There may be many reasons given for Nepal’s exit from the Under-19 World Cup, but they should not overshadow a group of talented cricketers eager for more success

Mohammad Isam and Vishal Dikshit05-Feb-2016When discussing Nepal defeat in the Under-19 World Cup quarter-final, topics such as captain Raju Rijal missing a stumping off Mehedi Hasan Miraz, their batsmen’s inability to accelerate in the last 10 overs and conversely their bowlers giving away too much runs in the death may crop up. But they should not overshadow Rijal’s 72 off 80 balls, made amid questions raised over the legitimacy of his participation in the tournament, or Nepal’s spinners badgering the Bangladesh batsmen for long periods, or the team’s tremendous fielding skills.Bangladesh felt the pressure of expectation in the quarter-final chasing 212, and Nepal made sure it stung. Sunil Dhamala bowled a fine early spell, trapping Saif Hassan and Joyraz Sheik lbw. When Nazmul Hossain Shanto fell for eight in the 23rd over, Nepal were naturally in control.Then came the missed stumping. “It was a very big mistake,” Rijal said. “I didn’t realise that the ball was coming to me. May be I was not alert that time. It was a very big loss.”We feel good to be an Associate nation reaching the quarter-final by beating a Test nation. But I feel sad for this match. I think we were 20 to 30 runs short. I thought our bowling was very accurate and fielding very good. That’s why at the half-time break we thought we will win. But they [Mehedi Hasan and Zakir Hasan] put pressure on our fielders, took ones and twos, and the game away from us.”Three days ago, a 25-year old Mumbai cricketer Kaustubh Pawar had alleged that he had played with Rijal and that he was too old to participate in an Under-19 World Cup. The ICC investigated the matter and gave the Nepal captain a clean chit, but it had still bothered him. “Little bit yes, but I forgot about it in the dressing room and played my natural game when I went to the field,” he said.Before his statement, the team manager Sudeep Sharma took over the microphone and said: “We provided all the legal documents we have from the Government of Nepal to the ICC. They took time and went through it and there was no fact behind the rumour. According to ICC, he has no age issues and Raju can play all matches.”Although the age controversy grabbed headlines, Nepal’s tournament had a lot more to it than that. For someone like the legspinner Sandeep Lamichhane, coming from the Syangja district some 200 km to the west of Kathmandu, this was a chance to show his talent on the world stage. He took a hat-trick and converted it into a five-wicket haul against Ireland. He dismissed Shanto in the quarter-final and has eight wickets from four matches.”In the last six months, I’ve had to stop my studies because of the training camps,” Lamichhane told ESPNcricinfo. “I haven’t seen my classroom for six months. What I am today is because of my coach Tamata. I like to give flight. If batsmen are taking risk, it’s a good sign for me. I used to watch videos of Shane Warne and my coach helped me become a legbreak bowler. I’m also following Adil Rashid these days but Shane Warne forever.”That Lamichhane is serious about cricket is clear from how much he has invested in it. He even moved cities to get better opportunities and said it has helped that his family are fans of the game. “I grew up in Syangja and then moved to Chitwan, which is my hometown now,” he said. “I moved to Chitwan three years ago because of parents and better cricket opportunities. I started playing at nine. My father and older brother supported me as they are both fond of cricket.”The team’s vice-captain Aarif Sheikh has been decent with the bat; his 39 off 60 balls in the middle order helped Nepal beat New Zealand in their opening match of the Under-19 World Cup. Since then he has made 31, 26 and 21 but is yet to pick up a wicket with his medium-pace.Sheikh said that his favorite cricketer is Kevin Pietersen and no one else, and he has a similar role of being the enforcer in the middle-order. “I prefer batting, of course. I enjoy batting at No. 5, when the team is under pressure I enjoy it more. KP is my favourite. I like how he can picks singles, rotate the strike. When I get time I try to catch his matches.”Sheikh also made it a point to highlight the contributions of the Nepal support staff. “The coach said not to take too much pressure, play what you have and he believes in us and we believe in ourselves too. All the players have been given their roles and that’s what we are focusing on.”Nepal now turn their attention to the playoffs and are determined to ensure automatic qualification to the 2018 Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand.

Despite being sanctioned by the government, South Africa’s cricket system is not all that far from being able to call itself representative

Firdose Moonda26-Apr-2016It may not seem like it but South Africa’s cricket bosses can breathe a little easier. Although they received what seems a hefty punishment – being banned from bidding for or hosting major tournaments – for the slow progress of transformation, unlike their rugby counterparts they have both enough time and enough resources to ensure the sanction is lifted before it could make a real difference.South Africa was not in line to host a senior ICC tournament until at least 2023 and has only been pencilled in to stage the Under-19 World Cup in 2020. The government’s transformation targets are reviewed annually, which means that by next year, CSA could see the penalty reversed. But the board will need to make some changes and many are wondering what those have to be.The curiosity begins in the question itself, because the terms of the memorandum of understanding five South African sports federations signed with the sports ministry have not been made public. At Monday’s press conference, where sports minister Fikile Mbalula received the transformation reports and delivered his verdict, the barometer for measuring progress was set at 60%.That means that in order to avoid sanctions, 60% of players in the national cricket, rugby, football, netball and athletics teams had to be players of colour, which refers to anyone of black African, mixed-race or Indian descent. Only football met this target.Cricket was not that far off the mark, though, with a representation rate of 55%. Bridging the gap will be CSA’s first task.Using the 60% mark, South Africa would have to field seven players of colour in the national team, which would leave space for four white players. The significance of that ratio will not be lost on some. When transformation targets were first introduced in 1998, the quota was four players of colour in teams. The new requirements have essentially reversed that. They also require South African cricket to go where it has only gone three times before.

“I know what it was like to have to take three or four taxis from the township to the stadium for practice, not having a job but having pressure to earn a salary for a family”Lions coach Geoffrey Toyana

In 2013, in ODIs against Netherlands, Pakistan and India, South Africa fielded seven players of colour. On 17 other occasions – eight ODIs and nine T20s – South Africa teams have included six players of colour. The most they have ever had in a Test is five players of colour, in 17 matches. In the 2015-16 season, the South Africa XI typically consisted of between four and five players of colour. So where will the extra players come from?The obvious answer is the domestic system, where at least 36 players of colour regularly ply their trade at franchise level, in line with the transformation targets of six players of colour per team. Should CSA want to put that in line with the international target, it may look at increasing that number to seven, as it considered doing last year.It did try to implement a target in the second-tier system – the 13 provincial teams – of seven players of colour but backtracked after a legal threat from the South African Cricketers’ Association, who said it was told too late about the proposed changes. Instead, CSA used last season to increase the black African quota from two to three.This subsection of the target is also something the ministry of sport addressed, although there is no explicit target. Black African representation in South Africa’s cricket team sits at just 9%, which translates to one player in an XI. Last season, most often, this player was Kagiso Rabada, although Eddie Leie, Temba Bavuma and Aaron Phangiso also featured. The ministry continues to monitor whether this number will go up.The systems put in place at domestic level suggest that it has to. Even without increasing the franchise targets, there are 18 black African players in the franchise set-up and 18 other players of colour. Naturally, the next question will be whether any or all of them are good enough to make the step up or if the system is merely colouring by numbers.CSA’s transformation goals run from players and coaches right through to administrators•AFPAmong the top five franchise performers in each format were: one batsman of colour in first-class cricket, Qaasim Adams, and two bowlers of colour, Dane Piedt and Tabraiz Shamsi; three batsmen of colour in the 50-over format, Alviro Petersen, Rudi Second and Justin Ontong, and four bowlers of colour – of which three were black African – Malusi Siboto, Wayne Parnell, Junior Dala and Tshepo Moreki. In the T20 tournament, there was one batsman of colour in the top five, Reeza Hendricks, and two bowlers of colour, both black African, Sisanda Magala and Phangiso.This analysis, albeit brief, is proof that players are coming through but also evidence of a glaring problem. There is a lack of batsmen of colour, particularly black African batsmen, and a lack of first-class performers of colour. If CSA is to address the national team’s transformation issues, these are the areas it needs to focus on, by ensuring the development of black African batsmen – for whom Test centurion Bavuma has become a role-model – and nurturing players of colour in the longer format.The issue of mentoring these players is also a transformation issue, not least because the number of coaches forms part of the ministry’s assessment. Willie Basson, a member of the group that puts together the transformation report and a former acting president of CSA, explained that the relationships between coaches of colour and players of colour are different because they often involve a level of understanding about background that can be absent in the relationship between a white coach and player of colour.Lions’ coach Geoffrey Toyana is a case point. Toyana is a former first-class cricketer from the storied Soweto township and has previously spoken of how he can relate to the socio-economic difficulties players of colour face as they try to make it as professional sportsmen. “I know what it was like to have to take three or four taxis from the township to the stadium for practice, not having a job but having pressure to earn a salary for a family and that kind of thing,” Toyana said. It is seen as no accident that under Toyana’s watch, Lions have become the team with the most black African players, including Test successes Rabada and Bavuma.

