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Essex have revealed plans for an £80 million upgrade of their Chelmsford home

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Jan-2013Essex have revealed plans for an £80 million upgrade of their Chelmsford home. The development will turn the County Ground “from a stadium into a destination” according to club treasurer Keith Brown.The plans include a new pavilion and banqueting suite for 500 people, a new indoor school, car park, public square and a bridge over the river Chelmer, which runs behind one end of the ground.The development will be funded by 320 apartments built on land owned by the club adjacent to the ground.The project has been delayed by the economic downturn with plans initially drawn up in 2004 and planning permission granted in 2010.The first phase will see 62 apartments built on the current car park. 90% of those apartments have already been sold. Work on the pavilion is not expected to begin until 2014 with the whole project completed by 2017.”Chelmsford is becoming very attractive,” Brown said. “The current stadium is very old and quite simply, needed replacing, and the only way was to have an enabling development. The whole site will link up to the city much more and offer much more for people to visit to the club ground.”The model of development reflects Gloucestershire’s plans to fund their own £10 million ground revamp with a block of apartments at Bristol.

Australian batsmen lost four quick wickets just before stumps on the second day of their tour match against India A who scored 451 led by Manoj Tiwary’s 129

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Feb-2013
ScorecardShane Watson scored a brisk 84 on the second day against India A•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Australian batsmen lost four quick wickets just before stumps on the second day of their tour match against India A in Chennai. After India A scored 451, Australia got a strong start as their openers Shane Watson and Ed Cowan put on 116, scoring at more than five runs per over.But once Cowan was trapped lbw by left-arm spinner Rakesh Dhurv for 40, No. 3 Phil Hughes was stumped in the next over off Jalaj Saxena. When Usman Khawaja and Watson had put on only 10 for the third wicket, Dhurv struck again to dismiss Watson for 84, who was scoring at nearly run-a-ball. To follow the earlier trend, Saxena picked the fourth Australian wicket in the next over, disturbing Usman Khawaja’s stumps. Matthew Wade and and Moises Henriques survived the remaining six overs before stumps, after they lost their four wickets for 11 runs.Resuming the day at 338 for 4, CM Gautam was dismissed in not much time by Peter Siddle for 38 and Saxena gave able support to Manoj Tiwary who brought up his hundred with a six off Xavier Doherty. Once their 76-run stand was broken with Tiwary’s wicket, Dhurv scored a quick 21 and the Australians picked the last four wickets for five runs. Saxena was unbeaten on 30 before he picked up two wickets in eight overs later in the day.

Due to the focus of Test cricket, South Africa’s one-day side has been allowed to drift a bit, but AB de Villiers wants to change that

Firdose Moonda14-Mar-2013South Africa’s ODI win ratio hovered above 60% since readmission until very recently. For much of the last two decades, they reeled off victory after victory – except in major tournament knock-out situations – at will and collected trophies all over the world. At one stage in the early 2000s, they won six series in succession.Throughout that time, it was always thought they would win ICC silverware and they have not delivered on that yet but as far as meeting other expectations were concerned, they did. South Africa could always be counted on to play like men who wanted to be there, to provide a stern contest and to fight to the finish.These days, they are more of a 50-50 side. Since the shake-up after the 2011 World Cup, they’ve recorded eight losses and 11 wins from 20 matches. Consistency has proved elusive and it is the one thing they are looking for more than anything else.Over the last year, they could not concentrate on that because of their Test-heavy 2012 and focus on achieving excellence in that format. With the World Cup still far enough away, it was acceptable to let the one-day squad drift. It was also, and few seem to remember this, inevitable because of the level of transition of South Africa’s limited-overs teams.AB de Villiers wants the team to improve on its patchy recent ODI record•Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images

