All posts by h716a5.icu

Daniel Vettori, New Zealand’s most capped Test player, has accepted that his playing days in the longest format are virtually over

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Sep-2014Daniel Vettori, New Zealand’s most capped Test player, has accepted that his playing days in the longest format are virtually over. Due to a series of injuries, he hasn’t played a Test in more than two years, and he has now set his sights on the World Cup at home.”[Test cricket’s] not at the forefront of my mind,” he told the . “I can’t guarantee the amount of overs [required] to play a Test match and don’t want to get in way of Ish [Sodhi] and Mark [Craig] in their development. It’s definitely on the back burner.”Almost all the cricket that the 35-year-old Vettori has played in 2014 has been with Twenty20 franchises, with Jamaica Tallawahs in the Caribbean Premier League and with Brisbane Heat in Australia’s Big Bash. He also coached Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL this year. He hasn’t played one-day cricket since June 2013, but has turned out for Northern Districts in four first-class matches last season.”The World Cup’s the goal. Tests would put too much of a strain on the body at this stage of my career.”Vettori hopes to be picked for the home one-day series against South Africa next month as New Zealand start a summer that culminates in the World Cup.He has 360 Test wickets, behind only Richard Hadlee among New Zealanders, and 4516 runs making him the sixth highest Test run-getter from his country.

SLC will launch an “initial investigation” into allegations that members of Sri Lanka’s women team were compelled to perform sexual favours in order to earn or keep their place in the national side

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Oct-2014Sri Lanka Cricket will launch an “initial investigation” into allegations that members of Sri Lanka’s women team were compelled to perform sexual favours in order to earn or keep their place in the national side. The allegations had appeared in Sinhala publication last week, and though no official inquiry has been launched, the allegations were strong enough to warrant a probe, SLC vice-president Mohan de Silva has said.”There was no executive committee decision taken to hold an inquiry except to hold an initial investigation to determine if there is any merit in the allegations reported in the media,” de Silva said. “That’s why we decided to call the coach, the manager and the captain to find out.”If the investigation yields further claims that cricketers are under pressure to perform sexual favours, SLC will launch an official inquiry through its disciplinary committee. De Silva also said that, to date, SLC had not received any complaints relating to sexual misconduct, from its women’s team players, nor had any evidence arisen to support these allegations.Team captain Chamari Atapattu, coach Jeevantha Kulatunga and manager Roshan Iddamalgoda will be interviewed over the next few days.

It was a large and varied crowd that turned out to pay tribute to Phillip Hughes in Macksville, with several eminent names thrown in, but the farewell was personal, fitting and a good reminder of the meaning of life

