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Cricket Australia has shelved its plan to tighten the BBL schedule this summer, instead expanding the time-frame from the opening match until the final by two weeks

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Jul-2013Cricket Australia has shelved its plan to tighten the BBL schedule this summer, instead expanding the time-frame from the opening match until the final by two weeks. The fixture for the 2013-14 tournament has been released and although the competition will start later in December, in order to allow Sheffield Shield cricket to be played until the end of the third Ashes Test, it has ballooned at the back end and will not finish until February 15.All the regular season matches will be played during the school holiday period, with the semi-finals and final to be contested across two weekends in early February. The tournament will last 58 days compared to last season’s 44 days, with the 32 regular season games played across 38 days.”The later start to the season means that families will have a greater opportunity to come to the BBL as part of their school holiday summer entertainment,” Mike McKenna, Cricket Australia’s executive general manager operations, said.In other BBL news on Monday, two widely-expected announcements were confirmed: the retirement of Melbourne Stars captain Shane Warne, and Michael Hussey’s decision to sign with Sydney Thunder. Hussey’s defection from Perth Scorchers is an attempt to revive the fortunes of the struggling Thunder outfit, which has won only two matches over the past two seasons.Hussey will captain the side in the absence of the nominal Thunder leader Michael Clarke, who is likely to miss most of the campaign due to national team commitments.”I’m extremely excited about joining the Sydney Thunder and having the opportunity to be part of a young, energetic side that will represent the west of Sydney with pride,” Hussey said. “The team and the area have enormous potential and I hope that I can bring my experience to help get the best out of the side and develop the talented playing group that we have.”It was not an easy decision to leave the Scorchers, but the challenge of helping a young team grow was one I couldn’t pass on. I look forward to working closely with coach Chandika [Hathurusinghe] and Michael Clarke to make sure that the squad are ready to go once the season starts.”Cameron White will again take up the captaincy of the Stars after Warne confirmed that he would not be back for another summer. Warne, 43, struggled for impact last season with the Stars and collected four wickets at 39.75.”I think the time is right for me to hang up my Big Bash boots – juggling business, family and commentary commitments across two continents is not easy,” Warne said. “I’ve always loved the game but now it’s time to observe. I wish Cameron and rest of the lads all the best for the BBL|03.”

Fast bowler Beuran Hendricks triggered a middle-order collapse as India A slumped from 95 for 1 to 145 for 6 at the end of the second day to put South Africa A firmly in control of the second and final unofficial Test in Pretoria

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Aug-2013 by 196 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo: The dismissal of Cheteshwar Pujara triggered India A’s middle-order collapse•BCCI

Fast bowler Beuran Hendricks triggered a middle-order collapse as India A slumped from 95 for 1 to 145 for 6 towards the end of the second day to put South Africa A firmly in control of the second and final unofficial Test in Pretoria. Cheteshwar Pujara’s half-century had helped India recover from the early loss of M Vijay, but Hendricks struck twice in quick succession to remove Pujara and Dinesh Karthik and Simon Harmer followed up his batting heroics with two middle-order wickets to leave the Indian innings in tatters.After conceding 341 runs in the first innings, 245 of them to the last four wickets, India found themselves in further misery when Hendricks removed Vijay in the second over of the innings. Pujara, with support from Ajinkya Rahane, revived the innings with an 86-run partnership for the second wicket, bringing up his half-century along the way. But Hendricks dismissal of Pujara in the third over of his second spell marked a sudden shift in momentum.Much like South Africa’s riposte late on the first day when their lower order pulled the game out of India’s grasp, this time, it was the bowling. India lost their fifth and the sixth wickets in the last five overs of the day, leaving them 196 runs behind South Africa.”This pitch is deteriorating at a faster pace than in previous games here,” Harmer said. “I think 340 is a good first innings total on this pitch. Totals are going to become lower as the match progresses and you won’t want to be batting last. We have got ourselves into a good position but there is still a lot of work to be done,” he added. “We have ticked the right boxes today so it will be important to do the same on day three.”The match panned out just as South Africa would have wanted it to. Harmer and Wayne Parnell stretched their monumental seventh-wicket stand close to the double-century mark, but Shahbaz Nadeem finally earned India a wicket after 65 overs of toil when he had Harmer trapped in front for 96. Parnell fell short of his century too; he was the ninth wicket to fell when he was out for 91. But India’s struggle with the tail continued as Andrew Birch and Hendricks added 50 for the last wicket. Birch, unbeaten on 44, hit eight boundaries in his innings.”It was good to get some runs,” Harmer said. “My batting hasn’t been up to scratch in the last two seasons and I have been working hard on it; it’s good to reap some rewards from the hard work.”At the start Wayne and I looked to occupy the crease for as long as possible. We knew that they were going to get impatient because they were looking to get into the tail to wrap up the innings, so we knew that the longer we stayed there the more we could capitalise on their mistakes.”

