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Steffan Piolet has joined Sussex on loan until the end of the 2013 season

George Dobell20-Aug-2013Steffan Piolet has joined Sussex on loan until the end of the 2013 season. Piolet, 25, who joined Warwickshire from Sussex before the 2009 season, has become a regular in limited-overs cricket at Edgbaston but has been frustrated in his pursuit of a place in the Championship side.Despite claiming match figures of 10 for 43 against Durham UCCE on his Warwickshire first-class debut, he has played only two more first-class games for the county and only once appeared in the Championship team.Originally signed as a batsman, he has instead developed into an accurate medium-pace bowler and something of a limited-overs specialist. He is out of contract with Warwickshire at the end of this season and now has a chance to forge a career with Sussex.He joins Sussex with immediate effect and will be available for the county’s last Yorkshire Bank 40 match, versus Worcestershire, and three remaining County Championship fixtures, against Durham (home and away) and Yorkshire. He will not, however, be available for the Championship game against Warwickshire.Dougie Brown, Warwickshire’s director of cricket, said: “This is a great opportunity for Steff to play first-class cricket against strong opposition. Opportunities for him to break into the County Championship squad at Edgbaston have been limited, despite being a regular in our Yorkshire Bank 40 and Friends Life t20 teams. We wish him well for the remaining fixtures with Sussex.”

A thrilling final day at the Racecourse ended with Derbyshire securing a second successive win of the season to take them out of the relegation zone

Vithushan Ehantharajah at Derby23-Aug-2013
ScorecardMark Footitt claimed four second-innings wickets•Getty Images

A thrilling final day at the Racecourse ended with Derbyshire securing a second successive win of the season to take them out of the relegation zone and dent the hopes of yet another title challenger. After excelling at Hove, an unchanged XI followed three days of disciplined cricket with a dogged fourth to bowl out Middlesex for 240, as fans left wide-eyed wondering if they were now Championship contenders by proxy.A combination of relentlessly tight bowling and some smart field-placing from Derbyshire skipper Wayne Madsen saw them overcome any jitters to give them a fighting chance of survival. Few expected them to be in control of their destiny, but head coach Karl Krikken, cock-a-hoop at the finale, could not have looked prouder, as he shook hands with supporters, celebratory beer in hand.He spent the start of the day patrolling the boundary, resembling a football manager, pacing around their technical area. He even had the lingo – describing the upcoming encounters with fellow relegation candidates Somerset and Surrey as “48-pointers”.At one point he even stepped onto the field to pass on a message to Matt Higginbottom at fine leg, while seemingly gesticulating for a 90th minute penalty. “I’m just really pushing and prodding from the side,” he said, smiling. .”We’ve got a very good captain and a good young side so it’s just about trying to get your ideas on the field. You just walk round and say, ‘Why are you bowling with one slip and two drive-men when most of the catches have been dropped at second slip?’ I can’t just sit and watch, I need to get out there and get my hands dirty.”A combination of early season sheepishness and five lost tosses in seamer-friendly conditions resulted in four defeats, most notably when these teams met earlier in the season at Lord’s; Krikken noting that some of the players seemed overawed by the surroundings, particularly those who had never played there before.But a return to the core values that got them promoted has helped them regain their identity and thrive under their underdogs tag. In isolation, their victories against Sussex and Middlesex were about as perfect as first-class wins go. Their application on the field today spoke volumes.Tim Groenewald showed no signs of the ankle complaint that saw him leave the field last night, returning to the attack at the City End, for the fifth over of the day. And it was he, Derbyshire’s leading wicket-taker, who began the morning procession with a ball that seamed in to hit Sam Robson’s off stump.Eoin Morgan looked horribly out of touch and, following a trio of uppish shots just out of the reach of fielders, played on for just 9 when Mark Footitt tempted him with a wide one. A darling of the England side, his run of only three half centuries in 52 innings is embarrassing for a man of his talents. Middlesex fans have voiced concerns over his priorities, and this failure when they needed him most will only rile them further.Two balls later, Neil Dexter was following him back as Footitt speared a full, swinging delivery into middle and off stump to leave the visiting captain powerless.Peter Burgoyne then put the gloss on a fantastic session for Derbyshire with the important wickets of Adam Voges – caught brilliantly by a diving Chesney Hughes at slip – and John Simpson, who failed to stop himself going through with a square shot through the off-side – ball stopping in the pitch, meaning he could only guide it to the grateful hands of Madsen at short cover. The dismissal signalled the end of the morning session, with Simpson unmoved, rueful and shell-shocked.Gareth Berg and Ollie Rayner put their top order to shame – Adam Voges aside – with an eighth-wicket stand of 85 off 113 balls that made Derbyshire fret for the first time in this match.Berg’s season’s best of 71 contained some lovely wrist-work, as he guided balls outside of off stump expertly through the mid-on and midwicket for boundaries. Rayner’s scoring areas were more orthodox, but just as valuable, as they reduced the arrears to double figures. But when Berg failed to get enough bat on a ball he wanted to guide to third man, instead finding the cupped hands of Hughes at a wide third slip, relief swept around the ground.Toby Roland-Jones was adjudged strangled down the leg side – a harsh call agreed the Derbyshire players after the game – to give Footitt his fourth wicket of the match, before Burgoyne brought Tim Murtagh forward and turned the ball into his outside edge to give Hughes his third catch of the innings to seal a momentous victory.For Middlesex, defeat is compounded by an ominously easy Yorkshire win over Nottinghamshire inside three days. Even taking into account Yorkshire’s 10-wicket triumph at Lord’s earlier this summer, the gulf between the two has never seemed wider. Even if Middlesex managed to stay within touching distance of their title rivals in the next three games, they will need to find something special – something they’ve not shown so far – to triumph at Headingley in their last game of the season.Chris Rogers is set to return against Somerset next week – almost certainly retaking the four-day captaincy from Dexter – with overseas stand-in Adam Voges finishing his stint with the county on 383 runs at 54.71.But that’s just replacing one form batsman with another – one who will be fatigued by the rigours of five Ashes Tests. Both Rogers and Sam Robson carried Middlesex at the beginning of the season, and now it’s time for others to share the burden. If not, they may find their title challenge has run its course.

