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Sky Sports reporter Keith Downie has been left impressed following the appointment of Dan Ashworth as Newcastle United’s new sporting director.

The Lowdown: Ashworth joins Newcastle

Newcastle have now announced the appointment of highly rated Dan Ashworth as the club’s new sporting director, after the 51-year-old resigned from his technical director role at Brighton back in February.

Ashworth joined the south-coast club in 2018 after a successful stint as the Football Association’s technical director, where he led various England age groups to international triumph with wins at three tournaments in 2017.

Since arriving at Brighton, the former FA man has helped establish Graham Potter’s side as a mainstay club in the Premier League.

The Latest: Downie’s verdict

Taking to Twitter, Downie shared the news of Ashworth joining Newcastle, and the Sky Sports reporter gave his verdict on the appointment, claiming:

“Feels like Dan Ashworth is as good an appointment as Newcastle could make for their Sporting Director role. Time will tell, but going by his past work this feels like a bold & clever piece of business. Also been a while since I wrote/said “with immediate effect.” #NUFC”

The Verdict: Great appointment

According to The Guardian, Amanda Staveley’s PIF-backed consortium identified Ashworth as a key figure when they completed their takeover last October.

They report that negotiations took place amid claims that Brighton wanted £5m in compensation to release him from his contractual obligations, and now a deal has been struck.

With the perseverance and money involved for Newcastle to get their man, this is clearly a great appointment for the North East club, who is highly rated due to his impressive CV in the sport.

As a result, Newcastle will now be able to start making moves in the transfer market with their focus set on next season’s competition.

In other news: Newcastle United: Magpies target Hugo Ekitike ‘told’ he can leave Reims

German sources have now shared a big update on Tottenham Hotspur’s pursuit of Borussia Monchengladbach star Jonas Hofmann.

The Lowdown: Hofmann on the move?

The Premier League top-four chasers have been linked with a move for one of Monchengladbach’s most crucial players in recent months.

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Tottenham boss Antonio Conte wants to make new additions this summer and has allegedly earmarked signings for many positions, including further forward (The Telegraph).

Sport Bild (via Sport Witness), sharing news in early March, name-dropped Spurs as an interested party to sign Hofmann who has been a ‘figurehead’ and crucial in-form player under Adi Hütter this season.

However, the 29-year-old’s deal expires in 2023 with no sign of an extension, throwing his future at the club into disrepute.

The Latest: German sources share Hofmann update…

Now, Sport Bild (via Sport Witness) have again shared some news on Spurs’ interest in Hofmann as the Lilywhites now make contact.

As Spurs regularly approach Monchengladbach over the attacker, according to this report, it is believed that the Bundesliga side will green-light his exit in the event of a suitable bid.

The Verdict: Make the move?

Given Hofmann’s contract situation, transfer chief Fabio Paratici may well be in a strong negotiating position to force their hand and ease the German side into accepting a lower price tag.

The international winger would be worth the hassle, especially going by his previous plaudits from big names and form over 2021/2022.

According to WhoScored, he’s racked up the most goals and assists combined domestically out of anyone in the Monchengladbach side whilst also reigning superior in terms of shots and key passes per 90.

If that wasn’t enough, Hofmann has also averaged their highest match rating in the Bundesliga, leaving little wonder Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp once called him ‘extraordinary’ and ‘perfect’ (via Borussia Dortmund reporter and Buzz 09 founder Sandra Goldschmidt).

If Paratici can seal his signing for Conte, there is little doubting he could add something.

In other news: Tottenham expected to move for ‘phenomenal’ £101m star after Conte request, find out more here.

With Parthiv Patel at the crease, they promoted Akshdeep Nath and Marcus Stoinis above the in-form Moeen Ali. Was it a wise decision?

