after the former India captain Polly Umrigar, for the first time in his career, while Deepti won the women’s award for the second time – she also won it for the 2019-20 season.The BCCI had not announced their awards since naming Jasprit Bumrah and Poonam Yadav the international cricketers of 2018-19. They have now cleared their backlog, announcing winners for the past four seasons in one go. Mohammed Shami and Deepti have taken the honours for 2019-20, R Ashwin and Smriti Mandhana for 2020-21, and Bumrah and Mandhana for 2021-22.Gill made the step up from exciting prospect to international superstar in 2022-23 (the award timeframe runs from October 1 to September 30), enjoying incredible returns with the bat particularly in ODIs, in which he scored a world-leading tally of 1418 runs at an average of 64.45, with five hundreds including a double-century against New Zealand in Hyderabad. In the same period, Gill also scored 387 runs at 35.18 in seven Tests, and 304 runs at a strike rate of 146.85 in 11 T20Is.Related

Jasprit Bumrah, Poonam Yadav claim top BCCI awards

Deepti, meanwhile, was a key member of an India side that won the Women’s Asia Cup and the Asian Games gold medal in a year packed with T20I action. The offspinner picked up 38 wickets – the fifth-most in the world in the award period, and the most by a bowler from a Full Member nation – in T20Is at an average of 14.81 and an economy rate of 5.71, while also contributing 313 runs with the bat, including two half-centuries, at an average of 28.45. Deepti only played three ODIs and no Tests in the award period, but carried her form into a triumphant 2023-24 home season, taking 11 wickets at 10.81 and scoring 165 runs at 55.00 as India beat England and Australia in one-off Tests in Mumbai.Ravi Shastri excelled in various roles up and down the batting order•PA Photos

Shastri wins lifetime achievement awardFormer India allrounder Ravi Shastri, meanwhile, has been bestowed the BCCI’s lifetime achievement award. A versatile batter who played multiple roles through his career – he had a particularly impressive record as opener outside Asia – and an accurate left-arm fingerspinner, he finished with 3830 Test runs at an average of 35.79 and 151 wickets at 40.96.After knee injuries ended his playing career when he was still only in his early 30s, Shastri moved effortlessly into TV commentary, where he established himself as an incisive voice with a distinctively punchy manner of calling big moments. While he only got to captain India in one of his 80 Tests, he got a wider canvas to express his skills as a tactician and man-manager as coach: his stints at the helm of India’s men’s team from 2014 to 2016 and 2017 to 2021 coincided with their rise as an all-formats, all-conditions force. Under him India became a near-invincible Test team at home and achieved unprecedented levels of competitiveness away from home, most memorably winning two successive series in Australia in 2018-19 and 2020-21.

Valencia have backed out of negotiations to sign Pau Victor due to Barcelona's heavy financial demands.

Valencia were interested in VictorSpaniard managed only 379 minutes last seasonBarca demands lead to Los Che turning awayFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

Valencia wanted to strengthen their attacking third this season and tried speaking to Deco, Barca's sporting director, over a loan move for Spanish forward Victor. However, Barcelona are demanding a permanent move, with a €5 million fee plus 50 per cent of any future sale. According to , this was not feasible from Valencia's point of view and they have now closed the doors for any further negotiations.

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In order to improve on last season, Valencia have signed the likes of Dani Raba and Julen Agirrezabala, and wanted Victor to bolster the attacking unit. However, they would now have to search alternatives, with Barca's demands not favouring the club's transfer strategy.

DID YOU KNOW?

Victor rose through the ranks at Girona and joined Barca's reserves team on loan in 2023 before signing a five-year deal last summer.

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AFPWHAT NEXT?

Barcelona may look to offload Victor to another team this summer as the Spanish champions look to raise funds so that they can register new signings such as Joan Garcia.

Speaking on the third episode of the Best Mode On Podcast, the former Liverpool striker opens up on the heated 2003 clash between England and Turkey that led to chaos in the tunnel

Emile Heskey joins Adebayo Akinfenwa for episode three of the Beast Mode On Podcast, with the former Liverpool and England forward looking back at the infamous European Championship qualifier between the Three Lions and Turkey in 2003, that saw a huge bust-up in the tunnel at half-time.