Previous ODI units were loaded with experience and regulars who played across the formats. Now, the side is more specialised, in keeping with both modern trends and the Test-skewed aims of the side. Two-in-one bonus players like Jacques Kallis appear less frequently, if at all, and the premier fast-bowlers need to be rotated.”You can even look at it a bit further back when guys like Mark Boucher were part of the system. We had some big experience in the side not too long ago,” AB de Villiers said. Boucher played his last ODI for South Africa in 2010, before he was replaced behind the stumps by de Villiers. “These days we’ve got a bit of a younger vibe and that’s nice to have but it’s about the balance as well.”To avoid the scale tipping over on the side of too much youth, the core has become even more important and has its most central figure, Graeme Smith. Often criticised for his one-day performances, Smith’s contributions in this format are easily forgotten as calls for other openers are made.But the former captain is a constant and in a South African side that has gone through many changes, a much needed one. “It’s a comfortable thing for me to have his experience around,” de Villiers said. “I used him a little in Bloemfontein with setting certain fields but I don’t use him all the time. He has failed and succeeded and been through the whole lot. He can see where I get it right or wrong.”Having run his course as leader of a team where the previous one is still around – Smith captained Shaun Pollock after he resigned – Smith also knows when to back off. “He uses a very clever way to get his message across to me after the game. He allows me to be myself on the field and talks to me afterwards,” de Villiers said.With Smith and Hashim Amla, South Africa have preserved some of their stability and they will look to weave in more of the same tactically as matches go on. “We were jumping around with things like the batting line-up and my position not too long ago but now we have clarity and that’s important,” de Villiers said.Complicated as it is, de Villiers has now settled on captaining in one format (ODIs), opening the batting in another (Twenty20s) and wicket-keeping in all three. The floating batting line-up will only apply in limited amounts and only to him in ODIs as he may look to bat at No.3 on occasion because “I like to bat for as long as possible.”Colin Ingram, Faf du Plessis and Farhaan Behardien are “more settled,” in the middle order and there is a consistent game plan. In many ways, it is similar to the one South Africa used during their years of success because it relies less on being unpredictable and more on repeating stock-standard basics until they bring rewards.Those things include strike rotation when batting through the middle overs, especially against spinners, and bowling enough slower balls. They may not be massively innovative but de Villiers said South Africa will continue to employ those methods and they are putting greater emphasis on them at practice.”Our consistency in the last year has been very poor and it is something we want to improve on. Consistency for the public is not the same as it for us. For us, it’s in things like the way we train as well and now we are consistently good things there as well,” he explained.”There is no such thing as a perfect team and we are not trying to be that. We just want to improve every game.” Assessing how they did that in the past and perhaps even going back to some of their old strategies seems to be one way of ensuring the development that will ultimately lead to greater consistency.

A collective bowling effort from India led them to a 58-run victory over Bangladesh and completed a series whitewash

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Apr-2013
ScorecardIndia completed a series whitewash over Bangladesh in Ahmedabad after winning the final ODI of the series by 58 runs. India chose to bat first and the openers put up 37 runs for the first wicket. But Panna Ghosh struck twice in as many overs to lead a stirring fight back from the Bangladesh bowlers. India continued to lose wickets at regular intervals as the Bangladesh bowlers, led by Rumana Ahmed (4-20), ensured that India did not get away with a substantial total. Contributions from Smriti Mandhana (23), Harmanpreet Kaur (29) and Swagatika Rath (30) pushed India’s total to 154 before they were dismissed in the 49th over.Bangladesh, facing a middling total to chase, faltered early and were reduced to 36 for 3 by the 14th over. thanks to some incisive bowling from India’s seamers. Bangladesh continued to lose wickets as almost all of India’s bowlers reaped benefits from the track. Only Salma Khatun crossed the 20-run mark as Poonam Yadav spell of 3 for 15, along with Ekta Bisht’s 2 for 19 and Rath’s 2 for 15, ensured that they kept a lid on Bangladesh’s scoring. Bangladesh were dismissed for 96 in the 42nd over ending the tour in which they lost all three T20Is and all three ODIs.

A lot has happened to Joe Root in the last six months: international debuts in all three formats and a handful of match-winning contributions

Andrew McGlashan at Grace Road08-May-2013A lot has happened to Joe Root in the last six months: international debuts in all three formats and a handful of match-winning contributions. The role of being England Lions captain, which was due to be his in the winter before the full side beckoned for his services, is another honour in a career that is moving in fast forward.It could easily make some 22-year-olds giddy, but the underlying maturity of Root’s make-up has already been one of the characteristics that has stood out. There are few signs of that changing.”I am still the same bloke I was six months ago really, just six months older with a bit more experience under my belt,” he said. “I will try and keep as level as possible and cricket is the best leveller as a sport you can play in. I will always try and stay the same bloke I have been and that shouldn’t really change at all.”Although it is a heavy burden to place on a player so early in his career, the selectors clearly see Root as a potential full England captain – whether as a successor to Alastair Cook, himself earmarked very early for the job, or perhaps a little later. However, it is not a role for which he can draw from a wealth of experience.”I’ve grown up captaining at age groups and a little bit of club cricket but not a great deal,” he said. “It will be a good challenge to me and I am really looking forward to it. It’s been a while, perhaps a year or so, when I did it in club cricket. I would like to think I will be nice and calm and collected, just try and have a relaxed approach”While his captaincy record is slim he believes he has often “thought like a captain” and worked hard to ensure he has absorbed lessons from whoever he has played under. That includes the perhaps unlikely figure of Azeem Rafiq, the Yorkshire offspinner, who was Root’s captain during last year’s FLt20 and at England Under-19s level.A more well-known source of advice is Michael Vaughan, who may be getting a call from Root before he tosses up with Brendon McCullum on Thursday morning. “I haven’t called Michael yet but I might do this evening and just try and pick his brains and see what he says.

