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The New Zealand captain is under some pressure heading into the final Test of the season against Australia

Alex Malcolm07-Mar-2024Tim Southee cut a lonely figure out in the middle of Hagley Oval on Wednesday. It is rare that in the middle of the afternoon two days out from a Test match there is no one on the playing surface.But while New Zealand’s players trained in the nets out the back, and the ground staff had all disappeared to attend to other matters, Southee was running shuttles alone on the verdant outfield.It is a week of celebration for Southee and his mate Kane Williamson as they play their 100th Tests together. But for Southee, it doesn’t quite feel as celebratory as it does for Williamson. Some time alone with his thoughts might have been a relief, but they also might have been torturous.Related

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New Zealand are under pressure, 1-0 down in the two-Test series, and Southee is at the centre of it. Former New Zealand captain Ross Taylor has offered some rare criticism of Southee and the team, although it has not been as sharp or as pointed as some in the media have suggested.But Southee doesn’t need to be told. He knows what his recent Test record looks like and he’s not shying away from it.”You always want to be performing at your best and I think there’s no hiding from the fact that the currency we deal in as a bowler is wickets, and the last three Test matches I haven’t got the wickets I would have liked,” Southee said on Thursday.”I still feel like there’s more to it. There’s roles within that as well. I have probably not been where I should be as the most experienced bowler seamer the side. But like everyone, each week you’re trying to get better. Each week you’re trying to go out and put your best foot forward. Prepare as well as you can to give yourself the best chance and that’s the same over the last couple of days. I’ve done that.”But there’s no hiding from the fact that the last couple of Test matches have been disappointing. I know that. I’d always like more wickets. And hopefully, there’s some to come.”It’s a big few days for Tim Southee, in more ways than one•Getty Images

Southee didn’t opt to bowl in the nets on Wednesday. Before his solo running session, he worked on his own on a practice pitch in the centre under the watchful eye of stand-in bowling coach Kyle Mills. The pair had earlier met for a coffee on Monday in Wellington.Southee was pragmatic about his recent bowling efforts, but he said he and Mills had identified a couple of areas to improve.”I’ve felt okay at times,” Southee said. “Sometimes you feel good and you don’t get the wickets. Sometimes you feel not so good and you actually pick up a few wickets. So I think it’s just about trusting your game. Trusting what you do.”I’ve worked hard over the last couple of days alongside Kyle Mills on a couple of things. So it’d be great to finish the season strong. Just a couple of minor things that we’ve been looking at over the last couple of days.”You don’t always get the wickets you feel like you should but hopefully I can contribute to what should be a good week.”Southee becomes the first bowler to play 100 internationals in each format this week. It is a remarkable feat. He has shown an extraordinary ability to adapt and endure across 16 years at the top of the game. He revealed that desire to evolve is still there, as evidenced by his running session on Wednesday.”I think no one’s getting any younger,” Southee said. “But the desire to train, to work hard away from the game is still there. It’s an absolute honour to do what we do and represent our country and I still love that.”I still wake up every morning hoping to go out there and do people proud and put performances on the board. So as long as that’s still there and you can come live to those standards then…”But he didn’t get to finish that sentence as another question about Wagner’s retirement was fired his way. Perhaps it was the universe sending him a message. Perhaps it could be fuel to rekindle a fire within that has become embers in recent weeks.Southee is under no illusions the game owes him nothing despite all he has given to it. He and New Zealand will hope he doesn’t cut a lonely figure in the field this week.

