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Richard Thompson predicts “a long and successful future” for the competition

ESPNcricinfo staff26-May-2023The Hundred is going nowhere before the end of 2028 and has “a long and successful future well beyond that”, according to the ECB’s chair.Several outlets reported last month that Richard Gould and Richard Thompson – the ECB’s chief executive and chair respectively, who previously held the same roles at Surrey – were discussing options to adjust the format of the eight-team, 100-ball competition, or even to scrap it altogether.But, in an interview in the June edition of the magazine, Thompson said that there had been “an awful lot of misreporting” on the tournament’s future, emphasising that it is part of the ECB’s lucrative broadcast deal with Sky Sports which runs until the end of 2028.”We’re signed up with the Hundred until 2028 and there’s been an awful lot of misreporting around that,” Thompson said. “The reality is that the Hundred exists with Sky until 2028 and I’m sure it has a long and successful future well beyond that.”Related

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The ECB announced this week that Sanjay Patel, the Hundred’s managing director, would step down from his role at the end of this summer’s edition. In the announcement, Gould also predicted a “very long and successful future for the Hundred”.A report by Fanos Hira, the Worcestershire chair, earlier this year suggested that the Hundred had made a £9 million loss to date, figures which the ECB disputes. Thompson said: “It’s a historical report looking at the income and cost base of the ECB. And it [the Hundred] will help us across the game.”It depends how you attribute those costs,” he added. “Especially the £1.3m that each county receives a year [which is directly linked to the Hundred]. The game has invested a significant amount of money into the Hundred to ensure that it finds a new audience, which it has done. But the reality is it’s an investment in the future.”The prospect of private investment in the Hundred has also been regularly mooted over the last two years. “We’re only in year three of a very new tournament,” Thompson said on the subject. “And the game has got to make that decision. That’s not an ECB decision.”The Hundred takes place in a standalone window from August 1-27 in 2023, the first time that it has not clashed with any England men’s or women’s international cricket. As a result, the final Test of the English summer is due to finish on July 31 – a situation that Thompson said “absolutely will not” happen again.”It doesn’t feel right, does it? Finishing the Test season in July means the whole season feels truncated,” he said. “My understanding of the decision was they felt there are a significant amount of white-ball internationals playing through September.”And the idea behind that was to give us the best possible chance of defending the 50-over World Cup which starts in October. But certainly, you don’t want a situation where you’re playing just one format or one tournament in the way we are at the moment… the Test summer absolutely will not be squeezed like this in future.”

New Zealand will likely field an unchanged side with Gary Stead not expecting conditions to differ much

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Feb-2022Trent Boult will not be available for the second Test against South Africa with his lack of recent bowling deemed to be put him at too great of an injury risk.It means Boult has likely played his last home international cricket of the season with those having IPL deals expected to be unavailable for the ODI series against Netherlands at the end of March.Boult was not in the squad for the opening match of the series in Christchurch as his wife awaited the birth of their third child and though he will join team-mates to bowl in the nets around the second Test it was felt too much of an ask to put him through a game.Related

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“[He] is not in a position to be available with his loads and where he’s at,” New Zealand coach Gary Stead said. “Since his wife has been having the baby he’s missed out on a lot of opportunities to play cricket and bowl. We just felt the risk of him playing was far too great at the moment.”New Zealand have retained an unchanged 15-player squad for the second Test which means no place for a specialist spinner. Ajaz Patel has yet to return to Plunket Shield action after injury and Stead did not expect conditions to alter much from the first Test where New Zealand’s quicks dominated by bowling out South Africa for 95 and 111. Allrounder Rachin Ravindra is part of the squad should a spin-bowling option be required.”We considered a [frontline] spin option but didn’t feel as though we needed it on this pitch, through history and the way it was looking after the last Test match,” Stead said.The absence of Boult and lack of changes to the squad means the same four-strong pace attack that dismantled South Africa first time around are set to get another chance together. Matt Henry was the leading light with a career-best 7 for 23 as part of a nine-wicket match haul.”He’s always been a good bowler and sometimes you need that opportunity to strike and make the most it,” Stead said. “He bowled beautifully throughout the Test but I thought the whole bowling unit bowled really well together and thought that was one of the reasons we were so convincing.”