There is a lack of batsmen of colour, particularly black African batsmen, and a lack of first-class performers of colour. If CSA is to address the national team’s transformation issues, these are the areas it needs to focus on

Toyana is one of two black African coaches at franchise level, along with Warriors’ Malibongwe Maketa, and one of three coaches of colour – Paul Adams of Cobras is the third. That number could increase to four in the 2016-17 season, with Yashin Ebrahim and Roger Telemachus in line to succeed Lance Klusener as Dolphins’ coach.South Africa are also transforming their coaching of feeder sides for the national team. Lawrence Mahatlane, a black African who won trophies in charge of the Gauteng provincial team, is the Under-19s coach, while Shukri Conrad, a franchise trophy winner with Cobras and Lions, is the national academy coach. Vincent Barnes, a successful bowler who was denied the chance to play for South Africa in the apartheid years and a former national bowling coach, is CSA’s high performance manager.Administratively, South African cricket is also keeping up with transformation requirements. Three of the six franchise CEOs are people of colour, although none is black African. CSA’s president, Chris Nenzani, is black African and the CEO, Haroon Lorgat, a person of colour.All these things are taken into account when the transformation report is compiled, so it is not only about the composition of the national team but about wholesale change. Not everybody likes this way of looking at things – former allrounder Jacques Kallis even said it made him embarrassed to be South African – but it is clear that cricket is not far from meeting the requirements and having the sanction lifted, and thus being able to call itself a sport that represents all South Africans.

He cannot match the big hitters for power, but his numbers are as good as theirs – if not better

Aakash Chopra04-May-2016Virat Kohli has scored 11 fifties and a hundred in his last 19 T20 innings at an average of 96.18 and a strike rate of 138.48. He has scored 40 or more in 14 of the 19 innings that he has batted in in 2016. These are Bradmanesque numbers, particularly in a format that allows only 120 balls to be distributed among the top five or six batsmen.T20 cricket forced us to adjust our statistical benchmarks: 30 has become the new 50 when it comes to batting averages. No longer is it about digging in and playing a long innings, for T20 doesn’t allow you the luxury of time. When you start biding your time, you fall so far behind in the game that it is almost impossible to recover.In fact, the essence of T20 cricket is to keep going regardless of how many came off the previous over or the previous ball, and that means inconsistency. I remember chatting to Rahul Dravid during the first year of the IPL and he voiced his reservations about the fact that it was being considered okay to get out after scoring a quick 30. (And 30 is still considered a decent score in T20, unless your name is Virat Kohli.)When ODI cricket came along, everyone treated it like a shortened Test match and went about their business as they would in a Test match innings – save for the last ten overs. It took some time and some rule changes to force teams to start viewing ODI cricket as a different sport, and that changed the momentum of the format forever. Nowadays batsmen go on the offensive from the first ball and don’t take their foot off the accelerator till the end. Earlier, scoring a run a ball was limited to only the death overs, but now 300-plus scores are achieved as a matter of course.Similarly, when T20 started, everyone treated it as a 120-ball slogfest. But as the approach to ODI cricket changed, so is it changing with T20, as players approach T20 innings with a slightly different method.While they still go hard at most stages of the game, they no longer see the need to slog every ball to score 12 an over. And that is where Kohli leads the pack. T20 cricket is fast becoming synonymous with power-hitting and innovative stroke-making, but Kohli is still doing his stuff the old-fashioned way. He doesn’t go aerial all the time, he doesn’t hit sixes as often as some of the top T20 batsmen do, and he doesn’t play the lap or the reverse lap shot. So how does he manage to not just stay relevant but also rule the shortest format?The importance of the basics
AB de Villiers spoke about (and demonstrated) his method of playing, where he referred to an imaginary box around him that he ensures to stay within. In short, he talks about how keeping arms and legs close to each other allows him to maintain better shape.While Kohli hasn’t spoken similarly about his method, he’s quite like de Villiers in his approach. The key to his consistency is his ability to play almost everything close to his body and right under his eyes, especially while playing defensive strokes early in his innings. While most T20 batting stars hit the ground running, Kohli tends to take a bit more time and looks to play only orthodox cricket shots in the beginning.

His innings almost always show a steady upward curve till the end, which takes his overall strike rate to a very acceptable 138. Kohli’s commitment to this method makes him consistent.Not getting too far ahead of oneself is the key to succeeding regularly. How does a batsman move from being in top form to being out of form? Well, when you’re in form, you try to do things that you wouldn’t do otherwise, and those lead to your dismissal a time or two. An ordinary umpiring decision, a bad call from your partner, and a couple of terrific deliveries follow (not necessarily in that order), and before you realise it, you’re in the middle of a dry spell.Kohli has managed to keep this tendency at bay. For him, a red flag goes up when he strays from his brief. He played an out-of-character shot against Mashrafe Mortaza in the first Asia Cup game earlier this year and acknowledged his mistake straightaway. In the next game he went back to his method, got runs, and in the post-match interview said how he had learned from the error in the previous match. No great batsman worth his salt is bereft of ego, but most manage to keep it in check, and that’s the case with Kohli too.Finesse over muscle
Kohli by his own admission doesn’t possess the ability to regularly clear the fence. Not only do players like Chris Gayle, de Villiers and David Warner take the aerial route often, they also hit sixes at almost every stage of a T20 innings.Those players have the ability to hit sixes without stepping out. While Kohli can also hit sixes, he needs to use body momentum to generate the power required more often than not. But good players don’t fret over what they don’t have; they find a way around it to be successful. Kohli has managed to score 12 an over without hitting sixes. Most great players have two shots to the same ball; Kohli has two variations of the same shot – one where he gives it a proper whip to hit the boundary and one in which he just pushes the ball to steal a couple.Kohli has run 83 twos in his 19 innings this year. The next highest, at close to half that, is Hamilton Masakadza, with 45. Among 26 batsmen who have faced 300 or more balls in T20s this year, only Steven Smith has a higher percentage of twos (11.35% to Kohli’s 10.86).Kohli’s ability to know how hard the ball has to be hit to take two runs makes him a master of chases, for it allows him to put immense pressure on the opposition captain and fielders. We saw him do it against Australia in the World T20 and wondered if it had something to do with the size of the ground, for Mohali is a lot bigger than most Indian grounds. But he did the same against West Indies at the Wankhede, and that takes some doing because you either get singles or fours on a smaller outfield like the one at the Wankhede.A lot of credit for Kohli’s phenomenal speed between the stumps must go to his supreme fitness. That also comes in handy when he needs to step out. In T20 you don’t often see batsmen step out and successfully execute the shot they’re looking to play, for not only do spinners in T20 cricket bowl faster, they also bowl flatter, so it’s difficult to leave the crease after the ball has left the bowler’s hand and gather yourself before hitting the ball. If you step out before the ball is released, the bowler will drag it short, and if you step out too late, you tend to be on the move when the ball reaches you. In Kohli’s case, he seems to be able to time his stepping out better than the rest, and so he manages to hit the ball to the fence more often too.

