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Australia assistant coach also backed captain Aaron Finch to come good

Alex Malcolm22-Nov-2020Steven Smith will have no issues if the Indian bowlers try to attack him with short-pitch bowling in both the limited-overs and Test series, according to Australia’s assistant coach Andrew McDonald.Smith himself has encouraged India to pepper him in Test cricket but McDonald thinks they may well try it in the limited-over series as well.He was concussed by Jofra Archer in last year’s Ashes and subsequently targeted by New Zealand’s Neil Wagner last summer but he also missed Australia’s most recent ODI series in England due to a concussion he suffered in the nets.Smith had a lean IPL by his standards for Rajasthan Royals, where McDonald was his coach. He scored 311 runs in 14 innings with three half-centuries. Ten of his 12 dismissals came against pace bowling, with Pat Cummins dismissing him twice, while Jasprit Bumrah, Anrich Nortje, and James Pattinson also got him cheaply.”I don’t think it’s actually a weakness,” McDonald said. “I think they’re taking a shot at that area to get him out early and then what you’ll see after that initial potential plan, they will go to a more standard plan to try and negate the runs.”I think they’ve used it before and as I’ve said he’s done well before so I’m suggesting that plan hasn’t necessarily worked to its full effect. I know in the Test match he had that moment with Archer where it got him but in terms of coming back off that he was able to score runs. Even in one-day cricket he was able to score and in T20 cricket he’s been able to score runs with that plan being adopted by opponents. I don’t necessarily see it as a weakness but they can keep approaching that way if they want.”McDonald cited Australia’s last ODI series against India in January where Smith made scores of 98 and 131.”They had a clear plan early on in the innings where they had a leg gully, a deep square, and a man deep in front of square and everyone up on the offside in the powerplay,” McDonald said.”That’s a tactic that they’ve used before and as I said it’s probably to negate the runs that he scores and try and give themselves the best opportunity to potentially get him out in that area. But he was able to combat that in India last time. He got a magnificent 131 in the last ODI at Bangalore and he made a significant contribution at Rajkot. But he’s had that before and he’s worked his way through it and I see this series as being no different in the way that he approaches.”McDonald is currently looking after the small group of players who have returned to Australia from the IPL in a quarantine hub in Sydney, with the help of Ricky Ponting who has been seconded by Cricket Australia to coach during the quarantine. The Australian government’s strict quarantine rules on international travellers mean the players and coaches can only leave their hotel room for three-and-a-half hours a day to train at Blacktown, with nets and centre-wickets being made available, before spending the rest of the time in isolation until their mandatory 14-day quarantine ends on Thursday ahead of the opening ODI against India on Friday.Aaron Finch looks back to see his stumps disturbed•BCCI

McDonald said each player had been able to work on an individual program in the first week, with some players opting to put rest for a week while others opted for high volume training depending on how they fared in the IPL.McDonald was also unperturbed by captain Aaron Finch’s form. Finch was dropped by Royal Challengers Bangalore during the IPL for fellow Australian Josh Phillippe, who was left out of the ODI and T20 squads but has been training with the group in quarantine.”He definitely struggled a little bit in the IPL,” McDonald said. “I think he’s got his game back under control. He’s building nicely to the game on the 27th. There’s a couple of little things that he’s working on in the last couple of weeks to make sure that he can rectify that potential lack of form in the IPL. They’re little technical things and mindset things that he always defaults back to, to build into series.”When you’re in a tournament sometimes you don’t get that time to get away from it and rebuild it a little bit so I think these two weeks, for players who probably didn’t have the IPL that they wanted to have, gives them a little bit of time to breathe and go back and work on the key focus points in a training environment where there are not as many pressures and stresses. I think he’s making some good gains there and I think he’ll be right.”