Sri Lanka Cricket is looking to the expatriate community in Europe for development funds, SLC secretary Nishantha Ranatunga said, after the board appointed a representative in the region on Friday

Andrew Fidel Fernando05-Oct-2013Sri Lanka Cricket is looking to the expatriate community in Europe for development funds, SLC secretary Nishantha Ranatunga said, after the board appointed a representative in the region on Friday.United Kingdom resident and textile tycoon Sarath Abeysundara was tasked with raising money for district and school cricket in Europe, and SLC is hopeful he will ease the burden on SLC’s stretched domestic budget.”Mr. Abeysundara’s job is to try and help the board build relationships with the Sri Lankans living in Europe and to raise funds for developments in districts and schools,” Ranatunga said. “We’ve told him to come up with a few options on how he would raise funds for SLC, which he was very keen to do. He has raised funds for SLC before, which we were aware of.”Ranatunga said Abeysundara had links to county team Leicestershire and served on SLC’s foreign committee in the UK – one of several of the board’s outposts abroad. He is also an elected member of SLC’s sponsorship committee, under whose purview the assignment falls.

If there is anything disgruntled Yorkshiremen do not appreciate, it is empathy from a vaguely Lancastrian source. Nevertheless, after an inactive time in the Caribbean, they might have appreciated an old lyric from the cross-Pennines songstress Gracie Fie

Paul Edwards10-May-2015
ScorecardJonny Bairstow on a rare and largely pointless batting opportunity in the Caribbean•Getty Images

