The wicketkeeper-batsman was awarded a category A contract, the second-most lucrative, while Shikhar Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were moved down from category A+ to A

Nagraj Gollapudi07-Mar-2019Rishabh Pant’s exploits in international cricket since his Test debut in England last year have given him a lucrative entrance into BCCI’s annual retainers’ list. Pant, who was not part of the 26-man list in 2017-18, has been placed in Category A for the 2018-19 season, which carries a retainer worth INR 5 crore.The contracts, which run from October 1, 2018 to September 30, 2019, were approved by the Committee of Administrators, the supervisory authority of BCCI, on Thursday in Delhi.

The list of contracts

• Grade A+ (INR 7cr): Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah

• Grade A (INR 5cr): R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni, Shikhar Dhawan, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant

• Grade B (INR 3cr): KL Rahul, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya

• Grade C (INR 1cr): Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Hanuma Vihari, Khaleel Ahmed, Wriddhiman Saha

• IN: Rishabh Pant, Ambati Rayudu, Hanuma Vihari, Khaleel Ahmed

• OUT: Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel, Jayant Yadav, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, M Vijay

Grade A is the second-most lucrative retainer, one rung below the A+ grade, which was introduced last year for players that feature in all three formats. The A+ category, worth INR 7 crore, had five players in the previous contract period, but that count has been brought down to three with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shikhar Dhawan being dropped to the A category. The three players to retain their spots in the A+ category are captain Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah.The A bracket has 11 players compared to seven last year. Three players have also been promoted from B to A: fast bowling pair of Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami, along with wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav.MS Dhoni, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have all retained their spots in the A category. Wriddhiman Saha, who missed out most of 2018 due to injuries and only started playing few weeks back, has been moved from A to C. There were some new entrants too in the C grade – Ambati Rayudu, Hanuma Vihari and Khaleel Ahmed – as Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel and Jayant Yadav were dropped.Opener M Vijay, who was in the A category last year, has been dropped from the list completely. The overall count of players contracted has also come down from 26 to 25 this year.Like last year, the final list was prepared by the five-man national selection panel led by MSK Prasad. The selectors have opted to reward players that have taken significant strides in the last year and have been the key performers consistently.One of those players has been Pant. The 21-year-old has been one of the most improved players on the Indian circuit across formats and is currently auditioning for India’s World Cup squad. Picked in place of Saha, who was injured through 2018, Pant cracked a century in his third Test on a debut tour of England. More recently, Pant made 159 against Australia during the New Year’s Test in Sydney, having taken 11 catches in the series opener in Adelaide, the most by an Indian wicketkeeper in Tests.ESPNcricinfo understands Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar were not retained in the A+ category because they did not consistently feature in all three formats last season. Dhawan struggled for form in the Test format on the tours of South Africa and England and was eventually dropped for the Australia tour, with the selectors picking Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal. Bhuvneshwar was injured at the start of the season, and although he was included in the Test squad for Australia, he did not play in the four-match series that India won 2-1.Two key players, Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul, who were briefly suspended by the CoA for their alleged misconduct on a TV chat show, will continue to be part of Category B (INR 3 crore). On Thursday, the CoA had asked Justice DK Jain, newly-appointed BCCI ombudsman, to probe Pandya and Rahul’s alleged misconduct. As per the BCCI constitution, the ombudsman is the final authority to adjudicate on such issues.Pandya is not part of the ongoing ODI series against Australia due to a back injury, but his stocks have gradually increased over the last 18 months with the management backing him to play in all three formats as the primary allrounder.Among the players that missed the cut were Shaw, Agarwal and Vijay Shankar. Shaw made his India debut with an effervescent Test century against West Indies last year and was part of the Test squad for the Australia tour, but was forced to return home due to a freak injury while fielding during the warm-up match. Agarwal, too, has made a strong start to his international career, while Vijay, who helped India clinch a thrilling last-over victory with the ball in the Nagpur ODI against Australia earlier this week, has given healthy headaches to the selection panel, which has put him in the pool of 18-odd players shortlisted for the World Cup.Women’s retainers: Poonam Yadav gets Category A contractLegspinner Poonam Yadav has been rewarded with a Category A contract, worth a retainer of INR 50 lakh, following her standout performances in 2018. Poonam was the highest wicket-taker in T20Is in 2018, and the joint-highest wicket-taker in ODIs. She joins Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur, and Smriti Mandhana in the category, while the experienced Jhulan Goswami has been moved from A down to B (INR 30 lakh) for the 2018-19 season.

