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Afghanistan continue bring joy back home with fourth victory of World Cup campaign

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Nov-2023Hashmatullah Shahidi, the Afghanistan captain, dedicated his side’s seven-wicket win over Netherlands to the thousands of Afghan refugees in Pakistan who are facing the prospect of being deported back to Afghanistan.Shahidi was speaking after a comfortable win in Lucknow, Afghanistan’s third in a row and one which sees them move to eight points and closer to a semi-final spot, albeit with two games left to play against Australia and South Africa.”Right now, a lot of refugee peoples are in struggle so we are watching their videos and we are sad for that and we are with them in this tough time,” Shahidi said after the game. “I dedicate this win to those refugees that are in pain and also to all country peoples back home.”Nearly two million Afghan refugees that Pakistan says are in the country illegally had been told by the government to leave by November 1 or face either deportation or arrest. This week many thousands have rushed to the border between the two countries, trying to beat the deadline but worried about facing an uncertain future in Afghanistan, which has been governed since August 2021 by the Taliban.Related

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Pakistan has a long history of taking in Afghan refugees, dating back to 1979 when the former Soviet Union came into Afghanistan in a new front of the Cold War with the US. A lot of the players from Afghanistan’s earliest cricket sides had grown up and learnt the game in refugee camps in north-west Pakistan. There has been another sizeable influx of refugees into the country after the Taliban took control two years ago. But the order for the refugees to leave Pakistan comes amid tense political relations between the two countries.The issue has been close to the hearts of the cricket team. Following their eight-wicket triumph over Pakistan in Chennai last week, Ibrahim Zadran also dedicated the win to refugees being forced to leave.”I think the players are attuned with everything that’s going on back home, whether it’s an earthquake and other things,” Jonathan Trott, Afghanistan’s coach, said on Friday after the Netherlands win.”So they realise, and I think they’re enjoying the joy that they’re giving to the Afghan people and the smile that they currently have on their face in the changing room, but also the smiles that’s giving everybody else. That’s the great thing about sport and being able to touch people far further afield than just here in the stadium or in this country, but back home as well.”Afghanistan are now fifth on the points table, outside the top four on net run-rate but with the same points as New Zealand and Australia. They take on an in-form Australia in Mumbai first, on Tuesday, and then a rampaging South Africa in Ahmedabad, among their toughest tests.”I think you’ve got to definitely prepare and have a look at how the opposition are going to play, but the thing is with us, I certainly feel that if we worry, we just focus on how we play and what makes us the side that we are,” Trott said.”We’ve got to make sure that we don’t look at the opposition too much and forget about what we’ve got to do well. So that’ll be it and obviously we’ll prepare for Australia, a very good side along with South Africa but right now we’re focused on Australia and what we can do to beat them.”

Australian veteran will act as a player-coach for Victoria in the 2023-24 season

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Jul-2023Peter Siddle has left Somerset after sustaining an injury to his hand which has ruled him out of the remainder of his stint with the club as an overseas player.Siddle, 38, fractured a finger while attempting to take a catch off his bowling during Somerset’s T20 Blast defeat to Hampshire last month and the injury will not heal before the end of his contract later this month.Somerset, who will play Nottinghamshire in the Blast quarter-finals on Friday night after topping the South Group, have signed Ish Sodhi as a replacement for the Blast. Sodhi has already played twice, taking four wickets, at the end of the group stage.Related

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• Siddle in, Holland out amid Victoria changes

Siddle will return to Victoria from Tasmania in the Australian summer in a player-coach role but said: “My playing days are slowly dying down.”He told the Somerset website: “Although I still want to play a bit, I’m aware that’s slowly coming to an end. I’ll move into doing a bit of coaching, but whether or not I want to do that in the long term, I don’t know.”I think my days of signing long deals over the summer are behind me, but if I come back to England and play, it will be as a replacement to cover someone for a short stint. Who knows?”If Somerset sign Matt Henry again next year and he ends up missing a month during his stint then maybe I might be able to dust off my boots and pull a kit back on. You never say never. I may have a game or two left in me for the club, but as things stand, I’m pretty sure my county cricket days are done.”Siddle has spent two seasons with Somerset, taking 43 County Championship wickets as well as 24 in the Blast. “I’ve really enjoyed being a part of the club and I’m definitely going to miss it,” he said.