If there is anything disgruntled Yorkshiremen do not appreciate, it is empathy from a vaguely Lancastrian source. Nevertheless, as Adam Lyth carried the refreshments, edged the practice catches and fielded at short leg during England’s tour of the West Indies, it was tempting to remember the song once made famous by the Rochdale-born Gracie Fields: “I took my harp to the party but nobody asked me to play”. Nor was Lyth the only Yorkshireman unused in the Caribbean. Jonny Bairstow, Adil Rashid and Liam Plunkett’s involvement was peripheral, leading to calls that one or more members of this cricketing string quartet should be allowed to play a melody or two for Yorkshire.It was expected that this game against Hampshire would see all four players selected by Yorkshire for the first time this season but Plunkett’s failure to appear for Saturday’s final practice resulted in him not even making the team sheet. Lyth and Bairstow, though, seized their opportunities with gusto, albeit that their tunes were sharply contrasting. Lyth, all careful exposition and cautious defence, made 53 off 112 balls in 150 minutes. He was nearly run out by his partner Alex Lees in the second over of the day and was dropped by the Hampshire debutant wicketkeeper Lewis McManus when hooking on 39.When he was third out twenty minutes after lunch, playing defensively to a good ball from Andre Adams, Lyth could return to the Headingley pavilion knowing that he had shown all the application expected of an England opener. This is fortunate given that next week that is almost certainly precisely what he will be. What is rather less wonderful is that despite being on two of England’s winter tours, Lyth has now played precisely six first-class innings since last September. It is hardly preparation for facing the New Zealand seamers on one of Lord’s freshest May pitches.By tea, however, not too many of Yorkshire’s supporters were talking about Lyth. That was because there were in the middle of seeing a quite outstandingly violent and effective innings from Jonny Bairstow, one of the more maverick members of the Headingley orchestra. Having arrived at the wicket when Lyth was dismissed and then watched as Andrew Gale became the admirable Adams’s second wicket, caught at point for 30 off the leading edge by Michael Carberry, Bairstow seemed to disregard any slowness in the Leeds wicket. There was to be no adagio for him.Instead, there were pulls and hooks, three of them going for six; there were delicious cuts, one or two of them brazenly late; there were punches through the covers, most of them crisply timed by a batsman at the peak of his form and confidence. In 32 overs Bairstow added 154 for the fifth wicket with Jack Leaning, who had the good sense not to try and copy his partner. Leaning seems a very astute young batsman.Bairstow was unbeaten on 88 at tea and reached his century off 104 balls with a clip through midwicket off Adams for two. A couple of balls later he was gone, not culpably but edging a fine ball from the 39-year-old New Zealander to McManus, thus giving the Hampshire wicketkeeper a second catch on his first-class debut.That wicket brought obvious relief to James Vince’s men and they capitalised on their success when Gareth Berg removed both Adil Rashid for a duck and Will Rhodes for only four. Rashid skied a catch to Fidel Edwards at mid on and Rhodes, who probably did not expect to be playing in this game on Saturday morning nicked a catch to Sean Ervine.That left Yorkshire on 279 for 7 and the game was more or less evenly poised. However, Tim Bresnan joined Leaning and the evening’s play assumed a more sedate tempo with both batsmen restraining their natural impulses to attack.Bresnan is an experienced cricketer and one would expect nothing less from him. Leaning, though, is just 21 and played only ten County Championship games in 2014. But he is mature beyond his years and has a quiet competence at the crease. His two fours off Tomlinson in the last hour of play were as good as anything we had seen. One was stroked through the covers and the other was driven straight and they were especially fine because they were played off Hampshire’s most accurate bowler, who finished his work with 2 for 61 from his 26 overs.Tomlinson, it was, who had made the first breakthroughs for the visitors in the morning session when he had Alex Lees lbw for a single playing no shot to the 13th ball of the match before returning to have Cheteshwar Pujara caught at slip by Sean Ervine for 18. These were important wickets and they reflected the contribution of Vince’s bowlers on a day which was liberally sprinkled with accomplished batting and canny bowling.Indeed, it was almost a relief that Yorkshire head coach Jason Gillespie had chosen to say nothing about reports linking him to the England job and the travails of the ECB. The Australian’s silence left one free to follow the dictum of that legendary cricket Yorkshire Post cricket correspondent JM Kilburn: “I am here to write about the cricket,” said Kilburn firmly. That great man would have enjoyed watching Bairstow bat on this balmy Sunday afternoon but he may have appreciated Leaning’s innings even more.

Yorkshire coach Jason Gillespie insisted that Jonny Bairstow is a victim of circumstance and after dropping him in the wake of the Ashes whitewash England need to recognise his ability

Jon Culley at Headingley08-Jun-2015
ScorecardJonny Bairstow’s mature hundred held Yorkshire together•Getty Images