The list of contracts

• Grade A (INR 50 lakh): Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana

• Grade B (INR 30 lakh): Ekta Bisht, Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rogdrigues

• Grade C (INR 10 lakh): Radha Yadav, D Hemalatha, Anuja Patil, Veda Krishnamurthy, Mansi Joshi, Punam Raut, Mona Meshram, Arundhati Reddy, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Taniya Bhatia, Pooja Vastrakar

The other notable movement up in BCCI’s annual player retainership for women is that of Jemimah Rodrigues, who broke into the national team in 2018. She has moved up from C (INR 10 lakh) into B. She joins Ekta Bisht, Shikha Pandey and Deepti Sharma, who have retained their places in the category.Middle-order batsman Veda Krishnamurthy, who finished 2018 with ten consecutive single-digit scores across formats, has been pushed down to C, along with left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad.

Sunrisers Hyderabad had left out the out-of-form Yusuf Pathan and Manish Pandey for the match against Delhi Capitals

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Apr-20193:40

Murali Kartik: Winners have parties, losers have meetings

Kane Williamson’s return to fitness, and the lack of form of the middle-order batsmen, forced Sunrisers Hyderabad to make a raft of changes for their Sunday night exchange with Delhi Capitals, and David Warner feels that made a difference to end result – Capitals winning by 39 runs after Sunrisers went from 101 for 2 to 116 all out.”I don’t like hindsight. Today, there was a decision that they [the team management] made – I’m no longer part of that process, I don’t know what their thinking was – but when you lose that experience in the middle, it can be quite challenging and quite difficult for the new guys that come in,” Warner said of the call to leave out Mohammad Nabi, Yusuf Pathan and Manish Pandey to fit in Williamson, Ricky Bhui and Abhishek Sharma.Of those dropped, while Nabi had been impressive with the ball when given a chance, Pathan (32 runs in five innings with a strike rate of 86.48) and Pandey (54 runs in five innings, strike rate 93.10) had been struggling to score runs.That must have forced the team management’s hand, but the three men brought in scored a total of 12 runs in 23 balls on the day, failing to give the innings the solidity it needed in the middle overs after Warner (51 off 47) and Jonny Bairstow (41 off 31) had given them another great start.”But there is no excuses – we got off to a good start, we didn’t capitalise on those middle periods, there were a lot of ones, not many twos, they [Capitals] shut down the boundaries well and they bowled very well,” Warner said. “We just missed a couple of opportunities to hit boundaries through that middle period.”Sunrisers, after winning three of their first four games, have now lost three in a row to slip to sixth place on the points table, only above Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore.David Warner punches down the ground•BCCI

“We got off to a good start, again, without losing a wicket. You look at the overs between seven and 13, we had a fair few dots, we didn’t find too many boundaries, and from that position we were in, you should be chasing … I think it was ten an over, 11 an over towards the back end,” Warner elaborated.”I think we probably didn’t utilise those middle periods as well as we’d like. We’re generally pretty good running between the wickets, but we failed to just hit that boundary. And again, we lost wickets after a start, which is disappointing.”I take responsibility as well, as an in batsman, you try and be there at the end. Unfortunate that that’s the way I play, I tried to look for a boundary but I was unlucky,” he said of holing out off Kagiso Rabada at mid-off in the 17th over.Colin Munro, the Capitals batsman who hit a 24-ball 40 earlier in the evening, credited his team’s bowlers – Rabada, Chris Morris and Keemo Paul picked up all ten wickets between them – for giving them a win that seemed unlikely while Warner and Bairstow were in the middle.”They obviously got off to a good start, but we knew if we stayed in the game and we stayed in the contest for every ball, it was going to go down to the wire, and we got those breakthroughs and those wickets at crucial stages,” Munro said. “They got away from us in terms of the [required] run rate, so credit to our bowlers, how we fought every single ball and stayed in the contest.”The win took Capitals to ten points from eight games and the No. 2 spot on the points table, only behind Chennai Super Kings, who are well ahead on 14 points from the same number of games.