Shaheen returned to bat despite hurting his knee but could not win the match for Lions

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Sep-2024Dolphins ensured they did not bow out of the Champions Cup without a win, as they beat Lions by 16 runs in the last league game of the tournament.With Lions needing 81 from five overs with three wickets in hand, a Dolphins win seemed a mere formality. But Khushdil Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi, batting with an injured knee, threatened to pull off a heist. The pair hit seven sixes and two fours in the next four overs to reduce the equation to 23 needed from the final over. But Abbas Afridi held his nerve to give his side a consolation win.It must have been a no-brainer for Dolphins to bat after winning the toss; the teams batting first are yet to lose a game in the tournament. Dolphins lost Sahibzada Farhan in the sixth over but Muhammad Hurraira and Muhammad Akhlaq added 77 in 10.1 overs to set the platform.Hurraira scored 47 off 41 balls and Akhlaq 52 off 50. After the two fell in quick succession, Umar Amin took over. Despite Lions making regular breakthroughs, he found enough support from the lower middle order to steer Dolphins ahead.By the time Amin fell, for 75 in the 42nd over, Dolphins had 275 on the board. Even though they were all out in the last over, they had posted a challenging 326.In response, Abdullah Shafique and Rohail Nazir gave Lions a steady start of 78 in 13.3 overs. Nazir was the aggressor, scoring 62 in 70 balls.After 22 overs, Lions were well placed on 125 for 1 but Saud Shakeel dismissed Nazir and Omair Yousuf in his back-to-back overs. That derailed Lions’ chase.Lions needed 100 in the last ten overs with four wickets in hand. Then, a Faheem Ashraf delivery hit Shaheen on the left knee and he had to retire hurt. He returned at the fall of the next wicket, in the 45th over, but struggled with running between the wickets.That did not seem to matter as he and Khushdil dealt in boundaries. Shaheen hit Mir Hamza for back-to-back sixes in the 47th over. Khushdil went one better against Abbas in the next. But despite their best efforts, Lions fell short of their target.

MSK Prasad, India’s chairman of selectors, effectively confirmed MS Dhoni’s spot in the 2019 World Cup squad, although Dhoni’s place has been under scrutiny recently

Arun Venugopal24-Dec-2017MS Dhoni has effectively been guaranteed a spot in the 2019 World Cup, about 18 months away, after the chairman of selectors MSK Prasad gave a resounding appraisal of the ” No.1 wicketkeeper in the world”. While this is the first time a selector has made a definitive statement on Dhoni’s participation in the World Cup, it is not yet a given that Prasad himself will be selecting the squad for the tournament.According to media reports, the selection committee, comprising Prasad, Sarandeep Singh and Devang Gandhi, has been given a temporary extension until the BCCI’s next Annual General Meeting. A selector’s contract is renewed annually and his tenure runs for a maximum of four years. Prasad, who first became a selector in Sandeep Patil’s committee in November 2015 before taking over as chairman the following year, can technically remain a selector till late 2019, if he is granted an extension.Meanwhile, Prasad’s remarks came four months after he had declared Dhoni wasn’t an automatic selection anymore. However, in hailing Dhoni’s near-indispensability, Prasad also acknowledged India’s lack of success in unearthing a suitable wicket-keeping alternative.Prasad’s change in heart has also been guided by Dhoni’s eye-catching performances behind the stumps, a facet that Prasad has often felt is overshadowed by what he does with the bat. “I think MS Dhoni is still remains the number one wicketkeeper in the World,” he told reporters after announcing India’s squad for the six-match ODI series in South Africa in February. “And, day in and day out we have been seeing, even in the current T20 series [against Sri Lanka] the stumpings that he does, the caught-behinds that he takes are phenomenal, there is no comparison. I don’t see any wicketkeeper, who is even close to him in world cricket, forget Indian cricket.”It is not as if the selectors haven’t looked at other options, but they have hardly been given a run at the international level. Rishabh Pant, for one, was seen as a possible back-up option when he was picked for the limited-overs tour of West Indies. Unfortunately for him and the selection panel, Pant has since endured an extended poor run with the bat. An underwhelming tour to South Africa with the India A side was followed by modest returns of 3 runs from two List A games against New Zealand A at home. He has had a middling run in the Ranji Trophy as well with 262 runs from seven innings, including a solitary fifty. Meanwhile, Dinesh Karthik, the other likely contender, has been picked for India in limited-overs cricket, but is looked at solely as a middle-order batsman.While Prasad didn’t name anyone in particular, he mentioned none of the emerging wicketkeepers had met the standards required of playing at the highest level. However, he said the selection committee would continue to try different options in India A tours to ensure they identify suitable talents. “We are grooming some wicket-keepers in India A tours. More or less we have fixed up [our] mind till the World Cup and after that at later stages we will start grooming some of those wicketkeepers in India A tours,” he said. “Let me tell you frankly that still those boys are not up to the levels that we have expected. We will still keep giving them chances in the India A tours and see that they are nurtured.”