Daniel Brettig in Macksville03-Dec-2014It was Phillip Hughes’ sister Megan who spoke these words, but there was nary a soul in Macksville on Wednesday afternoon who did not feel the same way. From Trinidad to Sydney, from cricket to politics, from close family to far-flung friends, they had assembled for Hughes. Every last one wished they had come to see him bat.The sense of loss was palpable, but so too was one of gratitude. Hughes had shown many of them great lessons in life. In his death playing the game, the example of his life will endure, and in the service that farewelled him, there were plenty to call upon.Neither Macksville nor cricket has seen an event quite like it. Helicopters hovered overhead, a Test match-sized media contingent floated outside the Macksville High assembly hall, and buses conveyed a broad list of dignitaries and figureheads in addition to those who knew Hughes well.For a time it felt as if the rolling cavalcade of notables, including Brian Lara, Virat Kohli, Shane Warne and Australia’s prime minister Tony Abbott, would become too outsized for a gathering designed to celebrate Hughes’ rich life, not ogle over the freakish circumstances of his death. Apart from the 1000 mourners in the hall, many scores more sat on the school’s two ovals to watch on big screens.But the deeply moving words of his family and his friends ensured that Hughes was farewelled in an entirely fitting manner, belying the scale of the event. Personal, teary and insightful, they told the world still more about how Hughes had inspired, well before and well beyond the daring deeds he performed with the bat for his hometown, club, state and country in a career too short.From the eulogy delivered by his cousin Nino Ramunno, to personal letters by his siblings Megan and Jason and a tribute from his friend and cattle-business partner Corey Ireland, the full picture of Hughes emerged. Michael Clarke’s tribute was mournful and emotional but also hopeful, that Hughes would be not only remembered but remain present in the thoughts, words and actions of all cricketers.Ramunno’s recollections said much about Hughes’ cheekiness, his preference for “street smart” over “book smart”, and his happenstance introduction to cricket via Jason, who challenged him to play as a fill-in one day or risk the quintessential sibling jibe of “wuss”. Twenty-five runs on debut were not bad for a tailender, and there would soon be plenty more, even as Ramunno sat on his grade debut through the sorts of questions often asked of Hughes, like “geez he’s small” and “has he got the power to hit the ball off the square”.’Cricket’s heart has been pierced by pain but it will never stop beating’•Getty ImagesBut Hughes’ progress could be measured by the words of Jason, who spoke of his younger brother in ways commonly reserved for an older one. Having given up on ever getting to bat first, Jason bowled to Phillip for hours, covered for him when he once ran away from home for three days to the New South Wales central coast, and was eventually inspired to follow when the younger brother trekked more permanently to Sydney for cricket. They enjoyed a final grade stand together for Western Suburbs – a partnership of 210 against Mosman that drove Jason to follow up by plucking 5 for 19.Ireland showed that there was far more to Hughes’ life than cricket. Not a follower of the game, he admitted to being clueless when a crowd surrounded the then Test opener and his father Greg when they perused Ireland’s collection of cattle at a Royal Easter Show. This comic beginning grew into a friendship that offered one of the more poignant insights of the day. Hughes was forever asking Ireland and his wife about how they met, when they married and how much later they had children. There was more than cricket and cattle in his future.Clarke’s words were always likely to be tinged with sobs, and his lasting sense of disbelief was writ large across an affecting address. Resting a hand on his coffin as he went up to speak, among Clarke’s first words were to express that widely held emotion: “I don’t know about you but I keep looking for him; I know it’s crazy, but I expect any minute to take a call from him or to see him around the corner.”When Clarke ventured out to the SCG on Thursday night following Hughes’ death, to the spot where he fell against New South Wales last Tuesday, he “swore” his friend was with him. Taking a leaf from Australian indigenous lore, Clarke said Hughes spirit had touched the turf, “and it will forever be sacred ground for me”. He suggested that Hughes had embodied the spirit of the game, and concluded with a message remembered from countless innings together with Hughes, when simple messages and reminders are so often best.”We must dig in, and get through to tea. And we must play on. Rest in peace my little brother, I’ll see you out in the middle.”A video produced by Cricket Australia’s Adam Goldfinch then brought Hughes very much to life, through visions of him training or offering the sort of infectious enthusiasm he was known for. He could joke at himself, and he always intended to return to Macksville in the end. At this, Mitchell Johnson was far from the only one to wipe away tears.With a few words from Cricket Australia’s chief executive James Sutherland, who declared “cricket’s heart has been pierced by pain but it will never stop beating”, the funeral drew to a close, Hughes taken from the room on the shoulders of men including his father Greg and his captain Clarke. The procession that followed on through the heart of Macksville made a stirring sight. No witness will forget it, nor will they forget Hughes.

England Lions failed to force victory in the only warm-up match of their South Africa tour as the Gauteng Invitation XI held on for a draw with two wickets remaining but it was a match the tourists dominated from the start.

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Jan-2015
ScorecardJonathan Trott was all smiles after his solid second innings•Getty ImagesJonathan Trott, given the captaincy of England Lions as he attempts to rebuild his England career, struck a heartening half-century as England Lions narrowly failed to force victory in Soweto in the only warm-up match of their South Africa tour.The Gauteng Invitation XI held on for a draw with two wickets remaining thanks to an approaching electrical storm, leaving Trott to contemplate his success in a non first-class practice match about as far away from the heat of international cricket as it was possible to be.Trott failed to make an impact in a first innings – his first for an England side since he left the Ashes tour prematurely with a stress-related illness – as Adam Lyth, Sam Robson and Alex Lees all scored heavily, but he calmly got on with the task with an unbeaten 79.Sam Billings – given a knock despite not being named in the initial XI – also made a half-century before retiring. He shared 115 for the fourth wicket with Trott and pushed the Lions out of sight. They declared setting their hosts 441 to win in little over two sessions.The Lions’ seamers – six in all plus two spinners in this squad practice game – then got to work again but with 14 overs remaining, the players left the field for safety reasons, enabling Bradley Dial’s 35 in 81 balls to secure a draw.

