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Family affair in prospect as England allrounder gets his first game-time of the season

George Dobell28-May-2021Moeen Ali is set to return to action on Saturday with an appearance in the Birmingham League.Moeen, who recently returned from the IPL, has received approval from the England team management to play for West Bromwich Dartmouth (WBD) against Walsall in Premier Division One of the country’s oldest cricket league.The match promises to be something of a family affair. Moeen will be joined in the WBD team by his brother, Omar, and his cousin, the former England swing bowler, Kabir. Another cousin, Ismail Mohammed, who is on the staff at Worcestershire, is also in the side.Moeen’s oldest brother, Kadeer, will be absent, however. The former Gloucestershire and Worcestershire batter is WBD’s regular captain but has been asked to help out the Worcestershire first team in a coaching capacity (he is the county’s second XI coach) this weekend. In his absence, Kabir will captain the side.Several, though not all, of the England players who were at the IPL are likely to return to LV= Insurance County Championship action in the round of games starting on June 3. A firm decision on each player’s involvement will be taken by the England management in the coming days.

Bangladesh batsman says the team got fewer runs than they wanted, but they can still fight back with quick wickets

Umar Farooq in Rawalpindi07-Feb-2020Bangladesh’s fight in the middle order was bookended by wickets falling cheaply in the first Test against Pakistan, as they were bowled out for 233 on the opening day in Rawalpindi. Bowling first after winning the toss, Pakistan dismantled Bangladesh’s top order to leave them 2 for 3, before the middle order rallied somewhat. But although there were three stands that crossed fifty, none went beyond 59. Najmul Hossain Shanto, playing in just his third Test, rued that the Bangladesh batsmen didn’t capitalise on their partnerships.Shanto (44 off 110) had put on 59 for the third wicket with captain Mominul Haque, while the highest scorer of the innings, Mohammad Mithun, took part in stands of 54 and 53 for the sixth and seventh wickets. Shanto and Mominul were helped by Pakistan’s bowlers spraying the ball a little, perhaps becoming over-eager after the early strikes on a green top. However, the bowlers settled down and found a nagging length, and continued to strike regularly.Six of Bangladesh’s batsmen – from No.3 to No.8 – got starts, going past 20 but Mithun’s 63 was the only fifty-plus score, a fact that Shanto described as disappointing.”There was little bit of movement in the early few overs, but then later it turned into a good batting wicket,” Shanto said. “But I think we needed to be more patient. With early wickets there, we were under pressure but then the way Mominul batted it was good for us to go on. We needed to build on the partnership, have a stand of over 100 or something. Had we had a good partnership, it could have been different. I am disappointing that we didn’t capitalise.”The day belonged to Pakistan, but Bangladesh can take some positives, having batted the whole day against hostile fast bowling. Shanto was optimistic that Bangladesh were still in the match and could learn from their first-innings experience.”To me, the wicket was good for batting with not much seam movement after the first five to six overs,” Shanto said. “But Pakistan’s bowlers were patient kept on hitting the right line and maintained it. We, however, managed to get some runs on the board. We are still short of runs but if we get a few quick wickets then it will give us a chance. Whatever we have done is done, and we have to look ahead now and think about how well we can bowl. It’s challenging, but we obviously have to bowl well. I believe we can still get back in the game.”

It will be held in September 2020, a month before the T20 World Cup in Australia

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Dec-2018The next Asia Cup will be hosted by the PCB for the first time in over a decade, but whether that means it will be played Pakistan or the UAE, is not yet clear. The tournament, which will switch back to being a T20 event, is scheduled to be played in September 2020 – a month ahead of the World T20 in Australia.If the situation in Pakistan, or Pakistan’s relationship with India, does not improve between now and then, it would seem logical for the tournament to be held in the UAE, the PCB’s de factor home ground since 2010. That would mean the UAE would have hosted back-to-back Asia Cups, having held a 50-over version this September.The tournament just gone was hosted by the BCCI, who opted to play it on neutral territory given that a Pakistan team traveling and playing in India would’ve been a complicated political issue. Ties between the two countries are at a low ebb, neither side having played a full bilateral series against the other in over a decade and India not having played in Pakistan since June 2008. Tensions remain between their boards too, most recently in the dismissal of the PCB claim that the BCCI “legally breached” an agreement to play bilateral series in 2014 and 2015.ALSO READ: PCB’s case against BCCI dismissed by ICC dispute panelThe 2008 visit, incidentally, was also for the Asia Cup, and the last time Pakistan held a multi-nation competition. The PCB has not yet responded to queries about where the tournament is planning to be staged.Since the Lahore terror attacks on the Sri Lankan team in 2009, international cricket has slowly returned to Pakistan. In the last year, Lahore has hosted T20Is against Sri Lanka and a World XI while West Indies played a series in Karachi in April this year. Added to are the staging of several high-profile PSL games in both cities over the last two seasons, with the involvement of foreign players.