USA Cricket commercial partner buys lease rights to renovate Dallas baseball facility into ODI venue

Peter Della Penna19-Nov-2020USA Cricket has announced that its commercial T20 franchise league partner, American Cricket Enterprises, has signed a 15-year lease to acquire AirHogs Stadium, formerly a 6,000 seat minor league baseball and soccer facility located in the Dallas suburb of Grand Prairie, Texas.According to ACE co-founder Sameer Mehta, the ambition for the venue is to host a Major League Cricket franchise for the league’s opening season in 2022, develop a USA national team high performance center and “hopefully be the home of USA Cricket”.The $20 million stadium venue opened in 2008 and housed the Texas AirHogs, an independent minor league baseball team for the last 13 seasons. However, the AirHogs folded in the summer of 2020, one of numerous minor league baseball organisations to go under as a consequence of the devastating financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.Major League Baseball made the decision in June to cancel the entire minor league season for all of its affiliate franchises. It opened the door for ACE to take over the facility with a new lease agreement, including plans to spend at least $10 million to renovate the facility into a cricket-exclusive ODI-accredited turf wicket venue, ready to open by the summer of 2022.”This is a watershed moment for us. We’re pretty excited,” said USA Cricket chairman Paraag Marathe, who also serves as executive vice president of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, during a Zoom press conference on Wednesday. “We’re going to put Grand Prairie on the global map because hopefully when we get World Cups and international events, this is going to be one of the key stadiums we’re playing matches in. The flagship where we’re going to be first putting up our flag and announcing USA Cricket to the rest of the world is going to be right here in Grand Prairie.”One of the major challenges that USA Cricket officials may have is overcoming a string of underwhelming ventures in other cities. National cricket administrators were similarly enthusiastic about the opening of the $6 million Indianapolis World Sports Park before city officials subsequently ripped up a three-year contract to host the USA Cricket National Championship from 2014-16. After hosting a solitary ICC Americas T20 championship in 2015, the venue has mostly laid dormant to international cricket.Similarly, the Broward County Stadium in Lauderhill, Florida was approved with hopes of drawing warm-up matches, if not full-fledged tournament games, for the 2007 World Cup hosted by the West Indies. The $70 million park venue eventually opened in 2008 and has hosted a string of T20 internationals, including India v West Indies to 12,000+ crowds in 2019.However, the venue has struggled to attract similar support for USA national team matches, with just 20 people attending USA’s first ever ODI on home soil in September 2019 against Papua New Guinea, six weeks after India and West Indies played to a full house. Similarly, the Caribbean Premier League pulled the plug on their foray into Florida after three years. Though CPL organisers were able to sell out a doubleheader slate for 10,000 fans in 2016, crowds had shrunk to as few as 700 people in 2018 for a weeknight contest featuring Andre Russell’s Jamaica Tallawahs and Steven Smith’s Barbados Tridents.However, Marathe and Mehta believe that the Grand Prairie facility is much better suited to drawing people in. Mehta introduced data stating that Willow TV, a major rights holder cable network for US market TV cricket rights content, has 250,000 subscribers that are based between Dallas and Houston, demonstrating a strong local appetite for international cricket viewing.The stadium venue is adjacent to Lone Star Park horse racecourse and is a short drive along Interstate 30 from AT&T Stadium and Globe Life Park, home to the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers. Marathe also stated that the success of the venue should not be judged by attendance figures or profits.”We just have really great infrastructure around AirHogs Stadium,” Marathe said. “The opportunity to grow and develop, whether it is bringing in a high performance center in the Dallas-Grand Prairie area, whether we do other things as the Mayor said, adding more pitches as demand and popularity grows, there’s the infrastructure that’s already there to grow more. We also feel really good about the opportunity to expand this current stadium. That’s from a geography and infrastructure standpoint.”The measurement of growth when you’re trying to build something and make something very special… we’re not just looking at dollars and cents. We’re looking at building popularity and building interest. That doesn’t just mean what your profit is on events or how many fans are attending. Number one I think we’re going to have a tremendous amount of fan support, especially in the Grand Prairie area. We’re really excited about that.”But at the same time, we’re also building viewership. We’re also building people who are hopefully watching it when they’re not sitting in the stadium and we’re building a groundswell of popularity for it. We’re not just looking at the bottom line of dollars and cents. It’s really just building the popularity and putting us on a path.”