Both teams are well placed to make the top four but Mumbai Indians look the side with better all-round strength

The Preview by Hemant Brar01-May-20197:22

Vettori – Only issue Sunrisers have is who will replace Warner

Big picture

He came. He promised. He delivered. And now he has left. How will Sunrisers Hyderabad fill the David Warner-size hole at a time they need him the most?It can’t be easy to replace a man with 692 runs this season and maybe Sunrisers shouldn’t try to. There will be a temptation to use Martin Guptill, the second highest run-getter in T20Is, but with Manish Pandey striking form, the better option might be to reshuffle the batting order to open with Kane Williamson and fill the fourth overseas slot with Billy Stanlake. With Sunrisers struggling a bit in the fast bowling department, Stanlake can slot in for Sandeep Sharma and add more firepower to the pace unit.

Form guide (last three games, most recent first)

Mumbai: Lost to Knight Riders by 34 runs, beat Chennai Super Kings by 46 runs, lost to Royals by five wickets
Sunrisers: Beat Kings XI Punjab by 45 runs, lost to Royals by seven wickets, lost to Super Kings by six wickets

Thanks to their healthy net run-rate (0.709), a victory against Mumbai Indians on Thursday will help Sunrisers put one foot into the playoffs even if they lose their last game against Royal Challengers Bangalore. And as it happens, it will also put an end to Rajasthan Royals’ hopes of making it to the top four.For Mumbai, the equation is a bit simpler. A win would take them into the qualifiers and with 16 points from 13 games, they needn’t even worry about net run-rate and other results. In Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock, they have a settled and in form opening combination, with the likes of Evin Lewis, Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard to follow.Although Jasprit Bumrah and Lasith Malinga conceded 92 from their eight overs in Mumbai’s last outing, against Kolkata Knight Riders, both are experienced enough to put that behind.

In the news

With Warner having left for Australia, Sunrisers have a big decision to make. “We’ve got a few options, haven’t we?” head coach Tom Moody said on the eve the match. “We are looking at those options at the moment. Guptill is the obvious one, being a world-class opener himself, a like-for-like replacement. But you know, there’s also that option to consider looking at someone like Billy Stanlake at a venue like this.”Hardik Pandya goes deep in his crease and goes through midwicket•BCCI

Previous meeting

When these two sides met earlier in the tournament, Sunrisers were bundled out for 96 while chasing 137 as Alzarri Joseph picked up 6 for 12, the best bowling figures ever in the IPL.

Likely XIs

Mumbai Indians: 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Rohit Sharma (capt), 3 Evin Lewis, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Barinder Sran, 9 Rahul Chahar, 10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Jasprit BumrahSunrisers Hyderabad: 1 Kane Williamson (capt), 2 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Vijay Shankar, 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Mohammad Nabi, 7 Rashid Khan, 8 Abhishek Sharma, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Khaleel Ahmed, 11 Billy Stanlake

Strategy punt

• Hardik and Pollard have been taking apart bowling attacks in the death this season, but in Rashid Khan Sunrisers have someone who boasts a great record against both. Hardik has managed just 14 off 26 balls while getting out twice to the legspinner in three T20 innings, and while Pollard has got out just once to Rashid in eight innings, he has managed only 28 off 36 balls. Therefore, Sunrisers might consider saving Rashid for Mumbai’s biggest hitters.
• Despite going for plenty in their last game, Bumrah and Malinga remain Mumbai’s best bet in the death. Together the two have 20 wickets with an economy of 9.2 in overs 16 to 20. The other Mumbai bowlers have 12 wickets at an economy of 11.7.