A Ranji Trophy match will be telecast for the first time this season, a ground will make its Ranji debut, and a team will play the first knockout match in its Ranji history

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Nov-2017A Ranji Trophy match will be telecast for the first time this season, a ground will make its Ranji debut, and a team will play its first quarter-final match in history as India’s premier domestic tournament reaches its quarter-final stage on December 7.

Quarter-finals from December 7

• Gujarat (B1) v Bengal (D2) – Jaipur

• Delhi (A2) v Madhya Pradesh (C1) – Vijayawada

• Kerala (B2) v Vidarbha (D1) – Surat

• Karnataka (A1) v Mumbai (C2) – Nagpur

The match between 41-time champions Mumbai and the form team Karnataka, to be played in Nagpur where India beat Sri Lanka earlier this week, will be live on BCCI’s broadcast partners. Although select matches were webcast in the league stages, this will be the first match on TV. Karnataka blitzed through their group with four wins and two draws, and have among their ranks Mayank Agarwal, who has already reached 1064 runs and has sights on VVS Laxman’s record of 1415 runs in a single Ranji season. Mumbai, meanwhile, had to wait until Monday to ensure progress to the next round after having to launch rearguards in the league stages.Vijayawada’s Dr Gokaraju Liala Gangaaraju ACA Cricket Ground will make its Ranji debut as it hosts the match between Delhi and Madhya Pradesh. Delhi will likely be without their full-time captain Ishant Sharma, as the third Test starts on December 2, but could well be available should they make it to the semi-final. The ground has already hosted international cricket when the women’s teams from India and West Indies played each other in 2016, and made its first-class debut during a series between India-New Zealand A in September-OctoberThis will be the first time Kerala will play a quarter-final match since the introduction of the tier system in the Ranji Trophy format in 2011. With 31 points, they finished second to the defending champions and the dominant Gujarat side in Group B. With two centuries and an average of 57.70, a rejuvenated Sanju Samson has led their charge. Kerala will face Vidarbha in Surat. Vidarbha led Group D with 31 points.Gujarat, who won five of their six matches outright, will go up against Bengal in Jaipur.Unlike the league matches, which are four-day matches, quarter-finals will be played over five days. The BCCI did not explain how the match-ups was arrived at nor is there any information on how the semi-final match-ups will be decided.

AB de Villiers has been ruled out of the home ODI and away Test series against Australia with an elbow injury

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Sep-20162:14

‘AB de Villiers’ injury due to overuse and overload’

South Africa’s captain AB de Villiers has been ruled out of the home ODI series and away Test series against Australia because of a persistent elbow injury. He will have surgery early next week and will need eight to ten weeks of recovery time.”AB has failed to come through his fitness test this morning,” Mohammad Moosajee, SA team manager said. “Although the physio strapped his elbow while he was batting and he did have some relief with some shots, the elbow pain has not gone away completely.”When the initial injury was discovered, the issue was that he was having impingement with certain shots. With that in mind, we advocated a period of rest, he has seen the physiotherapist for treatment, he received some bio-kinetics and rehab, and also saw an elbow specialist for the infiltration of cortisone. In most cases, you get resolving of symptoms within six weeks. This did not take place, so we gave him an extra week to see if it would recover.

