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Warwickshire moved to the top of the County Championship and into pole position to win the competition for the first time since 2004

10-Sep-2011
ScorecardWarwickshire moved to the top of the County Championship and into pole position to win the competition for the first time since 2004 with a crushing innings and 114-run win over Nottinghamshire at Edgbaston.Warwickshire needed only 80 minutes to take Nottinghamshire’s last four wickets and romp to their ninth win of the season this morning, with seamer Chris Wright taking his second five-wicket haul in three matches since he joined on loan from Essex. Wright, who is in negotiations with Warwickshire about a contract for next season, has now taken 19 wickets since he arrived at Edgbaston.Only Alex Hales, who carried his bat for 106 out of Nottinghamshire’s 222, offered prolonged resistance but Warwickshire still climbed above previous leaders Durham, who sat out the penultimate round of matches. It represents a remarkable turnaround for Warwickshire who were battling relegation 12 months ago while Nottinghamshire were on their way to the title.But the roles were reversed here with Warwickshire completing only the fifth double over Nottinghamshire in their history following a nine-wicket success at Trent Bridge in May.The biggest threat to Warwickshire’s victory hopes was posed by the weather. There was light rain around when the players arrived at the ground and further showers were forcecast for midday.But the rain cleared in time to allow play to start on time and Warwickshire made an early breakthrough when Paul Franks thick edged Rikki Clarke’s sixth ball of the day to Chris Metters at third slip. Andre Adams came out with the intention of attacking and he managed to pull Wright for one four.But the former New Zealand all-rounder was bowled next bowl when he tried to repeat the stroke against Wright and succeeded only in bottom-edging into his stumps. Hales, the only Nottinghamshire batsman to play with any composure in the second innings, survived a confident lbw appeal from Clarke and then drove the same bowler through the covers for his first boundary of the morning.Darren Pattinson never looked comfortable, even though he twice flayed Clarke through mid off for boundaries, and he was eventually undone by a yorker from Wright which he failed to dig out. Hales turned down easy singles in his last-wicket partnership with Luke Fletcher to ensure that he farmed the strike and completed his third century of the season.He got there by off driving Wright for his 12th four from 169 balls after which Fletcher went for his shots, including a huge pulled six off Boyd Rankin. Warwickshire turned to Chris Metters to wrap up their first innings win over Nottinghamshire since 1966, and the slow left-armer struck with his fourth ball of the match when Fletcher drove a long hop to cover.

The players in the 2011 NKP Salve Challenger Trophy will have to adjust to the ICC’s new rules

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Oct-2011The 2011 NKP Salve Challenger Trophy gets underway in Nagpur today where several national-team aspirants will rub shoulders with established India players in the 50-over format. The tournament will – as will the remainder of India’s domestic season – incorporate the latest rule changes agreed on by the ICC and its member boards during the annual conference in Hong Kong in July. The changes came into effect on October 1, and were in force for the tour game between England XI and Hyderabad Cricket Academy XI last week.The rule changes include the abolition of runners, the use of new balls from each end in one-dayers and allowing batting and bowling Powerplays to be taken only between the 16th and 40th overs. In addition, batsmen can be given out ‘obstructing the field’ if they change their course while running to prevent a run-out chance, and bowlers can run out non-striker’s if they back up unfairly.”There are so many aspects to the rules that I will come to grips with it as the match progresses,” S Badrinath, the captain of the India Blue team, was quoted as saying in the , in response to the new Powerplay regulations.”The rule changes will bring in a sense of fairplay, help the bowler play a more decisive role in ODIs,” Shikhar Dhawan, part of India Red, said. “With the Powerplay not in force from the 41st over, bowlers can perform a lot more freely. Cricket is supposed to be loaded in favour of the batsmen, but the bowlers will also have a say now.”The quality bowlers who are able to move the ball will be effective as the ball will retain its sheen,” he said, about the use of two new balls.Not everyone felt the changes would benefit the bowlers, though. “It will be like a 25-over game with the new ball,” Irfan Pathan, who’ll be playing for India Blue, said. “The art of reverse swing with the old ball will reduce. As a bowler, I should not be saying it, but I am looking forward to the challenge.”Limited-overs cricket will be more entertaining for the crowd with the batsmen likely to hit more boundaries and targets getting re-arranged.”Each team will play each other once in the league stage, with the top two teams progressing to the final that will be played on October 13.India Blue: S. Badrinath (capt), M Vijay, Paul Valthaty, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Mandeep Singh, Saurabh Tiwary, Irfan Pathan, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, YV Krishanatry, Prashant Parameshwaran, Pradeep Sangwan and Tanmay SrivastavaIndia Red: Gautam Gambhir (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Abhinav Mukund, Ambati Rayudu, Ashok Menaria, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Jalaj Saxena, Piyush Chawla, Bhargav Bhatt, Pankaj Singh, Jaydev Unadkat, TP Sudhindra, Yusuf Pathan and RP SinghIndia Green: Harbhajan Singh (capt), Robin Uthappa (wk), S Anirudha, T Suman, Mohnish Ishra, Ishank Jaggi, Mohammad Kaif, C Gautham, Sarabjit Ladda, Iqbal Abdulla, Abhimanyu Mithun, Samad Fallah, Ishwar Choudhary and Sumit Narwal

Wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin has taken over from Daren Ganga as captain of the Trinidad and Tobago team for the 2011-12 domestic season in the Caribbean

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Nov-2011Denesh Ramdin, the West Indies wicketkeeper, has taken over from Daren Ganga as captain of the Trinidad and Tobago team for the 2011-12 domestic season in the Caribbean. Ganga led the side for nine years and received much praise for his leadership, before stepping down earlier this month. Ramdin’s appointment was announced via a media release issued by the T&T cricket board.Ramdin, currently in India on tour with West Indies, made his first-class debut in 2003-04 and has since played 42 Tests and 84 ODIs. At one point, he was vice-captain of the West Indies team but lost his place in the side; the first-choice wicketkeeper in Tests now is Carlton Baugh. He made a return to the national squad for the tour of Bangladesh earlier this year, and even led West Indies in the first ODI in the absence of Darren Sammy.”Ramdin has a wide range of experience and is a very calm character. He has been training in the captaincy role at the youth level over the years, and he is well poised to take the baton and run with it,” Dudnath Ramkessoon, the chairman of national selectors and the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board, was quoted as saying in the .”Ramdin has been a key member in the [T&T] team over the years. He has been around for a while and he has grown with some of the players. They will play as a unit. He will have the support of the players and of the management staff.”Ramdin and the rest of the members of the T&T squad who are currently in India are expected to return to the Caribbean in mid-December, and prepare for the Caribbean Twenty20 that starts on January 9.

Michael Brown, second-in-command to Cricket Australia’s chief executive James Sutherland, has quit his post after nine years

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Dec-2011Michael Brown, second-in-command to Cricket Australia’s chief executive James Sutherland, has quit his post after nine years to oversee the organisation of the AFC Asian Cup football tournament to held in Australia in 2015.Officially billed as general manager, cricket operations, Brown’s role was reduced as one of the key outcomes of the Argus review, resulting in the employment of the former rugby international Pat Howard as CA’s team performance manager.His departure leaves Sutherland as the last remaining senior figure in the CA hierarchy, after a year of profound changes to the structure and personnel of cricket operations.Previously, Brown had been the most senior man directly responsible for the progress of the national team, and had overseen appointments including those of Tim Nielsen as coach, Andrew Hilditch as chairman of selectors, and Greg Chappell as head of the Centre of Excellence and more recently national talent manager/selector.Other appointments under Brown’s watch included the recruitment of Troy Cooley as bowling coach, and his replacement this year by Craig McDermott. He also spoke with Rod Marsh in mid-year about the possibility of a role on the selection panel.However he was less involved in the appointments of the new support structure around the Australian team, including Howard, the national selector John Inverarity, and the coach Mickey Arthur.Following nine years in cricket, Brown said he was looking forward to a change of scene. Prior to his appointment at CA, he had worked as an AFL club administrator.”This is shaping as the most exciting and challenging role of my career,” Brown said. “The scale and scope of the 2015 AFC Asian Cup makes it one of world football’s biggest and most important events. I’m honoured to have been appointed as CEO and look forward to helping build a world-class organising team.”Brown will exit CA’s Melbourne office for the final time in January.

