All posts by n8rngtd.top

Stuart Law, the new Bangladesh coach, has said his aim is to build a self-reliant Bangladesh team that can help each other and rely less on the natural talent of individuals

Mohammad Isam18-Jul-2011Stuart Law, the new Bangladesh coach, has said his aim is to build a self-reliant Bangladesh team that can help each other and rely less on the natural talent of individuals. Having arrived in Dhaka on Monday morning, along with new fielding coach Jason Swift, Law told his first press conference as coach that he needed to work with the team before identifying areas where they needed improvement, but felt a little more professionalism would help.”I’ve seen Bangladesh play a lot of good cricket. They’re very talented,” Law said at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka on Monday. “The captain [Shakib Al Hasan] was rated No. 1 all-rounder in the world not long ago; Tamim Iqbal is a destructive top-order batsman. Maybe there are areas away from cricket in which they need to improve. A little bit more professionalism maybe, but I haven’t seen them up close to see what makes them tick.”Maybe it’s not about natural talent but a bit more mental toughness, self-belief. That’s what I can impart. The bigger you are the harder you fall. We are a minnow which is a good thing because we go into every game as an underdog and there’s nothing to lose.”Law has played against both Shakib and Tamim; he represented Lancashire and MCC against Bangladesh A in 2008. He will start work on July 20 when Bangladesh play a practice game in Mirpur and his first assignment will be to prepare the team for their tour of Zimbabwe which starts with a tour game on July 30. He said his approach to the side would be to initially observe and see what made the players tick.”I like to observe rather than sit down and tell them what to do. I have a 9-year-old son and he doesn’t like to do what I tell him either. I’ve learnt over my time, the more the players want to do it, the better for the team. It’s not about what I want, it’s about what they want. The tour of Zimbabwe should be a good one, in conditions that we are comfortable playing on. It should be a good way to get into the role.”In the first weeks, the job will be to put names to faces. Once we get into that, we want to make Bangladesh cricket team a team they think they should be. It’s about what they expect from themselves. If they believe they should be the seventh, sixth or fifth best team in the world, that’s where we should aim at first. If they all perform at their optimum, the sky could be the limit for this team.”Law played the role of interim coach for Sri Lanka on their recent tour of England but chose to join Bangladesh after the ODI series ended as they were offering him a permanent job. “Sri Lanka were not in a position to offer an extension in the contract. So there was no job on the table from them. Bangladesh had contacted my management company to seek the possibility of joining. Having been here and knowing the passion that Bangladesh people have for cricket and their team, I saw it as a great opportunity for me while I’m still young as a coach.”Hopefully I can impart the knowledge that I’ve gathered from my 31 seasons of cricket and make the players as good as they can be.”

Neal Abberley, the former Warwickshire opening batsman and influential batting coach, has died in hospital of a heart and lung condition aged 67

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Aug-2011Neal Abberley, the former Warwickshire opening batsman who went on to become an influential batting coach, has died in hospital of a heart and lung condition aged 67. Abberley was a mentor to England batsman Ian Bell, who will wear a black armband in the upcoming Test against India at Edgbaston.Abberley, a left-handed top-order batsman, was on the books at Warwickshire for more than a decade and a half but throughout his career was never quite able to nail down a permanent spot in the side. His best period was in the late 1960s and early 1970s when he passed 1000 runs in a season three times, and in 1966-67 toured Pakistan with the MCC Under-25 side, a trip which was ended prematurely when he broke a finger. He was equally unable to command a regular place in the county’s formidable one-day team, although he appeared in two winnings Gillette Cup finals in 1966 and 1968 in what were only his fourth and seventh List A matches – and in neither year had he played in the semi-finals.Over a career that spanned 15 years at the county, he scored over 10,000 first-class runs at 24.47.His lasting impact to Warwickshire, though, came as a coach where he joined the staff in 1981. Ashley Giles, Warwickshire’s director of cricket, told thecricketer.com: “To me he was a mentor, a confidant but, most of all, a friend. We knew he was getting a little bit fragile but we didn’t realise how fragile so his death has come as a shock to everyone.”He gave his life to Warwickshire and there are a lot of players who owe a huge debt of gratitude to him. Without Neal Abberley I would not be Warwickshire’s director of cricket and I would not have played 54 Tests for England. When I first met him I was an 18-year-old triallist and I was still wet behind the ears having come from living at home with mum and dad.”He helped me to grow up. He was old school and it was a tough school at times and a steep learning curve. But Neal was a great influence on me and he set me on the road to where I am now.”The third Test will be the first since Edgbaston’s £32million redevelopment and Warwickshire are expected to fly flags at half-mast during the match.