The dream of an England recall in his home Ashes Test might have been denied to Graham Onions but he may look back and decide that bowling Durham to the title was reasonably adequate consolation.

Jon Culley at Derby14-Sep-2013
ScorecardGraham Onions hasn’t been able to pull the England shirt back on in a Test this year but may have bowled Durham to another Championship•Getty Images

The dream of an England recall in his home Ashes Test might have been denied to Graham Onions in a summer of frustrations in his international career but he may look back and decide that bowling Durham to the title was reasonably adequate consolation.He is on the brink of that now after taking 5 for 23 at the Racecourse, where Derbyshire, against all probability, were comprehensively blitzed, bowled out for 63, leaving Durham needing to score only 37 runs to complete a victory that leaves them just one more win away from winning the Championship for a third time in six years.After Yorkshire’s bid to chase down a contrived target at Hove was foiled by the weather, Durham lead Division One by 27 and a half points and will look to finish the job against Nottinghamshire at Chester-le-Street, starting on Tuesday.Their final match is against Sussex at Hove, while Yorkshire’s remaining games are against Middlesex at Headingley and Surrey at The Oval.Onions took 45 Championship wickets in seven matches as Durham won their second title in 2009. This year he has 60 wickets in 10 appearances, five times taking five wickets or more in an innings. Nine of those came in this match, the last five in the space of 41 balls with four runs conceded during a 15-over unbroken spell.Paul Collingwood, whose captaincy record now stands at 13 wins from 20 Championship games in charge, praised Onions for his resilience in the face of the repeated disappointments he has been dealt by the England selectors since winning his last Test cap in June last year, a comment to which Onions responded by saying he had learned how to put setbacks of that nature to one side.”I learned a lot about myself when I was injured for such a long time,” Onions said. “I learned about mental preparation and getting yourself ready for the tough games you have to expect every time you play.”You have to push those disappointments to one side and forget about it. If you perform well against good opposition you get recognised. It’s trying to force my way into the side and trying to win things that keeps me going and we are close to winning things.”A place on the plane to Australia this winter would fulfil his own goal but Onions agreed that a title would bring just as much satisfaction.”It would be incredible,” he said. “It is hard to put it into words what it would mean. There are a lot of very good teams that don’t win championships and the character that the lads keep showing to put in performances and win us games is unbelievable, although we have to remember that we have not won it yet.”Nonetheless, it is difficult to imagine them being overhauled now, given that the unpredictable September weather is more than likely to play a part in denying Yorkshire points.For Derbyshire, the two weeks ahead are beginning to look bleak again after three wins in four had raised the prospect of an unlikely act of defiance from the season’s short-priced relegation favourites.Having begun the fourth day 41 runs in front, with the first innings still incomplete, no outcome but a draw could be envisaged. Durham, who had found scoring runs on a slow pitch no easier than their hosts, increased their tempo enough to claw a third batting point but that seemed sure to be the extent of their gains once they were all out for 325, giving them a lead of 27 and Tony Palladino 6 for 90 after taking four on the day, his dismissal of Collingwood, caught off a top-edged attempted pull, sparking a Durham collapse in which their last six wickets fell for 42.Yet even that did not really hint at the possibility of a win, even though Derbyshire were one down in the second over when Chris Rushworth thumped one into Ben Slater’s pads.But once Paul Borrington had been caught off the glove at short leg in the 10th over, Derbyshire’s inexperienced side folded alarmingly, only just scraping past the season-low 60 for which they had been dismissed at Lord’s in April.Then again, Onions was in supreme form, in the face of which few batsmen would have come out on top. Even Shivnarine Chanderpaul, with his weight of experience, had no answer, set up by a couple of short balls and then pinned in his crease, trapped leg before by a ball that almost knocked him off his feet.”He is a class act,” Derbyshire’s head coach, Karl Krikken, admitted afterwards, with admiration in his voice. “If you look at the video, the ball is basically on a string and swinging all over the place.”Derbyshire’s last nine wickets fell for 37 runs in the space of 20 overs, with Rushworth and the rookie Usman Arshad good value too for their successes. It took Durham fewer than eight overs to score the same number of runs to win, for the loss of Mark Stoneman, whose disappointment at being dismissed for seven came with the consolation of passing 1,000 first-class runs for the season, the fourth Durham-born player to pass that milestone, and the second in two days.