Root beaten to Lord’s

Joe Root might be part of England’s middle order, but he has still been beaten to one of the game’s significant moments by his brother and father. A maiden appearance at Lord’s.
Billy Root, Joe’s younger brother who is on the MCC groundstaff, and his father Matt were involved in an MCC versus MCC Young Cricketers’ match at Lord’s last week. The younger Root did not have a chance to bowl to his dad – “he was out at the other end before he had a chance,” said Joe.
“They’ve played at Lord’s before,” he said. “I’ve been there a couple of times, once as 12th man for Yorkshire. So I’m a bit jealous.” Barring injury, Joe’s chance will come next week.

“That’s why I have learned such a lot because there are so many guys who are willing to voice their opinions and you learn from different experiences, things that work, things that don’t. That’s helped me growing up and I will try to continue to learn.”I have always liked to try and help out when I can. As a young lad you sometimes have to let the older guys take charge but, especially coming back this year, I have tried to help out when I can. Hopefully that will stand me in good stead for the future.”It will be an interesting few days ahead for Root because Lions matches are there for various purposes. It is always useful to turnover a Test side before a series (New Zealand showed that in Queenstown on England’s recent tour) but there are also the individual aims of those eager to stake their claims for future selection.Then there is Root’s batting position, which alters depending on who he is playing for. So far this season for Yorkshire he has opened (with prolific results in the Championship), while for England he bats anywhere from No. 4 to No. 6 depending on the format. At Grace Road he will be at No. 3. He admits to always thinking of himself as an opener, but also had the well-rehearsed answer of “I’m happy to bat anywhere to play for England.”New Zealand see the next four days as an opportunity to strike an early blow against England’s middle order with Jonny Bairstow likely to join Root in the Test squad next week following Kevin Pietersen’s continued absence with his knee injury.”We were able to keep them quiet back home in the Test series and it’s important for us to keep them quiet in this Test series as well,” Brendon McCullum said. “How do we do that? We start that by keeping them quiet in this warm-up game and trying to add a bit of pressure that way. We will implement some plans against them to do that.”That will be another important test for Root. Being a target for the opposition is something he will need to get used to.

Gloucestershire’s makeshift attack, led by 18-year-old Craig Miles, took control before a Hampshire fightback

Alex Winter in Bristol08-May-2013
ScorecardCraig Miles took the wickets of George Bailey, James Vince and Sean Ervine in his opening spell•Getty Images

