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Australia’s captain, Michael Clarke, hopes he will have some input into who replaces Tim Nielsen as the team’s coach

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Sep-2011Australia’s captain, Michael Clarke, hopes he will have some input into who replaces Tim Nielsen as the team’s coach. Clarke arrived back home in Sydney on Wednesday night after leading Australia to a 1-0 Test series victory in Sri Lanka, where Nielsen finished the tour by announcing his decision to step down from the coaching role.That means Australia will have an interim coach for next month’s tour of South Africa – probably one of the assistants, Steve Rixon or Justin Langer – while the search goes on for a full-time replacement. Clarke is believed to have a very high regard for his former New South Wales coach, Rixon, and while he did not name any preferred names, he said he hoped his opinions would be considered as Cricket Australia looked for their new man.”I hope I will [have some input],” Clarke said. “I have a really good relationship with James Sutherland, the CEO, and I’m pretty sure it is important the captain and coach have a strong bond. I would imagine I would have some sort of impact and I’ll be communicating with James over however long, to try and work out who they think the best person for the role is.”There’s a lot of successful coaches around the world, and I think the priority, as the review has made very clear, is they are going to try and get the best person for the job. I think Tim Nielsen has done an amazing job for Australia. He’s been fantastic for me, not only as a captain, but as a player and he’s certainly going to be missed.”Leading candidates to replace Nielsen will include Rixon, who has a successful track record having coached New Zealand as well as New South Wales, and Mickey Arthur, the former South Africa mentor. Arthur is preparing for his second season as coach of Western Australia.Nielsen’s resignation came after the release of the Argus review, which recommended a more wide-ranging brief for the head coach. Whoever gets the new job will not only guide the national team, he will also direct the coaching style that will filter down to state and academy level, and with Clarke will be one of Australia’s five-man selection panel.

A blistering opening partnership between Robin Uthappa and S Anirudha set up an impressive win for India Green against India Blue in Nagpur

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Oct-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo: Robin Uthappa struck a blistering ton and was involved in a double-century opening stand•Sivaraman Kitta/K Sivaraman

A blistering opening partnership between Robin Uthappa and S Anirudha set up an impressive win for India Green against India Blue in Nagpur, and secured their place in the final of the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy. India Green were asked to bat first once again, however, this time they made better use of the fine platform laid by their openers and piled up 348 for 9 in their 50 overs to all but shut India Blue out of the match at the halfway stage.Uthappa carried his form from the first match into this game, launching his aggressive knock with a lofted four to long-off and a well-executed pull off Irfan Pathan. Anirudha played the support role in the pair’s century stand in the previous game, but here he matched Uthappa shot for shot. He struck Irfan for two boundaries as well, before depositing a short ball on the leg stump from Pradeep Sangwan beyond long-on.The pair was aided by some wayward bowling from Irfan early on, as he repeatedly strayed on to the pads in an attempt to get the ball to swing in. India Blue captain S Badrinath tried to stem the flow of runs by bringing on Amit Mishra in the fifth over, but Uthappa and Anirudha continued to pick up fours and sixes at will. After the openers pummelled 34 runs off two overs, India Green had raced to 86 after eight. Unlike against India Red though, they did not waste their fine starts and pushed on to centuries, bringing the 200 up as early as the 23rd over.The bowlers finally found some relief after Uthappa retired. Mohammad Kaif struggled to keep the momentum going before rushing down the track and playing down the wrong line to hand Mishra his first wicket. Anirudha gifted his wicket away, lofting a full toss on the leg stump to midwicket off part-timer M Vijay. Uthappa returned after India Green lost Mohnish Mishra and Ishank Jaggi in quick succession, but could not match his early tempo, striking just one more four before P Parameswaran had him bowled. Sangwan claimed wickets late in the innings as the batsmen looked for quick runs, to finish with 4 for 58 form his ten.India Blue, who needed to win to make the final, made a poor start in the chase as Tanmay Srivastava edged behind off left-arm medium pacer Samad Fallah, with CM Gautham completing a spectacular diving catch. Vijay and Saurabh Tiwary did not let the asking-rate get out of reach though, in an 87-run stand for the second wicket at better than a run-a-ball. After Vijay fell, beaten by Iqbal Abdulla’s turn, Dinesh Karthik provided Tiwary with adequate support. The pair added 48 before Tiwary hit straight to Jaggi at long-off, cutting short his promising innings of 74 off 70. India Blue had one last go at the target through Karthik and Manish Pandey, before Karthik was adjudged lbw off Abhimanyu Mithun for 49.From then on, wickets fell at regular intervals and the required rate soared, and India Green closed out the game in the 42nd over courtesy a fine tumbling catch by Kaif to get rid of Sangwan. Badrinath, who had gone off the field during the first drinks break of the India Green innings, did not bat. Uthappa was named Man of the Match.India Green will play India Red in the final on Thursday at the same venue.