Updated ODI squad for Australia series

Faf du Plessis (capt), Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Aaron Phangiso, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Tabraiz Shamsi, Dale Steyn

“This morning, he had a couple of throwdowns. The elbow was strapped and he had some symptom relief. He probably felt about 80% better than without the strapping. But knowing AB, the complete cricketer that he is, he wants to make sure none of his shots are restricted. With that in mind, we decided on surgery and to give him adequate time to recover so he doesn’t hamper his career going forward.”The recovery is anything between eight to ten weeks and we are hopeful he will recover for the Sri Lanka series in December.”De Villiers will sit out the five home ODIs – beginning on September 30 – and the three Tests in Australia in November, one of which will be South Africa’s maiden day-night fixture. He also missed the two Tests against New Zealand in August and the one-off ODI against Ireland because of the injury.AB de Villiers has not led South Africa in a Test since he was named captain•Getty Images

Moosajee clarified that de Villiers’ injury was not a tennis elbow, a condition that former cricketers Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and Sachin Tendulkar had suffered from during their careers. He said that the workload for top players was a concern and Cricket South Africa was looking into how to manage them better.”In any sportsman’s life, he is going to encounter some form of injury. There is no doubt that sometimes it’s overload or overuse,” Moosajee said. “But the load of cricket there is, is something CSA is looking at seriously.”Generally, our season is eight to nine months. Most of the guys go and play in the IPL as well. We need to make sure the guys are injury free, that they have no niggles before we release them, and we need to make sure we restrict them from playing in the other leagues if they are carrying a niggle, or if workload dictates that they need a rest.”Rilee Rossouw will remain with the ODI squad for the series against Australia, while Faf du Plessis is likely to lead the Test squad in Australia. “Faf has led the team, he will do the same in the ODI series against Australia,” Moosajee said. “And I have no doubt he will carry on for another series.”

Ricky Ponting, the former Australia captain, is not in talks with Cricket Australia about joining the national team as a batting consultant

Daniel Brettig14-Aug-2015Ricky Ponting, the former Australia captain, is not in talks with Cricket Australia about joining the national team as a batting consultant.Following Australia’s surrender of the Ashes with a pair of meek batting displays at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge, there has been much speculation about Ponting being called up to work alongside the nation’s young players as a batting consultant.However Ponting, who returned home to Australia following an Ashes commentary stint in the UK that ended with the Trent Bridge Test, said he had not engaged any formal discussions with CA and was, for the moment, otherwise committed to his job as Mumbai Indians coach, family, commentary and charity work.”I’ve had no formal discussions with Cricket Australia about a role,” Ponting told ESPNcricinfo. “I have always said that one day I would like to get more involved with the young batters around the country but at the moment I’m fully committed to my family, my coaching job at Mumbai, commentary and sponsor commitments and the Ponting Foundation.”The team’s performance manager, Pat Howard, who speaks regularly with Ponting about the game, had told that they discussed the possibility earlier this year.”We have spoken to Ricky a few times this year to be around the side,” Howard had said. “I am certainly very open to getting him involved and we would love to have him on board. I sense Ricky would also love to be involved. His time commitments are obviously one of the big challenges.”The relentless international schedule has been a stumbling block for numerous former greats getting directly involved with the Australian team in recent times. The likes of Shane Warne, Steve Waugh, Glenn McGrath and Adam Gilchrist have been engaged by the coach Darren Lehmann to speak to the players, but none have been able to commit to anything more substantial than that.

Quinton de Kock’s disciplinary hearing for allegedly pushing an opposition player in a first-class match will not take place before next Wednesday