The Basin Reserve pitch on which New Zealand amassed 524 for 5 in the third innings, remained good for batting, top-scorer Kane Williamson has said

Andrew Fidel Fernando at Basin Reserve06-Jan-20151:58

‘Just wanted to bat as long as we could’ – Williamson

The Basin Reserve pitch on which New Zealand amassed 524 for 5 in the third innings, remained good for batting, top-scorer Kane Williamson has said. The hosts set Sri Lanka 390 for victory, but claimed the wicket of Dimuth Karunaratne in the final few overs of the day, and require nine more scalps to complete a 2-0 whitewash. Sri Lanka need 345 more runs to level the series.”It’s still a very good batting surface,” Williamson said. If we can get a couple early tomorrow, that will put us in a very strong position, but I think patience is key, because it is a good surface. If you get one then things can happen quite quickly, so who knows. It could be an interesting days’ cricket tomorrow.”Williamson’s unbeaten 365-run stand with BJ Watling was a world best for the sixth-wicket, beating the record Watling and Brendon McCullum had set at this very ground, against India last February. The team had been only 24 ahead for the loss of five wickets when the pair came together, and Williamson spoke of immense satisfaction at having turned the match for New Zealand. Watling and Williamson had begun day four with New Zealand 113 runs ahead, and could not be separated until the declaration.”We weren’t just batting time today,” Williamson said. “It was a bit of a balance because we knew that runs were equally as important. We were slightly ahead of their score coming into today, so it was important that we kept our games tight. You can’t come into the day and assume a big partnership like that will happen. But it was nice to stick together through some tough periods and get some momentum. The runs eventually came more freely and it was nice to do what we did today.”The Basin Reserve had only unveiled a plaque to commemorate that previous world record on Saturday, before Watling and Williamson made it obsolete three days later. Williamson said it was Watling’s determination that enabled him to be part of two such match-turning stands.”BJ is such a fighter in everything he does. He works so hard off the park, and it’s just great to see him achieving what he is at the moment. He’s certainly a bit of a team favourite, the way he goes about his business. The lads really enjoy having him in the team and he leads through his work ethic when he plays.”Watling’s keeping has also been exemplary in the past 18 months. He played a part in 40 dismissals in 2014 – the highest for the year, and also had five dismissals in the first innings in Wellington. Williamson and Watling play together for their Northern Districts domestic team, where Watling made a name as an opening batsman.”I think he is right up there with the best wicketkeeper-batsmen in the world. From an opening bat, turned keeper and middle-order bat, just shows that work ethic. For him to be as tidy as he was in the West Indies where it was turning and bouncing showed the fantastic skill-set that he has. He is up there in both facets of his game.”Williamson was batting on 242 when the declaration was called, but said he had not begun thinking of emulating McCullum, with another triple-hundred in Wellington. “You just have the team as your focus and that keeps you going. That’s what BJ and I were thinking about. We needed to draw on that to bat as long as we did. That was very much the motivating factor.”