Tasmania surged to a 48-run victory over South Australia in a rain-shortened domestic one-day match in Burnie

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Nov-2011Tasmania
ScorecardTasmania surged to a 48-run victory over South Australia in a rain-shortened domestic one-day match in Burnie, as Ed Cowan and Ben Hilfenhaus made striking contributions.Cowan’s 91 at No. 3 allowed the Tigers to set a decent target despite the loss of regular wickets, and the total was bolstered a little more by Duckworth-Lewis calculations.SA’s reply was unsettled the moment the visitors lost the captain Michael Klinger to Hilfenhaus, and regular wicket ensured they would never mount a serious chase despite 66 for the in-form Tom Cooper.Hilfenhaus finished with four wickets while Xavier Doherty managed two.

Tony Greig the former England captain, will deliver the 12th MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey lecture at Lord’s next year

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Dec-2011Tony Greig, the former England captain, will deliver the 12th MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey lecture at Lord’s next year. Greig will become the second ex-England captain to deliver the lecture, after Geoffrey Boycott in 2005.The Spirit of Cricket lecture began in 2001 and was named after the late Colin Cowdrey, the former England captain and a past MCC president, who, together with another former president Ted Dexter, were instrumental in including the spirit of cricket as the preamble to the Laws of the game.Grieg played 58 Tests for England between 1972 and 1977 and was captain 14 times. He scored 3,599 runs at 40.43 and took 141 wickets at 32.20. Now 65, Greig is broadcaster for Channel Nine in Australia.”Fiercely competitive on the field and hugely insightful off the field, Tony Greig has had a wonderful career in the game,” said MCC president Philip Hodson. “Never one to shun the limelight or shy away from voicing his opinion, I am sure that his MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture will be in keeping with the way he played the game.”I very much look forward to welcoming him to Lord’s to deliver one of the highlights in the MCC calendar, and listen to him tackle some of the key issues that currently surround the game.”This year Kumar Sangakkara gave a widely acclaimed Cowdrey lecture where he talked about controversial issues within Sri Lanka cricket and also about the importance of the sport in his country.

As predicted the Durban Test was a one-sided affair, except that it was the no-hopers from Sri Lanka who were doing the dominating

The Report by Siddarth Ravindran29-Dec-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Rangana Herath ended Sri Lanka’s run of 15 Tests without a victory•AFP