Only Smith steps out more than Kohli does, but Kohli’s strike rate is 202 for the balls he steps out to, while Smith’s is around 154. Also, when he steps out, Kohli hits one in every 3.3 balls to the fence, as compared to Smith, who hits one in 5.6.Kohli’s trainer claims that his current fitness standards are comparable with those of Novak Djokovic. While we will never see those two play each other in the same sport, and so won’t know how true that statement is, nobody will deny that Kohli is one of the fittest cricketers going around.In every era, we get cricketers who redefine the rules and Kohli is doing just that, redefining batting in T20.

Ireland embark on their biggest summer of cricket with their golden generation on the wane but the next generation on the rise

Tim Wigmore15-Jun-2016Ten years and two days ago, Ireland welcomed England to Stormont. It was Ireland’s first ever one-day international. This was a heady day, but also a faintly incongruous one. Ireland’s best player, Ed Joyce, was playing for England; their next best two, Niall O’Brien and Eoin Morgan, were unable to play because they had been retained by their counties. In the circumstances, Ireland’s margin of defeat – 38 runs – was far better than feared, but the match felt more like an exhibition game than a fully fledged ODI.As they prepared for the 2007 World Cup, not everyone wished Ireland well. “The idea that they can provide proper opposition for any genuine Test team is ludicrous. But the World Cup will be substantially ruined to perpetuate this myth,” warned the Editor’s Notes in Wisden 2006, while lamenting that ODIs like Ireland against England would “add another layer of distortion to cricket’s poor old statistics” and would “create yet more bad cricket, leaving less time for the great contests which the public want to watch.”It was a mainstream view, and for good reason. In 2001, Ireland played in the ICC Trophy in Canada, the qualification tournament for the 2003 World Cup. They finished above only Denmark and USA, and twice had to enlist the journalist James Fitzgerald as a substitute fielder.”I went up to the team manager and asked him who his 12th man was going to be that day,” Fitzgerald later recalled. “He kind of looked around and said, ‘Are you available?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I could give you a bit of time as I don’t have to file my copy until later this evening’.”The following year, Ireland were defeated by Berkshire in the first round of the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy. Their top score was extras.In the years since, Ireland have enriched cricket. They have bested five Full Members in the World Cup, scoring over 300 in three of those games, and did so with a team that is overwhelmingly homegrown. They have transformed cricket’s image within the Emerald Isle. Most importantly, their performances have won respect the world over, and changed the way cricket fans view Associate nations.These are formidable achievements, and Ireland have done it all while feeling shunned by the ICC. They only played nine ODIs against Test teams between the 2011 and 2015 World Cups: four wasted years for an international team. They have won four of the last five editions of the Intercontinental Cup, but Test status has remained elusive. Until 2015, Ireland got by on about one-eighth the ICC funding of Zimbabwe.Ireland fans can look forward to their biggest summer of cricket at home•Getty ImagesThere is now cause for optimism on all these fronts. Ireland’s funding has ticked up under the new ICC regime, and could do so more in the coming months. The ICC is close to agreeing to the introduction of two divisions, of seven and five, in Test cricket, with promotion and, in essence, everything that Ireland have long advocated with such passion. Quiet fury remains at the contraction of the World Cup to ten teams, but Ireland have been heartened by their progress in securing top-level fixtures.Sri Lanka and Pakistan play two ODIs each at Malahide this summer – the first summer ever that Ireland will host two Test nations for multi-match series. Afghanistan also play five ODIs, and Ireland will play Australia and South Africa during a tour of Southern Africa this autumn, which could yet take in matches in Zimbabwe too. Bangladesh and New Zealand have already signed up to playing a tri-series in Ireland next May.Yet such heartening news conceals a lingering fear: that these opportunities are arriving only as the generation that has compelled the world to take note of Irish cricket is nearing retirement. The side’s most reliable batsmen – Joyce and Niall O’Brien – and the leaders of the attack, Tim Murtagh and Boyd Rankin, are all well into their 30s. Trent Johnston, Ireland’s skipper a decade ago and recently retired, has advocated an end to William Porterfield’s eight-year reign as captain, at least in T20 cricket, and implored the selectors to shake up the team.There will be signs of that against Sri Lanka. An injury to O’Brien has created a vacancy in the top six, which is likely to be filled by Stuart Poynter, who has been in fine fettle for Durham’s 2nd XI this season. Barry McCarthy, an athletic fast-bowling allrounder who has broken into Durham’s first team, is primed to make his international debut.Though he lacks express pace, McCarthy is a very modern cricketer, zestful in all three disciplines across all three formats, and with the temperament to seize the moment. A probing spell to Ben Stokes in the Malahide nets in 2013 so impressed Stokes that he alerted Durham to McCarthy’s talents; this season, he has responded with a five-for in a Championship game against Lancashire and a brace of three-fors in T20s. His presence, and O’Brien’s absence, mean that, unusually, Ireland look stronger in their bowling than batting, and have a pace attack to exploit any Sri Lankan jitters.There is an obvious way that McCarthy and his emerging generation can improve on the achievements of Ireland’s old guard: by toppling Full Members at home, something Ireland have not done since besting Bangladesh in 2010. They are yet to defeat a Test side at Malahide, their cricketing home.Ireland have spent longer than they would have wished bemoaning the intransigence of cricket’s governing elite in depriving them of chances to prove their worth. Now, at last, the side is beginning to get the opportunities it considers its right. For the game’s future in Ireland, the team has to take them.