The Hobart Hurricanes are probably the most unassuming and underrated side in the Big Bash League, but they are fast becoming the team to beat after another polished all-round display to dispose of the Sydney Sixers by 42 runs

Alex Malcolm21-Dec-2011
ScorecardTravis Birt’s half-century laid a solid platform for the Hobart Hurricanes•Getty Images

The Hobart Hurricanes are probably the most unassuming and underrated side in the Big Bash League, but they are fast becoming the team to beat after another polished all-round display to dispose of the Sydney Sixers by 42 runs.They may lack the big-name star-power but they make up for it with a well-balanced team that executes a tried and tested Twenty20 formula. It is no surprise that they have won two of two.Just like in Perth on Sunday, Xavier Doherty won the toss and elected to bat on what looked a good surface at the Bellerive Oval. Eyebrows were raised around the ground as they rolled to the half-way point of their innings at a pedestrian six-an-over.But, just as in Perth, the plan was to leave wickets in hand for a second half assault. At 1 for 63 after 10 overs, having lost only Jonathan Wells to the effective part-time spin of Dom Thornely, the scene was set for Phil Jaques and Travis Birt. In the eleventh over they let fly; Dwayne Bravo conceded 20 runs. Birt smashed two fours and a six before Jaques cut the last ball for four.Brett Lee and Stuart MacGill curtailed the pair to just 11 runs from the next 12 balls but unlike Perth when panic sparked a collapse of 8 for 39, the pair of left-handers kept their powder dry before targeting Moises Henriques. Five fours and a six were dispatched in two overs the Sixers all-rounder will quickly forget. Birt and Jaques both rocketed past 50 in the process.Their 107-run stand was broken Mitchell Starc, as he managed to snare Birt for 65 (from 41 balls) with a clever slower bouncer, but the damage was done. Starc also claimed Jaques for 73 with the third ball of the 20th over, but only after Jaques had steered him to fine leg for four and hit him over midwicket for 98-metre six.The Hurricanes defended 140 with ease against Perth, so 3 for 169 was a luxury total. Again, they opened with a mix of off-spin from Jason Krejza and out-swing from Ben Hilfenhaus. Again, it worked perfectly as they each knocked a batsman over with the score on seven – Peter Nevill missed an innocuous straight delivery from Hilfenhaus, Michael Lumb did the same off the very next ball from Krejza.Stand-in Sixers captain Steve Smith and 20-year-old Nic Maddinson steadied the ship with a 57-run partnership. They rode their luck but also played some attractive strokes. They took four boundaries from Hilfenhaus’ third over. Maddinson showed his immense talent, hitting two of those fours off consecutive deliveries to the cover fence – one over the top, the other along the ground.But again the Hurricanes stuck to their formula and came up trumps. Spin was ordered in from both ends at the halfway mark, and Doherty and Krejza removed Smith and Maddinson in back-to-back overs to regain control.Then, the local cult-hero Rana Naved-ul-Hasan entered to bowl at the death. He took 4 for 6 in 11 balls to close out the contest. This is something Tasmanian fans have become accustomed to since he signed up as their star import three seasons ago. Three of Rana’s wickets were bowled and he nearly managed his second hat-trick in Australia.Birt was named Man-of-the-Match but, in reality, the sum of all parts was greater than any one contribution for the Hurricanes. The opposite could be said for the Sixers. Only three of their players reached double-figures with the bat, and they managed just three wickets with the ball despite eight of their XI having represented their country.