As predicted the Durban Test was a one-sided affair, except that it was the no-hopers from Sri Lanka who were doing the dominating. A year that has gone rapidly downhill for Sri Lanka since their World Cup final appearance in April, including an interminable run of series defeats and a bankrupt board struggling to pay players, ended on the most unexpected of highs as they secured their first Test success in South Africa.A Sri Lanka victory that will rank alongside the path-breaking one at The Oval 15 years ago as the greatest in their history was within reach as South Africa’s batting crumbled after lunch on the fourth day at Kingsmead. The parties in Sri Lanka were delayed by a long stand between AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn, who batted out most of the final session before Rangana Herath struck minutes before close to ease any anxiety building up. The final three wickets went down in four deliveries and a fantastic year for Test cricket ended with the biggest upset of 2011.South Africa’s batting had been solid in the morning, and they would have been satisfied with the start to their attempt at a world-record chase of 450 despite losing the wicket of Graeme Smith. With Hashim Amla in imperious form, South Africa had reached a reasonably comfortable 86 for 1 by lunch, but over the next hour they lost four wickets and even their flimsy hopes of ending their three-Test losing run at Durban evaporated.The collapse began in the first over after the break, when Jacques Rudolph’s resistance ended – and with it perhaps his recently-revived Test career, temporarily at least. As so often in his second coming at the Test level, he was caught in the slip cordon – this time nicking a wide delivery from Thisara Perera.Jacques Kallis has been in patchy form recently, including a duck in the first innings, but his record in the second innings of Tests is unimpeachable. If South Africa were to salvage something from the Test, they needed another Kallis special. Unfortunately for him, there were no match-turning heroics as he top-edged a sweep on to his helmet to give short leg a catch. In his 149th Test, he bagged his first pair.If that blow left South Africa unsteady, they were on the mat soon after as Amla, till then producing a masterclass in off-side strokeplay, was run out after attempting a kamikaze single. He punched the ball straight to mid-on and dashed across for the run though Ashwell Prince showed no interest, and stayed firmly at the non-striker’s end. Prince, with his Test career on the line, then had to face a lifter from Dilhara Fernando, that he could only glove towards slip. With South Africa at 116 for 5, the fans could start partying in Sri Lanka.The Prince dismissal was an almost exact replica of Smith’s earlier in the day. Fernando, used as early as the ninth over this time after his delayed introduction in the first innings, started with his usual no-ball, raising snickers, but there was no laughing later in the over when he got a delivery to leap at Smith. The batsman attempted to ride the bounce, instead of dropping his hands and letting the ball through, and could only glove a catch to slip.Besides Fernando, South Africa’s main worry was the left-arm spin of Herath. On Wednesday, South Africa had been given a glimpse of what was to come when two successive deliveries from Imran Tahir spun and kicked off a length to comfortably beat the batsman and the wicketkeeper. With the ball turning, Herath varied his flight and angle, to relentlessly probe the South African batsmen’s techniques. He was rewarded with the huge wicket of Kallis, and just before tea he added the scalp of Mark Boucher, another man whose place in the side is under scrutiny.AB de Villiers gamely fought on, but there was little he could do to lift South Africa from their hopeless situation. He and Steyn defied the bowling for 34 overs – another reminder to the batting unit that failed twice in this match that the surface wasn’t unplayable.Steyn had been central to South Africa’s promising start to the day as well. In the first innings, he had gone wicketless in a completed innings for the first time since 2008, and he responded second time round with his 17th Test five-for to bring a quick end to the Sri Lankan innings.There was some classic tail-end batting from Sri Lanka in the morning but their resistance lasted only about half an hour. It didn’t matter much, given how far ahead Sri Lanka had already got after the first three days of the Test.The biggest monkey on the back in the game, if measured by column inches, would be Sachin Tendulkar’s 100th international hundred, but the bigger one is Sri Lanka failing to win a Test for nearly a year-and-a-half since the retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan. They have got that off their backs – in style and on a great stage – setting up a tantalising decider in Cape Town.

The Scottish Lions will play seven three-day games against county sides and the MCC as part of their schedule for 2012

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Jan-2012The Scottish Lions will play seven three-day games against county sides and the MCC as part of their schedule for 2012. The increased fixture list, which includes Scotland’s Intercontinental Cup and CB40 commitments, is the most demanding undertaken by the Associate nation.The senior squad will also attend a training camp in Sri Lanka ahead of their attempts to secure a spot at the World Twenty20 in later this year. Scotland are set to be involved in at least seven T20 matches during the qualifiers in Dubai in March.Three of Scotland’s games in 2012 will have one-day international status, including a fixture against England that will take place on August 12 in Edinburgh.”The increase in game time for both the national and Lions sides is a vital part of our development,” Scotland head coach Peter Steindl said. “The schedule will provide all of our players with the chance to develop their skills in pressurised environments. We are looking forward to the challenge that 2012 will provide us.”

Shane Watson has bluntly stated his intention to win back his Test match opening spot, irrespective of the promising union formed by David Warner and Ed Cowan in the Australian vice-captain’s absence from the XI