Karthik Krishnaswamy21-Apr-2019Over the last few weeks, multiple teams have been guilty of not giving their most dangerous hitters enough time in the middle. Andre Russell spoke of this on Friday, after coming in at No. 6 against Royal Challengers Bangalore when Kolkata Knight Riders needed 135 to win off 49 balls. Russell’s 25-ball 65 nearly won the match from that impossible position, but he himself felt his team might have actually crossed the line if he had walked in earlier.In today’s afternoon match, Knight Riders were probably guilty once again of waiting too long to unleash Russell against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Knight Riders were batting first, and had already consumed 15.3 overs when Russell came in at No. 7. Sunrisers eventually raced past their target of 160 with five full overs to spare.Royal Challengers may have made the same mistake in the evening game against Chennai Super Kings. Their most in-form hitter was Moeen Ali, who had made 50 off 32 and 66 off 28 in his last two innings, both times batting at No. 4. Today, however, they sent in Moeen at No. 6, when they only had 4.2 overs left in their innings.ESPNcricinfo LtdOne reason for this may have been the fact that Parthiv Patel was at the crease when Royal Challengers lost their second and third wickets. They sent in right-handers Akshdeep Nath and Marcus Stoinis at Nos. 4 and 5, suggesting that they wanted to maintain a left-right combination in the middle.But Parthiv’s presence was enough reason for Royal Challengers to send in their most dangerous, in-form hitter.Parthiv has been a pretty handy batsman in the Powerplay overs of late – his strike rate in that phase since the 2017 IPL season is 142.42. But he has shown a clear tendency to slow down after the field restrictions are relaxed. Since the 2017 season, he has the second-worst strike rate in the post-Powerplay overs among all batsmen in the IPL who have faced 150 or more balls in that phase.ESPNcricinfo LtdAs it happened, Parthiv scored quicker than usual from the seventh over onwards, scoring 37 off 26 (SR of 142.31) in that period to finish with 53 off 37 balls. But his partnerships with Nath and Stoinis came at a manageable rate for Super Kings, who wouldn’t have been too unhappy giving away a combined 66 off 53 balls to the third- and fourth-wicket pairs.Moeen eventually came in with no time to get his eye in, and still made 26 off 16 balls. Did his late entry prevent Royal Challengers from posting a substantially bigger total than 161?Hello, Dale Steyn. Bye bye, new-ball worriesESPNcricinfo LtdIn their first eight matches this season, Royal Challengers took all of three wickets in the Powerplay overs. That’s three wickets in 48 overs. Before today, their bowlers averaged a whopping 144.33 in the Powerplay this season.In their next two matches, they’ve taken seven Powerplay wickets at an average of 9.85.Ten matches isn’t a massive sample size, nor is 60 overs, and this sort of statistical swing isn’t uncommon – think of a team losing only one wicket in the first 40 overs of an ODI, and five in the last 10 overs – so we can’t read a great deal of cause-and-effect into these numbers. But Royal Challengers’ sudden increase in new-ball potency, statistically significant or not, coincides with the arrival of a handy new-ball operator, Dale Steyn.In these last two matches – his first since joining Royal Challengers as a mid-season replacement for Nathan Coulter-Nile – Steyn has bowled six Powerplay overs, taking four wickets at an average of 9.50. Against Super Kings, he took two first-over wickets, off successive balls: Shane Watson nicking an outswinger to slip, Suresh Raina beaten comprehensively by a wicked first-ball yorker.

Plays of the day from the third ODI between New Zealand and Australia in Hamilton

Brydon Coverdale05-Feb-2017The boundary-line acrobatics
After his heroic century in Australia’s unsuccessful chase in Auckland, Marcus Stoinis needed something spectacular if he was to live up to his new reputation. He very nearly provided it in the penultimate over of New Zealand’s innings, when Tim Southee smashed the ball high towards the midwicket boundary, where Stoinis leapt high and clutched the ball above his head, then threw it back in just as he landed. Stoinis’ momentum carried him over the boundary and Pat Cummins nearby was unable to complete the catch. After a series of intensely scrutinised replays, the third umpire decided the back of Stoinis’ foot had kissed the boundary while the ball was still in his hand, and for all of his magnificent athleticism, it was ruled a six.The non-review
One of the peripheral tasks that a stand-in captain must handle in international cricket is the decision whether to review umpiring decisions in the field, and Finch faced that challenge early in this match. In the very first over of the game, Mitchell Starc produced an excellent inswinging yorker that trapped Tom Latham dead in front, but umpire Ruchira Palliyaguruge turned the appeal down. Finch opted against a review. It cost Australia little, though: Latham was out in Starc’s next over, without having scored.The comeback
Dean Brownlie had not played an international match since 2014, and he certainly impressed on his return with an innings of 63 opening the batting. However, Brownlie was almost unrecognisable to viewers who had last seen him clean-shaven in his previous incarnation as an international batsman. Here, he sported a magnificent beard in the WG Grace tradition. It was as if he had spent his two years in the metaphorical wilderness in the actual wilderness.The drop
Kane Williamson brought himself on to bowl at an important time in Australia’s chase, with Aaron Finch starting to look threatening. It proved an inspired piece of captaincy, for Williamson’s first ball was driven in the air back towards the bowler – the problem was that Williamson was slow to react and couldn’t make the catch. As if to rub it in, Finch dispatched the next two balls for a four and a six.

Kevin Pietersen03-Dec-2015I was a rubbish cricketer until I was about 18 or 19. I was keen, I worked hard and I loved the game. But I really wasn’t very good.I had an understanding, though, that if I took my opportunities, I could progress. And, such was my love for the game, it rarely felt like hard work. I loved playing. I loved training. I loved every stage of my journey in the sport.I don’t know if I was brave or stupid when I left home in South Africa as a teenager to go and take my chance in England. I had never travelled and there were no guarantees of success. I had been offered £2,000 for a season of club cricket with Cannock in the Birmingham League.It was great fun. I lived above a pub, I scored a few runs and I worked hard. After a few weeks, I had trials with Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire and Clive Rice, who was the director of cricket at Trent Bridge at the time, offered me a three-year deal.I had some encouragement before then. Just before Christmas 1999, I had come in at No. 9 for KwaZulu-Natal and smacked an unbeaten 60 and took four wickets (including Michael Atherton, Michael Vaughan and Nasser Hussain) against the touring England side. Nasser, the England captain at the time, was impressed and, when I told him I had a UK passport, wanted me to come and play club cricket for Ilford CC in Essex.There were some setbacks. After a really good first season in county cricket, I came back at the start of the following year, 2002, and couldn’t get a run in the Championship. After five or six games I was dropped.That’s a horrible feeling. But instead of feeling sorry for myself, I redoubled my efforts and worked harder than ever. I tried to learn from my mistakes and ensure that, when the opportunity came again, I would be in a better position to take it. I rectified the technical failures and made sure I used the experience to improve as a player. I was recalled to the first team and scored four centuries in 10 days; three of them career-best scores.Each success helped me grow in confidence. Once you have done something once, you know you can do it again and, knowing I had made it through some challenging times, gave me the strength to know I could find a solution to other problems as they arose. But it all started with that decision – that brave, reckless, stupid decision – to leave South Africa as a 19-year-old.5:56