It is probably just as well that England plumped for Trevor Bayliss ahead of Jason Gillespie as their next head coach because had the Yorkshire Aussie been given the job then Jonny Bairstow would not be joining Messrs Root, Ballance, Lyth, Rashid and Plunkett in not seeing much of Headingley.Gillespie believes that regardless of Jos Buttler’s obvious qualities, there ought to be room somewhere in the England team for the Yorkshire wicketkeeper, who has not played a Test since he was discarded following the Ashes whitewash of the winter before last yet has returned from his stint as Buttler’s back-up on the Caribbean tour in exhilarating form.Adequate superlatives proved almost beyond Gillespie’s vocabulary as Bairstow turned this match around. Having made scores of 102, 59, 50 and 66 in his first two Championship matches of the season, he capped the sequence with a superb unbeaten 125, his 13th first-class hundred and arguably a match for any of the previous 12.It was brilliant both for its construction, combining typical Bairstow aggression with the moments of diligence his growing maturity is allowing him to summon up, and for its context, given the predicament Yorkshire were in.As they replied to Middlesex’s 212, which the unfolding events suggested was not such a bad effort on a tricky pitch, Yorkshire had seemed likely to fall well short as some solidly impressive Middlesex bowling appeared to be underlining the value of Nick Compton’s vigilant 70 of the opening day.Jack Leaning, Bairstow’s overnight partner, fell to the first ball of the morning, leg before to a fast, straight ball from Toby Roland-Jones and Glenn Maxwell carelessly to the third, driving loosely to be caught behind. It was a disastrous start and left Yorkshire 96 for 6, and though Bairstow was not for dislodging, advancing to a half-century off 89 balls, others were. Will Rhodes stayed with him for 53 minutes but after he and then Tim Bresnan departed, Yorkshire were still 70 runs adrift and eight down, not yet having reached lunch.Yet Bairstow, who has been headstrong at times in the past, reset his focus and produced a performance that reflects his maturing as a player. With assistance from Steve Patterson and then Brooks, Bairstow was granted an extra hour and 45 minutes at the crease and in that time turned Yorkshire’s fortunes around. Of the 87 more runs added from that point, he scored 69, finding the discipline to avoid foolish risks and the aggression to hit four sixes and balancing the two superbly.”It’s one of the best innings you’ll see in county cricket,” the Yorkshire coach, Jason Gillespie, enthused. “I thought the way he batted with the lower order was simply outstanding.”In the context of the game, the situation we found ourselves in, for us to find ourselves in the lead going into the second innings was fantastic.”It’s up there with his finest knocks. I thought his hundred against Hampshire was a wonderful counter-attacking innings but this was an outstanding effort.”In my view, we’re quite fortunate at Yorkshire to have Jonny in this game. My personal opinion is he should be with the England side.”He’s been a victim of circumstance. The selectors haven’t picked him so all Jonny can do is score as many runs as possible and keep as well as he can. He must be very close.”I think his keeping has improved as well. There’s no secret to that. He’s worked incredibly hard and turned himself into a very fine ‘keeper.”We shouldn’t expect him to be around at Yorkshire because I think England honours will come calling sooner rather than later. He is in special form. He is a fantastic player.”Regardless of his work with the gloves – and Bairstow still believes he can be England’s wicketkeeper – there is an argument for him to be chosen as batsman anyway. With question marks hanging over the form of Ian Bell – and Ballance, for that matter – if a vacancy does appear in the middle order it is hard to think of anyone making such a compelling case for inclusion.”I’m pretty pleased with the way I’m playing, having not played too much in the Caribbean. I’m pleased with the way I’m striking the ball. I want to keep stacking up the hundreds, that’s what I’m striving for,” he said.”I would agree that this was one of my best knocks, one of my favourite hundreds, given the circumstances. It was an important one for the team and for the family, who have been through a difficult time lately. So that’s one for my grandpa.”Going from four down to six down quickly, that was not the plan. It is a difficult pitch and you know if you get one, you get one and you just have to be as positive as you can but at the same time keeping out as many balls as possible.”Losing Jack Leaning and then Glenn Maxwell, it was a challenge and we could not go bang, bang, bang. That’s why a lot should be said about the knock Will Rhodes played, to come in as a young lad and bat for an hour in that situation. And then to have Patto and Brooksy come in and play like that, they just keep doing it.”Asked whether he might switch his focus to regaining his England place as a batsman, he made it clear he is no mood yet to concede defeat in his ambition to reclaim the gloves as well. “If I’m keeping well and I’m batting well I don’t see any reason why not to look at combining the two,” he said.Bairstow’s efforts wrested a 17-run lead for Yorkshire but this match is far from won. After the Jack Brooks rampage on Sunday, Middlesex fought back well with the ball and have done so again with the bat.At four down for 72, with two more wickets for Brooks and Compton gone first ball this time, Yorkshire may have thought they had their opponents under the cosh at only 55 in front but Dawid Malan, batting with a runner after appearing to tweak something, and James Franklin have diligently applied themselves to rebuilding work and at 127 for 4 they had a lead of 110 that could be the foundation for a challenging last-innings chase.