Firdose Moonda17-Jan-2013Quinton de Kock’s disciplinary hearing for allegedly pushing an opposition player in a first-class match will not take place before next Wednesday, which has cleared him to play in the first two ODIs against New Zealand. Gary Kirsten confirmed de Kock will keep in all the matches he plays in the series.To help de Kock prepare for his fifty-over international debut, team management roped in the services of Mark Boucher, who trained with him at Claremont Cricket Club on Thursday. “When Mark retired I said to him that his experience in international cricket is something I wouldn’t want to turn away,” Kirsten said. “I think he has a lot to offer. We felt the perfect place for him would be to be with a young keeper like Quinton, to spend some time with him and give him and understanding not only of the skills required but the pressures of international competition.”Mentoring de Kock also seems to be part of integrating him into the national structures because he has only emerged on the circuit quite recently. De Kock is a former South Africa Under-19s player but this is first season contracted to a franchise and Kirsten admitted he does not know much about the 20-year-old. “I’ve met this guy once before and the longest conversation I had with him was one minute,” he said.Kirsten’s assistant, Russell Domingo, may have slightly more information on the youngster. Domingo coached the national side during de Kock’s debut: the T20 series against New Zealand in which he also donned the gloves. All evidence suggests de Kock has been earmarked as a permanent replacement for AB de Villiers, who seems set to give up wicketkeeping in limited-overs. “We want to give AB a chance to just be the captain,” Kirsten said.”We feel that to captain, bat at No.4 and keep is a very hard task. It’s something that we spoke about even before he started the role because I was concerned that it was going to be too much to ask of him. He really wants to focus his attention on his captaincy.”De Villiers was named South Africa’s limited-overs captain in July 2011. He missed his inaugural series as leader against Australia in late 2011 because of injury and Hashim Amla stood in for him. De Villiers was first in charge for the 3-2 win over Sri Lanka last January. He also captained in the T20 and ODI series in England and the World T20 in Sri Lanka. He kept wicket in all those matches but did not play the T20 series against New Zealand, citing fatigue and a focus on his Test keeping.It has now emerged that de Villiers also finds wicket-keeping in ODIs too taxing on his chronically bad back and does not feel he has enough of a grip on the demands of captaincy to do both jobs. “He has had all this on his shoulders,” Kirsten said. “He feels keeping in 50 overs is more intense than in a Test match and he just needs to understand how he is going to go about captaining this team.”Some of the strategies de Villiers will have to get his head around are the floating batting line-up and the possibility of changing personnel. Both are tactics Kirsten will continue with, although he has indicated he may rein in the former. “We’ve tried to rotate the batting order, we feel we need to find a middle road there,” he said. “We are certainly going to be flexible. We believe that is the way forward but, at the same time, we cannot be silly about it.”Kirsten suggested that Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, the two quicks who play all three formats for South Africa, will be rested for some of the three ODIs because the three-Test series against Pakistan is only two weeks away. “Test cricket is our number one and we want to make sure we pick a full strength team in whatever Test we play. We don’t rest players and rotate at that level,” he said. “With the other versions, because there is a lot of cricket, something has to give. These guys are fit enough to play every game but I want them mentally 100 percent ready to deliver.”Although Kirsten’s main emphasis is on Test cricket, South Africa will not have as taxing a year as they did in 2012. Their only away tour in which they will play in the longest format is to the UAE to face Pakistan in October.Contrastingly, South Africa play much more ODI cricket this year. Eight matches at home (three against New Zealand, five against Pakistan) will be followed by the Champions Trophy and a limited-overs tour of Sri Lanka. With one eye on ICC silverware, Kirsten indicated the 50-over game will come into the spotlight in 2013, where he hopes South Africa can step up.”We would like to perform at a higher level than we have done so far,” he said. “We’ve been ok but we haven’t been outstanding. We’ve got a great opportunity this year so there will be a lot more emphasis on ODI cricket this year.”

The Adelaide Oval might provide the under-the-pump Indian batting line-up some respite with a typical Adelaide pitch, which is usually good for batting without monsters in it

Sidharth Monga at the Adelaide Oval20-Jan-2012The Adelaide Oval might provide the under-the-pump Indian batting line-up some respite with a typical Adelaide pitch, which is usually good for batting without monsters in it. Four days before the start of the Test, the strip – same as the one used in the Ashes Test that Australia lost on the fifth day – sports an even covering of grass, but it seems dry. More hot days are forecast in the lead-up to the Test, and Adelaide is scorching in the mid-to-late 30s right now.”The heat will definitely dry the pitch out and it’s reasonably dry already,” Damien Hough, the Adelaide Oval curator, said. “There’ll be a little in it on day one, but Adelaide Oval traditionally is a good batting pitch with a bit of spin on days three, four and five. It will always produce spin later on as the game goes. Normally there will be a little bit of inconsistent bounce on days four and five, so I wouldn’t expect anything else.”Hough, though, said the pitch did look greener this year that was because he wanted good carry, and also guard against the dry and hot week in the lead-up to the Test. “We’re trying to get a pitch with as much bounce and carry as we can possibly get,” he said. “We want something that will settle down well for the batters on days two and three, and variable bounce on days four and five, and something in there for the spinners.”Hough said that didn’t have anything to do with early finishes to the previous Tests and the pressure to take the Test into the fifth day. “I have had no such communication,” Hough said. “I’m just here to produce a sporting pitch. I’ll leave it up to the teams to fight that out.”For all of Adelaide’s reputation of being a batsman’s paradise, only three Tests have been drawn here since 1990-91. A part of it has to be down to the Australian domination for a majority of this period. The rest, Hough said, could have something to do with the seam movement when the pitch is fresh on day one, and variable bounce towards the end of the match, which has led to many a third-innings collapse. India’s only win here came thanks to a third-innings collapse.