Other officials in the group deemed close contacts; second and third ODIs will go ahead as planned with new match officials

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Dec-2021The first ODI between USA and Ireland, scheduled for December 26, has been cancelled following a positive Covid-19 test among the crew of match officials. Though only one official has been infected, the other three in the group have been deemed “close contacts” of the positive case, and have been rendered unavailable.However, the second and third matches of the series are expected to take place, with USA Cricket saying that replacement officials would be arranged in time for the second game, slated for Tuesday, December 28. The second and third ODIs – the last one is set for December 30 (all matches are in Lauderhill) – “will go ahead as planned, with an alternative match official group if required”.USA Cricket said that all ticket-holders for the first ODI “may re-use their tickets for any additional match in the series” or, if the ticket-holders can’t attend another match, the “full fee will be refunded within 7 working days”.USA and Ireland had earlier competed in a T20I series, also in Lauderhill, which ended 1-1. USA won the first game, a historic occasion for them as it was their first victory over a Test-playing nation as well as an ICC Full Member. Ireland, however, hit back in the second game to square the series and head into the ODI series on a positive note.The series has had its share of Covid-19 scares already. On December 17, four Ireland players and a member of their support staff tested positive ahead of the series. Not long after, on December 21, four Covid-19 cases were reported in the USA camp as well.

Saqib Mahmood helps reduce Northants to 59 for three, still needing 366 runs on final day

Paul Edwards17-Apr-2021When this morning’s play began Lancashire had a lead of 188 over Northamptonshire and all their second-innings wickets in hand. By the time the long day closed at 7.20pm they had reduced the visitors to 59 for 3 and a victory target of 425 appeared merely fantastical. A good day for the Red Rose, you might think, and you would be correct. Yet much of their batting had been so careless that it might have been designed to have their head coach, Glen Chapple, emulating Bertie Wooster’s Aunt Agatha and hopping about with a hatchet.The one player exempted from Chapple’s ire was Steven Croft, whose unbeaten century will have had Lancashire supporters smiling in shared pleasure. Croft’s love for the county of his birth is undoubted. When he pulled Nathan Buck for six to reach his hundred, thereby prompting a declaration, the home dressing room erupted in noisy acclamation. Croft was hugged by Tom Hartley, his batting partner, and he raised his arms towards his team-mates, some of whom may still have been watching Peppa Pig when he first played for Lancashire.The century had been the product of careful workmanship rather than effortless style. There were pulls to square leg, nudges through the slips and leg glances but only seven fours. The one concession to modernity, albeit Croft has kept his place in Lancashire’s T20 team, was the reverse sweep, which he now plays as easily as Robert Browning once produced rhyming couplets. He could have gone for three early in the morning session had Adam Rossington clung on to a right-handed diving catch but Croft has long been careful to make the most of such opportunities, for he has no clue how many more he might get.Three years ago he thought he would not get another contract with Lancashire but the coaches opted to give him another season, then one more, then another. There was nothing indulgent about these decisions. Although not the five-furlong favourite he once was, Croft can still do a job anywhere in the field and held on to two slip catches as Northants subsided this evening.Related