Pakistan collapse in a heap against unrelenting pace and hostility

Shashank Kishore06-Jan-2021
Ambushed by pace and hostility, Pakistan’s forgettable tour of New Zealand is over. A 2-0 series sweep for New Zealand makes them the No. 1 side in Test cricket, and gives them a chance of making the final of the World Test Championship at Lord’s in June.Kyle Jamieson picked up a maiden 10-for in Tests•AFP via Getty Images

Kyle Jamieson, just six Tests old, was the shining star, finishing with match figures of 11 for 117 as New Zealand wrapped up victory inside four days. Pakistan’s 186 all out was not even a shade of their first-innings effort on a green day-one surface, where Azhar Ali and Mohammad Rizwan showed admirable fight.Only debutant Zafar Gohar, who made 34 in the first innings, made some sort of an impression with the bat in the second to score 37. Picked as a bowling allrounder, he ended with none for 159 with his left-arm spin, but could be left wondering if he did enough with the bat to keep his place when Pakistan next play Tests, at home against South Africa.It told you how much the rest of the bating line-up applied themselves – or didn’t – on a surface that was far from menacing. Azhar Ali’s 37 was joint-best in an innings in which Pakistan collapsed in a heap to Jamieson, who seems to operate with a simple formula: pitch it on a length, get the ball to rear off the deck and have the batsmen second-guessing their own technique.This tactic consumed Abid Ali, who went for an expansive drive at the first sight of width. Having cut off his scoring for 20 deliveries and close to 40 minutes, he was out driving to backward point where substitute Will Young threw himself to his left to pull off a one-handed stunner.Haris Sohail fell soon after lunch, pushing with an angled bat to one that nipped away, finishing the tour with a disappointing 28 runs in four innings. Then came the set-up of the day. Having figured Azhar wasn’t comfortable playing back, Jamieson decided to go the Neil Wagner way and attack his rib-cage from around the wicket.One over is all it took for the plan to work as Azhar, looking to hop away to fend gloved one down the leg side to BJ Watling. This caused panic and a wayward approach to the short ball; the lower order looked to slog their way out of trouble rather than get behind the line.Because the short ball was on their mind so much, the batsmen were eager to push at full deliveries, Mohammad Rizwan’s dismissal being a case in point. A sucker ball – full – did him in, swinging back in to sneak through the gap between bat and pad to crash into the stumps.Fawad Alam, Pakistan’s only centurion on tour, then held one end up, somehow ducking and weaving his way out of a short-ball barrage against the old ball before poking at a delivery he should’ve left to be out of 16, caught by Ross Taylor at slip. From there on, it was only a question of when Pakistan would fold.So assured were New Zealand of imminent victory that Kane Williamson, a reluctant bowler, brought himself on for the first time as captain. Having missed an lbw with a slider, he had Shaheen Afridi caught at slip going for a slog.Victory was achieved an hour after tea when Gohar swung one to Matt Henry at long leg. This ended a golden Test summer for New Zealand, in which they won each of their four Tests – two apiece against West Indies and Pakistan.Having done their bit, they’ll now sit back and watch how things pan out for Australia and India. Their results – and against each other and other teams – over the coming weeks will decide which two teams face off in the WTC final.

Pakistan’s carrier, Emirates Airlines, announced it had suspended its flight operations on the Harare-Dubai route from February 13 to 28