#PoliteEnquiries: Kevin Pietersen special

That’s the message I’ve trying to get across to the kids on my Sprite 24/7 cricket camp in Dubai. I want them to understand how hard they will have to work if they are going to enjoy success in this game. I want them to understand that, when life offers an opportunity, you have to take it. And I want them to understand that all that work can be great fun.It’s been inspiring for me to see these kids embrace the opportunity they have here. Quite a few of them have never travelled before so this experience – the air travel, the brilliant facilities, the high level of coaching and access to information – has come as quite a shock. But you can see them relishing it and the coaches – Nic Pothas, David Balcombe and Dom Telo – have spotted some outstanding talent here. We’ll be looking to provide scholarships to the outstanding young players to help them pursue their cricketing aspirations.Of course they won’t all go on to be professional cricketers. But a few might and many more will go back to their communities and share their experiences with another generation of young players.That is why we have ensured that each one of these young players will go back to their communities with an ICC Level 1 coaching certificate. Amid the games and the skills training, they have also had enough classroom time to undergo what we are calling the KP Sports Leaders Course.This means that, when they go home, they will be in a position to coach the kids in their communities. That way we hope to spread the messages we are imparting here far beyond the 80 or so kids. We hope that each of them will make a difference in their club, or town, or village and that kids who might not otherwise have had an opportunity to progress will have a greater chance.This game has given me so much. If I can help a few of these kids realise their ambitions, I’d be thrilled.More information can be found here: https://www.kp24foundation.com

Afghanistan’s former coach may have quit cricket to pursue religion, but he remains with the side in spirit