A sloppy CSK dropped Dhawan four times on his way to his maiden T20 century

Deivarayan Muthu17-Oct-20201:19

Agarkar: Axar has returned the favour to CSK

Shikhar Dhawan – reprieved on 25, 27, 50, 79 – punished a sloppy Chennai Super Kings and powered a challenging chase of 180 on a sluggish Sharjah track, finishing unbeaten on 101 off 58 balls, his first T20 hundred. The victory, secured with one ball to spare, moved the Delhi Capitals back to the top of the points table.It was still anybody’s game at the start of the last over. The Capitals needed 17 off it. Sam Curran had just dismissed Alex Carey and executed his wide yorkers to give up a mere four runs off the penultimate over. With Dwayne Bravo, the Super Kings’ designated death bowler, off the field because he “wasn’t fit”, MS Dhoni turned to Ravindra Jadeja.Jadeja could’ve had Dhawan earlier in the evening, with his third ball, had Deepak Chahar not misjudged a catch in the outfield. Dhawan then whacked him for back-to-back fours and out of the attack. Jadeja vs Dhawan round 2 began with an off-side wide and a bottom edge for a single.A nerveless Axar Patel, facing his second ball of the night, then clattered 6, 6, 2, 6 to cap a thrilling finish and hand the Super Kings their sixth defeat in nine matches.CSK start slow, then explode
Tushar Deshpande struck with his third ball, a skiddy bouncer, getting rid of pinch-hitting opener Sam Curran for a duck. Eleven of the first 12 deliveries the Capitals had bowled were all dots – and it included the first maiden in Sharjah, bowled by Kagiso Rabada.But then Faf du Plessis darted around his crease, manufacturing his own lengths and angles to inject some urgency into the innings. He jumped across off and scooped his South Africa team-mate Anrich Nortje for six before backing away outside leg and creaming his slower variation, clocked at 128kph, through the covers.Du Plessis chanced his arm against Kagiso Rabada, too, pulling him with great power to the midwicket fence. At the other end, Watson took on R Ashwin’s carrom balls and got a move on for himself with a pair of fours. While du Plessis kicked on to a half-century, Nortje blasted out Watson for 36 off 28 balls.Soon after du Plessis lost steam and Rabada had him holing out for 58, becoming the fastest to 50 IPL wickets. When MS Dhoni stepped out and nicked Nortje behind for 3, the Super Kings were 129 for 4 in the 17th over. However, a scorching 50-run partnership off 21 balls from Ambati Rayudu and Ravindra Jadeja set the Capitals 180.While Rayudu kept advancing down the track and swiping at balls, Jadeja stood deep in the crease, latching onto any errors in length. Both Rabada and Nortje missed their yorkers as Jadeja clouted three sixes over long-on.Dhawan shows the way
Deepak Chahar found swing in the early exchanges like he often does. He nipped out Prithvi Shaw for the fifth time in six innings. He also got Ajinkya Rahane for the fourth time in four innings. Dhawan was largely cautious against him, but he tore into both Curran and Shardul Thakur.Dhoni bowled Chahar out by the eighth over and the Capitals were 60 for 2. If Dhoni was planning to control the defence with his spinners and Bravo, then Dhawan foiled all his plans. He shimmied out to his first ball against legspinner Karn Sharma and spanked it over his head for four. He picked the next ball, a googly, and cut it firmly for four more.With Dhawan taking all the risks, Shreyas Iyer sat back and simply tried to turn the strike over. However, when he looked to manufacture a boundary, he was done in by Bravo’s lack of pace and picked out long-on.Marcus Stoinis then produced a cameo of 24 off 14 balls before Thakur bounced him out in the 16th over. Once Carey holed out in the 19th over, the pressure mounted on Dhawan. However, he didn’t panic, and took the chase deep. And, after having not conceded a six in his four-over spell earlier, it was Patel who closed out the game by smoking Jadeja for three sixes.