Shorter matches spell good news for spectators and broadcasters. Cricket has a little to lose and a whole lot to gain by truncating its premier format

Tim Wigmore27-Jul-2016It is a game that, uniquely, lasts for five days, stubbornly impervious to the time pressures of the outside world. This simple idea is wired into the very identity of Test cricket.It has not been ever thus, of course. Tests have been played over three, four, five or six days, and even been timeless. But, barring the anomaly of the Super Test in 2005, every match in the format over the last 37 years has been scheduled to last for five days.Yet the notion of a Test match as an entity that lasts for five days is now imperilled. In recent months, board representatives from England, South Africa, Sri Lanka and New Zealand have all spoken in favour of Test cricket switching to four days. Proposals will be discussed at an ICC meeting in September. Four-day Test matches could be the norm from as soon as 2019.Many will see such an intrinsic part of Test cricket’s identity even being up for debate as another sad step in the decline of the format, platitudes about “protecting the primacy of Test cricket” counting for nothing set against the greed and myopia of administrators.The administrators are not oblivious to these criticisms, but consider that the real risk to Test cricket lies in inertia, and that it is better for Tests to be a vibrant game played over four days than a moribund one played over five. They think that four-day Test cricket can help the longest form adapt and thrive.Four-day Tests. Two divisions, with promotion and relegation. An ODI league. That all of these are now being seriously discussed highlights how much world cricket is in flux. But while these changes might seem new and radical, they have actually been brewing for many years. Two divisions in Tests was first mooted in 1968.Four-day Tests were first proposed by Andrew Wildblood, then a senior international vice-president for International Management Group, to the ICC in 2003. His rationale was that four-day matches, while preserving the fundamentals and nuances of Test cricket, would lead to more exciting cricket. For cricketing and commercial reasons, Wildblood remains a firm advocate of four-day Tests, and is categorical that “there would be no loss of revenue from broadcasters or sponsors if this happened. Zero.”In 1895, Mark Hanna, credited with creating the modern political campaign, said: “There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money, and I can’t remember what the second one is.” The same often seems true in cricket administration, which bodes ill for the chances of Tests remaining five-day matches.Broadcasters are known to be in favour of a move to four-day Tests. In place of the current hotchpotch of start dates – beginning on Thursdays in England was once considered sacrosanct, but now Wednesday and Friday starts are routine, and in 2014, one Test even started on a Sunday – Test cricket’s schedule could be rationalised.A shortened Test format will make better economic sense for smaller countries like Sri Lanka and West Indies•AFPAs David White, the chief executive of New Zealand Cricket, said recently, the hope is that Test matches will always begin on Thursdays, progressing to a denouement on Sunday evenings. So instead of finishing at a time when fans are stuck at work, Tests would now finish exactly when TV audience numbers would be at their peak. The spectacle of a full crowd in the ground, rather than a few thousand on a final day, might also make Test cricket more appealing to watch on TV. Broadcasters say nothing puts channel-hoppers off cricket quite like an empty stadium.”The likelihood of the game coming to its climax and finishing over a weekend would improve TV ratings and ticket sales,” Wildblood says, believing this would compensate for the reduction in advertising spots. “Broadcasting sport is not only about number of hours broadcast. Were that so, all sport would be valued equally on a per-hour rate card. It is more importantly about quality, because quality drives interest, which drives ratings. If the anticipated consequential increase in interest and excitement are correct then an increased concentration of value delivered by increased ratings will follow, at a minimum making good any revenue losses from a fifth day.”The romantic notion of the consummate Test is of a match that finishes a little after tea on the final day, with all four results looming as possible going into that last day. Yet the recent Lord’s Test was a classic, its narrative evolving over four days until it reached a climax on a glorious Sunday afternoon. This was not a match that felt remotely lacking for the absence of a final day. Essentially, it provided a template for administrators who favour four-day Tests becoming the norm.Such abridged Tests are increasingly common. According to statistician Ric Finlay, 28.6% of all Test matches have ended before the fifth day. In the last five years that figure is 41.5%. In England, only one of the previous ten Tests have had any fifth day at all.As well as providing greater justification for losing the fifth day altogether – if it is being used less, then ditching it will change the nature of Test cricket relatively little – the spate of early finishes has also had important financial repercussions for grounds, where the associations involved often have to cover some costs in advance. Playing without a fifth day “would save a hell of a lot of money from the ground’s point of view and the broadcasters,” ECB Chairman Colin Graves said last year. He has argued that even games that go on to a fifth day often lose money if they finish early, or during the working week, struggle to get many spectators.The introduction of four-day Tests could also help maintain the overall number of Test matches played. Three-Test series now normally occupy about 26 days from start to finish because of the need to provide rest after a set of back-to-back matches. If Tests were reduced to four days, then a three-match series could take only 18 days, with each match commencing on consecutive Thursdays.A four-day Test starting on Thursday is likely to be completed on Sunday evening in front of a big crowd•Getty ImagesWhite says this would make it easier for New Zealand to play three-Test series. That reduction of eight days might not seem like a lot, but it is significant in the context of the onerous schedule faced by international cricketers today, and the challenges for countries, especially those with smaller economies, like New Zealand, Sri Lanka and the West Indies, to organise enough international cricket to generate the broadcasting rights necessary to fund grass-roots development, but not so much as to tempt players into premature retirement to take up T20 full-time. In this sense, four-day Test cricket could be consistent with those hankering for less Test cricket but to be of better quality. Better to have a West Indies side at full strength in four-day matches than an under-strength team being flogged in five-day Tests.None of this is to deny the challenges involved in four-day Test cricket. Graves initially suggested days of 105 overs each, which seems far too demanding of players; even 100 overs a day – ensuring 400 overs in a Test, compared to 450 now – would be burdensome. In the era of DRS, over rates are going down, not up. At Lord’s this month, none of the three completed days had a full allocation of overs bowled. Administrators would finally need to impose draconian penalties for teams slumberous in delivering their overs. Pitches, too, would need to be designed for a match to last four days rather than five, although as this is happening with increasing frequency anyway, the changes need not be dramatic. The impact of poor weather would also be heightened. If one day was rained off, most games could virtually be written off as draws.Four-day matches could rid Tests of much of their essence. There would be less scope for the epic rearguard to secure a draw, that rich tradition that extends from Hanif Mohammad’s 337 in 1958 to Mike Atherton’s 185 not out in 1995, and the strokelessness of Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers in Adelaide four years ago. A game would be created with a subtly different rhythm, which could bode ill both for adhesive batsmen and for spinners with a penchant for exploiting wearing pitches – even if Yasir Shah’s wondrous performance at Lord’s had no need for a final day. Such fears explain why the ICC Cricket Committee recently opposed the idea of four-day Tests. The MCC is also understood to have reservations.Yet for all the concerns that four-day Tests would represent the apex of financial expediency over cricketing logic, growing support for four-day matches from administrators is palpable. Test cricket has constantly evolved throughout its history. Now a rare spirit of radicalism has taken hold in the boardrooms of the ICC. Four-day Tests are one manifestation of the simple belief that David Richardson expressed earlier this month. If Test cricket is to remain vital for cricket lovers of future generations, “doing nothing is not an option anymore.”

Pat Howard, Australia’s team performance manager, talks about the challenges of shaking things up over five years of mixed results for the national side

Daniel Brettig24-Aug-2016Walking behind the scoreboard on day three of the Pallekele Test, Pat Howard crossed paths with a pair of Australian cricket followers. The tale on the other side of the board was looking increasingly sickly for Australia. One spectator said loudly to the other, “A lot of high-performance work needed here…” Without breaking stride, Howard retorted, “very funny”, and continued on his way.If the result at Pallekele was instructive as to where the Test team must improve, then the above exchange was as telling about the way Howard is still perceived by many in and around Australian cricket. October will make five years for him in the job as Cricket Australia’s executive general manager – team performance, a role sculpted specifically through the review chaired in 2011 by Don Argus.This has been a most turbulent period, and Howard’s tenure has been marked by conflict and change. He has needed plenty of resilience in seeking to implement many of Argus’ recommendations. Through that time, Howard’s instinct has been to do much as he did in response to the “high performance” jibe – keep striving forward, if offering the occasional backhander along the way.