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Feb-2021Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) mutually agreed to call off the remainder of the Pakistan women’s ongoing tour of Zimbabwe, following the announcement of the visiting side’s carrier, Emirates Airlines, that it had suspended its flight operations on the Harare-Dubai route from February 13 to 28.Pakistan won the opening 50-over match on Tuesday and were due to play the second one-dayer on Friday. The three-match 50-over series was originally supposed to be followed by three T20Is, with the final match of the tour, held within a biosecure bubble in Harare, set for 20 February.Pakistan were originally scheduled to leave Zimbabwe on February 21. However, following Emirates Airlines’ announcement, both boards decided to end the tour after the first match with Pakistan now scheduled to leave Harare on Friday.”It is unfortunate that the Pakistan Women’s team have had to cut short their stay in Zimbabwe as a precautionary move after some unforeseen air travel complications arose, but their concern is understandable,” ZC managing director Givemore Makoni said. “Nonetheless, we would like to thank the PCB for having in the first place committed to the historic tour which we have no doubt would have been memorable and a massive boost for our women’s game had it not been discontinued. We hope to host them again in the near future.”PCB chief executive Wasim Khan said: “It has been a difficult decision considering Zimbabwe Cricket had put in place excellent arrangements for the series. But the decision by Emirates Airlines to suspend all flights to and from Harare from 13 February to 28 February has meant that we have to bring the squad back in the next 24 hours. We thank Zimbabwe Cricket for their understanding and support, and hope to return at some stage to complete this additional tour.”The abandonment of the tour comes as a blow especially for Zimbabwe, for whom the series opener marked their first international appearance in almost two years. Both Zimbabwe – who do not hold ODI status – and Pakistan were using the tour for preparations for the upcoming 50-over World Cup Qualifier for the 2022 tournament proper in New Zealand. The 10-team qualifying tournament is scheduled to be held in June-July in Sri Lanka.The Emirates Airlines’ latest operations restrictions also affect if and how the Zimbabwe men’s team will get to the UAE for their series against Afghanistan that starts on March 1. The men’s team is due to leave Zimbabwe on February 19 and the Emirates flights are suspended until February 28. An option would be for them to fly on Ethiopian Air.Emirates has also suspended flights to South Africa until February 28, so that’s why the Pakistan women and Zimbabwe men can’t fly to Johannesburg and then on from there. It is also the reason the South Test team had to charter a flight into Pakistan and the T20 had to fly on Qatar Airways to Pakistan.On Monday, Ireland men’s limited-overs tour of Zimbabwe, originally scheduled for April, was postponed indefinitely after ZC advised Cricket Ireland against going ahead with the tour owing to the Covid-19 situation in the African nation.

Head coach Lisa Keightley believes Wyatt’s ODI form ‘will come good’ ahead of World Cup

Valkerie Baynes28-Feb-2021They have had contrasting tours of New Zealand so far, but England are backing the opening combination ofTammy Beaumont and Danni Wyatt as they look ahead to their World Cup defence.After defeat in the third and final match of their ODI series, which England won 2-1, Beaumont had amassed 231 runs with three half-centuries from as many innings, carrying her bat in the last two.Wyatt, in comparison, had managed scores of 17, 0, and 1 despite showing promise with 54 in one of the the pre-series warm-ups. Before that, her highest ODI score of 110 – made against Pakistan in Kuala Lumpur in December 2019 – remains her most notable innings amid limited recent opportunities in the format due to the Covid-19 pandemic upsetting the women’s schedule last year. In T20s, Wyatt has failed to reach 30 in 13 innings since that trip to Malaysia when she also scored a fifty against Pakistan.Related

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But, as England turn their focus to a three-match T20I series against New Zealand, head coach Lisa Keightley expressed faith that Wyatt would rediscover her white-ball form in the next 12 months leading up to the 50-over World Cup, which will also be held in New Zealand.”Everyone knows what a class player Dan is,” Keightley said via Zoom from New Zealand. “She probably hasn’t had the runs that she wanted. She just needs to have a clear mind, back her ability and execute her strengths.”When Dan is going, with Dan and Tammy up the front, it will be a really exciting time when that happens and I’m backing them in that we’ll see that throughout the summer.”Dan up front, I’m really confident she’s a player who can take on teams and that’s what we want. We want her to be able to play free flowing cricket and take it to teams and I’m really confident that she’ll come good in this [ODI] format.”Danni Wyatt endured a lean ODI series in New Zealand•Getty Images