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Croft played in the side that won the Championship in 2011 and he skippered the team that won the T20 Blast in 2015. He is 37 in October yet it is an offence against nature to think of him as a veteran. Like schoolboys with a favourite master, supporters honour him with a nickname, although ‘Crofty’ is hardly in the class of ‘Rhino’, the name the boys at Thursgood’s gave to Jim Prideaux. This was his first Championship century since 2017 but there have been more than enough valuable innings in the meantime to reassure supporters wondering if a much-loved cricketer might have hung on a season too long.Application and an awareness of responsibility are often made particularly noticeable by their absence elsewhere and Lancashire’s other batsmen probably made Croft’s effort appear a little better than it was. Both openers were dismissed in the first nine deliveries of the morning, Keaton Jennings playing around an inswinger from Ben Sanderson and Alex Davies pushing forward just enough to edge Tom Taylor to Ricardo Vasconcelos at first slip. But the worst was yet to come.Having driven the Northants seamers for three of the pleasantest boundaries we will see this season Josh Bohannon played skew-whiff at a well-flighted off-spinner from Rob Keogh and inside-edged the ball onto his leg stump. Given that he had been presented with a good opportunity to collect a cheeky 80 runs or so, Bohannon’s 22 must have frustrated the coaches. But Lancashire were still well placed on 162 for 3 at lunch. On the resumption sanity left the stadium.In the first over of the afternoon session Dane Vilas played the ball to square leg and called Croft for an absurd single. The daftness of the exercise was plain almost immediately but not soon enough to save Lancashire’s skipper. Two overs later Croft clipped the ball in a similar direction only to see Rob Jones scampering down the wicket as if escaping a lunatic with a sharp knife. Emilio Gay threw the ball to the non-striker’s end and someone noted that five of Lancashire’s last 18 wickets had been lost to run outs. For the only time since last August one was grateful spectators were not present.The rest of the innings was less deranged. Luke Wood and Tom Bailey helped Croft take Northamptonshire’s target beyond that scored by any side in the fourth innings to beat Lancashire and the visitors’ job was made even harder by Saqib Mahmood’s magnificently hostile five-over spell with the new ball from the James Anderson End. The fast bowler beat both Ben Curran and Gay for pace and is clearly well suited to the short burst Vilas gave him. He will be steaming in again in the morning and then Matt Parkinson will send down some leg spin. Northants have form when it comes to foxing the bookies but one cannot like their chances.

The former India captain said no argument was going to satisfy him for Hanuma Vihari being preferred over Nair for The Oval Test

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Sep-2018Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar led the severe criticism of India’s decision to not play middle-order batsman Karun Nair in fifth Test against England at The Oval.Nair was part of the original 18-man squad, but India played allrounder Hardik Pandya in the first four Tests. When India dropped Pandya – the first time since his debut – for the Oval Test, they gave a debut to Hanuma Vihari, the Andhra batsman who averages 59 in first-class cricket and was brought in as Kuldeep Yadav’s replacement for the final two Tests.Gavaskar was furious with the selection, failing to see a reason for not playing a batsman whose last innings against England was a triple-century. The only reason Gavaskar could come up with was that Nair “has not been your favourite player”.”There is no argument that is going to ever satisfy me,” Gavaskar said on Sony Six moments after the toss. “What has Karun Nair done not to get in? I know he has not been your favourite player. You don’t want to pick him. He scores a triple hundred. You leave him out [for allrounder Jayant Yadav in Pune]. He fails in a couple of games [against Australia in the rest of the series]. You leave him out. You have brought him back in the team. It could be the selectors who have brought him back. The team management probably doesn’t want him. And that’s why they haven’t given him the opportunity to play in this game.”How many Indians have got triple hundreds? Virender Sehwag twice and Karun Nair once. You don’t give that man an opportunity. So what are you trying to tell him? ‘Look we don’t think you are a good player?'”All the best to Hanuma Vihari. I really wish him well. Karun Nair has every right to ask the team management what he has done wrong. He deserves an answer. ‘Why am I not picked?’ If you are going to pick an extra batsman, which they should have done from the first Test itself, and if you haven’t given him the opportunity, he deserves an answer.”Nair’s exclusion was reminiscent of Ajinkya Rahane, who spent a lot of time on the bench in Australia in 2011-12 but couldn’t find a place in a line-up that included Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. When Dravid and Laxman retired for the subsequent home season, Yuvraj Singh was picked for the England series. And when Yuvraj was dropped, Rahane would have hoped to play in the fourth Test in Nagpur, but India gave a debut to allrounder Ravindra Jadeja in that match.One of the arguments in Vihari’s favour has been that he can bowl offspin too – he was the third bowler used on the first morning of the Oval Test – but he has only 19 wickets from 63 first-class matches, which doesn’t suggest a Jadeja-like all-round ability.Gavaskar was not the only person in the Indian cricket community disappointed with the selection.