Michael Hussey expects Michael Clarke to be a positive and aggressive leader in his first outing as Australia’s Test captain on Monday

Peter English01-Jan-2011Michael Hussey expects Michael Clarke to be a positive and aggressive leader in his first outing as Australia’s Test captain on Monday. Clarke gained the post following Ricky Ponting’s withdrawal with a broken finger and will be in charge of a young outfit that has the job of levelling the Ashes series at the SCG.Clarke is the team’s most experienced player with 68 Tests, while Hussey, one of only two men in the squad over 30, has appeared in 10 fewer matches. Hussey said it would be strange walking on to the ground without Ponting, but he is confident Clarke will be a strong replacement.”He’ll be an aggressive captain, always looking to take wickets out there, make changes to the field and with the bowlers,” Hussey said. “He’ll be searching for a wicket all the time, and will always want the game going forward. That’s the way Australians have played our cricket as long as I can remember. I think he’ll be a very positive captain.”Clarke has been successful in the limited-overs arenas and was in charge of Australia’s journey to the final of the World Twenty20 in the West Indies in May. He also has 13 victories in 18 ODIs as leader and has been able to impress his team-mates with his high-energy style.”I guess the challenge is to be able to maintain that over the five days,” Hussey said. “It’s going to be a hard old graft. But we have 100% confidence in him. I think he’s done a really good job when he’s captained the team so far in his career.” This Test assignment is more complicated because it comes at a time when Clarke is struggling for runs, having scored 148 in seven bats against England.England retained the Ashes with their victory in Melbourne last week, and Hussey hopes the Sydney Test will be the start of Australia’s revival. “Our focus is trying to get it back to 2-2 – I think that would be a real morale-boosting win for us,” he said. “We’ve got to get better. We hope our Test team is going to get better over the next 12 months to two years, but the process starts now. Unfortunately, we can’t win the Ashes, but if we can get it back to a two-all series leveller, it will be a good result for us.”Hussey, who is 35, was particularly disappointed after the MCG defeat. “It’s the Ashes and the biggest thing you play for,” he said. “I hope I get another opportunity to have another go at it. But I don’t know if I will, so that is a pretty hard thing to start thinking about.”

Betty Wilson, one of the greatest women’s cricketers who was sometimes called Australia’s female Bradman, has died aged 88

Cricinfo staff22-Jan-2010Betty Wilson, one of the greatest women’s cricketers who was sometimes called Australia’s female Bradman, has died aged 88. Her decade-long international career lasted till 1958 and, in an era where there was little women’s cricket, she averaged 57.46 with the bat and 11.80 bowling offspinners in 11 Tests.She made a spectacular entrance to top-flight cricket, scoring 90 and taking ten wickets on debut against New Zealand in 1948. In her next Test, she became the first Australian woman to make an Ashes hundred, and topped that effort with nine wickets in the match. Other highlights in a legendary career include becoming the first woman to take a Test hat-trick, becoming the first person to achieve the double of a century and ten wickets in a Test, and signing off with a couple of centuries and 21 wickets at 9.71 in her final series.In 1985, Wilson became the first woman cricketer to be inducted into the Australian Sporting Hall of Fame and and that year the Under-21 National Women’s Cricket Championship was renamed the Betty Wilson Shield.She was born in Melbourne in 1921 and became part of the club cricket scene by the age of 10, joining Collingwood. In four years, she had graduated to the second XI of the Victoria side and at 16 she was in the state side. A natural athlete, she was also admired for her work ethic – practicing daily when most of her team-mates trained once a week.