He had played just four T20 innings before this and is the latest unknown entity from MI’s scouting stable

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Mar-2024Mumbai Indians have played some of the most iconic T20 batters at No. 3 over the years, from Suryakumar Yadav to Rohit Sharma to Cameron Green. On Sunday night against Gujarat Titans, out walked Naman Dhir at No. 3 when Ishan Kishan fell in the first over of the chase of 169.It was just the sixth T20 game of Dhir’s professional career and he is yet to play a 50-over game in domestic cricket. What was he doing in the IPL then for the five-time champions?Bought for INR 20 lakh at the last auction, Dhir is the latest unknown entity from MI’s scouting stable. He is 24, a hard-hitting batter from Punjab. Known for hitting big sixes down the ground, his four T20 innings before this had earned him just 39 runs since his T20 debut a few months ago in November, with a high score of 17. For Punjab too, he has mostly batted at No. 3 in his fledgling career so far. In the Ranji Trophy, he has two centuries from 20 innings – both from last season – from 14 games for an average of 30.21.Related

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It was in the Sher-e-Punjab T20 Cup – a state T20 league organised by the Punjab Cricket Association – in August last year that he made himself noticed with his hitting exploits. In 12 innings in that tournament, Dhir smashed 466 runs (second-highest) at a strike rate of 192.56 while averaging 42.36. He scored two centuries along the way – 127 off 56 and 105 off 44 – which included a total of 30 sixes.On Sunday, he smoked three back-to-back fours against Afghanistan’s Azmatullah Omarzai and a six in the same over. Dhir lofted the first ball of the third over over mid-off, the second over midwicket and the third (after a wide) for a one-bounce four to the square-leg boundary. A dot ball later, Dhir clobbered a half-volley over long-off for an 86-meter six. Omarzai, however, fought back on the last ball of the over by trapping Dhir lbw with the help of a review.”He came out and he was very expressive. Again that lofted shot, you have got to be excited about these things,” Kieron Pollard, Mumbai batting coach, said after the match. “I thought he had a lot more to offer, his calmness even when we lost that first wicket, to continue that intent is a good start for him. This is only the start, at the end of it he scored 20 odd, let’s give him that space, let him enjoy the moment, it’s a big occasion for these guys. As a franchise we’ll continue to unearth new talent. In the future we can continue with continuity as we go along.”Kudos to the scouts, all the guys who work behind the scenes to unearth these sorts of talent within in India. He was one on our radar. He has been in the Mumbai setup over the last couple of months, going to England on a developmental tour. So, it’s something we would’ve seen in that guy.”Mumbai would have thought Dhir did his job with a 10-ball 20, but they eventually fell short by just six runs in the end.