Sussex, increasingly seen as relegation candidates after a surfeit of bowling injuries, responded by piling up four hundreds and making 600-lus against title fancies Warwickshire

Jon Culley at Edgbaston29-Jun-2015
ScorecardAshar Zaidi was one of four Sussex century makers•Getty Images

The instruction to Warwickshire, according to director of cricket Dougie Brown, will be to ignore the scoreboard and bat as if it were the first innings of the match but that will be easier said than done when his fourth-wicket pair resume on day three still 390 runs away from simply avoiding the follow-on. Sussex’s inconsistent form this season probably required a leap of faith on a pitch designed for Jeetan Patel to exploit but once it became clear that it is actually a very good batting surface they had the mental strength to take full advantage.In one innings, Sussex doubled their tally of individual first-class hundreds for the season so far, with Luke Wright, Ben Brown and Ashar Zaidi joining Chris Nash in posting three-figure scores. It was only the third time in the county’s history that four players have scored centuries in the same Sussex innings. Brown and Nash were among the quartet who did it against Derbyshire at Horsham in 2010. The only other instance came way back in 1938, at Northampton, when John Langridge made a double hundred and the three others included Jim Parks’s father, James senior.Sussex waited until 600 was on the board, turning the psychological screw a little tighter, before declaring. It was their highest total against Warwickshire and their highest against anyone since they made 742 for 5 declared against Somerset at Taunton in 2009.Of the three hundreds on the second day here, Wright’s was probably the most impressive in that having been made to work hard by the young legspinner, Josh Poysden, and contend with Patel’s craft on the opening evening, he then had to face the first overs with the new ball before Sunday’s close and take on a refreshed attack at the beginning of day two. He is naturally an aggressive player but played with patience this time and the six he struck over midwicket off Chris Wright was a nicely timed pick-up.Warwickshire’s spinners shouldered most of the work and Patel was into his 35th over before he finally saw some success, Nash advancing down the pitch to be beaten in the flight and stumped, having added nine to his overnight score.When he also dismissed Wright before lunch, the batsman chopping on to his stumps as he tried to force the ball away off the back foot, Warwickshire will have hoped that their plan to spin out their opponents was at last about to bear fruit.It was misplaced optimism. Wright’s dismissal was the last wicket until after tea as Brown and Zaidi added 191 for the sixth wicket at four and a half runs per over. Zaidi, whose 11 previous centuries will have included many, you imagine, on surfaces similar to this in Pakistan, played handsomely in only his second match of the season to register his first hundred as a Sussex player. Brown, whose hundred was his second of the season, scored at a similar pace and finished unbeaten.Zaidi was stumped off a wide ball from Laurie Evans, who sent down four overs of off-spin as the eighth bowler used and in doing so claimed his maiden first-class wicket for Warwickshire, only his second overall.The declaration came just after tea, at which point it came as a considerable surprise – given what had gone before – that Steve Magoffin, the redoubtable Australian who once again has been so invaluable in Sussex’s injury-hit attack, found not inconsiderable swing with the new ball.Quickly, he had Warwickshire in trouble, as Varun Chopra was caught behind from a ball that moved away late and Ateeq Javid, chasing another that swung away, edged to third slip.In the circumstances, needing desperately to avoid further mishaps, the combination of Ian Westwood and Jonathan Trott at the crease at this stage was probably the ideal one and had they been together still at the close, Brown’s confidence in Warwickshire’s ability to bat long and big might have been reasonable enough.But Westwood, playing back to the leg spin of Luke Wells, was out leg before wicket just before the close and Trott will begin again with a nightwatchman at the other end. A couple more wickets for Magoffin while he is fresh will make the follow-on target of 452 seem huge, let alone any more.Moreover, the pitch may well dust up rapidly in the heat forecast for day three. Patel and Poysden, who has bowled with promise on his debut, will be eager to get back on it. It is quite possible, though, that they will not have the chance.