Gloucestershire’s bowling attack is reflected in the state of Nevil Road at the moment – being in a state of repair. Cranes are swinging around the ground and the physiotherapist’s arms are equally as busy in the dressing room. But the bowlers Gloucestershire got on the field proved their worth on the opening day at Bristol.Around £10 million is being spent to upgrade the ground to keep Bristol as an international venue and, while only fractions of that sum are available for the playing staff, they earned every penny with a disciplined bowling display that ran through a far richer Hampshire batting order, save for Jimmy Adams’ loneliest of lone hands.The bowler who enjoyed most success must be one of the lowest paid professional cricketers in the country. Craig Miles, 18, signed a two-year deal last September when Gloucestershire’s financial pressure almost reached breaking point as they tried, and eventually succeeded on appeal, to get their development plans off the ground.Miles has potential to earn a few more quid from the game. He and all of Gloucestershire’s bowlers are capable of moving the ball either in the air or off the pitch but maintaining a consistent line and creating pressure has proved a major difficulty. They have leaked far too many runs too quickly.
But here there was control not seen since Jon Lewis left the club two years ago. There were few four balls, they put together successive maidens and created sufficient pressure to force several loose strokes.The opening 10 overs was a textbook period of cricket with the new ball. Overs five, six, seven and eight yielded just one run and with the first ball of the ninth, Michael Roberts, an ersatz Michael Carberry, who is away with England Lions, followed a length ball from Will Gidman that nibbled away. He edged it behind and walked off with 9 on his Championship debut.Liam Dawson was drawn into driving to third slip in Gidman’s next over and a run out chance a delivery later encapsulated the pressure that Gloucestershire had developed.Hampshire bullied Leicestershire and Worcestershire in their opening two games but their mental capacity was found wanting last time out at Chelmsford and here they were guilty of being impatient. George Bailey attempted a second lavish cover drive in three balls and was bowled,Sean Ervine mistimed a drive and chipped to point, Chris Wood popped a catch up to mid-on and Adam Wheater swung across the line to be lbw to Jack Taylor. Indiscipline with the bat it may have been but Gloucestershire deserved much of their success. Miles’ second wicket of his three was a good delivery, nipping back to have James Vince lbw.Miles, born in Swindon, is one of a number of academy products creeping into the first XI out of necessity. A lack of available finance for the playing staff and a bad injury situation has given several Gloucestershire youngsters opportunities that might not have existed five years ago.He was called up last week against Leicestershire as the last fit bowler available. Currently Ian Saxelby, James Fuller, Liam Norwell and Paul Muchall are sidelined. You can therefore imagine the fear of the home supporters when Gidman left the field after tumbling in his follow-through. But it was a precautionary rest, described as an “ankle twinge” which Gloucestershire are not too concerned about.Before his early departure Gidman had bowled a fine opening spell – 8-2-10-2 – which in partnership with David Payne gave very little away. Miles then replaced Gidman to do the majority of the damage before rain, and Adams, prevented Gloucestershire closing out the Hampshire first innings on day one.

Sahara India – owner of the Pune Warriors franchise – have pulled out of the IPL

ESPNcricinfo staff21-May-2013Sahara India, owners of the Pune Warriors franchise, have pulled out of the IPL over financial differences with the BCCI stemming from the valuation of the annual franchise fee it has to pay. The decision, the latest crisis to hit the IPL, comes three years after it bought the Pune franchise for $370 million – the highest price paid for any of the IPL franchises.It seems the immediate cause was the BCCI’s decision to cash the bank guarantee from Sahara that that it was obliged, under its contract, to furnish at the start of each season. The guarantee is equivalent to the amount to be paid annually to the BCCI and can be cashed in case a franchise fails to honour its commitments.In this case, Sahara had furnished a bank guarantee worth Rs 170.2 crore (approximately $30 million). Since the deadline for paying the franchise fees was May 2, the BCCI waited till Sahara’s IPL 6 commitments were over and cashed the guarantee on May 20.Reacting to the development, IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla said the board cashed the bank guarantee according to the rules. “Yes, it (Pune Warriors) has pulled out. As per the rules and procedure of the BCCI if a franchise fails to pay the fee then we cash the franchise’s bank guarantee. We are extremely sad by their decision to pull out. This should not have happened,” Shukla said.Pune Warriors finished eighth in the current IPL season, winning four out of their 16 matches.

Franchises’ troubled history

• Deccan Chargers – Terminated on September 14, 2012 due to financial problems as the owners were unable to service their debt obligations to lenders, eventually leading to its attempted sale and dissolution.

• Pune Warriors – Owners Sahara India had cut its ties with the BCCI on February 4, 2012, withdrawing sponsorship from the Indian team and ownership of the franchise. However, the two patched up later, ending the dispute by issuing a joint statement.

• Kochi Tuskers Kerala – Terminated on September 19, 2011 for breaching the terms of agreement – their inability to furnish a new bank guarantee for 2011.

This is the second time Sahara have pulled out of the IPL; they quit on the day of the 2012 auction and withdrew from sponsorship of the Indian team.This time, though, Sahara will continue its sponsorship of the Indian team until the end of December 2013, when their present contract expires. “We share an excellent relationship with the players and will not want such dedicated and good human beings who serve the country so committed to get harmed financially due to unsporting attitude of BCCI. So we have given time to BCCI to get the new sponsorship in place from January 2014.”Sahara’s actual franchise fee has been a contentious issue ever since they bought the Pune franchise for Rs 1702 crore ($370 million) in March 2010. Sahara had been demanding that the franchise fee from their original agreement should be recalculated since the minimum matches per year have been reduced to 14 from the 18 promised to them.In a lengthy statement, Sahara detailed its dispute with the BCCI over franchise fees. It said it was “disgusted” by the BCCI’s attitude towards it and would not rejoin the league even if the entire franchise fee was waived.”In 2010, Sahara had bid Rs 1700 crore for the IPL franchise on the basis of revenue calculation on 94 matches. But we got 64 matches only,” it added.”We and the Kochi team [also bought at the 2010 auction] immediately protested and requested the BCCI to reduce the bid price proportionately for viable IPL proposition. Nothing was heard. We waited with confidence that such a sports body should have sportsmanship spirit,” it said.