Stats that matter

• Sunrisers have played six matches in Mumbai, winning one and losing five.
• Yusuf Pathan has scored 84 runs off 62 deliveries off Malinga in T20s, without getting out even once.
• Sunrisers have the best run-rate (9.3) in the Powerplays in IPL 2019. Warner and Jonny Bairstow had a lot to do with that and both of them have left the team. On the flip side, their run-rate of 9.1 in the overs 16 to 20 is the worst among the eight teams this season.

The allrounder, who is recovering from a side strain, will miss Saturday’s match against Sri Lanka

Melinda Farrell at The Oval14-Jun-2019Marcus Stoinis will miss Australia’s match against Sri Lanka at The Oval on Saturday as he continues to recover from a side strain. Selectors will give him every chance to prove his fitness ahead of their next match against Bangladesh, on June 20, before deciding on his future in the tournament. Stoinis sustainied the injury while bowling in Australia’s loss to India, and missed Wednesday’s match against Pakistan.While Stoinis has batted at training and spent time in the gym, he has yet to bowl, and Australia are unwilling to risk exacerbating the injury. Australia travel to Nottingham on Sunday ahead of their game against Bangladesh, giving Stoinis another four-day gap in which to continue his recovery.”Having four days between this game and the next game, I think that will be the ideal time to really test him out and assess him,” Australia captain Aaron Finch said. “But I think over the next five-six days, there will be a call made on that, just based on what he can and can’t do. We’ve seen him batting and running, no problem. Just he hasn’t tried to bowl yet. Just waiting for the injury to settle down a bit more.”Australia flew Mitchell Marsh in as cover for Stoinis before the Pakistan match but they can’t call him into the squad unless Stoinis is ruled out of the tournament. Finch said selectors have not yet decided if they will play an extra batsman or bowler against Sri Lanka, and admitted finding the best team balance was a concern.”Yeah, it’s tough when guys [are injured], especially allrounders who balance out your side really well, give you that extra fast-bowling option, as well as a top-six batter,” said Finch. “So it’s a little bit difficult trying to decide whether you go the extra batter or the extra bowler, depending on conditions.”So I think it does make it a little bit tougher, a bit more of a challenge, no doubt. But we also did plan for that, if it did happen throughout the tournament, before you sit down and you start planning out what happens if X, Y, Z happens?”Mitchell Marsh joined the squad in Taunton and has participated in training, although Australia’s final session at The Oval was disrupted by drizzle and none of the pacers bowled in the indoor nets. Finch said he had confidence that, while Marsh was present just as a precautionary measure, he could slot straight into the allrounder role if required.”The answer, the short answer, is yes. There is confidence that Mitch will come in and do well if selected, if Stoinis doesn’t recover properly.”

South Africa are already out of the World Cup but they have two games left to ‘finish on a high’, says assistant coach