England Lions put in an impressive all-round show to seal a consolation win in the final one-dayer against Bangladesh A at Sylhet Stadium. Bangladesh A took the series 3-2

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Jan-2012
ScorecardEngland Lions put in an impressive all-round show to seal a consolation win in the final one-dayer against Bangladesh A at Sylhet Stadium. Bangladesh A took the series 3-2.The day began well for the Lions after they won the toss and made quick incisions with the new ball. Jack Brooks struck three times in his first four overs to push Bangladesh A to 13 for 3. Left-arm spinner Simon Kerrigan then came into the game with two blows as the score shuddered to 49 for 6. At that stage, even 100 seemed a far cry, but the hosts managed a recovery through the lower order led by No. 9 Noor Hossain (38 off 28 balls) to finish on 152.England Lions lost opener Joe Root for no score, but James Taylor and Alex Hales steadied the ship with a 52-run stand. Two quick wickets, within the space of seven balls, gave Bangladesh A an outside chance, but Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler supported Taylor well to ensure there were no further hiccups, until the winning runs were scored in the 38th over.

The National Cricket Academy (NCA) will hold open trials for bowlers across four states in India, marking the first time it is giving people outside the system an opportunity to earn a place in the academy

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Feb-2012

Details of bowling trials

• Himachal Pradesh: 18 and 19 Feb – Dharamsala

• Jammu & Kashmir: 22 Feb and 23 Feb – Jammu

• Jharkhand: 25 Feb and 26 Feb – Ranchi

• Chhattisgarh: 28 Feb and 29 Feb 2012 – Raipur

The National Cricket Academy (NCA) will hold open trials for bowlers across four states in India, marking the first time it is giving young cricketers from outside the system an opportunity to earn a place in the academy. The NCA, established in 2000, has until now only included cricketers playing the BCCI’s age-level domestic tournaments. Over the next few weeks, it will hold trials for fast bowlers and spinners in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kasmir, all states that are not traditionally cricketing strongholds.Boys between the age of 17 and 22, who have not played in any BCCI-run tournament, will be eligible to attend the trials. Karsan Ghavri, bowling coach at the specialised fast-bowling academy in Chandigarh, and Yoginder Puri, former Himachal Pradesh medium-pacer, will supervise the trials and shortlist the bowlers for the NCA.”The BCCI decided to find some young talent and I am sure we will definitely do some justice, and try and get some good young boys,” Ghavri told ESPNcricinfo. He pointed out that their aim was to search for players who, despite never having played in a board-level tournament, “still have the strength and inclination to bowl quick or become a good spin bowler.”The decision was taken at the BCCI working committee meeting in Chennai. The trials come in the wake of India’s successive series 0-4 Test series losses in England and Australia. India will also have a new bowling coach after the Australia tour, with Joe Dawes replacing Eric Simons.In late December, BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale had asked the five-man national selection panel to immediately pick a pool of fast bowlers that would act as bench-strength for the Indian team. The pool was to comprise players from India’s state teams as well as Under-19 bowlers. The idea was based on a recommendation from Anil Kumble, before he resigned as NCA chairman in December.Some of the other decisions aimed at improving Indian cricket, made at the BCCI working committee meeting, were to have India A and Under-19 tours to England, Australia, South Africa and West Indies; to found a new academy in Bangalore; and to use neutral venues for all Ranji Trophy matches.

David Hussey is enjoying his best summer for Australia, not only as an inventive batsman but also as a back-up spinner