Beaumont, recognised as one of England’s leading ODI players, seemed to relish her return to 50-over cricket, having navigated her own challenges in T20Is last year. Shuffled round the order previously, she settled into a rhythm as opener during England’s 5-0 sweep of their series against West Indies, the only international cricket of their home summer.She subsequently had a relatively lean WBBL campaign with the bat for champions Sydney Thunder and will no doubt be looking to convert her ODI form when England face New Zealand in the first T20I on Wednesday.”Tammy Beaumont showed her dominance in this format,” Keightley said after the third ODI. “It’s been brilliant for her to score as many runs as she has and she’ been a real anchor for us and that’s allowed Heather [Knight] and Nat [Sciver] to play a few more shots and take teams on a little bit more.”Tammy Beaumont on the drive•Getty Images

Knight, who scored two half-centuries of her own during the ODI series, was full of praise for Beaumont.”So important for us in ODI cricket, Tammy’s got a brilliant record probably over the last four or five years now,” Knight said. “I’m really pleased that she’s carried that on. She’s a real rock for us and her consistency is a really good example for the rest of the team.”She’s found that role where we can bat around her a little bit and other batters be a little bit more aggressive and her be a rock for us. Hopefully it continues. She’s a key player for us.”

Facing a total over 500, the home side’s chances rest on a extraordinary set of circumstances over the next two days

Andrew McGlashan04-Apr-2021Western Australia’s hopes of making the Sheffield Shield final appeared to have all-but ended on a dispiriting second day against Tasmania as centuries from Jake Doran and Beau Webster piled up a huge total at the WACA.Doran was the star of the initial part of the day with a career-best, but it was the stand of 125 between Webster and Jackson Bird for the ninth wicket that really broke the home side after they’d had a chance of keeping Tasmania to around 400 (although Western Australia had opted to bowl) that would have at least provided a realistic chance of competing.Instead, after finally ending a back-breaking 160 overs in the field – for much of the time being without the injured Joel Paris while Matt Kelly also looked to be struggling – their only chance appeared to be getting past the follow-on as quickly as possible (and that requires them to score 365) then either managing to skittle Tasmania in the second innings or hoping they would be agreeable to a final-day run chase.Either of those scenarios were a long way off at stumps although Cameron Bancroft and Sam Whiteman had been able to get through 19 overs unscathed. With a batting line-up that also features Shaun Marsh, Cameron Green, Mitchell Marsh and Josh Inglis they at least have the pedigree to score big and at a decent rate.A long day began with Matthew Wade in sight of a hundred but he fell shortly before the new ball was due when he edged behind off Ashton Agar then Tim Paine could not believe it when he was given caught down the leg side which left Tasmania 5 for 253.Doran went to 98 with a six off Agar and two balls later brought up his second century of the season from 239 balls. He was finally removed after 288 deliveries when he edged Lance Morris from round the wicket.Jarrod Freeman collected his third duck in three innings and after a frustrating stand of 52, Lawrence Neil-Smith fended to gully to give Mitchell Marsh his first wicket – but if Western Australia thought they would soon be off the field, they were in for a shock.Webster played superbly to make his sixth first-class hundred from 130 balls but it was Bird who dominated much of the ninth-wicket stand as he registered a career-best for the second match in a row.When the weary home attack could finally walk off the field it was clear that barring an extraordinary set of circumstances their hopes of a first Sheffield Shield title since 1998-99 would have to wait another season.

Already without Jofra Archer, the Rajasthan Royals will have to do without another key man