Tim Wigmore22-Aug-2014Taj Malik will not be in Australia and New Zealand when Afghanistan play their first World Cup next year. But Afghanistan might not have gotten that far without Malik.The story of Afghanistan’s first, glorious attempt to qualify for the World Cup – the transformation from a side praying for rain to spare them from playing Jersey to one defeating Ireland in the ICC World Cup Qualifiers in 12 months – was immortalised in the documentary . Taj Malik was the film’s hero. Temperamental, bombastic and with insatiable enthusiasm and self-belief after spending 16 years as a refugee, he had no time for realists who thought that his dreams of Afghanistan reaching the World Cup were incredible.It is a remarkable tale – and there is no better guide than Malik. “I started playing cricket in 1987, when England was touring Pakistan during Mike Gatting’s captaincy. We used a tennis ball,” he says. “When we were refugees in Pakistan, we got interested in watching international matches.”And then we started playing with a tennis ball and then slowly got more interested and established a refugee team in the Kacha Gari camp and then started our dream to have an Afghanistan team.” This refugee side, which Malik named the Afghan Cricket Club, served as a platform for future Afghan stars, including Karim Sadiq (Taj’s brother) and Nawroz Mangal, a former Afghanistan captain.During his time as a refugee in the Kacha Gari camp, Malik turned the Afghan Cricket Club, through sheer force of will, into a formidable side. Afghanistan’s cricketers can hardly claim to have been lucky, but it was fortunate that their years in Peshawar coincided with the game flourishing in that part of Pakistan;.Test players including Umar Gul and former offspinner Arshad Khan are recent products of the system. When the Afghan Cricket Club was invited to play against clubs in Peshawar, it was a formidable education for the side.When he finally returned to Afghanistan, Malik vied with Allah Dad Noori for control of the nascent Afghanistan cricket team. While Malik was in Pakistan, Noori had formed the Afghanistan Cricket Federation (which later became the Afghanistan Cricket Board) in 1995 with the Taliban’s approval. Eventually, they hit upon a compromise: Noori assumed the presidency of the Afghanistan Cricket Federation while Malik became the general secretary and national coach.In 2001, the ICC awarded Afghanistan Affiliate membership. Afghanistan’s first official fixtures came when they were invited to the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Trophy in 2004, a tournament featuring 15 teams. Afghanistan finished sixth, and were soon to embark upon their remarkable cricketing surge.Malik credits much of their success to the experience of playing in Pakistan. “We started to beat the strong Peshawar clubs,” he says. “The ACC teams were very easy for us so that’s why in 2008 I was pretty confident, if you watch .”That is – uncharacteristically for Malik – an understatement. He used to boast that Afghanistan would score 400 runs in their 50 overs, and threatened to throw himself into the Atlantic if Afghanistan failed to progress to Division Four of the World Cricket League.Thankfully he did not have to stick to his word: Afghanistan beat Jersey by two wickets in the Division Five final. “All the matches were very interesting, especially because the conditions were against us,” Malik says.But the tournament’s aftermath was less kind to him. Some players felt Malik was putting too much pressure on them. His default reaction to any collapse was to chain-smoke. After a disappointing performance in the ACC Trophy in 2008, he was relieved of his post as coach.It still rankles. “Up to Jersey, there was no government involvement in cricket, and there was no support from any department,” he says. “When cricket became more popular all people got interested, all the nation got interested, and the government removed me from my post.”They told me, ‘Now we are going to the big stage and you are a low-level coach.’ But I’d done the most difficult job to help the team play with a hard ball, and I gathered the team and motivated them.”Malik was replaced by Kabir Khan, a former Pakistan Test cricketer. And though he could be considered a foreign coach, Kabir could not be called a carpetbagger. Like many in the Afghanistan side, Kabir was born in Peshawar. His father was Afghan. Kabir will lead Afghanistan in the World Cup: he resigned in 2010 citing interference from the cricket board during a tour to Scotland, but returned in 2012 after receiving assurances that he would be able to get on with his job in peace.Malik credits his team’s experiences in Pakistan with helping them aspire to a higher level•Afghanistan Cricket FederationUnder Kabir, Afghanistan progressed to the final stages of the 2011 World Cup qualifiers in South Africa, in 2009. They just missed out on qualification. As their World Cup dreams ended, Malik was at home, listening on a crackly radio stream.But soon he would return, as assistant coach to Kabir. “I give thanks to Allah that again I show my performance and we qualified for the World T20 held in the West Indies,” Malik says. His his return didn’t last long, though.”There is no justice,” Malik says. He says that the problem was one that many cricketers could relate to – greedy administrators.”We had a conference and we decided that the prize money should go to the players because everybody had economic problems,” he says. “When we went to the cricket board administrators and the chairman, they refused. They said this money should go for other things.” The board eventually relented but Malik was not made aware of it by the players. “I resigned and then the cricket board changed and then they hired me as the Afghanistan A coach.”He left that position two and a half years ago and since then Malik has focused on Islam; he is now in Tableegh, a religious movement.”I worked for seven-eight years with these players when we had no facilities, no money,” he says. “Now some of the senior players want to come and talk with me. I’m not the kind of person to have bad behaviour with them.” The current captain, Mohammad Nabi, recently described Malik as “a great man”, saying “I meet him from time to time when I go back to Afghanistan. We don’t talk about cricket.”Malik is pleased with the quality of life now enjoyed by Nabi and his side. “I’m happy that they’re playing on a good level, they have good salaries, they don’t have economic problems. They have cars.”But he doubts the ability of women’s cricket to gain acceptance in Afghanistan. “It’s very difficult in the country because Afghanistan is a Muslim country and Islam does not allow women and girls to participate, especially in Afghanistan,” he says. “They cannot move without Islamic rules – to walk from home. So how can they play?”Although he has moved on from cricket, Malik has lost none of his bluster. The words rattle out of his mouth like machine-gun fire. While he remains a staunch supporter of the side, he believes that professionalism has come at a price: the essence of Afghanistan cricket has been lost.”Afghanistan has a distinct playing style. A lot of the national coaches working with the team tried to change their playing style,” he laments. “Like in Pakistan and India, there is a lot of spin bowling and defensive batting to rotate the strike, getting ones and twos. This was not our style. Our style was just like the style which West Indies have. We have big hitters and score a lot of runs hitting sixes and fours. In this style we won so many games from 2002 to 2009 everywhere in the world.”One such occasion was against the UAE in the ACC T20 tournament in 2009. “In the last two balls, ten runs were needed and we all felt like we had lost the game. Our last pair was at the crease, Shapoor Zadran and Hamid Hassan, and the UAE captain was bowling full tosses. I shouted at Hamid Hassan to not go down the track, stay at the crease and hit it far. He hit the first ball for four and the last for six and we won and that match was telecast live in Afghanistan. That was my favourite match in Afghanistan’s history.”Malik thinks that a bit more of that spirit would make Afghanistan ever more successful today. “If I was there, I’m sure, with the help of Allah, we would be the No. 5 or No. 6 team in the world today.” As Afghanistan’s rise continues, Taj Malik does not deserve for his role to be forgotten. And if he has anything to do with it, there is no chance it will be.

It’s hard not to admire the story and spirit of a club spinner who believed he would one day make it to the big leagues – and briefly did