The Australia batsman has injured his left shoulder three times in the last two years, and feels it is functioning at only 50% currently

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Jul-2017Australia batsman Chris Lynn will have surgery on his troublesome left shoulder on Monday, according to a report in the . As a consequence, he is likely to be out of action till the end of the year, the paper reported, missing the T20 leagues in the West Indies and Bangladesh, and Australia’s proposed ODI tour of India in September-October.”I have been battling through each tournament and umming and arr-ing at training but the time has come to get it done,” Lynn told the paper. “I was getting sorer and sorer after training. I am pretty confident I will be back for the Big Bash.”I was supposed to play in the Caribbean Premier League on Wednesday so I have had to give them the bad news. I will cost myself a bit [having to sacrifice the T20 contracts], but physically and mentally it will mean a lot to get it done.”Lynn injured the same shoulder for the third time in less than two years during this year’s IPL, and missed a month of that tournament and later Australia’s Champions Trophy campaign as a result. He said he was not sure if surgery could fix all the issues he has had with the shoulder, but would be grateful to have any significant improvement.”They are pretty confident they can get it right but there is obviously no certainty,” he said. “If you hurt something once you are never going to be 100% but I would like to be somewhere near 100%. Right now it is about 50% and declining. If I can get it up to around 90% I would be real happy with that.”It is so frustrating. You get a roll on but it ends up being two steps forward and three steps back. It is a big decision but the right decision.”

Ben Raine 93 helps to close gap to Warwickshire’s massive first innings, but late wickets dent cause

ECB Reporters Network14-Apr-2024Durham unfurled a dogged rearguard action against Warwickshire on the third day of their Vitality County Championship fixture at Edgbaston – but need to deliver another one tomorrow.Facing a mammoth target of 549 to avoid the follow-on, Scott Borthwick’s side was bowled out for 517. Alex Lees (145, 240 balls), Ben Raine (93, 125), Graham Clark (76, 179), Ollie Robinson (60, 91) and Matt Potts (44, 40) all dug deep but Warwickshire’s depleted attack kept paring away, led by a career-best four for 137 by off-spinner Rob Yates.Trailing on first innings by 181, Durham closed day three on 12 for two and need to bat out day four to prevent Warwickshire’s second-highest ever total – 698 for three – being rewarded with victory.That should be achievable by the visitors on a pitch which has yielded up just 15 wickets in three days. The two first innings together contained 10 individual three-figure scores – four with the bat and six with the ball.After Durham resumed on the third morning on 178 for three, the pattern of batting control immediately resumed with little suggestion that the pitch was breaking up. Lees and Robinson took their partnership to 99, the former reaching his 24th first class century from 185 balls. Robinson flicked Olly Hannon-Dalby over mid-wicket for six on his way to an 82-ball half-century but then skied Danny Briggs to extra cover.With Chris Rushworth off the field undergoing treatment for a calf niggle, the new ball went into the unaccustomed hands of Will Rhodes and the former captain soon nipped it inside a Lees drive to hit off stump. When Brydon Carse ladled Ed Barnard carelessly to long leg, Durham were 331 for six, still 217 from that follow-on figure, but Clark and Raine steadied the ship, and took valuable time out of the game, with a stand of 122 in 33 overs.Yates turned one sharply past Clark’s attempted paddle to leg to win an lbw decision, but Raine continue to prosper on territory he has enjoyed before. Six years ago, as a Leicestershire player in a Blast fixture at Edgbaston, he smashed 113 of which 108 came in fours and sixes. This time he struck five sixes and eight fours but then left the door ajar for Warwickshire when he was bowled behind his legs by Yates.That was Yates’ first three-for in first-class cricket. Three balls later he had a four-for after taking a smart low return catch from Callum Parkinson. When Potts skied Dan Mousley to that man Yates at deep mid-wicket, Durham were still 32 short of the follow on so had ten overs batting second time around.It took only five balls for Hannon-Dalby to dislodge one of the potentially biggest obstacles to a Warwickshire win when he lured first-innings century-maker Lees into a loose drive which he edged to wicketkeeper Michael Burgess. The last word of the day fell to the remarkable Yates who had Borthwick caught behind to add a fifth wicket to his 191 runs in the match so far.