‘Where the white balls have been quite prominent in that you can see their quarter seams, and everything with the ball but now it is fully covered’

Sidharth Monga in Bristol06-Jun-2019This was supposed to be a high-scoring World Cup with the bowlers just making up the numbers, but there has been a much closer contest between bat and ball. And according to one of the men responsible for these low scores, Trent Boult, this might all be down to the glossier Kookaburra balls made available for this tournament.Unlike with the red ball, it is hard to tell from the outside how shiny the white ball is. The lot for this World Cup is shinier, says Boult, which has helped the fast bowlers swing it more. Kookaburra, however, is of the opinion that any change in the ball is part of its normal evolution, while the ICC says it is happy with the results yielded.”The ball is actually different for this tournament,” Boult said after New Zealand’s two-wicket win against Bangladesh in another low-scoring match. “They have got a different gloss on them. Or they are painted differently, so I don’t know if you have talked about it too much but there has definitely been a little bit more swing. Where the white balls have been quite prominent in that you can see their quarter seams, and everything with the ball but now it is fully covered. It is nice to hold in the hand. It is moving a little bit. Yeah, we are happy.”ALSO READ: How Kookaburra balls came to rule the worldWhen asked if it was just the ball or the conditions, too, having an impact on the run-scoring, Boult said: “It is hard one. I want to say a lot of it is the ball. But, yeah, conditions have been pretty good all around the world. But I believe there should be a period at the start of play where it is battle of bat versus ball. And it is an even one. It is nice to see the ball moving like it is at the moment.”Boult said the ball for this World Cup felt a bit like the pink ball used in day-night Tests, which has more lacquer on it to help it last a minimum of 80 Test overs. He didn’t know, though, if this was a conscious move from the ICC or Kookaburra. “I have no idea why they have done it like that to be honest. The pink ball was like that. With the pink ball, you couldn’t see the quarter seam. Whether they have gone with feedback on how the pink ball performed, I am not sure.”The white Kookaburra has been a topic of debate ever since it stopped swinging just after the 2015 World Cup. During that tournament, Boult and Tim Southee hooped it round corners to form an ultra-aggressive New Zealand plan where they bowled long spells at the start of the innings. Ever since then, the white ball has rarely swung conventionally, even for bowlers who will extract every last bit of swing available.”I can’t really remember the ball [used in 2015], to be honest, but I can remember it swinging,” Boult said when asked if he saw a big difference between the balls used in 2015 the World Cup and just after. “I don’t know. It is just one of those things. It hasn’t swung like that in New Zealand ever since. Great feeling and great tournament obviously to be a part of. Hopefully we can replicate some of the scenes from back then to 2019.”It turns out this is not a conscious effort on the part of either the ICC or Kookaburra nor is it an overnight development. It might just be natural evolution. “There’s been no directive on changing the white ball for this World Cup, nor anything definitively changed,” Kookaburra told ESPNcricinfo. “There is a constant evolution that dates right back to World Series Cricket in 1977 and through to the pink ball for day-night Test cricket, with improved hardness and finish of the ball the key objectives; we research, test and improve, and this is the result.”The ICC confirmed to ESPNcricinfo it has made no specific request to Kookaburra in this regard. The ball manufacturers, though, are quite happy with the results. “We’re really pleased with the feedback on the white ball in this World Cup to date. Our aim is to provide balance for swing, seam, spin and the batters, and this positive feedback has been consistent with what we’ve heard for the last two years around the world. Perhaps that general improvement is just more obvious right now that we’re on the global stage at a World Cup but it’s not an overnight change; it’s [been] years in the making.”

Cricket Australia picked the players with a focus on the Women’s World T20 in November, and recent performances

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Apr-2018Bowlers Kristen Beams and Lauren Cheatle have lost their contracts as Australia focus their efforts on the Women’s World T20 in November. Another contributing factor was recent performances, which helped Sophie Molineux, Delissa Kimmince and Nicola Carey have make their way into the 14-player list for the first time. All three players were part of Australia’s tour of India where they beat the hosts 3-0 in the ODIs and beat England in the final of the T20I tri-series that followed.