Once Liverpool's record signing when he joined the Reds from Leicester City back in 2000 for £11 million, Heskey reveals how Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney brawled with ex-Aston Villa centre-back Alpay as the players left the pitch at the interval of the 0-0 draw that secured England's qualification to Euro 2004.

Scroll down to read more about what went down in the tunnel that night, with the full episode of the Best Mode On Podcast available now, via YouTube and Spotify.

• Getty Images Sport
  

  'I SLAPPED HIM'

  With the score level going into half-time in Istanbul, and Turkey's players having earlier goaded David Beckham after he sent his 36th-minute penalty over the bar, Heskey recalls how tempers flared as the players headed to the dressing room: "We played Turkey in qualifying, Becks missed a penalty. We had a fight in the tunnel at half-time. 

  "We were walking through the tunnel and Alpay's coming through, and he's obviously being loud. I'm just walking straight through, quiet, towards the breakout area and Ashley Cole and [ex-Turkey international] Hassan Sas [are mouthing off to each other] and he (Sas)goes and  pits at him (Cole)in the face. So I slapped him and then everyone jumped in and we're literally fighting. And then we're hearing after that Rooney's having a fight with Alpay, he's just hit him and dropped him in the tunnel."

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  'R9 AT BARCA WAS ON FIRE'

  Heskey, who scored 60 goals during a four-year spell with Liverpool, also named Ronaldo as the best player he'd ever played against. He said: "He was a typical striker at the time we grew up – get the ball, turn and run. But no one did it with the flair that he did. And the ease he did it with, it was just ridiculous. That one season at Barcelona, even now we're still looking at that [in awe] and we try and replicate it and do certain things. So I would say R9, or Rivaldo, when he was at Barca he was on fire."

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  'LEEDS, ROMA, DORTMUND, SPURS…'

  It was during his time with Leicester that Heskey caught the eye of some of Europe's biggest clubs, the ex-England international scoring 39 Premier League goals with the Foxes before Liverpool made the move to take him to Anfield in 2000. On that decision, the 47-year-old recalls: "There was interest from the age of 16. There were bids in, Blackburn came in, that was when [Alan] Shearer was on fire. You get linked with clubs and by the time you come to the point where you're 22, it's a time where I'm looking at [leaving Leicester]. 

  "By the time I got to that stage I'd gone to three Cup finals in four years, won two of them. We'd finished top half of the table all of my seasons there. What's next? I could've stayed, and [then-Leicester manager] Martin O'Neill wasn't happy that I didn't stay. I knew that Liverpool were in for me and that was it really. I loved John Barnes. That man himself brought a lot of people over to Liverpool because of the way he played. I had [interest from] Leeds, Roma, Dortmund, Spurs, Aston Villa. But when I knew Liverpool were in for me that was it really."

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• WATCH THE FULL EPISODE

Rahul’s absence further complicates matters for India, who also didn’t pick Shreyas Iyer for the remaining three Tests

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Feb-2024

India have been dealt a blow in the lead-up to the Rajkot Test against England, with KL Rahul ruled out of contention due to a sore knee. Devdutt Padikkal, Rahul’s Karnataka team-mate, has been called in as a replacement.Rahul had earlier missed the second Test in Visakhapatnam due to a quadricep injury, and was included in the squad for the last thee Tests only subject to fitness. *A BCCI release on Monday evening said he “has reached 90 per cent of match fitness” and that “he will continue his recovery process at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru to be completely match-fit for the fourth and fifth Test.”Already light on batting experience with Virat Kohli missing due to personal reasons, Rahul’s absence further complicates matters for India, who also didn’t pick Shreyas Iyer for the remaining three Tests.Related

India's selection puzzle for Rajkot: is there room for both Kuldeep and Axar?