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In August 2011, at the time the Argus review findings were announced, Howard was chief of operations for Cromwell Property Group in Brisbane, having left a high-performance role with the Australian Rugby Union in 2008.”I was assistant coach of a rugby team at Queensland University helping out a mate, and by chance John Buchanan’s son was in that team,” Howard tells ESPNcricinfo. “I was chatting to him and away it went. Five years is a long time ago, my kids were a lot younger then, I can say that.”

“I’m very much a link between the playing group and CA, between the strategy and the team. I’m well aware I want to win as much as anyone”

Through rugby, Howard had experience in just about every role around the game, from representing the Wallabies and coaching Leicester, to serving on the board of the players’ association. Being based in Brisbane meant he could work out of CA’s Centre of Excellence – later expanded and renamed the National Cricket Centre – and in being the first post-Argus appointment, he had a say in the choices of John Inverarity as selection chairman and Mickey Arthur as coach. Quickly it became apparent that while Howard was willing to learn about the game, he was an equally hawkish advocate of change.”I have to really justify every decision, and that was the really hard bit about it,” Howard says. “I got a reputation as a bit of a data guy there for a while, but that was all about trying to justify decisions and justify points. The first couple of years you have to deal with differences if you want to make change, and that can upset people at times.”Without question at times I probably went too hard for change, but to a certain extent you’re always going to have positive and negative views on things. Hindsight is brilliant, you never have it beforehand, but we’ve made some good decisions, we’ve made some decisions where you think, could I have handled it better, could I have given people more time to digest it, sometimes less time to digest it and just go through with it. That’s aiming for perfection. Overall I think we’re pretty happy but not satisfied.”Howard’s level of energy is hard to match. One colleague remarks that it is difficult to work out when he sleeps, given the varied hours of the day and night that Howard emails tend to buzz their way into CA inboxes. Customarily visible in the early days of any cricket tour, he will help out in drills occasionally, and one morning at Pallekele could be seen juggling cricket balls in a nod to a childhood job, working sideshow alley.”We’ve got the highest regard for Mickey Arthur as a person, but at the same time we felt it was the right time of change and we needed to make a change”•Getty ImagesThe juggling balls have not always gone to hand, in private or public. The years of 2012-13 were marked by numerous spot fires, whether getting into shouting matches with Channel Nine commentators over the decision to rest David Warner from ODI matches following the home Tests, or in alienating Shane Watson by declaring he was prohibited from using the external physio Victor Popov. Howard also found himself negotiating the players payment MOU with the Australian Cricketers’ Association, an arrangement that irked many, as Howard had been styled as the national team’s man in the executive rather than the bad cop at the collective bargaining table.”It was really challenging, but a role I’d done before,” Howard says. “In many roles your manager has to decide where your remuneration is but also be really positive about where you’re going to grow. I’m very much a link between the playing group and CA, between the strategy and the team. I’m well aware I want to win as much as anyone and make sure the team has the resources to win. How do we give ourselves the best chance of winning?”

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The first half of 2013 placed Howard squarely in the spotlight as what Argus had defined as “the single point of accountability for the performance of the Australian team”. When the team management on that year’s India tour, primarily the coach Arthur, the manager Gavin Dovey, and the captain Michael Clarke chose to summarily suspend Mitchell Johnson, Shane Watson, Usman Khawaja and James Pattinson in response to mounting disciplinary problems on tour, Howard found himself having to defend a decision of which he had not been initially part.At a press conference in Brisbane on March 12, Howard’s bluntness got the better of him. Responding to a question about Watson, the vice-captain, he replied: “I know Shane reasonably well, I think he acts in the best interests of the team sometimes.” That comment drew a furious response from Watson and many in Australian cricket, including the following missive from Alan Jones on radio show 2GB: “You’ve got this other nobody Pat Howard, who knows nothing, saying he’s not a team man.”

Howard’s level of energy is hard to match. One colleague remarks that it is difficult to work out when he sleeps, given the varied hours of the day and night that his emails tend to buzz their way into CA inboxes

In keeping with his reputation for endless energy, Howard had been a hard-driving manager for Arthur, pressuring the coach for success and heightening his already prevalent outsider’s anxiety. Arthur felt compelled from several directions to act in India, and was then advised when Howard arrived for the final Test of the series in Delhi that “this better work”. The reason, of course, was that Howard’s own job would be placed at risk should further issues arise. When they did during the Champions Trophy in England, Howard and the chief executive James Sutherland began secret deliberations around replacing Arthur with Darren Lehmann. It was the tensest of times.”These decisions don’t come lightly. There was a fair bit of work done there and we understood this,” Howard says. “Mickey’s with Pakistan now and he’s obviously a very good coach, but that environment wasn’t working well. We made a change. We knew how good Darren was [with Queensland], we put him in the Australia A tour, he was with Rod [Marsh], so we knew that combination was going to be there and ready to go. I think we’d all admit that worked well and it’s credit to Darren in terms of how he’s come along.”Sutherland made rare appearances around the team either side of Arthur’s firing and Lehmann’s appointment. “That was a really difficult time for everyone,” he says. “It wasn’t personal; we’ve got the highest regard for Mickey Arthur as a person and we wanted to be as sensitive about it as we possibly could, but at the same time we felt it was the right time of change and we needed to make a change. It was a difficult time and history will ultimately be the judge as to whether that decision was vindicated, but you have to make decisions from time to time and we did.”Less edifying than the sacking itself was its aftermath. Howard handed Arthur only three months’ worth of severance pay, a decision the affable South African disputed after speaking to friends back home in Perth. That led to a statement of claim being lodged with Australia’s industrial arbiter, and the airing of dirty laundry in the days before the Lord’s Test match, namely the allegation that Clarke had referred to Watson as a “cancer” on the team. Arthur finished up with a fair settlement, and has rebounded admirably to mentor Pakistan. The terms of CA contracts and their internal oversight were understandably reviewed and changed to avoid a repeat.Nevertheless, Lehmann’s appointment proved to be a circuit breaker, not only in terms of the team’s fortunes but also the definition of Howard’s role. Having chosen a coach with very strong opinions, Howard was content to take a backward step from the team, and to support whatever Lehmann and the captain, Michael Clarke, needed. That changed dynamic helped in an improving display across the Ashes tour, and ultimately the raucous 5-0 sweep of England at home. Where Howard had started 2013 highly visible, he ended it much more in the background, working on the underpinnings of national teams rather than dictating as much at what he calls “the front end”.Having appointed Darren Lehmann as coach, Howard was content to take a backward step, and to support Lehmann and Clarke•Getty ImagesVarious measures at lower levels have included an overhaul of the Sheffield Shield points system, the addition of a CA XI to the Matador Cup, and moving that tournament into a carnival-style event at the start of the season. There has also been the increasingly strategic use of substitute players in the Shield to allow CA to manage the workloads of fast bowlers in particular, and injury incidences have declined steadily.Earlier this year a Shield fixture was played in New Zealand for the first time, in the absence of a tour match before Australia’s Test series win. Howard was also an advocate for the reduction in the number of grassy strips being prepared for first-class matches in order to help batsmen build bigger innings. That diktat, and the installing of spin-friendly wickets at the NCC, are yet to reap Asian dividends.”For everything you implement, three go well and two go poorly,” Howard says. “I am happy to change things that haven’t gone well. I’m absolutely free to admit there are things we’ve tried that haven’t worked. But at the same stage there are things we’ve tried where we’re not quite sure of the end product yet. The Sheffield Shield points change, I wasn’t sure it was going to deliver what we were after, but we’ve seen a lot more spin bowling played, seen a lot of young players score centuries, and the balance between bat and ball, both anecdotally and by the stats, has been better.”There are things you try and say, ‘Gee, I hope this works well’, and for all the planning you do sometimes once you’ve had enough information you have to try it, and then adjust. That’s what we’ve done with the Shield points – we’ve put it in, it’s worked pretty well, then we’ll just tinker around the edges to get it even better.”