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Apr-2021Ben Stokes has been ruled out of the remainder of the Rajasthan Royals’ campaign in IPL 2021 with a broken finger in his left hand. The allrounder sustained the injury during the Royals’ opening game, against the Punjab Kings, when he ran in from long-on and dived forward to take Chris Gayle’s catch in the tenth over of the Kings’ innings.The Royals said in a statement on Tuesday that after Stokes picked up the injury, “subsequent investigations revealed that he sustained a broken finger, which will unfortunately rule him out of the remainder of the Indian Premier League 2021 season”. Stokes will continue to stay on with the Royals to provide “support and inputs off the field”, while the Royals cast around for a potential replacement signing.”Everyone at Rajasthan Royals absolutely admires Ben for being such a huge asset and a valuable member of the Royals family, both on and off the field, and wishes him a speedy recovery,” the Royals statement said. “We are delighted that Ben would like to stay with the group to provide his valued support and inputs off the field. In the meantime, we will be reviewing potential replacement options for the remainder of the season.”ESPNcricinfo understands that Stokes is being assessed by the team’s medical staff, with the ECB in the loop on the developments. “We are aware and he will be assessed over the coming days on the extent of the seriousness of the injury. At that point we will confirm the next steps,” an ECB spokesperson said.In the match against the Kings, Stokes had bowled the eighth over, but didn’t come on to bowl any more even though the Kings scored 221 for 6. He subsequently came out to open the innings for the Royals, but lasted only three balls before top-edging a pull back to the bowler Mohammed Shami to be out for a duck. The Royals lost the match by four runs.Stokes’ injury could disrupt the Royals’ plans significantly, especially because they are already without a first-choice player in Jofra Archer, who is recuperating and is expected to miss at least the first four games of the season. While Archer was cleared to return to training on Tuesday, it is still not clear when he will be able to resume playing.Without either Stokes or Archer, the overseas options for the Royals are limited. Both Jos Buttler and Chris Morris are first-choice picks, and for the other two slots, they have to choose from among Liam Livingstone, David Miller, Mustafizur Rahman and Andrew Tye. Rahman played in the first match and Livingstone – who can bat in the top order and turn his arm over for part-time offspin – could be the most likely to fill in for Stokes.The injury also puts a question mark over Stokes’ commitments for England. They are scheduled to play a two-Test series against New Zealand, starting at Lord’s on June 2, just four days after the IPL final, which is on May 30. Following the New Zealand Tests, England are due to play a five-Test series against India, after which is the T20 World Cup in India, followed by the Ashes in Australia.

Rajasthan Royals’ Andrew Tye was the first Australian to leave the IPL, on Sunday

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Apr-2021The Australian pair of Kane Richardson and Adam Zampa, both of the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad, have left the IPL and will be returning to Australia. A statement by the franchise put their decision down to “personal reasons”. Richardson and Zampa became the second and third Australians to leave the IPL following the Rajasthan Royals’ Andrew Tye’s departure on Sunday. Tye has flown back to Australia to avoid the risk of not being able to return home because of the prevailing Covid-19 situation.”There was a number of reasons [for leaving], but the main one was with the situation that has started to happen back home in Perth with a lot of cases in hotel quarantine coming out of India,” Tye told SEN radio from Doha on Monday as he transited on to a flight to Sydney. “Now there’s been a community case in Perth, governments are trying to restrict numbers coming back in, especially Western Australia.”Related

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Englishman Liam Livingstone, also of the Royals, had left for home last week citing “bubble fatigue”, while R Ashwin left the Delhi Capitals team set-up on Sunday to return home to be with his family as India grappled with a vicious second wave of the pandemic.David Hussey, an assistant coach with the Kolkata Knight Riders, has opened up on the subject to the , saying, “Everyone’s sort of a bit nervous about whether they can get back into Australia. I dare say there’ll be a few other Australians a bit nervous about getting back into Australia.”Richardson played one game for the Royal Challengers in IPL 2021, returning figures of 1 for 29 in three overs against the Royals in Mumbai. Zampa hasn’t featured in the playing XI for RCB at all this season despite spin-friendly conditions in Chennai. He had earlier missed the first game of RCB’s season because of his marriage.With Richardson and Zampa leaving, the Royal Challengers’ overseas contingent has been reduced to six players: Finn Allen, Dan Christian, AB de Villiers, Glenn Maxwell, Kyle Jamieson and Daniel Sams.