Daniel Brettig in Adelaide05-Mar-2012There was a time when David Hussey could not get a bowl anywhere other than the nets. Always highly regarded for his aggressive, free-thinking batsmanship and athletic fielding, Hussey was barely called upon with the ball for Victoria, not least because Brad Hodge stood in watchful guard of his own place as the Bushrangers’ part-time tweaker of choice.Spin bowling, of course, is an art of patience, and Hussey’s has endured. Some years after his time as a frustrated net bowler, Hussey is enjoying his best summer for Australia, not only as an inventive batsman but also as the sort of temping spinner an agile captain like Michael Clarke is more than happy to employ.In Sunday’s first triangular series final, Hussey’s four wickets helped keep Sri Lanka narrowly short of victory, and he can expect to deliver more overs in Adelaide. Tellingly, the Brisbane spell was also Hussey’s longest in an ODI – soon, on the right surface, he may be good for a full 10.Fielding questions about his bowling, rather than the batting that has him entrenched as the leading run-scorer for the series, causes Hussey to chuckle, but there can be little doubt that the extra skill makes him doubly valuable. His development also serves as a vindication of the national selector John Inverarity’s view that every batsman should bowl at training, not only to further himself but also to help ease the burden on the fulltime bowlers.”I’ve always enjoyed bowling in the nets, and bowling to other counterparts,” Hussey said. “It’s funny, a couple of years ago I was classified as just a batsman and a muck around net bowler who bowled to the tail-enders in the nets. Now I’m opening the bowling in T20 cricket and bowling key overs in one-day cricket. So I definitely take it a little more seriously now.”I’m not really a front-line bowler, happy to fill in a job here and there, or help get the over rate back to where it should be. I like contributing to the bowling attack but I’ll leave the wicket-taking to the fast bowlers.”Self-deprecating as he is, it has not escaped Hussey’s attention that this is a year in which he can expect to bowl plenty of spells for Australia, and at important times. West Indian surfaces will offer help to his spin in ODIs and Twenty20 matches, and later on the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka will require a rich assortment of slow-bowling choices.Hussey was given his first hint that his bowling role for Australia may increase in Sri Lanka last year, when in the first match of the series Clarke introduced him ahead of Mitchell Johnson to help Xavier Doherty arrest the hosts’ momentum. He fetched the wicket of Tillakaratne Dilshan and returned to the field with 1-12 – the sort of contribution that encouraged Clarke to send for him more often.”I think all subcontinent countries and the West Indies definitely suit spin bowling,” Hussey said. “I wouldn’t say I’m a spinner – if I hit a few pebbles they might turn a little bit. But I like to bowl well and contribute to the team, if it means one over, two overs, three or whatever. I’m happy to bowl at any given time, and you want to take the wickets of their key batsmen, and that gives you more credence with the captain to bowl you at critical times.”Edited by Siddarth Ravindran

Worcestershire may hope that the cataclysmic weather forecast for Sunday arrives early after sliding to 72 for 6 in the 27 and a half overs possible on day two here. They need another 22 to avoid the follow-on

Jon Culley at New Road27-Apr-2012
ScorecardAndre Adams already has 17 wickets in three matches this season•PA Photos

Worcestershire may hope that the cataclysmic weather forecast for Sunday arrives early after sliding to 72 for 6 in the 27 and a half overs possible on day two here. They need another 22 to avoid the follow-on and Nottinghamshire are already into a long tail.What’s more, they are up against a bowler who presents as difficult an opponent as they will face in county cricket and who appears to improve as he gets older.Andre Adams will be 37 in July yet his last two seasons with Nottinghamshire have been the most productive of his career. He took 68 first-class wickets in 2010 and another 67 last summer. He has 17 in three matches so far this season and it appears to be no coincidence that, after winning their opening two matches, Nottinghamshire were never in the contest against Somerset last week, when Adams was missing with flu.After a 2.40pm start here – a triumph for the groundstaff after a night and morning of heavy rain – it was Adams who did most of the damage as Worcestershire’s attempt to construct a competitive response to Nottinghamshire’s 243 rapidly unravelled.Entering the attack at first change in the 12th over with Worcestershire 19 without loss, he conceded his only boundary with his first ball as Michael Klinger cut him past point and thereafter gave away almost nothing.Deceptively quick at times off a relatively short run, he gets through his overs at a brisk pace designed not only to save his own energy but to keep batsmen on their toes. Every delivery, moreover, seems to ask a fresh question.He took his revenge on Klinger with the fourth ball of his fourth over as Klinger, pushing forward, edged to Samit Patel at second slip, and from the first delivery of his eighth over managed to obtain three lbw verdicts in the space of 20 deliveries from umpire Michael Gough, as Daryl Mitchell, Alexei Kervezee and Moeen Ali paid the price for failing to get forward enough against a ball tending to keep low.The luckless Kervezee, who went second ball, has been out without scoring in three of his last four innings, including twice, embarrassingly, against Oxford MCCU.It is never healthy to rely too heavily on one player but that Nottinghamshire are pleased that Adams is proving such a consistent servant goes without saying. His contract at Trent Bridge takes him through to the end of next season and his commitment to the county is reflected in a deliberately limited workload over the winter.Between the end of last season and the beginning of this, for example, he played in only eight matches, six of them Twenty20s, in Bangladesh and New Zealand. Not that it was an unsuccessful winter: he was a member of the Auckland Aces side that won the HRV Cup in his home country, taking three wickets in the final against Canterbury.His four wickets here were supplemented by one each for Ben Phillips and for Harry Gurney — two more lbws. Gurney, the quick left-armer, trapped Ben Scott with an inswinger to claim his first Championship wicket since moving from Leicestershire during the close season.