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The sense that Lehmann was now running the show took something of a hit in 2015, when the Ashes were given up with a pair of horrendous batting displays in Birmingham and Nottingham. Subsequent to that result, it is said that Howard took back a measure of control over proceedings, as reflected by how the support staff around Lehmann has been turned over in large measure. Howard is adamant he doesn’t mind working with others of strong opinions, highlighted by the hiring of David Saker as Lehmann’s new assistant.”We’re not after yes-men,” Howard says. “I remind Darren we had some challenges in this period [before hiring him], and David’s the same. A challenging environment helps cricket grow. So we want to stay ahead in Test cricket, and that means people challenging you. David with England won in India, he’s come in for a year of Shield and has been a head coach, so we know he can step up into that role when required and he will.”We thought Justin Langer went very, very well in the West Indies [for the triangular ODI series] with a new group. We want to keep investing in coaching and coaching depth to strengthen the whole system. Rod and I have fantastic conversations and challenges. “You can imagine how different our views are sometimes. The same with Darren, the same with David Saker, and I’d have to say the state coaches. We have them up in May all around the table. I was in the room, so was Rod, so was Darren, and we want that challenging environment where we’re all trying to improve.

“For everything you implement, three go well and two go poorly. I am happy to change things that haven’t gone well. I’m absolutely free to admit there are things we’ve tried that haven’t worked”

“Introducing people like Saker, people like Darren, that stream of professional conflict is a way of challenging how we do things. Sometimes you come out of those meetings thinking, ‘You know what, we’re doing the right thing, let’s keep going’, or ‘Why don’t we try this.’ That to me is a really good way to do things. Not throw the baby out with the bath water all the time, but continue to grow and try things as you progress.”

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Howard is presently under contract until 2017, but is yet to receive the same two-year extension granted to Lehmann. Whether it is healthy to keep Howard on for any longer than his current term is a matter for conjecture, as is the question of whether, having had a change agent in place for half a decade, it is now time for CA to choose someone else with greater cricket pedigree to re-examine the fundamentals that have gone so badly awry in Sri Lanka, the UAE and India.”[We’ve been] No. 1 in two of the three formats, there’s been a World Cup, Ashes at home was comprehensive but the two Ashes away weren’t good enough,” Howard says. “What’s most disappointing for some people is, most of us believe we had the capability to win there. Playing well in the subcontinent and improving in those conditions is obviously a huge thing for us.”As we’ve seen, playing in different countries is hard, and we’ve got to adjust and adapt, and just because you see something on a video doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to translate that on the ground straight away. But over time, with as much lead-in as you can, multiple Tests as well, how people learn. We’ve got that India tour again coming up and we’re seeing we’ve got to continue to improve. It’s hard, and we know we’ve got to continue to grow.”While Australian cricket is much better aligned in 2016 than it was in 2011, Howard’s presence will always be a source of scepticism so long as results divert from the strongest possible. No matter how long he stays, he will always be seen by some in the disparaging terms Jones offered a little more than three years ago. How justified they are remains a matter for debate; more certain is the fact that Howard will keep arguing his corner.

Through a mix of skills, imperfections and changes in the pitch’s behaviour, the opening day in Kanpur held the attention in a manner befitting of the occasion of a landmark Test

Sidharth Monga in Kanpur22-Sep-20161:49

Agarkar: Consistency was key for Santner

Kane Williamson the Test captain has big boots to fill. In the World T20, for example, not one press conference would go without a question on the leadership of Brendon McCullum, how New Zealand were going to miss him, and how Williamson was going to carry forward McCullum’s legacy. Williamson is his own man, he leads in his own way, and New Zealand fans would have hoped that Williamson would dissociate himself from McCullum’s habit of not winning tosses. It’s early days – Williamson came into this series with an even record – but if there was ever a series a visiting captain wanted to win tosses in, it is one in India, against this Indian Test side.Tough surface to score on, agree Vijay and Santner

On where the match is right now
Vijay: “I think we are in a good position. We have put the runs on the board. All we got to do now is to go there, put pressure on them while bowling. It is a good total to play around with.”
Santner: “After losing the toss, I think we are in a reasonably good position. It was pretty flat to start with. They did bat well. We were lucky we got a few wickets here and there to pull it back. Obviously, we have to pick up this last wicket and then bat well, build partnerships.”
On the nature of the pitch
Vijay: “I won’t say it was difficult. It was difficult to score runs on this wicket. We have got to have a plan B, and patience. We have got to rethink our shot selection and stuff like that, and come back in the second innings and put up a better show.”
Santner: “The more you’re on the wicket, the more used you are going to get in terms of the surface getting a little harder to bat on, maybe. If you bowl in the right areas, it’s still quite hard to play. I guess you just have to do it for a longer period of time and then go from there.”