CA Women’s contract list 2018-19

Nicole Bolton, Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gardner, Rachael Haynes, Alyssa Healy, Jessica Jonassen, Delissa Kimmince, Meg Lanning, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Elyse Villani, Amanda-Jade Wellington

“The National Selection Panel had a firm focus on the World T20 in the West Indies later this year when selecting the contract list, with players rewarded for world-class performances,” national selector Shawn Flegler said.”The elevation of Nicola Carey, Delissa Kimmince and Sophie Molineux is an indication of how they are viewed by the NSP, having all impressed during Australia’s recent tour of India and domestically across the summer.”Allrounders Molineux and Carey earned their caps during the recent India tour, while 28-year old Kimmince made her international debut in 2008 against New Zealand.”Sophie is a Victorian product of the female pathway and the NSP believes she is a long-term player for Australia and provides another spin bowling option with the ability to bat in several positions.””Delissa and Nicola have similar all-round roles within the team and have both performed well when given the opportunity. They have both been on the cusp of selection for a while and it is good to see them rewarded with a contract.Flegler insisted that it wasn’t the end of the road for the out-of-contract players. “Several players, including Kristen Beams and Lauren Cheatle from last year’s contract list have missed out but they will still be considered to play for Australia with strong performances.”Lauren has had to overcome various injuries over the last couple of years, which has hampered her ability to perform at her best,” Flegler said. “She has been selected in the women’s NPS alongside a number of exciting young fast bowlers and there’s no doubt her best is yet to come.”CA has also named a 13-player National Performance Squad, which includes a number of youngsters, who will be training under High Performance coach Leah Poulton at the Bupa National Cricket Centre.Women’s National Performance Squad 2018: Lauren Cheatle, Piepa Cleary, Josephine Dooley, Erin Fazackerley, Heather Graham, Saskia Horley, Belinda Vakarewa, Tayla Vlaeminck, Georgia Wareham, Tahlia McGrath, Maitlan Brown, Annabel Sutherland*, Rachel Trenaman*.

A round-up of the Group A matches from the Vijay Hazare Trophy played on March 4, 2017

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Mar-2017Allrounder Krunal Pandya followed his 72 off 101 balls with career-best returns of 4 for 20 to headline Baroda‘s 92-run victory over Assam at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi. Left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh also impressed with the ball, taking 3 for 37 as Assam were bowled out for 141, chasing 234.Rishav Das (44 off 99 balls) provided the lone source of resistance for Assam as Krunal and Swapnil ran through their batting line-up. Barring Rishav, only captain Arun Karthik passed 20 as Assam were dismissed in 42.3 overs.Earlier Yusuf Pathan (71) and Krunal drove Baroda’s innings, before Irfan Pathan’s unbeaten 50 off 59 balls provided the late impetus. Baroda finished at 233, which proved 92 too many for Assam.Vidarbha completed a 68-run win at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi after Akshay Karnewar’s 4 for 29 and Akshay Wakhare’s 3 for 38 dismissed Haryana for 169 in a chase of 238.Haryana lost opener Nitin Saini off the first ball of their chase and were soon reduced to 29 for 3. Shivam Chauhan struck 46 off 62 balls and Rajat Paliwal scored a more patient 32, but the rest of the batting line-up fell away.Having chosen to bat, Vidarbha had lost their openers cheaply as well, but Ganesh Satish’s 78 and Apoorv Wankhade’s 45-ball 64 not out rallied the team to 237 for 9. Mohit Sharma, Sanjay Pahal, and Rahul Tewatia picked up two wickets each for Haryana.Wicketkeeper-batsman Mahesh Rawat’s unbeaten 88 off 97 balls helped Railways beat Odisha with six wickets and six balls to spare at the Palam ground in Delhi. Rawat was ably supported by Shivakant Shukla (30), Ashish Yadav (45) and Arindam Ghosh (45) as Railways sealed the chase of 229.Four Railways bowlers had taken two wickets as Odisha were restricted to 228 for 8. Opener Sandeep Pattnaik scored 85, allrounder Biplab Samantray hit 33, but they lacked substantial support from the other end. Ambikeshwar Mishra came away with figures of 2 for 45 on List A debut.