Ben Rohrer, Ahmed Shehzad and Davy Jacobs have been drafted in to the CPL as replacements for Steve Smith, Shaun Marsh and Aaron Finch

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Jul-2013Ben Rohrer, Ahmed Shehzad and Davy Jacobs have been drafted in to the Caribbean Premier League as replacements for Steve Smith, Shaun Marsh and Aaron Finch, after the Australian trio was unable to get no-objection certificates from Cricket Australia.Rohrer will replace his countryman Smith for Antigua Hawksbills, Pakistan opener Shehzad will step in for Marsh for Jamaica Tallawahs, and South African wicketkeeper Jacobs will be coming in for Finch for Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel.Rohrer, who scored 295 runs at a strike-rate of 152.09 in the 2012-13 edition of the Big Bash League, said that he was relishing the prospect of working with Hawksbills coach Viv Richards and Ricky Ponting, who is part of the squad.Shehzad was part of the Pakistan squad that won the 2009 World Twenty20 and reached the semi-finals of the 2011 World Cup. He has scored two domestic T20 centuries and has a strike-rate of 134.23.”Losing Shaun is a shame but we have got a like-for-like replacement with Ahmed Shehzad who is perfect for the team’s balance,” Paul Nixon, the Tallawahs coach, said. Nixon also praised Shehzad’s “special ability” as a top-order batsman.”Chris (Gayle) knows him well and we believe that he will be a match-winner who can really make his mark on the world stage. He is a very gifted and classy player and we feel he is the last piece in our jigsaw.”Jacobs, like Shehzad and Rohrer, initially missed out on a spot with one of the six franchises in the draft in June. He captained South African franchise Warriors to their first ever Twenty20 title in 2010-11.”Davy Jacobs is a proven performer in Twenty20 cricket,” Gordon Greenidge, coach of the Red Steel, said. “The fact he can bat anywhere in the top order is great as it provides us with real flexibility and I like the balance of our squad.”He will add steel to the Red Steel dressing room and bring a winning mentality and vast experience to the squad.”The inaugural Caribbean Premier League starts on July 30 in Barbados and concludes on August 24 in Trinidad.

West Indies captain Darren Sammy admitted that the failure of his bowlers to contain Pakistan’s batsmen during the Powerplay overs was a major factor in his side’s two-wicket loss to Pakistan in the first T20I in St Vincent

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Jul-2013Darren Sammy, the West Indies T20 captain, admitted that the failure of his bowlers to contain Pakistan’s batsmen during the Powerplay overs was a major factor in his side’s two-wicket loss to Pakistan in the first T20I.”We gave away too many runs in the Powerplay,” Sammy said. “We still have to learn how to do it. I believed in [Shannon] Gabriel’s extra pace, and thought he could get Afridi out. He did get him out, but a bit too late. We batted like champions, but this time our bowlers didn’t back up our batsmen.”Shannon Gabriel, Samuel Badree and Sunil Narine, who bowled the mandatory Powerplay overs for West Indies, conceded 61 runs in the first six overs. Although West Indies managed to dismiss three batsmen, the start was enough to give Pakistan some momentum in their chase. Gabriel gave 25 runs in his first two overs and took the wicket of Nasir Jamshed. He was expensive in his second spell, too, conceding 19 runs in two overs, but managed to dismiss Hammad Azam in the 15th over and Shahid Afridi in the penultimate over, with Pakistan six runs short of the target.Pakistan’s reply was largely guided by Shahid Afridi, who scored 46 off 27 balls, and debutantes Umar Amin and Zulfiqar Babar also put up impressive performances. Amin steadied the innings after the loss of early wickets with a 34-ball 47, while Babar picked up the wickets of Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons and Dwayne Bravo, before scoring 13 nerveless runs to take Pakistan to victory off the last ball. Afridi, who won the Man-of-the-Match award, and Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez were effusive in their praise for Amin and Babar.”I should give my award to Zulfiqar Babar: he bowled well, fielded well, batted well. And Umar Amin too,” Afridi said after the match.”It’s a great effort by the players,” Hafeez said. “I was really happy to see their desire to win. I am really happy with the contribution of the two debutants, and then Shahid Afridi. It was a tough chase, but the positive intent was there.”