Jarrod Kimber16-Jan-2013I grew up in the People’s Democratic Republic of Victoria. I was indoctrinated early. Dean Jones was better than Viv Richards in Victoria, and had a bigger ego as well. Darren Berry kept wicket with the softest hands and hardest mouth of any keeper I have ever seen. Ian Harvey had alien cricket. Matthew Elliott could score runs with his eyes shut. The first time I saw Dirk Nannes bowl, I felt like Victoria had thawed a smiley caveman. And even though I never saw Slug Jordan play, I enjoyed his sledging for years on the radio.So my favourite player has to be a Victorian. But my other love is cricket’s dark art, legspin. I wish I knew whether it was being a legspinner that made me love legspin, or seeing a legspinner that made me want to bowl it. Everything in cricket seemed easy to understand when I was a kid, but not legspin. And that’s where I ended up. I’m not a good legspinner, far from it, but I think that any legspinner, even the useless club ones that bowl moon balls, have something special about them.The first legspinner I ever fell for was Abdul Qadir. I’m not sure how I saw him, or what tour it was, but even before I understood actual legspin, I could see something special about him. His action was theatrical madness and I loved it.Then the 1992 World Cup came. I was 12, it was in Melbourne (read Australia), and this little pudgy-faced kid was embarrassing the world’s best. I was already a legspinner by then, but Mushie made it cool. This was the age where we were told spinners had no place; it was pace or nothing. Limited-overs cricket was going to take over from Tests, and spinners had no role in it. Mushie made that all look ridiculous as he did his double-arm twirl to propel his killer wrong’uns at groping moustached legends.By worshipping Mushie I was ahead of the curve, because from then on, in Melbourne, Australia, and eventually England, Shane Warne changed the world. Mushie and Qadir had made legspinning look like it was beyond the realms of understanding, but Warne made it look like something humans could do, even if he wasn’t human himself.It was through Warne I got to Anil Kumble. He bowled legspin in such an understated way. It was completely different to Warne. His wrist wasn’t his weapon, so he had to use everything else he had. Warne was the Batmobile, Kumble an Audi A4. Anyone could love Warne, his appeal was obvious. But to love Kumble you needed to really get legspin. The legspinner’s leggie.When I was young, my second favourite was a guy called Craig Howard, who virtually doesn’t exist. Howard was the Victorian legspinner who Warne thought was better than him. To my 13- and 14-year-old eyes, Howard was a demon. His legspin was fast and vicious, but it was his wrong’un that was something special. Mushie and Qadir had obvious wrong’uns, subtle wrong’uns, and invisible wrong’uns. Howard had a throat-punching wrong’un. It didn’t just beat you or make you look silly; it attacked you off a length and flew up at you violently. I’ve never seen another leggie who can do that, but neither could Howard. Through bad management and injury he ended up as an office-working offspinner in Bendigo.But good things can come from office work. It gave me my favourite cricketer of all time. A person who for much of his 20s was a struggling club cricketer no one believed in. But he believed. Even as he played 2nds cricket, moved clubs, worked in IT for a bank, something about this man made him continue. A broken marriage and shared custody of his son. His day job had him moving his way up the chain. The fact that no one wanted him for higher honours. His age. Cameron White’s legspin flirtation. And eventually the Victorian selectors, who didn’t believe that picking a man over 30 was a good policy.Through all that, Bryce McGain continued to believe he was good enough. Through most of it, he probably wasn’t. He was a club spinner.Bryce refused to believe that, and using the TV slow-mo and super-long-lens close-ups for teachers, he stayed sober, learnt from every spinner he could and forced himself to be better. He refused to just be mediocre, because Bryce had a dream. It’s a dream that every one one of us has had. The difference is, we don’t believe, we don’t hang in, we don’t improve, and we end up just moving on.Bryce refused.

The world would be a better place if more people saw McGain as a hero and not a failure. He just wanted to fulfil his dream, and that he did against all odds is perhaps one of the great cricket stories of all time

At 32 he was given a brief chance before Victoria put him back in club cricket. Surely that was his last chance. But Bryce refused to believe that. And at the age of 35 he began his first full season as Victoria’s spinner. It was an amazing year for Australian spin. It was the first summer without Warne.Almost as a joke, and because I loved his story, I started writing on my newly formed blog that McGain should be playing for Australia. He made it easy by continually getting wickets, and then even Terry Jenner paid attention. To us legspinners, Jenner is Angelo Dundee, and his word, McGain’s form and the circumstances meant that Bryce suddenly became the person most likely.Stuart MacGill was finished, Brad Hogg wanted out, and Beau Casson was too gentle. Bryce was ready at the age of 36 to be his country’s first-choice spinner. Then something happened. It was reported in the least possibly dramatic way ever. McGain had a bad shoulder, the reports said. He may miss a warm-up game.No, he missed more than that. He missed months. As White, Jason Krezja, Nathan Hauritz and even Marcus North played before him as Australia’s spinners. This shoulder problem wouldn’t go away. And although Bryce’s body hadn’t had the workload of the professional spinners, bowling so much at his advanced age had perhaps been too much for him. He had only one match to prove he was fit enough for a tour to South Africa. He took a messy five-for against South Australia and was picked for South Africa. He didn’t fly with the rest of the players, though, as he missed his flight. Nothing was ever easy for Bryce.His second first-class match in six months was a tour match where the South African A team attacked Bryce mercilessly. Perhaps it was a plan sent down by the main management, or perhaps they just sensed he wasn’t right, but it wasn’t pretty. North played as the spinner in the first two Tests. For the third Test, North got sick, and it would have seemed like the first bit of good fortune to come to Bryce since he hurt his shoulder.At the age of 36, Bryce made his debut for Australia. It was a dream come true for a man who never stopped believing. It was one of us playing Test cricket for his country. It was seen as a joke by many, but even the cynics had to marvel at how this office worker made it to the baggy green.I missed the Test live as I was on holidays and proposing to my now-wife. I’m glad I missed it. Sure, I’d wanted Bryce to fulfill his dream as much as I’d wanted to fulfill most of mine, but I wouldn’t have liked to see what happened to him live. South Africa clearly saw a damaged player thrown their way and feasted on him. His figures were heartbreaking: 0 for 149. Some called it the worst debut in history.I contacted him after it, and Bryce was amazingly upbeat. He’d make it back, according to him. He was talking nonsense. There was no way back for him. Australia wouldn’t care that his shoulder wasn’t right; he couldn’t handle the pressure. His body, mind and confidence had cracked under pressure. He was roadkill.But Bryce wouldn’t see it that way, and that’s why he’s my favourite cricketer. I wasn’t there for all the times no one believed in him, for all those times his dream was so far away and life was in his way. But I was there now, at what was obviously the end. Bryce McGain saw the darkness but refused to enter it. That’s special. That is how you achieve your dreams when everything is against you.Before I moved to London to embark on my cricket-writing career, I met Bryce for a lunch interview. It was my first interview with a cricketer. We were just two former office workers who had escaped. At this stage Casson had been preferred over him for the tour to the West Indies. In the Shield final, Bryce’s spinning finger had opened up after a swim in the ocean. He was outbowled by Casson and the selectors didn’t take him. Surely this was it. Why would anyone pick a 36-year-old who had been below his best in his most important game?Bryce knew he may have blown it. But he still believed, of course. We were just two former office workers with dreams. Two guys talking about legspin. Two guys just talking shit and hoping things would work out.At the time it was just cool to have lunch with this guy I admired, but now I look back and know I had lunch with the player who would become my favourite cricketer of all time.The world would be a better place if more people saw McGain as a hero and not a failure. Shane Warne was dropped on this planet to be a god. Bryce McGain just wanted to fulfil his dream, and that he did against all odds is perhaps one of the great cricket stories of all time.Bryce is one of us, the one who couldn’t give up.