The IPL’s fifth season has registered a fall in total viewership and television ratings for the opening six games in comparison to the 2011 season

Tariq Engineer11-Apr-2012The IPL’s fifth season has registered a fall in total viewership and television ratings for the opening six games in comparison to the 2011 season. This includes a decline in cumulative viewership for the first time in the IPL’s five-year history.The cumulative number of people who tuned in to watch the first six games was 90.1 million, down from 101.77 million last year, according to TAM Sports, a division of Tam Media Research, the leading television ratings agency in India. “Cumulative reach” is the number of individuals who watched a channel/programme for at least one minute. The tournament had managed to increase its audience in each successive season till 2011.Television Viewer Ratings (TVR) were down 18.7% as a result, with the opening six games posting an average TVR of 3.76 compared to 4.63 last season (TVR is a time-weighted figure which accounts for time spent by viewers in addition to the number of viewers). The opening ceremony held in Chennai the day before the first game drew a rating of just 1.16, despite the presence of a number of Bollywood celebrities.The 2012 season is considered something of a litmus test for the league after ratings slumped last year. The 2011 IPL produced the lowest television ratings of any of the first four seasons, down 29% from 2010. That reversal was largely blamed on “cricket fatigue” arising out of India’s victorious World Cup campaign, with the IPL starting a mere six days after the final between India and Sri Lanka. With no international cricket in India in the build-up to this season, the league was expected to bounce back, with BCCI president N Srinivasan telling the he expected the tournament “to be a sweeping success”.Sridhar Ramanujam, the head of brand consulting firm Brand Comm, thinks the problem is that there are too many games in the IPL now and that the BCCI needs to find a way to shorten the tournament. “I expect viewership will be selective,” he said. “If I like Sachin Tendulkar, then I might watch the Mumbai Indians. I will probably watch Rahul Dravid. There might be people watching Sourav Ganguly.”It is not as if people are going to stop watching it. There will be selective viewing. In a 50-over game, people are now watching the first 10 overs and the last 10 overs. Possibly there is a viewing pattern emerging for T20 as well.”Advertisers have also adopted more of a wait-and-watch approach to the tournament this season, with three major brands – Parle, LG Electronics and Godrej – choosing not to continue their association with the league. “Advertisers are starting to look at other options,” Alok Bharadwaj, senior vice-president of Canon India, told the . “Each year the rates have gone up by 15 to 20% and the returns are not directly proportionate.” Canon has reportedly cut down its spending on the league by 80%.However, others, such as Vodafone, have backed the league, saying it is still the best platform to reach to reach a mass audience.Sridhar believes Multi-Screen Media, which broadcasts the tournament on its Set Max channel, will need to consider moving to a pricing system that is linked to ratings in order to sell out its advertising space. “I think the whole [IPL] business model is a bit shaky now and not as robust as it was made out to be when it first started.”Edited by Abhishek Purohit