Timil Patel and Fahad Babar continued their exceptional tournament runs with bat and ball respectively, as USA recorded a comfortable eight-wicket win against Suriname in Indianapolis’ World Sports Park

Peter Della Penna in Indianapolis08-May-2015
ScorecardHammad Shahid takes a diving catch at deep square leg, one of four grabs he made during the game•Peter Della Penna

Fahad Babar and Timil Patel continued their exceptional tournament runs with bat and ball respectively, as USA recorded a comfortable eight-wicket win against Suriname in Indianapolis’ World Sports Park. The victory clinched them a top-two spot and a ticket to Ireland and Scotland for this summer’s World T20 Qualifier.USA won the toss and sent Suriname in hoping for a quick result, but Suriname hung tough to bat out all 20 overs ending on 106. Thanks to contributions from Muneshwar Patandin (10), Wasim Akram (21) and Gavin Singh (18), Suriname reached 71 for 2 in the 12th over before the wheels started to unravel thanks to the intervention of Timil, who took 4 for 13 and now has a tournament-leading 12 wickets from five games.The collapse was initially sparked by Karan Ganesh, who tempted Gavin Singh into a mistimed flick toward Adil Bhatti at deep midwicket on the final ball of the 12th for the third Suriname wicket. With a 35-run stand between Singh and Boodram now broken, captain Muhammad Ghous brought Timil on for the start of the 13th and he struck with his third ball as Boodram charged down the pitch and was beaten in flight to be bowled for 20. In Timil’s next over, Shazam Ramjohn mistimed a pull and a top edge was taken by Steven Taylor 15 yards behind the stumps to make it 82 for 5.While Timil eventually claimed Man-of-the-Match honors, the play of the day came in the 16th over courtesy of fast bowler Hammad Shahid. Sauid Drepaul tried to slog sweep left-arm spinner Danial Ahmed over the leg side but produced a swirling top edge. Shahid ran 30 yards from long leg to pull off a diving one-handed catch at deep square leg.”When the ball went up in the air, the wind was blowing pretty hard,” Shahid told ESPNcricinfo after the game. “I was trying to get under the ball but the ball kept pulling away from me because the wind was going against me so I had to put in the dive at the end because I don’t think I would’ve made it if I didn’t put in the dive. It just clicked and came in my hands. I was kind of surprised I got there because it’s pretty far for me. I haven’t taken a good catch like that in a while so it felt good and to take it at a big level for USA was amazing.”Shahid, who earlier claimed a catch at midwicket in the fourth over of the day to give Ghous a wicket, then claimed two far simpler catches at long-on off Timil’s bowling in the 19th over. Adil Bhatti bowled the final over of the innings and was responsible for the last Suriname wicket when he chased down the final delivery in his follow through before underhanding the ball into the stumps from five yards away.Babar and Taylor opened the chase with a 61-run stand before Taylor was out for 33 to start the 12th, getting dismissed in near identical fashion to Thursday’s match against Bermuda as he checked a drive straight back to seamer Muneshwar Patandin. Mrunal Patel added another 32 with Babar before he was out for 14 inside edging a flick through his pads with the ball just trickling into the stumps. Nicholas Standford joined Babar for the final 14 needed to win and finished 10 not out.Though USA only reached the target with 10 balls to spare, they took a relaxed approach to the chase and were never in danger of falling short. Babar hit two of the five fours in USA’s innings, including a booming sweep off Gavin Singh in the fourth over to spur him onto an unbeaten 43. Babar remains the tournament’s leading scorer with 209 runs and has only been dismissed once in Indianapolis.