Australian cricket is undergoing a major review of its structure, and Paul Marsh, the players’ association chief, talks about its outcomes, the academy’s identity crisis, his hopes for the new Big Bash League, and more

Interview by Daniel Brettig14-Jun-2011Players like Steven Smith have not got the necessary guidance of senior players in state cricket because of the exodus to the ICL•AFPYour relationship with Cricket Australia is a functional one, despite frequent differences of opinion. How important is it to keep that state of conciliation?
At our core we have both got the best interests of the game at heart. I think CA would say that about us, and we’d certainly say it about them. There are times, however, where we have differing views on how to reach that objective, and we do have our moments where we don’t agree. But the one thing we have always been able to do with CA is find a way forward. We have never had a situation where players have gone out on strike. I think that’s a real credit to the relationship between the two organisations.What, to you, are the major problems that have caused Australian cricket’s slide from the top of the global game?
I think there are two major issues. I think we lost 10 players from the Australian first-class system to the ICL, and those players were, in most cases, our senior state cricketers. So we lost the likes of Jimmy Maher, Michael Kasprowicz, Jason Gillespie, Ian Harvey, Stuart Law, Michael Bevan – those types of players, who were year in and year out making nearly 1000 runs and taking close to 50 wickets. They were the core of experienced players in our state system who improved the standard of state cricket. You take a number of senior players out of the state system and the standard has to drop.Those guys were the ones who were maintaining that standard, and therefore the experience that guys like Steve Smith or Phil Hughes are getting is not what it used to be. Those guys have missed out on the development opportunities that the generation before them got.There have been three periods in Australian cricket in my lifetime where we have had below-par results: the first one being World Series Cricket and the Australian Test team around that particular time, the second being the rebel tours to South Africa, on the back of the retirements of Dennis Lillee, Rod Marsh and Greg Chappell. And in recent times the players going to the ICL.There are very similar circumstances in each case, where a group of experienced players were taken out of our state system, and you could only choose your state teams and your Australian team from what was left.The second issue is this push towards youth in our system – I think an artificial push towards youth. I honestly believe you need to have a mix of youth and experience, and we have gone too far towards youth. The Futures League, with the restriction of only having three players over the age of 23, has made that a very weak competition, and the players would say almost universally that the gap between grade and first-class cricket has never been larger than what it is now. So the Futures League or second XI competition, which sits in between those competitions, is more important than ever, yet it’s being made artificially weak by these age restrictions.One of the outcomes of the playing conditions committee meeting was that they will lift that restriction to allow six players over the age of 23, which is a step in the right direction. From our perspective I’d prefer to see no age restrictions in there.You only need to have a few good young players coming through your system, but you want to make sure that they are getting the best possible development opportunities. If we are filtering one new player into the Australian team every year, you’ll have a very strong team. You want them to have the best possible development through that pathway. I think we have gone away from what has made us strong through our grade system and through our first-class system.I think we’ve got a responsibility to make sure each one of the pathway competitions is as strong a standard as it can be so that these players are getting the best possible development they can get. I don’t think that’s happening as well as it used to.Do you feel the ambivalence towards the group that disappeared to the ICL, and then the introduction of measures like the Futures League by Cricket Australia, result from the comfortable feeling that comes from being the world’s best for a long time?
What you’re asking me is: did Australian cricket become somewhat complacent, and I think the answer to that is yes. I know my dad, having run the cricket academy for many years, when he left, one of the things he said to CA was that he had real concerns about the quality of batsmen we had coming through, and his view was that that wasn’t taken on board seriously. I think what we have seen in recent times would back up the concerns he had at that time. I think there was a view certainly that “we’re going to keep on keeping on, we have the best pathway system in the world” etc.But it’s international sport, it’s competitive. There are international boards, particularly the Indians, who have far more money than we have got, and it was only a matter of time before they started to get their act together.