The five-match series will provide more valuable planning ahead of the T20 World Cup later in the year

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Jan-2020New Zealand’s depth will be tested in the T20I series against India, but Ross Taylor sees it as a good chance for fringe players to stake a claim for spots in the World Cup squad later this year.The five-match series, part of a full tour by India, which also includes three ODIs and two Tests, begins in Auckland on Friday with New Zealand shorn of two key bowlers – Trent Boult (hand injury) and Lockie Ferguson (calf injury) – who will certainly be part of the T20 World Cup if fit.A number of other seamers who could have been in the frame – Matt Henry, Seth Rance, Doug Bracewell and Adam Milne – are also nursing injuries, meaning the T20I squad will lean heavily on the experience of Tim Southee along with spinners Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi.New Zealand’s most recent T20I series saw them lose 3-2 against England at the beginning of the season – with the deciding match going down to a Super Over – and after the visit by India they will finish the summer with three more matches at home against Australia.ALSO READ: Virat Kohli stresses on intensity and clarity in New Zealand“Probably right from the Sri Lanka series and England the focus has been on the World Cup,” Taylor said. “It will be different conditions in Australia but getting those combinations, trying a few different guys out, obviously a few injuries as well which changes the dynamic of the side, but tests the depth out and gives guys opportunities which bodes well for competition for spots.”While the upcoming series on home soil are a key part of New Zealand’s preparations for the tournament later this year – an event where they have never gone deeper than the semi-finals – Taylor believes there will have to be adjustments made for the conditions across the Tasman in October.”It’s the first time a T20 World Cup is there and you watch the Big Bash, there are big boundaries so you are going to have to skin the cat differently than how you play in New Zealand and other parts of the world,” he said.Kane Williamson, who missed the series against England with a hip problem, has returned to captain the team. New Zealand have won four out of the five T20Is they have played at home against India, including a 2-1 series win last year.Taylor is also confident that New Zealand will be able to put up a better showing in the two Tests that conclude the tour than they managed in Australia, were they were beaten 3-0 with heavy margins in all the games.”It didn’t go as we would have liked, we were completely outplayed in all three facets of the game,” he said. “Now we are back on home soil, India will be totally different opposition, No. 1 team in the world but in conditions we know.”

The Delhi High Court has limited the number of complimentary passes for each of the four World Cup games to be played in Delhi to 10,000

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Feb-2011The Delhi High Court has directed the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) to limit the number of complimentary passes for each of the four World Cup games to be played at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium to 10,000. The stadium has a capacity of 41,000.Justice Sunil Gaur said the association should make sure the remaining passes for Thursday’s game between West Indies and South Africa were available online for the “general public who want to book it,” according to the . The court issued its directive while hearing a case filed by Jai Karan Singh, one of the DDCA’s oldest members, who has challenged the “arbitrary ways” in which the association’s executive committee has been issuing complimentary tickets.The order calls for the DDCA to make sure in the future it sells 30,000 tickets online and at general outlets throughout Delhi. “A total of 3,000 passes should be kept at the stadium gate so that match viewers can buy from there on the day of match also,” the order said. “Five thousand tickets should be sent to various banks in Delhi so that the cricket lovers can buy them there.” The order also directs the association to make sure all the prices are available online.Singh had argued that the executive committee issued free passes “at their whim and fancy for getting personal benefits not connected with the promotion of game of cricket”. He claimed that selling these tickets deprived the DDCA of revenue when they were already operating at a loss.The executive committee denied issuing free passes and said it was only in response to certain “firm commitments”. The committee also defended giving free tickets to officials of the Delhi government, Municipal Corporation of Delhi, traffic police and other civic agencies, saying they had to be “rewarded” for their cooperation and support.The Kotla is scheduled to host four games during the World Cup, beginning with today’s game between South Africa and West Indies. The other three are: West Indies v Netherlands on February 28, Kenya v Canada on March 7 and India v Netherlands on March 9.

Australia Under-19s defeated West Indies Under-19s by 63 runs to go one up in the three-match Youth ODI series in Dubai

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Apr-2011
Scorecard
Australia Under-19s defeated West Indies Under-19s by 63 runs to go one up in the three-match Youth ODI series in Dubai.Choosing to bat, Australia U-19s built their total around opener Cameron Bancroft, who scored a well-paced 123. None of the other batsmen were able to build an innings, the second-highest score being 31 by Meyrick Buchanan. Most of the damage with the ball was done by opening bowler Justin Greaves and offspinner John Campbell. The pair picked up six of the nine wickets to fall in the innings, keeping Australia U-19s to 240.The chase briefly went the way of the first innings, with opener Kraigg Brathwaite anchoring the innings. But, unlike the Australia U-19 middle order which produced a few cameos to support Bancroft, just one of the seven West Indies U-19 batsmen to follow managed to get into double figures. By the time Brathwaite was dismissed, having scored 74 off 105, the chase was all but over with the scoreboard reading 130 for 8. The innings eventually folded on 177 with 5.5 overs going unused. The Australia U-19 bowlers shared the wickets around, four of the six used picking up two apiece.The two teams face off in the second match on Tuesday.