Especially on this Green Park pitch, which was dry, which had cracks, but which was watered enough in the lead-up to make sure it didn’t break up on day one. The humidity must have made it worse for New Zealand. You could see they were looking to bang the ball in, not just to test India against the short ball, but to rough it up for reverse swing. The first rule of reverse swing is no moisture on the rough side, but you can imagine how tough it would have been to execute that for Mark Craig, whose kit was dripping wet even before the end of the first session. You have been called upon to do a job in the first session of the series, you are looking to find the right length on a new pitch, but can you mind the sweat please while you are at it?”It’s very tough when you’re sweating quite a bit, but you just have to find a way to keep the ball dry to try get the reverse swing,” Mitchell Santner said. “Even for the spinners, to try and keep your hands dry is key to grip the ball.”It wasn’t helping that New Zealand’s spinners had shown that they were not versatile enough to be threatening on a surface that wasn’t yet doing much for them. It might be a slightly unfair expectation for bowlers who are rarely called upon to do the job on good surfaces. Yet, there were technical shortcomings, as noticed by Simon Doull on commentary. Santner doesn’t use his non-bowling arm much, which denies him dip and drift; Ish Sodhi’s release is beyond the perpendicular, which denies him sideways turn. These things begin to matter less when the pitch starts to turn square, which it wasn’t. So, they kept getting cut and pulled.Cheteshwar Pujara and M Vijay were now putting on a workshop on how to demoralise spinners who are unfamiliar with the conditions. Pujara frequently left his crease to take balls on the full or on the half-volley. Both Pujara and Vijay were alert to cut when this act forced the spinners to pitch short. Also, it has seemed New Zealand’s spinners have come more prepared for square turners where accuracy is more important. That’s what Daniel Vettori told Santner.”Our conversation was more about bowling the ball in one area for a longer period of time but still having plenty on it,” Santner said. “Not try and do too much, let the wicket come and play its part. With not so much turn, you try and be patient and build more dots, try and get wickets that way through false shots.”You can’t overnight become different kind of bowlers, but what will hurt New Zealand is that the spinners couldn’t stay as accurate as they would have wanted to on a slow pitch. “The wicket is on the slower side and it is difficult to score runs,” Vijay said. “That’s what we felt. It is going to be difficult for them as well with the quality of Ashwin and Jadeja in the side.””Yeah, I guess we might have been on the shorter side, but it’s about trying to find the pace that will suit for that wicket,” Santner said. “It might change in the second innings, I don’t know.”New Zealand’s bowlers were still going at 3.2 an over when things began to change. Around half-way into the day, Pujara got quite close to the pitch of a ball from Santner. There wasn’t a lot of distance for the ball to travel, but the ball still turned. It spooned off the outer half of the bat for an easy return catch. The ball had begun to turn now. The techniques mattered a little less, and New Zealand dipped into their reserves.This was a day when it seemed this new batting core will finally put things past a side when it’s down without any dramas. Pujara and Vijay had been fantastic, but they left the door ajar, which the rest failed to shut. Virat Kohli possibly came in looking to dominate. He is that kind of a player. He has been itching to dominate a touring side with the bat. This was his opportunity, he possibly thought. When you see a partnership of 112 at a fairly brisk pace, you don’t want to lose that momentum as the batsman going in. Neil Wagner played on the batsman’s ego, and drew the top edge.M Vijay admitted that it was a combination of poor shot selection and the deteriorating surface that had cost India•Associated PressAjinkya Rahane will be the first one to admit he didn’t move forward enough to be playing the defensive shot off the front foot. This was the mode of dismissal that had troubled him last year, but he overcame it. Rahane will be working to overcome this too. Vijay said the whole team will be.”A bit of both,” Vijay said. “We got out to loose shots as well. The wicket was deteriorating as well. We have got to be really patient on this wicket. It is a lesson learnt. We will, hopefully, put up a better show in the second innings.”The biggest lesson to learn is there for Rohit Sharma, who fell to a nothing loft, 20 minutes before stumps, giving Trent Boult the opportunity to run through the lower order. Vijay, though, extended Rohit the leeway that he didn’t to himself. After calling his dismissal a “bad shot selection”, he wasn’t as harsh on Rohit.”That’s his area, I guess,” Vijay said. “When it comes off, it always looks good. When it doesn’t, you fall on the wrong side. So I think we still got to back our instincts and play because we are playing in a sport where have got to win matches rather than just participate in a team. Whatever has got you here, you have to back that.”In the end, through the wonderful mix of skills, imperfections, passing of time, changes in the pitch, the toll of weather that Test cricket is, we had a day’s play befitting the occasion that India’s 500th Test has somehow become. Both teams – India because they have Ashwin and Jadeja, New Zealand because they made a comeback and because the turn is slow – could lay claim to holding the advantage.

Previously seen as someone who could chip in with a few overs and hit out down the order, Hardik Pandya is displaying pace with the ball and maturity with the bat

Arun Venugopal in Mohali22-Oct-2016September 15, 2016. India A were unravelling against Australia A in Brisbane. Kane Richardson and Jackson Bird were zipping the pink ball around, and the lights hadn’t even come on. It wasn’t a toss Naman Ojha wanted to lose. He resisted for 52 balls – the longest among the top six – before Bird had him lbw. India A were now 46 for 6.Hardik Pandya walked out to replace his captain, having had an eventful few months leading up to the match.After a heady start to his international career that peaked with the World T20, a reality check arrived through a dismal IPL which then led to him being dropped for the tour to Zimbabwe. Pandya wouldn’t have even been in Australia if not for injuries and curious, last-minute changes to the A team.He had done alright as a bowler in the quadrangular one-day series that preceded the four-day games, but the runs were missing. In fact, after he made 0 and 7 batting at No.7 in the first unofficial Test, he was demoted a spot.Pandya ensured his team survived the night and was the last man out the next afternoon. He had contributed 79 runs to India A’s total of 169. The innings convinced Ojha that Pandya ought to be playing with the senior team.”The pink ball was seaming around under lights. It was a slightly new experience for us, but he dealt it with brilliantly,’ Ojha told ESPNcricinfo. “He has all the qualities an international allrounder should have. As soon as he gains more experience, he will become a trump card for India.”The national selectors must have thought so too. They knew India needed a seam-bowling allrounder and, with only eight ODIs in 2016-17 before the Champions Trophy, they needed to find one fast. That performance for the A team in Brisbane put Pandya front and centre.

“He has all the qualities an international allrounder should have. As soon as he gains more experience, he will become a trump card for India.”Naman Ojha, Pandya’s India A team-mate

Pandya made his ODI debut in Dharamsala, clocking over 140 kph and troubling New Zealand with seam and swing. Then he produced an outstanding cameo in Delhi with the match on the line.India needed 60 to win off 55 balls and had only two wickets in hand. It was a difficult pitch to score rapidly and New Zealand had Tim Southee and Trent Boult bowling intelligently at the death. But with each passing over Pandya kept slicing the target down, playing proper shots. That 36 off 32 balls signaled a marked change in his game because, until then, he was seen as a T20 specialist who hit some lusty blows and squeezed in a few overs in during the middle stages.An India A team-mate believes Pandya’s interactions with Rahul Dravid, the India A coach, has brought about the transformation in his batting.”He learnt a lot from Dravid not just about batting, but also about staying mentally strong. So long as Pandya remained disciplined nobody had a problem with his happy-go-lucky attitude.”He showed good work ethic in terms of his training and recovery pattern and diet. When he was out of the team, he focused on becoming physically stronger and that helped keep the negative thoughts away. It also helped that he was out of the team for only two months.”While it is understood both India’s captain MS Dhoni and coach Anil Kumble had praised Pandya’s efforts which nearly aced a difficult chase in Delhi, they had also reminded the 23-year old about the lessons to be absorbed from that experience.With 11 runs needed from eight balls – and only Nos. 10 and 11 left – Pandya flat-batted a bouncer from Boult, who had been New Zealand’s best bowler, and was caught by the sweeper on the off side. India lost by six runs.”It will be harsh on him, he could have [taken it to the end] the option is always there,” Dhoni said after the match. “You always have to target who are the bowlers you want to hit and in these kinds of situation even the last ball counts. May be if that shot would have gone over point it could have been a boundary and everything would have been different. He is still learning and more often than not he will be alone along with the tail.”With the likes of Kumble and Dravid to guide him, however, Pandya knows, at least off the field, he is never alone.

ESPNcricinfo looks at the major talking points from the second round of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2016-17