Darren Stevens smashed 90 and took four wickets at Kent inflicted Surrey’s third consecutive T20 defeat at home

Tim Wigmore at Kia Oval19-Jun-2015
ScorecardDarren Stevens made his highest T20 score and then took four wickets (file photo)•Getty Images

Only five Englishmen – Owais Shah, Luke Wright, Michael Lumb, Ravi Bopara and Phil Mustard – have scored more runs in T20 cricket than Darren Stevens. All played for England in the format, so Stevens can feel a little aggrieved at never having received an opportunity.Into his 40th year, that chance will never come. And the start of 2015 has not been kind. So bleak has Stevens’ form been that, immediately after Kent lost to Derbyshire in the County Championship, he was whisked away to find form for the 2nd XI.The evidence of his 172nd T20 game rather suggests that it worked, as Stevens looted 56 runs from his last 16 balls. The 18th over of the innings, from James Burke, yielded 27 runs. Stevens heaved two sixes over midwicket, but it was the brutality of his straight hitting that lingered: one four almost took out the umpire with its ferocity.

Insights

Kent are the only county in the country with no overseas signings while Surrey, earlier in the season, drafted in Wahab Riaz for two matches in 18 hours and have also called upon the services of Kumar Sangakkara, Kevin Pietersen, Moises Henriques and Azhar Mahmood so far. Of course, Surrey have been ravaged by injuries of late and their squad for this match was arguably one of the weakest they have ever fielded but, whatever your allegiance, it is nice to see that homegrown teams, built from the bottom-up such as Kent, can still beat the powerhouses in this money-centric age.

Invigorating with the bat, Stevens is a rather undemonstrative bowler, operating wicket-to-wicket at a pace no greater than Kent fans driving to the Kia Oval on the M25. But he clean bowled Aneesh Kapil in the first over of the innings and then returned to end a stand of 59 between Gary Wilson and Zafar Ansari with which Surrey briefly threatened to get close.The ball after Ansari harrumphed Stevens over long-on for six, he fell attempting a repeat. As his bat thudded into the ground in frustration, it was clear Surrey were heading inexorably towards a third consecutive T20 defeat at home.Stevens ended up with 4 for 39 to go with his career best 90 – quite an evening’s work. “It could have been a hundred and a five-for, but I’m not going to complain,” he said. His belligerence had lifted Kent to within nine of the 240 Surrey conceded against Glamorgan at the Kia Oval in their first T20 of the season. The sight of 18-year-old Ryan Davies thumping his first ball over long-on for six in his first innings in professional T20 cricket rather summed the bedlam up.Surrey’s attack was made to look like the patched-up operation it was. The extent of Surrey’s absentee list – even discounting Kevin Pietersen, seven first choice T20 players were out – had led Graham Ford to admit they were underdogs. In his first T20 match for four years Tim Linley, fresh from taking a Championship five-for on loan at Sussex, snared three wickets in the final over of Kent’s innings, though by then it felt rather late. Sam Curran, the young brother of Tom who only turned 17 a fortnight ago, learned of the perils of bowling too short.While it felt a little churlish to criticise in the circumstances, it was curious that Ansari, who bowled Joe Denly when bowling the opening over of the innings, was left with an over unused despite taking 2 for 22. Perhaps more curious still, skipper Gareth Batty restricted himself to a solitary over.The absence of Jason Roy, Steven Davies, Moises Henriques and Kumar Sangakkara led to an elevation to opener for Tom Curran, Surrey’s regular No. 9 in the Championship. Not that he gave any indication of being perturbed, striking two enormous straight sixes until he was needlessly run out. Gary Wilson fused orthodoxy and cute innovation shuffling across his stumps, to record his sixth T20 half-century, but Surrey retained the feel of a side a couple of batsmen light.As Mitchell Claydon removed Matt Dunn with the game’s last delivery, so ended an emphatic Kent victory on a sun-kissed evening. Having seen over 400 runs, few of a crowd of 21,717 seemed particularly perturbed by Surrey’s loss. Their next home game, against Middlesex in a fortnight, is almost a sell-out already. Surrey now have four defeats to go with their solitary T20 win, and only a stirring turnaround can spare them from being knocked out in the group stages. How much such failure would matter is a moot point.