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Durham26-Jun-2019Their opponents are still technically battling for one of those semi-final spots, but for South Africa the post-mortem has already begun. How did two years of intense planning, which featured serious blooding of hopefuls and all manner of contingencies, including letting David Miller keep for a few games in case Quinton de Kock got injured – how did all that manifest in this train wreck of a campaign?And what does it mean now that the dream is dead? What happens to the coaches and senior players? South Africa had had success in ODIs in the past year, winning five successive bilateral series, but does that mean anything without a half-decent World Cup to show for it?Head coach Ottis Gibson’s contract runs to September. Who deserves to stay as they attempt to build for the next cycle?”It’s a bit tough for all of us – we haven’t performed as well as we would have liked and we have to suffer the consequences of that,” assistant coach Malibongwe Maketa said ahead of the match in Durham against Sri Lanka. “We are willing to take responsibility, but hopefully we will be judged on more than what we have done here. A lot of good work was done before. Hopefully that counts for something.”If heads do roll then we can look back and say we’ve given it our best shot. We came here to win and it hasn’t happened. We want to make sure we leave Cricket South Africa in a better place than when we took over. It might not look like it now, but we think we have contributed.”Although coaching staff are clearly thinking about their jobs right now, there are still two games to play before South Africa return home to face consequences. For the likes of Imran Tahir and JP Duminy, who had announced their ODI retirements before the tournament, the games against Sri Lanka and Australia are a chance to bid farewell on at least a mildly pleasant note. The remainder are attempting to salvage pride and stem negativity.Senior players – Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis in particular – may find themselves under the microscope when the tournament ends regardless of what happens in these games. But two wins, perhaps, would temper the scrutiny a little.”What’s left to play for is really ourselves,” Maketa said. “We’ve dedicated the last two years to coming here and win the tournament. We can’t let two weeks’ work reflect badly on us. We need to make sure we really finish strong. As much as we’re playing for millions of people back home. We need to make sure we walk away from this World Cup and justify why we’re here.”The way we see ourselves representing our country, we want to make sure that we finish off on a high. We’ve got a few players who are finishing after this World Cup. Two victories here will go a long way, rather than just one victory. That will be our legacy of the World Cup, and we don’t want to let ourselves down.”

England captain Heather Knight hopes spinning wicket will bring her side back into contest after ODI defeats

Melinda Farrell in Taunton17-Jul-2019England’s hopes of keeping the Women’s Ashes alive may rest on a turning pitch at Taunton and the two youngest members of their squad. Australia lead the multi-format series 6-0 after winning all three ODIs convincingly and will retain the Ashes if England fail to win the four-day contest, worth four points.England have drafted left-arm spinner Kirstie Gordon into the squad after her impressive performance for England Academy in the three-day warm up match against Australia. Gordon took a total of eight wickets in the match and may join England’s other left-arm 20-year-old spinner, Sophie Ecclestone, in the XI.A turning pitch – a regular feature at a ground often referred to as “Ciderabad” on the county circuit – could help England negate Australia’s pace attack, which is likely to include Tayla Vlaeminck, the 20-year-old right-armer, who is widely considered to be the quickest bowler in the Australian squad.After both captains had viewed the pitch, Meg Lanning described it as “used” and, while this is technically the case, the last time it was played on was the Men’s World Cup match between Afghanistan and New Zealand on June 8. But there were still visible marks on what appeared to be a dry surface and Lanning and her England counterpart, Heather Knight, both expected spin to play a significant role.”It looks a little bit dry, I think it will generally play okay to start with but obviously we’ll have to see how it adapts as the game goes on,” said Knight.”There’s the potential it could turn later in the Test which is pretty exciting with both sides going out there to win,” said Lanning. “I think it will be a great contest.””We’re happy playing whatever comes our way, I think it will be a really good contest and it will play reasonably well early on, it’s just towards the back end we’ll just have to see how it goes.”ALSO READ: Perth glories inspire Kate Cross to hit her markBoth sides are keen for a result, and with rain forecast that may be a challenge, but it is difficult to over-emphasise the importance of a decent pitch in a women’s Test. The last time a Women’s Ashes Test was played on a surface conducive to attacking cricket was in January 2014 at the WACA. The previous fixture, at Wormsley in 2013, and subsequent matches, at Canterbury and North Sydney Oval were played on slow surfaces that all too often led to dull cricket.”We obviously need a result so we want a pitch that will be conducive to that,” said Knight. “But I think the last few pitches we’ve played on have been very flat and slow which haven’t been great for the spectacle and haven’t been great in terms of creating exciting cricket to watch and creating results.”I think it will be slightly different to that. We’ll obviously have to see how it plays and as a team we’ll have to adapt in terms of how we play our cricket. If you ask me at the end of the four days we’ll see and we’ll have a better reflection on whether it’s a good pitch for four-day cricket or not.”The last few Test matches haven’t been good as a contest, but I’ve no doubt this match will be different to that,” agreed Lanning.”We’re ready to play on anything, we feel we’ve got a good attack with the ball, both spin and pace and the batting line-up is really strong as well.”