“The Centre of Excellence really needs to be offering a programme that is a level above what the states are offering. Then the states will want to send their players there, because they will be getting a better development experience than possibly what they are getting at the moment”

I think CA have now recognised that and this review they are going through is very comprehensive. They have got good people involved in it, and I know they are trying very hard to get to the bottom of what the issues are. I’d expect there are going to be some very strong recommendations that come out of that review.Your father’s close involvement with the academy was at a time when it was used as a finishing school for talented juniors who were on the cusp of first-class cricket. Was that a better model than the present one geared towards preparing state players for the international arena?
There are some really good people at the Centre of Excellence (CoE), but I would say it’s got an identity crisis. Ask 10 people what it is supposed to be doing and you’re quite likely to get half a dozen different responses. And that makes it very difficult for the people who are running it. My view is that it needs to go back to what it was initially set up to be, which was to get the best players from the Under-17s and Under-19s and prepare them for first-class cricket.One of the issues we have got here now is that when it first started up, we didn’t have the contract system we have now got in place. That complicates things because the state associations are contracting players on an annual basis, and they are questioning why they should send those players to the CoE, when, what they would say – it may vary a little from state to state – is that the CoE is basically replicating what they can and are doing in their home states.I think by going back to these younger players who aren’t contracted, you kill two birds with one stone. You’re then getting kids of the right age into the programme, and you don’t have the complications of the contract system, where you’ve got this ongoing arm-wrestle between CA and the state associations over the CoE.The CoE really needs to be offering a programme that is a level above what the states are offering. I think that needs to become part of their focus. Then the states will want to send their players there because they will be getting a better development experience than possibly what they are getting at the moment.Concern about the governance structure of Cricket Australia has manifested itself in a review of that governance. What do you think needs to change there?
We have major concerns – and I wouldn’t just limit this to Cricket Australia, but with Australian cricket’s governance model. I think this governance review needs to look at not only CA but the state associations as well. Our very strong view is that cricket needs an independent governance model at both CA and state levels. This is just about making sure that those organisations running the game are making decisions in the best interests of the game, and not just along state lines or at a state level along club lines. You want to get the best people into a structure that’s making decisions with the best interests of the game at its core.If we can get to that point, I think first, you’re going to see Australian cricket move ahead very quickly, and second, all the key stakeholders are going to be happy. I don’t think we’re getting that at the moment. There’s a fundamental flaw, putting aside the composition of the boards of the states, in that to be on the CA board you have to be on a state board. Straight away there’s a conflict of interest there that is unavoidable. The people who are on these boards are all decent people, but when you have to make a decision on the state association board and the CA board, you’ve just got this automatic conflict of interest.Secondly, because of that structure, where you have to, in many cases, come through the club structure to get on the state board to then get on to the CA board, it’s just too hard a pathway for some quality people to want to go through. I think we’re actually missing out on the calibre of board member we could be getting because of the structure and the path they’ve got to go down to become board members. We would certainly like to see an independent commission at CA level, where you’ve got a good mix of cricket people, commercial people, financial people, legal people etc., covering all the skill sets the game needs. Then we’d like to see at state level a similar structure, where you’ve got independent expertise on all the state boards.We have seen a very dramatic week surrounding the removal of Simon Katich from the list of CA contracts. Michael Beer, the incumbent Test spinner, was also missing. Did the re-jigging of the rankings to include Twenty20 cricket come at a cost to Test specialists?
I don’t think that’s a fair conclusion to draw. The rankings for players are still weighted heavily towards Tests. So if you’re ranked 10 in Test cricket and you don’t have a ranking in one-day cricket or Twenty20, or you’re ranked No. 10 in limited-overs cricket, but don’t have a Test ranking, you’re going to get more money as a Test player. The second point is, I don’t think there are any of the players you’d consider Test players who won’t also get a Big Bash contract. Simon Katich or Marcus North or Phil Hughes – each one of those guys will get a Big Bash contract, assuming they want one.The Big Bash League will have eight city-based teams to start with. Marsh hopes the format will help the game spread to other regions of Australia as well•Cricket AustraliaThe total player-payment pool is going up by 10%. There’s a 6% reduction in the CA retainer pool, the state retainer pool is reduced by about 30%, but then you’ve got this new pool of Big Bash money. So everyone will get two contracts: the traditional contracts are going to be less, but they will get a Big Bash contract on top of that. So all things being equal, players are going to push forward here. We have thought of all these different scenarios, and I honestly think we have maintained that prioritisation of Test cricket as well as we can. There is a market force here for Twenty20 cricket that was unavoidable. The BBL is an important future competition for CA and the players and we can’t ignore that. But we have tried to balance Test and one-day cricket in this model so players are still motivated to play all three forms of the game.A lot of money and time is going into the expansion of the Big Bash League. The introduction of city-based teams means abandoning a state versus state structure that has the benefit of history.
State cricket, for the last three decades or more, really hasn’t had any cut-through with the public. This new format has been reinvigorated to a degree, but I think that’s been largely to do with the format rather than necessarily the identity of the teams. So, in short, yes it can work. If we had launched this competition with six teams, there was nowhere to go from an expansion perspective – you can’t introduce a seventh state to Australia. So going to city-based – they have gone to eight teams and there’s no reason that can’t increase going forward – means you can get teams into the Gold Coast, far north Queensland, Geelong, or wherever it might be, and get cricket to new audiences.The trick is going to be how well this is promoted. Now that we have signed off on the deal, there’ll be a player recruitment period coming up. From there the challenge for CA and the franchises is to make some noise and get the public excited about what’s coming. Once players are linked to the teams, it’s going to be an easier thing to do.There is a heavy use of the Indian Premier League as the example for the BBL to follow. Yet the reasons Australians and Indians go to cricket in their countries is quite different. How optimistic are you about the new competition?
You can draw on how successful the Big Bash has been over the past few years. I don’t hear anyone who has been going to Big Bash games say they’re not going to watch the new format of the Big Bash because they have changed to city-based teams. I’m not hearing that from people, so I’d like to think we will at least continue at the levels of interest we have. But more optimistically than that, you’d think it’s going to grow, and I would expect high-quality overseas players in this competition, now that we have got money to attract them. And we’re going to have Australian players hopefully available for parts of the competition in the short term and for the whole thing in the longer term. There’s plenty of optimism and opportunity around this competition.