India’s forthcoming tour of England will take place without the use of the Decision Review System (DRS), after the Board for Control of Cricket in India officially informed the England & Wales Cricket Board that they would be unwilling to embrace the use

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jun-2011India’s forthcoming tour of England will take place without the use of the Decision Review System (DRS), after the Board for Control of Cricket in India officially informed the England & Wales Cricket Board that they would be unwilling to embrace the use of technology.The news comes as a blow to England, who – despite some teething problems on their tours of West Indies and South Africa in recent years – have become increasingly astute in their use of the review system. Graeme Swann has been a particular beneficiary of Hawk-Eye replays, with 29.71% of his 138 Test wickets coming via lbw decisions, the highest proportion for an offspinner in Test history.”The England team are comfortable with the use of DRS, but the BCCI have advised us that they won’t be willing to sanction its use during the Test and one-day series,” an ECB spokesman told ESPNcricinfo. “Both boards have to agree to the technology being in place for it to happen, so it doesn’t look as though it will be used this summer.”DRS technology has been used without incident during the current Test series between England and Sri Lanka, with the addition of Hot Spot replays helping to diffuse a potentially controversial caught-behind verdict against Kumar Sangakkara in Cardiff. Despite no visible deviation through to the keeper, a thin white mark on the edge of Sangakkara’s bat helped to confirm that he had touched the ball, and at the close of play, his captain Tillakaratne Dilshan conceded that the right decision had been reached.India, by contrast, have been reluctant participants, most notably during the recent World Cup, when Ian Bell was ruled not out during the tied match against India, because the batsman had advanced more than 2.5m down the wicket, at which point the parameters for Hawk-Eye’s tracking system are deemed unreliable. “The adulteration of technology with human thinking meant we didn’t get that wicket,” said India’s captain, MS Dhoni, at the conclusion of the match.Dhoni’s outspoken opposition to DRS is backed by other senior players within the Indian squad, including Sachin Tendulkar, and as a consequence the BCCI is willing to take a stand on the issue. “Our official position on DRS remains unchanged,” an Indian board official told ESPNcricinfo. “To implement UDRS you need the agreement between the two participating nations. Now with the BCCI not supporting DRS, the ECB cannot force it on us.”India’s stance leaves the future of DRS in doubt, given that the ICC’s cricket committee recommended in May that technology ought to be incorporated in all forms of the game. There had been moves to make DRS mandatory at the ICC’s annual board meeting in June, but the BCCI’s opposition will be hard to overcome.

The new fitness requirement has been criticised by the players

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Sep-2019The Bangladesh Cricket Board has decided to raise the beep-test requirement at the domestic level in a bid to address the overall drop in fitness levels among Bangladesh men’s players. The national selectors recently instructed the first-class teams to only pick players who reach at least 11 on the test, an increase by two levels from last season when a fitness test first became mandatory.”We have noticed that the fitness of the national players are very poor,” Nazmul Hassan, the BCB president, said. “The coach [Russell Domingo] asked, ‘What sort of fitness is this? I have never seen such fitness of players in South Africa’. We cannot suddenly increase the fitness-level requirements. We cannot reach the mark of 13 points [in the beep test] or even go above that.”So, there has been a decision regarding this, that if we keep the fitness acceptance levels so low in the domestic or lower-tier competitions from where the players get into the national side, then naturally the players in the national side will only score nine or ten in the beep test. Now let’s see. We have taken the decision after considering everything. I think we have to improve the fitness.”But the new requirement, made known to the cricketers three weeks prior to the start of the 2019-20 season, has not gone down well with some. Tushar Imran, the leading first-class run-scorer, said it was unfair on the part of the selectors to impose it so close to the season.”I am always prepared to take up a challenge,” Tushar told , “but it is not fair to say that we can’t play if we can’t reach 11. Cricket is our bread and butter. It is going to be difficult for a lot of cricketers.”A lot of ‘super-fit’ players from the senior side are not scoring a lot of runs or taking wickets. What will the selectors do with them? [But] we are prepared to take the challenge, because it is our livelihood.”Former Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful argued that only players in the national side or in the high-performance camp will get the necessary facilities to raise their fitness levels.”It wouldn’t have been any problem to get 11 if we were given proper training facilities in the off-season,” he said. “I got 11.5 last year, but these facilities are only available to the national team, the high-performance side and the Under-23 team. I remain hopeful that I can do 11.5 this year too, since I never had fitness concerns when playing for Bangladesh.”Shuvagata Hom, a domestic star who has played 17 international matches, said that if a certain fitness level was set as a requirement, the domestic players should have been given more time to be prepared for it.”It is going to be difficult for players outside the national set-up,” Hom said, “because we hardly get seven to ten days of training for the first-class competition. We don’t get to do long fitness camps, which would have helped us reach that stage in fitness when asked to take this beep test at a short notice.”The first-class sides will announce their squads after the fitness test, which is likely to be held on October 1. The National Cricket League begins on October 5.