Also gets into war of words with opposition coach Khaled Mahmud, who is a BCB director

Mohammad Isam11-Jun-20210:50

WATCH: Shakib Al Hasan loses temper

In scenes rarely seen at a top-level cricket match, Shakib Al Hasan’s temper flared up on two different occasions in one Dhaka Premier League (DPL) match on Friday: he first kicked the stumps, and later uprooted a whole set of them and flung them to the ground. Shakib, the captain of Mohammedan Sporting Club, in the game against Abahani Limited, was furious at the umpire’s decision to turn down his lbw appeal against Mushfiqur Rahim, and was then angered by the umpires calling for the covers with one ball remaining in the sixth over as the rain came down.As the players walked off the field in the rain break, photographs and video clips on social media showed Shakib also getting into a war of words with Abahani coach Khaled Mahmud, who is also a BCB director. It appeared that Mahmud had to be pulled away from what looked like a shouting match with the Mohammedan camp.Shakib Al Hasan kicks the stumps in anger after having an lbw appeal turned down by umpire Imran Parvez•Walton

The match duly resumed and Mohammedan went on to win, but even at the point the players went off due to the rain (five balls after the five-over mark, which constituted a completed match), Shakib’s team was well ahead of the equation as per the DLS method. So exactly why Shakib reacted in that way is unknown.Shortly after the match, Shakib wrote an apology note on his official Facebook page. “Dear fans and followers, I am extremely sorry for losing my temper and ruining the match for everyone and especially those who are watching from home,” the message read. “An experienced player like me should not have reacted that way but sometimes against all odds it happens unfortunately. I apologise to the teams, management, tournament officials and organizing committee for this human error. Hopefully, I won’t be repeating this again in the future. Thanks and love you all.”Shakib Al Hasan flings the stumps after umpire Mahfuzur Rahman calls for the covers•Walton

Off the last ball of the fifth over, Shakib struck Rahim on the pads, only for umpire Imran Parvez to turn down the appeal. Shakib immediately kicked the stumps at the non-striker’s end and argued with the umpire, with some of the Mohammedan players surrounding the pair. Then the fielders moved on as it was the end of the over.Then, after the fifth ball of the sixth over, umpire Mahfuzur Rahman indicated to the groundsmen to bring on the covers as a light rain had begun. Shakib ran in towards the umpire from his fielding position and ripped out all three stumps from the non-strikers’ end and flung them on the ground. After a short argument when other Mohammedan players gathered around and some seemingly gestured that it was not raining hard enough for play to stop, Shakib once again picked up a stump and speared it into the ground at the umpire’s feet.Related

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After the game, Kazi Inam Ahmed, the chairman of the Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis (CCDM) – the BCB sub-committee that oversees all Dhaka leagues – termed the incident “unfortunate”, and said he expected the umpires to submit their report by the end of the day (Friday). A decision on what action will be taken is likely either late on Friday or early Saturday.”We saw there was a lot of excitement in this Abahani-Mohammedan game, and there were some incidents involving Shakib Al Hasan. It was streamed live on Facebook and YouTube, so I am sure all of you saw it. It is unfortunate. We expect players to keep their emotions under control even in the heated moments in cricket,” Ahmed said. “This is not the example we want to see from Bangladesh’s professional, international players.Shakib Al Hasan argues with umpire Mahfuzur Rahman•Walton

“Like international matches, we also have a playing-control team, which consists of the match referee and umpires. We expect their report by tonight. The rules are in place, so whatever comes [out], we will act accordingly.”This is not the first time Shakib’s Mohammedan has been in the news for non-cricket reasons this tournament. Earlier this week, the BCB had issued a slap on the wrist to the club over a biosecure-bubble breach that occurred on June 4. The issue revolved around the club bringing in two net bowlers from outside the bubble to bowl to Shakib at the indoor facility of the Shere Bangla National Stadium.