At 6pm on Monday, with less than 10 overs of a compelling Test match remaining, Trent Boult upper cut Stuart Broad towards third man where Moeen Ali took a superbly judged running catch

The Report by Andrew McGlashan 25-May-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsBen Stokes proved England’s talisman on the final afternoon•Getty Images

Shortly before lunch on Saturday, New Zealand were 404 for 3, building a lead, and England’s new era was heading for a difficult start. At 6pm on Monday, with less than 10 overs of a compelling Test match remaining, Trent Boult upper cut Stuart Broad towards third man where Moeen Ali, stationed there by Alastair Cook but not right on the boundary edge, took a superbly judged running catch to earn England a 124-run victory and complete a remarkable turnaround.Less than a year after falling one wicket short of beating Sri Lanka on this ground England were just beginning to get twitchy as Boult and Matt Henry negotiated eight overs with the ball starting to fall short or wide of fielders. But Broad, from round the wicket, dug the ball in and Boult, who had blocked unconventionally, could not resist playing. That it was taken at a position that needed some astute captaincy was the perfect finish for Cook, who had been so central to England’s fightback with his 162.It was a combined effort to bowl New Zealand out for a second time; James Anderson and Stuart Broad firstly reducing them to 12 for 3 before lunch, but it was Ben Stokes who really lit up Lord’s for the second afternoon running in with an electrifying over in which he removed two of New Zealand’s lynchpins, Kane Williamson and Brendon McCullum, in consecutive balls to leave them 61 for 5.

Plunkett in Headingley squad

Liam Plunkett has been added to England’s squad for the second Test, at Headingley, which begins on Friday. Back-to-back Tests means a heavy workload for the fast bowlers and England have chosen to bring in Plunkett, who last played a Test last summer, as another option alongside the 12 selected for Lord’s. Chris Jordan, who is currently playing in a Championship match for Sussex, was the player to miss out in the first Test as Mark Wood made his debut.
England squad: Alastair Cook (capt), Adam Lyth, Gary Ballance, Ian Bell, Joe Root, Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wk), Chris Jordan, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Mark Wood, Liam Plunkett

Corey Anderson and BJ Watling made contrasting half-centuries in a free-wheeling 107-run partnership but, with 26 overs remaining, Mark Wood produced a wicked delivery to brush Watling’s glove and three overs later Joe Root trapped Anderson lbw. Stokes was not finished, either, and returned to removed Mark Craig then next ball Moeen took an excellent return catch off Southee. Moeen’s next catch would be even better.There have only been nine higher totals than New Zealand’s 523 in defeat and England had only ever won three times having conceded more. The change in fortunes centred around England’s second-innings 478, anchored by Cook’s marathon innings and ended 11 overs into the final morning to leave New Zealand 345 to win 77 overs.Anderson and Broad gave England the ideal start with the ball as both openers departed for ducks – Martin Guptill edging to slip to become Anderson’s 399th Test wicket and Tom Latham lbw to Broad’s first delivery – then Ross Taylor also fell in single figures, before Williamson and Watling, who was tactically promoted to No. 5, brought a little stability.But life was never easy and then Stokes, from the Nursery End, made his latest indelible mark on the match. After twice beating Williamson with deliveries that nipped away to beat the outside edge he lured him into pushing at a slightly wider ball and Root took a low catch in the gully. Next ball he bent one back into McCullum and the New Zealand captain deflected it down into his stumps.Lord’s, populated by people who had queued around the ground for final-morning tickets on a Bank Holiday, roared its approval of a cricketer who, if he doesn’t already, will soon have hero status. The hat-trick ball to Anderson was greeted by six slips, a short leg, leg gully and short cover. Stokes continued to challenge the batsmen and his duel with fellow allrounder Anderson was absorbing as the New Zealander took a similarly aggressive route to Stokes, which included two crunching fours and a mighty pulled six into the Mound Stand.Anderson also attacked Moeen, who struggled to settle into his spell, and quickly overtook Watling who had a 17-run head start on him. Continuing to play his strokes as tea approached, three consecutive boundaries off Moeen took him to a 44-ball half-century – 46 of the 51 runs coming in boundaries.Watling, who did not kept wicket since lunch on the first day due to a knee injury, has performed some monumental match-saving efforts for New Zealand, and the partnership took the visitors to tea with 36 overs remaining in the day.Runs continued to flow freely at the start of the evening session – although Anderson, for a moment, though he had his 400th wicket when Watling was given caught down the leg side but S Ravi’s decision was quickly overturned – before Wood, who impressed hugely in his debut Test, found a delivery to bounce from short of a length and England had their opening into the lower order. Moeen’s struggles meant Cook turned to Root and his Midas touch continued when he won an lbw verdict that the DRS upheld, with the ball just shaving leg stump.Craig was beaten by a full delivery from Stokes and Southee, certainly more a basher than a blocker, chipped one low to Moeen’s left and the bowler plucked it out. The floodlights came on as the evening became gloomy and the final hour was beginning to advance when the final wicket was extracted.Boult, whose day started much more brightly when he secured a place on the honours board with 5 for 85 as he claimed the final four England wickets, stood forlornly at the striker’s end before being joined by Matt Henry. New Zealand will know a fantastic opportunity escaped them, but they were part of a wonderful match.