Padikkal hits the high notes after some quiet seasons

Iyer left out for remaining three Tests vs Eng; Kohli unavailable

Padikkal looks to bounce back by 'staying stable through highs and lows'

That aside, it isn’t confirmed yet whether Ravindra Jadeja has recovered from the hamstring injury he had suffered during the first Test in Hyderabad. Jadeja is in the squad to play the third Test, which will take place on his home ground, but his participation is pending fitness clearance.Meanwhile, this is a maiden Test call-up for Padikkal, who is expected to link up with the squad on Tuesday from Chennai, where he struck 151 and 36 against Tamil Nadu in the fifth round of the Ranji Trophy fixture that finished on Monday.Padikkal, the 23-year-old left-hand batter, has so far aggregated 556 runs in six innings at an average of 92.66 this Ranji season. He has scored three centuries, with a highest of 193 in the season opener against Punjab. Prior to his most-recent Ranji outing, Padikkal impressed with scores of 65, 21 and 105 for India A against the touring England Lions in Ahmedabad. The century in the second unofficial Test was part of a massive first-innings batting effort that helped set up an innings victory.He was also part of the shadow tour to South Africa with India A in December, where he had an opportunity to train alongside India’s Test regulars prior to an intra-squad fixture.So far in this Ranji season, Devdutt Padikkal has 556 runs at an average of 92.66•PTI

“South Africa was a great experience for me, in terms of having the chance to train with the seniors,” he had told ESPNcricinfo last month. “Being in and around them, playing that level of bowling prepares you well for the Ranji season. I looked at it as an opportunity to get volumes in, in terms of my batting. I’m grateful for that experience.”Having started off as an opener, Padikkal has slowly transitioned into a predominantly top-order role that requires him to bat at No. 3 – and at times even at No. 4 – for Karnataka. With Mayank Agarwal and R Samarth opening the innings for his state side, Padikkal has established himself lower down. This change of role is something he has learnt to embrace after a middling IPL 2023 for Rajasthan Royals. The tipping point, he said, was his trade to Lucknow Super Giants, where he’ll be playing under none other than Rahul.”I don’t look at it in terms of just being an opener anymore,” he had said. “I’m enjoying my opportunities, wherever they may be. Each position you bat in offers a different challenge. I’m trying to learn new things, [and] adapt to situations. It helps me grow as a cricketer, [and] helps me understand the game a lot more – not just in terms of my batting but [also] how the game works across different phases.”Overall, Padikkal has solid first-class credentials, having averaged 44.54 across 31 matches. He has played two T20Is for India, both of which came against Sri Lanka in July 2021.In Visakhapatnam, India handed a Test debut to Rajat Patidar. Sarfaraz Khan is the other uncapped batter in the mix along with Padikkal. Jadeja’s potential unavailability could well pave way for another Test debutant in Rajkot. It’s also likely India could still pick one of Sarfaraz and Padikkal even if Jadeja is available and they play their usual three spinners and two quicks.India have two full days of training leading into Rajkot, with the series locked at 1-1.India’s squad for the third Test: Rohit Sharma (capt), Jasprit Bumrah (vice-capt), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wk), KS Bharat (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Devdutt Padikkal.GMT 1450 hrs This story was updated with information from a BCCI press release

England batter will feature in season opener at Old Trafford, as club begins Championship hat-trick bid

Andrew Miller26-Mar-2024Ollie Pope has made himself available for Surrey’s opening match of the County Championship, against Lancashire at Old Trafford, and says he’s fully focused on giving Alec Stewart the trophy-laden send-off he deserves, as Stewart embarks on his final season as the club’s director of cricket after 11 transformative years in the role.Pope, whose 196 against India at Hyderabad was the outstanding performance on England’s recent Test tour of India, has turned down the chance for a break – in part to make up for lost time after he missed seven months with a shoulder injury sustained during last year’s Ashes, but also because he feels “frustrated” by his failure to kick on in India, where he was limited to 118 runs at 14.75 in the final four Tests.”I feel pretty fresh,” Pope said during the launch of Rado as the official timing partner of England cricket. “If I had scored another three 70s or something in the series, I might be feeling slightly differently, but I almost feel frustrated. I feel like I’m in really good nick without putting together those scores. So hopefully I can go and find that rhythm of putting together big scores at No. 3, unless Stewie drops me!”Pope’s nadir in India came with a pair in the fourth Test in Ranchi, although his twin dismissals in the series finale in Dharamsala – stumped on the stroke of lunch for 11 in the first innings, then caught off a top-edged sweep for 19 in the second – led to criticism for his frenetic approach at the top of an innings.”I understand it,” he said. “I think the issue for me in that series is something that I’ve worked hard on in England and I’ve got better, I think, to make myself a bit more consistent in these English conditions.”In that second innings of the first Test when I made that score, I tried to be busy, so I think it is a fine line. When it doesn’t go right, it looks frenetic. When it does go right, it looks busy and good.”Related