India had been scheduled to train at the Premadasa Stadium, but when early morning drizzle worsened into showers, they switched to the indoor nets

Andrew Fidel Fernando04-Aug-2015The sun has shone in daylight hours in the week preceding the India team’s arrival in Colombo, but as so often happens on the island, rains lie in ambush for the first sign of cricket. The visitors had been scheduled to train at the Premadasa Stadium, but when early morning drizzle worsened into showers, they switched to the indoor nets, partway across town at the Nondescripts Cricket Club.So when M Vijay was asked before this training session how well he was hitting the ball, “I don’t know – the rain spoiled the previous training” was all the reply he could offer. It was a low-key reply to what has so far been a low-key arrival. The series is sure to heat up when Kumar Sangakkara returns to the country and marches into that final series. But for now, Colombo has switched cricket off, and turned attentions to the general election, which takes place in between the first and second Test.When it does begin, following the three-day warm up starting on Friday, the series is sure to be a juicy one. Both teams are rebuilding, but are going about it in different ways. While Angelo Mathews has eyed gradual improvement, Virat Kohli heads a team that aims to be forceful and dynamic, though they haven’t yet had much success overseas.Among Kohli’s plans for the series may be the use of five bowlers in his XI. It is a strategy India trialled in Bangladesh, with roughly good results, but not one they had usually used under MS Dhoni. The flip side of that, of course, is the extra strain on the batsmen, which Vijay said was no strain at all.”Playing with five bowlers is not demanding for batsmen,” he said. “Batting is our role. If any one of us click it’s going to be good for the team and we’re going to be in a much more comfortable position. It’s a good responsibility to have on your shoulders – to go in and bat. If you’re going to dominate a Test match we should work according to the plans.”Vijay, now a relative senior in the batting unit, will be expected to provide some of the runs a No. 7 might have hit, particularly as his recent overseas record has been outstanding. He is grateful that, following his nine-month Test hiatus in 2013, his return to top-level cricket was gradual.”That nine month period I was out of the team – I had my wrist injury at the same time,” he said. “It’s not an easy period for any sportsperson, carrying an injury. I had to go through the regime of rehabilitation. Once I got my rhythm back in my batting it helped to play one format of the game and not play the other two. I had a little more time to work on my fitness and stuff, during that period. “While the teams’ captains have contrasting virtues, there is symmetry at the top of the innings. Vijay has often played within himself while Shikhar Dhawan broke loose at the other. Sri Lanka have set out with a similar pair – Kaushal Silva doing the Geoffrey Boycott impression, as Dimuth Karunaratne flashes his blade.”There’s a lot of talent” in the Sri Lanka batting order, Vijay said, but perhaps because these teams play each other so rarely in Tests, he could not say much more. “Angelo Mathews is doing a great job, and Lahiru Thirimanne and the opener – I don’t know the exact name,” he said. If the rains relent, they will get to know each other a little better as the tour wears on.

Fast bowlers Mitchell Johnson and Josh Hazlewood could be rested from Australia’s Test tour of Bangladesh next month in an effort to ensure they are fresh for the upcoming home summer

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Sep-2015Fast bowlers Mitchell Johnson and Josh Hazlewood could be rested from Australia’s Test tour of Bangladesh next month in an effort to ensure they are fresh for the upcoming home summer. Australia are scheduled to play two Tests in Bangladesh starting on October 9, before returning home for six Tests against New Zealand and West Indies, and a two-Test tour of New Zealand.Hazlewood was left out of the fifth Ashes Test as he began to show the effects of a long series, and Johnson sent down 140 overs across the five Tests. Pat Howard, Cricket Australia’s general manager of team performance, hinted that both men would need to be managed carefully with such a busy season coming up.”The selectors won’t meet to discuss the tour of Bangladesh for a couple of weeks,” Howard told the . “There’s some important consideration that needs to be given to managing our fast bowlers, not just in Bangladesh, but the full 10-Test season, and that will be part of the discussion.”Mitchell Johnson and Josh Hazlewood are two players that have had heavy workloads and need to be managed carefully if we are to give them the best chance of success throughout that entire period. Neither player has had a pre-season to prepare for the Australian summer and we think that’s particularly important.”Entering the Bangladesh series without Johnson could be seen as tempting fate, for he was the only Australian bowler to average under 40 during last year’s series against Pakistan in the UAE, and Bangladesh might provide similar conditions. If Johnson and Hazlewood are rested, it could mean the pace attack will be led by Mitchell Starc and Peter Siddle.