The wicketkeeper-batter will have a clearer indication of her route back after another meeting with the surgeon later this week

Andrew McGlashan23-Oct-2023Alyssa Healy has confirmed that she suffered a severe dog bite to her right index finger on Saturday night, and admitted that in the immediate aftermath of the accident she feared for her career, but is hopeful she will be able to make a full recovery although the timeline of that remains uncertain.Healy was trying to separate her two Staffordshire bull terriers puppies, Misty and Millie, when she suffered the injury which has now put her in doubt for the rest of the WBBL for Sydney Sixers and potentially Australia’s tour to India in December. She had surgery on Sunday morning and will have a clearer indication of the recovery time after another meeting with the surgeon on Thursday.”I’ve got two puppy dogs who were having a rough and tumble, it got a little more than that and unfortunately got my hand in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Healy said. “My right index finger took a bit of a battering. It was quite gory…the positive side of it is that the surgery all went well.”Related

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The initial indications are that there was no bone or tendon damage which would have been more of a concern. “That’s probably the best news possible,” she said. “There was an artery involved which probably made it look more like a crime scene than it needed to be, but the major important things that will take time in coming back weren’t affected.”Won’t lie, when I pulled my finger out initially, I thought I was in strife, but it’s all gone smoothly at the moment. Think it will all just come down to function and whether I can continue to grip the bat the way I need to, or catch the ball, but from all reports, which is really early, is that it’s all pretty positive.”Healy added that after the initial shock of the incident she was now feeling more positive about the prognosis.”I’m not too bad about it,” she said. “These things happen. Dane van Niekerk cut herself cutting an avocado with the Sixers, so we haven’t had much luck with household accidents for the Sixers. I’m really optimistic about it. I’ll take the opportunity to have a rest while I can. It’s not ideal and I was looking forward to the WBBL and contributing significantly for the Sixers. I’ve been given a break now to do that to support them and get myself right, whether it’s for the back end of the season or a big summer ahead.” Speaking after Sixers’ defeat to Sydney Thunder on Sunday, captain Ellyse Perry acknowledged the impact of Healy’s injury.”It’s a huge blow,” she said. “It’s not just a blow for us, it’s a blow for the tournament, because she’s one of the most exciting and mercurial players in the world.”It’s been wonderful to have her playing in the competition over the last nine years. Whenever a player like that’s missing for a period of time, it’s going to be a blow.”For our group, she’s a huge presence. She’s fun, she’s a big character, and the lifeblood of the team. For however long we miss her for, it’s going to be a bummer. We’re just thinking of her and hope she gets better soon.”Depending on the timeline for Healy’s recovery, it could create the need for a new Australia captain if she is unavailable for the multiformat India tour in December. Meg Lanning has yet to confirm if she will be available for the trip and Healy has been her understudy this year. If both Lanning and Healy were unavailable, Tahlia McGrath would be a frontrunner to take the role given she has twice captained Australia in India and Ireland.Sixers have not yet replaced Healy in their WBBL squad with a decision on that likely to be taken once her recovery timeline is confirmed later this week.

Fast bowlers Aamer Jamal and Khurram Shahzad will make their debuts, while Agha Salman will be the only spin option

Danyal Rasool13-Dec-2023For the second time in as many tours to Australia, Pakistan have decided to line up in the opening Test with a relatively inexperienced bowling attack. Fast bowlers Aamer Jamal and Khurram Shahzad will both make their Test debuts, with Shaheen Shah Afridi leading the attack.That leaves no room for Hasan Ali or any specialist spin bowling, with Noman Ali sitting out in favour of batter and part-time spinner Agha Salman. Seam-bowling allrounder Faheem Ashraf will bat at eight, with Pakistan opting for batting depth over a pedigreed spinner.There were relatively few surprises in the batting line-up, and while both Mohammad Hafeez and Shan Masood talked up Mohammad Rizwan’s all-round contribution to the side, Sarfaraz Ahmed is the wicketkeeper while Rizwan remains on the bench. It is understood the option of playing Rizwan as a specialist batter was briefly considered, but in Noman’s absence, Agha’s part-time offspin provided him the edge.Related