The spinner didn’t play a single game at the 2014 T20 World Cup or the 2015 50-over World Cup

Firdose Moonda13-Jul-2021Aaron Phangiso played a key role in advocating for South Africa’s reserve players to be paid a portion of match fees to ensure that those who do not play many matches on tour, such as himself, are compensated. Phangiso, who was part of South African squads from 2013 to 2018, could have played in 97 international matches but only featured in 37. He did not play a single game at the 2014 T20 World Cup or 2015 50-over World Cup, growing frustrated with both non-selection and non-payment. Speaking at Cricket South Africa’s Social Justice and Nation-Building hearings, he explained how he campaigned for reserve players to be paid as well.”If you were wearing a bib, there was one match allocated to four players. I went and spoke to our team manager and told him I have got a problem with this. I told him that on tour I am one of the few guys that miss out on a whole lot of games and we need to relook at this,” Phangiso said, detailing one chapter of the five he submitted to the SJN.”The team manager saw reason and said, ‘let me speak to the senior guys in the team and see how we can rectify this.’ I had a meeting with two senior players and said this is where I stand. The response that I got was shocking. It just showed that people will always think for themselves. The response I got was, ‘Phangi, you expect that a guy sitting on the bench must get the same amount?’ And I said, ‘Yes, why not? How does that affect you as a player? It’s not coming out of your salary. I got into a lengthy discussion with them and I showed them reason and they did see a bit of reason and they said yes, we will go back and talk to SACA (the South African Cricketers’ Association). Two days later, the guys came back to me and said they spoke to SACA and the best that we can do is to add an extra match fee. Instead of four guys sharing one match fee, they were sharing two. I still don’t think it’s fair. You can play only XI. Are the other guys worth any less? No. That’s how I feel.”ESPNcricinfo has confirmed that South Africa’s match fees per game were increased from 12 to 13 in the 2018 MoU signed between Cricket South Africa and the SACA – which governs, among other things, player salaries, and that this has been increased again, to 14 match fees, to cater for bigger squads during the Covid-19 pandemic. South African players’ match fees are R25,000 (US$1,700) per ODI and R12,500 (US$850) per T20I, which means bench players’ amounts had increased in ODIs from R6250 (US$425) to R12500 (US$850) and T20Is from R3125 (US$213) to R6250 (US$425) in the time Phangiso played to R16,666 (US$1140) and R8333 (US$570) since November 2019.By then, it was too late for Phangiso, who last represented South Africa in 2018 and said in the hearings he felt he should have played more. He narrated numerous incidents of being told to “wait for your time,” as a specialist spinner in a cricketing landscape that favoured quicks. But he expressed confusion about not getting a game at the 2014 World Cup, which was played in Bangladesh, and only playing two of South Africa’s four matches at the 2016 T20 World Cup, in India.Phangiso said he understood he was considered next in line to Imran Tahir but felt there were instances when they could have played together, as they did at the Lions franchise. “I understand Imran was doing well. But in games Imran and I played together we dominated and did well as a combination.” Phangiso said.Related

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His biggest disappointment, however, was the 2015 World Cup where he also didn’t play a game despite South Africa qualifying for the knockouts, with a group game to spare. Phangiso revealed he felt isolated on that tour but also suffered some of the aftermath of South Africa’s exit.”I was happy to go to a World Cup again, thinking I would get the chance to contribute, but going into the tournament as the only (black) African player was also tough. I am not sure a lot the public can relate to what it’s like being the only person of your own race,” he said. “You are away from home. We are there for more than a month-and-a-half, all alone, no game time, no nothing. And then to come home and know you have disappointed everyone. People ask if you think you are not good enough to play and what happened? You get into a mental state, I wouldn’t say depression, but it’s exhausting.”Like the other participants at the SJN Hearings, Phangiso also spoke extensively about racial discrimination he endured as a player, especially in the early days of his career. Phangiso started playing in the South African domestic set-up in 2004, when transformation targets demanded all franchises field four players of colour in their XIs and all provincial teams, five.”You would just be there as a number. There were times when one would take the field and not do the discipline one specialises in,” he said, recounting an incident from a match in 2005 when he only bowled five overs out of more than 110 for Northerns.”I was on the field for three days and I didn’t bowl (much) and I actually started crying on the field and my current coach (Mandla Mashimbyi of Northerns) came to me and said: ‘don’t worry, all will be fine, you will get your turn’. Those are the words we tell ourselves: ‘keep pushing the struggle’.”The SJN hearings are due to run for the next two weeks after which transformation ombudsman Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza, will produce a report and recommendations to CSA.