The drubbing at the hands of Australia suggests a £20m investment by the ECB cannot come soon enough

Matt Roller30-Jul-2019The inquest into England women’s thrashing by Australia is on in full swing, and the tone is predictably funereal. It would hardly be an Ashes drubbing without much weeping and gnashing of teeth by the defeated side, and this series has proved no different.The facts are there for all to see. Australia retained the Ashes at the earliest possible opportunity; they lead 12-2 overall with one game to play, and England are only on the board thanks to the quirk of the points system giving the teams two each, rather than none, for a drawn Test.Across the formats, Australia have four of the five leading run-scorers, and four of the six leading wicket-takers. Ellyse Perry has dismissed Amy Jones four times in the 25 balls she has bowled at her; Anya Shrubsole, the star of the 2017 World Cup final, has taken five wickets at 50.60. No matter where you look, the picture is bleak.But perhaps the most surprising thing about this defeat is that it has come as a surprise at all.Yes, England had won 14 white-ball games on the bounce, a record not to be sniffed at. But consider this: since 2018, Australia have lost two games in all formats – one of which was against India in a dead rubber at the World T20 – and won 29. They have five times the number of professional cricketers that England do. In Perry and Meg Lanning, they possess two of the game’s modern greats.Of course, losing five white-ball games in a row is nobody’s idea of fun – this is England’s worst run since 2007 – and the manner of the defeats at Grace Road and Chelmsford bordered on embarrassing.But heavy defeats do not spring about simply through a lack of application or talent: the simple truth is that England’s domestic structure is miles behind Australia’s.Before its first season in 2016, the Kia Super League was sold as a silver bullet, but has hardly produced many stars. The only two English players in last season’s top ten run-scorers were Heather Knight and Nat Sciver, both established internationals already; the best domestic bowlers were Sophie Ecclestone, who has been around the national squad for several years, and Kirstie Gordon, whose struggles in the Test at Taunton were there for all to see.The KSL was sold as a silver bullet, but overseas players like Rachel Priest (left) and Sophie Devine (right) have dominated•Getty Images

Meanwhile, the noise around a mooted domestic restructure has been a source of confusion. Plans to remove funding for county cricket were greeted with predictable dissatisfaction, and after a consultation process, the ECB will now run and fund a county T20 competition in 2020 and 2021.The headline, though, is that around ten regional teams will play 50- and 20-over cricket from next year, in a bid to give 100 or so players the opportunity to make a living from the game, while contracts for The Hundred are expected to be substantially more lucrative than what is currently on offer in the KSL.For now, there is no easy fix. The 21 players currently holding central contracts will continue to form the basis of the side for a few years yet, and England will continue to be dominant against most teams, and struggle against Australia.”We’re investing £20 million in the next two years into transforming the game for women and girls,” Claire Connor, the managing director of women’s cricket at the ECB, told after the second T20I at Hove. “We’ve got six priorities within the new strategy, and transforming the game for women and girls is one of those six.”We had a very important board meeting last week at which the full two-year plan as to how that £20 million of investment will all break down. That was all approved by the board last week so whilst this [Ashes series] was disappointing and there are huge lessons for us all to learn, we must be very optimistic about the opportunity that lies ahead for us.”[Australia’s] system over the last four or five years has put them in a really good position for this Ashes series, and whilst we’ve had the Kia Super League over the last four years, which has undoubtedly helped bridge the gap between our domestic game and the international game, there is a huge amount more we need to do. Australia have capitalised on the investment and the plan that they’ve made over the last four or five years and they’ve played some outstanding cricket this summer.”Tammy Beaumont, one of the few England players to come out of this series with her reputation enhanced, is of the same view. “You see how Australia have gone about their things,” she said. “The number of players that are coming into their squad – they’re 20-year-old superstars.”But it will take time, it’s not a quick fix by any means. At the moment we’ve got a lot of belief in the group we’ve got, we’ve got to change a few things and work really hard and come back stronger, but looking to the future in maybe four years, five years’ time, that’s what’s got to happen.”In the immediate term, the focus is on February’s T20 World Cup in Australia. An international system with such clear disparities between sides means that England can already be confident of reaching the semi-finals. With Australia, India, and New Zealand all drawn in the other group, England’s pool looks much the easier of the two, and a semi-final exit could hardly be considered an awful return.Until that point, the ECB will be keen to ensure that as many of the squad as possible plays in the WBBL this winter, before moving into a tri-series with Australia and India at the start of 2020.And the immediate focus is on winning Wednesday night’s game at Bristol: it is a dead rubber in theory, but England are desperate to register a consolation victory. If they do, the dreary mood about the side might finally start to lift.