Tufan Ghosh has served nearly three decades in the healthcare and hospitality industries and was chosen in line with the CoA’s directives of finding a non-cricketing professional for the post

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Dec-2017The BCCI has appointed Tufan Ghosh as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. Ghosh has served in the healthcare and hospitality industries for 29 years, including a stint as CEO of the private healthcare group Columbia Asia in 2005.”The BCCI now owns a consolidated 40 acres of land at Arebinnamangala village near the Aerospace Park region in Bengaluru where it wishes to set up the new NCA. Ghosh will play a key role in setting up the facility and creating a Centre of Excellence,” a BCCI press release said.The appointment comes after a deliberate search for a professional with management experience from outside cricketing circles by the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA).”We have got a master plan, vision and concept for the NCA ready,” CoA chairman Vinod Rai had said in an interview to ESPNcricnfo in November. “We identified that we needed to find a project manager to realise the vision. The ideal person will not be a cricketer because we felt such a large project needed someone with management experience.””In the short term – first three to five years – the person we are looking for is one who has the experience of having built such similar, big projects. It is a full-time position and he would be in charge of the NCA. But this person will not deal with the cricketing element of the NCA,” Rai had said.

For all his white-ball exploits in 2016, David Warner has endured one of his poorest years in Test cricket but is confident the tide will turn

Brydon Coverdale in Melbourne24-Dec-20162:07

I’m hitting them well in the nets – Warner

It’s been a big year for David Warner.In January, he won the Allan Border Medal for the first time. Also in January he became a father for the second time, with the birth of his daughter Indi Rae.In August, he captained Australia for the first time, leading them to ODI and T20 series wins over Sri Lanka. Also in August, he was named Australia’s Sporting Father of the Year.In September, he smashed two ODI hundreds in South Africa, and in December he plundered back-to-back centuries against New Zealand in the Chappell-Hadlee Series. In all, 2016 has been a stunning year for Warner in ODIs: 1388 runs at 63.09 and seven hundreds. Only Sachin Tendulkar has made more ODI centuries in a year (nine in 1998).Along the way, Warner has earned a new nickname from his team-mates. Once, he was the Bull, but they believe the Bull has been tamed somewhat by the responsibilities of vice-captaincy and fatherhood. He is now The Reverend.And yet for all the white-ball runs that Warner has made in 2016, for all the personal highlights along the way, there is one considerable caveat: 2016 has been Warner’s worst year in Test cricket. With just one Test left in the year, he has managed just 604 runs at 35.52; prior to 2016, his lowest yearly tally was 788, scored in 2012, which was his first full year as a Test cricketer.Warner’s only Test hundred of 2016 so far came in the first Test of the year, the washed-out SCG Test against West Indies in January. There, he blasted a quick unbeaten 122, but it was an innings of no value, for it came on day five as Australia batted for the first time in a match that was utterly ruined by rain. In 18 innings, he has only two half-centuries and that one hundred.”It’s just a little bit of a cycle, I think,” Warner said on Saturday. “I go out there every time I go out to bat, trying to put as many runs as I can on the board. Same mindset, same sort of process I go through with training.”At the moment I’m hitting them well enough in the nets and not making them in the middle. The tide will change. Many players before have experienced the same thing. I’ve just got to keep a level head, cool head and make sure that I watch every ball as hard and as closely as I can.”One of Warner’s more surprising failures in 2016 came in his most recent innings, when he was beaten for pace by Mohammad Amir and pulled a catch on 12. It was the second innings at the Gabba and Australia already had a lead of nearly 300. Warner had license to look for quick runs to build a big target, precisely the sort of innings in which he has often thrived before.”In the nets I’m hitting them well. But you’ve got to try and take that out on the field,” he said. “Sometimes you see a ball there that might be to hit, like the other day. Probably in white-ball cricket I wouldn’t think twice about pulling that ball, and the other day he beat me for pace.”They’re just the little things that come into your mind, going ‘okay, we’ve got some runs on the board, I want to up the ante a little bit’. You can afford to do that. It’s just about execution, and the other day was a bit of poor execution. I’ve got to keep going out there and backing myself.”And while Warner would love nothing more than to finish the year with a bang, history suggests it will be tough. Not only has 2016 been his least productive Test year, the MCG is his least productive Test venue. It is the only Test ground in Australia at which Warner has not scored a century, and the only one where he averages less than 50. His MCG average? 24.22.Warner has so far played in five Boxing Day Tests and has managed only one half-century – he made 62 against Sri Lanka at the MCG four years ago. Last year, he made starts in both innings against West Indies but then fell playing his shots against short deliveries. Perhaps Warner would do well to heed the words MCG curator David Sandurski.”Melbourne isn’t the sort of wicket where you can’t just go blasting off from ball one,” Sandurski said on Saturday. “You’ve got to take your time and get used to the conditions, because the weather here can be so inconsistent that it is hard to get a wicket spot-on. It’s a pretty good idea for a batsman to be cautious early before he gets going.”A good idea in theory, maybe. But good luck preaching caution to this Reverend.

Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath is set to become the oldest player to lead a Test team for the first time since Somachandra de Silva in 1983, during Sri Lanka’s tour of Zimbabwe

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Oct-20161:01

Seventeen years after making his Test debut, Rangana Herath is set to captain Sri Lanka for the first time

Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath is set to become the oldest player to lead a Test team for the first time since Somachandra de Silva in 1983, after he was named captain of Sri Lanka for the tour of Zimbabwe because Angelo Mathews is injured.Sri Lanka’s regular vice-captain, Dinesh Chandimal, was also unavailable for the two-Test series because of a thumb injury sustained during a domestic game, for which he had to have surgery. Herath, 38, will be only the second bowler to lead Sri Lanka in Tests, after de Silva.Mathews had torn his calf during the fourth ODI against Australia in August and had not recovered sufficiently, despite being named in the original squad for the tour of Zimbabwe on October 21. He is expected to be out of action for three weeks and is doubtful for the tri-series in Zimbabwe, also involving West Indies, that follows the Tests. No replacement was named yet for Mathews.Herath played 71 ODIs and 17 T20Is for Sri Lanka and did not captain in those formats either. He retired from limited-overs cricket in April this year to focus on Test cricket and played the defining role – 28 wickets – in Sri Lanka’s 3-0 whitewash of Australia in July and August. Seventeen years after having made his debut in 1999, Herath is set to make his captaincy debut, in his 74th Test.

The chance to show off their depth rather than the concerns of whether the waters may be too shallow is how Hashim Amla has described the challenge South Africa face in Bangalore