Michael Burns, the former Warwickshire and Somerset cricketer, has been introduced to the ECB’s first-class umpires’ full list for 2016, following the recent retirement of Martin Bodenham

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Jan-2016Michael Burns, the former Warwickshire and Somerset cricketer, has been introduced to the ECB’s first-class umpires’ full list for 2016, following the recent retirement of Martin Bodenham.Burns, who played as a wicketkeeper as well as a seam-bowling allrounder in a first-class career that spanned 13 years, also served as Somerset’s captain before retiring in 2005. He was added to the umpiring reserve list in 2012.Bodenham, who was appointed to the first-class list in 2009 following a distinguished career as a football referee, remains the only individual to have officiated across both domestic professional football and cricket.”Martin can be very proud of the successful transition he made from one sporting code to another,” said Gordon Hollins, the ECB chief operating officer. “He has been a highly respected figure within our first-class game and leaves with ECB’s sincere thanks for his contribution to cricket and our best wishes for his retirement.”We are also delighted to welcome Michael onto the full first-class list for the first time and congratulate him on having made such an impressive start to his umpiring career.”ECB Full List 2016 Rob Bailey, Neil Bainton, Paul Baldwin, Mark Benson, Michael Burns, Nick Cook, Nigel Cowley, Jeff Evans, Russell Evans, Steve Gale, Steve Garratt, Michael Gough, Ian Gould, Peter Hartley, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Nigel Llong, Graham Lloyd, Jeremy Lloyds, Neil Mallender, David Millns, Steve O’Shaughnessy, Tim Robinson, Martin Saggers, Alex Wharf.

Mohammad Ashraful’s Bangladesh team-mates have expressed their surprise at his admission of involvement in match-fixing and spot-fixing during the BPL

Mohammad Isam08-Jun-2013Mohammad Ashraful has continued to be the subject of discussion at all levels of the public sphere in Bangladesh over the last four days. Some of his national team-mates have also weighed in, expressing their surprise at his admission of involvement in match-fixing and spot-fixing during the BPL.Shakib Al Hasan said he had also heard questions about February’s BPL match between Dhaka Gladiators and Chittagong Kings, but wasn’t around the players’ dugout long enough to understand the situation.”After the match everyone was talking about it. The opposition players were asking us, ‘so you’ve thrown the game?’ Shakib told the Dhaka-based . “They were asking questions about Dhaka’s slow batting and the big no-ball (by Gladiators’ Mahbubul Alam).”I was not present in the dugout for too long. I was working on my injury inside the dressing room. Since I didn’t play that game, I can’t be sure how difficult the wicket was for batting.”Shahriar Nafees, a student of the same cricket academy where Ashraful began his career, lauded his courage to speak the truth, but wanted just punishment for the guilty. “This is a sad chapter in Bangladesh cricket.” Nafees said. “I have to compliment his courage to come out and confess. I am feeling bad for him, but if he has committed the crime, he has to be punished appropriately.”Mushfiqur Rahim, Ashraful’s Bangladesh captain for the last two years, sent him a text message that said: ‘Allah will be looking after you for being able to gather the courage to confess your guilt before you die. Thanks for the honesty you have shown and I hope you will again return to the cricket field.’Other team-mates like Enamul Haque jnr and Alok Kapali also spoke out. “I was totally shocked when I read about it in the newspaper,” said Enamul, now playing for Wolverhampton in the Birmingham Cricket League. “It seemed like someone close to you was going far away as I heard his confession.”Kapali, who was among 13 Bangladeshi cricketers who left for the Indian Cricket League in 2008 and was ostracised as a result, had a different message for Ashraful. “I am feeling bad for him but I don’t think we need so much money in our life that we need to get involved in fixing.” Kapali said. “Look at Shakib, he is playing the world over. If you play well, money will follow you.”

Essex teenager Ben Foakes narrowly missed out on a century on Championship debut as their game against Leicestershire was left finely balanced