Daniel Brettig15-Feb-2012Shane Watson has bluntly stated his intention to win back his Test match opening spot, irrespective of the promising union formed by David Warner and Ed Cowan in his absence.Before he departed Sydney to return to first-class cricket for New South Wales against Western Australia in a Sheffield Shield match at the WACA, Watson said he would be opening the batting for the Blues as a precursor to his bid to regain that spot for the national team.While an extended injury break due to hamstring and calf problems has made Watson mindful of managing his workload this time around, the prospect of moving down the order appeared a long way from his mind.”At the moment I’m going to open the batting [in Perth],” Watson said. “I’d love to be able to open [for Australia], but that’s where I’ve had the most enjoyment as a batsman and that’s where I’ve had the most enjoyment as a batsman, that’s where my game really progressed from, with the opportunity to open the batting. That’s really where I’d love to be able to bat, no doubt.”Ed Cowan, in Test cricket especially, and Dave Warner have done a pretty good job there. It’s going to be interesting to see where things pan out but I certainly do love opening, because that’s where I’ve had most success in my international career.”The absence of Watson, the vice-captain, coincided with a rich vein of form for the Test team under Michael Clarke’s leadership, and whenever he returns, either towards the end of the triangular ODI series or in the West Indies, it will be to a vastly different dressing room from the one he left. However, Watson’s primary concern will be to find the ideal balance between his muscular batting and shrewd swing and seam bowling, something he admitted did not “exactly work” in the months leading up to his injury.”I’ll have to keep an eye on that, definitely,” Watson said. “That’s something I’ve looked at in detail over the last few months, exactly how I’m going to be able to balance what I’m trying to do and keeping my body as good as it can as well throughout the period of playing a lot of cricket.”There’s no doubt playing consistently for four months, which I did throughout that period, it just ended up my body wasn’t agreeing with what I was trying to do with it. In the end it’s meant a lot of other things have been able to regenerate and I’ve been able to reassess where I was at and the things that didn’t go exactly to plan throughout that four-month period of playing consistently – a few mistakes that I did make throughout that period of time, I certainly won’t be making them again because I wouldn’t really like to be out for another three months again because it’s very frustrating.”So I’m going to have to continue to talk to Michael and Mickey Arthur and just try and balance my workload as much as I possibly can because what happened over the last little while didn’t exactly work so I’m just going to have to stay on top of things a little bit more, I think.”Joining Watson in Perth for the Shield match starting on Friday is the Test wicketkeeper Brad Haddin, who remains surplus to the requirements of the limited-overs team despite having earlier been informed that he was being rested for the first three matches. Watson said he felt Haddin had been left “in limbo”, though the wicketkeeper himself seems more comfortable with where things stand.”I actually feel sorry for Brad at the moment,” Watson said. “He’s been left in a bit of limbo unfortunately. He doesn’t know which way he’s going, whether he’s been rested or being dropped. I really do feel sorry for him because someone who’s played an important role over the last five years in all forms of the game for Australia.”I think [he] definitely deserves to be told either way what his future holds, because I know if I was in the same position I’d be pretty disappointed if you’re being left in limbo a little bit. I think they should tell him either way and that’s for Test cricket also. It’s important for him just to be able to know which direction he is going.”I’ve been in different situations when [in] selection you don’t know exactly what’s going on. But for someone who’s been a big part and been the vice-captain for Australia on a number of occasions as well, I think that’s what he deserves.”

Jamaica made it six wins out of six by completing a clinical victory over Combined Campuses and Colleges in Bridgetown, Barbados

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Mar-2012
Scorecard
Jamaica made it six wins out of six by completing a clinical victory over Combined Campuses and Colleges in Bridgetown, Barbados. It was a team effort from Jamaica, with a string of useful contributions from the batsmen taking them to decent totals, and the bowlers hunting in packs to dismiss CCC cheaply.CCC were set a target of 321 runs, a tough ask in a season in which the highest fourth-innings total to win a game is 219. They managed to last only 56.1 overs and were all out for 166 early on the fourth morning. Legspinner Odean Brown picked up a five-wicket haul as CCC lost their last five wickets for only 23 runs.CCC had a chance to put Jamaica under pressure after bowling them out for 200 on the first day. Medium-pacers Jason Dawes and Jason Holder had taken three wickets each to inflict the damage. However, CCC failed to capitalise and crashed to 137 all out. Shacaya Thomas, who scored 78, was the only batsman who showed resistance against Jamaica’s persistent bowling attack.With a 63-run deficit to deal with, CCC were unable to restrict Jamaica’s top order, with Tamar Lambert getting a half-century. Although no one else got to 50, each of the top five made contributions, and Jamaica added enough runs to take the game away from CCC. Ryan Austin bagged five wickets but he too struggled to curtail the scoring and gave away 89 runs.Jamaica will face Guyana in the semi-finals, in Kingston from March 30.

Michael Clarke’s belief that the Bridgetown Test match could be won was forged six years ago in the middle of Adelaide Oval