A round-up of the Ranji Trophy 2014-15 Group C matches played on January 22, 2015

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Jan-2015
ScorecardIshank Jaggi scored his second double-hundred of the season•PTI Assam made slow progress on the second day, adding 174 runs in 92.4 overs, but with a handy 68-run lead and five wickets in hand, they were in the pole position in Porvorim. Starting from 69 for 1, Assam lost opener Pallavkumar Das in the sixth over of the day, but a dogged 80-run stand between Sibsankar Roy (28 off 123 balls) and Gokul Sharma (53 off 169) held Goa’s bowlers at bay for a staggering 45.5 overs. Both batsmen were dismissed within the space of 13 balls, both falling to Darshan Misal, giving Goa a faint ray of hope. Dheeraj Jadhav, playing his 100th first-class game, took the team to lead, but fell soon after. An unbeaten 45-run stand between Tarjinder Singh and Jamaluddin Syed Mohammad helped Andhra finish the day without any further loss.
ScorecardIshank Jaggi’s second double-hundred of the season led Jharkhand to a mammoth 556 for 9 on the second day against Hyderabad in Ranchi. Along with Jaggi’s 201 not out, No. 8 Kaushal Singh scored 69 before Jharkhand’s declaration, making Hyderabad bat for 14 overs in which they lost a wicket.Jharkhand started the day on 295 for 4, with Jaggi on 58, but medium-pacer Ashish Reddy removed Rituraj Singh for 24 and Kumar Deobrat for 10 to leave them on 351 for 6. However, Kaushal combined with Jaggi to shift the momentum back in Jharkhand’s favour with a stand of 177 runs. Kaushal scored his third fifty in four matches while Jaggi registered his 10th first-class hundred which featured 21 fours and four sixes. Legspinner Akash Bhandari broke the stand and took two more wickets to finish with 4 for 136 before Jharkhand declared.Varun Aaron broke Hyderabad’s opening stand in his first over, the second of the innings, before Hyderabad finished on 55 for 1, trailing by a humongous 501 runs.
ScorecardKerala put themselves in a strong position in Agartala, reaching 96 for the loss of KB Pawan in response to hosts Tripura’s 179. Rana Dutta took out Pawan for a duck but his opening partner Abhishek Hegde and Sanju Samson added an unbeaten 81 for the second wicket. Both batsmen took their time as Kerala went at just below two runs an over.Sandeep Warrier had earlier run through the Tripura tail in the morning on his way to 4 for 45. Overnight batsmen Bishal Ghosh (78) and Dutta (21) took their seventh-wicket partnership to 38 but once KS Monish sent back Ghosh, the rest capitulated to Warrier.
ScorecardThe rain refused to let off in Dharamsala, washing out the entire second day’s play between Himachal Pradesh and Andhra. The visitors were well-placed at 123 for 2 when rain also cut short the first day.

Mitchell Johnson wants to focus on one game at a time with a long year ahead for Australia, starting at the World Cup