Afghanistan allrounder will continue to play white-ball cricket, but wants younger players to take over in the longest format

Mohammad Isam06-Sep-2019Afghanistan allrounder Mohammad Nabi has informed the Afghanistan Cricket Board of his decision to retire from Test cricket after the ongoing one-off game in Bangladesh.Nazim Zar Abdur Rahim Zai, the team manager, made a statement at the end of the second day’s play in Chattogram saying that Nabi, 34, would continue to play white-ball cricket, but wants younger players to take his place in the longest format.”Though this is very early for Nabi to stop playing Test matches, this being his third Test match, he will resign from Test matches and this is his last Test,” the team manager said. “I hope he plays well. He bowled well today. He told me that newcomers will join Tests, though he will continue in ODI and T20Is for Afghanistan.”Nabi has been one of Afghanistan’s most influential cricketers right from the time they started playing international cricket, or even in the period when they were coming up the ranks to where they are now.He has been a popular pick and a consistent representative for Afghanistan in the worldwide T20 circuit. Including the IPL and the Big Bash League, Nabi has played in most major domestic T20 leagues for several years, apart from also playing almost every game for Afghanistan.Most recently, Nabi had made a strong impression in the Vitality Blast for Kent, taking eight wickets and scoring 147 runs.

Seamer says call from Ed Smith – while on the golf course – comes as a “nice surprise” after a disappointing Finals Day

Matt Roller23-Sep-2019Pat Brown was playing golf when he got a phone call from Ed Smith on Monday afternoon, and had to interrupt the round with a request to his partner: “Pick my ball up – I’m going to be five minutes.”England’s national selector called Brown to let him know that he was part of England’s squad to play five T20 internationals in New Zealand this winter, and the 21-year-old seamer said he was “speechless” in response.”It’s absolutely incredible,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “I didn’t really expect it to be honest. It’s a nice surprise to have after a disappointing day on Saturday [Finals Day].”ALSO READ: Brown hopes to stave off sophomore syndrome after breakthrough yearWhile Brown’s 2019 season was slightly less eye-catching than his breakout campaign this year, he still ended the tournament with 17 wickets at an impressive economy rate of 8.12. He again shone on Finals Day, with a combined return of 3 for 49 from his eight overs across the semi-final and the final, despite Worcestershire’s eventual last-ball defeat to Essex.Brown’s temperament was particularly notable – he exchanged glares with Dan Christian in the semi-final after dismissing him, and didn’t celebrate after taking the wicket of Paul Walter in the 19th over of the final – and Smith told him that his level of self-assurance was an important part of the decision to call him up.”Ed basically said that they were really impressed with my skills, but also my manner, in terms of how I’ve dealt with the pressure in certain situations,” Brown said, “and being in control, not rushing things, making sure I do what I want to do, and having real clarity in what I’m doing. He said that was impressive, and that it gives off a good image of being in control.”Brown suggested that his battle with Christian on Saturday had been “blown out of proportion”, and that he hadn’t been helped by the TV cameras.Pat Brown glares at Dan Christian after dismissing him•Getty Images