The Jaipur bench of the Rajasthan High Court has approved the BCCI’s appointment of selection committees to pick Rajasthan teams for various domestic tournaments in the upcoming 2015-16 season

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Sep-2015The Jaipur bench of the Rajasthan High Court has approved the BCCI’s appointment of selection committees to pick Rajasthan teams for various domestic tournaments in the upcoming 2015-16 season. The court approved the committees on Friday during the hearing of a writ petition filed by a section of Rajasthan’s players, in which they sought help to play the forthcoming season.The uncertainty over the participation of teams from Rajasthan is the effect of the dispute between the BCCI and the Rajasthan Cricket Association. The board has had to appoint selection committees for Rajasthan teams for a second consecutive year, after it suspended the RCA following Lalit Modi’s election as association president in May 2014.

Selection committees for Rajasthan teams

• Seniors: Rajinder Singh Hans (national selector), Sanjay Vyas, Vivek Bhan Singh, Najmul Hussain, Vinod Mathur, Bharat Bhushan

• Juniors: Pritam Gandhe (national selector), Sukhvinder Singh, Pramod Yadav, Kuldeep Mathur

• Women: Hemlata Kala (national selector), Megha Gour, Shabana Khan, Pratima Bharti

All three selection committees for the 2015-16 season include national selectors. Rajinder Singh Hans is a part of the men’s selection committee, while Pritam Gandhe and Hemlata Kala are in the junior and women’s committees respectively.Amrit Mathur, a former manager of the Indian team, has been appointed coordinator of the selection committees and will be assisted by Taposh Chatterjee. Mathur is also the coordinator of the BCCI’s ad-hoc committee that was appointed earlier this month to run cricket in Rajasthan.The Jaipur bench of the court also observed that the appointed selection committees would continue to exist until the RCA matter is resolved. Last year, the tenures of the court-appointed committees and coordinator had stretched only until the end of the 2014-15 season.The BCCI legal counsel, led by its senior lawyer Ushanath Banerjee, informed the court that the board has taken the steps to ensure players’ welfare. It is understood the court had no objection to approving the selection committees put forth by the board’s ad-hoc panel. “The court was happy and mentioned that the main motive – the players’ interests – were not hurt,” a BCCI official said.On Thursday, a group of nearly 60 players, including senior cricketer Pankaj Singh had urged various stakeholders, including the court and state government, to resolve disputes related to the RCA and allow players to participate in domestic cricket. A section of the players had also filed writ petitions with the Jaipur and Jodhpur benches of the Rajasthan High Court. The second writ petition will be heard before the Jodhpur bench on September 14.According to the official, the second petition is unlikely to create any further hurdles for the BCCI. He said the BCCI’s ad-hoc panel will now discharge duties the RCA ought to have fulfilled as the court had taken the “significant” decision to allow the selections panels and the coordination committee to continue until the matter was resolved.”At the end of last season, all activities ceased so there were no off-season camps, fitness camps. Selections tournaments were not held as the tenure of the selection committees approved by the court last year ended after the 2014-15 season. Now that is not the case. You will not have the suspense and uncertainty at the beginning of the season, which has been the case for the last two years. The players would not need to raise a cry for help,” the official pointed out.According to Mathur, the coordination committee has already set the wheels in motion. “We have started work straightaway. We have decided to organise selection trials for the Under-19 women’s team on September 14 and 15 so that they can play the domestic tournament starting soon,” he said.Mathur also said the coordination committee would meet on September 14 in Jaipur to decide on the plan for the men’s teams, including selection trials and preparatory camps ahead of the Ranji Trophy, which starts from October 1.