Firdose Moonda in Bangalore13-Nov-20152:12

‘Fortunate to have depth in our bowling’ – Amla

The chance to show off their depth rather than the concerns of whether the waters may be too shallow is how Hashim Amla has described the challenge South Africa face in Bangalore. His team go into the match without two of three first-choice fast bowlers, after Vernon Philander and Dale Steyn were ruled out of the series and match respectively, leaving South Africa with a young attack who Amla believes will be able to fill big shoes.”A series is generally won with 15 players and not just 11,” Amla said. “Obviously losing Dale – the best bowler in the world – and Vernon – arguably the best allrounder in the world – changes the dynamics of our team but the guys who are going to be replacing them are quality cricketers and we are very fortunate to have great depth in our bowling attack.”South Africa’s new-look pace pack will be led by Morne Morkel, who has recovered from the quad strain that kept him out of the last two ODIs and the first Test, and seconded by Kyle Abbott and Kagiso Rabada. Between them, they have played just four Tests and Rabada only one – South Africa’s previous one in Mohali – but they will be need to take on the roles of much more experienced men. But Amla brushed off worries about his attack being too green.”Things like this happen and sometimes you get fairy tales coming out of these type of things. If Kyle rocks up and has an amazing day then so be it,” he said.Abbott has already been part of one Cinderella story. On debut, he stood in for Jacques Kallis, who missed the 2013 Centurion Test against Pakistan with a calf injury and became the second most successful South African on debut. He took 7 for 29 in the first innings and finished the match with nine scalps.Although he has not had the same success in the two other Tests he played – as part of a four-man pace pack against Australia in March 2014 and against West Indies in December 2014 – he has done well when filling in for the likes of Philander and Steyn in ODI cricket and is regarded as South Africa’s go-to deputiser.”Over the last couple of years Kyle has been one of our outstanding reserve bowlers. Whenever he has had an opportunity for us in T20s, ODIs and even in Tests, he has done exceptionally well,” Amla said. “It’s great to have him back.”Abbott will be back barely after stepping off the plane, having arrived in India on Thursday evening. Less than 48 hours later he could be on the field but Amla is not worried about jet-lag either. “Kyle is a wonderful professional and when he puts his boots on he’s ready, even if he got off the plane 10 minutes before he bowled the first ball,” Amla said.South Africa’s desperation to use Abbott comes because they see him as a like-for-like replacement for both Philander and Steyn because of his consistency and his ability to swing the ball. “He brings a little bit of what Vernon brings in terms of consistency, you kind of know what you are going to get, he is extremely consistent in where he lands the ball,” Amla said. “He brings a lot of control and he has got a great know-how of what he wants to do.”Abbott stood in for Philander at the 2015 World Cup, where he played four matches including the quarter-final because Philander was battling a hamstring injury. Abbott finished with South Africa’s best average in the tournament – 14.44 – and was controversially replaced in the semi-final when Philander regained fitness. The irony of Abbott now replacing Philander will not be lost on the many who followed the story of Abbott being left out of the semi-final XI for what was later revealed as political, not tactical, considerations.This time there are no politics involved, only strategy. South Africa seem set on three seamers in every match, not fewer, because they don’t want to leave too much for their part-timer bowlers, specifically JP Duminy, to do. Duminy has recovered from a cut on his hand and will be back in the XI but selector Ashwell Prince, speaking on a television show, said Duminy’s focus should be his batting.”I would like him, if he comes back into the team, to play as a batsman, a world-class batsman… the responsibility of his off spin needs to come off his shoulders. It must be seen as a bonus, as with Dean Elgar’s left-arm spin,” Prince said.Amla seems to be leaning the same way. He spoke about Duminy’s value as a batsmen above the options he provides with ball in hand. “JP has been a quality player over many years for us. He bats in a crucial position down at No. 5, 6 and 7. In all forms of cricket, that’s the business end of the game,” Amla said. “He brings a lot of know-how and experience to the middle order and his off spin has been vital for us.”Duminy will do some bowling but all indications are that South Africa will continue to rely on their traditional strength in seamers although not all their strong men are available anymore.

Prasanna Jayawardene will go to hospital for X-rays after he was hit on the thumb by a Mitchell Johnson bouncer during Sri Lanka’s first innings at the MCG

Andrew Fernando at the MCG26-Dec-2012Prasanna Jayawardene has suffered a hairline fracture to the top of his right thumb after being hit by a Mitchell Johnson bouncer during Sri Lanka’s first innings at the MCG. That delivery was the last Jayawardene faced, as the ball caught the shoulder of the bat after hitting his thumb, and ballooned to Phillip Hughes in the slip cordon. Jayawardene made 24.Team management are yet to determine whether Jayawardene will keep wickets on day two, but in the meantime Kumar Sangakkara has taken the gloves in his stead, and will keep for the remainder of day one.Sri Lanka’s 12th man Dinesh Chandimal also keeps wickets, but cannot stand in behind the stumps as he is a substitute. A year ago, he replaced Jayawardene on Sri Lanka’s tour of South Africa as wicketkeeper-batsman.”There was some bruising on his thumb after his innings, so we thought we’d better check,” team manager Charith Senanayake said, before X-rays revealed the extent of the injury.December 26 5.35am GMT This story has been updated to include news of Jayawaradene’s hairline fracture