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Pakistan’s plans were thrown into disarray when Abrar Ahmed, the first-choice spinner, was injured ahead of the Perth Test, and now battles to be fit for the remaining two. Sajid Khan was flown in as emergency replacement, but he only arrived on Tuesday evening, and a Thursday start was deemed to be too soon for him. With four left-hand batters in Australia’s top seven, the offspinner was considered a better match-up than left arm spinner Noman, and his lack of readiness has seen them ditch the idea of a specialist spinner altogether.The pitch was under covers for most of the day, but had heavy patches of greenery on Tuesday, two days out from the Test. The pitch at this venue last year against West Indies, while rated “good”, was much blander than are usual in Perth, with the fast bowlers not quite getting the assistance they have historically been accustomed to. The Optus Stadium curator said some of the grass would be shaved off the pitch, but Pakistan captain Masood said he expected it to provide significant assistance to fast bowlers.While Pakistan have wrestled with how to manage their team combination, Australia announced their starting XI three days out from the Test. They play three specialist fast bowlers, spinner Nathan Lyon, and seam-bowling allrounder Mitchell Marsh.Pakistan XI for first Test against Australia: Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood (capt), Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Agha Salman, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheeh Shah Afridi, Aamer Jamal, Khurram Shahzad

ECB chief executive cites market dynamics for growing gender pay gap amid PCA critcism

Vithushan Ehantharajah13-Dec-2024Richard Gould, the ECB chief executive, says English cricket must not apologise for attracting the world’s best men’s players, as he faced down claims from the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) that Thursday’s upheaval to the Hundred’s pay structure for the 2025 season will only benefit overseas players.Top salaries in the men’s Hundred will rise from £125,000 to £200,000 (a 60% increase) and £100,000 to £120,000 (20%) for the second tier. However, the other four salary bands, which cover all but four players in 15-man squads, will receive hikes of between 3 and 5%.The announcement was greeted with disdain by the PCA, with interim-chief executive Daryl Mitchell stating he was “extremely concerned” at how the changes had been pushed through. Having been part of initial talks on how the injection of money would be spread across the board for the upcoming competition, Mitchell believed Thursday’s news reflected “a severe lack of communication and consultation”.Tymal Mills and Sam Billings, two players who have been ever-present since the Hundred’s inaugural season in 2021, took to X to voice their concerns. Billings, who captained Oval Invincibles to successive men’s titles, said: “Remarkable how a category gets a 60% increase yet most others get under 5%… Who has come up with this???”Speaking on Friday in Hamilton ahead of England’s third and final Test against New Zealand, Gould admitted he was taken aback by the PCA’s criticism, stating it was “not what I want to hear”. However, he held an unapologetic line about lifting the top brackets to court the best talent in the world, arguing that the dissenting voices had come from a “small section of male players”.”I don’t accept that,” Gould said, when asked if the top pay packets are almost exclusively reserved for overseas talent. “Because that band also includes central- and potentially contracted (England) players, so you’ve effectively got through that top band. And so, no, I don’t accept that at all.”Competition from overseas leagues, including Major League Cricket in the USA, has been a factor in the ECB’s approach to top-tier salaries, with Pat Cummins admitting to ESPNcricinfo that he hadn’t considered the Hundred when signing a lucrative four-year deal with San Francisco Unicorns last year.”This is a global market. We want the best players, irrespective of nationality. If you’re the best player, you’ll be paid the most,” Gould added. “You only have to look at the IPL and the differential and the spread. And if you look back over the last couple of years, we haven’t had as many of the best players in the world that we wanted in the men’s. We want more, and we’re not going to be apologetic in terms of our ambition to get them here.”Once we’re there, then the money is much easier to spread it throughout the squad. It is a very, very competitive market for a very small number of players, and we are not going to be pushed aside on that. We are going to compete, and we have to compete because we need the best players playing in our competition.”Gould also countered the PCA’s suggestions the ECB are guilty of widening the gender pay gap between the men’s and women’s competitions, citing market forces. While the top women’s bracket has increased by 30 percent, they will be earning three times less than their male counterparts. Next year, the difference in pay will have risen from £75,000 to £135,000.In 2022, the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) called for gender pay parity in the Hundred by 2025. The ECB pushed back on the timeframe as unrealistic in its response to the report, which Gould reiterated.”The gap has got bigger because of market dynamics,” he said. “That wasn’t a recommendation we said we could deliver on and we have been very up front on that. We have seen a significant increase in the salaries we have been able to put into the women’s game.”I’m really looking forward to the point that every county club in the country now has a women’s team. You know, I think in five years’ time, we’ll look back and go, ‘How did it take us this long?’ But I think that’s a really, really significant step for us.”Related