Craig Kieswetter has described the England team he played in as divided by cliques and changed by success

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Jun-20154:52

Cliques within the England dressing room?

Craig Kieswetter has described the England team he played in as divided by cliques and changed by success. In an exclusive interview with ESPNcricinfo, Kieswetter also explained his decision to retire following an eye injury and his frustration with his own England career.But it is his views on the England dressing room that will gain most attention. While Kieswetter stopped short of repeating Kevin Pietersen’s claims of bullying in the England environment, he does not paint a flattering picture.Though he says he came into a united dressing room in early 2010, he believes that winning the World T20 and then the Ashes in Australia “changed people”.”It wasn’t just us competing against the opposition,” Kieswetter said. “There was a sense that some of us were competing against one another. By the time we were No. 1 in the world, it was a very different dressing room. Success changed people. Cliques developed. There were jokes made in the dressing room if you had a South African background. When we warmed up in training, we were split into sides: South Africans v English.”There was lots of talk about it in the media and here we were making it worse. It created an unnecessary divide. A sense of them and us.”It grew worse. The Test players were together so much that, when the limited-overs players turned up, it felt like you were on the outside. The Test guys hung out with each other; the limited-overs guys hung out. The spirit I experienced in those first few weeks was never there again.”Craig Kieswetter’s England career peaked at the World T20•Getty Images

Those “first few weeks” saw Kieswetter become the second youngest England player, after David Gower, to make an ODI century and win the Man-of-the-Match award in the 2010 World T20 final. But while he started out playing with rare freedom, he feels that prolonged exposure to the England environment left him feeling “caged” as a batsman.”Of all the England teams I played in over five years, that was the one that had the best spirit,” he said. “To be honest, I don’t remember it that clearly: we played golf, we went to the beach and we drank rum. Training tended to be optional. KP was at his best. So were Broad and Swann. But we were a proper team and everyone got on brilliantly.”I started out playing with freedom; I ended up caged. I guess if I was in the current set-up I would thrive, but I had a good record as an opener and they asked me to bat at No. 6. It’s tough, but I’m disappointed with the way I responded to it.”Kieswetter also explained his decision to retire from cricket following a blow to the eye sustained while batting against David Willey. “I know I can’t play at the level I want to,” Kieswetter explains. “I liked being a swashbuckling player. And I felt I had the talent to play for England. I don’t feel that way any more. I’m not the same player. I’m not as good as I want to be and I never can be.”I can still play. I can still be okay. But when I came back at the end of last season, there was a lot of bravado and adrenalin involved. In the end I just thought, there are too many mediocre players in county cricket – and good luck to them – but I don’t want to be another one.”Read the full interview here

Sri Lanka’s fast-bowling coach Champaka Ramanayake has said that 23-year-old Dushmantha Chameera is the most exciting fast bowling ‘find’ he has come across since Lasith Malinga