Umar Farooq10-Oct-2016Ugly altercation mars Habib Bank-Islamabad clashHabib Bank Limited beat Islamabad by five wickets within three days at Diamond club ground in Islamabad, but the result was marred by an ugly altercation. A minor altercation between Habib Bank’s Azeem Ghumman, who was fielding at gully, and Islamabad’s Umar Kiyani, who was batting then, grew into a heated one after Kiyani was found to be pushing Amad Butt, the bowler, with his right hand. The umpires and the senior players then intervened in an effort to calm things down. Later, a video of Kiyani aiming a punch on Amad’s face went viral on social media. The incident was duly reported to the PCB, and the matter is currently under investigation. According to the preliminary findings, Kiyani was found to have indulged in physical contact twice in addition to using abusive language.Kiyani, the 21-year-old middle-order batsman, was playing only his seventh first-class game, for Islamabad. In the previous season, he had made 273 runs in seven matches at an average of 22.75. Amad, also 21, was recently called-up to Pakistan’s squad for the one-off T20 international against England in Old Trafford last month.’Misunderstanding’ between Umar Akmal and Wahab DarUmar Akmal led Lahore Whites to a 96-run win over Pakistan International Airlines with a match tally of 175 runs, including a century in their second innings at the Lahore City Cricket Association Ground. This match too involved a heated exchange. Captain Umar had an argument with reserve player Wahab Dar, as the latter failed to carry a kit.Wahab, son of Lahore Cricket Association secretary Shoaib Dar, was added to the Lahore squad as the 16th member. Shoaib then complained to LCCA president Nadeem Ahmed that Umar had insulted Wahab. However, according to the president, it was only a misunderstanding, which was blown out of proportion.Butt and Irfan misfire but WAPDA win againCaptain Salman Butt managed only scores of 5 and 4 against Karachi Blues, but Water and Power Development Authority won their second successive match, at National Stadium in Karachi. WAPDA currently top Pool A with 18 points. Mohammad Irfan, who struggled with fitness issues during the England tour, took only two wickets for 88 runs in 33.4 overs.Ghanchi hits triple-tonTwenty-one-year-old Hamza Ghanchi hit an unbeaten 300 in only his ninth first-class match in a draw between Karachi Whites and National Bank of Pakistan in Karachi. The left-handed opener struck 43 fours during his 420-ball knock, spanning 654 minutes. Ghanchi is the third-youngest player to score a triple-century in first-class cricket in Pakistan after Javed Miandad and Aftab Baloch, and only the sixth batsman in history to convert his maiden first-class century into a triple-century. Behram Khan, batting at No.3, made his presence felt too with 155 off 309 balls, before Karachi declared at 628 for 5 in 159.3 overs.

Ankit Bawne is a domestic veteran at 23: talented, consistent across formats, and hardened by early setbacks. Having enjoyed another fruitful Ranji Trophy season, he is confident an India call-up isn’t far away

Arun Venugopal11-Dec-2016Ankit Bawne has had an intriguing career. He made his first-class debut at 15, in 2007-08, and established himself as a regular in the Maharashtra side in three years. Since 2010-11, he has never averaged less than 45 in a Ranji Trophy season. Six days shy of turning 24, Bawne is already some sort of veteran: he has played 68 first-class matches and scored 4663 runs at an average of 52.98, including 15 hundreds. A List A average of 43.08 from 43 games suggests he is not a one-format player.Despite his numbers, Bawne has never been part of India A or IPL squads. He doesn’t deny feeling disappointed but offers a practical alternative to sulking. “There is just one goal – to play for India. Till that time, I have to keep fighting,” he tells ESPNcricinfo at the end of Maharashtra’s Group B match against Assam in Chennai. “I look at it positively because in cricket there is no point in being negative; you only get demotivated.”Five years ago Bawne could have easily become demotivated after making headlines for the wrong reasons. He was removed from the India under-19 squad ahead of a quadrangular tournament in Visakhapatnam after the date of birth in his passport was found to not match the one in his birth certificate and the BCCI’s records. As it didn’t meet the cut-off date for the 2012 Under-19 World Cup, Bawne, who was originally named captain for the quadrangular tournament, was omitted. Unmukt Chand took over the captaincy and went on to win the World Cup, even as Bawne lamented that the agent who had arranged for his passport had mixed up the dates.Bawne does not think the episode hindered his future selections, but admits the controversy was a test of his mental toughness, especially with the odd taunt tossed at him on the field. “You have to endure such stuff. In cricket, there are no easy days,” he says. “The support of my family, the team coach and Ajay [Shirke] sir, our president [of the Maharashtra Cricket Association], was crucial. But, you have to be tough and remain steadfast in your goals. The character I showed at that time has led to where I am now.”The Under-19 was a shortcut for me to the national side, but the ultimate dream is to play for the senior team. I don’t think [my performances are overshadowed by the controversy] because Ranji Trophy is not an under-19 tournament. The selectors have played enough cricket to know that Ranji Trophy performances count as far as selection for Test cricket is concerned. Many players obviously get a chance by virtue of the IPL, but I am not a part of the IPL, so Ranji Trophy is everything to me.”Many quality players in domestic cricket have rued the chance for lesser talents to attract selectors’ attentions with a few good IPL performances. Bawne too says not playing in the IPL is a setback because of the recall value it brings.”It is a little tough at the Ranji Trophy level compared to the IPL; this time there are no [league] matches being broadcast in contrast to the IPL where every match is shown live. (the game spans three hours and there are 14 matches. Even if someone plays two good shots, he gets noticed).”Bawne, however, understands there are many routes to the Indian dressing room, and that batsmen better than him have taken the harder route and succeeded. He derives comfort from how long the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane had to grind it out in domestic cricket before breaking into the national side. A chat with Virender Sehwag further strengthened his belief that the rigours of the Ranji Trophy would ultimately prove rewarding.”Pujara and Rahane got their chances after scoring about 5000 runs in first-class cricket,” Bawne says. “When you play 60-70 first-class matches and then play Test cricket, you see how these players dominate in international cricket.”During the last season, when we were playing against Haryana, I asked Virender Sehwag sir how I could make the step up to the next level. He told me I was playing well and I will get my chances. It wasn’t like I would be completely ignored.”Bawne knows he has to score at least 700-800 runs every season – his personal target hovers around the 1000-run mark – to be on the selectors’ radar. He is Maharashtra’s leading run-getter this season with 687 runs at an average of 57.25, but will not get any more opportunities to inch towards 1000 runs with his team failing to make the knockouts.The accomplishment of a maiden double-hundred, though, has given him plenty of satisfaction. His 258 came in the course of the second-highest partnership in first-class history in the company of captain Swapnil Gugale in Delhi.”Whatever I have set out to achieve – to score big runs, to remain consistent and average around 50 – I have done that. I wanted to score a double-hundred this time,” he says. “I bat at No.5-6, so I mostly have to score runs with the bowlers for company. Luckily against Mumbai, since Kedar Jadhav was away for the New Zealand [ODI] series, I got to bat at No.4. It was a good wicket and there was a quality opposition in the form of Delhi, so I couldn’t let go of that chance.”Bawne also sees a role-model in India’s limited-overs captain MS Dhoni. In 2014-15, when Bawne hit a dead-end in his limited-overs batting, he decided to re-invent his game. Bawne says he picked up cues from watching Dhoni on TV and applied the knowledge during practice. The results were instant as Bawne scored two hundreds and an unbeaten 78 from four innings in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.”I have been inspired by how he [Dhoni] makes runs in the one-dayers, especially with the lower order, and how he plays percentage cricket,” he says. “I didn’t want to be a one-dimensional player and wanted to average around 45-50 in one-dayers. I was trying to clear the ropes, and focusing on my release shots as well.”Closer home, Bawne has found inspiration in Jadhav, whose recent successes in international cricket, he feels, have provided him and his team-mates a template to follow.”When six-seven players from Mumbai or Delhi used to make it to the Indian team, it became easier for the others to stay under the radar and keep performing,” he says. “I got to know what the path was after seven-eight years of hard-work. Had there been an India player in the side, you would have learnt it in two years.”Now we know the path to succeed – Kedar has scored 1000 runs and progressed. When I talk to Kedar, he says it’s a big deal to have 5000-odd runs at my age and keeps telling me to stick it out.”That would be good advice, especially with the chairman of selectors, MSK Prasad, taking notice of Bawne’s performances. “His records have been good, but this year he has been very consistent,” Prasad tells ESPNcricinfo. “My colleagues have watched him bat this season and I have seen him bat last year. He is a good player.”Bawne feels he is currently in the best form of his life. “This year I am feeling very comfortable,” he says. “I am not trying to take risks and I don’t feel nervous at all.”