18-May-2012
ScorecardEssex teenager Ben Foakes narrowly missed out on a century on Championship debut as the Division Two game against Leicestershire was left finely balanced at the end of the third day at Grace Road.Foakes, 19, made an eye-catching 93 to help Essex to a total of 409 and a first-innings lead of 37. But with Ramnaresh Sarwan making his second half-century of the match, Leicestershire closed on 148 for 3 to lead by 111 runs going into the final day. Sarwan was still there on 61.Foakes, an England U-19 international who was handed his debut in the absence of both Alastair Cook and Ravi Bopara, became one of five victims for the Leicestershire seamer Wayne White when he edged behind shortly after lunch.But Sarwan and Will Jefferson steered the home side back into the game with a third-wicket stand of 97, halted when Jefferson was out for 49 just before the close as bad light and rain brought an early end with 6.2 overs remaining.Resuming the second day on 239 for 5, still 133 behind, Essex enjoyed a productive first session, adding 121 runs in 32 overs for the loss of just one wicket. The batsman out was James Foster, who received a virtually unplayable rising delivery from Matthew Hoggard and edged behind. His share of a stand of 87 with the impressive Foakes was 26.Foakes looked untroubled, and cover-drove White to the boundary twice in one over. He reached 50 from 72 balls by on-driving Matthew Hoggard to the ropes for his ninth boundary. He went into lunch on 93 but failed to add to his score after the break, edging a fine delivery from White to wicketkeeper Ned Eckersley in the third over of the afternoon. He hit 14 boundaries and faced 139 balls in an excellent debut performance.A typically aggressive knock of 35 from Graham Napier kept the scoreboard moving, but White brought the Essex innings to a close with the wickets of David Masters and Charl Willoughby to finish with 5 for 74 – his third five-wicket haul of the season. Wicket-keeper Eckersley also impressed with five catches.Matt Boyce and Greg Smith went cheaply when Leicestershire batted again, but Sarwan, who reached 50 off 73 balls with seven fours, and Jefferson regained the initiative until Jefferson edged behind off a swinging delivery from Willoughby.

Runs could be doubled in a designated “super-over” and spectators may be allowed to take home balls hit into the crowd as part of Australia’s new Big Bash League next summer.

Brydon Coverdale26-May-2011Runs would be doubled in a designated “super-over” and spectators allowed to take home balls hit into the crowd under proposed rules for Australia’s new Big Bash League next summer.Cricket fans have been asked to comment on a range of possible tweaks to the rules governing Twenty20, many of which are designed to boost scoring rates in the eight-team competition, which is expected to kick off in December.Mike McKenna, Cricket Australia’s head of marketing and the BBL project owner, has made no secret of his desire to spice up the T20 tournament, which will feature city-based sides such as the Brisbane Heat, and two each in Melbourne and Sydney. One of the most unusual suggestions is for each team to be given one super-over, which would likely be nominated by the batting side before the start of the over.Cricket Australia’s survey states the idea, in which the runs from that over alone would be doubled, was intended “to provide both teams an opportunity to get back into the game”. The cricket statistician Ric Finlay, who runs the Tastats website, said introducing such a rule would cause some distortion in the record-books, but it was likely the games could still be designated official Twenty20 matches.”It is true to say that other interventions have distorted outcomes, including fielding restrictions and powerplays and penalties for no balls,” Finlay told , “but this innovation seems on the face of it to be departing more radically from what we know as traditional cricket than anything else that has gone on before. The factor that may allow these matches to be included in records of all T20 matches is the generally-accepted status of all T20 cricket to be a gimmicky form of the game where almost anything goes.”The advantages for the batsmen might not end there. “Based on increasing scoring and making the game more exciting”, as the survey says, the 12th man could be allowed to enter the batting order as a kind of pinch hitter, in a similar setup to the super-sub rule that was used in one-day internationals several years ago.There is also a proposal to allow only one fielder outside the circle in the first five overs of an innings, leaving bowlers little room for error. Two men could be used outside the circle from overs 6 to 10, three fielders from overs 11 to 15, and four men during the final five overs of an innings.And if those ideas don’t create enough of a challenge for bowlers, they may also need to get used to several changed balls throughout an innings. A baseball-style rule is being considered whereby fans would be able to keep a ball that clears the fence, meaning that with many sixes – and the Big Bash record is 14 in an innings – a new ball would be given to the bowler.However, it’s not all bad news for bowlers – allowing two bouncers per over is also a possibility, to allow bowlers a little extra room to attack. The Big Bash League is slowly taking shape, but several key steps remain to be resolved, including the recruitment of players to the eight sides and the part private ownership of two of the Melbourne and Sydney teams.To take the survey and comment on the proposed rules, click here.