Brydon Coverdale09-Feb-2015On the banks of the Yarra River on Monday, Mitchell Johnson was tasked with bowling on a synthetic pitch to break a glass panel to set off a siren to launch the Fox Sports TV coverage of the World Cup. It sounded convoluted, and proved harder than the PR people might have imagined. Still, it took Johnson only four balls to find his radar and smash the glass. The first three were too short.As one observer noted, you could just imagine Pat Howard logging each delivery in Johnson’s workload spreadsheet. Johnson was understandably exhausted after the Boxing Day Test, given his busy year-and-a-half of cricket. He spent a month at home in Perth recovering ahead of the tri-series final, and he knows with a World Cup, tours of West Indies, England and Bangladesh, 2015 is another long year.Australia’s fast-bowling stocks are encouragingly strong, given the presence of young men like James Pattinson, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood. Asked if he would sit down with Cricket Australia and plan out his yearly workload, Johnson raised a few eyebrows by mentioning the “retire” word, despite not even being asked about it.”I really am just taking it game by game, making the most of every opportunity I get,” he said. “I’m 33 years of age, there’s questions about when I’m going to retire, I’m sure, or if I’m going to play all formats for the next couple of years, or whatever it is, but I’ve just got to focus on the games I’m playing in and play the best cricket I can, and enjoy it.”Australia would certainly like Johnson to retain his game-by-game focus for now; their next match is against England in the World Cup opener on Saturday. After dominating the home Ashes against them last summer, he met them just once this season and promptly skittled their top order and took 3 for 27 in the tri-series final in Perth.”I think he’s got a little mental edge over them at the moment,” Steven Smith said of Johnson and England. It is hard to argue; England’s captain Eoin Morgan perhaps summed up the uncertainty England have over Johnson by leaving a delivery from him at the WACA and being bowled, then observing that Johnson wasn’t actually swinging the ball.”I’m not going to get into what he said, but I’m a fast, aggressive bowler and I think I’ve proved that throughout my career, I like to bowl short,” Johnson said. “Sometimes I swing the ball, sometimes I don’t. But my consistency has improved over the last few years and that’s what’s helped me over the last few years. I’ve just got to keep playing my game and not get involved in mind games.”A few minutes later, though, Johnson couldn’t help himself when asked for a response to Stuart Broad’s comment that Australia might not make the World Cup final. It might have been a throwaway line from Broad when asked who he thought would be there on March 29, but to Johnson it was “a pretty silly comment … he’s only setting himself up for disaster.”Johnson is well aware that nothing that has come before this – even the Ashes campaigns – will be quite the same as a World Cup at home, and the pressure will be enormous when he stands at the top of his mark on Saturday in front of a packed MCG. Estimates of the crowd have hovered around the 90,000 mark, and Jonson said he hoped he would thrive on the opportunity.”It’s nice to stand in front of a big crowd like that,” Johnson said. “It’s only happened on a handful of occasions for me, being able to play in front of a big crowd. But I think there’s going to be a different intensity to the crowd. That’s something I’ll take in when I get out there and get that chance with the ball in hand, really take it in but then really focus on what I need to do and go out there and bowl well for Australia.”Unlike some members of Australia’s squad, Johnson has plenty of World Cup experience, having already been part of two World Cup squads. In 2011 he was Australia’s strike bowler during the unsuccessful campaign in Asia, and in 2007 he travelled with the group in the West Indies without ever being called up on in a match – the same as Brad Haddin – as Australia went through undefeated.”I learnt how to run and keep really fit,” Johnson said of the 2007 tournament. “It was actually really good, just to be able to keep ready for that opportunity. I was always making sure I did everything I could at training, like Brad Haddin was, so I was just making sure I was prepared.”That was one big thing, that preparation side of things, and just being able to see how the senior guys of the team, Matty Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Brett Lee, how they prepared and played the game, the intensity that they went at, it was really good to see. There was a great feeling in the team and that feeling is in this team right now.”

Neil McKenzie, 39, has retired from first-class cricket after scoring a double-hundred against Warriors to help Lions win the Sunfoil Series in Johannesburg on Sunday

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Mar-2015Neil McKenzie, 39, has retired from first-class cricket after scoring an unbeaten double-hundred to help Lions defeat Warriors and take the Sunfoil title in Johannesburg on Sunday.McKenzie scored 19,041 runs from 280 matches at an average of 45.77, including 53 hundreds and 86 fifties since his debut in 1994-95. He also represented South Africa in 58 Tests, 64 ODIs and two T20Is.Having begun his international career in the middle-order, he remodelled himself as an opener in later years. Along with Graeme Smith, he broke a Test record that had stood for 52 years when they added 415 runs for the first wicket against Bangladesh in February 2008.The Durban Test against Australia in 2009 was the last time McKenzie played for South Africa. He continued to be a mainstay for Lions though, a side he has represented nearly throughout his domestic career. This season, too, he played for them across formats and ended up their second-highest run-getter in the Sunfoil series with 690 from 11 innings including three centuries.”He’s had a great career – he’s a legend of the game and a good man,” said Lions coach Geoffrey Toyana after McKenzie helped end a 15-year four-day trophy drought. “I’m lost for words because I’ve got a lump in my throat to be honest.””Honoured to have played in this man’s last first-class game! Absolute legend of a human!” team-mate Chris Morris posted on Instagram.Throughout his career, McKenzie was known as much for his superstitious quirks as his batting. He was known to strap his bats to the ceiling and ensuring that all the toilet seats were down when he went out to bat. Steve Waugh wrote in his autobiography how McKenzie would avoid stepping on the tramlines of the crease while walking between overs.”Us cricketers, we can be funny people,” McKenzie tried to make sense of his idiosyncrasies in an interview in 2012. We try and control the uncontrollable. In the game, things can be unpredictable so I tried to make them predictable. I think that’s why I did it.”McKenzie, whose father Kevin played first-class cricket as well, had hinted in the interview that coaching was a possible career option once he was finished with playing.