Daniel Brettig at Kensington Oval12-Apr-2012Michael Clarke’s belief that the Bridgetown Test match could be won was forged six years ago in the middle of Adelaide Oval. He had been joined at the wicket by Shane Warne, Australia struggling for first innings parity with England on the fourth day of what seemed destined to be a drawn Ashes Test. Simply and clearly, Warne told Clarke the match would be won. On a scarcely believable final day, it was.Clarke carried that memory with him throughout the first Test against the West Indies, and echoed Warne in assuring his team that the Barbados match remained within their grasp. After a mighty struggle over the final two days, the visitors dragged themselves up from a position every bit as dire as the one occupied by Australia against England in 2006, and another remarkable victory was secured. It made Clarke only the second captain in the history of Test cricket to win a match after declaring behind.”I remember Warney telling me back then that with a day and a half left in the Test match that we would win the game and I was trying to work out how,” Clarke said of 2006. “At best surely we’d get a draw but he had no doubt in his mind. For me as a young player I thought ‘right-o, that’s my attitude, I’m going to win’. A few years on and I’m in the change rooms telling the boys we’re going to win this Test match. Hopefully a few of them believed me the way I believed Warney back then.”It shows, if you have that self-belief and belief in the inner sanctum and the guys that sit beside you that you find ways. That was the main thing I said to the boys today. I know it’s tough, I know we’re tired, I know there’s going to be issues of the foot marks, I know it’s going to be a tough run chase but find a way. Everyone and individually as a team we’ve got to find a way and we’ll win this Test match. Credit to the boys, they certainly found a way.”Australia are building a team to be reckoned with under Clarke, and he had little hesitation declaring the Bridgetown result the equal of any he had enjoyed. It was as much a victory over the conditions and late season lethargy as the opposition, a West Indies team that is gathering discipline, skill and experience but is still learning how to fight out the critical phases of a Test.”A just reward for hanging in, the team showing true character and fight and not giving up,” Clarke said. “I think whatever happened this afternoon, whether we won the game, drew the game or lost the game, I think we certainly showed a lot of fight, a lot of character. We tried to win the Test.”We did everything we could to try and win the Test match and it’s very, very rewarding now sitting in the change rooms with that bunch of boys that we got the result we were after…after a lot of hard work, a couple of days with, I guess, our backs to the wall. But to be able to fight and get a result like that, that’s as special a win as I’ve had in my career.”This is as good as I’ve had, no doubt, because we had our backs to the wall for the first three days of the game. And the spirit and the character, I guess of the guys in the change room is what drives you, I guess, as a captain to make a bold decision, to declare when I declared. The confidence around me from everybody in that group, there wasn’t one bit of fear of losing that Test match, it wasn’t spoken about.”From day one of the Test all that’s been spoken about is what we have to do to win this Test match. And a lot of time it’s easier said than done, especially when a team gets 450 on the board in the first two days, you get some time taken out of the game with the light, so full credit to every single player and support staff person in that change room.”The Australian team is beginning to bear the stamp of Clarke – relentlessly positive, adventurous, tactically agile and skillful. He said the team was learning more about how to best operate under pressure, meaning the lapses that occurred in Cape Town against South Africa and Hobart against New Zealand are now growing less likely to occur. It is also benefiting from the balance between the brash youth of David Warner, and the poise of older heads like Michael Hussey, so calm in the chase as he had been in Adelaide six years ago.”I think we are just learning more and more about each other every day, especially under pressure,” Clarke said. “We’re working out what guys require to perform their best under pressure. We’re seeing guys stand up when they get an opportunity to play Test cricket. We’re seeing some old hands and some old legs still pulling tricks out of the bag to help us win games and Huss is a great example of that.”We’re putting in really good team performances. You’re not going to be successful individually every single time you walk out to bat or walk out to bowl. But I think the team we have at the moment, the players we have around the group at the moment aren’t bothered about themselves. They care most about the team winning and doing whatever they can to contribute to success. In my mind, there’s no coincidence the team’s doing well because we’re all putting the team first.”Edited by Kanishkaa Balachandran

Worcestershire have confirmed that Saeed Ajmal will not be able to join them for the Friends Life t20 due to international commitments with Pakistan

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Apr-2012Worcestershire have confirmed that Saeed Ajmal will not be able to join them for the Friends Life t20 due to international commitments with Pakistan.ESPNcricinfo reported earlier this month that Ajmal would have to pull out of his contract because of Pakistan’s tour of Sri Lanka and that trip is now set to take place between late May and mid-July. The FLt20 tournament begins on June 12 with the group stages finishing on July 8.Ajmal played for Worcestershire last year and was their best bowler in the FLt20. He claimed 16 wickets in eight games, conceding fewer than six runs an over and averaging 11.37 per wicket.Worcestershire’s director of cricket, Steve Rhodes, said: “Losing a player of Saeed’s quality is a big disappointment, however, we are extremely active in finding a replacement for the t20.”Ajmal’s Pakistan team-mate Junaid Khan, the left-arm fast bowler, is still waiting to find out whether he will be given permission to join Lancashire for the second half of the season including the FLt20.