Sa'adi Thawfeeq04-Jul-2015Sri Lanka’s fast-bowling coach Champaka Ramanayake has said that 23-year-old Dushmantha Chameera is the most exciting fast-bowling find he had come across since Lasith Malinga.Ramanayake, a former Sri Lanka seamer with 18 Test caps, was responsible for the emergence of Malinga, and he believes Chameera has the same raw material in him.”Chameera is the equivalent of Malinga at the start of his career, pace wise, but not skill wise which he has to develop,” Ramanayake said. “Malinga bowled with a lot of confidence and had raw pace and he had an unusual bowling action.”Chameera has got pace which was lacking in our bowling line-up. It is good to have a bowler who can hit speeds of nearly 150 kmph consistently in your team. He has to work on his skill levels and he needs strengthening for sustainability.”Chameera went off the field for treatment in his second over during Pakistan’s second innings in Colombo, but returned afterwards to bowl with a lot of pace and picked up three wickets. He unsettled the Pakistani batsmen and broke the wrist of Wahab Riaz, who was subsequently ruled out of the Test series.”I am very proud of his attitude that even with a side strain he continued to bowl. Pain is something every fast bowler has to carry with them throughout their careers,” Ramanayake said.Ramanayake said that he got to know Chameera better when he was working with the Sri Lanka A team during the home series against Pakistan A.”Working with the A team, there is a lot of time to condition the bowlers better. Chameera along with the other fast bowlers underwent similar training as the seniors. It was enjoyable working with the youngsters.”Ramanayake said the arrival of Michael Main, the new trainer from England, was helping the bowlers get fitter and stronger. “Conditioning is very important. We are doing a special program on fitness and strengthening for all our fast bowlers, it’s a six-month course,” Ramanayake said. “With the climate and weather we have here it’s tough on the fast bowlers, you can’t bowl them in long spells. Sri Lanka must be the toughest place in the world for fast bowlers. Unlike in countries like England, New Zealand and Australia where the conditions and pitches are suitable for fast bowling, it’s a challenge in Asian countries.”Dhammika Prasad, who was named Man of the Match for his seven wickets in Sri Lanka’s win against Pakistan in the second Test, has overcome fitness and injury problems which had held back his progress in the past.Ramanayake said that Prasad’s role in the senior team was to give confidence to the bowlers and work on their mental side. “Dhammika had a bowling fitness issue and when he was in the Sri Lanka ‘A’ team last year we treated him as a special case. We conditioned him and he was asked to bowl spells for a day as in a match situation. It’s a mental thing as well. Bowlers can have a bad spell or a bad day but unlike batsmen they can always come back.”

Pravin Tambe, who played in a private T20 tournament in New Jersey that also featured banned Bangladesh cricketer Mohammad Ashraful, could avoid penalties because of the nebulous state of affairs at USACA

Nagraj Gollapudi05-Aug-2015Rajasthan Royals legspinner Pravin Tambe, and a host of players from various other countries, who participated in a private T20 tournament in New Jersey that also featured banned Bangladesh player Mohammad Ashraful, could avoid penalties because of the nebulous state of affairs at the USA Cricket Association (USACA).A day after ESPNcricinfo revealed that Tambe, who has also represented Mumbai in the Ranji trophy, had played with Ashraful in the Laurel Hill Cricket Twenty20 tournament in the last week of July, officials familiar with the code of conduct set up by the ICC watchdog ACSU said Tambe had not breached any regulations. Both the Mumbai Cricket Association and the BCCI have not yet given a formal reaction though.”He has not violated any code of conduct,” a BCCI official well versed with the anti-corruption code said. Though the ICC did not want to comment on the matter, a source revealed the prevailing view was that Tambe had not broken any code by playing alongside Ashraful.The BCCI official said that normally the blame for Ashraful’s participation would lie with the host country, but because the USACA had been suspended by the ICC in June, the case was not so straightforward. “Normally it is the responsibility of the host association to ensure that no banned player participates in any match organised by them. In this case it is not known if this match was played under the aegis of USACA.”According to him the BCCI or ICC communicates information on bans imposed to the affiliated associations only. “Hence there may be occasions when players are actually not aware of every player they are playing with or against.”He said Tambe could not be blamed directly. “If it was local club cricket and Tambe claims he did not know that Ashraful was participating, then we have to take Tambe’s word for it unless proved otherwise.”When asked if Tambe was at fault for not seeking a no-objection certificate from the MCA, the official said that it would not have been aware of Ashraful’s presence in any case. “Even if MCA had given him a NOC, MCA themselves would not verify the players playing. It is the duty of the host association to see no banned players are participating in the tournament.”On June 26, at the end of its annual conference in Barbados, the ICC announced it was suspending the Associate membership of USACA. The ICC thus became the adjudicator for sanctioning official tournaments in the USA. Other than the overseas players, when asked whether any of the USA or Canada players picked for an ICC Americas tryout scheduled for September in Indianapolis could face local sanctions for playing in the same tournaments as Ashraful, an ICC spokesperson replied in the negative.”The ICC is aware of the issue you have raised and will be reminding its members and other relevant parties of the regulations regarding players who have been banned by other boards,” an ICC spokesperson said in an email. “This matter will not affect players selected in the [Indianapolis] Combine.”