“The cameras made it look worse,” he said. “I celebrated, like, ten yards away from him, but the angle made it look like it was right next to him. I let out quite a roar, and I think he thought I was getting in his face or something, so he had a word with me when he went off. That’s why we were looking at each other, but he was really nice afterwards and said ‘congrats’ – there was nothing malicious in it at all.”Looking at the day as a whole I’m quite pleased with it. Obviously when you lose the final, or lose any game really, you try and work out if there’s anything you could have done, but it’s just one of those things.”Brown reflected that his penultimate delivery – a knuckleball to Simon Harmer which went for four – was not the right option if he was “highly critical”.”If I’m completely honest, in the penultimate over – when Harmer took me for four, that was quite a big moment in the game. I changed it to a knuckleball when I should have stuck with an offcutter, which had been working.”But look, it’s hard to look back and think you could do something differently, because in that moment I thought it was the right thing to do, and Mo [captain Moeen Ali] agreed.”Brown would have played in the Big Bash and the Bangladesh Premier League last season but for a stress fracture in his back, and was not far off being picked up in the IPL auction, and hopes to fit appearances on the franchise circuit into his schedule this winter.”I’ve potentially got a Big Bash deal lined up, which is close to getting pushed over the line,” he said. “Before this news, I was looking at the T10, BPL, PSL, but I’m not sure what my schedule will look like now. I’ll wait and see.”

Despite New Zealand’s disappointment, there is no animosity between them and England ahead of first Test

George Dobell in Mount Maunganui19-Nov-2019Kane Williamson feels that deciding the result of the World Cup final on boundary countback was “not really cricket”.New Zealand and England could not be separated after a Super Over ended in a tie, but England were awarded the game – and the World Cup trophy – on the basis of a boundary countback. They had hit 26 boundaries to New Zealand’s 17.While Williamson, the New Zealand captain, accepts “those rules were already in place” before the tournament started, he admits losing in such fashion was “hard to take”.He has also suggested the full implications of using boundary countback as an eliminator may not have been adequately considered. As a result, he says it is no real surprise that the ICC has decided to abolish the method. In future, Super Overs will be repeated until one team has more runs than the other.”I genuinely think that no-one ever thought that was going to happen and it did,” Williamson said from Mount Maunganui. “At times, you think about how some of those decisions are made; probably sitting in a room a little like this and throwing a few ideas around. That’s all I can imagine. And then for it to actually happen is a pretty scary thing.”I guess it highlighted something and it will probably never happen again. It’s not really cricket and I think both teams appreciated that. It was hard to take. But at the same time those rules were already in place.”It was a fantastic game to be a part of and a really competitive match. I think everyone has played hundreds of games of cricket and never had one decided quite like that. It is what it is and they were the rules at the time. What you sign up for. But, yeah, it’s no surprise that it’s changed.”Despite the disappointment, it is clear there is no animosity between the New Zealand and England teams. Williamson and the England Test captain, Joe Root, forged a mutually respectful relationship while playing together for Yorkshire, while England’s limited-overs captain, Eoin Morgan, has never made any secret of his admiration for the way in which Brendon McCullum’s side played their cricket. Morgan’s World Cup-winning side was, by and large, built on a template McCullum’s side showcased when reaching the 2015 World Cup final.”Culturally, socially, there are a lot of similarities between the Kiwis and the English,” Williamson said. “If you go back to people who go to uni and do their two-year visa over there, it’s a common thing. People travel and spend a lot of time with the English. A number of guys have played county and franchise cricket. A few friendships have been built through that.”When Joe was around at Yorkshire, we would chew the fat and discuss cricket. I’d ask ‘How do I become as good as you, Joe?’ and try to pick his brains. I loved my time over in county cricket. The social part and the environment is similar. It’s a brilliant place to learn your game.”At the same time, they are really competitive matches and the guys enjoy playing against England.”