Alec Stewart takes up new advisor role in extension of Surrey career

Rehan Ahmed: 'I'm not yet the bowler I want to be in five years'

The inside story of county cricket's most eye-catching transfers

Pope: 'Reverse sweeps as safe as a defensive shot' in these conditions

Pope plays himself out of form

Little wonder therefore that he is keen to get straight back into the middle with his county. “There’s no question I just want to play,” he said. “We’ve got 12 Test matches so I probably won’t play every county game, but I might miss one in that first seven or eight games. I’m itching to get back to just scoring runs and representing Surrey, without making myself knackered.”This club is a great place to play cricket and it’s a good way of just challenging myself going forward. I’ll get to face the likes of Nathan Lyon in that first game as well. I’d be nice to try and keep improving my game against him before another Ashes series away, potentially. There are always small gains to be made. Especially while I feel as fresh as I do.”Pope’s availability is a bonus for Surrey as they begin their bid for a hat-trick of County Championship titles, a feat last achieved by Yorkshire in 1968. But on a personal level, as one of the core of young players – alongside the likes of Sam Curran, Tom Curran and Will Jacks – around whom the club’s recent success has been built, Pope admits he is “gutted” by the news of Stewart’s impending departure, which was broken to the squad last Thursday.”I sadly missed the meeting when he announced it to the boys, but I had a phone call with him straight after,” Pope said. “I can’t imagine a club where you don’t see Stewie in at 6am every day, on the rowing machine, or on the treadmill, or doing some weights. That’s because he loves the club and loves being here. And he’s also ridiculous at his job as well.”The pair’s personal relationship is encapsulated in two photos, taken 11 years apart – the first from 2007 when, as an eight-year-old, Pope received Surrey’s Under-9 Player of the Year award from Stewart at The Oval, and then at Lord’s in 2018, when the same man presented him with his first Test cap.”Every player in the club, and every member of the coaching staff, feels like they’ve just got so much to owe him,” Pope said. “Whether he sees the talent in you, or sees the good person in you, he brings it out. So he’s going to be a massive, massive loss for the club. It’s going to be sad when he leaves but hopefully we can win a couple of trophies for him this year to give him a good send-off.”Ollie Pope will feature in Surrey’s opening match of the Championship season•Getty ImagesSuccess may be taken as read at Surrey under Stewart, but Pope admitted that, as a player in the youth set-up, he’d been conscious in his early years at the club of the difficulties behind the scenes, particularly in the wake of the death of Tom Maynard in June 2012, and the subsequent inquest into the club’s behavioural standards.”It was kind of an unspoken thing, and you’d see it eke in now and then,” Pope said, recalling the period in which Stewart was parachuted in as first-team coach following the sacking of Chris Adams at the start of the 2013 season. “You can see why Stewie is how he is, because he obviously ran a pretty tight ship at the start.”There’s a lot of freedom within the players. But I think a lot of what the club has achieved – and hopefully we can go on to achieve a lot of good things in the next few years – that largely will be because of what he’s created here and set the tone for.”Some of what happened in the past, there are obviously some sad stories that came from it, and it obviously needed a slight change. And that’s what happened. And Stewie was probably the main leader with that.

Alec Stewart always knows when he meets a splendid talent. First meeting Ollie Pope when he was 9 then Alec presenting Ollie his England cap aged 20 pic.twitter.com/oWzjZWABg0

— James (@Surreycricfan) April 19, 2020