Using swing, movement, pace and precision, Zaheer Khan destroyed Sri Lanka’s batting

Sidharth Monga in Margao14-Feb-2007

Running in full steam, with the knowledge that things are going for him, and a worked-up crowd to boot, is a scary sight © GNNphoto
Eleven minutes before the start of play today, Zaheer Khan walked out of the dressing room, tape in hand, and Greg King, the team trainer, alongside him. They spent a considerable while marking Zaheer’s run-up at both ends with the help of the tape, measuring it to perfection; a couple of hours later, the result was for all to see. Zaheer’s 10 overs of pace, precision, movement and swing gave him figures of 5 for 42 and his burst at the start of Sri Lanka’s innings – 2.2-0-3-3 – decided the course of the match.It was his first ODI five-wicket haul and he was naturally pleased with himself at the post-match press conference. “I hit the length early”, he said, explaining his phenomenal bowling. “In the subcontinent, the ball does something for the bowlers in the first half an hour. So if you bowl in the right areas, you definitely get the rewards.”Easier said than done, of course, as is his continued dominance of left-handed batsmen. Having recently tormented Graeme Smith and Sourav Ganguly, he took out the top three Sri Lankan left-hand batsmen today. First was Sanath Jayasuriya – still dangerous at 37 – who could not free his arms to pull an accurate bouncer. Upul Tharanga got a mean in-cutter and played late from the back foot. Kumar Sangakkara, who scored a century in the last match, was also found late on an incoming delivery and played it on to the base of the stumps.”I think I’m able to bowl both my deliveries to left-handers”, he said, explaining his edge. “The one that comes in and the one that goes away.”Later in the innings, when Sri Lanka had semi-recovered from his early strikes, Zaheer returned to thwart any chances of a late surge. At the death he bowled with imagination, accuracy and, most importantly, with success. The last three overs cost him 11 runs and brought him two wickets to complete his five-for and bag him him the man-of-the-match award too.He is one of two high-profile players making a comeback return in the past few months and his return has been overshadowed by that of Sourav Ganguly, yet Zaheer has quietly and surely made the most difference to India’s performance. The comeback has not come without hard work; he put in the hard yards in county and domestic cricket to earn his call-up. “It’s been a long season for me,” Zaheer said, before pointing out the positives in that. “I have been able to hit the length consistently because I have bowled so many overs. I have been able to keep up the match fitness and practice. I have kept the rhythm going because I haven’t taken any break for the last one year now.”Zaheer is an impact bowler. Bowling a tight line and length just to stifle the batsmen probably bores him; long spells to tie the batsmen down is not his forte. The way he announced himself at the international stage with yorker to Steve Waugh at the ICC Knockout in 2000 testifies to his liking for the big occasion. Running in full steam, with the knowledge that things are going for him, and a worked-up crowd to boot, is a scary sight. The way he looks at the batsmen from the corner of his eye just before the big leap, the way he demands – not seeks – lbw decisions by just running off after trapping a batsman, with one hand facing the umpire, only looking back as an afterthought or a formality, adds to the intimidating effect.Yet only a few months ago, his attitude was being questioned. Four years ago, in the final of the last World Cup, he choked in that first over. And if he was indeed out of the team, as speculated, for attitude problems, he has shown through simple practices – like coming out well before the match to mark his run-up – to show he is a changed man. He now has a second bite at the cherry; you can bet he’ll make it last.

Will Jacks has been ruled out of the 2023 IPL due to injury, ESPNcricinfo understands.Jacks was signed by Royal Challengers Bangalore for INR 3.2 crore (£320,000) at December’s auction, and would have provided cover for Glenn Maxwell in their middle order.But he sustained a muscle injury while fielding in England’s recent victory in their second ODI against Bangladesh in Mirpur, and after scans earlier this week and consultation with a specialist, he has been forced to pull out of the IPL.