South Africa will host New Zealand for two T20Is and three ODIs from August 14 in a packed home season

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Mar-2015South Africa will host New Zealand for two T20s and three ODIs from August 14 in a packed home season. It was already announced that England will visit in December 2015 for a full tour – four Tests, five ODIs and two T20s – and Australia arrive in February for the first leg of a split limited-overs tour.”Our latest FTP announcements will make next season one of the busiest programmes of home internationals we have had in a very long time,” Haroon Lorgat, the Cricket South Africa chief executive, said. “I am certain that our fans will enjoy competing against New Zealand, England and Australia, all in one season.”NZ tour of SA 2015

14 August : 1st T20I, Kingsmead, Durban

16 August : 2nd T20I, SuperSport Park, Centurion

19 August: 1st ODI, SuperSport Park, Centurion

23 August: 2nd ODI, Senwes Park, Potchefstroom

26 August: 3rd ODI, Kingsmead, Durban

Durban and Centurion get a T20 and ODI each for the New Zealand series, while Senwes Park in Potchefstroom gets an 50-over match for the first time in two years, the only day game on the tour.Australia play South Africa in three T20s before the World T20 in March 2016, and will return later in October for three ODIs. “Playing three T20s against Australia just before the ICC World T20 is ideal for the Proteas,” Lorgat said, “We are grateful to Cricket Australia for having agreed to split their visit to South Africa in 2016 so that we can deliver a full programme of fixtures.”

Warwickshire are in total control at the halfway stage of their LV=County Championship tussle with neighbours Worcestershire as wickets continue to tumble at Edgbaston.

Press Association10-May-2015
ScorecardKeith Barker helped dismantle the Worcestershire innings•Getty ImagesWarwickshire are in total control at the halfway stage of their LV=County Championship tussle with neighbours Worcestershire as wickets continue to tumble at Edgbaston.The home side reached the close on the second day at 105 for 2 in their second innings, 220 ahead overall – a commanding position in conditions which have helped bowlers throughout.Both seam attacks have exploited the conditions well but Warwickshire have taken the ascendancy not least because they selected four specialist seamers to the visitors’ three.Warwickshire’s pace quartet, led by Keith Barker and Chris Wright, all chipped in as Worcestershire, replying to 264, were bowled out for 149 in only 42.5 overs.Prolonged resistance came only from Ben Cox, who top-scored for the third successive innings for Worcestershire, and Tom Fell.Warwickshire captain Varun Chopra compiled an unbeaten 72 before the close and, with a lot of time left in the match and the weather set fair, Warwickshire are well-placed to record their first Championship win of the season.The only negative on their day came from an injury to 19-year-old Sam Hain who suffered a shoulder injury diving in the field. He will not bat again in this match and his injury will be assessed in the morning and then scanned later in the week to assess the extent of the damage.Resuming this morning on 258 for 8, Warwickshire added just six runs before Joe Leach collected another wicket to finished with a career-best 6 for 73. But Worcestershire then hit serious pre-lunch turbulence.Darryl Mitchell perished cruelly, run out backing up, before Wright trapped Moeen Ali lbw and had Richard Oliver caught at backward point and Barker yorked Alex Gidman and forced Alex Kerveezee to edge to third slip.In the afternoon, Cox added 44 with Fell and 39 with Jack Leach to see Worcestershire past the follow-on figure but after Clarke removed the former, the last four wickets fell for 17 runs in eight overs.With a whopping 46-over final session, and then two more days, ahead of them, Warwickshire could afford to take their time and William Porterfield, in particular, certainly did. After Ian Westwood edged Jack Shantry behind, the Ireland captain took 30 balls to get off the mark and crawled to four from 49 balls before perishing on the sweep to Sachithra Senanayake.But Chopra remain firmly-rooted hitting seven boundaries with power to add.