USA wicketkeeper Akeem Dodson has delivered a stinging critique of head coach Nasir “Charlie” Javed, blaming the leadership group led by him for the team’s failure to qualify for next year’s ICC World T20

Peter Della Penna28-Aug-2015USA wicketkeeper Akeem Dodson has delivered a stinging critique of head coach Nasir ‘Charlie’ Javed, blaming the leadership group led by him for the team’s failure to qualify for next year’s ICC World T20. The events at last month’s qualifying tournament in Ireland and the UK included a dramatic attempted revolt by players and staff against Javed.While a senior USACA official conceded to this writer they were aware of the incidents, Javed said the team’s inability to qualify for the World T20 was down to a lack of preparation and warm-up games. It’s not clear, though, how the crisis will be resolved, especially given Dodson’s blunt comments.”The reason why we lost and are looking back on it now, not finishing where we should have, is that we really lacked leadership and the positive kind of coach necessary for our team to succeed, especially a new team playing together for the first time without any practice,” Dodson told ESPNcricinfo following USA’s return from Ireland.”You need someone that is going to positively motivate them. Without practice games to get going, everybody was up in the air as to how to measure themselves and match up situations. What it needed was a coach and captain that is super positive and is able to give them the confidence they need.”The captain feeds off the coach and management staff and they are expected to work together. I really think that’s where we were lacking the most, the coaching. A lot of the decisions, the coach took into his own hands, especially the first three games and he shunned any outside opinions. He just wanted to do everything his own way.”Dodson also questioned Javed’s coaching credentials, saying that while he may have had an illustrious career as a legspinner for USA – tied for fourth all time in 50-over cricket with 41 wickets – he lacked any ICC coaching certifications.When contacted by ESPNcricinfo, Javed said that no member of the team confronted him during the tour regarding any issues they had with his leadership, and that his experience as a player and an apprenticeship as an assistant coach for USA under Robin Singh made him suitable for the role.”You have to read and see cricket,” Javed said. “I go to YouTube and read articles. I try to follow other people and how they execute the game. I’ve seen 700 or 800 games on TV and other places in clubs.”Having certified level one, two or three… I don’t want to criticise any players. I think they need to focus on their own games and how they performed instead of criticising the coach if he has a level one, two or three certificate or not. I’ve played enough cricket to know. I played in Australia and coached women’s cricket at Randwick Cricket Club in Sydney. I was over there and coached when I played. Geoff Lawson helped me in that time.”According to multiple sources in the squad, the tour management was especially fractious, with the staff split into different factions, and that problems had been brewing since the ICC Americas Division One tournament in May. An emergency meeting was hastily called the day after the loss to Namibia – USA’s third in a row in the World T20 Qualifier – in which all members of the squad were present except for Javed.Though Javed’s name was never mentioned, sources claim a team official spoke of “changes to management” that could be made and it was clear this meant Javed since he was the only person not present. The official claimed to have received authorization to make the change from USACA vice-president Owen Grey.Players were then asked by a show of hands to vote if they wanted Javed removed, but before anyone voted it is understood that team video analyst Sriram Somayajula intervened and advised the squad against taking drastic action in the middle of the tournament. The meeting adjourned and the following morning, members of the squad received an email from Grey indicating that no such authorization had been given to make a change and that the management staff would be in place through the end of the tour.”I started getting some text messages that there was a meeting about to take place but I really got involved after the meeting took place,” Grey told ESPNcricinfo. “I got the same feedback not only about Charlie but the entire management staff including the manager. It wasn’t just Charlie. Many players felt the entire management staff prevented them from moving forward to the World Cup.”As far as this incident, what happened is that a couple of players including the captain reached out to me at midnight saying that there was a meeting held in the assistant coach’s room about removing Charlie because the players were unhappy and they kept on going to the manager because they weren’t happy with Charlie’s leadership. This happened five hours before their next game against Jersey.”I sent an email back to the entire 15-man squad and said look, you guys focus on the game tomorrow. Stay together as a collective group. I did not authorise any meeting. Let’s move on. Whatever changes might be made will happen post-tournament, not during the tournament. Getting these messages about this meeting going on, I was caught off guard. That’s when I stepped in with the president and we addressed it. It goes right across the board, everybody had a big ego and a chip on their shoulder and they did not realize that their issues were distracting the team.”Several members of the team also stated that a players-only meeting was called in which the 15-man squad committed themselves to ignoring whatever instructions and assistance the coaching staff was providing because the advice was often conflicting due to the internal battles within the coaching staff. Dodson said it helped the team bond together and was a factor in winning their last three games.”No one was outwardly disrespectful or tried to shun Charlie but mainly the focus of most of the players was to focus on the game and block out negativity which unfortunately included the coach,” Dodson said. “When I say negativity, that’s very broad. The guys were trying to focus on their own game and play to the best of their potential with a clear mind. The way Charlie was trying to approach the game or trying to explain to us, it was very elementary, too basic.”Javed felt the team’s lack of preparation was the main cause of its failure to qualify, and said he was hamstrung by the lack of warm-up games or a preparatory camp by the USACA, since he and other members of the staff had never watched some of the new players in the squad.”Alex Amsterdam, I never seen this guy in my life, who he is or how he plays,” Javed said. “He just came [to Ireland the day before the first match] and I can’t just put him in to play. When he came at practice, he couldn’t touch the moving ball. Everybody plays on matting wicket or synthetic wicket in USA. When I reached Ireland, I don’t know Shiva [Vashishat]. I had never seen him or Amsterdam and one other guy. As a coach I knew some guys but not three or four guys. In my opinion, the selection process had hiccups. But these guys were good. I didn’t have a problem with anyone. They just needed to play [more games] together.”Regarding the team’s lack of preparation, Grey said the USACA was at fault and had let the players down but that the organisation was managing the situation with the resources they had at their disposal.”I’m very disappointed that the team did not qualify to the World Cup but I’m very proud that the team pulled together and performed extremely well in an adverse situation in the lead up to the tour. As a member of the board of directors, I feel responsible and you can hold me accountable for not giving the players the tools necessary to succeed. But I can’t do it by myself. We just didn’t have the resources. As a board, we need to come up with a plan so we can get these players and the team the resources in the future.”