Only one India A batsman crossed 50 as Roosh Kalaria took 3 for 20 and Mohammed Siraj ended with 2 for 30

The Report by Annesha Ghosh31-Oct-2019Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 113 and Baba Aparajith’s 101 secured India B an emphatic 108-run victory over India A in the opening fixture of the 2019-2020 Deodhar Trophy, being played in Ranchi. In reply to India B’s formidable 302 for 6, India A rolled over for 194 inside 48 overs, with left-arm quick Roosh Kalaria picking up 3 for 20.India A’s decision to bowl returned little dividend for them. Gaikwad returned to form after an unimpressive run at the Vijay Hazare Trophy earlier this month while Aparajith extended his excellent form from the same tournament even as R Ashwin, the star bowler in the India B ranks, returned 2 for 40 off his ten overs.India B started sluggishly, scoring 20 for 1 in eight overs, with opener Priyank Panchal falling for 3 off Jaydev Unadkat. They, however, picked up the pace courtesy – for the most part – Gaikwad, who attacked both the pacers and the spinners and got to 80 off 90 balls, before slowing down a touch with the century in sight. Dropped on 86 by Abhimanyu Easwaran off Ashwin, Gaikwad brought up his century off 117 balls, but fell lbw to Ashwin trying a reverse sweep, even though he was struck outside the line.Aparajith carried on to bring up his sixth List A century and sixth 50-plus score this month, playing second fiddle initially to Gaikwad until he got to his half-century. The 25-year-old batsman was run out in an all-Tamil Nadu dismissal, when Vijay Shankar’s straight drive deflected off Ashwin’s hand at the bowler’s end to catch him short of his ground. Big hits from Vijay (26 off 16) and K Gowtham (19* off eight) got India B to a competitive total.In reply, the Hazare trophy’s top-scorer Devdutt Padikkal chopped on to Kalaria for 10 while a fiery spell from Mohammed Siraj accounted for Abhimanyu, the other opener, and the No. 3 Vishnu Vinod, making Amandeep Khare join captain Hanuma Vihari at 52 for 3 in the 14th over.Kedar Jadhav dropped Vihari at slip on 12 off Shahbaz Nadeem, with India A on 66 for 3 at the start of the 19th over. Two excellent cut shots for fours from Vihari injected vigour in his stroke play, and he put on 55 for the fourth wicket with Khare to take India A past 100.Vihari then added 61 off 70 balls with Ishan Kishan, who was run out off an excellent throw from the deep by Vijay at the bowler’s end. Vihari’s dismissal for 59 two balls later decided the eventuality of the match to a great extent, as it left India A tottering at 168 for 6.Ashwin and Unadkat fell in quick succession, while an offcutter from Kalaria ended Shahbaz Ahmed’s 25-ball 18, bringing the game to a close as the injured Sandeep Warrier had retired hurt and didn’t come out to bat.Vihari’s India A will face India C, led by Shubman Gill, on Friday at the same venue.

Get German Football News editor-in-chief Daniel Pinder has exclusively told Football FanCast that the addition of Stuttgart star Nicolas Gonzalez this summer would make for an “exciting” front-three for Leeds United.

The Yorkshire club were strongly linked with the Stuttgart winger last summer, although the Argentine ended up staying in Germany having scored 14 goals in their promotion-winning campaign 12 months ago.

Gonzalez has missed the majority of this season with a muscle problem, but has still contributed to eight goals in the Bundesliga, scoring six times whilst providing two assists, to help Stuttgart push towards a mid-table finish in their first season back in Germany’s top-flight.

Jack Harrison has been part of Leeds’ front-three this season, but the youngster is on loan from Manchester City, and Pinder told Football FanCast that signing Gonzalez would make for a mouth-watering attack for Marcelo Bielsa, alongside two stars of their own first campaign back in the top division – Raphinha and Patrick Bamford.

He said: “It’s that thing of, you’ve got Raphinha and potentially Gonzalez on the other wing and Bamford up front.

“And with their fast direct play up front, them interchanging, it would be an exciting time to be a Leeds fan if they signed Nicolas Gonzalez.”