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Relations between the ECB and PCA are at an all-time low with disagreement over Hundred salaries following dissent over an issue regarding a new, more stringent No Object Certificate (NOC) policy.A group of domestic players have been blindsided by what they deem as legislation that restrict their earning opportunities. Those hamstrung by the new regulations are ones who have red-ball commitments written into their existing county deals.Though no NOCs have been rejected yet, with 80 handed out to male players in 2024 so far, a group of around 50 cricketers have floated the prospect of strike action in the form of boycotting the 2025 Hundred.Gould accepts there is nuance to the latest NOC stance, particularly for white-ball players with ad hoc agreements with their clubs. Tom Curran, for instance, has been on a white-ball contract with Surrey since 2022, but made two County Championship at the end of the 2024 season as the club negotiated other absences.Nevertheless, Gould believes the updated measures will “protect the sanctity” of county contracts. He also hopes a boycott does not come to fruition.”That may have been discussed on a call with with a variety of representatives, but I’ve heard nothing in that regard and I sincerely hope that’s that’s not the case.”

Zimbabwe will begin their first bilateral tour of Sri Lanka since 2002 by playing the first two of five ODIs in Galle, a venue that has not hosted ODI cricket since 2000

Andrew Fidel Fernando17-Jun-2017ODI cricket is set to return to Galle after a 17-year hiatus, with the first two of Zimbabwe’s five ODIs to be played there on June 30 and July 2. This is Zimbabwe’s first bilateral tour of Sri Lanka since a two-ODI, three-Test tour took place in December 2001-January 2002.

Zimbabwe tour schedule

June 30: 1st ODI, Galle
July 2: 2nd ODI, Galle
July 6: 3rd ODI, Hambantota
July 8: 4th ODI, Hambantota
July 10: 5th ODI, Hambantota
July 14-18: Only Test, Colombo (RPS)

A total of seven ODIs have been played in Galle, but none since July 6, 2000 when Sri Lanka beat South Africa by 37 runs during a tri-series that also included Pakistan.Hambantota Stadium, which has not seen international cricket itself for two years, will host the three remaining one-dayers. A one-off Test to follow the ODIs is scheduled in Colombo at the R Premadasa Stadium (Khettarama) – also an unusual venue for that format, which normally only hosts limited-overs matches. The last Test played at the R Premadasa Stadium was the second Test against Bangladesh in March 2013 when Rangana Herath 12 for 157 in a seven-wicket win.Although Galle had fallen out of favour as an ODI venue because it has no floodlights, and also due to limited capacity, SLC has seen it a fitting venue for the lower-profile Zimbabwe games partly perhaps for financial reasons. Day-night matches are costlier to host – and in this case, the size of the venue may translate to a marketing advantage. Earlier in the year, in hosting an ODI at the SSC, the board CEO said that smaller venues looked livelier on television, for matches at which fewer spectators were expected at the ground.That logic, however, does not hold for the hosting of the Test at Khettarama, which is the highest-capacity stadium in the country.The Zimbabwe tour spans from June 30 to July 18 and features no T20 internationals.India are expected to arrive for a three Test tour later in July. The scheduling of that tour is still being finalised.