Shoaib Malik said he was disappointed with bad light putting an end to Pakistan’s chances in the second ODI against Zimbabwe, but said “there are certain ICC rules and we have to follow them.”

Liam Brickhill in Harare03-Oct-2015Shoaib Malik, whose unbeaten 96 had kept Pakistan on course during a severely tense chase of 277 in Harare, admitted he was disappointed by the way the match ended after the umpires took the players off for bad light. At the time, Pakistan needed another 21 runs to win in two overs with two wickets in hand. But with play being curtailed, Duckworth-Lewis calculations indicated the visitors were short by five runs.”The way we were batting then, I think the game was in our favour,” Malik said. “Obviously there are certain ICC rules and we have to follow them. I think overall it was a great game, but at the end of the day it’s a little bit disappointing the way it ended. But being a professional cricketer and representing your country, you have to follow certain rules and regulations.”Malik batted for almost 42 overs and helped Pakistan recover from a precarious 76 for 6. He added 111 runs for the seventh wicket with Aamer Yamin, who struck a maiden ODI fifty, and an unbeaten 63 for the ninth wicket with Yasir Shah.”I had one thing in my mind,” Malik said. “If we play the full 50 overs, then we might have a chance. The minute that Aamer Yamin came in he gave me that hope, ‘okay I’m here and I can hit boundaries’. So he started hitting boundaries and I started taking singles. And it was just one thing that I always had in my mind during the game: that I have to play until the 50th over. And whichever way the game goes, either to Zimbabwe or us, I still have to play the fifty overs.”Yamin departed with 90 still needed from 61 balls and Pakistan were left with three wickets in hand. But Malik insisted he never felt the game had slipped away. “I never thought of it that way. The way [Yamin] batted, he gave us hope. Even when Yasir Shah came in, the way he was batting I think the pressure was on the Zimbabwe team. It’s like a team thing. Obviously we lost, but at the end of the day we have achieved a lot from this game.”Earlier in the day, three of Pakistan’s top-four batsmen had fallen playing aggressive strokes. But Malik said an attacking approach had been part of the visitors’ gameplan. “The way cricket is going I think you have to play aggressive cricket, and that’s what we even talked about in our meeting before this game. Sometimes you lose wickets, sometimes you score runs. It’s part of the game.”Malik also gave credit to the Zimbabweans for the way they played, singling Elton Chigumbura out for particular praise. “We started off well bowling as a unit, but obviously we must also give credit to the Zimbabwean batsmen, especially [Chamu] Chibhabha and Chigumbura. Especially Chigumbura and the way he batted at the end. There are areas of improvement for us, which we’ll look at and come back hard.”